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MySpace Tests Audio Ads With TargetSpot

Doug Caverly — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:24:36 -0500

For most people, listening to music online is terribly convenient, and the occasional audio ad shouldn't represent a deal breaker. MySpace may be making a smart move, then, as it's begun testing 30-second ads with help from an Internet radio advertising company called TargetSpot.

The end result isn't too different from what fans of Yahoo Music or Pandora - or even regular radio listeners - are already used to. MySpace members just have to tolerate a short ad, and then they're free to continue on their figurative way, listening to a number of songs before getting stuck with another commercial.

That number of songs is quite large, too, with MySpace allowing people to progress through a playlist of 100 tunes between ads. So even if MySpace becomes less generous in the future (and it probably will), the social network should have plenty of wiggle room before people begin to grow resentful.

A MySpace representative confirmed to David Kaplan, "We're testing some new ad products and the response from our users has been positive."

The representative then encouraged more folks to weigh in, continuing, "As always, we're interested in hearing feedback from our community and the advertising community as we roll out new functionality that creates the right balance between user experience and commerce."

Related Articles:

> Yahoo Music Gets Former Universal Exec As New Chief

> 15 Million People Have MySpace Mail Accounts

> MySpace Integrates Facebook Connect Into Website

Looking at Different Functionalities of Google Buzz

Chris Crum — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:22:10 -0500

This day will go down in history as the day of Google Buzz. After Google's press event (which we live-blogged and discussed here) Google put up several posts explaining more about the "buzzworthy" new product.

"Google Buzz is a new way to start conversations about the things you find interesting," says Gmail and Google Buzz Product Manager Todd Jackson. "It's built right into Gmail, so you don't have to peck out an entirely new set of friends from scratch — it just works. If you think about it, there's always been a big social network underlying Gmail. Buzz brings this network to the surface by automatically setting you up to follow the people you email and chat with the most. We focused on building an easy-to-use sharing experience that richly integrates photos, videos and links, and makes it easy to share publicly or privately (so you don't have to use different tools to share with different audiences). Plus, Buzz integrates tightly with your existing Gmail inbox, so you're sure to see the stuff that matters most as it happens in real time."

"We've relied on other services' openness in order to build Buzz (you can connect Flickr and Twitter from Buzz in Gmail), and Buzz itself is not designed to be a closed system," he says. "Our goal is to make Buzz a fully open and distributed platform for conversations. We're building on a suite of open protocols to create a complete read/write developer API, and we invite developers to join us on Google Code to see what is available today and to learn more about how to participate."

We looked at the promo video for Google Buzz in another article, but Google has also now provided one focusing specifically on Buzz's mobile aspects.

Google Buzz Tech Lead Edward Ho talks about the Gmail aspects of Buzz:

To make sure you don't miss out on the best part of sharing, Buzz sends responses to your posts straight to your inbox. Unlike static email messages, buzz messages in your inbox are live conversations where comments appear in real time.

You can follow the specific people whose posts you want to see, but Buzz also recommends posts from people you're not directly following, often ones where your friends are having a lively conversation in the comments. If you're not interested in a particular recommendation, just click the "Not interested" link and your feedback will help improve the recommendations system. Buzz also weeds out uninteresting posts from the people you follow — collapsing inactive posts and short status messages like "brb." These early versions of ranking and recommendations are just a start; we're working on improvements that will help you automatically sort through all the social data being produced to find the most relevant conversations that matter to you.

Software engineer Justin Zaren talks about photo sharing through Picasa on Google Buzz:

Google Buzz is built right into Gmail and is fully integrated with Picasa Web Albums. Any photos you upload to and share from Buzz are automatically stored in a new unlisted album in your Picasa Web Albums account, so you can view them from either site. It's easy to upload multiple photos at once from Buzz - just click "Insert: Photo" from a new post, select "upload files," and click "Add photos to post" once they're fully uploaded. Since photos are meant to be viewed fast and full-screen, clicking a photo in Buzz opens an embedded viewer designed to give you an optimal viewing experience.

Google Reader users can link their accounts with Google Buzz as well. "Just head over to Gmail and you'll be able to link up your Google Reader account with just a few clicks," says Google's Mihai Parparita on the Google Reader Blog. "Then, anything you share in Reader will automatically be posted to Buzz. Comments are even shared between both products, so you can view and participate in the conversation wherever you'd prefer."

Remember that Google Buzz is rolling out over the next few days, so if you don't have it yet, you will soon. Google Buzz will become available to businesses and schools using Google Apps, with added features within a few months, according to Google Enterprise Product Management Director Matthew Glotzbach.

Read this article if you want to see what I have to say about search implications and business uses of Google Buzz.

Related Articles:

> Will Google Buzz Change the Social Media Game?

> Whose Got The Buzz: Yahoo or Google?

> Is Gmail Google's Real Social Network?

Online Retail Spending Reaches $39 Billion In Q4

Mike Sachoff — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:09:55 -0500

Online retail spending in the U.S. in the fourth quarter reached $39 billion, a 3 percent increase compared to a year ago, according to the latest report from comScore.

Total retail ecommerce spending reached $129.8 billion in 2009, slightly lower than the previous year's total of $130.1 billion.

"The fourth quarter, with a 3 percent year-over-year growth, helped end what has been a disappointing year for online consumer spending on a more positive note," said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni.

"As we head into 2010, there is reason for guarded optimism for online retail spending to continue to gain share of consumers' wallets. At the same time, I expect absolute growth to be stymied by continued high unemployment and the deleveraging that is occurring in the economy as consumers exercise their new found propensity to save."

The largest online retailers, led by Amazon and Walmart, gained market share of ecommerce sales compared to small and medium-sized retailers.

Spending growth was driven by an increase in online buyers, while average spending per buyer saw modest declines.

Other highlights from the report include:

Free shipping factored into more than 40 percent of e-commerce transactions during the holiday season.
Tuesday, December 15 ranked as the heaviest U.S. online spending day in history at $913 million.

Related Articles:

>Cyber Monday Deals Attract Online Shoppers

>Walmart Wins Thanksgiving, Amazon Wins Black Friday

>Online Retailers See Strong Cyber Monday Sales

Google Takes Street View to Vancouver and Whistler

Ali Ord — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:25:57 -0500

With the games in Vancouver and Whistler right around the corner, many wonder about the extraordinary view the world's best skiers and snowboarders experience during the event.

Well to no one's surprise, Google Maps can now take you there. That's right, hold on to your helmets, because during February 12-28 anyone around the world can adventure down the trails of Whistler Mountain with the pros.The Street View team has explored a variety of different methods to capture imagery at 7,000 feet.

Jonathan Lister, Managing Director and Head of Google Canada, posted on The Official Google Blog, "the Street View team's constant experimenting yielded a snowmobile decked out with cameras to capture slope-level imagery of several runs on Whistler Blackcomb Mountains."

This opportunity affords viewers a first hand look at the sensation of freedom when champions begin their journey for the big win. There are 3D models and Street View available for all 9 competition venues.

Dan Ratner, Senior Mechanical Engineer, posted on Google Lat Long Blog, "In typical scrappy Google fashion, we were able to put this together over the course of a few weekends using extra pieces for our Street View cars, some 2x4s, some duct tape, and a lot of extra hard drives (keeping them running properly in the freezing conditions was one of our major concerns)."

In 40 languages, an up-to-date medal count, news, results, event schedules and imagery of the Vancouver-Whistler area will be accessible on Google's new site.

MSFT, Google Prepare For Mobile Future In China

Doug Caverly — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:13:58 -0500

More evidence that Google and Microsoft remain very interested in China has surfaced. Both companies have struck deals with MediaTek, a semiconductor company that specializes in wireless communications, and said deals should help them make headway in China's mobile market.

Dan Nystedt reported earlier today, "MediaTek has already developed a chipset and other hardware for Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6 operating system and has sent the package. . . .to handset makers in China so they can start designing new Windows Mobile smartphones, a MediaTek representative said." Also, "MediaTek will release a similar hardware and software package with Google's Android mobile phone OS in the second half of this year . . ."

Microsoft's move may not qualify as much of a surprise. Over the past month, Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates have both made statements to the effect that they weren't troubled by recent hacking claims involving China. Microsoft's agreement with MediaTek was actually announced by a press release, too.

It's Google's involvement with MediaTek that is a little unexpected. Google more or less threatened to pull out of China, after all, and while it's normally much more communicative than Microsoft, the company hasn't yet put together any press releases or blog posts about this.

