Google is set to launch its ‘Google Editions’ electronic book store early next year in the UK, taking on the likes of Amazon and Apple in the growing online publishing market, according to a news report. Bloomberg cites a person familiar with the company’s plans, stating that will open an online store for electronic versions of books in the U.S. this year and internationally in 2011.

The report said Google is already working with book publishers to sell hundreds of thousands of e-books, said the person, who asked not to be identified because details of the project haven’t been made public. Google Editions will be a completely separate venture than Google’s existing Book Search feature, which digitizes and sells out-of-print books. The Google Books, initiative has been held up in court until a settlement with publishers is approved.

01/12/2010

Continue reading "Google to take on Amazon with eBook store- report" »

Mobile Games revenues are set to reach $11bn by 2015, with more players opting to buy games while playing the free version, according to new research. The study, from Juniper research, indicates how App stores are driving changes in monetisation, but discoverability still remains an issue on some platforms.

Juniper Research forecasts that revenues from in-game purchases will overtake the traditional pay-per-download model as the primary source of monetising mobile games by 2013. With Apple’s in-app billing mechanism showing the way forward, total end-user revenues will surpass $11 billion annually by 2015, nearly double what they were in 2009 ($6bn).

01/12/2010

Continue reading "Mobile games: In-game purchases to overtake pay-per-download" »

Google is close to buying e-commerce coupon website Groupon for as much as $6bn (£3.9bn), according to a news report. The New York Times reports that the deal could be struck as soon as this week but people with direct knowledge of the matter cautioned that the talks between Google and Groupon might still fall apart.

Groupon, a privately held, Chicago-based company which was launched about two years ago sends its members daily emails with about 200 deals for goods and services. The deals are activated only when a minimum number of people agree to make a purchase, giving Groupon clout to negotiate steep group discounts on products and services.

01/12/2010

Continue reading "Google 'on verge of buying shopping deal website Groupon for $6bn'" »

Leading Russian search engine Yandex is set to go public with a billion-pound IPO, according to a report. The company will list at the beginning of 2011, an unidentified source at Yandex told RBK Daily, with the London Stock Exchange the most likely destination, although the US-based Nasdaq has also been mooted.

Russian portal and email firm Mail.ru raised just under $1 billion with an IPO on November 3, and the stock has continued to rise since the initial listing. Yandex is Russia’s largest search engine, accounting for over 60 per cent of searches, while major rivals Google lag behind because its searches in Cyrillic are not as effective as their English service.

01/12/2010

Continue reading "Russian search giant Yandex mulls IPO" »

While 58 % of top online UK retailers are ‘mobile ready’, only 19 % of consumers plan to shop online this Christmas via their handsets, according to new research. Research from social and search agency Tamar, shows that the Christmas Online Retail 2010 study reveals that security and complexity of payment processes are seen, in general feedback from some consumers polled, as obstacles to mobile adoption, for example, keying in credit/debit card details while on the move.

Of those surveyed, the slowest adopters of mobile shopping are the over 55s (10 per cent). Surprisingly, the 18-24 age group were not far behind, with only 11 per cent saying that that they would definitely use mobile for holiday season shopping. The most engaged age group for mobile were the 25 to 34-year-olds (29 per cent), which contrasted with the 35-44 age group (18 per cent), and the 45-54 age group (20 per cent).

01/12/2010

Continue reading "Complex payment hampers mobile shopping this Xmas" »

News Corporation is reportedly willing to sell Myspace, the former social media market leader it bought back in 2005. MySpace COO Chase Carey told Reuters that the company is open to a sale, partnership, or some other option.

“There are opportunities here to do 20 things… but that doesn’t mean you’re going to do any of the 20. If there’s something there that makes sense you ought to think about it,” Carey said. Myspace’s recent redesign and rebranding efforts are an attempt to make the site more attractive to possible buyers, and Carey stuck by his position that the social networking platform had “quarters, not years” to turn itself around. “We need to deal with this with urgency,” he said today.

02/12/2010

Continue reading "Murdoch to sell off Myspace?" »

Cable giant Virgin Media has launched its new broadband internet based "next-generation entertainment platform" and Set Top Box (STB), which uses Video-on-Demand (VoD) technology from TiVo. The service will roll-out from mid-December 2010 and cost from £26.50 per month. The STB itself will cost £199 and standard installation costs apply (£40).

Virgin Media said the product will not eat into the traffic management restrictions of existing customer broadband accounts. Instead, the box uses of its own dedicated 10Mbps broadband Cable Modem connection. The new service sees Virgin Media beating the much-vaunted YouView (Project Canvas) service to market, which is due to appear from ISPs BT and TalkTalk in 2011.

02/12/2010

Continue reading "Virgin Media to launch YouView rival with Tivo powered set top box" »

Yammer has received $25m in third-round funding, as the US-based business-based social network looks to expand to Europe and Australia. The latest round of funding, led by US Venture Partners, brings the San Francisco company's total financing to $40 million.

Yammer's previous investors, including Emergence Capital, Charles River Ventures and Founders Fund, also contributed to the latest round. Founded in 2008, Yammer started off as a micro-blogging site for corporate employees. In September, the company redesigned its service to become a full-fledged social network. Yammer today has more than 90,000 companies in 136 countries using its service, including more than 80% of the Fortune 500.

02/12/2010

Continue reading "‘Twitter for business’ Yammer to come to UK after $25m funding boost?" »

For the US holiday season-to-date, $13.55 billion has been spent online, marking a 13% increase on the same period last year, according to new data. ComScore reports that this week’s ‘Cyber Monday’ reached $1.028 billion in online spending, up 16 percent versus year ago, representing the heaviest online spending day in history and the first to surpass the billion-dollar threshold.

02/12/2010

Continue reading "‘Cyber Monday’ breaks US records with $1bn spending spree online" »

Myspace has launched a new mobile site and iPhone application, as the social network looks to gain lost ground on market leader Facebook and promote its music-sharing tools.

The new Myspace site, which officially re-launched at the end of October 2010, is now accessible on iPhone, iPod Touch, Android, Palm and a range of Nokia and Blackberry devices. Myspace said more than one third of it’s users access the site via mobile daily, and its hoped these changes enable them to consume and engage with more content on the go.

02/12/2010

Continue reading "Myspace revamps mobile site, preps iPhone music app" »

Japan's anti-monopoly watchdog has approved a tie-up between Yahoo Japan and Google but warned it will keep checking for possible violations. The commission said Thursday it didn't see any problems as long as the two companies continued to be separate and offered distinctive services.

Yahoo Japan has said it plans to launch a search service using Google's search and advertising technology here by the end of this year. Online shopping mall operator Rakuten and Microsoft have both filed petitions with the commission to further investigate the search engine technology tie-up plan.

03/12/2010

Continue reading "Japan approves Yahoo-Google search ad deal… despite Microsoft outcry" »

US political heavyweights have forced Amazon to remove controversial whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks from its server. According to The Guardian, the online retail giant was contacted by the office of Joe Lieberman, the chairman of the Senate committee on homeland security, 24 hours before Amazon took the site down from its servers. Wikileaks has claimed that the ousting breached freedom of speech under the first amendment of the US constitution.

03/12/2010

Continue reading "Amazon ‘forced to remove Wikileaks from its servers’" »

The UK’s major toy retailers must upgrade their online offering if they are to beat competitors to the Christmas rush, according to the 2010 Toy Retail Report compiled by eCommerce display experts Brandbank.

Amazon, Early Learning Centre and Argos are the three top performing toy retailers online, while WH Smiths and Toy Master bring up the bottom of the table, falling below the average standard of the expected online shopping experience.

03/12/2010

Continue reading "Top toy stores: WHSmith, Play.com and Toy Master lose out in the Christmas crush " »

UK shoppers buy more products online and spend more money than internet users in any other European country, according to new research. The study, from communications regulator Ofcom said that UK consumers spent an average of £1,031 between June and November last year – nearly double that spent in next-placed Germany.

In its International Communications Market Report, Ofcom said no single factor could explain the popularity of online shopping in Britain. It added: "It is likely that the early launch of Amazon in the UK in 1998, the historic popularity of catalogue shopping, high penetration of credit cards and the willingness of UK consumers to trust online payment all contributed."

03/12/2010

Continue reading "Brits top Europe for online spending" »

The Association of Online Publishers (AOP) unveils its first research study “The New Rules of Engagement”. The new research examines advertising engagement: the relationship between consumer engagement with website content and particularly their reaction to advertising on different website types: original content sites, portals and social networks.

The findings in the study, conducted by GfK NOP, show that engagement and advertising responsiveness is strongest on original content sites compared to other site genres. Respondents are almost twice as likely to trust advertising and brands on content sites vs social media sites, while they are almost three times more likely to believe that content sites are better than social media sites at influencing positive brand opinion.

03/12/2010

Continue reading "AOP survey reveals “New Rules of Engagement” for online content" »

AOL is actively exploring a breakup involving a complicated series of transactions that may lead to a merger with Yahoo, according to a news report. AOL is actively exploring a breakup involving a complicated series of transactions that may lead to a merger with Yahoo, according to a news report.

Sources familiar with the deal told Reuters that the plans are still in the exploratory stage and Yahoo has not been contacted. The sources declined to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

06/12/2010

Continue reading "AOL 'mulls break up, then merger with Yahoo'" »

Shopping deal webiste Groupon has rejected a $6bn bid from Google, saying it is planning a possible public offering instead. The sale was expected to fetch up to $6 billion in a deal which had set tongues wagging on Wall Street about whether such a valuation represented good value for Google.

However Groupon had been playing hard to get, spurning offers from previous firms such as Yahoo and walking away from a deal with Google in favour of a possible public offering in 2011. Groupon, a privately held, Chicago-based company which was launched about two years ago sends its members daily emails with about 200 deals for goods and services. The deals are activated only when a minimum number of people agree to make a purchase, giving Groupon clout to negotiate steep group discounts on products and services.

06/12/2010

Continue reading "Groupon rejects Google deal, plans IPO instead" »

Google's browser Chrome is taking an increasing share of global Web usage, while Microsoft’s market leader Internet Explorer is in decline, according to new figures. Chrome usage rose from 8.5 percent of worldwide Web usage in October to 9.3 percent in November, according to statistics from Net Applications, whose analytics software monitors Web traffic extensively.

Chrome claimed most of that share from Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which dropped in overall usage from 59.2 percent to 58.3 percent. Chrome's gains means Google has an easier time pursuing its agenda--adding new features for Web programmers, modifying Net communication protocols to make them faster, and generally trying to make the Internet a place where people spend more of their lives.

06/12/2010

Continue reading "Browser wars: Google’s Chrome takes bigger bite of market share" »

The BBC is working on a version of its iPlayer to be launched in the US, in the form of a paid-for iPad application, according to a new report. The FT.com reports that the 'Global iPlayer', which is in pilot form until it passes scrutiny by the BBC Trust, will only be available outside the UK, where the broadcaster is allowed to charge for access to its content.

BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the publicly-funded broadcaster, said that it would make the iPlayer available to iPad owners in certain target markets in the middle of next year. Luke Bradley-Jones, managing director of BBC.com, said there would be a monthly subscription and that the US would be among the first markets to get access to the iPlayer app, with a decision on where the iPlayer app would launch first to be made in the new year.

06/12/2010

Continue reading "BBC to launch paid-for iPlayer iPad app in US" »

Google plans to crack down on pirated content, pledging to remove material which infringes copyright from its main search service “within 24 hours”. In what could prove a very big blow to the activities of internet pirates, Google has announced a number of new policies designed to limit the accessibility of illegal content online.

Measures include removing terms “that are closely associated with piracy” from appearing in its Autocomplete search function, and expelling groups in breach of copyright from its AdSense advertising program. In a document entitled 'Making Copyright Work Better Online' on its Public Policy blog, Google has ledged to radically increase its support for rights holders.

06/11/2010

Continue reading "Google to remove pirated material from search ‘within 24hrs’" »

Amazon has invested $175m (£112m) in Living Social, a rival to popular deals site Groupon. Living Social plans to use the cash injection to strengthen its positioning in more locations.

At present it has 10 million subscribers in the UK, Ireland, US, Canada and Australia and says it expects to turnover $500 million (£320 million) in revenue next year. Living Social has also secured a further $8 million (£5 million) from Lightspeed Venture Partners. The investment by Amazon comes as Google looks close to securing a deal to acquire rival deals site Groupon.

