Nothing says “job security” like working in an industry that everyone needs regardless of their money situation. Healthcare has not only avoided the dreaded recession, it has been the focus of US government initiatives to increase its size and scope.

A recent study shows that there may be over 500,000 additional nurse positions available by 2018, over twice as much as the second highest growing profession (accountants and auditors). As long as there’s sickness, there’s always going to be a need for people to make us better.

This infographic by our friends at Course Hero breaks down medical as well as other arenas and compares the differences between college graduates and those who enter the workforce early. Common sense (and our mothers) tells us that getting a college degree makes sense, but just as there will always be nurses, there will always be statistics telling us to go to school.

Click to enlarge.

Those who have been blessed to not get scammed are the lucky ones. So many people get trapped into situations that leave their pride injured and their bank accounts drained.

This graphic by our friends at FinallyFast allows us to see the statistics behind the epidemic of identity theft, account hacking, and general Internet thievery. Have you been scammed? Leave your stories below.

Click to enlarge.

Advertising sometimes goes too far. They just don’t always understand exactly what they are implying. I’m sure they didn’t mean to command people like dogs (or worse?) but that’s exactly what they did on this ad that is currently appearing on Digg.

Here is a portion of the original page where it was found:

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Find more odd news here.

Advertising on the Internet isn’t what it used to be. People aren’t falling for the “9,999th Visitor” iPod winner ploy. They are catching on to Google Adsense, and pop-up blockers have destroyed that avenue.

The problem is, they also don’t want to pay to visit websites. “Don’t make money off of us, AND make it all free.” That’s the message, and a recent study described in Arstechnica about Web surfers and Behavioral Targeting touches on this fact. Check out that article (later) but first, let’s take a look at a solution.

It’s more challenging for advertisers such as Los Angeles Toyota Dealers and Auto Loans Boston to truly make an impact without the right message.

OurSocieties, a social media and social networking hybrid, is taking advertising to the next level. People will look at ads. They may even click on them if they are relevant. They don’t want their data used to determine relevance. That’s the catch-22. To combat this, OurSocieties is selecting sponsors based on their targets without using the user data. Pages will be served based upon an opt-in advertising platform.

When new users join the site, they will be able to opt-in to the advertisers that they are willing to see. It will not be cumbersome — if they want to select their advertisers later, they will be served from the entire pool until they have the time to complete their own “behavioral targeting” profile.

In other words, instead of tracking the activities of the users, Our Societies plans to just flat out ask them.

It will be a breath of fresh air for both consumers and advertisers. Super-targeted advertising without incentives to click (other than to shop for products) is the way of the future. Advertisers paying for people who WANT to see their ads — there’s something new. No more force-feeding or manipulating.

There will be another advertising section that involved “relevant sponsorship.” The automotive category of the social media section will be sponsored by someone automotive — Toyota, Automotive.com, NASCAR — whoever steps up to sponsor it. Again, the advertiser is only paying to be viewed (and clicked on) by people interested in what they have to offer instead of misplaced Cole Haan ads in the Gadgets section (not that people who read about gadgets won’t wear Cole Haans, but a nice iPhone ad will probably have a better effect).

Scheduled to launch in July, Our Societies should become the model for online advertising. It isn’t too hard. If you want to give the people what they want, just ask them.

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This isn’t necessarily a Marketing and Business Blog, but it plays one on television.

When I stumbled upon a site called Local Buzzer last night, I have to admit that I was skeptical. “Easiest Local Search Ever” is what it uses as its tag line. My reaction to this:

“Oh reeeaaallly.”

One thing I liked and probably the only reason I tried it was the homepage layout — one of the cleanest I’ve seen. I tried something pretty random – Chiropractor/my zip code. While the results page is nicely set up with Google maps integration, the real juice is in the community aspect. It has a chance to be truly local.

Two interesting quotes from the About page:

“We are here to promote that conversation and provide tools for our community to discuss the places that they are passionate about.”

“By looking at local businesses through the lens of the collective community on Local Buzzer, you will always find a place that is new and interesting. We are committed to giving every local business a fair chance at being the next big thing.”

Interesting concept. The only way this will work (and I definitely think it can) is with a nice number of people in one’s local area using it. The bad part about most of the review sites is that you can’t find sites or businesses that haven’t been reviewed. The problem with classifieds and map searches is that they don’t have many, if any, reviews. In theory, Local Buzzer brings the two together into one neat, clean package.

Here are some more quotes from the About page and our analysis of what they propose:

User Powered Local Search

We believe that a community working together will create the best search results. Every user will have the power to suggest new businesses, edit business details, review and rate businesses. We will rank our search results based on the user input for any particular business.

Assuming that they are able to get businesses themselves to be active and participate with the site, this can be a really good thing. It’s like having a free listing, so they should be more inclined to make sure the details are correct. Since it offers reviews, those who know about it will be more inclined to visit often and suggest that their clients check it out.

Speedy Results

The whole focus of the site is to give the users what they want, quickly. We have spent a lot of time making sure users should be able to find businesses they are looking for in the shortest amount of time.

This is the part that I’ve been personally dying to see for ages. The search engines are too gamed, too cumbersome, and don’t always have relevant results. If I can pop in and find my next Pizza purchase quickly… that’s a beautiful, wonderful, awesome thing.

Community Driven

We dont worry about any bottom lines and “pay for placements”. You get honest results. We are not about clients, page impressions and traffic. We write reviews, upload pictures, choose our favorite businesses, and enjoy making friends just like everyone else.

I have questions here, but that’s not to say that it won’t work. I can see it as a valuable service, but getting people to sign up is the tough part. I signed up, and while I admit that it was a no-brainer, no-time-waster style setup that I prefer, I wonder how many people will use it but never sign up. On the other hand, there are advantages to having limited signups. Those who do are probably doing so because they feel passionately one way or the other about local businesses. They want their opinions to be heard. That part alone would make signing up worthwhile.

Pound for pound, I think LocalBuzzer has a real chance of making it. I hope it does — I know I would use it.

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For more website reviews, go to the homepage.