Online Ad Market:
Banner future for digital advertising.
Search:
Google’s jaw-dropping sponsored post campaign for Chrome.
Google is paying bloggers to run posts promoting Chrome.
2012 search predictions: the experts' view.
Social Media:
How Facebook will take over the rest of the world in 2012.
Google+ just had...
continue reading »
The holiday season is over—unless one includes the Super Bowl in this stretch of winter. The next big focus, at least in the US, is the country's election cycle, which is gearing up for the Iowa Caucuses this month. ...
continue reading »
Unwanted emails, especially those whose goal is to defraud, are clearly spam. However, consumers' growing intolerance for anything that smacks of unsolicited and unwanted advertising is starting to be viewed in a similar light—even if it is not officially considered...
continue reading »
Facebook's sponsored stories ads are set to start appearing in the news feed this month, with Ben & Jerry’s expected to be the debut ad. This follows Facebook's insertion of the sponsored story ad format in the ticker...
continue reading »
Facebook storefronts have not been a leading source of e-commerce transactions, despite the platform's huge user base.
Only 20% have purchased something directly within Facebook, according to a study released by ThreatMetrix in partnership with the Ponemon Institute.
A separate study, by...
continue reading »
Mobile Computing:
Kindle Fire burned up some holiday iPad sales.
HP's TouchPad could have benefited from tweaked webOS, apps.
Ecommerce:
Groupon shares drop on concern about merchants.
Browsers:
Microsoft says goodbye to Internet Explorer 6.
Broadband:
Sprint gives LightSquared more time to win over FCC.
...
continue reading »
Social Media:
Citi lets Facebook friends share points.
Browsers:
Could Chrome overtake Internet Explorer in the browser wars?
Mobile Marketing:
Global mobile marketing, advertising industry to grow 37% by 2016.
Business Strategies:
January Apple event to focus on two 'large projects' relating to education, iTunes.
IBM assigns 217...
continue reading »
With no major mishaps or e-commerce fails reported for the last week of the holidays, the retail industry can congratulate itself. After the Black Friday-Cyber Monday holiday weekend, there had been some disgruntled reports. Last minute preparations no...
continue reading »
For the last few days, the spotlight has been on Google, uncomfortably so for the search engine.
At the start of the week, Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan reported suspicious links in Google’s Chrome ads, noting that the appeared to violate...
continue reading »
Just in time for the Iowa Caucuses, Google launched an election page—or rather relaunched as it reserves space on its webpage every two years for the political cycle. This year’s page has been updated to reflect current social media and...
continue reading »
Increasingly a conundrum has been observed and wondered about: with so few people familiar and comfortable with QR codes, why do marketers persist in using them?
One reason is undoubtedly their sex appeal: they are last year’s augmented reality apps. However,...
continue reading »
Online Ad Industry:
Apple hires former Adobe exec as its new iAd chief.
Mobile Computing:
Android Ice Cream Sandwich trickles onto phones.
Business:
Yahoo taps PayPal's Scott Thompson as CEO.
Google builds up its patent litigation defenses with IBM deal.
App Store software pirates under attack from...
continue reading »
Mobile Computing:
Barnes & Noble eyes Nook spin-off amid sales shortfall.
Now it's a Google tablet that will challenge Kindle Fire?
Verizon sees iPhone sales double to 4.2 million during holiday quarter.
Social Media:
Facebook says most photos flagged by users aren’t actually offensive —...
continue reading »
After Reddit’s success in getting GoDaddy to back off from its support of the online piracy bill rapidly gaining support in Washington, Stop Internet Piracy Act (SOPA), other internet content providers and platforms are adding their own pressure.
Jimmy Wales has...
continue reading »
Holiday spending, thanks to the huge numbers of gift cards exchanged, is still underway even though it is January. Performics notes that gift card spending this season is expected to be $27.8 billion and that many shoppers...
continue reading »
Amazon has tweaked its Kindle Fire format to upload daily deals for subscribers. It is the latest change the company has made to its mobile device, following an upgrade to make it easier to navigate outside of the Amazon website.
