The BBC Trust has said that the corporation's online operation could be scaled back in the future following recent criticism from industry stakeholders. The BBC was also ordered by its internal regulator to rein in the activities of BBC Worldwide, its commercial arm, after competitors complained that the corporation’s huge financial muscle was giving it an unfair advantage. The Trust has also published an ongoing strategic review document for the entire BBC operation.

In his chairman's commentary, Sir Michael Lyons discussed the prospect of streamlining BBC Online services to "narrow the focus on distinctive content and help to create a more open BBC". Lyons said he wanted BBC Director General Mark Thompson to ask what "licence fee payers really expect to get from their licence fee and what they might be surprised to see the BBC doing in the online world".

He indicated that some areas, such as the iPlayer and news online, are safe when he asked: "Beyond the core offer of news, sport, education, children's and the iPlayer, which parts of the online service are essential to the BBC's mission and which could be stopped?"

01/12/2009

Continue reading "BBC may be forced to cut websites " »

Online advertising network Adconion Media Group has acquired certain assets from the online video service Joost, for an undisclosed sum. In June, Joost announced a change in its business strategy to focus on providing white-label video platforms, and Adconion plans to pursue this strategy.

Tyler Moebius, CEO, Adconion Media Group, said: “Through the acquisition of the Joost assets we will be able to provide advertisers, content owners and website publishers with an end-to-end global video platform and cross-channel video and display ad-serving solution.

01/12/2009

Continue reading "Adconion buys video assets from Joost " »

Google has teamed up with TiVo in the US, in a bid to capitalise on TV ads. TiVo will provide Google TV Ads with second-by-second viewing patterns of time-shifted programs in order to "enhance the measurement and accountability of ad impressions," the companies said in a joint statement.Google TV Ads is a 2-year-old initiative from the Internet search giant for auctioning off television ad inventory on a CPM basis, charging advertisers only for the ad impressions viewed.

01/12/2009

Continue reading "Google teams up with TiVo for TV ad data" »

Google has bought ad targeting software firm Teracent for an undisclosed sum.The move will give the search giant software that will help its display ads better target web users. Teracent's software selects elements of ads, such as images and colors, that can be optimized for users based on criteria such as geographic location and language. Teracent was founded in 2006, and is based in California.

01/12/2009

Continue reading "Google buys ad targeting firm Teracent " »

Twitter has confirmed it will be rolling out paid-for business accounts next year, as the micro-blogging service looks for new ways to monetise its service. The paid-for commercial accounts would offer extra services to help companies tweeting to understand how the service is working for them, providing analytics, statistics and feedback. The plans were revealed by twitter co-founder Biz Stone in an interview with the BBC. Stone stressed that the micro-blogging service would remain free at a fundamental level, on both personal and commercial fronts.

01/12/2009

Continue reading "It’s official: Twitter to launch commercial accounts next year " »

Vodafone is testing a new system that lets business customers pay a premium for priority access to the network during peak times. The technology, which was launched in Spain last week, means that business customers can choose to pay a data tariff of €49 (£44) a month to ensure enhanced access. Businesses are becoming increasingly reliant on mobile phone applications beyond traditional e-mail data services, but, as the number of smartphones has increased, mobile networks have struggled to cope with thousands of customers using iPhones to watch videos and other bandwidth-heavy applications.

01/12/2009

Continue reading "Vodafone tests priority network access for ‘premium’ subscribers " »

Google has revealed the UK’s top search trends in 2009, with Swine Flu, the death of Jade Goody and the popularity of Susan Boyle topping the list.Google's annual "zeitgeist", which analyses the firm's search trends, revealedf that top website searches included Hotmail, eBay, Yahoo and social network Bebo. The fastest rising search queries of the year included the BBC's iPlayer and Bing.

"Britons had mixed feelings as they headed online this year to search for their favourite online tools, to learn about celebrities new and old, and to find a good bargain," said Google spokesperson Anthony House. "People searched about new sensations like Lady Gaga and Susan Boyle, but they also turned to the web to learn about the deaths of Stephen Gately, Jade Goody and Michael Jackson."

01/12/2009

Continue reading "Google reveals top UK search trends of 2009 " »

Google is planning to release its first mobile device next year, according to a new report. Times Online reports that an analyst is predicting in 2010, Google will launch their own smartphone, running a new version of Android. The report says the device will feature a larger-than-usual touch screen and a speedy Qualcomm processor that trumps the one powering the iPhone 3GS. The gadget will likely run the as-yet-unseen "Flan" version of Google's Android operating system and support Google Voice, the phone management service Google offers free that lets users ring their home, work and mobile numbers through a special Google number.

01/12/2009

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/personal_tech/article6924233.ece

The Newspaper Society has launched Locally Connected, which it claims to be the UK’s first integrated print and online audience currency. In the first research released using the new metric, the trade body has revealed that local media websites increase the unduplicated reach of regional and local newspapers within their circulation areas by 14%, particularly among upmarket and core middle age groups.

The project was instigated in 2006 by the NS, working alongside JICREG and ABCe with the aim of extending the regional press readership database to encompass newspapers’ online audiences and provide agencies and advertisers with a geographical system for analysing the combined net reach of a newspaper and its website within circulation areas down to postcode sector level.

01/12/2009

Continue reading "New metric unites print and online under one currency " »

The new ‘broadband tax’ will be applied to each phone line rather than per person, leaving nearly two million households paying up three times the £6 announced by the government, according to a new report. A document, leaked to the Conservatives and reported in The Times, shows the Treasury stands to gain a further £30 million annual windfall by applying VAT to create a tax upon a tax. Plans by Revenue & Customs show that ministers will apply the tax to each phone line rather than per customer — affecting more than 1.7 million homes with more than one phone line — and will also add VAT to the cost.

01/12/2009

Continue reading "Broadband tax 'could treble for homes with multiple lines' " »

Tesco Mobile is to start selling iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS in Tesco Phone Shops and online through Tesco Direct in the UK. The move is made possible through its joint venture partnership with O2. The company sells exclusively Tesco Mobile branded services in Tesco stores, online and through Tesco Direct, across the UK using O2’s technology and network.

01/12/2009

www.tescomobileiphone.com

Four top US publishers, Time, Conde Nast, Meredith and Hearst, are to launch a digital newsstand company for publications in a variety of digital formats, according to a report. Hailed as an 'iTunes for magazines,' the new company and service will have the four rival publishers as equity partners. The New York Times quotes an anonymous source familiar with the deal, which admits that the publishers are eager to get more control over digital readership while print circulation continues to go down.

01/12/2009

Continue reading "US magazine publishers unite for ‘digital newsstand’ " »

Time per person for top 10 parent companies, Worldwide, October 2009

Global audience reach for top 10 parent companies, Oct 09.

Google is to limit the number of news articles users can read for free via its search engine. The search engine is changing its ‘First Click Free’ programme so that readers would not be able to look at more than five pages in one day. The programme lets readers get around paying subscriptions or registration to news sites by accessing news articles through Google.

The move means users who now click on more than five articles in a day may be routed to payment or registration pages. Google's senior business product manager Josh Cohen said: "Previously, each click from a user would be treated as free. Now, we've updated the programme so that publishers can limit users to no more than five pages per day without registering or subscribing."

02/12/2009

Johnston Press has become one of the first regional UK publishers to start charging for its online content. Johnston Press owns more than 300 local newspapers including the Yorkshire Post and 'The Scotsman'. The move will see the publisher put content from six of its titles behind ‘paywalls’. From yesterday, readers of three Johnston titles, the Nothumberland Gazette, the Whitby Gazette'and the Southern Reporter, will pay £5 (€5.40) for a three-month online subscription.

02/12/2009

Continue reading "Johnston Press starts charging for online content " »

Time per person for top 10 parent companies, US, Oct 09

US internet audience reach for top 10 parent companies, Oct 09.

Internet giants Google, Facebook, eBay UK and Yahoo have joined forces to fight one of the measures in the Government's proposed Digital Economy Bill. In a joint letter to business secretary Lord Mandelson, Google, Yahoo!, Facebook and eBay have expressed "grave concerns" about plans in the Digital Economy Bill to give ministers powers to amend copyright law without primary legislation.

03/12/2009

Continue reading "Web giants unite to fight Government’s Internet copyright plans " »

Yahoo will let users of its email, photo-sharing and other online products link their content and activities directly into Facebook.

Yahoo's support of the Facebook Connect service, which it said it expects to begin in the first half of 2010, represents an important move in Yahoo's efforts to tap the popularity of social networking and underscores the growing clout of Facebook, which now counts more than 350 million worldwide users.

Earlier this year, Yahoo allowed users to preview messages from their Facebook friends directly on the Yahoo homepage, as part of a broad revamping of the Yahoo front page.

The new move takes the integration between Yahoo and Facebook a step further, by automatically pushing activities performed on Yahoo sites, such as photos shared on Yahoo's Flickr, into the Facebook news feed.

03/12/2009

Continue reading "Yahoo plugs email and Flickr into Facebook " »

Two-thrids of all searches by searches by Americans are carried out using out using Google, Oct 09.

Sony’s chief executive, Howard Stringer, has unveiled the technology giant’s plans for an all-in-one online network that pipes Sony’s films, music, games and other content to its TVs, Walkmans and PlayStation game machines. In an interview with reporters this week, Stringer said the project, known as the Sony Online Service, which will combine the company’s digital content and hardware. The company, based in Tokyo, expects to book its second consecutive annual loss in the fiscal year that ends in March, after losing 98.9 billion yen, or $1.12 billion at the current exchange rate, last year.

04/12/2009

Continue reading "Sony outlines plans for all-in-one online media network " »

MySpace has launched a UK version of MySpace Music in a bid to compete directly with streaming sites like Spotify and Last Fm. The service, already available in the US, Australia and New Zealand, claims it has "the most comprehensive catalogue" on the internet, and will allow users to buy DRM free downloads via a partnership with iTunes. It will offer free streaming access to entire back catalogues of artists on both major and independent labels.

04/12/2009

Continue reading "MySpace takes on Spotify with music streaming site " »

Five has become the second broadcaster to sign a deal with YouTube to show its programmes on the video sharing website. The three-year deal follows a similar link up between YouTube and Channel 4 last month. The move will see full versions of popular shows from Five available on YouTube for up to 30 days after they are broadcast, providing an alternative viewing method to Five's current on demand service.

07/12/2009

Continue reading "Channel Five signs on demand deal with YouTube " »

This week the audience of socnet giant Facebook broke the 350m user barrier, setting new records for social networking both globally and here in the UK. The national numbers see Facebook’s audience rise to a staggering 23m uniques a month, but the jaw-dropping statistics are in the frequency of use. Half of all British Facebook users return daily, confirming the platform’s position as the most engaging social media player.

When we spoke with Stephen Haines who is the UK Commercial Director of Facebook UK, he explained that it’s simply about knowing what people want. “We’re all about the user at Facebook. That’s as true today as when the platform launched. Our focus is on understanding what people want and having a team of outstanding developers to make this possible.”

07/12/2009

Continue reading "Facebook use smashes social media records " »

More than 1,200 illegal internet shopping websites that have made millions of pounds for criminals have been shut down by Scotland Yard in the biggest operation of its kind in Britain.
The sites claimed to sell heavily discounted designer goods, including Ugg Australia Boots, ghd hair straighteners and jewellery from Tiffany & Co and Links of London. Buyers either received counterfeit products or nothing at all. It is also likely that their credit card details have been used to fund other illegal activity. It is estimated that British shoppers have spent millions on the sites but police are convinced that by shutting them down consumers have been saved millions more.

07/12/2009

Continue reading "Police shut down over 1,200 illegal shopping sites in UK " »

Search terms ranked by visits for the week ending 5th Dec 09.

Search terms ranked by clicks for the four weeks ending 5th December 09.

Google' has begun tracking the search behaviour of all its users to offer more refined results and targeted ads, expanding the service beyond those with a Google account. The move will see Google using a cookie placed on users' machines to track their search behavior and offer personalised recommendations, even when they are not logged into a Google account.

08/12/2009

Continue reading "Google expands personalised search to non-account holders " »

Google is in talks with US TV networks to charge viewers for streaming ad-free shows on YouTube, according to reports. Technology website All Things Digital reports that that "preliminary discussions" are taking place in the US between Google, which owns YouTube, and some of the major television networks. The move would see viewers charged around $1.99 to watch episodes of their favourite shows online, without any adverts, the day after they were first broadcast on TV.

08/12/2009

Continue reading "YouTube to start charging for ad-free shows? " »

News Corp. is joining a new, independent digital publishing consortium in the US, according to a news report. The Financial Times reports that the consortium - which also involves Time Warner's Time Inc., Conde Nast, Hearst Corp. and Meredith - could be announced this week. The paper reported that the five US publishing giants are set to this week target the e-reader market 'to wrestle control of its digital future' from the market leaders Amazon, Apple and Sony.

08/12/2009

Continue reading "News Corp joins US ‘digital newsstand’ " »

Yahoo has just launched its Ad Interest Manager designed to make online advertising more transparent. The opt-in service gathers information based on searching habits to provide relevant advertisements to the user. The Ad Interest Manager site lets the user see a summary of their online activity on Yahoo’s content network. They can then determine their level of exposure to interest-based ad served by the Yahoo Ad Network.

08/12/2009

Continue reading "Yahoo puts users in control of ads they see" »

Facebook and other networking sites are to install panic buttons enabling children to alert administrators if 'inappropriate' material is posted. The Sunday Times reports that 140 companies, charities and other groups have signed up to the code and that Home Secretary Alan Johnson is set to announce the new scheme today (Tuesday). The initiative also includes the obligation for sites to provide 'safe search' facilities, allowing parents to restrict access to offensive pages. The government will also launch a national advertising campaign aimed at parents, teachers and kids.