China's mobile market no doubt represents an opportunity for all three of these organizations to make a lot of money, in any event.

Related Articles:

> Google May Invest In Chinese Media Firm

> China Won't Stand In The Way Of Google's Android Business

> Bill Gates Sides With Ballmer, MSFT On China

Will Google Buzz Change the Social Media Game?

Chris Crum — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:27:37 -0500

Google held a press event to announce the most "buzzed" topic of the week - Google Buzz. This is Google's new product, which is being compared to social networks like Twitter and Facebook. It is integrated with Gmail and other Google products, and appears to be one of the missing links in tying Google together as a social network, a concept we've discussed repatedly.

Do you think Google could make an impact on social media with this release? Share your thoughts.

Editor's Note: The bulk of this article was written before the announcement was made and has been adjusted to reflect the announcement itself, after liveblogging the press event.

Google says Buzz has five key elements:

1. Auto Following
2. Rich, Fast Sharing experience...
3. Support for public and private sharing....
4. In-box integration
5. Just the good stuff...

Watch the video below to get a general idea of what Buzz does.

Buzz will show a thumbnail of a YouTube video and make it easy to play in line. With photos, they will show thumbnails, but Google built a custom photo viewer, which lets you flip through pictures and see them "big and fast". If you share links, it will automatically fetch headlines and photos from the post (similar to Facebook). You can "like" and "unlike" stuff, and expand comments. It works with keyword shortcuts from Gmail.

Public/Private sharing - The post box will let you post updates publicly or privately. If it's public, it will go to your Google profile, and is indexed by Google's real-time search. You can share privately, and it will let you send to groups and custom groups.

In your in-box, you will see buzz notifications that contain real-time comments. It sits in the same in-box as your regular email, but you can move between your regular in-box and your Buzz stuff. It integrates it right into Gmail.You can also use "@" for replies like with Twitter.

While Google Buzz is presented as a Gmail feature, it goes well beyond Gmail. For one, all public updates you post will be posted to your Google profile page, (which is searchable). In addition, Google launched three new mobile products for Buzz:

1. The ability to use Buzz from www.Google.com on iPhone/Android
2. Brand new app at buzz.google.com
3. Maps Update for Nokia Symbian/ Android.

Mobile could be one of the biggest keys to the success of this product. Google says Google.com is the world's most popular mobile home page, and Buzz can be accessed from there on iPhone and Android devices. Android's popularity is growing quickly too.

Buzz will find your location (if you let it) and snap your updates to that location. With the Google Maps feature, you can see what people are saying based on location. You can even use voice recognition to post buzz updates by voice.

Do you see yourself using Google Buzz from your mobile device? Let us know.

Search Implications

Buzz posts get indexed by search from the page that its posted to (the Google Profile page), just like anything else on the web. Google says they don't do anything special to promote it in SERPs.

Google didn't really talk about social search with regards to Buzz, but it would not be surprising to see Buzz updates integrated these into social search, which recently became part of the web search norm. Your Gmail contacts are the first people listed in your "social circle" that Google draws from for these results.

If Buzz content appears in both real-time search results and social search results, that's two good-sized chunks of SERP real-estate. Not all SERPs have both or either, but it opens some additional search marketing doors. The feature would also open up more reputation management issues, as simply an additional place to monitor, not to mention other ways businesses are currently using services like Facebook and Twitter for marketing.

Do you think Google Buzz will be important to search marketing? Tell us what you think.

How Else Could Google Buzz Be Used for Business?

Buzz may benefit businesses as an orgnizational tool. The first thing that comes to mind is the expansion of communication with existing contacts. When you're frequently seeing what your Gmail contacts are saying, it will not only keep those people fresh in your mind, but it can cultivate further communication.

The feature could possibly lend to better organization of your communication, which could in turn save time. Again, depending on how many of the possibilities (if any) mentioned in this article actually come to fruition, it could become a central place for that communication. The more services Buzz gets integrated with, the better it could become for organization.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin says he wrote an op-ed piece, posted it to Google Buzz, and quickly had 50 comments, and edited based on feedback. He finds it efficient as an editing tool.

Competition

Before it even launched, a lot of people suggested that Google's product could never compete with Facebook and Twitter, but I was not and am still not so quick to rule out the possibility. No, it's not likely to come out and kill those two, but that's not to say that it can't co-exist, and gain popularity of its own, if Google makes the right moves in integrating it with its other products. It's already off to a good start on that (especially with the Google mobile home page).

How well the product can compete is directly related to what possibilities Google explores. Even if a lot of options aren't explored immediately, that's not to say they won't be slowly. Google has a way of adding a feature here, and adding a feature there to its different products. Before you know it, things are more connected than you may have realized.

It's not all bout Gmail. According to comScore, Gmail had 176 million unique visitors in December, but how many people have actual GOOGLE accounts? You don't have to be a Gmail user to have one, and Google is increasingly finding more ways to draw people in through various products.

Facebook is supposedly working on its own email product, which could directly compete with Gmail. Between that and Google Buzz, the competition might be heating up between the two companies more than ever, but it still doesn't mean they can't co-exist. Will it even matter as more third-party apps begin supporting everything? It's very possible that these updates will be portable among all of these different services anyway, and they could even support each other in the future. Facebook has had no problem with posting updates to Twitter. Last year, Google actually made a big deal about its initiative to make user data as portable as possible. They formed the Data Liberation Front to "make it easier for users to move their data in and out of Google products."

More Possibilities for Google Buzz

Google says it wants Buzz to be as open as possible. That means there is plenty of room to grow and increase integration with different services. The company says it will be wired up to other parts of Google and other parts of the Internet. Facebook Connect integration is "something they'll think about", but it's not happening yet. Google says it will bring Twitter content in, but will not yet let you push it out to Twitter...yett. That could change in time. Think about being able to do all of your social media and email communication from one place. That is something Mozilla is trying to develop with its in-progress Raindrop project. What if Google was able to do it with an established product like Gmail? Google says theyr'e "just getting started" with Buzz.

I think it's safe to expect Buzz integration with a lot of other Google features. Google has already said that it places Wave as "high on the list of things they can do" as far as integration.

Google could potentially integrate the feature with any product it chooses (and it has a lot to choose from). What if it became available with the click of a button on the Chrome browser (which is gaining popularity)? What if it were integrated with the already social Google Reader? Google Docs? Wave? There could be a Google gadget, for users' iGoogle home pages. There are a lot of ways tha Google could potentially get people using Buzz. Google says Buzz will be launched as an enterprise product eventually as well.

On a sidenote, it's pretty interesting that Google and Yahoo both now have products called "Buzz."

Do you see the potential for Google Buzz to be successful? Would you use it? Please share your opinions.

Related Articles:

> Is Google Launching a Competitor for Facebook/Twitter?

> Is Google Bad at Social Media or Really, Really Good at it?

> Is Gmail Google's Real Social Network?

Whose Got The Buzz: Yahoo or Google?

Jeremy Muncy — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:13:12 -0500

Today Google officially announced their latest product, Google Buzz, during a live press event. If you’re not familiar with Google Buzz, it’s a way to share updates, photos, videos, and more. (You can read an extensive writeup of Google Buzz here).

Wait a minute; doesn't the name Buzz sound familiar? Well, there’s a good reason for that. Let me re-introduce you to Yahoo! Buzz.

Should Google have picked a different name for their service? Share your thoughts.

For those of you who don’t know what Yahoo! Buzz is, or for those of you who forgot it even existed, it’s a Digg-esque social bookmarking service that launched back in 2008.

The first thing that came to this writers mind was, “how can two rivals in the search industry each have a product with the same name?” Granted, they’re two separate services, but both reside in the social media realm.

Another thing that should be noted is the Yahoo! Buzz logo features a trademark. We’re not trying to stir up any legal discussions… but it does seem kind of odd that Google would choose a name that a rival company has trademarked.

With all the lawyers that Google employs, one would have to think that this matter has already been sorted out. Right?

What do you think will happen between Google & Yahoo? Tell us what you think.

UPDATE: Looks like Yahoo! finally caught wind of Google Buzz, they recently tweeted the following...

Yahoo Tech Slated For March Shutdown

Doug Caverly — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:10:31 -0500

As Yahoo continues to reconsider exactly which properties are core to the company, Yahoo Tech has failed to make the cut. The site has been given an end-of-life date, and everything of value (including visitors) will just be used to provide another Yahoo asset a lift.

An announcement that Nick Saint spotted today reads, "As of March 11, 2010, tech.yahoo.com will no longer be available. Visitors to the site will be redirected to Yahoo! Technology News where they will continue to have access to the best technology content available online."

