Apple’s Prudish Ban Might Hint at Hopes for the iPad
Apple recently banned “T-and-A” apps, a move that sparked some backlash. But the seemingly unusual and inconsistent move might put Apple’s iPad in a position to really sell itself to educators. (VentureBeat/DigitalBeat)
Mobile Location-Based Services: $12.7 Billion by 2014
According to Juniper Research, mobile location-based services could see revenues of more than $12.7 billion by 2014. This may seem like another false alarm, but “improvements in handset UIs together with easier consumer access to a range of app distribution channels had led to greater interest from service providers in providing mobile location-based applications.” App sales and mobile advertising will drive revenues. (TechCrunch)
AdWords Implements New Pharmacy Policy
Google AdWords is now implementing its new pharmacy policy in the U.S. and Canada. AdWords will only accept ads from VIPPS- and CIPA-certified pharmacies, which can only target ads within their respective countries of accreditation. (Inside AdWords)
35% of Americans Don’t Have Broadband
The FCC revealed that 35 percent of American adults still don’t have high-speed Internet connections at home. This is equivalent to 80 million adults and 13 million children older than five years old. Gartner ranks U.S. 14th in the world in terms of fixed broadband penetration, but notes that the U.S. can get to seventh place by 2013. (NewsFactor)
Resorts Know How to Use Social Media
The resort and spa industry is doing a pretty good job of utilizing social media to reach a broader audience. Quality over quantity, and giving audiences what they want and expect are some of the key takeaways. (Mashable)
5 Ways to Draw VCs
Explaining why your technology is critical for the future, examining the business model of the VC you’re pitching ad explaining why your company is a must-have are three of the ways to make your start-up attractive to VCs. (VentureBeat/Entrepreneur Corner)
Symbian Still Dominates Worldwide Smartphone Landscape
The iPhone might be getting most of the buzz stateside, but Symbian still rules the global landscape of smartphone sales, according to Gartner. In 2009, Symbian finished with a 46.9 percent market share, followed by Research In Motion with 19.9 percent, iPhone OS with 14.4 percent and Microsoft Windows Mobile with 8.7 percent. Still, iPhone OS and Android are driving growth. (Mashable, InfoWorld/Mobilize)
5 Reasons to Give Chatroulette a Try
Chatroulette, the brainchild of a 17-year-old high school student in Russia, is attracting a good deal of buzz lately, and for good reason. Here is a quick list of five reasons why Chatroultte is so addicting and worth a whirl. (Wired/Epicenter)
SEO Implications of Bing and Yahoo!’s Partnership
Now that Yahoo! is having its search results powered by Bing’s algorithm, does that mean Webmasters will only have two major search engines (Google, Bing) to optimize for? Not really, according to this interesting look at the fallout of this search deal. You might want to pay closer attention to your Bing rankings, but why stop there? (WebProNews)
FarmVille Continues to Roll
FarmVille continues to dominate Facebook’s list of top apps, as it gained 1.8 million new players this past week, a 2.2 percent gain. For users who want no part of this crazy trend, there is a way to block FarmVille. (Inside Social Games, Mashable, CNET/The Social)
DoubleClick Gets a Makeover
Google’s DoubleClick comes in two new flavors for publishers – one for big ones, another for smaller ones. Also, the digital marketing giant got a new logo. (WebProNews, paidContent.org, CNET/Relevant Results)
Social Networking Use Up 82%
According to Nielsen, the average social-networking user from around the world spent more than five and a half hours on sites like Facebook and Twitter in December, reflecting an 82 percent jump from the same month in 2008. The U.S. had the most unique users, while users in Australia spent the most time on these sites. (CNET/Digital Media)
7 Ways to Achieve SEO E-Commerce Victory
Adding category descriptions, rewriting product descriptions and encouraging user input are three of the seven ways you can beat the content- and link-related challenges of SEO for e-commerce sites. (Search Engine Journal)
Optimizing for Long-Tail Keywords
Here are three steps for optimizing content for long-tail keywords. “Ultimately the best way to rank for long tail keywords is to build an authoritative Website and seed it with a lot of content, but on a page-by-page basis you can often leverage strategic keyword targeting and your own analytic data to help drive exponentially more traffic than you would focusing solely on the “head” keyword.” (SEO Book.com)
Old Spice Reminds Us That…
…advertising is content, and content is advertising. But big conversation doesn’t guarantee big sales. (Techdirt)
The Present Problems and Future Possibilities of Search
An author who has spent a long time observing search discusses the paradox of search today. He says it’s clearly an inadequate tool that users continue to return to. Improvements to search will include peripheral technologies and conversation-like guides. Autocomplete and Google Maps were two recent innovations of note. (O’Reilly Radar)
WOMMA’s Hashtag Suggestions
The Word of Mouth Marketing Association is suggesting three new hashtags for Twitter users who want to disclose the acceptance of a sample (#samp), a sponsored tweet (#spon) and a paid tweet (#paid). These suggestions come courtesy of the Federal Trade Commission, which is trying to bring more transparency to the relationships between bloggers and commercial entities. Major companies are already adhering to these guidelines. (ReadWriteWeb)
Is the Universal Inbox Dead?