06/12/2010

Continue reading "Amazon takes on Groupon by investing $175m in rival Living Social" »

Today (Monday 6th December) is set to be the busiest online shopping day of 2010 in the lead-up to Christmas, as sales and traffic levels have begun to gather momentum towards Mega Monday, according to new forecasts from key players in the UK ecommerce sector. Sales levels have been steadily increasing since Sunday 28th November, with the sales increase on Wednesday far higher than that of Monday 29th, which was Cyber Monday in the US.

Wednesday was the first of the month, and the sharp rise could have been influenced by everybody now having been paid for November. While the rise in online activity could have been influenced by the recent weather conditions, it is very difficult to tell as it has coincided with the festive shopping period accelerating and the beginning of a new month, when traffic generally rises.

06/12/2010

Continue reading "Nearly half of all UK web surfers to shop online this week" »

The majority (74%) of consumers are always or sometimes actively looking for adverts related to entertainment brands and products online, from home cinema and audio equipment, to video games and gadgets, according to new research. The report, from eBay Advertising released, highlights the opportunity for brands to engage with consumers via e-commerce platforms when they’re already in the purchase mindset.

The research of over 3,000 online shoppers in the UK also showed that factors such as the economic downturn had also led to a growing receptiveness to ads related to entertainment items, such as home entertainment systems and video games consoles. More than a quarter (27%) of consumers claimed they were now more likely to click on an advert offering further information or offers, as opposed to before the downturn.

06/12/2010

Continue reading "Brits ‘actively look for web adverts’ to guide entertainment purchases" »

High speed broadband will be available to every community in Britain by 2015 under plans announced by the government on Monday. A £830 million investment over the next seven years will see "digital hubs" created across the country in an attempt to ensure every home has Internet access.

The hubs, which would be linked to the nearest exchange by fibre-optic connections, will bring "superfast broadband" to 90 percent of the population, the government hopes. The fibre upgrades will allow Internet service providers to routinely offer packages with speeds of up to 100 megabits per second (mbps).

07/12/2010

Continue reading "UK Govt. plans superfast broadband for all by 2015" »

Facebook is updating its profile page, claiming the changes will make it easier for users to ‘tell their story’ to their friend on the social network. The profile now begins with a quick overview of basic information such as where the user is from, where they went to school and where they work.

Facebook claims the new profile will allow users to introduce themselves via typical 'conversation starters' they'd use with someone they have just met. The new-look profile will also include a row of recently tagged photos of the user. The tabs have also been moved to the left of the site, under the profile picture, which remains unaffected in the change, though it looks like photos are a prime concern of the redesign.

07/12/2010

Continue reading "Facebook lets users ‘tell their story’ with profile revamp" »

The hacking of search giant Google was orchestrated by a senior Chinese official who searched for his name and found critical articles via the search engine, according to new documents released by the website Wikileaks. The attack, which took places ealier this year, resulted in Google walking away from a potential market of 400m internet users in China.

The WikiLeaks report claimed the hacking was “100% political in nature”, the Observer reported. Senior Chinese official Li Changchun searched for his own name, the cables allege. The cable quoted a ‘well-placed contact’ telling US diplomats that leading members of the Chinese politburo coordinated the attacks late last year.

07/12/2010

Continue reading "China hacked into Google after official ‘Googled himself’- Wikileaks " »

The UK has seen its busiest ever day for online shopping, with Brits spending £831,000 spent in 1 minute at its peak. Early figures from the IMRG reveal that yesterday's much-anticipated 'Mega Monday' achived sales some 21% higher than same day last year. Its 'busiest minute' was at 13:15, when £831,000 was spent online.

The figures come from IMRG member Retail Decisions (ReD), a card fraud prevention and payment processing firm. The October release of the IMRG's eCSI report revealed that over 60% of people were looking to start their Christmas shopping early.

07/12/2010

Continue reading "Xmas online bonanza: 'Mega Monday' breaks records with £831,000 spent in 1 minute" »

Online music service Last.fm has dramatically narrowed its pre-tax loss, announcing a £2.8m loss for last year, compared to a £17m loss the previous year. The CBS- owned site said revenues climbed 74% year-on-year to £7.3m, although net liabilities climbed from £19m to £22.2m. The music streaming and recommendations service said £5.4m was earned in advertising and £1.3m from subscriptions.

07/12/2010

Continue reading "Last.fm narrows losses as ad revenues climb" »

Only 23 percent of UK’s top 57 fashion retailers have a transactional mobile site or application, according to new research. Integrated mobile and digital communications business, Mobile Interactive Group (MIG) today unveiled its Christmas Sock Report.

The research evaluated the UK’s top 57 retailers against their mCommerce capabilities, in particular testing them against the question: how easy is it to find and purchase the most popular Christmas present - a pair of socks? The report concluded that only 16 retailers had a mobile application with only nine of these being capable of processing a transaction. In addition, only four retailers had an optimised transactional mobile site.

07/12/2010

Continue reading "Only 1 in 4 UK fashion shops have transactional mobile site" »

UK police have arrested WikiLeaks founder and owner Julian Assange on an arrest warrant from Sweden, where he is accused of sexual crimes. The 39-year-old Australian was arrested in the morning after he voluntarily appeared for an appointment at a London police station.

Earlier, Assange told a court in London that he would fight any attempt to extradite him to Sweden, where he faces allegations of sex crimes. The founder of the whistleblowing website that has released reams of sensitive U.S. diplomatic cables has denied the allegations. He has not yet been charged.

08/12/2010

Continue reading "WikiLeaks founder arrested in London" »

Consumers are a fickle bunch when it comes to banking online, with nearly a third (31%) of banking customers end up selecting a different brand to their preferred one when browsing online, according to new research.

The study, from Google and international customer experience research partner Global Reviews, also found that the majority (77%) of customers didn’t know the product they chose existed when they started looking. The research found that the challenge for providers of credit cards, current and savings accounts is that customers looking for financial products are not loyal to a particular brand when exploring products and brands online and will not tolerate websites that fail to deliver basic content or help choosing a product.

09/12/2010

Continue reading "Online banking: Battle to win customers heats up as loyalty declines" »

Google has released its annual Zeitgeist report into the UK’s search habits online browsing habits, listing the terms most commonly searched on its site this year. The lists are collated in an attempt to give a snapshot of the country's online interests.

According to the Google Zeitgeist 2010, the webcam chat site Chatroulette was the UK's fastest rising search term, while tickets to see the re-formed band Take That were the most commonly searched in their category. Perhaps reflecting the higher voter turnout at this year's general election than in 2005, the top two searches in the news category were "election 2010" and "register to vote".

10/12/2010

Continue reading "Chatroulette, Take That and Facebook: Google reveals top UK search terms of 2010" »

Microsoft has added a function to its Internet Explorer 9 web browser enabling users to designate sites which will be blocked from tracking their online behaviour. The new feature will allow users of Internet Explorer 9 to create and subscribe to lists of sites with which they don't want to share information, including ads that target people based on their surfing behavior.

The Wall Street Journal reported that this is the resurrection of a feature that Microsoft considered for an earlier version of Internet Explorer but dropped due to advertiser opposition. Microsoft execs couched it as part of their ongoing talks with regulators in Washington and Europe on the issue of web privacy.

10/12/2010

Continue reading "Online behavioural advertising blocked – new threats from IE9" »

For a brief period last week, cybercriminals managed to infect Google's and Microsoft's online ad networks with malicious advertisements that attacked users' PCs, according to a new report. The attacks started around 5th December and lasted a few days, sending victims who clicked on the ads to malicious Web pages, according to security consultancy Armorize.

Those pages took advantage of known software bugs to install backdoor programs that gave the attackers control of the victims' PCs, or to install software that made it appear as though the PCs were filled with malicious software.

13/12/2010

Continue reading "Google and Microsoft ad networks hit by virus attack" »

The busiest day for pre-Christmas online shopping was 'Cyber Sunday' December 5th, with Lego the most searched for gift, according to new research. Data from Experian Hitwise, the online competitive intelligence service, reveals that the recent flurry of snow pushed last Sunday above 'Cyber Monday' December 6th in terms of visits to the online retail sites.

Visits on Cyber Sunday to Experian Hitwise's Shopping and Classifieds category was 4.2% higher than on Cyber Monday, setting a new peak for the year. However, Cyber Monday was also a key day for retailers - together Cyber Sunday and Monday form the busiest 2 days for online retailers in the run up to Christmas.

13/12/2010

Continue reading "Xmas web shopping: Top 20 products and retailers on 'Cyber Sunday' revealed" »

Twitter has added more than 100 million registered accounts in 2010, and is now being used by 8% of all American internet users, according to new data.

A post on the company's blog marked the occasion with an infographic showing some of the more famous joiners this year, including Bill Gates, the Dalai Lama, Conan O'Brien, Diego Forlan, Leonard Nimoy, Cher, Hugo Chavez, Tiger Woods and Kanye West. The site now has around 200 million users, and is widely recognised as a vital source of breaking news and views, providing real-time, eyewitness accounts of events such as the Iran election protests, the crash-landing of an aircraft on the Hudson River, and the earthquake in Haiti.

14/12/2010

Continue reading "Twitter attracted 100m new members this year- report" »

YouTube has looked back on the year to launch a video of its most watched clips of 2010, including Old Spice, annoying oranges and bed intruders...

Continue reading "Video: Top 10 YouTube clips of 2010" »

Facebook has revealed the UK’s list of top trends in status updates in the UK, giving a unique insight into the sporting, TV and cultural moments which prompted national conversations. The Facebook Memeology study looked at what terms grew the most in status updates in 2010 compared to the year before.

It reflects the politics, pop stars and events which captured the imagination of the 26 million UK Facebook users based upon the content and status updates that they shared with friends and family across the site throughout 2010.

15/12/2010

Continue reading "Facebook reveals most talked about UK trends of 2010" »

France is set to introduce what has been dubbed a 'Google tax' on online advertisements on January 1 2011, parliament decided Tuesday. The tax on companies based in France would be amount to one per cent of the net amount spent on online advertising.

The measure was dubbed 'Google tax' because it was originally conceived as a direct tax on the search engine and its competitors. The parliamentary commission has for some time been working on a deal for the 2011 national budget, which has already been approved by the two houses of parliament.

15/12/2010

Continue reading "France to charge advertisers "Google tax" next year" »

Twitter is set to open its first overseas office in London, according to a news report. The Sunday Telegraph reports that the US-based social-networking company will open an office in either the West End or the so-called ‘Silicon Roundabout’ area of Old street.

"There were a few of us in London this week," a Twitter spokesperson told the Telegraph. "We are considering London and other European locations to create an initial and small presence in 2011." Representatives from the site are said to have looked at property in both the West End area of London as well as a neighborhood the Telegraph calls "Silicon Roundabout." It gets that name because there is a high concentration of tech companies based there.

15/11/2010

Continue reading "Twitter to open London office?" »

TV catch-up services ITV Player and Channel 4's 4oD have joined existing service BBC iPlayer on the PS3 console. The move means PS3 users will be able to catch up on popular shows from ITV, such as Coronation Street, Gossip Girl and Emmerdale, and some of Channel 4's content which includes Peep Show, Hollyoaks and Misfits.

The ITV Player and Channel 4’s 4oD service will launch the first commercial TV video content that can be watched via the PS3, available to users who have broadband access. The BBC’s iPlayer launched on the PS3 console last year.

15/12/2010

Continue reading "PS3 gets on-demand ITV and Channel 4" »

Twitter has revealed the top trends of 2010, with Inception, vuvuzuelas, the Gulf oil spill and Justin Bieber being the most tweeted subjects of the year. The most popular term of all was 'Gulf oil spill', referring to the accident on board the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico in April which caused the biggest environmental disaster America has ever seen.

Second most popular overall was the FIFA World Cup, then Inception and the Haiti Earthquake.
Also in the top ten were the Vuvuzuela, the deafening horn used by supporters at the World Cup, Apple’s iPad and the Google Android phone. The most popular film on Twitter was the science fiction film Inception, followed by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and action comedy Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

16/12/2010

Continue reading "Top Tweets of 2010: Justin Bieber, Inception, Gulf oil spill and vuvuzelas " »

Yahoo! has announced the loss of 600 jobs, representing 4% of its workforce, as the internet media giant looks to boost its revenue as it looks to compete with the likes of Google and Facebook. The New York Times reports that the cuts will affect Yahoo!’s products division in the US, and the is still recruiting on a global basis.

