UPA‘s World Usability Day 2009 is just around the corner.. now just six weeks away! Look for out for events throughout the world on November 12.

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If you read nothing else this week, read “Usability Testing Demystified” over at A List Apart. (Kudos Dana Chisnell.)

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FTC:  Bloggers must disclose paid product reviews.

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Derek Powazek created a photographic chronicle of the Great Australia Dust storm using MagCloud.  Turn around from idea to production: an impressive 31 hours.

I’m blown away by today’s generation of online tools help reduce the lead time need to produce quality results.  What’s next?

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From the WSJ (requires registration), online reviews don’t provide as much value web folklore would have us believe:

One of the Web’s little secrets is that when consumers write online reviews, they tend to leave positive ratings: The average grade for things online is about 4.3 stars out of five.

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We lost Gourmet Magazine this week, and one analysis blames the failure to adapt to the new world – in particular online efforts which were basically taking existing content and putting it online. This is a classic user experience trap for so many formerly steeped only in the print world. One wonders if about the outcome if they’d embraced the web ages ago.

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The ladies of Kirtsy & the folks at Microsoft Live are hosting Hands on Small Business, a workshop to learn more about free online and social media solutions that help entrepreneurs and small businesses, in cities throughout the U.S.