Yes and no. The past shots at universal inboxes have fallen flat for the most part, thanks partly to the fact that third-party aggregators aren’t as feature-rich as the offerings from Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft and AOL. But Google Buzz, with all its flaws, offers some hope. (ReadWriteWeb)
Top Facebook Apps of the Week
Video 4 You, an Italian app built to dedicate/gift YouTube videos to friends, led the pack of Facebook apps last week, followed by Lovers, a slightly-upgraded poking app. (Inside Facebook)
The Web Needs Gross Rating Points
Advertising online is wholly outcome-based, which ignores the ability of the medium to not only change people’s behavior, “but to change people’s minds.” This is why the Web needs audiences to be measured in gross rating points, just like TV. (Ad Age)
Olympic-Sized Lessons About Social Media Marketing
Have long-term goals, get support from home and learn from past mistakes. These are three of the nine insights to be learned from the Winter Olympic Games and applied to social media marketing efforts. (ClickZ)
Ads With Printable Coupons, Offers Most Helpful
According to research recently released by About.com, online ads help consumers become more aware of products and services they didn’t know about, and help them comparison shop and save money. Also, ads with printable coupons or offers are the most helpful type of online ads, according to 42 percent of respondents. (eMarketer)
Local Advertising Will Reach $37 Billion by 2014
Spending on digital local advertising will grow 19 percent through 2014, at which point it will account for 25 percent of total local advertising, according to BIA/Kelsey. (ClickZ)
Will Google Make Us Stupid?
This is one of the questions addressed in “The Future of the Internet IV” report released by Pew Internet and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center. Among the others are “Will the internet enhance or detract from reading, writing, and rendering knowledge?” and “Will it be possible to be anonymous online or not by the end of the decade?” Oh, and the answer to the question in the title above? Most people think not. (Pew Internet)
Marketers Still Can’t Crack the Texting Game
Mobile users in the U.S. sent more than 1.3 trillion text messages between July 2008 and July 2009, which far exceeded the 660 billion calls made during that time, according to CTIA. But why haven’t marketers been able to successfully take advantage of this communications channel? Part of the reason is that text messaging is permission-based, along with the fact that receiving text message ads are not exactly the most welcome form of marketing communication. Regardless, “a look at the usage statistics makes it clear that marketers need to sort it out fast.” (Ad Age)
Small Businesses Benefit from Having a Facebook Page
A case study pending release by Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business, small-business owners can experience both tangible and intangible benefits from having fans on Facebook. The study examines a small bakery and café chain in Houston, which didn’t have any previous social media experience. (ClickZ)
Facebook Mobile > Twitter
Facebook’s mobile platform has more than 100 million users each month, which, according to estimates, exceeds the active user base for Twitter. With Facebook set to release a redesigned mobile site, it’s clear that the social networking giant is where brands must assert themselves. However, how are companies supposed to optimize their brand or story for Facebook and Facebook mobile? (BrianSolis.com)
Google Set to Compete with Apple’s iTunes?
Google already stepped on Apple’s toes with its Android devices, but are they gearing up to compete again with the company in the music-player realm? Rumors are swirling about Google’s possible acquisition of CatchMedia, a company that is focused on creating “Play Anywhere” technology. Google already has its own payment platform, which would make an iTunes competitor a very viable idea for the search giant. (WebProNews)
Startups Might Want to Get Less Excited
Though startups are probably excited about any accolade or praise they receive, there are times when they should understand that some pieces of positive news don’t do anything for their company’s growth. They shouldn’t get distracted from their main task at hand: “convincing VCs that your product has inherent value.” (ReadWriteStart)
Yahoo! and Microsoft’s Partnership is Approved
The search/advertising deal between the two companies has finally been approved by regulators in the U.S. and Europe. (MarketWatch, WebProNews)
25 Things E-Mail Marketers Should Know
In Us Weekly style, here’s a list of 25 things e-mail marketers don’t seem to know, but should. Included in the list are encouraging recipients to respond to your e-mail, there is no such thing as the best time to send e-mail and incorporating social components can boost your reach, big time. (MediaPost/Email Insider)
7 Good Social WordPress Plugins
CommentLuv, Add To Any and GD Star Rating are among seven great plugins for WordPress blogs to make them more social and shareable. (Mashable)
Vringo Lets Users Pick Their Ring Tone – On Their Friend’s Phone
Vringo is flipping the ring tone game on its head by enabling users pick what ring tone plays on someone else’s phone. Not only that, but it allows users to tack on a video with that ring tone. It hasn’t made much money yet, but it’s intriguing at the very least. (NYTimes.com/Bits)
Firefox Mobile for Android Coming This Year
Mozilla’s Firefox browser is going mobile for Android sometime in 2010, according to the vice president of mobile at the company. (WebProNews)
Prestige is the New Monetization Model
Advertising is so 2009 – the new monetization model of choice is based on prestige or achievement. Just look at the popular social games on Facebook and Foursquare. The tie-ins with virtual currency and real-life financial rewards make this new model an important one to watch this year. (paidContent.org)
Facebook is the Second Most Popular Site in the U.S.
According to Compete.com, Facebook is the second most popular Web site in the states, beating Yahoo! by around 1.6 million users in January. The social networking now has Google to overtake, and already accounts for more time spent online.
5 Notes About Google’s ReMail Acquisition
ReMail, a company that creates tools to improve mobile e-mail experiences, was recently purchased by Google. This move could have some consequences for Gmail. This post highlights five interesting things about ReMail’s tools and its new role in Google’s schemes. (ReadWriteWeb)
E-Mail Still Key Communications Venue, Despite Social Networks
Yes, social networking sites are gaining lots of steam, but e-mail remains an important communications tool for the vast majority of users. Not only do social network users check their inboxes more frequently than their “non-social” counterparts, they also tend to use the same inbox for their social networking alerts and permission-based e-mails. (eMarketer)
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