08/12/2009

Continue reading "Facebook forms safety board, gives children ‘panic’ button " »

Apple has bought US-based online music store Lala for an undisclosed sum, fueling rumours the company could be adding subscription-based music services via iTunes. The New York Times confirmed the purchase last Friday, citing a person with knowledge of the deal. Lala lets users listen to a catalog of around 8 million songs for free through the Web. According to Lala's site, users can pay 10 cents for unlimited plays of a song; they can also download an MP3 version for 89 cents.

08/12/2009

Continue reading "Apple’s Lala buy to pave way for iTunes subscription service? " »

Microsoft and Yahoo have finalized the terms of a broad search and advertising agreement intended to help them compete more effectively with Google. The deal was first announced in July, letting Microosoft’s new Bing search engine to power Yahoo’s search results. In return, Yahoo will provide premium search-advertising services for both companies. They had hoped to finalize the deal in late October but needed more time to work out the details.

08/12/2009

Continue reading "Microsoft cements Yahoo search ad deal– but still awaits regulator approval " »

Nearly 100% of government transactions will be carried out online by 2014, saving £400m in three years, according to a new report. The Putting the Frontline First report outlines how the government expects to free-up money for public services by streamlining back-office processes.
The government hopes that putting all services online will lead to better services and free-up staff to deal personally with individuals.

09/12/2009

Continue reading "Government plans to put all public services online by 2014 " »

Online advertising overtakes TV for the first time during the first half of 2009.

Paid for search dominates with two-thirds of the digital advertsing spend during the first half of 2009.

Google has unveiled its much anticipated real-time search service, the result of a series of partnership deals struck with leading social networks facebook, Twitter and MySpace. Amit Singhal, Google fellow, introduced the real-time section during an event at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. "We are here today to announce Google real-time search," Singhal said, describing it as: "Google relevance technology meets the real-time web".

Twitter messages and other fresh content streamed into a box on Google's main search page in a demonstration of the new feature, which will be rolled out at all English-language search sites in the coming days.

09/12/2009

Continue reading "Google links with Twitter, MySpace and Facebook for real-time search " »

Google has begun testing a new search product called ‘Goggles’, which lets users scour the Internet with mobile telephone cameras or spoken words in multiple languages. The service uses online using pictures taken with cameras in mobile phones based on its Android operating system.

"When you take a mobile phone camera and connect it to the Internet, it becomes an eye," Google mobile search vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra said while demonstrating Goggles in Mountain View, California.

09/12/2009

Continue reading "Google uses phone pics to conduct searches " »

AOL and Time Warner have formally split after almost 10 years as one company. The companies merged back in 2001, in what was dubbed the "deal of the century" at the time.
However, AOL soon started loosing market share as it was slow to react to the shift from dial-up to broadband internet access. In 2002, AOL had 26 million dial-up customers, now it has 5.4 million. However, it still earns 43% of its revenue from these die-hard subscribers and runs several successful media sites including tech blog Engadget. On Thursday, investors will get their chance to rate AOL's prospects when the shares start live trading. The occasion will be marked by AOL's chief executive, Tim Armstrong, who will ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

11/12/2009

The government's controversial broadband tax has been given the go ahead by chancellor Alistair Darling in his pre-Budget report. The £6-a-year levy will be imposed on all households with a fixed line phone. The money made will be put into a fund to ensure rural areas of the UK do not miss out on super-fast broadband services.

Mr Darling said the government would provide super-fast broadband to 90% of the UK by the end of 2017. Announcing the tax, Mr Darling said: "We are modernising the UK's digital infrastructure and, in the process, creating thousands more skilled jobs. We have provided funding to help extend the opportunities of the broadband network to more remote communities. We now want to go further, so we can provide the next generation of super-fast broadband to 90 per cent of the population by the end of 2017."

11/12/2009

Continue reading "50p broadband tax gets green light in pre-budget report " »

Sites ranked by visits for the week ending 5th Dec 09.

Search terms ranked by clicks for the weeks ending 5th Dec 09.

Sites ranked by visits for the week ending 5th Dec 09.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt is facing a backlash from privacy advocates following comments made during a TV interview last week.

When asked during an interview for CNBC's recent "Inside the Mind of Google" special about whether users should be sharing information with Google as if it were a "trusted friend," Schmidt responded, "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."

14/12/2009

Continue reading "Google CEO faces privacy backlash after talk show comments" »

90% of European internet users go online weekly to search for information, while more than 4 out of 10 consumers search for information on brands and products via comparison, expert and user review sites, according to new research.

The new report, from Marketers & Consumers, Digital & Connected was conducted in 16 European countries.It also found that the web is the platform for a lively peer-to-peer economy, a third of European internet users have sold something to another user via online classified or auction sites.

15/12/2009

Continue reading "Study reveals European web habits " »

The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) has extended its remit to online-only publications.

Until now, online versions of newspapers and magazines have come within the remit of the PCC but online-only publications have not. The Press Standards Board of Finance (PressBoF) said the change will relate mainly to online magazines, where the publisher and editor must subscribe to the Editors' Code of Practice.

15/12/2009

Continue reading "Press complaint body extends remit to cover online-only publications " »

Scandinavian operator TeliaSonera has become the first mobile network operator to launch commercial LTE mobile broadband services, offering mobile download speeds 10 times faster than standard 3G services.

The services went live in the centres of Oslo and Stockholm on Monday, offering theoretical maximum speeds of 100Mbps and real-world speeds of 20-80Mbps. Mobile users in Norway and Sweden will be able to buy a mobile dongle that supports the ‘4G’ network (the official IEEE definition of that term cites 100Mbps as a minimum speed.)

15/12/2009

Continue reading "Norway and Sweden get world’s first '4G' mobile broadband " »

Google is working on the development of its own mobile phone device, which is currently being tested by the company's employees. The search giant has teamed up with handset maker HTC for the project. As yet, the company has not released an official name, although codenames are believed to include Phone 88 and Nexus One, a reference to the film Blade Runner.

15/12/2009

Continue reading "Google unveils plans for smartphone " »

Our final news round-up of the year saw more 2010 trends take centre-stage. Google's search getting more mobile and personal (long awaited, and sure to shift the market), and the paid for consumer content movement continued to push forwards (sure to trundle forwards, though with far less likelihood of success).

Government policy made headlines with a storm around the Digital Economy Bill and the 50p broadband tax that got the green light in the UK's pre-budget report. Linked to this is the way regulators will play a much bigger role in 2010 - the first spotlight will be on the MS/Yahoo tie-up and the second on privacy. Facebook's lead on safety (giving kids a special "panic" button) is a shrewd move in delivering what's needed, and here in the UK we've been helping the Information Commissioner's Office develop the thinking around what's needed for the hundreds of thousands of small firms now routinely using personal data.

You'll find lots more ideas to fuel your strategy in the news, research and data we've written up below. Click on the links for 50 full stories, forward around to colleagues, and let me know if you need more of the background as you develop your own 2010 digital strategy.

Read December 2009

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The overall number of entertainment & media (E&M) insolvencies has now reached record levels from the early days of the credit crunch, according to new research. Autumn 2009 marked a milestone of 1000 insolvencies in the UK entertainment and media sector since June 2007, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) business recovery analysis.

But publishing failures alone jumped nearly 25 percent this year (January to October inclusively) on 2008 despite a recovery for other sectors such as advertising. In fact publishing failures account for a third of all E&M insolvencies.

16/12/2009

Continue reading "Over 1000 UK media companies went bust in past 2 years " »

Twitter is testing a new feature that lets businesses run shared accounts on the micro-blogging service. The "Contributors" feature enables companies to have accounts that workers can share when it comes to sending text messages to customers or others. Accounts bear the names of businesses, but workers fielding questions or announcing developments would get bylines identifying their tweets.

16/12/2009

Continue reading "Twitter debuts first business app ‘Contributors’ " »

Britain's Got Talent star Susan Boyle's first audition was the most watched video on YouTube during 2009.

The talent show runner-up's surprising rendition of 'I Dreamed A Dream' has been watched by more than 120 million viewers worldwide, making it more popular than the next three most-watched videos combined. The list marks the first time YouTube has revealed its most popular videos.

In second place, with more than 37 million views, was ‘David After Dentist’ a video featuring a disorientated seven-year-old boy recovering from dental work. Third place went to JK Wedding Entrance Dance, which showed an convoluted dance routine featuring members of their entourage just before their wedding. The video garnered 33 million views, prompting Sony, which owned the rights to the Chris Brow song that provided the soundtrack to the video, placing a link next to the video allowing people to buy the song and also shared profits from sales of ads on the site.

17/12/2009

Continue reading "YouTube reveals top videos of 2009 " »

Only 13% of internet users would be prepared to pay for access to online media, although Brits show a higher than average willingness to fork over cash for Internet content, a survey has found.The research, carried out by GfK on behalf of the Wall Street Journal Europe, examined internet use in 16 European countries and the US.

80 per cent of respondents said they wanted continued free access to information online, and of the 13 per cent of users willing to pay, 8 per cent would accept a charge for advertising-free content, and 5 per cent would pay for content with advertising.

17/12/2009

Continue reading "Brits ‘more willing to pay for online content’ " »

Iran, Swine Flu, Michael Jackson, Susan Boyle and Harry Potter all featured in the top trending topics on Twitter during 2009. Twitter "helped us understand what was happening around the world, showing us that people everywhere can be united in concern," Twitter chief scientist Abdur Chowdhury said.

Twitter was born just three years ago from a day-long brainstorming session by the board members of a podcasting company, Odeo, but found its breakthrough at the South by Southwest music festival a year later.

Last year, businesses, media and celebrities latched onto the system, skewing the demographic toward older adults.But as 2008 unfolded, Twitter took hold during the U.S. presidential election and as a disaster communications tool during the attacks in Mumbai. CNN declared social media "came of age" in Mumbai as people used the medium to track victims and injuries.

18/12/2009

Continue reading "Twitter reveals top trends of 2009 " »

Twitter will make around $25m from the search deals struck with Google and Microsoft in October, enough to push the site into profitability, according to a report.C iting ‘people familiar with the deal’, Bloomberg reports that the deal to make Twitter’s messages searchable on Google netted the micro-blogging firm some $15m, while a similar deal with Microsoft’s Bing search engine will earn Twitter about $10m. Bloomberg’s sources asked to remain anonymous because the terms aren’t public.

21/12/2009

Continue reading "Twitter 'made $25m from Google and Microsoft search deals'" »

People in the UK watched more TV and sent more texts than people in many other countries, but had slower broadband, according to new research. The study, from telecoms watchdog Ofcom, found the UK remains the country with the highest proportion of households with digital TV on their main set - at 88%. The Ofcom study compared the UK with 12 countries including France, Spain, Germany, Italy and the US.

The Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Japan and the Irish Republic were among the other countries included in the study. The report also looked at the communications markets in four "emerging countries," namely Brazil, Russia, India and China. It found the UK had seen the highest average rise in TV viewing in 2008, up by 3.2% to 3.8 hours a day.

21/12/2009

Continue reading "Brits watch more TV online- but have slower broadband " »

The French government is fining Google the equivalent of $14,300 until it stops displaying excerpts from copyrighted literary works on its Google books service.

A Paris court also ordered the search giant to pay $430,000 in damages and interest to French publisher La Martiniere, which brought the case on behalf of a group of French publishers. Google attorney Alexandra Neri said the company would appeal.

22/12/2009

Continue reading "France fines Google $14,300 a day for book copyright breach " »

The Internet will now allow users to create web and e-mail-addresses using non-Latin characters, opening up the Web to billions of people around the world. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) has given the green light to the change at its board meeting taking place in Seoul, South Korea. This would include characters as diverse as Arabic, Korean, Hebrew, Chinese, Greek, Hindi and Cyrillic (Russian).

Until now, anyone wanting to set up a website has been forced to include a few characters of Latin script in the address, or domain name, that they choose. Other scripts, Arabic or Japanese for example, can be used in the first part, but whatever language is used, the address needed to end with Latin alphabet character suffixes such as .com, .gov, .co.uk, .cn. The new decision by the board's 15 voting members was unopposed and welcomed by applause and a standing ovation. It followed years of debate and testing.

01/11/2009

Facebook has been awarded $711.2m in damages relating to an anti-spam case against Internet marketer Sanford Wallace. The site filed an anti-spamming case against Wallace in February this year. The social networking site accused Wallace of accessing people's Facebook accounts without their permission and sending fake mail and posts to the individuals' public message wall. Wallace did not oppose the motion or appear at the hearing on September 18th, 2009, according to a filing on Thursday in a San Jose, California federal court. "While we don't expect to receive the vast majority of the award, we hope that this will act as a continued deterrent," Facebook said in a blog post.

01/11/2009

Google has released the much anticipated Android 2 software development kit, codenamed ‘Éclair’. The new platform features improved email and social media functions, alongside multi-touch controls, more camera features, improved maps and a more user friendly browser. The operating system now supports multiple email accounts, including those of Exchange. A Quick Contact widget will also allow users to email, text or call a contact by clicking on their photograph, wherever it appears. Phone makers can also extend this through sync adaptors, potentially allowing people to have their Twitter and social-networking updates delivered to their inbox.

01/11/2009

Continue reading "Google unveils Android 2 mobile platform " »

Consumers need more information and education about online privacy and online behavioral advertising (OBA), according to new research. The study, from the Internet Advertising Bureau and business law firm Olswang, found that 72% of internet users are unaware of online behavioral advertising – the practice used to deliver relevant advertising based upon previous web browsing activity. In addition, 81% of internet users do not know the control they have over behavioral advertising, in particular their right to opt-out.

