There’s a lot to read out there, every day, every week. It’s part of our job to dig in and find the most relevant discussions. So we figured we might as well surface some of them to give you an at-a-glance overview of what we find relevant for our business. And thus I present to you an eclectic mix of some of the must read articles. If you have the time to read only a few articles this week about what’s happening in digital businesses, these are a good start.

• Fred Wilson: Users First, Brands Second
  Fred Wilson, venture capitalist and partner at Union Square Ventures, is one of the heavyweights in the VC and startup scene. In this article he shares his thoughts on a simple guideline on how to build a web business.
• ReadWriteWeb: German Rail System to Get Mobile Payments This Year
  Deutsche Bahn has long since branded itself as a mobility provider. Come November, they’ll also accept payments through smartphones that are NFC-enabled, or by scanning a QR code.
• The Next Web: Facebook shutting down Facebook Deals service after 4 months
  For awhile it seemed as if everyone wanted to jump on the deals bandwagon that Groupon seemed to almost own. Well, looks like Facebook couldn’t pull it off, so they’re cutting most of their activities around group deals.
• GigaOM: It’s official: Google wants to own your online identity
  While Google+ is still in a (pretty limited) field trial, there has been strong criticism of Google’s real name policy that won’t allow users of Google’s new social network to use pseudonyms. (‘nymwars, anyone?) This article shows Eric Schmidt’s take on the issue: That Google+ is primarily an identity service. Schmidt’s opinion is strangely at odds with other perspectives inside Google, like Bradley Horowitz’s, who’s VP of Product Management and in charge of Google+. (Want to dig deeper into online identities? Start with Union Square’s Christina Cacioppo’s thoughts and follow the links.) This isn’t over for Google quite yet.

I’m curious to learn if this is a useful format for you. Let me know!