The latest cuts are the fourth round of redundancies in three years at the internet media firm. Yahoo! said the cuts are part of its strategy “to deliver differentiated products to the marketplace.”

16/12/2010

Continue reading "Yahoo makes a further 600 job cuts" »

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been named as Time Magazine’s annual Person of the Year, marking him out as the figure it believes had the most influence on events in 2010. The 26-year-old billionaire was the subject of a 2010 film, The Social Network, charting Facebook's rise.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange earlier won a Time readers' poll on 2010's most influential person. The annual feature has been a fixture since the 1920s, with the winner appearing on the front cover of Time.

16/12/2010

Continue reading "Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg named Time's person of 2010" »

BBC Online’s budget will be slashed by 25 percent, as the broadcaster pledged to ‘do fewer things better’ when its comes to digital, the BBC Trust has confirmed. In a strategy document released today, called ‘The BBC’s Strategy, Putting Quality First’, the Trust said that it is reducing BBC Online’s budget in an attempt to improve services.

“We will pursue a 25 percent reduction in the BBC Online budget, to improve the overall quality and coherence of the service and ‘do fewer things better’,” the Trust wrote in its report, adding that more details about the changes involved will be revealed “soon”.

16/12/2010

Continue reading "BBC Online budget to be cut by 25%" »

Twitter has raised $200m in a funding round that valued the micro-blogging site at $3.7bn, up sharply from the estimated $1bn last year. New backers include Kleiner Perkins partner John Doerr, who was an early investor in internet groups including Google and Amazon.

The new funding round comes less than a year after Twitter began its first serious efforts to make money. The funding, from Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and existing Twitter investors, underscores the high hopes that investors have for Internet social networking companies.

17/12/2010

Continue reading "Twitter gets further $2m funding boost " »

Facebook has enhanced its face detection feature, with a new "tag suggestions" tool, helping users automatically tag friends across a series of photos. The new feature will begin rolling out to US users next week, according to Facebook Vice President of Product Chris Cox.

When users are offered the chance to tag groups of your friends in an album, Facebook will utilize its facial recognition technology to group similar faces together and automatically suggest the friend they can tag them with. Facebook fills in the "Who is this?" box with its suggestion, leaving the user to click the "Save Tags" button to accept.

17/12/2010

Continue reading "Facebook revamps facial recognition with 'Tag Suggestions'" »

Facebook has produced a map that displays friend connections around the world, with the UK and US among the most connected on the social network. The map, designed by Facebook’s Paul Butler shows the social networks friend connections mapped onto the world. As well as highlighting the most popular friend connections, it also reveals some key markets that Facebook is yet to crack, including Russia, China, Africa and South America.

17/12/2010

Continue reading "Facebook maps friend connections worldwide " »

Video sharing site YouTube is in talks to buy US web video producer Next New Networks, according to US reports. The New York Times said a deal would be the Google-owned firm’s first foray into content production.

No terms have been disclosed, but the NYT quoted analysts applauding the potential acquisition. YouTube has sought to increase its share of professionally produced content as it faces competition from the likes of Hulu, a joint venture whose backers include media companies News Corp, Walt Disney Co's ABC, and NBC, controlled by General Electric.

17/12/2010

Continue reading "YouTube to buy content production firm?" »

Google has reportedly requested some manufacturers delay the launch of TV sets based on the internet company's software.The Wall Street Journal reports that the internet giant sent out word to some hardware makers last week asking them not to announce additional products yet, saying the delay may allow the company to improve its software. The initial Google TV devices are offered by Sony and Logitech.

Continue reading "Google to delay TV set rollout" »

Independent research commissioned by Callcredit Information Group has today revealed consumers’ attitudes towards giving out personal details in store, as 38% of Brits never divulge their details to retailers, and almost one in ten (8%) admit to giving out fake contact details to avoid being contacted.

Surprisingly, the YouGov research reveals that almost two thirds (64%) would be likely to give out their contact details for future marketing communications if they were signed up to the store’s loyalty programme (35%), or offered a small financial incentive like a discount off a future purchase (38%).

20/12/2010

Continue reading "Brits 'prefer to give personal info online rather than in store'" »

AOL has acquired Pictela, a provider of an award-winning global technology platform for serving and distributing high- definition brand content across online advertising and social media. The transaction brings further scale to AOL’s suite of premium advertising tools for advertisers, agencies and publishers, including the company’s new ‘Project Devil’ display advertising format which AOL intends to roll out further in the UK during Q1 in 2011.

20/12/2010

Continue reading "AOL buys HD brand content platform Pictella" »

2010 was the year video mainstreamed on the web in Western Europe, so
when YouTube released their top 10 clips, we thought it time to
collate some of the video stories from the last year. Together they
provide an important reminder of the scale online video has grown to.
So as you plan your web strategies for 2011, if video is not already
high on the agenda, then be sure to review its potential. Online
video can tell stories as powerfully as television, create
interaction as strong as games, showcase products as well as an
in-store demo, and engage your audiences as deeply as social media.

Read Digital Intelligence online video special report

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In our review of the year, Facebook and Google dominated our headlines with weekly product development announcements. They played key roles in the UK election - as digital political strategies step-changed - and influenced the fortunes of every firm online. Social media strategies became critical for consumer brands, with the digital media mix broadening for most organisations into: sites, search, social and sales.

The Times launched its paywall (and lost most of its readers), while Twitter explored ads for its digital revenue strategy. Apple entered the ad market with $60m of pre-bookings for the launch of iAds, and both online and mobile adspend set new records. Digital content strategies embraced video - forcing firms large and small to look for video assets - and YouTube reached new heights in audiences.

The key trends we predicted a year ago in mobile, social, privacy and video all proved true, yet many firms still waste much of their budgets by not having the right digital strategies in place. The ROI of digital is often less than half what it should be in most organisations, and that's why digital talent - the digital calibre of teams across a business - will be just as critical next year.

Read Digital Intelligence: 100 top stories of 2010

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Cult comedy icon Alan Partridge is set to return next week in a series of short web videos funded by beer brand Fosters. The character, played by Steve Coogan, will appear on the Fosters Funny Website in a dozen 11-minute long episodes, beginning on 5th November. A trailer goes live on the site tomorrow (29th October).

The site, at www.fostersfunny.co.uk, was created by Naked Communications, and forms part of a wider comedy initiative by Foster’s, which includes sponsorship of the Edinburgh Comedy Festival and the comedy strand on Channel 4. Foster’s branding will be evident throughout the series, which is set at regional radio station North Norfolk Digital where Partridge hosts the 'Mid Morning Matters' segment.

01/11/2010

Continue reading "Alan Partridge bounces back with Foster's funded webisodes" »

The internet is worth £100bn annually to the UK economy, comprising 7.2% of the gross domestic product, which is expected to reach 10% within five years, according to a survey commissioned by Google. The figure represents a higher proportion than the construction, education and transport industries.

The share is also likely to grow to 10% by 2015, putting the internet's contribution on a par with the financial sector. The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) said 60% of the £100bn came from ‘internet consumption’ - via online shopping and the cost of devices and connections to access the internet. The remaining £40bn comprised internet infrastructure investment, government IT spending and net exports.

01/11/2010

Continue reading "Internet worth £100bn a year to UK economy" »

Pictures of Sony Ericson’s widely rumoured ‘PlayStation phone’ have been released, confirming speculation that the electronics giant is set to take on Apple in the smartphone market. Speculation that a Sony PSP (Play Station Portable) mobile smartphone was in development have been circulation since early September.

Now the rumours have been confirmed, with a source leaking a prototype of the device to technology news site Engadget. The device features a slide out gamepad (along with PlayStation’s familiar shoulder buttons) and will run on Android’s latest 3.0 Gingerbread software under a standardised PlayStation Skin so to keep the handset in-line with the console's brand design.

01/11/2010

Continue reading "PlayStation phone: Pictures leaked of Sony’s Android games device" »

Nearly two thirds (60%) of people who ‘like’ or share branded content online are not its customers, with many feeling positive about the company after, according to new research. The study, from YouTube and supported by the Internet Advertising Bureau, highlights the real opportunity for marketers to include harder messaging in their social media content and advertising.

The study investigated the ways in which 3000 consumers across the UK, France and Germany use YouTube and Facebook and how they feel about branded content and advertising on each. The results provide essential lessons for many marketers when it comes to engaging with consumers in social media - the majority of people (75%) who share content or ‘like’ a brand on either of these sites feel more positive about the brand afterwards, compared with around a quarter of people (25%) who feel ‘no different’ as a result.

01/11/2010

Continue reading "People that ‘like’ branded content aren’t customers- study" »

Virgin will roll out its superfast 100Mb broadband service from December onwards, with pre-registration to sign up for the super-fast network already being accepted. The service offers Virgin customers nearly twenty times the UK’s average broadband speed, which is 5.2Mb, according to Ofcom’s Broadband Speeds report.

Virgin says its 100Mb service will allow users to download a music album in five seconds, a TV show in 30 second and a high definition movie in approximately seven minutes. The cost of the new service when bought as part of a bundle will be £35 per month or £45 when bought as a solo product.

01/11/2010

Continue reading "Virgin to roll out 100MB broadband from December " »

Tesco has updated its Groceries iPhone app to include a barcode reader that lets shoppers add items to a their online home delivery order. The tool is being targeted at busy parents and time-poor professionals who want to be able to add specific items to their online shopping basket at any time rather than browsing for groceries to add to their shopping lists.

Tesco said the tool would be useful for those times when a customer tries a new food at a friend's house that they want to buy or a child has finished the last of their favourite yoghurt while out and about – a quick scan will see the item added to a shopping basket where it will remain until the customer is ready to checkout.

01/11/2010

Continue reading "Tesco iPhone app lets shoppers scan barcodes for online orders" »

Most visited web properties in Poland ('000 people per month).

Google has set a new internet traffic record, accounting for 6.4% of global internet traffic during September, according to new data. The figure, from US-based web security and monitoring firm Arbor Networks, places Google among the largest traffic handlers in the world.

Arbor Networks estimates that the 6.4% share places the search firm ahead of all but one of the world's internet service providers. "While the business press may debate Google's future, its traffic growth continues apace with massive corresponding impact on the network topology, peering arrangements and the overall internet infrastructure," wrote Arbor Networks chief scientist Craig Labovitz in a blog post. The true share of web traffic that Google operates could be even larger when a margin for error and traffic from the Google global cache is factored in, Labovitz said.

01/11/2010

Amazon is set to introduce and e-book lending service for the Kindle e-reader. The e-books can be loaned for a period of 14 days and rather like physically lending someone a book, Kindle users will not be able to read the book during that period.

However, not all books may be lendable with publishers ultimately retaining control over which titles will have the feature. At least some are sure to sign up to the service if only to enable a chain of word of mouth marketing and the potential incremental sales as a result.

01/11/2010

Continue reading "Amazon lets Kindle readers ‘lend’ eBooks" »

The government’s revival of a multibillion pound plan for communications companies to store data on UK emails, web traffic and phone calls has been criticised by the Information Commissioner. Christopher Graham UK information commissioner said the government's plans for an "intercept modernisation programme", which would allow security services to track all UK email, social networking and web traffic, appear "disproportionate when any perceived benefits that might be gained from retaining this data are set against the risks to privacy involved".

Speaking to the Finacial Times, Graham’s stance could pose a major obstruction to the scheme, which was formerly launched by the Labour administration and had been opposed by a number of internet service providers. The revival of the government’s email and web data storage plans, in the Strategic Defence and Security Review, marks a policy U-turn by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government.

01/11/2010

Continue reading "Govt. web monitoring plan faces privacy backlash" »

WPP has seen its revenues climb 12.2% during the third quarter of this year, with the advertising giant cautiously optimistic heading out of the global economic crisis. Q3 trading update reveals reported revenues up 12.2% to £2.253bn.

Total year-on-year sales from the UK were up 7.4% to £262.3 million in the three months ending September 30, compared with 0.2% growth in the first quarter and a rise of 5.1% in the second quarter. The figures from WPP, led by chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell, are viewed as an important bellwether of the economy because companies' spending on advertising and marketing can reflect their confidence and strength.