01/11/2009

Continue reading "Consumers still in the dark over online privacy rights " »

Spotify has reduced its premium six-month subscription rate for UK users from £9.99 a month to £6.49, following a sponsorship deal with online car insurance company Swifcover. The special deal runs until Monday 2 November. The offer was made available to Spotify users who opted in to receive news of special promotions when they signed up to the service. Spotify subscribers can listen to songs on their mobiles and free of adverts. Customers can cancel at any time within the six months to return to the ad-funded option.

01/11/2009

The Friends Reunited Group is to launch a national TV advertising campaign, promoting its three brands Friends Reunited, Genes Reunited and Friends Reunited Dating, airing for two weeks from the beginning of November. The two new 30 second adverts are based around typical users’ enjoyable experiences of the websites. Developed by Addiction London, the executions feature a journey between the sites, under the group message of ‘get in touch’. The cheerful testimonial style is set to a backdrop of virtual interactions, echoing the onsite experience.

01/11/2009

Continue reading "Friends Reunited begins TV ad campaign " »

Google has begun testing its social search service, which adds social network feeds from users’ friends to their search results. Unlike Microsoft's Bing-based Twitter search, Google's Social Search includes each users’ own lists of contacts from various services to build up a network. The search result then brings back content specifically from the people they know.
The new service, currently a beta test, includes Twitter, FriendFeed, Google Reader stories, and other social content from around the Web. Facebook is not yet included.

01/11/2009

Continue reading "Google begins testing social search " »

Facebook game FarmVille has amassed 56m players within three months of its launch to become the fastest-growing social game on the internet. The social strategy game, created by US gaming company Zynga, now draws 21 million users daily and 60 million monthly worldwide. The farming game is generating sales of more than $150m this year, boosted by players using its micropayment service to buy items in the game. It said a three-week charity appeal saw players spend $854,000 on virtual seeds, with half the proceeds going towards Haitian children.

01/11/2009

Continue reading "FarmVille becomes fastest growing social game online " »

People who use peer-to-peer filesharing websites like Pirate Bay to illegally download music spend over £30 more on music per year than those who do not download illegally, according to new research.

Internet users who claim to never illegally download music spend an average of £44 per person on music per year, while those who do admit to illegal downloading spend £77, amounting to an estimated £200m in revenue per year.

A new poll commissioned by Demos found that almost one in ten adults (9%) aged 16-50 who have internet access admit downloading music illegally. But this group are also active music buyers, with 8 in 10 buying CDs, vinyl or MP3s in the past year. The poll also found that 42 per cent of illegal downloaders agree that they 'like to try things out before I decide whether to buy them.'

The findings suggest that government plans to disconnect repeat illegal downloaders from the internet, announced yesterday by Lord Mandelson, could do the music industry more harm than good by punishing core consumers. The poll showed that the availability of new, appealing legal music provision services is the step most likely to encourage illegal downloaders to stop, above fines or the threat of disconnection.

Continue reading "Illegal downloaders ‘are music industry’s biggest customers’ " »

Amazon has launched a new online payment service that lets users pay for goods on the internet by entering a phrase and a PIN number. The service, called ‘PayPhrase’ links two-word phrase and a four-digit PIN number to the users’ credit card and shipping details already stored on their Amazon accounts. Currently only available in the US, the system lets users create their own phrase or use the one provided by Amazon. Each PayPhrase is unique, and can vary in length from only four to 100 characters.

02/11/2009

Continue reading "Amazon speeds up payments with ‘payphrase’ " »

Advertsing giant WPP saw its third-quarter sales fall 8.7% compared to last year, but has seen an improvement on the previous quarter. Excluding the impact of acquisitions and currency fluctuations, sales fell by 10.5 percent in the second quarter, the company said. It described conditions as "less worse" in the three months to September. WPP owns advertising agencies including Ogilvy & Mather, Young & Rubicam and JWT. "There is little doubt that consumer and corporate confidence has recovered somewhat from the panic levels of the fourth quarter of 2008 and first quarter of 2009," it said in a statement.

02/11/2009

Continue reading "WPP sees advertising outlook ‘less worse’ " »

Orange is to launch its new iPhone range on November 10, priced from £30 a month on a 2 year contract. The iPhone 3G and 3GS will retail in Orange shops, Orange on-line, Orange HMV concessions, Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U from with early opening times from 7am on November 10th, with other stores across the country keeping their doors open until late. Orange globally now offers iPhone in 28 countries and territories.

03/11/2009

Continue reading "Orange iPhone to launch next week " »

T-Mobile has expanded its free texts for life scheme to now include free internet access for up to 40MB of data a day.The move marks a further shift in the mobile market as operators move emphasis from calls and texts towards email and internet access. By topping up £10 each month, T-Mobile customers will be able to use their credit solely for making calls.

03/11/2009

Continue reading "T-Mobile gives pre-pay customers ‘unlimited’ web access " »

Uplift in branding is high for all website visitors, slightly higher among those typing URLs directly into browser

Online marketing's greatest impact is on patients refilling their prescriptions.

Online ads work, rich media works better, but brand websites are best of all

Reach fluctuates throughout the year giving a yearly average reach of 47.6%.

Google has introduced a new ad format that lets consumers compare text adverts side by side in their search results.Currently only available in the US, ‘AdWords Comparison Ads’ will initially be limited to mortgages and will see a limited rollout over the next week.

Writing in his Google blog, Dan Friedman, from Google’s Inside AdWords team, said: “AdWords uses a host of targeting and relevancy signals to determine the best ads for each query. However, sometimes a user’s query doesn’t provide enough information for us to confidently predict what they want.

5/11/2009

Continue reading "Google lets consumers compare AdWords ads " »

Google has launched a search product for online retailers, as the company looks to expand further into the ecommerce arena.

Google Commerce Search will s include Google´s spell checker, query stemming and synonym recognition to help retailers .

On a blog about the new product, Google said visitors spend an average of just eight seconds before deciding whether or not to remain on a website, meaning that a good search tool is important for turning visitors into buyers.

06/11/2009

Continue reading "Google launches new search product for retailers " »

Google has bowed to user’s privacy concerns by launching an online tool that lets its account holders know how much of their personal data the search giant holds.Google Dashboard provides users with a single view of all the data associated with their Google accounts.

The tool reveals information about user’s Web usage, email usage and when they are logged into Google services such as Gmail, YouTube and Google Calendar. Dashboard will also let users delete information as well, a move that could help to address privacy concerns that have been raised surrounding Google's collection of so much data about its users' online habits.

06/11/2009

Continue reading "Google reveals how much it knows about you " »

The consortium of private investors looking to buy Skype from eBay have agreed to settle litigation with the web phone firm’s founders. The settlement will see Skype’s founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, get a 14-percent stake in the Internet phone service in the transaction. eBay is selling Skype in order to focus on its core online auction and payments business.

9/11/2009

Continue reading "eBay Skype sale gets Greenlight " »

News Corp is likely to remove its content from Google searches entirely, as the media conglomerate looks to encourage people to pay for content online. In an interview with Sky News Australia News Corp founder and CEO Rupert Murdoch claimed that Google and others are stealing News Corp content.

When asked about who he was talking about when he talked about plagiarists, Murdoch said: “The people who simply pick up everything to run with, and steal our stories…they just take them..without payment. That’s Google, Microsoft, Ask.com..a whole lot of people.”

09/11/2009

Continue reading "Murdoch to boycott Google entirely? " »

Google is to buy mobile advertising firm AdMob for $750m (£449m), making the search giant the largest player in the mobile market. AdMob specialises in selling adverts displayed on small screens, a growing market given the popularity of smartphones such as the iPhone and the Blackberry. The deal will see Google use new mobile technology to drive mobile advertising, helping to decrease its reliance on desktop Internet ads, where growth is slowing.

10/11/2009

Continue reading "Google buys mobile ad firm AdMob " »

Play.com has apologised for accidentally giving out customers' personal details following an email error.

The online retailer sent confirmation emails to customers that hadn't placed any orders, containing names and addresses of other Play.com customers.

Complaints were sent to the BBC while the Play.com help lines were jammed. One Play.com customer told the BBC that he woke up to find 80 emails from the website for orders he hadn't placed.

10/11/2009

Continue reading "Play.com email glitch reveals personal customer data " »

LinkedIn and Twitter have struck a deal that lets users publish their status updates across both social networks simultaneously.

LinkedIn is the largest professional social network, with 50 million members around the world who post information about themselves, such as resumes, to help find jobs or employees, and to stay in touch with each other.

LinkedIn’s update box allows inputs of up to 140 characters, conveniently the same size as that allowed by Twitter.

11/11/2009

Continue reading "LinkedIn and Twitter sync status updates " »

Sky has launched a live television iPhone application letting users watch live news and sport, including live premiership matches, TV coverage via their mobiles. The Sky Mobile TV App uses a WiFi internet connection to stream channels including Sky Sports, Sky Sports News, Sky News, ESPN and At The Races. It is free to browse the schedule and programme guide on the Sky mobile service but a subscription to watch live television will cost £6 a month.

10/11/2009

Continue reading "Sky debuts live TV iPhone App " »

Google is testing skippable ads on YouTube, as the search giant looks to find new ways to monetise the video-sharing site. The concept of the ad unit is that while users are given the tools to skip the ads they don't want to see, when they do in fact watch them, they will do so with more engagement.

Google is opting-in advertisers running video campaigns via AdWords for the test. It will display a small text option in the right-hand corner of the viewer, reading, "Skip this ad." Clicking that text takes users directly to the videos they wish to play. YouTube is running the experiment on clips produced as part of its partner program with creators who have elected to include in-stream ads.

12/11/2009

Continue reading "YouTube tests skippable ads " »

Three-quarters of Brits would consider paying for digital content if it only cost 10p or per article, with Jeremy Clarkson the most likely columnist to entice punters to hand over their cash, according to a new survey. The report, by Continental Research, found The Sun's Jeremy Clarkson, the Guardian's Charlie Brooker and the Daily Mail's Richard Littlejohn are the UK national press's most "valuable" columnists online. The poll indicated that micropayment systems looked more palatable to consumers than monthly or annual subscription systems.

12/11/2009

Continue reading "Brits would pay 10p to read articles online- poll " »

Italian audience reach for top 10 parent companies, October 2009

Time per person for top 10 parent companies, Italy, October 2009

Monthly internet use: key indicators for Italian web users, October 2009

Google has hinted it will soon launch Caffeine, its much –anticipated new search engine that is designed to offer faster and more relevant results. The company has provided no specific launch date, but says Caffeine should be fully deployed early in 2010.

In a blog posting on Tuesday, Google principal engineer Matt Cutts said Google was ready to move to the next stage of the rollout by going live with Caffeine at one of its datacentres. "This means that a small percentage of Google's users will benefit from the technology behind Caffeine in their regular searches," Cutts wrote.

16/11/2009

Continue reading "Google to give search a Caffeine boost after Xmas " »

Social networking site Bebo has been forced to cut jobs and freeze its web TV projects such as KateModern, following cutbacks at its parent company AOL. The move will see Bebo freezing commissions from its web TV production arm, which has been responsible for shows including KateModern, Sofia's Diary, The Secret World of Sam King and The Gap Year.

The social networking site aimed at teens is making redundancies at its UK, US and Australian operations. The company employs around 20 staff in the UK and it is understood the team will be cut back to a minimum.

16/11/2009

Continue reading "Bebo cuts UK jobs, halts web TV projects " »

Google has revamped its Translate service with a raft of new features, including a speech tool.

The new-look service features a new layout, alongside instant translation, phonetic input and text-to-speech engine.

‘Instant Translation’ allows the user to see a translation of the text as they type it - in the same way as Google can display results before a user finishes typing their query.

The text-to-speech engine means that users can hear translations spoken by clicking a small speaker icon.

17/11/2009

Continue reading "Google updates Translate service with speech tool " »

YouTube has launched a new channel that gives online news editors video access to footage posted by citizen journalists and even request such video be shot by amateurs seeking attention. ‘YouTube Direct’ works on a purely voluntary basis, with no commission paid to users whose videos are used, but they will receive credit. Steve Grove, head of news and politics at YouTube, said: "It's an incentive to upload great video, because of the recognition you'll get from legitimate news organizations".

17/11/2009

Continue reading "YouTube launches channel for citizen journalists " »

Swindon is to be become Britain’s first “wi-fi town” with free internet access available to all its 186,000 residents. A £1 million network of 1,400 “access points” similar to the wireless routers installed in millions of homes will be sited at strategic locations around the Wiltshire town. The free network, named the ‘Swindon mesh’, will allow all residents access to the internet but will not be fast enough for streaming films without a fee. Subscribers can sign up for 20Mb upgrades for “significantly less per month than major broadband competitors” following a free three-month trial, the council said.

17/11/2009

Continue reading "Swindon to become first UK wi-fi town " »

The Times has outlined plans for its online payments model, dismissing micro-payments in favour of a 24-hour access charge for the online version of the paper. Speaking at the Society of Editors conference in Stansted, Essex, James Harding, editor of the Times, said the paper would charge for 24-hour access to that day's edition of the paper alongside a subscription model. Harding pledged to "rewrite the economics of newspapers", and warned the newspaper business had to avoid the mistakes of the music industry in making ‘free’ the norm.

18/11/2009

Continue reading "Times Online ditches micro-payments for 24- hour charges " »

Twitter users in Europe will soon be able to tweet to each other via their TV sets while watching entertainment and sports shows, following a deal between Orange and the micro-blogging service. Under the deal, Orange is aiming to integrate Twitter into football coverage, news, entertainment shows and films. Orange, which is owned by the telecommunications giant France Telecom, runs TV services in France, Spain and Poland and mobile and internet services internationally, including in the UK.

18/11/2009

Continue reading "Orange strikes Twitter TV deal" »

The Government finally set out its plans to cut off illegal file-sharers in this week’s Queen's Speech, but the £6 broadband tax is delayed till next year.

"My government will introduce a bill to ensure communications infrastructure that is fit for the digital age, supports future economic growth, delivers competitive communications and enhances public service broadcasting," the Queen said in the speech, which sets out the programme of legislation till the General Election next year.