A few people are sure to protest this move; Yahoo noted that tech.yahoo.com profiles, along with ratings and reviews, will be deleted, and no one likes to lose data.

However, this is probably a smart decision on Yahoo's part given that Yahoo Tech's existence seems a little redundant. It doesn't do much for Yahoo in terms of search and advertising, either.

Then here's one more good reason for the site to get shuttered: Although Nick Saint absolutely deserves credit for being the first blogger to spot Yahoo's announcement, the Yahoo Tech closure notice appears to have been posted a full five days ago.

Related Articles:

> Monster Announces HotJobs Acquisition

> Yahoo Halts Search For International Boss

> VMware's Acquisition Of Zimbra Made Official

eBay Testing New Search Features

Mike Sachoff — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:55:46 -0500

eBay said today it is launching a new offering called "Garden by eBay," an area on the site that will allow members to test new features and provide feedback for improvements and changes.

Garden by eBay is an opt-in initiative with a concept that is similar to Google Labs where users can test and experiment with different features before they are officially released.

eBay says that Garden members' feedback will be provided directly to the teams that manage new, proposed or existing features. The goal is to bring buyers and sellers into the process and help the company introduce, test and roll out features faster.

The first major feature to be introduced is a new "streamlined search" aimed at making it easier to browse and view search results. Streamlined search offers a cleaner view of inventory, and better ways for buyers to browse items. Users can compare auction and Buy It Now listings side-by-side, refine their searches with fewer clicks, get an at-a-glance view of an item's name, price and format and view same-screen pop-up windows for item detail.

"The new Garden by eBay represents a new collaborative conversation with the eBay community-a chance to listen to their thoughts on upcoming features, and to bring them closer to our own innovation process," said Christopher Payne, eBay vice president of search.

"And by seeding the Garden with streamlined search, we're asking for the community's input on improving one of the most important areas of eBay.com."

Related Articles:

> eBay to Make Changes to Seller Fees

> eBay Fined $2.6 Million Over LVMH Sales

> eBay Previews Possible Geotargeting Feature For Sellers

Search Engines Impact Perception Of Brands

Mike Sachoff — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:15:07 -0500

The search engine consumers use to find a brand's website impacts both their perception of that brand and the decisions they make while on the site, according to new research by Wunderman, ZAAZ, and Compete.

"Search begins with the choice of search engine," said David Sable, vice chairman and COO of Wunderman. "What this means if you are managing a brand is this: you need to know how consumers relate to Bing, Yahoo! or Google and how that reflects on you."

Loyal users of Bing, Yahoo and Google were found to have distinct characteristics that benefit some brands more than others.

The search experience on different search engines offers different results, with some being more relevant to the consumer than others. This contributes to overall customer and brand awareness. If the search results satisfy the needs of the consumer, then the search engine has greater appeal to that potential customer leading to a deeper connection to the brand and the search engine.

"This research demonstrates that marketers have a real choice to make when formulating search strategies," said Shane Atchison, CEO of ZAAZ.

"The search engine acts as a kind of 'train' on the Internet. Each train provides a different set of unique results or 'destinations.' Consumer preference for a specific train demonstrates a unique demographic and psychographic profile."

The study found two reasons why different brands do better with different search engines:

It's About Who You Are: The demographic and psychographic profile of each loyal search engine user is different. Bing users, for example, tend to be mostly from the tip of the adoption curve (innovators and early adopters) where Yahoo! and Google's passengers tend to be middle majority (see accompanying chart).
It's About the Road You Take: Each search engine delivers a different result, whether paid for or earned. In the brands and vertical categories studied (automotive, travel, retail, and wireless), each search engine demonstrated different degrees of consumer engagement ranging from visiting to finally purchasing.

Related Articles:

> How Google Rates Links from Facebook and Twitter

> How Press Releases Can Be Great For Search

> Link Building for Bing Rankings: Dos and Don'ts

How Over 400 Million People Use Facebook

Chris Crum — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:00:02 -0500

Last week, as Facebook celebrated its sixth birthday, the company announced that it was surpassing the 400 million-user milestone. That's one good reason why it pays for businesses to have Facebook Pages. That's not the only impressive number though.

Facebook has released a whole slew of statistics about how the site is used by those people. Following are those statistics:

- More than 400 million active users
- 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
- More than 35 million users update their status each day
- More than 60 million status updates posted each day
- More than 3 billion photos uploaded to the site each month
- More than 5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each week
- More than 3.5 million events created each month
- More than 3 million active Pages on Facebook
- More than 1.5 million local businesses have active Pages on Facebook
- More than 20 million people become fans of Pages each day
- Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans
- Average user has 130 friends on the site
- Average user sends 8 friend requests per month
- Average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook
- Average user clicks the Like button on 9 pieces of content each month
- Average user writes 25 comments on Facebook content each month
- Average user becomes a fan of 4 Pages each month
- Average user is invited to 3 events per month
- Average user is a member of 13 groups
- More than 70 translations available on the site
- About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States
- Over 300,000 users helped translate the site through the translations application
- More than one million developers and entrepreneurs from more than 180 countries
- Every month, more than 70% of Facebook users engage with Platform applications
- More than 500,000 active applications currently on Facebook Platform
- More than 250 applications have more than one million monthly active users
- More than 80,000 websites have implemented Facebook Connect since its general availability in December 2008
- More than 60 million Facebook users engage with Facebook Connect on external websites every month
- Two-thirds of comScore’s U.S. Top 100 websites and half of comScore’s Global Top 100 websites have implemented Facebook Connect
- There are more than 65 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.
- People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are almost 50% more active on Facebook than non-mobile users.
- There are more than 180 mobile operators in 60 countries working to deploy and promote Facebook mobile products

Google is reportedly getting ready to release a feature for Gmail, that may be seen as a competitor to Facebook. Gmail may not have such an impressive list of stats, but taking the rest of Google's products into consideration, I think it would be fascinating to see a similar list to compare.

Facebook is allegedly working on its own email service. That will be an additional stat to keep an eye on.

Related Articles:

> Is Google Launching a Competitor for Facebook/Twitter?

> Google's Facebook/Twitter Competitor Could Open Up Big Possibilities

> Reasons to Have a Facebook Page and Ways to Make it Better

UK's Department Of Health Reveals $4.25m AdWords Tab

Doug Caverly — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:57:31 -0500

Google users in the UK may be unusually well-informed with regards to their government's healthcare policies. The Department of Health revealed this week that it spent about 2.72 million (or $4.25 million at the current exchange rate) on AdWords over the past year.

To be exact: the department spent 2,720,457.11 between February 1 of last year and January 31 of this one, according to official records. And a whopping 21,939 keywords (including ones like "health information" and "stop smoking") were covered by its campaign.

As reported in a Smart Healthcare article, a Department of Health spokesperson explained this huge endeavor by stating, "The Department of Health's campaigns are designed to deliver better health, whether they be to help people change their behaviours to protect their long term health, to signpost people to NHS services, or to encourage healthier lifestyles."

The spokesperson then further justified the AdWords campaign by adding, "The campaigns are evaluated using a combination of robust techniques that help us identify exactly what works, so we know that these campaigns are saving lives."

That acts as a nice sort of pat on the back for Google. The search giant no doubt appreciates the UK government's money, too.

Related Articles:

> Google Narrows Down Mobile Ad Targeting

> Report Suggests More Revenue, But Fewer Advertisers For Google

> Google Now Rejecting AdWords Ads Without Proper Display

Apple’s Store Is Back Up, Aperture 3 Added

Jeremy Muncy — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:09:40 -0500

UPDATE: The Apple store is finally back online and it looks like the only thing added was the recently announced photography software package, Aperture 3.

To say people aren't pleased with Apple would be an understatment... as many were hoping for the new Core i5 and i7 MacBooks.

Are you let down that nothing else was added to the Apple Store? Let us know.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Sometimes when the Apple store goes down it’s nothing, while other times new products are added once the store finally comes back online. One good sign that it could be a new product is that the Apple Store is down globally.

What do you think Apple will unveil when the store comes back? Tell us.

We’re not sure what to expect once the store does come back… but this hasn’t stopped Twitter users from speculating on what is to come. It appears that most Twitterers are hoping for a new MacBook Pro while others think that the iPad will be added to the store. No one really knows what is coming, well I guess it's safe to say that a "Fail Whale" might be coming once the Apple Store comes back online.

