Reading List: Microsoft’s Interactive TV Push

Bubble or Not a Bubble?: The navelgazing parlor game of debating whether we’re in a revamped version of the Internet bubble continues. The Associated Press weighs in with a column by Michael Liedtke that argues a straight-up no. Liedtke, a veteran Silicon Valley reporter, has some perspective, having witnessed the madness of the late 1990s. And current delusions pale in comparison, particularly since only a handful of digital companies have gone public, unlike back in 2000 when everybody and their mother was filing. But that’s an easier argument than arguing whether the current situation is an unsustainable mix of valuations and expectations. The key difference is the people who will lose their shirts will be well-heeled investors, so not that many tears need to be shed. As IAC chief Barry Diller said about the bubble, “The only people who will get hurt this time can afford it.” AP

New Agency Model: My former employer, the revamped Adweek, is desperately seeking the new agency model. It seems convinced it will find this prophesied creature in Brooklyn, since the magazine relaunched with a splashy feature on DUMBO shops and continues with a tech shop with DUMBO roots, Mir. Adweek profiles Mir in a Q&A video interview of the founders of this “new model agency.” The problem is the founders immediately shrug off the title agency. Oh well, nothing totally new there. But there’s the question of whether Mir, which mostly produces work for other agencies, is really a new model. It might be quite good at what it does, but I’m not sure that qualifies as something particularly revolutionary to how advertising has worked for some time. It might be time to stop searching for the new model and look at those updating the old model for modern times. Adweek

Facebook’s Display Reign: There’s a passing of the torch. Facebook is now selling more “display advertising” than Yahoo, at least according to eMarketer. That’s led to some triumphalist headlines for Facebook. AdAge called it a “kingpin.” Much nicer than two and a half years ago when Business Insider took Facebook to task for being “outsold” by MySpace. Hindsight’s 20/20. Facebook’s built a sizable ad business on the back of meteoric user growth, not much else. Advertisers are hardly in love with its offerings, which ad chief Caroline Everson herself says are only 1 percent completed. The question is whether Facebook will be content to play a mass-scale game or make a real play for brand dollars it isn’t yet getting. Emarketer