19/11/2009

Continue reading "Queen sets out Government plans to tackle piracy " »

Iran’s election protests, the shutdown of Napster and the 2008 US presidential campaign have been named amongst the top 10 Internet moments of the 2000s. The events were singled out by New York-based International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences which bestows the annual Webby Awards.

19/11/2009

Continue reading "Top 10 internet moments of the decade" »

Facebook is adopting a new simplified privacy policy which allows users to delete their profiles entirely. Comments and other information shared with friends will remain on the site, but deleted names will no longer be attached to the comments. Instead they will appear as anonymous. According to a blog post by Facebook deputy counsel Michael Richter, the new terms were accepted without a member vote because Facebook received fewer than 7,000 comments on the proposed changes over a seven-week notice period, the majority of which were positive.

20/11/2009

Continue reading "Facebook lets users delete profiles " »

YouTube has launched a new ad-funded channel that lets UK viewers watch full length TV shows from more than 60 partners, including Channel 4 and ITN. YouTube has launched a new ad-funded channel that lets UK viewers watch full length TV shows from more than 60 partners, including Channel 4 and ITN.

At launch, YouTube is posting around 5,000 videos, of which almost 4,000 are full-length programmes, from more than 60 partners. YouTube said it "expects this to significantly increase in the coming months". The new section provides the first shows from the landmark deal with Channel 4 agreed last month.

20/11/2009

Continue reading "YouTube's full length UK TV show channel goes live " »

AOL is looking to cut more than a third of its work force as it prepares to spin off from Time Warner next month. AOL, which now employs 6,900 workers, is asking for 2,500 volunteers to accept buyouts and plans to resort to layoffs if it does not get enough people. The voluntary offer is open to all employees from 4th – 11th December. Time Warner, the New York media conglomerate, plans to spin AOL off as a separate company, AOL Inc., on Dec. 9.

20/11/2009

Continue reading "AOL looks to shed 2,500 jobs " »

Newspapers should become ‘radically open’ if they want to make money in the online world, the co-founder of social networking site Twitter has said. Speaking an event organised by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta) in London, Biz Stone said that he would "love to see what happens" if newspaper mogul Rupert Murdoch went ahead with plans to block Google from his websites.

20/11/2009

Continue reading "Twitter founder urges Murdoch to be open " »

Spotify has become the UK's second favourite music service, and is gaining ground on iTunes, according to a new study looking into the nations favourite web services. The ‘Connected Life’ study, which asked 2,000 UK internet users about their favourite services, found 60% of music users stream music directly from the internet.

17/11/2009

Continue reading "Survey uncovers the nation's favourite websites " »

Google has hinted that loading time may become a ranking factor on its search results for webpages in 2010. The move could encourage media owners to host their websites on faster servers to ensure they rank highly on Google. Google's Matt Cutts unveiled the company's proposal at last week's PubCon in Las Vegas, where page loading time was included in a list of 'what to expect in 2010.'

Cutts explained that page loading time is already a factor in AdWords advertising searches, and that there is a strong push to make speed a quality factor in Google's organic search ranking algorithm. However, there are currently more than 200 ranking factors being taken into consideration by Google's search algorithm, and the system is only expected to punish webpages that take an excessive time to load - around 20 seconds or more.

17/11/2009

Google UK tops the search engine list with 3/4 of all searches in UK

Google UK maintains its dominance as the UK's most visited search engine

Social networking service uSocial has agreed to stop selling groups of Facebook "friends" to clients after it was given a cease and desist notice by the social network, but has said it will continue selling fans.

Facebook ordered an investigation into the company's actions in September, but according to uSocial's founder Leon Hill, the site has now sent a letter to the company claiming it has broken several laws, including illegally accessing the site. But while Hill says the company will no longer sell "friends", it will continue its business of selling "fans" for marketing purposes.

23/11/2009

Continue reading "Facebook clamps down on friend-selling service " »

Microsoft is reportedly in talks with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp to pay the media company to remove its news websites from Google. According to the Financial Times, Microsoft is talking to other publishers to get them to remove themselves from Google too.

The move would see the publisher being paid revenues by Microsoft's search engine Bing if it “de-indexes” its news content from arch-rival Google. The plan puts pressure on search juggernaut Google to start paying for content, the FT said.

23/11/2009

Continue reading "Microsoft to pay Murdoch for News Corp search results? " »

Haymarket Publishing is to close its Revolution and Media Week magazines, as part of a major restructuring programme. Media Week will continue online, with a full-time digital editor taking the reins. It will be integrated into the existing Brand Republic portal. A "centralised hub" of reporters will now cover news from the media, advertising and marketing sectors for the website.

Meanwhile digital media publication Revolution will become a quarterly supplement within Marketing magazine. Revolutionmagazine.com will also cease to exist as a standalone entity, with the site absorbed into Brand Republic over the coming weeks.

23/11/2009

Continue reading "Haymarket shuts down Media Week and Revolution print titles " »

Search terms ranked by visits for the week ending 14th November 2009

Search terms ranked by clicks for the 4 weeks ending 14th November 2009

Behind the scenes every firm's gearing up its 2010 digital strategy, and retailers are looking forward to that sudden seasonal uplift in online sales. Many are running our digital marketing audits to look for areas where they can boost effectiveness without increasing budgets, as ROI looks set to be the key theme for 2010.

This month's news was dominated by the changing relationships between publishers and search engines and that's another theme we're expecting will characterise next year. A related issue is the Murdoch-led quest to charge for online content, and wider concerns about the business models for web media. There's also a sea change to the mobile web from a fixed web, and in Western Europe, the US and many parts of Asia, mobile should be a core element in the 2010 plan.

This month's country focus is Italy, and for all the headlines there are full details on click through.

Read November 2009

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The BBC is planning a radical relaunch of its website portfolio to include more social media features, according to a news report. BBC sources have told MediaGuardian that the new-look site will launch by March next year. The broadcaster also hinted that it will soon be adding social media applications to some of its most popular online shows, including Strictly Come Dancing online coverage. The plans were made by Anthony Rose, the BBC's controller of Vision and Online, at the launch of this year's MediaGuardian Innovation Awards this week.

01/10/2009

Continue reading "BBC websites to get more social " »

Google has invited a limited number of people to help it test its new social editing tool, Google Wave. The tool combines email, instant messaging and wiki-style live editing and went on public trial yesterday, with its creators describing it as "how e-mail would look if it were invented today". The beta trial will be open to 100,000 invitees from 1600BST, each of whom can nominate five further people to "join the Wave".

01/10/2009

Continue reading "Google begins testing live editing tool Wave " »

Almost three-quarters of digital publishers (70%) intend to charge for online content, with most preferring a flat-rate subscription model ahead of micro-payments, according to a new survey. The annual survey of members of the Association of Online Publishers, which includes those in the newspaper, magazine and television industries, found that an increasing number were now looking to charge for online content. The survey found that 70% of AOP members will charge for content with just 30% claiming they would never charge for content.

01/10/2009

Continue reading "70% of digital publishers plan to charge for online access " »

Sky is to launch its new AdSmart service on its Sky Player early next year, giving TV advertisers the chance to target commercials at consumers based on their location and opt-in preferences. The service will combine customer information, for example postcode or chosen Sky package, with information from external sources such as customer surveys. Sky will then use this information to customise ad slots around a particular programme so that different ads are seen in different households. AdSmart will initially run on Sky Player's online line-up of on-demand programmes, with plans to extend the service to live channels on Sky Player in the future.

01/10/2009

Continue reading "Sky Player to run targeted TV commercials " »

Reuters has dropped its Americas Dealzone chatroom on Reuters Messaging, citing a lack of demand. The company said the servcie didn’t attract enough customers to sign up for the trial.
The Reuters messaging service connect clients with reporters and executives for one-on-one discussions.

01/10/2009

Continue reading "Reuters pulls plug on financial chatroom " »

Vodafone is to go head-to-head with O2 and Orange to win iPhone customers after becoming the third mobile company to clinch a deal to sell the device in the UK. The announcement followed yesterday's news that Apple had broken off its exclusive contract with O2 to allow rival companies to also sell the smartphone. Orange will be selling the iPhone before Christmas, while Vodafone's deal bans it from selling the popular gadget before early 2010 - missing the Christmas trading period.

01/10/2009

Continue reading "Vodafone joins O2 and Orange for iPhone rights " »

News International is setting up a new strategy unit to develop digital products.News International is setting up a new strategy and product development unit, that will look into developing new digital products. The division will develop digital products to support NI’s flagship newspaper brands – The Sun, News of the World, The Times and The Sunday Times.The group will be looking to emulate the success of products such as Sun Bingo.

01/10/2009

Continue reading "Murdoch creates digital research division " »

Music streaming service Spotify is to allow its Premium subscribers to download music to their PCs for the first time. The new service will only be available to premium subscribers, who pay £10 per month for their music. The application allows users to store up to 3,333 tracks offline, on up to three different devices at a time. However, the tracks can only be played through the Spotify music player. Spotify already allows users to listen to music offline via an application on their mobile phones, through its new app available to iPhone and Andriod users.

02/10/2009

Continue reading "Spotify lets PC users download music for first time " »

Brits are clocking up an astonishing 30 hours a week online, with the popularity of social media fueling the growth, according to new research. The study, from uSwitch, found that on a typical working day the average person now spends 5 hours online - 2 hours for professional or work purposes and 3 hours for pleasure and leisure. This includes online shopping, managing their finances, socialising and emailing family and friends. At the weekends, Brits spend an average of 3 hours a day online.

02/10/2009

Continue reading " Brits spend 30 hours a week online " »

Spanish audience reach for top 10 parent companies, Aug 09

Time per person for top 10 parent companies, Spain Aug 09

Monthly internet use: key indicatiors for Spanish web users, Aug 09.

Sponsored links from pharmaceutical brands have fallen by more then 50% in the US, following new industry regulations on misleading claims by drug companies in search ads. The findings, from comScore, indicate that sponsored link exposures dropped 59 percent from 10.5 million during the week ending March 29 to 4.3 million during the week ending April 5, when the new regulations were enforced. Declines in sponsored link exposures not only occurred in the weeks immediately following the letters, but continued over the next several months, plummeting 84 percent overall from March to June, comScore reports.

05/10/2009

Continue reading "New regulations spark dramatic drop in pharma search ads " »

Google has added new features to its Search Options, including the ability to search for results posted in the last hour, and focus on shopping sites. The move builds upon Google’s Search Option’s tool, a new feature luanched in May this year that enables users to filter and terrace search results from a side panel.

05/10/2009

Continue reading "Google adds shopping and near-live search options " »

This weekend's England football international will be broadcast exclusively live over the internet for the first time. Media group Perform is to stream Saturday's away clash against Ukraine on a pay-per-view basis, charging viewers from £4.99 to watch the game live on their PCs or laptops. A maximum of one million subscribers would be taken for the match. This is the "safe number to stop at to ensure the optimal broadcast” the company said. Perform streams more than 15,000 events a year, with millions of site users a month. The move follows the collapse of pay-TV platform Setanta earlier this year, which had been due to broadcast the World Cup qualifier.

05/10/2009

Continue reading "England World Cup qualifier to become Web exclusive " »

The London Evening Standard, which is owned by the Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev is to become a free newspaper from October 12. The decision, which makes the London evening title one of the first big papers in Europe to drop its cover price and rely entirely on advertising, will see circulation of 250,000 increase to 600,000, Lebedev said in a statement. DMGT sold the Evening Standard to Mr Lebedev in January for a nominal sum, but kept a 24.9 per cent stake in the business.

05/10/2009

Continue reading "London Evening Standard to become free newspaper " »

Adobe is to make its popular Flash video software available for most smartphones by 2010, with the significant exception of the iPhone. Flash is the most commonly used video technology on the web, delivering around 75% of all online videos. It is the key technology behind YouTube and Google Video, as well as most online games. The new version of the software, called ‘Flash 10.1’, is intended to work as well on a smartphone as a desktop PC.

06/10/2009

Continue reading "Flash video set for mobiles, iPhone users miss out " »

Manchester agency Creative Lynx scooped the top three gongs at the first ever UK pharma digital media awards ceremony, held this month. The agency was behind the campaign for Janssen-Cilag's Concerta XL brand, which won two Premier Awards, one for an e-detail and one for brand revitalisation work, and Novartis 'virtual clinic', which also scooped a ‘best of the best’ prize. The event, which joins the PM Society's established annual advertising awards in the industry calendar, gave pharma and its creative partners a chance to showcase the best of their digital work.

06/10/2009

Continue reading "UK pharma sector celebrates first digital awards " »

Media agency Carat expects the global ad industry to not recover until 2011 and has cut its forecasts for global ad spend in 2009. Carat, which is part of Aegis, now expects worldwide ad spend to fall 9.8% this year, down from its previous prediction of 5.8% in March. Advertising is expected to grow by just 1% in 2010. The predictions dampen hopes that the market will bottom out by the end of this year.

06/10/2009

Continue reading "Global adspend to grow just 1% in 2010- Carat " »

More than 20,000 email passwords, the majority from Microsoft’s Hotmail, have been hacked and posted online, according to a report. Technology blog neowin.net claimed an anonymous user had posted Windows Live Hotmail account details on pastebin.com pastebin.com, a site used by developers to share code, on 1 October. Neowin originally reported that some 10,000 Hotmail accounts were published, but it now says that more over 20,000 accounts have now been compromised. Non-Hotmail passport accounts have been affected too.