02/11/2010

Continue reading "Ad giant WPP sees revenue soar" »

People in the Netherlands racked up the most website visits per month in Europe, and spent the most time on web portals, according to new data. The 11.9 million internet users in the Netherlands age 6 or older spent an average of 31.9 hours online in September 2010, with the Web portals category, which includes Microsoft, Yahoo! and AOL, leading the way at 7.2 hours.

Instant messengers ranked second with an average of 6.9 hours per user, followed by social networking sites, such as Hyves, Facebook and Twitter, at 3.5 hours per visitors in September. Dutch internet users spent more time on social networks than on E-mail, Multimedia, Online Gaming, Auctions or Classifieds sites.

02/11/2010

Continue reading "Dutch audience spent most time on portals" »

YouTube's CEO and co-founder Chad Hurley is stepping down from the position to take on an advisory role at the site. The transition has been undergoing and his duties at YouTube have shrunk for the past two years.

Hurley revealed the move at a TechCruch event in Ireland, announcing that Salar Kamangar, currently VP of product management at Google, has been has been the de facto leader of YouTube for the last couple of years.

11/02/2010

Continue reading "YouTube co-founder steps down" »

Climbers at the top of Mount Everest, the world's highest peak, will now be able to make video calls and surf the Internet on their mobile phones, a Nepalese telecom group claims. Ncell, a subsidiary of Swedish phone giant TeliaSonera, says it has set up a high-speed third-generation (3G) phone base station at an altitude of 5,200 metres (17,000 feet) near Gorakshep village in the Everest region.

02/11/2010

Continue reading "Mount Everest gets wired up for web" »

Despite its vast potential, many companies have yet to capitalise on social media's ability to not only listen to customers, but analyse conversations and turn the information into bottom-line benefit, according to a new survey. Many organisations cling to old paradigms, using social media for one-way flow of marketing messages, instead of capitalising on the opportunity to monitor, analyse, and participate in millions of conversations among consumers.

02/11/2010

Continue reading "UK firms ‘unaware they are being talked about online’" »

Apple has reportedly teamed with SIM-card manufacturer Gemalto to create a 'special' SIM card that could allow the company to offer telephony services direct rather than rely on third party carriers. According to a report on technology news site GigaOM, the move would let customers buy and activate iPhones directly from Apple's stores. They could also connect online via Apple's iTunes App Store.

02/11/2010

Continue reading "Apple to bypass networks with own iPhone SIM card?" »

People in the Netherlands and the UK racked up the most website visits per month in Europe, according to new data.The study, from ComScore, revealed that the Netherlands ranked highest among European countries in terms of frequency of internet visitation with 78.2 visits per visitor in September 2010.

Dutch internet users also exhibit strong engagement with an average of 31.9 hours per visitor spent online in September 2010. Users spent most of their time on Portals (7.2 hours), followed by Instant Messaging (6.9 hours), Social Networking (3.5 hours) and E-Mail (3.1 hours).

02/11/2010

Continue reading "Dutch and Brits are Europe’s top web visitors" »

Social networks are sending nearly 13% more traffic to online retailers this year than last year, according to Experian Hitwise, the online competitive intelligence service. The company's analysis, taken from their latest report "Getting to grips with Social Media" reveals that social networking sites accounted for 11.6% of all UK Internet visits during September, representing a year on year growth of 4.3%.

02/11/2010

Continue reading "Social networks increase traffic sent to online retailers by 13%" »

Mobile subcribers who watch TV/ video on Mobile phones, July 2009 vs July 2010 ('000 people per month).

Millions of unique monthly visitors to socila networking sites in August 2010.

Average number of hours spent on social networking sites, per visitor in August 2010.

News Corporation has revealed that 105,000 readers have paid to read The Times and Sunday Times online and via mobiles, since both broadsheet papers’ websites went behind a paywall four months ago. The media giant revealed a further 100,000 people have a joint subscription to read the newspapers digitally and in print, the papers add.

The figures have been eagerly awaited by publishers and advertisers since the two papers went behind an online paywall four months ago. Times readers are charged £1 for a day’s digital access – the same price as the weekday newspaper – or £2 for a week’s subscription to the Times and Sunday Times sites. Print subscribers gain free access, while international visitors face charges of $2/€1.50 a day or $4/€3 a week. The Times iPad app costs £9.99 a month.

03/11/2010

Continue reading "Times paywall: Online reader figures revealed" »

Graduate unemployment has risen to its highest level for 17 years, with many UK university leavers valuing remote working, according to new research. According to a recent study, the graduate class of 2009 found that 8.9 percent were out of work in January 2010, the highest unemployment level since 1993.

According to the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (HECSU) survey, the graduate unemployment rate has risen with just over 21,000 students known to have been out of work in January. Graduates are entering into a bleak employment market with many of them now looking for alternatives. A recent study conducted by mobile-giants Orange involving 1,000 university leavers found that one-in-ten graduates were planning to start their own business straight after graduation.

3/11/2010

Continue reading "Tech-savvy UK graduates face highest unemployment in 17 years" »

Twitter has announced plans to include Promoted Tweets into the stream of user updates, and has begun testing user reaction to the service on the micro-blog’s partner site HootSuite. In a blog post announcing the move, the company said it has reached the third step of a multi-part process.

First, it introduced Promoted Tweets into the search results on Twitter.com, before making those ads visible to searches in applications like HootSuite. Now, the company is introducing ads directly into the stream on HootSuite. Once Twitter has seen how users react on HootSuite, it will start introducing ads on the main Twitter site.

03/11/2010

Continue reading "Twitter tests ads in Tweet stream" »

Samsung Electronics has become the first UK advertiser to run display advertising on YouTube’s mobile site to promote its iPad rival, the Galaxy Tab. The YouTube mobile advertising forms part of a wider marketing launch campaign for Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, which will run across in-game advertising with Playstation, reach blocks on Facebook, online search and display, mobile advertising, OOH and print.

The campaign will also include a wraparound of the Evening Standard on the 4th November – with the front page of the paper incorporated within the screen of the Galaxy Tab. This marks the first time the Evening Standard has featured its own, same day editorial content as part of a front page advert. Built around the creative platform ‘Life Without Limits’, the campaign will focus on the size and portability of the new product.

03/11/2010

Continue reading "Samsung debuts first-ever YouTube mobile ad to promote Galaxy Tab" »

More than 90% percent of the Spanish internet population use the web for search and social networking, according to new data.

Continue reading "Top 10 sites in Spain: Search and social dominate list" »

Facebook has bought most of Drop.io, an online content-sharing service, for an undisclosed sum. Drop.io is a service that lets users create a "drop" where they can share documents, videos and other digital content.

The user can set a time for how long the drop will exist, decide who can view the content, set permissions for who can alter the content and share content in a variety of ways, including on Facebook. Drop.io has positioned the service as one that is ideal for real-time collaboration because people can add new content to a drop and the people they are sharing it with see it immediately, without having to refresh their browsers.

03/11/2010

Continue reading "Facebook buys content-sharing site Drop.io" »

Advertising is beginning to pay off for Google's YouTube, and it has now has served 500 million views of its paid Promoted Videos, a service it launched less than two years ago. The news follows Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s recent hints that YouTube is "nearing profitability."

Ads are becoming increasingly prevalent on the site, which is the fourth most popular destination on the Internet, attracting 90 million unique visitors each month, according to Google. The company recently said that YouTube now monetises 2 billion views per week, which is about 15 percent of total views, but up 50 percent over last year. Promoted Videos works by letting advertisers upload their video to YouTube and choose keywords they want to trigger a promotion.

03/11/2010

Continue reading "YouTube's ‘Promoted Videos’ tops 500 million views " »

Based on thousands of unique visitors, July 2010 vs July 2009

UK consumers were exposed to 221 billion display ads during the thirds quarter of this year, representing a 34% rise on the same period last year. 221 billion display ads during the third quarter, marking a 34-percent increase versus year ago (which stood at 164,734 billion impressions).

“Following the ad recession that occurred from late 2008 through most of 2009, we are now seeing a strong resurgence in the online display ad market,” said Mike Read, SVP and Managing Director, comScore Europe. “A key driver of this growth is the retail sector, which increased over 300 percent in terms of impressions delivered since last year. In the run up to Christmas with consumers searching for gifts, the growth in online advertising is likely to continue its ascent.”

04/11/2010

Continue reading "UK display ad market grows 34%: Facebook remains top dog" »

US electricals retail giant Best Buy has launched its UK transactional website, including customer recommendations from a partnership with Reevoo. BestBuy.co.uk will incorporate the advice offered its in-store team, ‘the Blueshirts’, as well as invite and involve the opinions and recommendations of consumers.

Customers will be able to find over 350 ‘Inspiration and Advice’ guides and articles on the latest technology, product and service information written in plain English. An exclusive series of interactive video buying guides, including topics on home appliances, televisions, Blu-ray, computing and digital cameras, will launch in the next few weeks.

04/11/2010

Continue reading "Best Buy launches online shop in UK" »

Google has launched the first pedestrian-eye view of Germany’s streets as part of Street View service, following months of wrangling over privacy. The first town to be mapped on the service is Oberstaufen, in Bavaria.

Germany is the first country to have negotiated with Google to allow citizens to opt out before the service goes live. Almost 250,000 Germans have requested that their properties be pixellated in the final imagery. But in a recent blog on the German roll-out the search giant warned that it would not be able to respond to all requests immediately.

04/11/2010

Continue reading "Google finally launches Street View in Germany… with added privacy features" »

More than 16 billion internet-enabled devices will be hooked up to the web by the end of the next decade, according to a new report. Consultancy firm Analysys Mason predicited that even fridges of the future could be connected to the web, and able to place an order with your local supermarket to replenish dwindling supplies

The “internet of things” will expand to encompass around 16 billion devices by 2020, the report found. The “internet of things” refers to a growing number of internet-enabled devices that can be hooked up to a network to communicate with other web-enabled gadgets and services.

4/11/2010

Continue reading "The rise of ‘connected devices’: 16bn devices online by 2020… including your fridge" »

Gap is giving away 10,000 pairs of jeans today (November 5) in the US, via Facebook Places, the social network's recently launched location tool. Starting at the time of store opening at 10 am EST, Gap is offering one free pair of its basic five-pocket jeans to the first people who visit a men's or women's Gap store in the US and "check in" via Facebook Places while they're there.

05/11/2010

Continue reading "Gap gives away 10,000 free jeans on Facebook Places in US" »

Facebook has launched a new ‘deals’ service on its mobile application, which send users special offers to users based on their location. The move offers advertisers another way to target Facebook users geographically, and the social network looks to boost its ad revenue. The service will initially launch in the US, and Facebook has not disclosed when ‘Deals’ will roll-out internationally.

The service lets Facebook Mobile users look for a list of "nearby places," with deals being denoted by a yellow price tag or sticky to the right of them. There are four kinds of deals: individual deals, loyalty deals, friend deals, and charity deals. The service also offers a ‘virtual punchcard’ for loyalty deals, with discounts for those users who bring new friends and customers.

05/11/2010

Continue reading "Facebook Mobile offers ‘deals’ based on user location" »

Facebook and Google will invest in the East End of London to help create Britain's own Silicon Valley, the Prime Minister has announced. David Cameron said he wants the proposed East London Tech City, which will encompass the Olympic Park, to become the global centre of technological innovation.

The initiative is intended to create private sector jobs and fuel growth in the economy. Cameron also unveiled special visas for foreign entrepreneurs who have financial backing from leading firms and a review of intellectual property laws to make sure Britain can keep up with the "internet age".

5/11/2010

Continue reading "East End- the new Silicon Valley? Facebook and Google to invest in Olympic park" »

The majority of all UK print and television advertising now includes a web address, with British consumers preferring to be be directed to .uk addresses than .com, according to new research.The study, from domain name organisation Nominet UK, reveals the increasing use of website addresses in UK advertising. The research is included in Nominet’s annual Domain name industry report for the first time.

05/11/2010

Continue reading "65% of UK advertising now includes a website address" »

Smartphones generate 65% of global traffic, despite accounting for 13% of the market, according to new research. The study, from research firm Informa, found that average traffic per user (ATPU) will increase by 700 percent over the next five years, as consumers continue to use the internet and smartphone figures rise, the firm said.

Smartphone ATPU in the UK is forecast to reach 776Mb per month by 2015. ATPU per smartphone currently averages 85Mb per month, said the company, with the iPhone –generating the most traffic followed by Android devices.

05/11/2010

Continue reading "Smartphones account for 65% of mobile traffic" »

Almost half of mobile advertisments send traffic to sites.

