Why Didn't Your Brand Think of That Utility?

I was just reading an Adweek article, Nike embracing brand utility specifically on the web, and it reminded me of a couple things I've come across recently online on some of my favorite blogs. Since I haven't written about the subject since my U.S. Open (tennis, sorry Tiger) AMEX experience post, I figured I'd do so now. Plus, I'm now remembering that inspiration has come from Ed Cotton's post on now being a great time for brands to offer real value to people.

First, Russell Davies writes about Booklert, which allows authors to track the rank of their book(s) (or competitors') on Amazon and receive updates via email or Twitter. As Mr. Davies notes that this is the type of thing a major book business should have thought of to offer as a service to its authors.

Second, Brand Flakes for Breakfast posts about the Awesome Highlighter, which allows you to highlight the exact text or image that you want someone to read/see on any site and them send them a new highlighted link. As BFFB wonders, "why isn't Staples sponsoring these guys?" Taking it one step earlier, why didn't they come up with it?

I'm out of town for a friend's bachelor party starting tomorrow, and thanks to Mike's Hard Lemonade I have a better reason. Not quite a utility as much as entertaining and somewhat useful content (made for a good OOO email). If only they embraced the 4-day weekend like I am.

I think more words are linked than normal text. It's late.

P.S. Admittedly this is a bit of a stretch for this post, but why isn't Sharp or some other HD TV company coming up with (via Consumerist) such an interesting way to explain the HD difference?