At this time, all we can do is speculate on what Apple is currently doing. In any case, be sure to check back later as we’ll update this article on the Apple Store additions.

EU Calls For More Privacy On Social Networks

Mike Sachoff — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:08:37 -0500

The European Commission is reminding teenagers to "Think before you post!" on social networking sites as Europe marks Safer Internet Day.

The Commission said 50 percent of European teenagers give out personal information on the web, which can remain online forever and be seen by anybody.

At last year's Safer Internet Day, 20 companies signed the Safer Social Networking Principles, including YouTube and Facebook, but a report from the Commission says more measures need to be put in place to protect children's privacy online.

"If we want children to think before they post, social networking companies should post the right information using the right language. Last year the European Commission urged companies to act, and I am glad that many have heeded this call," said EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, Viviane Reding.

"However I expect all companies to do more. Minors' profiles need to be set to private by default and questions or abuse reports have to receive quick and appropriate responses. The internet is now vital to our children, and it is the responsibility of all to make it safe."

Highlights from the report include:

Only a third of social networking sites responded to user reports asking for help
40% of social networking sites assessed make minors' personal information visible only by their friends by default
Only 11 out of 22 make it impossible for the private profiles of minors to be found through search engines

Related Articles:

>EU Launches Online Consumer Rights Guide

> EU Probes UK Over Internet Privacy

> EU Commissoner Pushers For Independent ICANN

Yahoo Music Gets Former Universal Exec As New Chief

Doug Caverly — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:39:21 -0500

The music industry is a big business; there must be hundreds of thousands of performers and managers in the world. But there are just four major labels - Warner, EMI, Sony, and Universal - and so Yahoo seems to have made a rather significant hire by securing a former Universal exec as the head of Yahoo Music.

Jeff Bronikowski worked at Universal for almost 12 years, most recently serving as its senior vice president of business development. He apparently did a good job while there, too, earning six recommendations on LinkedIn.

Now, Bronikowski's told Billboard, "I feel like Yahoo, while certainly it has declined a bit from its prominence as the No. 1 music destination, I think there are tremendous assets there and Yahoo is committed to making it a premier music destination again."

Also, in terms of a (possible) plan for reaching that point, he added, "It never was that big of an on-demand music streaming service. . . . I haven't even started yet, but thinking about where it's been, where it is now, and where I'd like to take it . . . I think that's going to be a big focus. It's packaging content in a way that's most appealing to free, ad-supported uses."

For the record: the previous Yahoo Music chief didn't exactly get the boot. Michael Spiegelman has become responsible for product strategy and development for all of Yahoo's entertainment products.

Related Articles:

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[WATCH] Super Bowl 2010 Commercials

Jeremy Muncy — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:05:08 -0500

Super Bowl XLIV had numerous memorable moments: the onside kick, the missed field goal, the Garçon drop, and the truly horrendous half-time show to name a few. But, for many viewers Super Bowl commercials leave the same lasting impact as the game itself, as they should with a price tag of $3.01 million per 30 seconds.

This year we saw a plethora of the same companies advertising: Budwesier, Bud Light, Coke, Go Daddy, Doritos, Monster.com, Snickers… etc. Last night we wrote about a newcomer to the Super Bowl advertising scene, Google. One company that normally would’ve been in that list, Pepsi, decided to forgo a Super Bowl commercial this year and focus their advertising budget on Social Media.

In case you missed any of the commercials, you can view them below. Be sure to leave a comment telling us which one was your favorite. (Please note: I've omitted movie trailers and TV show commercials)

Monster.com Fiddling Beaver Ad

CareerBuilder "Casual Friday" Ad

Google: Parisian Love Ad

Focus on the Family "Tim Tebow" Ad

Late Show Ad (featuring Letterman, Oprah and Leno)

McDonalds "Horse" Ad (featuring Lebron James & Dwight Howard)

FLO TV: My Generation Ad

VIZIO Ad (featuring Beyonce)

Emerald Nuts "Awesomer" Ad

Motorola Ad (featuring Megan Fox)

GoDaddy Ad (featuring Danica Patrick)

GoDaddy "News" Ad

Boost Mobile Ad

Cars.com Timothy Richman Ad

VW "PunchDub" Ad

Intel "Lunch Room" Ad

Coca-Cola Simpsons Ad

Coke "Sleepwalker" Ad

Skechers Shape-ups Ad

Doritos "House Rules" Ad

Doritos "Casket" Ad

Doritos "Anti-Bark Collar"

Doritos "Tim's Locker" Ad

Michelob Ultra "Little Bumps" Ad

Snickers "Betty White" Ad

Hyundai Sonata Ad

Hyundai Sonata "Brett Favre" Ad

Budweiser "Clydesdale Fence" Ad

Budweiser "Human Bridge" Ad

Budweiser "Select 55 Ice Bottle" Ad

Bud Light "Asteroid" Ad

Bud Light "House" Ad

Bud Light "Lost Parody" Ad

Denny's "Chicken Birthday" Ad

Denny's "Chicken Warning" Ad

Homeaway (featuring the Griswalds)

Dr. Pepper Cherry "Little Kiss" Ad

So which Super Bowl commercial was your favorite? Let us know.

Reasons to Have a Facebook Page and Ways to Make it Better

Chris Crum — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 07:06:40 -0500

I don't have to tell you that Facebook can be a tremendous source of web traffic. There's a good chance that most of the people you know are on it, and the ones who aren't may be eventually. The social network is consuming more and more of people's time, and thanks to mobile devices, it is always accessible. If you don't have a Facebook Page, you may be missing out on not only traffic to your site, but a chance to engage with customers and ultimately help your brand's reputation.

One of our blog partners, Jay Baer, of Convince&Convert wrote a great piece about why you need Facebook for your company. He highlights "11 things you need to know." These things include how Facebook has 350 Million global users and counting (although Facebook has sinced announced reaching the 400 million user milestone), and how the average Facebook user spends 55 minutes per day on Facebook. Nearly 80,000 sites use Facebook Connect.

Editor’s note: If you have a blog related to online business, search, or social media, and are interested in becoming one of our blog partners, you may submit here.

He also notes that the Facebook Fan Box is becoming more pervasive, the average Facebook user has 130 friends and fans 2 pages per month. His statements are backed up by various reports and studies.

Perhaps you have a Facebook Page, but it's not performing how you'd like. You feel it's a waste of time. "If your Facebook fan page is a bit of a ghost town, you're not alone. A fantastic study by Sysomos of 600,000 Facebook fan pages shows that only 4% of pages have 10,000 or more fans – and only .76% have 100,000 or more," says Baer. "That’s why it is so critical to focus your Facebook strategy on activating the fans you have, not just collecting fans like baseball cards."

"The Sysomos study also found very little correlation between how frequently the Facebook page admin posted to the wall, and total number of fans. However – and this is important – there is a strong correlation between amount of other content (notes, links, photos, videos) and number of fans," he says. "Thus, if you want to grow your Facebook fan base, it is imperative that you move beyond simple Wall posts and add photos, videos, links and other content."

Another one of our blog Partners, Dave Taylor, offers some tips from Patrick O'Keefe, author of the book Managing Online Forums, on making a Facebook page more interesting. Among these are:

- Participate and make it routine
- Ask questions
- Host events on your page
- Highlight contributions from others
- Go beyond just text
- Integrate your other online presences
- Take it easy with apps, boxes, etc.
- Run offline events, if you can

One thing you want to do is pay attention to your Facebook analytics. Pay attention to stats. Pay attention to changes Facebook makes in this area. For example, recently it was discovered that some admins were starting to see impression counts for each post, as well as the number of likes and comments for each impression. Like Baer says, test content types to see what works best.

Does your Facebook Page drive traffic to your site? Does it engage customers? Discuss your strategy.

Related Articles:

> Content Can Now Go Viral More Easily With Facebook

> Pingdom Names Facebook "Most Engaging Social Network"

> Facebook Can Drive More Traffic Than Google

Google Lowers Controversial Nexus One Fee

Chris Crum — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:19:17 -0500

Update 2: Google has now reportedly lowered the $350 fee to $150, and launched a support line for the phone at 888-48-NEXUS.

Update: The FCC has sent letters regarding early termination fees to Google, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon. In its letter to Google, it says:

...where new options may subject consumers to substantial ETFs, potentially from more than one entity, the Commission has a special interest in ensuring that consumers have a clear and complete understanding of the rates, terms, and conditions on which the communications services are being offered and the rationale for those rates, terms, and conditions. The combination of ETFs from Google and T-Mobile for the Nexus One is also unique among the four major national carriers. Consumers have been surprised by this policy and by its financial impact. Please let us know your rationale(s) for these combined fees, and whether you have coordinated or will coordinate on these fees and on the disclosure of their combined effect.