Content...
continue reading »
@WalmartLabs, Wal-Mart’s e-commerce unit, has acquired Small Society, a company that develops apps for smart phones. The company developed apps for the Democratic National Committee, Starbucks and Zipcar. In fact, Wal-Mart focused on the Zipcar app in its...
continue reading »
CES Show:
The 'CES curse?' Gadget show has poor record.
Social Media:
Facebook and Moo partner to print Timeline photos on business cards.
Security:
Ramnit computer worm compromises 45K Facebook logins.
Business:
Ray Ozzie starts new venture Cocomo.
Mobile Computing:
Kindle may have stolen 2M sales from iPad over...
continue reading »
Search:
Google's 30 most recent search quality changes.
Finance:
Mobile ad network Millennial Media files for IPO.
Domains:
ICANN to expand top level Internet domains despite critics.
Ecommerce:
PayPal left to fend for itself.
Broadband:
So does Sprint throttle its customers or not?
Convergence:
LG announces its first Google TVs.
Online Music:
Digital...
continue reading »
Clearly Google values speedy page loads. It also has been tinkering with instant rendering for some time, and in various guises.
The search engine has focused on these two concepts in its new beta version of Chrome.
Prerender Technology
Chrome will now start...
continue reading »
With a new CEO at its helm and its fair share of strategic issues to sort through, Yahoo is eying a complex tax structure to unlock cash from some of its overseas assets in Asia.
It is considering a tax-efficient asset...
continue reading »
B2B marketers have learned that while social and mobile media marketing techniques can pay off for them, they still must be adapted for their business constituency. So it goes with QR codes as well. In this case, however, adoption could...
continue reading »
After the robust sales clocked in via mobile commerce this past holiday season, it is not surprising that m-commerce and m-payments have been identified as two breakthrough tech categories by a Chetan Sharma survey.
Respondents believe that financial institutions such as...
continue reading »
Security:
Symantec confirms hackers stole outdated code, downplays impact.
Mobile Computing:
The limited world of auto-renewable subscriptions.
HTC profit drops for first time in two years on mounting phone competition.
Broadband:
Sprint: We’re not really throttling our customers.
...
continue reading »
CES:
Consumer Electronics show has 2012's hot tech trends.
CES not always the greatest guide for commercial success.
Microsoft at CES 2012: Nothing to see here?
Search:
2011: The year Google & Bing took away from SEOs & publishers.
Social Media:
Warner Bros. to launch photo sharing...
continue reading »
The tech community is going all out in its fight against the Stop Online Piracy Act. It has launched an Android app that scans barcodes and tells the user whether the manufacturer or publisher is a supporter of the act....
continue reading »
Etsy, an ecommerce site for arts and crafts, is adding a "Pin It" button to its listing pages–that is, a social media button for Pinterest.
It will take its place next to the Tweet and Like buttons—and when a particular listing...
continue reading »
If only email marketers would better–or even at all–segment their emails, their performance would significantly increase. A number of studies recognize this, most recently a report by Emailvision, which found that almost all US and European online marketing...
continue reading »
Pepsi announced a coup last week with plans to use Lucasfilm's "Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace 3D" to promote its Brisk iced tea and juice drinks.
According to the New York Times, Pepsi is releasing a new mobile...
continue reading »
CES:
Las Vegas gadget show CES gets record number of exhibitors.
A tech show loses clout as industry shifts.
TVs go big, wide and ape at the Consumer Electronics Show.
Social Media:
Twitter’s new @handle distribution pilot program.
Search:
Search Plus Your World.
...
continue reading »
CES:
Why CES still matters.
Online Ad Market:
Digiday: Marketers will spend some 60% of their online budgets on brand ads.
Gunning for the $100B social video space.
Mobile Marketing:
Google mobile ad revenue could top $4B: Munster.
Mobile Computing:
Windows Phone backers declare mobile war.
Android overtakes iOs...
continue reading »
Dairy Queen recently used content and social marketing tools provided by a company usually identified for its email marketing prowess—Silverpop—to drive its fan club membership and boost store traffic.
It did so via a few tactics including:
• Customer Appreciation Day: Dairy...
continue reading »
The Association of National Advertisers is proposing a compromise to the ICANN Board regarding its top-level domain (TLD) expansion program.
