In the report, ‘Mobile In-Store Research: How in-store shoppers are using mobile devices’, Google looks into the way consumers make use of their devices whilst browsing stores. According to the research, 84 per cent of shoppers with smartphones turn to their handsets for buying advice.

The search giant also found that most shoppers’ mobile activity starts with a basic search and not a visit to the brand’s website or social media profile. On top of this, Google reported that 82 per cent of these smartphone bargain hunters use their handsets to make buying decisions – many turning to price comparison tools like Google’s Shopping feature.

Speaking about the findings, Google’s Mobile Marketing Manager, Adam Grunewald, said in a blog post:

“Some stores promote their expanded inventory online or implement a price match guarantee to retain savings-hungry shoppers. Others are putting smartphones to use with QR codes that share more information about products, or apps with store maps and real-time inventory.

“Whatever tactics marketers choose, it’s clear that smartphones are changing the in-store experience, and that winning the key decision moments at the physical shelves mean owning the digital shelves too.”

The latest figures support the recent study from the Local Search Association, which revealed mobile searches in general more than quadrupled last year.

As well as comparing prices, shoppers are able to use Google’s features to locate other stores, find reviews and check newsfeeds for the latest updates on a brand.

The video game giant is using a ‘content ID match’ tool to locate footage of its games uploaded to the video sharing site. It then inserts adverts before the video starts, meaning that it is Nintendo, as the rights holder, who profits from views rather than the YouTube user who uploaded it.

Nintendo argued that it is going down this route as an alternative to simply blocking content to which it is the rights holder, as is the policy of some other entertainment groups, and that it wants to encourage video game fans to keep uploading and sharing its content through such forms as ‘Let’s Play’ videos, which include game walkthroughs, high scores and notable gaming achievements. It added that it would not be attaching ads to videos shorter than a certain length.

Whereas at one time companies may have immediately made moves to block free showing of content to which they hold the licence, they are now becoming aware that embracing social media and putting their own weight behind it does more good for their reputation management and internet marketing campaign in most cases.

Not all Nintendo gamers are overly fond of the idea, however. One game clip uploader, Zack Scott, used Facebook to have his say on what he called a “backwards” initiative, which prevents uploaders from taking advertising revenue themselves. Scott added that he would not be playing Nintendo games for as long as the practice continues.

The addition, which appears on the site’s existing social sidebar, allows users to see and respond to comments on relevant Facebook posts without having to navigate away from Bing.

The company explained this brand new feature on its blog:

“Now you can see what your friends might know about what you’re searching for and engage with them directly without leaving the search page.”

Bing users are also able to ‘Like’ posts on Facebook through the new feature, allowing them to easily engage with others through social content. This means that company strategists undertaking website marketing through social media will be able to take advantage of added opportunities to interact with prospects.

It is believed that the increased usability could count for much – given that the latest estimates place Facebook’s number of active users at more than a billion. This comes amid talk that the social media giant lost around 10 million of its users in 2012. Although much of the site’s recent growth has been attributed to increased interest from some of the world’s emerging markets, Facebook did still reportedly gain around four million users from the US in the last year alone.

Some industry observers have predicted that the new social sidebar feature could have a significant impact on companies’ website marketing strategies.

We now enjoy almost unlimited colour use, responsive layouts and web fonts. This enlarged tool kit gives us much greater control over the finished look of our sites. The BBC’s website, for example, was a distant cousin to its television channels in 1996; the general brand identity of the organisation simply couldn’t transfer to computer screens. Now, in 2013, the BBC is able to roll out its branding across all manner of media; television, cable/online television interfaces, websites, podcasts, smartphone apps and web applications. No doubt the organisation will feature a department dedicated to overseeing this visual branding to ensure consistency.

This consolidation of graphic design can be seen with the marketing of smartphone apps. The website will mirror the style and design conventions of the app in order to show off the ‘feel’ of the service instantly. The lines between media are blurring, and the print-web-television triangle of fifteen years has now been filled out into a circle, with the increments between smartphone, tablet, notebook, desktop , games console and television screen steadily getting smaller.