Original Article: Google made big waves in the mobile industry early in the year, and the effects of those waves are being felt quite hard by some users. The Nexus One's release has gotten off to kind of a rocky start.

The issues plaguing customers of the much-anticipated Google phone have been widely publicized. Most of the gripes have dealt with Google's customer service (or lack thereof) for the device, and trouble with 3G connections. More recently, however, complaints of outrageous early termination fees have popped up.

The trouble for users is that if they got the Nexus One with a two-year contract from T-Mobile, they end up having to pay about $550 to terminate early. The thing is, they have to pay T-Mobile's regular fee, but they also have to pay Google a fee. Needless to say, that has caught some people off guard.

Google's fee is a $350 "Equipment Recovery Fee". It applies to customers who cancel their contracts within the first 120 days.

According to Niraj Sheth with the Wall Street Journal's Digits Blog, "A Google spokeswoman said in a statement that the fee is "a way for the company to recoup the subsidy it gives to contract customers."

"'This is standard practice for third-party resellers of T-Mobile and other operators,' she said. A T-Mobile spokesman said that the carrier’s early termination fee is standard for its customers on contract."

While the combination of the aforementioned problems may not bode well for Google's reputation in the mobile industry at the moment, the good news for the company is that they are projected to come out on top in the smartphone race eventually. Crunchgear says Google and Android will "own the smartphone market" eventually. Time will tell if that is an accurate depiction of things to come, but for now, people just seem upset.

Related Articles:

> Google Unveils Nexus One "Super Phone"

> Nexus One Sales Of 5-6 Million Units Forecast

> Google Tries to Carve Out its Place in Mobile

Online Video Views are Not "Lost" on ABC.com

Chris Crum — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:32:19 -0500

Last Tuesday, the season premiere of the hit television show "Lost" aired, and not only was it watched by over 12 million people, but it drove record online viewing at ABC.com the next day, with over 580,000 episode starts on the site. That's over 34% more than last season's premiere. ABC shared some details with us.

When asked why they think this particular episode of Lost had such an impact on online views compared with other episodes and other shows, a representative for ABC told WebProNews, "Lost has been a top performer in terms of online viewing since we began making episodes available online several years ago. Fans of the show tend to be very tech-savvy and also tend to watch episodes more than once. They also frequently go online to review specific scenes."

On Tuesday, leading up to the airing of the show, ABC.com saw over 1.8 million unique visitors and delivered over 7.4 million page views, a 5% and 43% increase, respectively over the previous year’s premiere date, based on data from Omniture. Visitors to ABC.com logged more than 2.2 million video views of "Lost"-related short-form content on Tuesday, an increase of over 32% compared to last season.

ABC gives viewers more than just the videos though. This season, ABC.com offers interactive, community-driven features including user-created Top 5 lists which allow fans to arrange, rank and share their personalized lists of show-related favorites; and Episode Commentary where fans can access commentaries created by series' insiders, and create and share their own for each episode.

The site will also soon unveil a Fan Art Wall, an interactive area for fans to upload, view and rate "Lost"-themed art created by fellow fans, and also give fans the opportunity to participate in a promo contest, providing users a "mash-up" tool to create and share their own "Lost" promos with a winning promo to be featured on-air.

There has been some talk about just how well TV shows will perform online in the future as Nielsen makes data available about the viewing of commercials that run in particular shows, whether they are viewed on TV or online. This could lead to online TV shows getting more ad-heavy.

"ABC.com's full episode player features interactive video advertising," ABC tell us. "Lost episodes currently feature a single national sponsor. They have 4 30-second spots which can't be skipped; additionally the local ABC affiliates sell one local spot per episode."

We won't be able to compare Lost episodes from this season with episodes after the Nielsen stuff goes down, because this is the final season of the show, but it is going to be quite interesting to see how advertising on popular shows changes, if it does in fact do so.

Spanish Telecom May Seek To Charge Search Engines

Doug Caverly — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:25:05 -0500

The CEO of Spanish telecom company Telefonica might soon try to obtain some money from Google and its rivals. Cesar Alierta said today that search engines' popularity creates something of a burden for his organization, and that he'd like Telefonica to share in their profits.

As reported by John W. Daly, Alierta told Spanish newspaper El Pais, "Search engines use our network, without paying anything for it." Installation, maintenance, and customer service costs are among the things for which he'd like to be compensated.

Considering that Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft are sure to ignore (or perhaps laugh off) this idea, it's necessary to consider where Alierta will go from here. Lawsuits always seem to represent an option, of course, or Telefonica could try to employ some traffic shaping techniques (which might well outrage consumers and cause the search engines to file their own suits).

Or - we're not trying to sensationalize anything - the whole issue could get dropped if Alierta finds that his proposal doesn't have any traction. Daly wrote, "El Pais reports Alierta is the first CEO of a carrier to openly declare he wants to send bills to content providers."

So far, neither side's hinted at making another move.

Related Articles:

> Cambodia Lambastes Google Over Border Portrayal

> Justice Department Objects To Google Books Settlement

> How Many Spiders Does Google Have?

TuneWiki Lands Investment From Motorola

Mike Sachoff — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:14:00 -0500

Social media music player TuneWiki has received an undisclosed amount of funding from Motorola Ventures, the strategic investment arm of Motorola.

Other new investors of TuneWiki include Intellect Capital Ventures, a venture fund initiative of TeliaSonera, HillsVen Capital, and Novel TMT. TuneWiki's previous venture capital investor, Benchmark Israel, also participated in the round.

"Teaming up with a global company like Motorola is very exciting for us," said Rani Cohen, CEO of TuneWiki.

"We are passionate about connecting people through music, and having our applications running in many countries with different languages will allow our users to explore the world of music and better understand its meaning as part of a vibrant and engaged community."

TuneWiki said it will use the investment to expand and improve its product offerings fro mobile platforms and the Internet. The company says it plans to focus on new features found in recently released smartphones, including stronger CPUs, larger displays and high-resolution screens. TuneWiki said it will also continue to focus on the use of song lyrics in new ways that connect music fans with new products, including an upcoming mobile game.

"Music is rapidly emerging as a key feature for smartphones, and TuneWiki is changing the experience of listening to music from a solitary experience to a social one," said Reese Schroeder, managing director of Motorola Ventures.

Related Articles:

> Motorola Offers Baidu Search To China Mobile Users

> Motorola Slates 20-30 Android Phones For 2010 Release

> More Than Half Of Holiday Shoppers Relied On Cell Phones

Facebook Version Of "Madden" Game In The Works

Doug Caverly — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:08:45 -0500

The most popular video game franchise of all time is heading to Facebook. The end result probably won't boast the lifelike graphics and complicated controls to which longtime fans have become accustomed, but Peter Moore, the president of EA Sports, has promised that some sort of "Madden NFL" tie-in will occur.

"You'll see us on Facebook going forward," he said in an interview with Bloomberg. Unfortunately without giving too many more particulars.

Still, it's possible to speculate about a couple of details. Moore said, "We have to make 'Madden' more accessible," so the final product will probably be less of a faithful reproduction of the Xbox and PS3 versions than an appeal to people who like Facebook's mafia- and zombie-related games.

Also, since this move presumably comes as a result of EA's acquisition of Playfish, it might even be safe to guess that the Facebook version of Madden will bear some resemblance to Playfish's games (which include Pet Society and Restaurant City) in terms of look and feel.

One last prediction: since about 63 million copies of Madden games have been sold over the years (according to NPD Group, which Bloomberg contacted), whatever debuts on Facebook is almost sure to get a big following.

Related Articles:

> Super Bowl Viewers Spend Game Time On The Web

> More Than Just A Redesign Going On With Facebook This Week

> Will Publishers Let Facebook Become The Web's Biggest News Source?

Is Google Launching a Competitor for Facebook/Twitter?

Chris Crum — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:39:45 -0500

Google is rumored to be working on a Facebook/Twitter-like feature for Gmail. According to the Wall Street Journal, who cites "people familiar with the matter", the feature, which would "make it easier and faster" to share status updates may launch as soon as this week.

As I've written about a number of times, Google is really one big social network with a bunch of features, and integration is the key to harnessing that social power. A product like this could be just the ticket, because according to these same sources, it would integrate content shared through YouTube and Picasa. Who knows what else could be worked in?