Comparing year-on-year revenue growth of different mobile advertising verticals from Q3 2009 to Q3 2010.

Random or stock images on websites are often ignored by users, who generally prefer to look at ‘real’ people, according to a new report. The study, from web design consultant Jakob Nielsen, used an eye-tracking survey to discover that “big feel-good images that are purely decorative” are mostly ignored online, while stock photos or generic people are also intentionally disregarded.

In contrast, when users know that a picture of a person is real they will engage with the image for extended periods of time. Nielsen then applies the study’s findings to products sold online saying generic photos add more clutter to the page and don’t necessarily help from a business standpoint.

08/11/2010

Continue reading "Web users ‘ignore generic photos online’" »

London is the centre of internet use in the UK.

AOL is exploring strategic options for the company which include a possible combination of assets from itself and Yahoo, according to a news report. The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that a tie-up of AOL and at least a part of Yahoo's assets are just one of the directions the company is exploring via an advisory team, the Journal reported.

"Among the scenarios being examined by AOL are a combination of Yahoo and AOL's online businesses after a spin-off of Yahoo's Asian assets that would return capital to shareholders, people familiar with the matter said," according to the paper. "Another scenario would have private-equity firms take a stake in the combined operations, along with a plan to pay a dividend to Yahoo shareholders", the paper added.

09/11/2010

Continue reading "AOL seeks advice on Yahoo tie-up- report" »

Tesco Direct has launched a mobile website, letting shoppers buy non-food and household items, directly from mobile phones. This launch is the first step in the supermarket’s strategy to expand and develop mobile websites for core Tesco sites, with others set to follow.

It follows closely on the heels of the Tesco’s grocery app launch, featuring barcode scanning for iPhone – the first ever by a UK supermarket. The initiative forms part of a wider commitment to make Tesco Direct available to "everyone, anywhere, at anytime", whether that be through the Tesco Direct catalogue, in-store, online, or by phone.

09/11/2010

Continue reading "Tesco debuts mobile website for non-food items" »

The Queen has launched a Facebook page for the British Monarchy, attracting over 100,000 ‘likes’ in its first day. The official British Monarchy page was launched at 8am yesterday on Facebook, allowing users to connect with the Royal Family online.

The British Monarchy page provides a digital version of the traditional Court Circular, detailing the daily engagements of members of the Royal Family and allowing users to comment on the arrangements.

09/11/2010

Continue reading "Queen launches official Facebook page" »

ASOS is developing a new feature on its online fashion that it hopes will encourage smaller, independent designers to sell through its website. The company said the 'ASOS Marketplace' initiative - allowing small boutiques to sell their fashion products to ASOS customers - should boost traffic to its site and drive further sales when it is launched before Christmas.

Another new feature, Fashion Finder, will let customers search for brands the company does not ordinarily sell, and a more rapid expansion in overseas markets, will also boost performance.

09/10/2010

Continue reading "ASOS woos independent designers in online fashion push" »

Google is bringing its contextual AdSense ads to its AdMob platform, the mobile advertising technology it bought in 2009. Google's AdSense focuses on context, serving up ads the software believes match the website's content. The move means AdSense ads aimed at either iPhone or Android users will now be dropped into apps running AdMob – albeit only when a standard AdMob ad is not to hand.

"In the coming weeks, eligible iPhone and Android application developers in the AdMob network will be able to show Google AdSense ads when an AdMob ad is not available," said Google Mobile Ads product manager Jason Morse on the firm's blog.

10/11/2010

Continue reading "Google integrates contextual AdSense ads into AdMob" »

The BBC has announced plans to make its popular iPlayer online video platform available for International users, for a fee. The announcement was made by John Smith, Chief Executive of BBC Worldwide.

Although there has been no official statement as yet from the BBC Trust, Smith has already gone ahead and announced the approved plans in an interview with the Telegraph by stating “Not only will that mean international fans of, for example, Doctor Who can get their fix legitimately, but it has the potential of opening up a new revenue stream for the entire UK production industry.”

10/11/2010

Continue reading "iPlayer going global: BBC plans to charge overseas viewers" »

Google has launched a new tool that allows searchers to see previews of websites before clicking on them in the results page. The "Instant Previews" feature announced Tuesday is meant to help people bypass websites that are either irrelevant or simply too visually cluttered for their tastes.

It works for Google Web searches, as well as searches for news, video and local businesses.
After clicking on an icon of a magnifying glass, people will see a picture of the website in the white space to the right of the search results within a tenth of a second.

10/11/2010

Continue reading "Google debuts 'Instant Previews' search tool" »

Nearly 1.3 trillion display ads were delivered to U.S. Internet users during the third quarter, up 22% on last year, according to new data. comScore’s overview of the U.S. online display advertising market for Q3 2010, which showed strong gains following softness for much of 2009.

“The U.S. online display advertising market exhibited considerable strength in the third quarter with nearly 1.3 trillion ad impressions delivered,” said Jeff Hackett, comScore senior vice president. “Just one year ago we were still in the midst of an advertising recession, but several growth drivers have contributed to sustained improvements over the past few quarters."

10/11/2010

Continue reading "Facebook accounts for nearly 1 in 4 display ads in US" »

More than a third of people intend to reduce their spend this Christmas, with 65% of people planning to start their shopping early in order to spread the cost in the wake of the Government's spending cuts, according to a new forecast.

The latest e-Customer Service Index (eCSI) survey conducted by eDigitalResearch and IMRG revealed that while the impact may be felt on the high street, online retail sales could provide a vital uplift, with 28% of people expected to do more shopping online this Christmas than last year. Competitive pricing, more extensive product ranges and the sheer convenience factor are driving more people online this year, with 61% planning to do 50% or more of their shopping online.

10/11/2010

Continue reading "Public Sector cuts ‘impact retail spend this Christmas’" »

British firms are neglecting the needs of consumers accessing websites from mobile devices, according to research released today by 1&1 Internet. From a study of 530 small firms, 53 per cent have never checked the appearance or functionality of their website for Smartphone users.

From companies that have, 41 per cent admit their website has a reduced appearance, and 36 per cent offer reduced functionality. 65 per cent of firms have not optimised their websites for mobile usage and have no plans to do so.

10/11/2010

Continue reading "Half of UK firms fail to check own sites on mobiles" »

Top ten advertisers based on billions of online display advertising impressions (221 billion impressions (221 billion impressions, Q3, 2010).

Ask.com is cutting 130 engineering jobs and outsourcing its search technology, as the internet icon finally concedes that it cannot compete with Google and Bing in the search market. In a move similar to Yahoo, which recently outsourced its search technology to Microsoft, Ask.com will stop working on its search algorithm and instead hire a third-party company to provide that technology.

The company is laying off engineers based in Edison, New Jersey, and in China, althouth it has not disclosed which companies it is approaching about a search partnership. Ask.com, which digital conglomerate IAC bought in 2005, plans to focus on developing its online question-and-answer service, in which actual humans field customers' queries. An "ask the community" program launched in July.

11/10/2010

Continue reading "Ask ditches search for community answers " »

Around 19.2 million UK households are now online, but just 26% of those on the lowest incomes have access to the web, according to new research. In its first ever collation of trends in "e-society", the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveals that 83% of families with children have online access.

The figures, published by the ONS, show that the proportion of UK households online has grown from 57% in 2006 to 73% in 2010. Of those, 96% of the highest 10% of earners were online, compared to little more than one-quarter of the lowest 10%.

12/11/2010

Continue reading "19.2m UK households online… but digital divide remains" »

Rivalry between Google and Facebook is intensifying, with the world’s two biggest internet companies locking horns over the export of user’s contact data from GMail to Facebook, with Google even encouraging its users to file a complaint against the social network. Recently, Google blocked Facebook access to the GMail contacts API, saying that it would no longer let other services, including Facebook, automatically import its users' email contact data for their own purposes, unless the information flows both ways.

This week, Facebook responded by offering users a work-around solution to Google’s block. It added a link, allowing users to first move their Gmail contacts to a PC and then upload them to Facebook. "We're disappointed that Facebook didn't invest their time in making it possible for their users to get their contacts out of Facebook," a Google Spokesperson said. "As passionate believers that people should be able to control the data they create, we will continue to allow our users to export their Google contacts."

12/11/2010

Continue reading "The battle for your data: Facebook and Google in GMail contacts row" »

Three in four (75%) of YouTube Mobile users say that their mobile is the number one device they use to watch YouTube videos, according to new stats issued by Google. According to Nielsen, YouTube Mobile is the number one video viewing mobile website in the US, with more than 7.1MM monthly unique users.

In response to this growing demand, Google is introducing a new ‘daily roadblock’ ad format to brands. The daily roadblock allows advertisers to own all available ad impressions for 24 hours. Ads run on the Search, Browse and Home pages of the mobile website.

12/11/2010

Continue reading "YouTube debuts new mobile ad formats as videos on-the-move soars " »

Google has denied building a social network to compete with Facebook, despite months of rumours that the internet giant was working on a new social platform ‘Google Me’.

12/11/2010

Continue reading "Google denies rumours of building Facebook rival ‘Google Me’" »

Mobile internet devices outsold computers in 2009 by 144 million units.

Billions of searches: Worldwide internet searches increased from 90 billion in December 2008 to 131 billion in December 2009, a rise of 46%.

Netherlands and UK lead in intensity of web use. Number of times the internet was accessed by average visits per visitor (September 2010)

Facebook accounts for almost one third of all ad impressions among top publishers (billions, Q3, 2010).

Sector size as a share of 2009 GDP.

Indonesia eclipses the United Kingdom as the second-largest Facebook market behind the united States, with 29.8 million users.

YouTube is trialing a new service called ‘Topics on Search’, giving viewers examples of related searches. The tool, available on the video sharing site’s beta testing area ‘TestTube’, uses an algorithm that looks at video tags, comments, shares, viewing patters, and other signals.

YouTube is hoping to keep viewers on the site by providing videos on topics that they might be interested in seeing. Topics also can work in combination with their original search to help find the exact video they’re looking for. The typical YouTube user spends 15 minutes a day watching YouTube content, according to BBC. The more videos they watch, the more ads they are likely to see, driving revenue for parent company Google.

15/11/2010

Continue reading "YouTube boosts stickiness with search topic suggestions" »

Newspapers will increasingly to act more like cable channels as they move to the web and mobile apps, creating a wholesale marketplace for advertising, according to James Murdoch, James Murdoch, News Corp.’s chairman for Europe and Asia.

“Digital news will look like cable channels with affiliated revenue,” Murdoch said at a media conference in Monaco last week. He added that titles will compete for ad revenue across this market and media buyers will “make a big commitment” to purchase advertising, rather than making bookings for just a month at a time.

15/11/2010

Continue reading "James Murdoch: Digital newspapers ‘will act more like cable channels’ for ads " »

Facebook has launched a next-generation online messaging service that gives the user a Facebook.com email addresses, in a move seen as a shot across the bow of Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg unveiled what he called a "convergent" modern messaging system that "handles messages seamlessly across all the ways you want to communicate."

The messaging service blends online chat, text messages and other real-time conversation tools with traditional e-mail, which Zuckerberg said had lost favour for being too slow for young Internet users. "It is true that people will be able to have Facebook.com email addresses, but this is not e-mail," Zuckerberg said at an event in downtown San Francisco. "It handles email."

16/11/2010

Continue reading "Facebook’s new ‘social inbox’: Will it make email obsolete?" »

Google has given all of its 23,000 employees a pay hike, in a bid to stem defections to rival technology companies such as Facebook, according to a report. The raise will become effective in January, according to The Wall Street Journal, quoting 'people familiar with the matter'.

The report also reveals that roughly 10% of Facebook's employees are Google veterans. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt informed employees of the Mountain View, California-based company of the pay raise in an email, the Journal said.

16/11/2010

Continue reading "Google hikes pay to stop staff defections to Facebook" »

AOL is testing a new version of its email system, dubbed ‘Project phoenix’, which aims to bring together a number of communication formats, including social media, texts and emails, into a one-stop media platform.

Phoenix was designed and built from the ground up as an innovative and intuitive email solution that fits the way consumers communicate today. AOL said its Mail service remains an important part of AOL’s business, representing 45 percent of the page views on the AOL network today.