Specifically, it is proposing that:
· ICANN will proceed with its plan to...
continue reading »
Every time a new social media site, such as Pinterest, gains traction, e-commerce sites, marketers, bloggers—most players on the internet in other words—wonder if they should make room on their space-constrained user interface for yet another social share button.
If it...
continue reading »
With the slew of ultrabooks debuting at the Computer Electronics Show this week—some media reports put the number at 75—marketers have to consider the real possibility that yet another mobile computing format and screen size needs to be factored into...
continue reading »
CES Highlights:
The Next Big Thing: Android in the home, and in the fridge.
Razer's 'Project Fiona' gaming tablet concept is awesome.
Hope to see the next iPad at CES? You might, without knowing it.
Mobile Marketing:
Medialets launches platform to match mobile advertisers and...
continue reading »
One of the lessons from this past holiday shopping season is that mobile was a key driver in purchases.
Apple is a Key Driver
According to IBM Smarter Commerce, iPhone sales comprised 5.2% of all online retail traffic for December, and iPad...
continue reading »
Google's Matt Cutts makes the following point in his blog post about the coverage of Search Plus Your World, a change Google just made to its social search methodology to make search results more customized to the user by placing...
continue reading »
Medical news website WebMD has announced that its 2012 revenue will likely be 2% to 8% less than what it posted in 2011. One reason that been cited is the pull back in pharmaceutical advertising. This is an...
continue reading »
Mercedes-Benz is incorporating Facebook into its in-vehicle telematics system. The prototype will be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show this week.
Expect to see other auto manufacturers follow suit, Facebook Vice President of Partnerships and Platform Marketing Dan Rose told Reuters...
continue reading »
Email Marketing:
Promotional email campaigns reach record high in 2011.
Mobile Computing:
LG Chrome OS device could be in pipeline.
Windows Phone: Microsoft's comeback kid?
Search:
Buying sites to boost traffic.
Domain Names:
Domain names flood the market.
Legal/Regulatory:
Google's personal search may warrant FTC scrutiny: EPIC.
If Facebook won't...
continue reading »
Google has emphasized that Google Search Plus Your World coverage of Search Plus Your World, does pull public content from the open web, not just content from Google+.
As the change rolls out, though, people are having their doubts.
Danny Sullivan at...
continue reading »
Facebook recently announced it has more than 800 million active users. iCrossing expects that by August 2012 that number will hit the 1 billion mark. iCrossing also came to the conclusion that while Facebook was once...
continue reading »
The question of whether a company or its employees own social media contacts has been raised in a few venues, most notably in a lawsuit between Noah Kravitz, who used to write for mobile phone site, Phonedog.com, and the...
continue reading »
Sephora secured the top spot in the inaugural L2 Prestige 100: Mobile IQ, a ranking, developed by NYU Stern Professor Scott Galloway.
However, the IQ distribution reveals a significant, widespread underinvestment in mobile, as nearly half the brands were designated as...
continue reading »
Social Media:
Facebook gives Politico deep access to users' political sentiments.
Facebook launches 'Listen With' music button.
Bigger than Google+, MySpace isn’t dead yet.
Legal/ Regulatory:
Reddit to go dark in SOPA protest.
EPIC asks FTC to probe Google's search biz tweak.
Leahy offers to remove net-altering...
continue reading »
Reddit and a growing number of other sites including gaming company Destructoid and Red 5 Studios, are promising to go dark on January 18, to protest the twin online bills in Congress, the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect...
continue reading »
Mobile health apps, or teleapps, are becoming more adept at capturing intimate medical knowledge of consumers, such as their blood pressure or sleep patterns.
Consumers don't seem to have concerns about providing this data over a mobile device for several reasons—a...
continue reading »
Social commerce start ups have been attracting talent and financing, especially the latter since the start of the year. However, the arbiter of retail trend success—the holiday shopping season—suggests that social commerce has not yet delivered on its promise.
Zmags, Moontoast
Zmags,...
continue reading »
After analyzing the obvious (yes Google+ content is dominant on Google Search, Plus Your World) and discussing the legal ramifications (regulatory scrutiny is all but certain) marketers are now focusing on what Google Search, Plus Your World means for their...
continue reading »