Gmail currently has status updates of a sort. In the chat section, it has a menu of your contacts who also use Google, and shows their current status of they have one set. You can set one easily at any time.

Google has not yet responded to requests for comments, but if we learn more, we will keep you updated.

If Gmail offers its own Facebook/Twitter-style timeline, would you use it? Should Facebook and Twitter be worried? Share your thoughts.

Related Articles:

> Google Luring More Account Users with New News Feature?

> Is Google Bad at Social Media or Really, Really Good at it?

> Is Gmail Google's Real Social Network?

Android Market Share Growing By Leaps And Bounds

Doug Caverly — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:14:26 -0500

In many ways, the last traces of the 2009 holiday season have disappeared - you won't find many decorations up, presents out, or leftovers refrigerated (we hope). comScore's just released a report concerning the mobile market, though, and the stats are well worth examining.

comScore's report covers the changes that occurred between September and December of last year. During that time, RIM stayed on top in terms of smartphone platforms, but it lost a little bit of ground. Apple, meanwhile, gained a similar amount, and so the gap between the two was effectively narrowed by a couple of percentage points.

Sadly (for them), Microsoft and Palm also wound up losers. Then - and this is arguably the most interesting part - Google made quite a leap.

Looked at one way, Google's improvement of 2.7 percentage points is the biggest change comScore recorded during the September-to-December timeframe. Which is impressive enough. Yet looked at another, Google more than doubled its market share over the course of three months.

That's quite a growth rate for Android. If it keeps up the pace for another three months, it'll pass Palm by. And from there, it could be just a year or so away from catching up with Microsoft.

These statistics will definitely bear watching in the months ahead, even if they're a little slow to be published.

Related Articles:

> Global Mobile Broadband Traffic Up 72%

> Motorola Making Another Direct-From-Google Phone

> Google Voice Makes Way To iPhone, Palm WebOS

2010: The Year of the Display Ad for Google?

Chris Crum — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:56:04 -0500

This could be the year of the display ad. That's not to say that display ads aren't prevalent every year, but Google has only been involved with that for a little while, and if analysts' projections are accurate, this will be the year that Google's display ad business tops $1 billion in sales.

Last summer, Google CEO Eric Schmidt suggested that display ads would be Google's next big billion-dollar business. According to BusinessWeek, a Barclays Capital analyst says display ads will account for about 4% of Google's total sales in 2010. This would be a 40% increase from their contribution in 2009. BW's Douglas MacMillan reports:

Sales of video and banner ads on YouTube, the world's most popular video site, are expected by analysts at Barclays to contribute the bulk of Google's display revenue this year, about $700 million. And with DoubleClick, Google acquired a technology that handles the placement of display ads on sites across the Web. "Display is now a key business for us," says Susan Wojcicki, Google's vice-president of product management and one of the company's earliest employees.

Neal Mohan, the executive in charge of Google's display business, says Google will draw on its strength in search-related advertising to expand in display. It became the leader in search by using algorithms to help it know which ads to place where. "Our goal is to bring the science of search to the art of display," Mohan says.

Advertisers will probably not be shy about getting on board with that. "Research has shown that exposure to both search and display ads from the same advertiser results in a 22 percent increase for conversion rates over search alone," Rich Kahn, CEO of display ad provider eZanga told WebProNews last year.

Back in November, Google announced its acquisition of Teracent, a provider of "intelligent dynamic display advertising". It provides machine-learning algorithms, which can create customized display ads based on thousands of different creative elements.

Google says the one on the right was created with Teracent's technology.

"Teracent's technology can pick and choose from literally thousands of creative elements of a display ad in real-time — tweaking images, products, messages or colors," Google said. "These elements can be optimized depending on factors like geographic location, language, the content of the website, the time of day or the past performance of different ads."

Before that announcement, Google launched a tool to measure the impact of display ad campaigns across the Google Content Network called Campaign Insights, which Google says can give reliable data about how a campaign has raised brand awareness or active user interest in a particular product or service. Google has also repeatedly added new templates for advertisers to use when constructing their creative.

Related Articles:

> Does Size Matter in Display Advertising?

> Google Launches New Display Ad Measurement Tool

> Google Launches New Templates for Display Ads

Super Bowl Ad Tweets Determine Brand Effectiveness

Chris Crum — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:31:46 -0500

As WebProNews reported, Mullen and Radian6 partnered to launch BrandBowl2010, a Twitter/Super Bowl event that allowed users to see near real-time ratings of the Super Bowls commercials. The two companies have now released the results.

They determined that Doritos was the most effective brand to advertise during the Super Bowl, and that Budweiser Select55 was the least effective. The results were determined from 98,656 Tweets collected. The results from BrandBowl2010 were as follows:

The Top Ten Most Effective Brands on BrandBowl2010

1. Doritos
2. Google
3. Focus On Family
4. Snickers
5. Budweiser
6. Bud Light
7. Hyundai
8. Kia
9. GoDaddy
10. Coca-Cola

The Five Least Effective Brands on BrandBowl2010

1. Diamond Foods’ – Pop Secret
2. Honda
3. Teleflora
4. Michelob Ultra
5. Budweiser Select55

The top brands were judged on volume of tweets, and after the top three, the firms say there was a sharp drop-off. "Doritos won the title by virtue of dominating the sheer volume of tweets," the firms say. "That was enough to keep them ahead of Google, which had a higher percentage of positive tweets."

The BrandBowl site provided an overall ranking of the brands advertising on the game based on a composite score that takes into consideration both volume of tweets and sentiment (positive or negative).

Related Articles:

> [WATCH] Super Bowl 2010 Commercials

> Google Runs First Super Bowl Commercial

> View Twitter Reaction Of Super Bowl Ads

Global Mobile Broadband Traffic Up 72%

Mike Sachoff — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:23:59 -0500

Worldwide mobile data bandwidth usage increased by 72 percent in the second half of 2009, according to a new report by Allot Communications.

Applications such as YouTube and Skype are driving this continued momentum in mobile broadband growth. APAC leads the growth with 86%; EMEA posted 70% growth and the Americas 59%.

The report found video to be the single most influential factor driving the need for increased mobile network capacity. P2P remains the biggest cause of cell congestion in the top five percent of cells, mobile broadband networks are still facing the same issues as fix networks-- growing bandwidth demands, congestion, as well as finding ways to improve the user experience and to lessen the negative impact of a few subscribers on the network.

Highlights from the report include:

HTTP streaming continues to be the fastest growing application with a 99% increase; its global mobile broadband share grew by 50% between Q2 and Q4, 2009.
YouTube accounted for 10% of global bandwidth during Q3 and Q4, 2009.
FaceBook experienced tremendous growth of 180% during the second half of 2009.
Skype is the undisputed VoIP traffic market leader, accounting for 77% of the global VoIP bandwidth; VoIP and IM applications have increased significantly by almost 47%.
HTTP downloads grew by 73%, and have become a feasible alternative for massive file sharing.
P2P is the single largest factor leading to cell congestion which accounts for 34% of bandwidth utilization in the top 5% of cells.

Related Articles:

> Best Buy Now Installing Google Mobile Apps On Smartphones

> Google Launches Analytics for Mobile Apps

> Usage of Mobile Web and Apps Doubles in 2 Years

Google May Invest In Chinese Media/Ad Firm

Doug Caverly — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:04:19 -0500

A little less than a month ago, Google announced that it might shut down Google.cn and its offices in China. The search giant may not be giving up on the country entirely, however, as a new report has indicated that it's part of a group attempting to invest in a large Chinese media and advertising company.

According to George Chen and Melanie Lee, Disney is leading a consortium that includes Google, and said consortium would like to buy a 30 or 40 percent stake in Bus Media for about $100 million. Negotiations are supposed to be in progress right now.

Such an investment could be a smart move, considering that notable entities like CCB International, China Renaissance Capital Investment, IDG, and the Yangtze Fund have all put some money behind Bus Media.

Bus Media apparently enjoys the support of China's government, too, as it's "the exclusive partner of state broadcaster CCTV and the official Xinhua news agency for in-bus media content and advertising."

But that brings us back to the touchy issue of Google, China, and censorship. Whether Google's changing its attitude or has found some solution that complements its moral stand remains to be seen.

Related Articles:

> Google Partners With NSA On Cyber Attack Analysis

> China Won't Stand In The Way Of Google's Android Business

> Bill Gates Sides With Ballmer, MSFT On China

eBay Launches Series of Seller Events

Chris Crum — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:19:25 -0500

eBay is starting a new series of events to help small businesses and part-time eBay sellers "accelerate their businesses" on eBay, which has 90 million active users. The series is called eBay: On Location, and has dates set for Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, and San Jose.