06/10/2009

Continue reading "20,000 hacked email passwords published " »

Time per person for top 10 parent companies, UK Aug 09

Monthly internet use: key indicators for UK web users, Aug 09

US online video service Hulu has won several million dollars in ad spend from media buying agency MediaVest. The deal will see the Publicis Groupe agency run ads on Hulu from at least six of its high-profile clients, targeted to demographic clusters. Hulu determines demographics for its content based on a combination of data from Nielsen, comScore and its own user registration lists. "It allows us to view online video more closely with how we view television," said Amanda Richman, managing director of digital at MediaVest. The money is being diverted from both broadcast TV spending and online budgets. MediaVest will also research ad effectiveness on Hulu for placements within demographic categories.

07/10/2009

Continue reading "Hulu strikes multi-million dollar ad deal with MediaVest " »

Google is launching a new local ad listings service, letting businesses target nearby customers through Google Search and Maps. Google’s Local Listing Ads is being tested in San Francisco and San Diego and the search giant did not disclose plans to expand the service internationally. The ads will contain only basic information about a business, such as contact info and a link, and will display in regular search results pages as well as Google Maps listings.

07/10/2009

Continue reading "Google takes on directories with local ad listings " »

Tesco has seen its online sales up by 11% to £1bn during the first half of the year, as the supermarket giant plans to launch a new online clothing range.Profits at Tesco's online retail business, which includes grocery sales and Tesco Direct, rose 21% to £58m. The number of customers using Tesco's online grocery business grew to over one million during the first half of the year, Tesco said. Tesco direct, which retails non-food items over the internet and catalogues reported sales up 29%. The service delivers to customers homes or to 240 in-store Direct desks.

07/10/2009

Continue reading "Tesco web sales hit £1bn " »

Microsoft has unveiled its new software for mobile phones, promising more than 30 new devices would be on the market in more than 20 countries by the end of the year. Phones using Microsoft's new Windows Mobile 6.5 software, which can play music and open Word and Excel documents, are set to compete with Apple's iPhones and Research in Motion Ltd's BlackBerry devices. Microsoft also announced a new online application store, where users can buy 246 applications for their phones. Manufacturers and network providers introducing new Microsoft-driven phones include Samsung Electronics, AT&T and Vodafone.

08/10/2009

Ask has launched a new service that scours the internet for online coupons, as the IAC-owned search engine looks to capitallise on the growing trend for online discounts. Currently only available in the US, Ask Deals offers a database of more than 1 million savings offers from national and local merchants, eliminates the need for consumers to search multiple coupon sites or search engine links, the company claims.

08/10/2009

Continue reading "Ask.com debuts coupon search tool " »

Napster has launched a new subscription service that gives users 5 downloads of their choice and letting them stream the music stores catalogue of eight million songs via PCs and preview tracks on ‘just about any web-enabled mobile phone’. The five downloaded MP3s have no restrictions or time limits, and subscribers can keep tracks forever and transfer to their chosen device. Tracks are compatible with all MP3 players and music-enabled mobile handsets, including iPod and iPhone devices. At the same time, subscribers can explore and discover new artists via unlimited ad-free streaming from Napster’s music catalogue of more than eight million tracks.

08/10/2009

Continue reading "Napster takes on Spotify with £5 streaming and download service " »

Amazon has reportedly cancelled its contract for heavier parcels with Royal Mail after continued strike action threatens the online retailer’s pre-Christmas deliveries. The Guardian reports that Amazon has cancelled its long-term contract for parcels over 500 grams and will instead use rival delivery service, Home Delivery Network. Amazon is Royal Mail’s second biggest customer, and the contract for is understood to be worth at least £25m. An Amazon spokesman said it wanted "to ensure that we can continue to deliver to the high standards that our customers expect from us". "We have not cancelled any long term contracts with the Royal Mail. They continue to be one of a number of carriers that we use. However, with the possibility of strike action in the near future, we have been working on contingency measures with our other carriers to ensure that we can continue to deliver to the high standards that our customers expect from us," they added.

08/10/2009

Continue reading "Amazon ditches Royal Mail contract for rival " »

The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has launched a site dedicated to providing consumers with clear and easy-to-understand information about online behavioural advertising including a one-stop ‘opt out’ page. The site aims to educate consumers about online ads based on an individual user’s surfing habits, such as the controversial technology behind Phorm. The new site includes a ‘quick facts’ download and five top tips to help them protect their privacy online. The site launch, supported by pay per click activity, coincides with companies completing the first stage of compliance with the IAB’s Good Practice Principles.

Continue reading "UK consumers get universal opt out for targeted ads" »

Amazon plans to start selling its Kindle reader in over 100 countries and territories on October 19, and the company has already started booking pre-orders for the device on its site. Amazon is selling the Kindle with U.S. & International Wireless to customers in Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia and South America, for $279 for a reader with a 6-inch display and the ability to wirelessly download books and other content globally, the company said.

09/10/2009

Continue reading "Amazon’s Kindle goes international " »

Google has upgraded its AdSense contextual ad scheme to support high end smartphones, such as iPhones and Blackberrys. The move means Publishers using AdSense can now show up much larger ads on their mobile sites to visitors using smartphones. Previously only small text and image ads could be displayed.The enhancement helped Google to insert advertisements next to search results into the iPhone Maps app. Local iPhone map searches will also now show sponsored listings in the view and list modes of the Maps app.

09/10/2009

Continue reading "Google debuts AdSense for Smartphones" »

Google Android will be the second most used mobile operating system in the world by 2012, according to a new report. Research group Gartner predicts that Android will overtake Research in Motion’s BlackBerry OS, the iPhone OS and Windows Mobile to capture 14.5% of the smartphone market in three years. Simbian will remain the top OS in world, which runs on most Nokia smartphones, with 39% of the market. This would mark a significant fall from the ner 50% market share it enjoys now.

09/10/2009

Continue reading "Google’s Andriod ‘second largest OS for SmartPhones by 2012’ " »

The first England international to be available only on the internet attracted around 250,000 subscribers, with a total estimated viewing figure of almost 500,000, organisers said on Sunday. The World Cup qualifier, won 1-0 by Ukraine, was not shown live on any UK TV networks, although the BBC made a late decision to buy and screen the highlights late on Saturday. The rights for the match had originally been bought by Setanta but the company went into administration.

12/10/2009

Continue reading "250,000 fans pay to watch England’s Web-only match " »

YouTube now gets attracts more that one billion video views a day worldwide, as the video-sharing site marks the third anniversary of its acquisition by Google. "I'm proud to say that we have been serving well over a billion views a day on YouTube," YouTube chief executive Chad Hurley said in a blog post. "This is great moment in our short history." Hurley noted that YouTube, which Google bought for $1.65bn, has evolved from a site dominated by user-generated content to a platform for more professional material.

12/10/2009

Continue reading "YouTube gets 1 billion views a day " »

YouTube and Channel 4 are reportedly about to strike a deal to stream the broadcaster’s content and advertising in full on the video sharing site. The Telegraph reports that the Google-owned site and Channel 4 have been in talks for at least the last six months and a contract is expected to be signed imminently. The deal will see the majority of Channel 4 content, such as Skins, will be made available in full on YouTube for a 30-day catch up period, when the deal is signed.

13/10/2009

Continue reading "YouTube to stream full C4 shows (and ads)? " »

Approximately 10% of online display ads in the US are locally targeted, according to a new comScore study of four American cities. The study is based on a new capability from comScore of identifying local advertisers in a particular market in this case four major U.S. markets: Atlanta, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington DC. The study found that between 9 and 11 percent of display ads in the four markets among all publisher sites were locally targeted. San Francisco (11 percent) and Washington D.C. (11 percent) had a relatively higher share of ads being locally targeted, while Atlanta (10 percent) and Chicago (9 percent) were slightly lower.

13/10/2009

Continue reading "10% of US display ads ‘are locally targeted’" »

Only one in ten UK web users now pay for any form on web content, as consumers cut back on their media spending by seeking free alternatives online during the recession, according to a new survey. The poll, commissioned by KPMG and carried out by YouGov, indicated that more than a quarter of Brits (28%) have cut back spending on magazines and newspapers in the economic downturn in favour of free online content. Only 11% of consumers said they paid for any online media and of those who did not currently pay, only a further 11% said they may begin any sort of subscription in the next 12 months.

13/10/2009

Continue reading "Just 11% of Brits pay for online content " »

Music search engine Deezer has has raised 6.5 million Euros in a second round of funding. Based in Paris, Deezer has 10 million users in Europe, including 6 million in France. It has attracted more than one million downloads of its mobile phone apps. The funding will support Deezer’s creation of Odyssey Music Group (OMG), its parent company. OMG will support production activities and some technological developments, especially those linked to mobile.

13/10/2009

Continue reading "Spotify rival Deezer gets €6.5m funding boost " »

UK audience reach for top 10 parent companies, Aug 09

European business social network Viadeo has acquired Canadian-based UNYK for an undisclosed sum. The deal will give Viadeo access to UNYK's membership of 16 million users, which is growing at a rate of 600,000 new members each month, a smart address book product and contact synchronization technology. Launched in September 2005, UNYK works as a ‘smart’ online address book that updates itself and lets members merge their address books from Outlook, webmail and mobiles.

14/10/2009

Continue reading "Viadeo buys rival business social network UNYK " »

The Internet has become dominated by a small number of giant firms, with Google now the largest source of web traffic, according to a new report. Arbor Networks' 2009 Internet Observatory Report found that five years ago, Internet traffic was proportionally distributed among tens of thousands of networks. Two years ago, 15,000 networks accounted for about 50% of online traffic. Today, 100 networks out of over 35,000 contribute 60% of all online traffic. The largest source of traffic is Google, which accounts for 6% of all Internet traffic globally, the report found.

14/10/2009

Continue reading "Internet ‘now dominated by just 30 companies’ " »

When it comes to rich media ads, bigger isn’t always better, according to new research looking into the most effective display ad formats. The study, conducted by display ad provider Eyeblaster, found that the choice of right video, ad format, flash features and expansion played a far more significant role in engaging the consumer than size. The Eyeblaster Research Global Benchmark Report 2009 looked at data of more than a quarter of a million of ads worldwide, including all sizes, formats and markets served between the third quarter of 2008 and the second quarter of 2009.

14/10/2009

Continue reading "Which ad formats work best for rich media? " »

UK ad spend may be bottoming out, with spending on traditional media advertising falling by the smallest amount for the past six quarters and online ad spend showing its first increase since 2008, according to a new survey. The IPA/BDO Bellwether survey for the thrid quarter of 2009 indictes that British companies' spending on advertising fell for the eighth quarter in succession in the third quarter, but the reduction in budgets was the smallest seen for a year. Online ad spending showed an increase for the first time since H1 2008, the survey found.

14/10/2009

Continue reading "Online ad spend up for first time since 2008- Bellwether " »

The Office of Fair Trading is to conduct two seperate investigations into online pricing practices. The UK trade watchdog will be examining price comparison websites, while a separate study will look into a series of activities like "drip pricing", where charges and extras are added during the purchase. The second study will also look at customised pricing, where prices are individually tailored using information collected about a consumer's internet use. Also under the microscope will be so-called “reference prices”, where there is a comparatively high reference price compared to the sale price.

15/10/2009

Continue reading "OFT to probe misleading online pricing " »

Bloomberg has bought the website and print publication BusinessWeek from textbook publisher McGraw-Hill for an undisclosed sum.Bloomberg said the acquisition will strengthen the newswire’s online, television and mobile products. “We’re buying BusinessWeek to build it,” Bloomberg President Daniel Doctoroff said in an interview. “Our intention is to take a venerable brand and turn it into the best global business newsweekly.” US based McGraw Hill based in New York, said in July it was exploring strategic options for the weekly as advertising sales and circulation slumped.

15/10/2009

Continue reading "Bloomberg buys BusinessWeek " »

Joost has reportedly put its UK operations into liquidation, as the online video service failed to lure web users away from rivals such as market leader YouTube. The FT reports that Joost UK was put into liquidation earlier this month. Netherlands-based Joost was created by Kazaa and Skype founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström in 2007. The liquidator said the company has “failed to sustain a significant share of the internet video industry and was unable to address this effectively through a re-positioning of its services.” Zennstrom and Friis are now launching a new music subscription service, called Rdio, with plans to launch online and on mobile devices by early next year.

www.joost.com 15/10/2009

UK bank First Direct is to showcase all consumer opinions via a new microsite that aggregates live comments from eight million social media sites. The site is the first time that a bank has made such a move, and aims to restore trust in the banking sector as open and transparent, following the credit crunch. Lisa Wood, head of marketing at First Direct, said:“Our customers are writing about us all over the web and we want to embrace this, so we’re showing customer comments, good and bad, from websites, blogs and forums for everyone to see. We’re also encouraging uncensored feedback on a range of issues and we’re inviting everyone to participate in the conversation.”

15/10/2009

Continue reading "First Direct campaign reveals uncensored user comments " »

Facebook accounts for 1 in every 7 pages viewed by UK Internet users, and is now more than twice as big as Google in terms of page views, according to new research. The findings, from Experian Hitwise, reveals Facebook accounted for 14.5% of all UK Internet page views during September 2009. Over the last year, visits were up 86.1%.

16/10/2009

Continue reading "Facebook bigger than Google in terms of page views " »

Google is launching a new online service for booksellers next year which will allow readers to buy books in electronic format, to read on phones, PCs and e-book devices. The new Google Editions service will put it in competition with Amazon’s Kindle reader. Tom Turvey, head of Google Book Search's publisher partnership program, said the price per book would be set by their publishers and would start with between 400,000 to 600,000 books in the first half of 2010.

16/10/2009

Continue reading "Google takes on Amazon with e-books store " »

YouTube has secured a deal with channel four to stream to broadcaster’s programming in full length for free. The deal could pave way for a similar deal under negotiation between the video sharing site and ITV. Set to launch in the comong months, the partnership will run for an initial term of at least three years and the two parties will share advertising revenues on an agreed basis.