There is crossover and duplication of the tasks we perform and the devices we use. As technology improves the mainstream consumer will likely only expect to use tablets of varying sizes, for example a handheld tablet and one mounted on the wall, both able to perform the same functions. When this happens, as web designers we’ll need to be ready to move away from our once privileged position as lone-rangers with a key to an obscure medium, to prove ourselves as multimedia graphic designers, able to conceive, design and implement graphic design, regardless of the technology.

Why should I care?

As with a house, a neighbourhood can have quite a large impact on the value of the property. The same applies to domain names and servers; if there is a site of ill repute or questionable content hosted on the same server as your website, this can have a negative impact on your SEO performance. This is especially true if the sites are of an adult nature, or are written in such a way that they put a strain on the servers resources. Imagine a strip club moves into your street and begins to use all of the electricity and water, leaving your home to run on less. This is going to affect the value of your property severely, and the same is true for websites.

What can I do?

Take a look at the kind of neighbourhood your website is in. If you don’t like the look of your neighbours then speak to us here at EngageWeb – we can arrange to have your website homed in a neighbourhood that isn’t harming your SEO score.

Although some studies show that Google+ has thrived among its neighbours, the Reuters survey showed that Google’s social network has so far failed to attract a number of major brands.

Just 72% of the most valuable worldwide brands (as listed by Millward Brown) have a presence on the network, compared to Facebook’s 87%.

According to a report by GlobalWebIndex, Facebook is home to more than half of all the active social media users. Comparatively, Google+ is home to 26% of active users, YouTube has 25% and Twitter, 22%. However, the study showed that user numbers alone aren’t enough to encourage businesses to push marketing efforts.

The Reuters survey discovered that 40% of the big brand names with a Google+ account were mostly or completely inactive.

While the lack of activity on Google+ from big market players like McDonald’s, Pepsi and Nike might discourage some brands from marketing on the network, it is believed that some opportunists will see the absence of big names as a golden opportunity. Without the tough competition from larger, heavy-hitting brands, businesses with smaller budgets for internet marketing in Liverpool, Birmingham, and other parts of the UK, could find success by providing content on the network.

Twitter, together with digital marketing analysts at Compete, studied three separate groups of UK internet users to find out what difference was made to official vehicle website traffic as a direct result of Twitter updates.

The first group represented the average web user, while the latter two were both made up of Twitter users – one of which included those who regularly read tweets by at least one car brand, while the other was made up of those who did not.

Of the auto brand-exposed Twitter users, the study showed that 27.5% went on to visit car brand websites, compared to just 15.8% of ordinary internet user. The non-exposed Twitterers came somewhere in between the two groups (22.1%), suggesting that the social media tool can still attract those who have not specifically chosen to ‘follow’ an industry-specific theme.

Results followed a similar pattern in terms of studying how well Twitter boosted both auto brand recognition and conversion into trade. Those with brand exposure were found to be 54% more likely to use a search engine to find a car manufacturer’s website, and a whopping 83% more of them were prompted to make inroads into buying a car through such activities as finding their local dealer or requesting a test drive.

The automotive industry is just one sector to have realised the power of social media, and that having company-related updates appearing on Twitter and Facebook newsfeeds is an integral part of internet marketing.

The results suggest that perhaps users of Facebook, Twitter and other social networks should not get so green with envy when they scan through their newsfeeds and uncover revelations of friends having amazing nights out, landing plum jobs and brushing shoulders with celebrities, as there could be a very good chance that it’s all a product of over-active imaginations.

Men and women are just as bad as each other, it would appear, but the reasons why they let these falsehoods slip out is very different between the two genders. Most men said that they did it to keep their online personas looking impressive, while it comes more down to peer pressure among female fibbers.

Specific reasons given for lying online include feeling a need to sound positive or pretend to have had an enjoyable time doing something (given by 39% of respondents partial to fibbing), as well as the somewhat depressing admission by nearly a third of them that they felt their boring lives need to be boosted with some harmless embellishments of the truth.

The sexes are also divided on their preferred means of cyber-deceit, with men more likely to tweet their far-fetched tales, and women more tempted to touch up their photos and use sharing sites like Instagram to give an inaccurate visual representation of themselves.

Refreshingly, at least some of the respondents were honest enough to admit their dishonesty, with one in 10 of them conceding that they do have a habit of being social media Pinocchios at times.