"eBay sellers are creative entrepreneurs who understand that eBay’s global reach and dynamic marketplace offer the ideal setting to start and build a business online," says eBay Marketplaces President Lorrie Norrington. "We invite our sellers to eBay: On Location to connect with each other and to take the next step in making their eBay businesses even more successful."

The goal of the series of events appears to be to let sellers network with one another and share ideas for maintaining a successful eBay business. There are also courses on "top seller secrets", productivity to boost sales and reduce costs, and utilizing social media to drive sales.

"eBay sellers have become savvier about how to use eBay in ingenious ways," says Jim Griffith, eBay senior manager, Seller Strategy and Dean of Education. "eBay: On Location is a great way for the seller community to come together and share those strategies—and learn something new from experts."

They are only letting in 500 people per event, and registration is offered on a first-come, first-served basis. It costs $45 to get in.

Related Articles:

> eBay to Make Changes to Seller Fees

> eBay Fined $2.6 Million Over LVMH Sales

> eBay Previews Possible Geotargeting Feature For Sellers

Google Sets Target For Real-Time Translator Phones

Doug Caverly — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:55:54 -0500

If you think about it, it'd be slightly inaccurate to say that phones let people all over the world communicate with each other; current tech just transmits sounds, not their significance. But Google's looking to knock down language barriers with devices that will perform translations on the fly.

This isn't some poorly sourced rumor or random conspiracy theory. Chris Gourlay interviewed Franz Och, Google's head of translation services, and Och said, "We think speech-to-speech translation should be possible and work reasonably well in a few years' time."

Incredible as that might seem, the building blocks are already in place. Android allows users to perform searches by just saying terms out loud. Google Translate deals in 52 languages at the moment. Google only needs to integrate everything in order to be in business. Maybe.

The sentence "I am going to eat lunch at 12:30" becomes "I'm going to lunch at 12:30" after Google Translate takes it from English to Spanish and back. That's enough of a difference to create confusion (suppose someone's trying to distinguish between stuffing his face and stepping out to run errands), and it's not like Spanish is a rare dialect or the original phrase represents a curveball.

Toss in imperfect speech recognition, and it's hard to imagine anyone trying to conduct important business or even chat for fun.

Nonetheless, it should be very interesting to see how this project works out for Google.

Related Articles:

> Google Analytics, Chromium Receive Language Upgrades

> Google Announces Unicode Progress

> Google Launches New Transliteration Tool

Barnes & Noble Nook Now In Stock Online

Mike Sachoff — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:49:03 -0500

Barnes & Noble said today its nook e-reader is now in stock online and will be rolling out in the majority of its stores by mid-week.

Barnes & Noble sold out of nook stock online over the holidays due to high demand, which exceeded the bookseller's expectations. Since then the company has ramped up production and is shipping stock to most of its stores this week. Customers can visit the Barnes & Noble nook In-Store Locator to find local stores with the device in-stock.

"nook is the perfect Valentine's Day gift for anyone who loves reading. Demand for nook continues to be very high, and we're pleased our customers will be able to try and buy nook in our stores and online and enjoy it in time for the holiday," said William J. Lynch, President of Barnes & Noble.com.

"In Barnes & Noble stores, nook owners will enjoy exciting nook-only content from their favorite authors and other valuable offers, along with fast and free in-store Wi-Fi, which nook customers have been accessing in droves over the last few weeks."

Related Articles:

>Barnes & Noble Says No Nook For Holidays

> Consumer Interest In E-Readers Mixed

> Sony Can't Guarantee E-Reader Holiday Shipments

Online TV Shows May Get More Ad-Heavy

Chris Crum — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:18:43 -0500

For the most part, online video has been much less ad-heavy than television programming. It is this very fact that has likely been a large part of the medium's popularity. Things may be changing, however.

According to Advertising Age, Nielsen is planning on making data available about the viewing of commercials that run in particular shows , whether they are viewed on TV or online. The data would start being available in September, and the publication says it will become the basis for ad negotiations next February.

"But here's the catch: For Nielsen to be able to provide the commercial rating, shows seen online will have to have the same group of commercials that run on TV," says AdAge's Brian Steinberg. "If this system were adopted en masse -- and it's not clear that it would be -- online viewing might be crammed just as full of commercials as the more traditional TV-watching experience."

"Indeed, viewing programs on Hulu, the online video site owned by NBC Universal, News Corp. and Walt Disney, means encountering significantly fewer ads than one would see watching TV. And Disney's ABC.com has met with some success by running ABC shows with just a few ads, often from a single advertiser," he adds. "But many TV executives say these methods don't bring much, if any, profit -- and therefore cannot continue."

Online video has enjoyed tremendous growth over the last several years. In December, 178 million Americans watched 33 billion videos online, according to data from comScore. About 40% of that was at Google sites (like YouTube). The second largest amount of market share went to Hulu, at just 3%.

YouTube isn't necessarily the place people go to watch full episodes of television shows. Hulu is. If videos at sites like Hulu become more ad-heavy, the market share gap could just increase even greater. It could also have an impact on both paid TV show downloads and piracy.

Related Articles:

> Google To Get More Interactive With Mobile Video Ads

> IAB Releases Ad Unit Guidelines Updates

> YouTube Videos In Adsense Could Drive Clicks

Google Runs First Super Bowl Commercial

Jeremy Muncy — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:10:00 -0500

With millions watching, Google ran their first Super Bowl Commercial entitled "Parisian Love". If it looks familiar, that's because it's one of their "Search Stories" ads which was uploaded to YouTube back in November. You can check it out below...

What did you think of the commercial? Tell us.

Did you think you'd ever see a Google Super Bowl Commercial? Let us know.

Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, tweeted yesterday..."Can't wait to watch the Superbowl tomorrow. Be sure to watch the ads in the 3rd quarter (someone said "Hell has indeed frozen over.")"

Well, it appears as though Hell has frozen over.

View Twitter Reaction Of Super Bowl Ads

Mike Sachoff — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 15:00:00 -0500

Mullen and Radian6 have partnered to launch BrandBowl2010, a Twitter/Super Bowl event that combines tweeting, ad reviews and a number of rankings that will allow users to see near real-time ratings of the TV commercials airing during the game.

Users can log on to BrandBowl2010 using their Twitter ID, tweet directly from the page, view tweets using the hashtag #brandbowl and see how other Twitter users are rating Super Bowl commercials.

The site will provide an overall ranking of the brands advertising on the game based on a composite score that includes both volume of tweets and positive or negative feedback. The Top 10 most popular brands will be featured on the site, with second tier brands displayed in a sub-section called the Locker Room.

"The ads have always been as big a part of the game as the game itself," said Edward Boches, Mullen's chief social media officer.

"And with the emergence of social media and platforms like Twitter, everyone wants to talk about them the moment they run. This should be a lot of fun for anyone who loves ads, Twitter and data."

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Google Suggests Competitors for Local Business Searches

Chris Crum — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 08:19:20 -0500

Google is offering suggestions for "nearby places you might like" on Google Maps when you look up a place that you do like. So if you like a particular bakery, you might be presented with other places within the same vicinity that Google thinks you might also be interested in trying.

"When you live in New York City, everyone has an opinion on where to eat," says Tammy Stern of the Google Maps team. "And usually, telling someone a place you love will lead to a long conversation of a string of other places you should try. For example, one of the more interesting restaurants I've eaten at in NYC was recommended to me by someone who knew I loved a different restaurant by the same owner. And, when I told a friend I was heading to the Lower East Side to get some yummy knishes for lunch, he told me to make sure I checked out the famous Guss' Pickles right around the corner and that I might consider picking up some smoked fish at Russ & Daughters down the street."

"You'll notice that we do not limit these suggestions to places sharing any specific characteristic; instead, we use a broad set of signals to come up with what are hopefully the most interesting suggestions," says Stern. "We're still working on refining these signals, so bear with us if your serendipitous discovery of a new place is even more unexpected than you'd anticipated."

This feature could have both positive and negative effects on local businesses. On the one hand, it could give established customers ideas to go to your competitors. On the other hand, you could be the competitor and benefit from that.

The suggestions are just the latest feature in a recent slew of local business-related features from Google. The company is clearly focusing a great deal on this aspect of search.

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Super Bowl Viewers Spend Game Time on the Web

Chris Crum — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 08:00:40 -0500

Last year, 12% of Super Bowl viewers used the Internet while watching the game according to data from Nielsen. Those that used the web spent an average of 24 minutes online during the game. It would not be at all surprising if those numbers increased significnatly this year.