16/11/2010

Continue reading "AOL’s test new email service ‘Project Phoenix’" »

Facebook is now worth more than eBay in terms of privately held stock, making it the third- largest US internet business, and fueling speculation that the social network could sell shares to the public in the not-to-distant future. Facebook’s stock is trading at more than $16 on SecondMarket, an exchange for shares of privately held companies, said a person familiar with the latest pricing data.

That would put its worth at about $41 billion, more than EBay’s $39.3 billion valuation on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Facebook only trails Amazon, worth $74.4 billion, and Google, valued at $192.9 billion, among US Internet companies.

16/11/2010

Continue reading "Facebook overtakes eBay as third most valuable US web firm" »

Apple and music group EMI have agreed to sell The Beatles' back catalogue on iTunes, after a decade of legal wrangling. The Beatles were one of the few big names in music still not available through iTunes.

The agreement signalled the end of a 10-year deadlock between the two companies over sales of the band's music. In addition, the surviving band members and the estates of the others have been famously reluctant to sign up, saying that the quality of digital music isn't good enough to do their catalogue justice.

17/11/2010

Continue reading "No more bootleg Beatles: iTunes finally seals Beatles deal with EMI " »

AOL UK has launched SafeSocial, a bespoke social media monitoring tool, providing parents with an overview of their children's interactions across social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. SafeSocial works to protect younger users by alerting parents to any irregular or concerning behaviour arising whilst spending time on social networks.

SafeSocial encourages positive dialogue between parent and child and requires consent from the young person before monitoring can be activated. It does not require a parent to befriend their child on a specific network, and provides an overview of their online footprint including a 'report card' of overall activity and the identification of any potential red flags.

17/11/2010

Continue reading "AOL lets UK parents monitor kids' social media use " »

Professional social network LinkedIn has launched a pan-European campaign called BrandYou, to highlight the increasing importance of personal brand management. As job mobility increases across Europe and more Generation Y employees enter the workforce, the campaign will seek to help more people discover how managing a personal brand and reputation can play an important role in their career tool set alongside their experience and qualifications. The campaign includes exclusive insights, tools, content and personal BrandYou surveys shared across Europe and a new LinkedIn Group set up for discussion and interaction.

17/11/2010

Continue reading "LinkedIn debuts ‘BrandYou’ campaign across Europe" »

Almost half of UK consumers (45%) would leave their current operator if they did not sell the handset they wanted, according to a new survey. The research, from ecommerce technology provider ATG give operators valuable insight into the types of services customers would like to see integrated into their brand experience.

The research also demonstrates that a large proportion of consumers across Europe don’t feel loyalty to their current mobile operators, with 31 per cent of those surveyed saying they have been with two mobile operators in the last five years. A further 10 per cent of consumers reported they have been with three or more mobile networks in the last five years.

17/11/2010

Continue reading "Half of Brits ‘would leave their mobile operator for a better handset’" »

Excessive use of the internet is very high among children in the UK with one in five admitting they have gone without food or sleep to stay online, according to a new survey. A study of online habits from the London School of Economics and Political Science also shows that more than half of young people confess they spend less time than they should on family, friends or schoolwork because of the internet.

In all categories, the survey found 43 per cent of British children agreed they used the internet too much. For Europe as a whole, the figure was just 30 per cent. Use of social network sites (such as Facebook and Twitter) is also high for young people in this country – 65 per cent of 9-16 year olds have their own profile on one or more sites compared to 57 per cent across Europe.

17/11/2010

Continue reading "Many UK kids ‘go without food or sleep to stay online’" »

In the past few years, CTR for Standard Banners has been steadily declining. The good news is that in 2010 it seems to have stabilized, according to new data. In its recently released Global Benchmark Report, MediaMind Research analysed billions of impressions to help advertisers make the most of their Standard Banner campaigns.

The report contains detailed performance benchmarks for all popular formats for six regions and 50 countries. The Report, titled “Standard Banners –Non-Standard Results” shows that global Clickthrough Rate (CTR) stopped declining in 2009 and 2010 and remained fixed at around 0.09%.

17/11/2010

Continue reading "Clickthrough rates for standard banners 'stops declining'" »

Popular streaming sites such as the BBC, Youtube and LoveFilm could be forced to pay for the data traffic they generate under plans floated by the Government culture minister yesterday. Ed Vaizey has given his support to controversial plans for broadband access to be subject to a "two-sided" system.

Critics warned the approach would spell the end of so-called ‘net neutrality’ in which Internet users have access to all websites on an equal basis. Speaking at the FT World Telecoms Conference in London, the communications minister stated it is important for broadband providers to adopt new business models in their attempt to provide consumers with "what they want".

18/11/2010

Continue reading "Two tier internet? Govt. mulls charging bandwidth-hogging sites" »

Google is running a test on its Google’s photo recognition tool, that will display adverts to users based on pictures taken by their smartphone cameras. The ‘offline marketing experiment’ utilises visual search and optical character recognition [OCR] technologies to allow users to find out information about certain products.

The experiment will see Google work with five major brands, T-Mobile, Diageo, Disney, Buick, and Delta., each launching special print ads designed to tie into its Google Goggles mobile app. When an individual takes a photo of an ad from one of the brands using Goggles, they will be redirected to either a website or video with more information about the advertised product.

18/11/2010

Continue reading "Google Googles: Mobile pics converted into web ads via product recognition" »

Price comparison service Moneysupermarket.com has acquired rival company Financial Services Net in a £9million deal. The Welsh company will pay an initial £4.6m, rising to up to £9m depending on performance, for the Coventry-based operator of Financialservices.co.uk.

The company said the purchase would allow the firm to expand across the UK and beyond.
Chief executive Peter Plumb told Business Post: “The acquisition of FSN will enable us to further expand our brand offering to new customer segments in the money and insurance business.” Financial Services Net (FSN) was controlled by the Panesar family and the purchase will incur expenses of about £600,000 for Moneysupermarket this year.

18/11/2010

Continue reading "Moneysupermarket.com buys rival for £9m " »

Consumers value brands being honest on social media sites, and prefer to deal with a human face rather than anonymous messages, according to a new study. The study, from market research company Firefly Millward Brown looks into consumers’ general attitudes and behaviours towards brands in social media.

Millward Brown says the research, which was conducted using the company’s purpose built private social network, will provide companies and their brands with valuable insight into how to navigate social media more effectively.

19/11/2010

Continue reading "Brands need human face to avoid being ‘foreigners’ in social media " »

Online ad spend in the US continued to accelerate in the third quarter, as the market rebounds from a slowdown last year, according to new data. The Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers found that marketers spent $6.4 billion in online ads, up 17% year-on-year and the highest quarterly total ever.

Online ad spending has been gaining speed in the US this year, having grown 11.3% to $12.1 billion in the first quarter and on track to making 2010 the best year so far on record. Last year, economic uncertainty and troubles led marketers to cut down on online advertising and spending shrunk 3% to $22.7 billion.

19/11/2010

Continue reading "Search drives US online ad revenue up 17%" »

World of Warcraft continues in top position: Top 10 PC games titles ranked by percentage of total minutes played, from the top 100 non-casual / pre-installed PC games measured.

Top 10 PC games titles ranked buy the average number of minutes played per week.

MySpace, once the dominant online social network, has signed a ‘mashup’ agreement with Facebook to allow people to sign on to MySpace using their Facebook login. This means that the content they are engaging with on Myspace will be automatically ported over to their Facebook profile page through Facebook Connect.

Myspace CEO Mike Jones said: "We feel this is a complementary service to Facebook. This new feature is a great illustration of our strategy around social entertainment and enabling the real-time stream." Myspace currently has around 130m users globally while Facebook has more than 500m.

22/11/2010

Continue reading "MySpace admits defeat? Former social media king syncs with Facebook Connect " »

Apple could risk a European operator revolt if it proceeds with plans to embed its own brand SIM card in its new iPhones, according to a news report. The Financial Times quoted an unnamed European telecoms executive as saying Apple risks a “war” over its reported plan to begin selling iPhones with embedded Sim cards, with operators potentially refusing to offer subsidies for the device.

The new technology could enable a customer to buy an iPhone, sign up for service on Apple's website and begin using the device immediately. The customer could then shift with relative ease from one operator to another or insist that the carrier provide a shorter-term contract, the FT said.

22/11/2010

Continue reading "Apple faces ‘war’ with operators over own-brand SIM card" »

The wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton could result in a £515.5m spending bonanza in the UK, with 6.5m Brits likely to mark the occasion in some way, according to new research.The study, from shopping comparison site Kelkoo, found that £76.9m (14.9%) of the total spend will be carried out online.

Kelkoo said the current average of royal merchandise sold online is 10.5%.
Around 25.9% (£57.7m) of Royal wedding merchandise (souvenirs and memorabilia) will be bought online, while internet sales will account for almost 60% of purchases by overseas customers.

22/11/2010

Continue reading "15% of royal wedding merchandise 'to be sold online'" »

After years of anticipating the mobile web, it seems most marketers are struggling to make it work for them. Latest research here in the UK revealed half of firms don't check their sites on mobiles - and we'd speculate that for those that do the findings can be pretty uncomfortable. Most brands fail to ensure their sites work well on mobile browsers, and fail to give consumers what they're most likely to be looking for on the move. Digital strategies need to play to the consumer's mindset as well as the strengths of the channel, and like the early days of the web, more brands get it wrong than right.

Exceptions include Gap in the US, where this month their Facebook places promotion (10,000 jeans for the first 10,000 consumers to use their mobiles to 'check-in' at their checkouts) was clearly a great route to crowd-sourcing in mobile social spaces, creating 10,000 signposts for other consumers to follow.

Facebook also had us adding more 'fan' badges as their online ad targeting propelled them to take nearly a quarter of US web display ads. For media planners the offer of campaigns with almost no media wastage is intoxicating, and even the British Royal Family are now targetable - embracing Facebook with the launch of their first monarchy page; time to become 'Friends' maybe?

And finally if you're a busy digital exec planning to escape off the grid this Christmas, rest assured you can now check your emails even while climbing Everest - thanks to the Nepalese telco planting the mountain's first 3G base station. You never need be away from email again!

Read November 2010

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Yahoo! is testing integration of GetJar apps into Yahoo! mobile search queries, to make it easier for people to discover the apps they’re looking for when on-the-go. Yahoo! is the first search engine to pursue this kind of integration. The search results for the apps - of which there are 75,000 - will work by keyword.

Yahoo! users conduct searches on http://m.yahoo.com for whatever interests them, and the relevant mobile applications from GetJar will be displayed within the Yahoo! mobile search results.

23/11/2010

Continue reading "Yahoo! adds GetJar Apps to mobile search" »

Video games ranked by what gamers are looking forward to buying next.

Games consoles ranked by percentage of usage minutes (Aug 2010).

The latest Hot shops list, compiled by the IMRG and Hitwise, reveals the top 50 online retailers in the Uk in the run up to Chistmas. The big news is the dramatic rise of Ticketmaster UK which broke into the top 10 for the first time in Hot Shops history.

The fast movers for the quarter were Ticketmaster and GAME thanks to the announcement of the Take That 2011 tour and the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops. Boots was also among the fast movers (up 15 places) and showed strong year-on-year growth for the second consecutive quarter.

24/11/2010

Continue reading "Top 50 UK online retailers" »

User-generated local review site Qype has raised 3.5 million euros from Vodafone Ventures and a further 3.0 million euros from its existing three investors, Advent Venture Partners, Partech International and Wellington Partners.

Launched in March 2006, Qype’s communication platform is Europe’s largest site for user-generated reviews and recommendations of places, events and experiences. Qype covers more than 158,000 European towns and cities and has 17 million unique visitors per month. The additional funds will be used to develop Qype’s mobile business.

24/11/2010

Continue reading "Qype gets €6.5m funding boost from Vodafone and VCs" »

Thousands of unique visitors per month to financial information and advice websites. (Sept, 2010)

Millions of online display advertising impressions (Sept, 2010)

The popular NHS Choices health website has been exposed automatically ‘tracking’ all Facebook users that visit, according to new research. The study, from Garlik has lead the online identify theft and fraud firm experts to call for third party tracking to be banned from all Government websites, particularly those carrying information on personal and sensitive topics such as health and benefits.

Research by Garlik staff on the NHS Choices website demonstrated that personally identifiable information on visitors is automatically sent to Facebook, even if a user is not logged in to Facebook, or does not click the Facebook ‘Like’ button.

