1. Google tops the list of the world’s most valuable brands, according to a report from BrandFinance. Google’s brand value of $44.3 billion puts it just ahead of No. 2 brand Microsoft, which is valued at $42.8 billion. Coca Cola has dropped out of the top 10 for the first time since the rankings began, and Nokia lost the most brand value ($9.9 billion). Prediction: Next year, Facebook (now No. 385) will crack the top 50.
2. Conan takes on Rebecca Black with ‘Thursday’ video. He claims Rebecca ripped off his idea. (Hat tip to @clairefaucett for the link.) I know it’s a day late (or maybe six days early), but here it is.
3. The state of higher ed video. Results from the latest .eduGuru survey.
4. A mobile social network for the post-privacy world. Created by Lala co-founder Bill Nguyen, Color is a smartphone app that, the Huffington Post says, “allows you to be virtually all-seeing” and “combines a unique everything-is-public-to-everyone privacy policy with Twitter’s real-time information stream and the photo-and-video-based voyeurism of Facebook.” It is also “a social network for a post-privacy world: anything shared to Color is instantly visible to anyone in any place at any time.”
5. And this is why I do the Friday Five: Persistence and promotion are the keys to blog growth, according to this report from HubSpot. The takeaway: “bloggers shouldn’t lose faith – in fact they should have a little patience and be persistent in their blogging effort.” They also should promote their blog with “small but consistent messages.” (Thanks to @cksyme for sharing this gem.)
Happy Weekend!
Higher Ed Marketing 
The Conan video is hilarious. I have been living under a rock lately and just saw both Conan’s video on your blog and the original video by Rebecca Black. Thanks for the laugh.