"Nielsen found that simultaneous users were most engaged in general interest, e-mail, and online social networks," the firm says. "Sports sites, which might be more directly associated with the game itself, were visited by 18% of simultaneous users."

According to Nielsen, about a quarter of simultaneous users spent time during the game using Facebook at an average of 15 minutes. Google and Yahoo Mail also received significant use during game time.

The game takes place this evening of course. Will you be watching? Will you be watching and using the web? How do yo plan on using the web during the Super Bowl?

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Is Google Bad at Social Media or Really, Really Good at it?

Chris Crum — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 07:31:37 -0500

Google often takes a lot of flack for not being incredibly successful with its social media efforts. Most recently, Caroline McCarthy and Tom Krazit tackled this subject in a CNET article claiming that "Google struggles with social skills." I would not go so far as to say that I completely disagree with them. They make plenty of factual points that are simply undeniable. Orkut hasn't set the world afire. Jaiku and Dodgeball didn't work out. YouTube was pretty much established by the time Google bought it, and even since it has not been the financial success many would have assumes it would be, despite its enormous popularity.

Is it that Google doesn't do well with social media or is it that Google is doing better at it than most people even consider. First, you have to ask yourself: what is a social network anyway? What is social media? Is it Facebook? MySpace? Twitter? Is it a network of connected people? Google Profile users can look at their "social circles" and quickly realize that Google has them connected to people.

If you look at the definitions for social media, you get things like "content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies," "a category of sites that is based on user participation and user-generated content." I think Google has done pretty well at indexing and monetizing user-generated content (that is if user means user of Google, which essentially makes the majority of all content user-generated).

When you compare Google to Facebook, wouldn't it be fairer to break down Google by its various offerings? Wouldn't it be fairer to compare Google itself to Facebook? You can say, well, Google Friend Connect isn't as successful as Facebook. Jaiku wasn't as successful as Facebook. Wouldn't it make more sense to chalk each of these offerings within Google as features of the broader Google network, for all intents and pruposes?

Most of Google's products require one account. You log in to your Google account and there are a lot of different things you are able to do, and it's all because of that one account. You can email people, chat, write documents and spreadsheets, use webmaster tools, etc., etc., etc. Is Google not just a social network with a lot more features than most others (not to mention what many would consider to be a better search tool than most other social networks)?

Is Google's "failure" at social media due to not having a proper Twitter-like stream (which Facebook essentially took and ran with by the way)? Maybe Google doesn't have the best feature in every social media category, but I think they've pretty much taken the cake in some categories, and last I checked, Google is pretty successful.

I write this not as some kind of Google fanboy, but each day, I see Google launching new products and features, finding new things for users to do, and particularly for those who have a Google account. A lot of what you can do with various Google products requires you to be logged in. A lot of it is very social (profiles, social search, real-time search, document sharing, Google reader sharing and commenting, emailing, chatting, Google latitude...just to name a few). Maybe we should consider the sum of all users across all of the company’s products to determine just how successful it is at this so-called “social media”. Google makes money. Crazy money. I wonder how many people have Google accounts.

Note: For the record, I understand that nobody's saying Google itself isn't succesful.

Is Google really not good at social media? I'll ask again, what is social media really? We tend to put these labels on things, but I don't think it's so black and white.

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Cambodia Lambastes Google Over Border Portrayal

Doug Caverly — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:30:00 -0500

The governments of France, Germany, and Italy are all arguably annoyed with Google. China's not thrilled with the search giant, either. And now, because of the way in which Google's portrayed a disputed border, Cambodia's quite mad at it.

According to Reuters, Svay Sitha, the secretary of state of Cambodia's Council of Ministers, wrote a letter to Google complaining about its interpretation of the area where Cambodia and Thailand touch.

"(The map) is devoid of truth and reality, and professionally irresponsible, if not pretentious," Sitha said. "We therefore request that you withdraw the already disseminated, very wrong and not internationally recognised map and replace it.

Google probably won't just swap in Cambodia's favorite map and call it a day, of course; that would upset Thailand. This isn't the first time Google's been caught up in a border dispute, though (China and India have involved it before, and so have India and Pakistan), meaning it's possible to guess how this will play out.

The odds essentially favor Google coming up with three maps. One will be for users in Cambodia, another will be for users in Thailand, and the last will be for everyone else. The first two will show borders favoring their respective countries, while the third will use dotted lines to illustrate the dispute.

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Ways to Get Fresh Links to Old Content for Better Search Rankings

Chris Crum — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 05:31:23 -0500

You may have gotten some good links in the past, but don't count on them helping you forever. Old links go stale in the eyes of Google.

Do you still get links to old content? Tell us why you think that is.

Google's Matt Cutts responded to a user-submitted question asking if Google removes PageRank coming from links on pages that no longer exist (for example, GeoCities pages that have been shut down). The answer to this question is unsurprisingly yes, but Cutts makes a statement within his response that may not be so obvious to everybody.

"In order to prevent things from becoming stale, we tend to use the current link graph, rather than a link graph of all of time," he says. (Emphasis added)

Now, this isn't exactly news, and to the seasoned search professional, probably not much of a revelation. However, to the average business owner looking to improve search engine performance (and not necessarily adapting to the ever-changing ways of SEO), it could be something that really hasn't resonated. Businesses have always been told about the power of links, but even if you got a lot of significant links a year or two ago, that doesn't mean your content will continue to perform well based on that. WebProNews has discussed the value of "link velocity" and Google's need for freshness in the past:

Link velocity refers to the speed at which new links to a webpage are formed, and by this term we may gain some new and vital insight. Historically, great bursts of new links to a specific page has been considered a red flag, the quickest way to identify a spammer trying to manipulate the results by creating the appearance of user trust. This led to Google’s famous assaults on link farms and paid link directories.

But the Web has changed, become more of a live Web than a static document Web. We have the advent of social bookmarking, embedded videos, links, buttons, and badges, social networks, real-time networks like Twitter and Friendfeed. Certainly the age of a website is still an indication of success and trustworthiness, but in an environment of live, real time updating, the age of a link as well as the slowing velocity of incoming links may be indicators of stale content in a world that values freshness.

Do you think link freshness should play a role in search engine rankings? Let us know.

So how do you keep getting "fresh" links?

If you want fresh links, there are a number of things you can do. For one, keep putting out content. Write content that has staying power. You can link to your old content when appropriate. Always promote the sharing of your content. Include buttons to make it easy for people to share your content on their social network of choice. You may want to make sure your old content is presented in the same template as your new content so it has the same sharing features. People still may find their way to that old content, and they may want to share it if encouraged.

Go back over old content, and look for stuff that is still relevant. You can update stories with new posts adding a fresher take, linking to the original. Encourage readers to follow the link and read the original article, which they may then link to themselves.

Leave commenting on for ongoing discussion. This can keep an old post relevant. Just because you wrote an article a year ago, does not mean that people will still not add to it, and sometimes people will link to articles based on comments that are left.

Share old posts through social networks if they are still about relevant topics. You don't want to just start flooding your Twitter account with tweets to all of your old content, but if you have an older article that is relevant to a current discussion, you may share it, as your take on the subject. A follower who has not seen it before, or perhaps has forgotten about it, may find it worth linking to themselves. Can you think of other ways to get more link value out of old content?

Do you get fresh links for old content? Why do you think that is? Share your thoughts.

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Yahoo Mobile Blog Launches

Doug Caverly — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:25:17 -0500

Yahoo may be doing a lot more in terms of mobile before long. Or at least telling us more about its current cell phone-related efforts. Either way, it launched the Yahoo Mobile Blog this week for the sake of keeping everyone up to date.

Irv Henderson, who's Yahoo's Vice President of Global Mobile Products, wrote the introductory blog post, and explained, "You can expect to learn about new product launches and enhancements, quick tips and tricks, our take on market trends, and predictions for where we see the market is heading."

Henderson also hinted, "So what's to come in 2010? Three developments will play a key role in shaping the mobile industry: Powerful browsers, the OS as a launching pad, and local content."

It should be interesting to see where Yahoo comes into that list. "Local content" seems like the best bet, but at the same time, Henderson's reference to browsers and operating systems makes it more likely that the company has irons in those fires. Execs tend not to admit that they're ignoring two-thirds of a major growth opportunity, after all.

We'll see what happens. Hopefully Yahoo won't wait too long between blog posts.

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