25/11/2010

Continue reading "NHS caught sharing users’ health concerns with Facebook" »

Online video site SeeSaw has launched a new ad tool Ad Selector, that lets users choose which video ad they want to watch prior to streaming programmes.The move comes as a result of a partnership with technology company Brainient.

The Ad Selector format will offer SeeSaw viewers the opportunity to choose from three separate advertisements. This gives brands the opportunity to target viewers with a choice of tailored advertisements.

25/11/2010

Continue reading "SeeSaw ‘Ad Selector’ lets viewers choose preferred advert from brands" »

Open source social network Diaspora has launched, offering and more privacy-focussed’ alternative to Facebook. The social network was founded earlier this year while Facebook was under fire for its privacy settings- in particular, the company's terms and conditions that give it complete rights over all your personal data and the inability to remove your user account completely from the site.

Diaspora, by contrast, is based around the premise of giving its users full control over their personal data at all times. The community-funded project is currently only open to a small number of invited people, but the company hopes to begin adding more people in the coming weeks.

25/11/2010

Continue reading "Facebook upstart Diaspora offers ‘privacy aware’ social network" »

Christmas is fast approaching and retailers are preparing themselves for the busy festive season. There will be several days where sales will be high, but Mega Monday this year will fall on 6 December according to IMRG, the UK’s industry association for e-retail, when figures from Retail Decisions (ReD) suggest that hourly online retail sales between 12:00 and 13:00 will peak at £23.2m.

This coming Monday, 29 November, will be Cyber Monday in the US. This is the day that follows Thanksgiving (25 November) and marks the unofficial launch of Christmas shopping. This will be a busy day for online retailers in the UK too, but our analysis shows that Monday 6 December will have the highest sales of the year.

25/11/2010

Continue reading "Mega Monday (6 Dec) to trump Cyber Monday (29 Nov) for Xmas sales" »

71% of mums using apps and over 50% using social networks.

Sony has launched its video-on-demand service Qriocity in Europe, making its catalogue of movies available via its internet connected TVs, but not its popular PS3 console. Sony, which competes in Hollywood with the likes of MGM, Universal, Disney and Warner, has successfully signed up its rivals to the store for distribution and will make their films equally available on Qriocity.

In order to access Qriocity, users need to sign up to the service, have a 2010-series Internet TV or Blu-ray player/home theatre and be able to pick the Qriocity icon from the device's XMB menu. Strangely enough, the PS3 has been left out of supported devices, even though there far more users hooked up to Sony's PS3 than to their 2010 Internet TVs.

26/11/2010

Continue reading "Sony takes VOD service to Europe, but PS3 users miss out" »

This Christmas is set to be another big success for online retailers, with IMRG estimating that £6.4bn will be spent throughout December. In this article, six of the UK’s biggest online retailers make their predictions for the best-selling gifts during the festive season.

26/11/2010

Continue reading " Online retailers reveal their big-seller predictions for Xmas" »

Top 15 web properties ranked by thousands of unique visitors (Aug 2010).

The value of UK ecommerce transactions hit £408bn in 2009, excluding non-financial transactions, marking a rise of 25% on 2008, according to new research. The study, from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said this £409bn figure represented 16.7% of all UK sales outside the financial sector.

Sales from websites rose 23.6% to £115bn, while the value of non-web online transactions (eg Electronic data interchange) hit £293bn, 12% of all non-financial sales, it said. The ONS, which compiled the figures from companies with more than 10 staff, said 76% had a website, but only 14.9% sold goods through it.

29/11/2010

Continue reading "UK Internet sales up 25% to £408bn" »

Online video service SeeSaw has launched a new “NonStop” feature, giving viewers the choice to either watch their programmes free with adverts or pay a small fee to enjoy uninterrupted viewing. The service will launch for an introductory price of 99p until 31st of December, going up to its standard price of £2.99 per month thereafter.

The move will see SeeSaw become the only online viewing platform to offer 4oD and Demand Five content without ads. Driven by customer research, NonStop was crafted to give Seesaw users flexibility to either watch their favourite content free with ads or pay a small fee to enjoy the experience uninterrupted.

29/11/2010

Continue reading "SeeSaw offers ad-free viewing for 99p" »

On the day it began leaking US embassy cable communications, Wikileaks says it was hit by hackers. Wikileaks claimed to have been hit by a “mass distributed denial of service attack” yesterday.

The revelation came over the organisation’s Twitter page on the day Wikileaks started to release a range of US Embassy cable communications. Wikileaks’ website is now up and running as it continues to leak documents. A hacker going by the name of ‘th3j35t3r’ claimed over Twitter to have been responsible for taking down the website.

30/11/2010

Continue reading "WikiLeaks hit by 'denial of service attack'" »

Get set for another online retail record-breaker: next Monday is
'Mega-Monday' when online stores hit meltdown in the shopping frenzy.
£6.4bn is the UK forecast for December, with over £20m/hr spent on
Monday. Recessionary 2009 saw a 25% leap on 2008 for total online
sales (here in the UK) so expect similar this year. Christmas retail
triggered a frenzy of last minute traffic grabbing with Search Ad Buys
pushing bid prices up and squeezing retail margins - left me thinking
that smarter SEO strategies in the summer could have saved a few
million dollars on paid ads. All too common to see firefighting rather
than getting the strategy in place at the start.

For 2011 we're encouraging consumer brands to evaluate greater roles
for marketing through gaming, so we've included video games and
console platform sales in the US. And this edition also covers top
sites in Russia, Mobile Phone Moms in the US, Finance and Retailer
sites in the UK because that's what brands asked us for.

Read November 2010

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Facebook is trying to work out a deal to integrate Skype's Internet phone service into the social network's site, according to reports. Citing unnamed sources, The Wall Street Journal reports that the deal is expected to be announced in the next few weeks, would enable Facebook users to have a voice chat and video chat with their Facebook friends using Skype services.

Neither Facebook nor Skype would comment on the reports. The move would again pit Facebook against Google, which announced last month that it would offer the ability to make phone calls over the Internet via its popular Gmail service.

01/10/2010

Continue reading "Facebook to forge Web phone deal with Skype?" »

AOL has bought TechCrunch for a reported amount of $40 million, as the struggling Internet giant looks to boost its audience and ad revenue with one of the most influential blogs in the technology industry. AOL Chief Executive Tim Armstrong joined TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington onstage Tuesday to make the announcement at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco.

Arrington, 40, has become one of the best-known journalists in the technology field, setting up TechCrunch in 2005 to chronicle the rise and fall of young technology companies. At the conference, Arrington said San Francisco-based TechCrunch would operate as a subsidiary and retain its editorial direction. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed but a person familiar with it said the all-cash deal was worth $30 million plus incentives.

01/10/2010

Continue reading "AOL buys TechCrunch in ‘$40m deal’" »

Blackberry maker Research In Motion unveiled its much anticipated tablet computer that it hopes will challenge Apple's iPad . The tablet, named BlackBerry PlayBook, has a seven-inch screen and dual facing cameras.

The device also has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth but needs to link with a BlackBerry smart phone to access the mobile network. "It's ultra-mobile and it's ultra-thin," co-chief executive Mike Lazaridis told the developers, who responded with intermittent applause. "PlayBook delivers a no-compromises web experience," he said.

01/10/2010

Continue reading "Blackberry unveils iPad rival ‘Playbook’" »

AOL launched a new online advertising system that it hopes will transform the way advertisers reach consumers on the Internet. Titled "Project Devil," the system offers advertisers cleaner ad formats than before and more utility, such as the locations of local car dealers.

Project Devil is the latest development from AOL and part of a broader strategy to resurrect the 25-year-old company once synonymous with dial up Internet access into one of the web's main online entertainment and news destinations.

01/10/2010

Continue reading "AOL’s ‘Project Devil’ offers new ad system for brands" »

Facebook is likely to go public sometime after late 2012, in what is likely to be one of the most highly anticipated initial public offerings of the decade. Speaking to Reuters, Facebook board member, venture capitalist and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel said the flotation on the stock exchange is likely to happen in late 2012.

He added this would depend on the company hitting certain revenue targets and how its business model develops. "It probably will IPO at some point. The lesson from Google seems to be that you don't go public until very late," Mr Thiel told Reuters on the sidelines of the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco yesterday.

01/10/2010

Continue reading "Facebook to go public in 2012?" »

Among those who report downloading an app in the last 30 days

Blockbuster has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US, as the one-time market leader in DVD rentals struggles to keep up with online competition such as Netflix and LoveFilm. The move will mean Blockbuster will be able to keep its stores and kiosks open as it reorganises.

Increasingly, people are watching movies via video subscription services like Netflix in the US and LoveFilm in the UK. In a submission to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York on Thursday, the company said it reached an agreement with bondholders on a recapitalisation plan.

01/10/2010

Continue reading "Blockbuster files for bankruptcy protection as online rivals soar" »

Online ad network VideoEgg has bought blogging network Six Apart for an undisclosed sum, forming a new media firm SAY Media. Going live this week, Say Media will specialise in creating "conversational and interactive." advertising campaigns, with the combined company reaching 345 million global unique visitors.

Launched in 2005, VideoEgg has gone through several business models and has so far generated $50 million this year. Six Apart, founded in 2001, owns LiveJournal, designed MovableType blogware and the TypePad blog hosting service. Its blogging platform Vox is set to shut down at the end of September.

01/10/2010

Continue reading "VideoEgg buys Six Apart to create 'conversational' media firm" »

Last month, organic searches conducted on Yahoo were migrated to Microsoft's search engine. While the transition happened mid-month and B2B online marketers won't be sure exactly what effect the transition has had on SEO campaigns, recent comScore reports indicate the two search engines combined accounted for one-third of queries.

01/10/2010

Continue reading "Bing and Yahoo searches account for 33% of US queries " »

Google has launched a new website, called 'Google New’, showcasing its latest ventures, alongside information about all of its products. Google New brings together all the latest information about Google products including web search, Gmail, Google Earth and Google Maps.

The site aims to educate users about its addition services, outside of its core search service.
Google employees typically spend 80 per cent of their working week on a specific product, then spend the other 20 per cent on developing new projects and ideas.

01/10/2010

Continue reading "Google launches new site to showcase its latest products " »

A Spanish federal court has dismissed copyright infringement charges against Google’s YouTube that could have brought the online video service to a halt by forcing it to monitor every piece of content.

Telecinco, a Spanish broadcaster, had brought the charges against YouTube, arguing that it should be liable when users upload material that violates copyright protection. Google, which owns YouTube, praised the court’s decision to reject the charges on the basis that YouTube offers users tools to remove content that infringes on copyrights.

01/10/2010

Continue reading "YouTube wins Spanish copyright case" »

AOL has renewed a search agreement with Google, continuing a decade-long partnership between the two online giants. The new five-year deal includes a revenue share on a per-search basis. AOL can also place its content on YouTube with both camps sharing ad revenue placed against the video.

For the six months that ended in June, AOL's advertising revenue associated with the Google relationship was $209 million. AOL is also working with Google to create an AOL mobile search product.

01/10/2010

Continue reading "AOL renews Google search deal for 5 years" »

Search advertisers could soon be paying up to 78 per cent more on the Bing search engine's cost-per-click (CPC) ads for top branded keywords, according to a new study. The study, from ad media company GroupM Search, attributed the hike in prices to Bing-owner Microsoft integrating Yahoo Search onto its own search platform.

Microsoft said it will complete the transition by the end of October, after which Bing will power all of Yahoo's search queries.GroupM also expects a premium of 64 per cent for non-branded keywords during at least the first three weeks of the transition.

01/10/2010

Continue reading "Bing- Yahoo alliance to hike up search ad prices? " »

AOL UK has launched MyDaily, a new destination site for women, as the company looks to boost its consumer and advertising services. MyDaily UK joins AOL's portfolio of content networks, as part of its strategy to become the ‘world’s largest content creator’. The site features numerous formats for advertisers.

“AOL aims to be the global leader in sourcing, creating and delivering high-quality, trusted, original content to consumers. We have adopted a new editorial approach, blending the best of premium publishing traditions with our rich heritage in online content, advertising and technology,” said David Shing, Head of Media & Marketing, AOL Europe.

01/10/2010

Continue reading "AOL UK launches women’s lifestyle site MyDaily" »

UK online gambling firm Sportingbet has agreed to pay $33m (£21m) to settle a US investigation over alleged illegal internet gambling, US prosecutors said.