The agreement will let C4 sell ads around some non-C4 content on YouTube for the first time, expanding the amount of inventory available to its sales team. The deal marks the first time that a broadcaster has made a comprehensive catch-up schedule available on YouTube, providing C4 with additional advertising inventory and reach.

16/10/2009

Continue reading "YouTube’s C4 deal paving way for ITV? " »

The Internet is playing an increasingly significant role in boosting brand awareness for pharmacuetical brands, a new study has found. The research, from comScore, found that exposure to online media, including a brand’s website and online ads, had a significant positive lift on a treatment’s awareness and favorability. The results also showed that visitation to a brand’s website generated significant levels of incremental new patient starts and refills.

16/10/2009

Continue reading "Strong web presence boosts US pharma brands " »

Procter & Gamble is to ditch traditional CRM and CTR ad payment models in favour of a new ‘cost-per-engagement’ scheme. The move will see publishers that run ads for the FMCG giant’s brands, paid depending on specific metrics used to measure their engagement with the advert.

19/10/2009

Continue reading "P&G ditches ad clicks for ‘engagement’ payment model " »

comScore has launched GamePlan, an audience targeting tool for gaming publishers and developers. The tool which combines comScore’s broadly used consumer digital behavior with a comprehensive longitudinal measurement of consumer attitudes, behaviors and lifestyle attributes. GamePlan is part of the comScore Plan Metrix product suite, and lets game publishers and developers can use GamePlan to quantify, validate and improve their digital gaming strategies.

Continue reading "New ad targeting tool for online gamers " »

Google has posted record quarterly profits of £1bn, up 27% leap on the same period last year, boosted by a rise in online shopping searches. Google's net revenue in the third quarter rose 8.5% from a year earlier to $4.38bn, beating the $4.24bn expected by analysts. Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, said: ''The worst of the recession is clearly behind us. Because of what we have seen, we now have the confidence to be optimistic about our future.” The company said large advertisers were more eager to spend on search advertisements in the third quarter.

19/10/2009

Continue reading "Google posts record profits, declares ‘recession over' " »

Facebook accounts for 1 in every 7 UK page views during September 09

Search terms ranked by clicks for the 4 weeks ending 17th Oct 09.

Google is to launch its "Gone Google" ad campaign globally, promoting its services to audiences in London, Paris, Tokyo, Sydney, and Singapore. Initially launched in the US in August, the campaign promotes the search giant’s growing enterprise business. "Gone Google" refers to the 1.7m businesses that the company claims have embraced its services. The month-long campaign supports its range of Google Apps products for businesses, such as Gmail and Google Docs.

20/10/2009

Continue reading "Google rolls out first major UK ad campaign " »

Global ad expenditure in 2009 will fall further than originally anticipated, according to a new report. Zenith Optimedia forecasts that expenditure would drop 9.9 per cent during the year, compared to its earlier prediction of 8.5 per cent. However, the report said that the figure disguised the fact that the downturn seemed to be bottoming out. The report said that internet was the only medium set to grow in 2009, by 9.2 per cent, with all other media shrinking.

20/10/2009

Continue reading "Global adspend forecast to grow in 2010 " »

An IMRG survey of its retail members has revealed that 77% of them believe that strike action by the CWU may discourage consumers from shopping online in the run up to Christmas. IMRG’s Director of Operations, David Smith said “E-commerce sales are set to top £50bn in 2009, even through the recession, but a strike of this nature has the potential to do significant harm to online retail sales.

20/10/2009

Continue reading "Postal strike ‘could discourage online shoppers’" »

Digital marketing firm TradeDoubler is rebranding The Search Works as TD Search in the UK and France, as it looks towards integrating its online operations across Europe. The change, effective immediately, brings the search marketing agency in line with the rest of TradeDoubler’s TD Search businesses across Europe. The rebranding is the final step in the integration of The Search Works into The TradeDoubler Group, following the acquisition in July 2007.

21/10/2009

Continue reading "The Search Works rebrands as TD Search " »

Video sharing site Dailymotion has raised EU17m in funding from privtae funding, as the video sharing site loo ks to win marketshare from YouTube. Based in France, Dailymotion attracts 60 million unique visitors worldwide a month. The site aims to post a profit next year, having reached breakeven this year. The new funding round was led by the French Sovereign Fund (FSI).

22/10/2009

Continue reading "YouTube rival Dailymotion gets funding boost " »

Disney is working on an online storage service that would give users access to its movies and TV shows online, offering an alternative to DVDs and Blu-rays. The Wall Street Journal reports that the service, called Keychest, would give users access to media via a wide variety of platforms and devices, including PCs and mobiles. Using Keychest, consumers would purchase access rights to a film or TV show, rather than have physical ownership of material on a disc.

Continue reading "The end of Blu-ray? Disney’s online storage scheme aims to replace DVDs " »

Google and Bing have inked a deal with Twitter to add real-time updates from the micro-blogging sites users to its search results. The deal will mean searchers on Google and Bing users will have the option to see results based on the most recent and popular trends on Twitter. Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed, but both represent a move towards ‘live’ or ‘real-time’ search, where results are based on current user comments rather than the most popular keywords over time.

Continue reading "Google and Bing seal live search deals with Twitter " »

Twitter is considering hiring a sales force to make money from advertising, as the micro-blogging service notches up its 5 billionth tweet. Speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Twitter chief executive Evan Williams said there are a large number of companies interested in working with Twitter to promote brands. "We are optimistic about revenue," Williams said. "I can't tell you want the mode is." Williams also hinted he wants to get rid of Twitter's internally-created Suggested User List (SUL) in favour of user-created lists.Twitter recently crossed the 5 billion tweets barrier with a Twitter user Robert Sloan managing to post the tweet numbered 5000000000. Twitter's top five growth areas are Britain, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan and the United States.

22/10/2009

Online spending in Britain rose at its slowest annual pace in September since records began in 2000, hit by promotions from store groups, warm weather and disruption to postal services. The IMRG Capgemini e-Retail sales index showed online sales rose a lower-than-normal 1.9 percent month-on-month in September to 3.9 billion pounds and were up 7.6 percent on the year. "The results for September show a slowdown in the growth of online spending but we view this as a temporary blip and expect growth rates to return to the 15 percent year on year trend we have seen over the last year," said Mike Petevinos, head of consulting for retail at Capgemini UK.

22/10/2009

Continue reading "Online retail spending growth ‘slowest since 2000’ " »

Facebook tops the social network list with half of all visits in UK, Oct 09

YouTube tops the entertainment list of all visits in UK, Oct 09

Microsoft has officially launched Windows 7, the successor to Windows Vista. The new version of Microsoft’s market-leading web browser now supports multi-touch technology. "Windows 7 brings to consumers more choice and value than any previous Microsoft operating system," said Ashley Highfield UK Managing Director of Microsoft. "We've worked with partners and consumers alike to deliver an improved user experience with enhanced performance and functionality that promote ease and simplicity in everyday tasks," he continued. Early feedback from customers report that Windows runs faster and starts up and shuts down more quickly.

23/10/2009

Continue reading "Microsoft unveils Vista successor Windows 7 " »

Media giant News Corporation has said its popular online video site Hulu will start charging fees at some point. US-based Hulu has struggled to make money despite its popularity as an ad-supported site. News Corp., which co-owns the site with NBC Universal, Walt Disney Co. and Providence Equity Partners, said it hasn't decided what form the subscription model would take.

26/10/2009

Continue reading "Hulu to charge viewers fees? " »

Online news aggregator Newsnow.co.uk has been threatened with legal action by UK newspapers if it does not introduce new controls on how it links to their articles.Newsnow automatically posts news links from websites across the world on its site and arranges them by subject matter. In response, Newsnow’s Managing director Struan Bartlett has written an open letter to newspaper heads. The letter names The Times, The Sun, The Guardian, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent and Daily Express as newspapers involved.

26/10/2009

Continue reading "NewsNow issues open letter to newspapers after threats " »

Pay Pal is opening up its online payment platform to developers with a new API tool. The move will make it easier for people to carry out purchases on a variety of devices, such as mobile phones, and via channels such as social networking sites. Scott Thompson, PayPal’s president, made the announcement at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco. He said: “I am proud to say in just two weeks, PayPal will be the first global online payment service to open its platform to everyone.

26/10/2009

Continue reading "PayPal opens up platform to developers " »

Amazon has reported profits that have outstripped analysyst forecasts, as the online retailer has seen strong demand for its new e-book reader Kindle. Third-quarter net income increased 69% to $199 million from a year earlier, the company said today in a statement. Sales rose 28% to $5.45 billion. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos has attracted customers by expanding overseas, offering shipping promotions and introducing new versions of the Kindle electronic reader.

26/10/2009

Continue reading "Kindle helps Amazon profit beat expectations " »

As brands and retailers gear up for Christmas, this month we've tracked a steep rise in website development, relationship marketing, campaign planning and mobile marketing. The 2010 digital strategy starts now because customers acquired before Christmas will stick with retailers into the January sales and far beyond.

To help brands and their agencies get more from their budgets, The Digital Training Academy has opened up a couple of its online classrooms for the first time. As a client or partner, you can now access additional resources in Social Media, Mobile and Relationship Marketing.

Marketing spend on the high street might be flat, but the switch to the web is clear - and it's also coming with the call for tighter ROI and strong analytics. P&G are among many brands pushing for greater accountability in web advertising, and the growth of online behavioural advertising seems unstoppable. In this month's interview the mastermind marketing Microsoft's Bing search tool takes us behind the scenes on a new way to search and the country focus is on Spain.

If you're a client of the Digital Strategy group and your colleagues would like our research, simply forward this link and we'll do the rest: http://www.digitalstrategyconsulting.com/digitalbriefings.

Read October 2009

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Apple has struck a deal announced with China Unicom, the country's second-largest mobile service provider, to become the first authorised seller of the iPhone in China. The deal opens up a huge new market to Apple. China now has nearly 700 million mobile phones in use, almost as much as the next two largest mobile nations, India and the US, combined. China Unicom had 140 million mobile subscribers by June. The interest appears to be there, with prices in a thriving black market in China set as high as nearly 5,000 yuan for each iPhone.

01/09/2009

Continue reading "iPhone set for China launch " »

YouTube has begun sharing profits with users who post popular videos on the site. The Google-owned site is extending its YouTube Partnership Program, offering more individuals with one off popular videos a chance to earn thousands of dollars a month. YouTube will monitor the popularity of user-submitted videos and some users will get invited to start earning revenue through the Partnership Program. Once the revenue sharing scheme is enabled on a user's video, YouTube will sell ads against the video and paying the user a share monthly into their AdSense account. This option is available only to users in the US for now, but YouTube says is hoping to roll this feature internationally. Up until now, only users producing videos that reached a wide audience were able to join the YouTube Partnership Program, launched in 2007.

View YouTube’s announcement here 01/09/2009

Apple has approved the Spotify iPhone application, allowing users to stream music to their handsets, despite many regarding the two companies as rivals. The application will be free, but will require the user to have a premium Spotify subscription, which costs £10. The application lets users search for new music and will the storage of temporary playlists on their phone for use when there is no connection. Users can also stream playlists online via their mobiles. The company submitted the application to Apple's iTunes App Store for its approval in July. Many speculated that the app may not be approved. The move marks a significant change in Apple’s approvals for iPhone applications, and the process is currently being investigated by the US regulators the FCC for anti competitive behaviour.

01/09/2009

Continue reading "Apple approves Spotify iPhone app " »

Google is opening up its ad platform AdSense by allowing other display advertising companies to place promotional content on AdSense publisher sites. AdSense lets website owners earn money by displaying targeted ads from Google's ad network, and are paid depending on how many times the ad is views or clicked (depending on the agreement). The move means that if Google offers $2 CMP (cost-per-thousand-impressions) on display ads for a site, but another ad network bids higher at $3, the other ad network's ad would be shown, resulting in more money for the publisher.

01/09/2009

Continue reading "Google lets third party networks bid on AdSense publisher sites " »

Unilever is letting the public pitch creative for its next Peperami ad campaign, dropping its agency in the process. The firm is offering $10,000 for the best idea submitted to the website Idea Bounty. The winning creative will be used for the next TV and print campaign featuring the brand’s Animal character. Noam Buchalter, marketing manager at Peperami, said: “We believe Peperami is a brand that deserves radical creative solutions and are confident taking our brief out to thousands rather than a small team of creatives will provide us with the best possible idea and take our advertising to the next level.”

01/09/2009

Continue reading "Unilever ditches agency for user-generated Peperami ads " »

Continue reading "Twitter now ‘more popular than BBC’ online " »

Former Eurosport UK managing director Pierre-Jean Sebert has been appointed CEO of Arqiva’s new video-on-demand service that will be built on the infrastructure of the former Project Kangaroo. The transmission company plans to use the assets to launch a new video-on-demand service to UK consumers in the coming months. Project Kangaroo was the video-on-demand (VOD) platform developed by UKVOD LLP, a joint venture set up by BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4.

01/09/2009

Continue reading "Project Kangaroo finally finds a home at Arqiva " »

Continue reading "Nokia plans 'mobile bank accounts' " »

YouTube is to start streaming thousands of music videos in the UK again, as the site finally agreed a deal with songwriters' association PRS for Music Britain over royalty payments. The deal marks the end to a six-month dispute between YouTube and PRS, which saw the video sharing site block thousands of videos to UK users in March. The dispute began as YouTube’s parent company Google failed to agree a fee with PRS. However, it has finally agreed to pay an undisclosed lump sum to PRS in a deal will last until 2012. The deal is reportedly worth tens of millions of pounds.

02/09/2009

Continue reading "Music videos return to YouTube as royalty spat ends " »

eBay is to sell the majority of its stake in internet telephony service Skype to an investment group for nearly $2bn. The deal will see Internet auction giant sell a majority stake in its online phone unit Skype for $1.9bn to private investors including Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm headed by Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen. The deal valued Skype at $2.75bn but was well below the $3.1bn eBay spent in acquiring Skype, and shares in eBay fell more than 2% after the news.

02/09/2009

Continue reading "eBay to sell 65% of Skype for $2bn " »

Facebook leads, Twitter overtakes MySpace for fourth place, Aug 09.

The technology sector has greatest CPL in the premium category, August 2009

YouTube is reportedly talking to Hollywood studios about renting new-release movies online. Citing people close to the talks, The Wall Street Journal reports that discussions were most advanced with Lions Gate Entertainment, Sony Corporation's movie studio, Time Warner's Warner Bros and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. All these studios currently have advertising revenue-sharing deals with YouTube. The move would put the video sharing site in direct competition with iTunes and Amazon.com, which have already struck similar deals. These existing services offer film rentals for between £1.20 and £2.50 each with a 24-hour viewing period.
http://www.youtube.com

03/09/2009

The number UK advertisers running online display campaigns has risen, as companies capitalise on lower ad prices during the recession. The research, from Nielsen Online, indicates that the number of online display ad campaigns grew 11% in the second quarter compared to the same 2008 period. Nielsen put the number of display campaigns at 22,794, up from 20,360 the second quarter of 2008.

03/09/2009

Continue reading "Number of online display ads rises 11% " »

HMV has bought half of online music store 7digital, as the entertainment retailer looks to expand its digital services. The deal will see HMV buy a 50% stake from the venture capital firms that backed 7digital for £7.7m in cash. 7digital will now become HMV's supplier for all of its digital operations, including a new e-books website for its Waterstone's brand. HMV said 7digital also planned to launch a mobile application for BlackBerry mobiles soon. 7digtal’s clients include Spotify, Sony, Warner Music, EMI, Universal and Last.fm.

03/09/2009

Continue reading "HMV buys 50% stake in online music store " »

Music streaming service Spotify has launched an app for the iPhone and the Android mobile platform. The Spotify App for iPhone and iPod touch is on the App Store as of today, available to Spotify Premium subscribers in the UK, Sweden, Spain, France, Norway and Finland. The service is also available on phones using Google’s Android mobile platform, also available only to premium members.

04/09/2009

Continue reading "Spotify app goes live on iPhone and Android " »

Google is back on the acquisition trail and the search giant's boss sees an end to the recession in sight , according to a new interview. Speaking to Japanese site Nikkei (and translated by Dow Jones Newswires), Google CEO Eric Schmidt, said "the worst of the recession is behind us" and that Google has begun "seriously looking at acquisitions" again.

The search giant seems to be eyeing start-ups working on cloud computing as its main area for new acquisitions. Already in widespread use, the concept of cloud computing involves accessing computing resources online, as and when needed, rather than using similar services stored via a personal computer. A simple example is a large web service such as Google Mail, YouTube or Facebook, where the user doesn’t need to worry about how many servers are running or how large the storage is for their photos, videos and messages. Cloud computing represents a huge area of focus for Google with projects like Wave, Chrome OS, and Google Apps.
http://www.google.com

04/09/2009

Nokia is partnering with Facebook to launch a ‘lifecasting’ tool, letting users post locations and status updates from their phones to Facebook. Launching in October on Nokia's new touchscreen N97 mini, the app will be available via the handset makers Ovi Store, Nokia equivalent of Apple's App Store. The tool will eventually expand to let users create new types of communication patterns, like navigating to a friend or place.

04/09/2009

Continue reading "Nokia partners Facebook for ‘lifecasting’ tool " »

The world's biggest drug maker has been fined a record amount by US regulators for fraudulent marketing. Pfizer was fined a total of $US2.3bn (£1.4bn), the largest healthcare fraud settlement in US history, for trying to sell drugs for uses not approved by the regulators. The US Government says the practices put public health at risk. Pfizer paid the fines to settle criminal and civil allegations that it illegally sold four drugs for uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

04/09/2009

Continue reading "Pfizer hit by record fine for fraudulent marketing " »

The price of phone calls falls 70% in 10 years, Mar 09.

Mobile phone saturation, more phones than people, Mar 09

Massive differences across Europe in mobile broadband adoption, Jan 09.

Mobile phone calls per minute of voice communication across Europe, Mar 09

Spend falls by a third while volume of calls rise

Fixed broadband penetration continued to grow in 2008, Mar 09

The BBC has launched a beta search function on its mobile website homepage, incorporating TV and radio shows on the iPlayer. The tool lets users search the mobile site for news, sport, radio and television sites, while devices that support the iPlayer also allow users to search for TV and radio shows.

In a blog post, BBC executive producer Ulyssa MacMil writes: "We know it's crucial to get the results right first time on mobile - and taking our website search and making it work to that goal was a complex project. We spent weeks fine tuning the search logic, weighting our search terms, and we now know more about the idiosyncrasies of search logic than we ever thought we would need to."

07/09/2009

Continue reading "BBC tests mobile search function " »

Over 80% of search engine visits with Google, Sep 09

Over 90% of searches with Google, Sep 09

Despite its notable popularity amongst older users, the number of youngsters accessing Twitter is growing at "breakneck pace", according to new research. According to a new blog post from Andrew Lipsman, director of industry analysis at comScore, there are now 21 million Twitter users in the US, with a notable rise in new users under 18. “The most notable positive shifts are evident among the 12-17 and 18-24 year old segments, which are coming at the expense of the 35+ segments,” Lipsman said.

07/09/2009

Continue reading "Teens finally catching the Twitter-bug" »

News Corporation is planning on launching an internal wire that will make its content instantly available to all the media giant’s outlets worldwide, according to a new report. Citing and internal briefing, The Guardian reports that the ‘NewsCore’ service will operate like a global wire service for all the company's newspapers, TV networks and websites. This would include more than 30 TV and cable networks, including Sky News and Fox News and more than 20 newspapers including the Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and the Australian. News Corp also runs 18 web-only properties.

08/09/2009

Continue reading "News Corp unites outlets under global newswire" »

T-Mobile and Orange are to merge their UK businesses, creating a mobile phone giant with 28.4 million customers. The deal between Orange-owner France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile UK will create a business with sales of £8.2bn. The new group will have about 37% of the mobile market, overtaking current market leader O2. T-Mobile is currently the fourth-largest mobile operator in the UK, with a 15% share of the market. O2 has a 27% share, followed by Vodafone (25%) and Orange (22%).

08/09/2009

Continue reading "T-Mobile and Orange merger creates UK’s biggest mobile network " »

UK government-backed Capital for Enterprise, a venture capital fund of funds, has given Beringea a £20m funding boost to target digital start ups. Beringea Digital Ventures will also receive a further £10m from private investors, which will be used to invest in growing UK companies that utilise digital platforms and technologies. The private equity and investment banking firm will create a new ECF Beringea Digital Ventures fund using the capital.

08/09/2009

Continue reading "Beringea gets £30m boost, eyes digital start-ups " »

Growth in localised, high-speed residential broadband services is beginning to open a new chasm between urban and rural areas in terms of internet access, according to a new study. The report, from analyst firm Gartner predicts that a new digital divide will have emerged within three to five years between those able to access residential broadband speeds of 50Mbit/s or higher and those limited to basic access speeds. Entitled ‘Emerging Technology Analysis: Ultra-High-Speed Residential Broadband Internet, Global Consumer Services’ the report said this divide would come despite efforts such as the UK government's Digital Britain project, which aims to provide a basic broadband service to everyone who wants it.

10/09/2009

Continue reading "Broadband growth areas ‘to create new digital divide’ " »

Google has increased the size of the search box and fonts on its home and results pages, giving users more space to enter their queries. The search giant said it hopes the move will make it easier for people to use the service and select results. In a blog post, Marissa Mayer, Google Vice President, said: "Although this is a very simple idea and an even simpler change, we're excited about it. It symbolizes our focus on search and because it makes our clean, minimalist homepage even easier and more fun to use. “The new, larger Google search box features larger text when you type so you can see your query more clearly. It also uses a larger text size for the suggestions below the search box, making it easier to select one of the possible refinements."

Google blog 10/09/2009

TweetDeck has launched of a new version that supports MySpace updates, as the popular Twitter client expands its efforts to become a ‘real-time browser’. The new version of TweetDeck also adds increases Facebook support, and adds the TweetDeck Directory, a catalogue of Twitter accounts worth following. The TweetDeck Directory will be grouped into popular internet topics, including music, travel, jobs, sports, news and tech. CEO and founder Ian Dodsworth said he now considers TweetDeck a browser now that taps in to the best parts of the social web. TweetDeck has taken $2.3m over two rounds that included Beta Works and The Accelerator Group.
http://tweetdeck.com/beta

10/09/2009

Sony's PS3 games console now accounts for 10% of all viewing of the iPlayer, according to the BBC. The broadcaster has just launched a new version of its PS3-compatible iPlayer, which was initially introduced last year. The new version has already overtaken Apple Macs to become its second most popular platform for IP-delivered TV, the BBC said. PS3 claims 10% of all iPlayer viewing while Apple Macs have 8.5%. PCs meanwhile are still number one, accounting for around 70%. Virgin Media cable, which claims around a third of total iPlayer viewing, is not included in this count.

10/09/2009

Continue reading "PS3 now drives 10% of traffic to BBC iPlayer " »

Facebook is taking a leaf out of Twitter’s book by adding a new "@"-based tagging system for status updates. The feature lets users quickly create a link to a friend in a status update, by placing the ‘@’ symbol before their name, in the same manner as the system offered by Twitter. A company blog post posted yesterday reads: “As you type the name of what you would like to reference, a drop-down menu will appear that allows you to choose from your list of friends and other connections, including groups, events, applications and Pages. Soon, you'll be able to tag friends from applications as well. The "@" symbol will not be displayed in the published status update or post after you've added your tags." Facebook is launching the new tagging system over the next few weeks.
Read the blog here

11/09/2009

Twitter has updated its terms of service, hinting that the micro-blogging site may allow ads in the near future. Writing on Twitter’s official blog, founder Biz Stone said: "We leave the door open for advertising. We'd like to keep our options open, as we've said before.” Stone added that the company was wary of annoying its growing base of users by bombarding them with ads. Twitter, which has 45 million monthly visitors worldwide, has kept its new clause on advertising open-ended, and stressed it was subject to change.

11/09/2009

Continue reading "Twitter rule tweaks opens door to ads " »

So Google could have micropayments for newspaper content live within a year? That will grab the attention of newspaper owners everywhere. It will seem like this could save the newspaper and magazine industry; the most unexpected life-raft, from the most unusual lifeboat.

11/09/2009

Continue reading "Comment: Google lifeboat to rescue newspapers? Think again" »

Google is developing technology to help publishers charge its readers for online content. The search giant is working on software that will allow newspapers to charge users for certain online content using a system of micro-payments. Google made the announcement as a response to the Newspaper Association of America which asked a number of technology companies for proposals on how to generate revenues from online content. Google submitted an eight-page document to the NAA in response to the association's request for content charging solutions.
http://www.naa.org

11/09/2009

Continue reading "Google planning micro-payments for publishers " »

Over 80% of UK visits with Google, Sep 12 2009.

Over 90% of searches with Google, Sep 12th 2009

The BBC has said its iPlayer online video platform could be opened up to rival broadcasters. The broadcaster revealed the plans last week at the IBC 2009 conference in Amsterdam. Eric Huggers, BBC director of future media and technology, said in a speech at the event the corporation is planning to create an "Open iPlayer" which would allow third parties to offer content on their own versions of the service.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer

14/09/2009

Continue reading "BBC to offer iPlayer platform to rival broadcasters? " »

Popular music-streaming service Spotify will only accept new accounts from people with official email invites, the company has said. Spotify has reverted to its original 'invite-only' policy for creating new accounts due to huge demand for the music-streaming service. Since the launch of its mobile app last week, Spotify has been inundated with requests for new accounts, the company said.

14/09/2009

Continue reading "Huge demand forces Spotify to revert to invite-only accounts " »

Advertising effectiveness research reveals rich media combined with video delivers best impact awareness, favouribility and purchase intent. Sep 09

Advertising effectiveness research reveals which formats achieve best uplift on key 'awareness' metric; biggest not always best; rectanges top charts, buttons score lowest. Sep 09.

Adobe has bought online ad firm Omniture for $1.8 bn, as the graphic design software giant expands further into the online advertising arena. Omniture provides web analytics, measurement and optimization technologies and Adobe is hoping the purchase will help its advertising and Web site design customers handle online campaigns. Chief Executive Officer Shantanu Narayen is pushing Adobe into new businesses at a time when customers are pulling back on purchases of the company’s design software.

15/09/2009

Continue reading "Adobe buys Omniture for $1.8bn " »

John Lewis has updated its website as the department store chain looks to boost its online sales by £70 million within two years. The revamped site features more than 100 new brands and a luxury label offering. John Lewis said it is hoping the initiative will lead to a 30% increase in fashion sales this year alone. The online fashion market is becoming a highly lucrative area for retailers, with recent successes of firms such as ASOS highlighting its potential. John Lewis has also improved its wider website, with a better search engine and easy-to-follow product information.

15/09/2009

Continue reading "John Lewis takes on ASOS with website revamp " »

Nokia has purchased ‘certain assets’ of micro-social networking site Plum Networks, as the world’s largest handset maker looks to further expand into the software arena. Initially launching in 2004 as a social bookmarking site, Plum evolved into a ‘micro social network’, letting users to build private networks based on connections that they decide; for example, a family can create a Plum group where their data is visible only to each other. Plum is a privately held company which employed approximately 10 people with main offices in Boston, Massachusetts.

15/09/2009

Continue reading "Nokia buys slice of social network Plum " »

Google is testing a new format that is supposed to make reading online stories as easy as flipping through a magazine, opening new contextual ad opportunities for publishers in the process. The Fast-Flip tool emulates the look and feel of reading a print magazine, letting the reader click on large arrows on the side to turn the page, instead of a standard web link that requires waiting several seconds for a page to load. Readers can sort through content based on topics, favourite writers and publications.

16/09/2009

Continue reading "Google tests page-flipping tool for publishers " »

Facebook has started making more money than it's spending, for the first time since it was created in a Harvard dorm room nearly six years ago. The social networking giant attributed its new-found profitability to an upsurge in users over the past year. Making the announcement yesterday, Facebook also said it now attracts more than 300 million active users. The company reached 150 million users in only five years, but over the past nine months this figure has doubled to 300 million.

16/09/2009

Continue reading "Facebook makes profit for first time " »

Over half of Internet users watch TV and Web simultaneously, Q2, 09

Video adding to screen use, not simply migrating audiences. TV continues to gorw and remains at aseasonal all-time high, Q2 09.

An early snapshot of US consumers suggests viewing on the rise across all three screens (TV, Internet and mobile phone), Q2 09.

Snapshot of audience attention across three screens: monthly time spent viewing media by age group, Q2 09.

Gender balance similar across TV, Internet and Mobile, Q2 09.

Nearly a thrid of all mobile video viewed is by 24-35 year olds, Q2 09.

A company owned by the founders of Skype has filed a copyright suit against eBay and the investor group that has agreed to buy the internet telephony phone service.The company, Joltid, a Swedish firm owned by Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, says Skype used its technology without authorisation. The move could potentially disrupt the $1.9 bn sale of the internet telephony firm, which was agreed last month.

17/09/2009

Continue reading "Skype founders to sue eBay as sale hits snag " »

Google has bought anti-spam firm reCaptcha for an undisclosed sum, as the search giant looks to further expand its ability to organise the world’s data. reCaptcha helps protect sites from spam and fraud by assuring a response is not generated by a computer. The technology presents users with images of words that must be typed in to verify legitimate online requests and registrations. reCaptcha is currently used by more than 100,000 websites from spam and fraud.

18/09/2009

Continue reading "Google snaps up anti-spam firm reCaptcha " »

Google has launched an exchange service that lets advertisers and website owners buy and sell ads based on an online auction system. The system, called ‘Ad Exchange’ will emulate Google’s existing AdWords scheme, and marks the culmination of the search giants $3.1bn takeover of display ad firm DoubleClick in 2008. In an announcement on its blog, Google said the system lets advertisers and publishers to trade space for display advertising across hundreds of thousands of sites all over the web.

18/09/2009

Continue reading "Google launches display ad exchange " »

Twitter is reportedly in the process of raising more venture capital which will value the two-year-old business at $1bn (£600m). The Telegraph reports that Insight Venture Partners is believed to be the lead investor in the $50m funding round. Evan Williams, co-founder of Twitter, is reported to have revealed the deal in a company-wide meeting earlier this week. Back in February this year, Twitter raised $35m from venture capital firms led by Benchmark Capital and Institutional Venture Partners. This valued the firm at $250m valuation, the potential new cash injection values Twitter at $1bn, meaning the company has quadrupled its valuation in the past eight months.
http://www.twitter.com

18/09/2009

Just one in twenty (5%) of Brits who read a free news website at least once a month would stick with the site if charges were introduced, according to a new poll. The survey of more than 1,000 British adults was commissioned by paidcontent and carried out by Harris Interactive. In addition, nearly three-quarters (74%) of those quizzed said they would look elsewhere if a paid model was put in place. Nearly one in ten (8%) said they would only read the website's free headlines.

21/09/2009

Continue reading "1 in 20 Brits would pay for online news- survey " »

Google and Amazon have enjoyed the biggest growth in their brand value, according to a new poll. The two internet giants were the big winners in Interbrand’s annual Best Global Brands listings, reporting the highest gains in brand value. Coca-Cola came top in the list of 100 brands for the ninth consecutive year, while IBM maintained its number two position after overtaking Microsoft last year.

21/09/2009

Continue reading "Google and Amazon enjoy fastest growing brand value" »

Microsoft's new search engine Bing now accounts for over 9% of search engine traffic in the US, gaining further ground on Google, according to new research. The data, from comScore, put Bing’s search engine US Internet search market at 9.3% during August, up from 8.9 percent in July. Microsoft, which launched Bing in early June, remains third in the market, behind Google and Yahoo, but has gained share every month since its debut. Google, although still far and away the search leader, saw its share in the United States decline 0.1 percentage points to 64.6% in August. Yahoo posted a market share of 19.3% in August, unchanged from July. ComScore said overall U.S. search market volume rose 15.5 percent from July and 19.2 percent from last year.
http://www.comscore.com

22/09/2009

Online research company comScore has partnered with web analytics firm Omniture, to measure online traffic for advertisers and publishers. The deal will see comScore integrate Omniture’s system of using cookies to track unique visitors with its own panel-based audience measurement tools. The goal of this synergistic union is to create more accurate Web data for media and marketers.

Online media outlets and ad buyers often receive conflicting information about how many people are visiting certain sites from industry suppliers. Combing the data they supply may provide a more accurate and comprehensive analysis of Web site traffic. The collaboration follows the purchase of Omniture by software company Adobe for $1.8bn.

www.comscore.com

22/09/2009

Yahoo! is launching a global brand campaign to promote its newly revamped core products, including its media portal, email, search and online sharing tools. The embattled media giant, which has recently secured a deal with Microsoft to share search and advertising resources, is hoping the campaign will boost its users in a bid to regain market share from rival Google. Yahoo said its new ‘Y!ou’ campaign is based on consumer research, which emphasised the importance of simplification and personalisation.

23/09/2009

Continue reading "Yahoo launches $100m global brand campaign " »

Facebook plans to work with internet research firm Nielsen to provide better measurement to advertisers. The move will see the social network run polls asking users about their attitudes and purchase intent based on display ads Facebook runs on its site. Facebook will then provide the data to Nielsen, which will package it for advertisers. The first product from the alliance, called Nielsen BrandLift, will launch in the U.S. with select test partners this week and roll out to all Facebook advertisers in the coming months.

23/09/2009

Continue reading "Facebook provides data to Nielsen to improve ad measurement " »

Phorm said it is making "good progress" towards deploying its controversial advertising software, despite hitting major setbacks this year. The Internet tracking technology company has managed to narrow its losses this year. Loss before tax was $15m, compared to a loss of $24m a year earlier. Phorm uses technology that stores information on the sites web-users visit so that they can be targeted with advertising on other pages.

23/09/2009

Continue reading "Phorm confident of ad software despite $15m loss " »

MySpace has begun testing a new service that lets users sync their MySpace status updates with their Twitter feed. The new opt-in service lets users sync their status so that any update created on MySpace will appear in their Twitter feed. Conversely, any Twitter feed update will appear within the user’s MySpace status and mood. The new sync feature works on mobile and uses open authentication technology, OAuth. OAuth allows limited data to be shared between sites while protecting account credentials. The service is currently only available to MySpace users in the US, with plans to roll out globally in the coming weeks. The service is available here.

23/09/2009

Facebook has closed its ‘info sharing’ online ad scheme amid privacy concerns. The Beacon system shared information about users' information on third-party partner sites in Facebook news feeds. The move comes after the settlement of a year-old class action lawsuit that targeted its alleged failure to provide adequate information and privacy controls to users on the Beacon system.

23/09/2009

Continue reading "Facebook privacy ruling forces closure of Beacon ad scheme " »

US visitors accounted for 54% of the growth in traffic to UK news websites in the year to August, with referrals from the Drudge Report bringing more than 10% of US visitors, according to new data. The figures, from Hitwise, show that this growth acts in stark contrast to the UK itself, which saw an 8% growth in visits to homegrown news sites. Hitwise found that BBC News is the 21st most visited News and Media website in US during August, while the Daily Mail was 47th and the BBC homepage 65th.

Continue reading "US visitors flock to UK news sites " »

A controversial broadband tax is set to become law before the next election, charging 50 pence a month to everyone with a fixed line telephone. Speaking at a debate in London, Minister for Digital Britain Stephen Timms, said the tax will be presented to parliament as part of the Finance Bill. "We want to make high speed networks nationally available. The next-generation fund will help that and we will legislate for it this side of a general election," he said. The levy was first put forward in Lord Carter's Digital Britain report, released earlier this year. But the Tory MP John Whittingdale said the tax, which could raise up to £175m a year to fund high speed networks, would be opposed by the Conservatives.

24/09/2009

Twitter has ruled out running ads on its micro-blogging platform this year, and will launch new products relying solely on its recent venture capital fund injections. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone made the announcement in his keynote speech at the company’s two-day conference in Los Angeles, California. Stone said that the company’s immediate focus was to continue to innovate and build new features and revenue-generating products. "Any kind of approach toward advertising is going to be a while. We're not thinking about that just yet," Stone said.

24/09/2009

Continue reading "Twitter rules out ads this year " »

The US smartphone app market will be worth $4.2bn by 2013, more than 10 times the $343m it is expected to bring in this year, according to new research. The study, from market researcher Yankee Group, predicts that increasing smartphone adoption and rising app prices will drive the strong growth. Report author Carl Howe said: “Just two words describe the market to come: gold rush.” The study forecasts that the number of US smartphone users will quadruple from 40m to 160m over the next four years, accompanied by a growth in app downloads to 7bn.

25/09/2009

Continue reading "US mobile app market ‘worth $4bn by 2013’ " »

Internet advertising is expected to account for about 15% of global measured advertising spending in 2010, up from an anticipated 13% in 2009, according to new report. The study, from GroupM, found that growth in display ads has fallen over the past several years as supply has run ahead of demand. In 2010 the report predicts that display spending is expected to hold a 34% share of online advertising, down from 35 percent in 2009, 37% in 2008, 38% in 2007 and 39% in 2006. By contract, spend on search ads has grown from a 38% share in 2006 to an anticipated 43% in 2010. The overall 15% figure represents an estimated $64.7bn (£39.72bn) globally and is an 11 percent increase over the previous year’s total.

25/09/2009

Continue reading "Internet to take 15% of global ad spend next year " »

Nokia has bought London-based social travel website Dopplr for some €15m (£13.5m), according to a report. Launched in 2007, Dopplr lets frequent travellers keep track of their movements. The company received €1.5m in funding from The Accelerator Group and a number of private investors, expanding into travel tips. News of the deal, which was reported by blog Techcrunch, comes as the latest in a string of dotcom acquisitions by the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer as it looks to further expand into the software arena. Nokia recently purchased ‘certain assets’ of micro-social networking site Plum Networks.
http://www.dopplr.com

25/09/2009

Mobile network Vodafone has launched a mobile web store that will let its customers download a range of applications and web-based services to use on their phone. Vodafone 360 will include a cloud-based address book, full-track music downloads, app store, and integration with social communities such as Facebook and Twitter. The service will be in direct competition with Apple’s App Store, Google’s Android Market and Nokia’s recently launched Ovi store.

28/09/2009

Continue reading "Vodafone 360 takes on Apple’s App Store " »

Twitter has confirmed that it has closed a "significant round of funding". Co-founder Evan Williams said in a blog post that the site had secured money from five investment firms. The companies are: Insight Venture Partners, T. Rowe Price, Institutional Venture Partners, Spark Capital, Benchmark Capital, and Morgan Stanley. However, he did not confirm earlier reports that suggested the firm had managed to secure $100 million (£62m), which would value the firm at $1bn. Williams wrote: "It was important to us that we find investment partners who share our vision for building a company of enduring value. Twitter's journey has just begun and we are committed to building the best product, technology, and company possible. I'm proud of the team we've built so far and I'm confident in the future we'll build together." It is understood the firm, which has just 100 staff, is likely to use the money to increase the scale of its service. The site had previously raised $35m in February in a deal that valued the business then at $255m.
http://www.twitter.com

28/09/2009

Baidu tops the chart of internet properties in China, Aug- Sep 09.

Size isn't everything. That's the conclusion of the largest study of web ad effectiveness so far. Bigger may be better in general, but location on the page has a strong impact. Ad units embedded inside the editorial have a stronger impact on readers which means web marketers need to pay more attention to their media planning and placement on the page.

Yet again, having the right digital strategy means more than simply being online. For over 5 years our Digital Media Planning Academy has coached planners why "right consumer, right environment, right time and right mindset" are all key for getting the best value from a media buy, and this research of 3.9m people confirms why the attention to detail is key.

Here in the UK, online ad spend overtook TV advertising exactly to the month we'd predicted a few years back. At 23.5% of all UK adspend it's risen about 5% year on year, but is rising about 20% vs the UK advertising industry average (which suffered a massive fall of over 15% in the same period).

This month our national focus turns on China, where Baidu continues to top the charts - but with figures a big leap up from when we were last in Shanghai. As the centre of the web economy continues shifting east, look out for Chinese tech start-ups heading into Europe and a shift in web development with China taking over from India as the coding engine room for many agencies.

If you're a client of Digital and your colleagues would like our research, simply forward this link: http://www.digitalstrategyconsulting.com/digitalbriefings.

Read September 2009

Online advertising overtakes TV for the first time during the first half of 2009.

Online as sector bucks the trend in the recession, growing by a healthy 4.6%- with the rest of the advertising economy tumbling almost 17%.

The UK online ad sector grew a healthy 4.6% to £1.75 billion in the first half of this year. Figures out today from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the IAB confirmed online bucked the trend in the recession - with the rest of the advertising economy tumbling almost 17% over the same period. That’s consistent with growth rates about 20% above the total ad sector. Online advertising took 23.5% of all UK adspend in the first half of the year, extending its lead over other media and confirming it is now significantly larger than the television ad industry. The UK remains the most mature online advertising economy in the world with the highest market share of ad spend going online.

30/09/2009

Continue reading "UK web adspend overtakes TV" »