01/10/2010

Continue reading "Sportingbet settles US inquiry with $33m forfeit" »

Twitter has introduced its latest efforts to monetize its popular micro-blogging platform,, with a new scheme called Promoted Accounts that will let companies pay to be included in Twitter's "Who to Follow" lists. The company also said it will phase out its @earlybird deal feed in favor of its promoted products platform.

Promoted Accounts builds on the company's existing Promoted Tweets platform, which it introduced in April. With the new addition, companies could pay to be included in the "Who to Follow" suggestion lists Twitter displays to its users. Like Promoted Tweets, Twitter would serve up relevant Promoted Accounts based on your Twitter activity and preferences.

02/10/2010

Continue reading "Twitter drops Earlybird deals to launch 'Promoted Accounts' " »

The Nielsen Company has unveiled a new tool that will give online advertisers audience or viewer data, similar to that given in television ratings. The research firm will combine data provided by online partners, including Facebook, with representative panel data to develop a Gross Rating Points (GRP) score for individual ads.

It will provide reach, frequency and GRP measures for online advertising campaigns of nearly any size, with reporting available within days after a campaign launch. Procter & Gamble, Verizon Wireless, and major media agencies such as Starcom MediaVest, and Facebook are on board with the system, which is expected to be commercially available in 2011.

02/10/2010

Continue reading "Nielsen debuts ‘TV ratings-style’ online ad metrics " »

Top brands have been accused of using tricks to deceive web users as part of a new campaign set up by a web design consultant. Harry Brignull has set up the website Dark Patterns to expose the secrets that go behind website design and the use of intentionally misdirected elements to ‘force’ users to click on something they usually won’t.

Facebook, Yahoo, Ryanair and Comet are some of the big brands that are alleged to employ crafty tricks that snare an unsuspecting user into signing up for a membership, buying insurance they don’t need, or giving up personal information. Tactics include trick questions, hidden charges and ‘sneaking’ products into web shopping baskets, said Brignull.

02/10/2010

Continue reading "Top brands named and shamed for web design tricks" »

While many celebrities might have millions of people following their lives on the web, the most influential Tweeters are actually less known “experts”, according to new research. Researchers at Northwestern University in the US have used new technology to sift through the tens of millions of tweets sent each day on the micro-blogging website to pinpoint the most influential people on the hot topic of the day.

Popular celebrities who are part of the Twitterati include Ashton Kutcher, the actor, his wife, Demi Moore, the actress, Justin Bieber, the teenage pop star, Lady Gaga, the controversial singer, and Stephen Fry, the broadcaster. However, the scientists concluded that most “influential” users on Twitter were actually people with much lower profiles but who were experts in their own fields rather than celebrities with the most followers.

02/10/2010

Continue reading "Experts trump celebs as top Twitter influencers" »

Sony is to unveil what it bills as "the world's first internet television" on 12 October in New York, with built in support for Google’s much anticipated TV service. Running on the Android operating system, the TV will also support third party apps. Technology site Electronista adds that the device will have a full Chrome browser and Flash support.

Google TV is a software platform for set-top boxes and HDTVs (high definition televisions) co-developed by Google, Intel, Sony and Logitech. The project was officially announced by Google and its partners in May this year.

02/10/2010

Continue reading "Sony to launch first ‘Google TV’ set in October" »

More than two in five (44 percent) of firms automatically 'opt-in' customers for marketing emails, rather than letting them decide if they want to receive the emails, according to new data. The study, from Spam Ratings, singled out PC World, B&Q and, the Arcadia Group among the firms guilty of this.

By automatically opting-in customers to mailings, brands are ignoring advice from the Information Commissioner's Office which states the onus is on companies to ensure that proactive consent has been obtained before emails are sent and a pre-ticked opt-in box for consent to send email marketing should not appear.

02/10/2010

Continue reading "Top brands ‘spamming customers with unsolicited emails’" »

Global market share, 2010 forecast.

Google has launched its ground-level mapping service in the world's most barren continent - Antarctica. The move will allow Google users to navigate around the snow-capped mountains, coastline and icebergs of Antarctica - a place that few people ever get to visit in person.

They will also be able to spot several penguin colonies captured by Google's cameras. The expansion to Antarctica means that Street View is now present on every one of the world's seven continents.

04/10/2010

Continue reading "Google Street View comes to Antarctica " »

Google has launched a new image format, called WebP, which the company claims will result in smaller file sizes for commonly shared small image files, in amove that could threaten the dominance of the popular JPEG image format used across the Web. According to Google, photos and other images make up about 65 percent of all content accessed via the Web, and therefore all Web traffic.

Those same files re-encoded with WebP will produce files that are, on average, 39 percent smaller than other formats, reducing the load on servers, ISPs including mobile carriers, and the Web browser clients themselves.

04/10/2010

Continue reading "Google launches image format WebP to rival JPEG " »

UK online TV platform YouView, previously known as project canvas, has dismissed claims it will damage investment in the fledgling UK IPTV market. YouView, the on-demand TV service backed by BBC ITV, BT and Channel 4, is set to launch as a beta test in the first quarter of next year. The site aims to bring video-on-demand programming and services to Freeview and Freesat.

The company said many people in the UK’s technology start-up community see YouView as an opportunity to put their content and applications before a wider audience, because it shifts the best of the internet from the PC to the living-room TV set. But several local television companies, a set-top box manufacturer and Virgin Media have written to Ofcom asking the media regulator to investigate YouView, which is backed by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel Five, BT, TalkTalk and Arqiva.

02/10/2010

Continue reading "YouView accused of harming investment in web TV industry" »

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has outlined his company's ideas for the future of search technology, where we are never lonely, never forget anything, never get lost, never run out of ideas, are never bored and never need to drive a car because it will drive itself. Speaking at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco, Schmidt outlined a vision of the future where computers will be able to suggest useful information based on past preferences, the location of the user and the time of day.

He said: "We are at one of those points in technology where something interesting is about to happen. We're building an augmented version of humanity - getting computers to help us do the things we are not very good at and have humans helping computers do the things they're not very good at."

04/10/2010

Continue reading "Future of Search: Google boss sees ‘augmented humanity’" »

The BBC offers viewers the most usable Video on Demand (VoD) / catch up TV website with its iPlayer service, while Sky’s Sky Player service fails to match other broadcasters in terms of usability, according to new findings released today.

The ‘Video on Demand: playing catch up’ report from user experience consultancy, Webcredible, revealed that BBC iPlayer is leading major UK broadcasters in the VoD usability stakes with a score of 88 per cent, followed by Scottish broadcaster STV with its STV Player coming in second with 76 per cent. Sky Player on the other hand scored just 55 per cent, with admittedly a more complex commercialised offering, failing to clearly explain its different subscription packages to users on the site.

04/10/2010

Continue reading "TV catch up sites: BBC’s iPlayer tops usability list, Sky Player comes last" »

The money spent on internet ads in the UK increased 10% in the first half of this year, with advertisers spending a total of nearly £2bn on the medium, according to new data. The study, from the IAB and Price Waterhouse Coopers , found that video and social advertising fuelled online display’s return to growth, while the FMCG and Entertainment sectors ramped up investment to become two of the biggest spenders in the sector.

The boom in online video, social and ‘performance’ marketing contributed to the 10% increase in online advertising spend during the first half of 2010 (compared with the same period of time in 2009), which saw UK marketers invest £1,968.6 million, lifting the medium to a record market share of 24.3%. The return to double-digit growth for the internet mirrors the general recovery of the entire advertising industry, with total UK expenditure increasing 6.3% to £8.1 billion between January and June 2010.

05/10/2010

Continue reading "UK online ad spend up 10%: Video and social media lead way for growth" »

Internet Eyes, a new website which pays the public to monitor live commercial CCTV footage online is set to be launched in Devon. The site will pay up to £1,000 to subscribers who regularly report suspicious activity such as shoplifting.

Managing director Tony Morgan said the scheme would reduce crime and help prevent other anti-social behaviour. However, the site has met criticism from civil liberties campaigners, who say the idea is "distasteful" and encourages private citizens to spy on each other.

05/10/2010

Continue reading "CCTV site lets public snoop on criminals for £1,000 reward " »

Some of the most popular apps written for Google's Android phones do not tell users what is done with data they gather, according to a new study. The research, conducted by a team of computer scientists from Intel Labs, Penn State, and Duke University chose 30 out of the 358 most popular Android apps that, when installed, ask for permission to get at location, camera and audio data.

Half of 30 applications studied share location information and unique identifiers with advertisers.
Information about the data gathering was collected using software developed by the team. App creators should provide more information what will be done with harvested data, they say.

05/10/2010

Continue reading "Android apps ‘secretly sharing user data’ " »

BT is to map the demand for broadband across the country, and give the five keenest areas an upgrade by 2012. The move will give the opportunity to communities deprived of high-speed web access the chance to get investment from the telecoms firm.

The online survey, running until the end of the year, aims to identify demand “hot spots”. The data gathered will also inform BT’s decisions on which areas to upgrade as part of its already announced £2.5 billion commitment to provide two-thirds of the country with high-speed broadband by 2015.

05/10/2010

Continue reading "BT poll to find UK's top 5 Internet ‘not-spots’ " »

Google has acquired BlindType, a company that specialises in touch typing software for mobile devices, to boost company’s Android mobile operating system. The BlindType system aims to solve the problems of typing on small touch screens, buy creating self-learning technology that constantly adjusts to the user's 'perceived' keyboard and typing style. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

05/10/2010

Continue reading "Google buys BlindType to boost mobile touch typing" »

Dominance of major social gaming players on Facebook, ranked by daily users (millions).

Apple has launched its much aniticipated TV device in the UK this week, letting users stream films from its online store direct to their TV sets. Apple TV costs £99, and the device plugs directly into TVs to stream films as well as play music from an iPad, which can act as a remote control for the box.

The move sees Apple muscle in on Sky and Virgin Media's territory, who both offer video on demand services. In the US, Apple has agreements with broadcasters to offer 99 cent rentals of TV shows, but currently no deals have been signed with UK content providers.

05/10/2010

Continue reading "Apple TV gadget goes on sale in UK for £99" »

Google has secured new content partnership deals with media and internet companies, including NBC Universal's CNBC, Time Warner's HBO and Amazon, for its forthcoming Google TV service. Turner Broadcasting is working to optimise some of its websites for viewing on Google TV, including CNN and Cartoon Network, Google said on Monday.

NBC Universal will bring access to financial news television CNBC, while HBO will also provide programming. Meanwhile, Amazon Video On Demand offers access to over 75,000 titles for rental or purchase, and Netflix will offer the ability to instantly watch unlimited movies and TV shows. Google said it was also working with news websites like The New York Times and micro-blogging service Twitter.

06/10/2010

Continue reading "Google preps TV launch with media content deals " »

IPC Media has sold its popular internet magazine Web User to Dennis Publishing, for an undisclosed sum. The move comes as part of the review of IPC Media’s niche and specialist titles.

Web User is the UK's best-selling internet magazine, offering internet news, reviews and computing advice, alongside a large number of user generated forums. The deal sees Dennis acquire the brand – currently published within the IPC Inspire portfolio – with immediate effect. There will be no interruption to the publishing schedule of the title.

06/10/2010

Continue reading "Dennis Publishing buys Web User magazine from IPC" »

Facebook has unveiled several new features on its social network, including one that makes it easier for its 500 million members to separate online friendships into groups and another that lets them archive personal information posted on the website. The new grouping feature is designed to share comments, photos and other links with others based on relationships and interests. For instance, you can now group Facebook friends by family, work, sports teams and college.

The tool means Facebook users will be able to pool their friends in different groups or circles and send messages to, or hold mass-chats online with, those groups. For instance, mailing an image to the group email using your phone will eventually post the photo on the group's wall. Since the group's visibility to everyone is disabled by default, only group members will get the notification about that photo and will be able to view it.

07/10/2010

Continue reading "Facebook adds ‘Groups’ and archive tools" »

Google is testing a preview pane tool that lets users see a sample of the pages returned in search results, before deciding to click through to their chosen site. When users hover over a search result, Google will display a preview of the entire website.

The tool will also highlight segments of the page that correspond with the conducted search in orange, making it easier for prospective clients to quickly scan websites for relevant information. In addition to the page previews, Google is also enabling the same site to appear multiple times. Previously, multiple entries would be indented and displayed beneath a company's first mention.

07/10/2010

Continue reading "Google tests full-page previews in search results" »

New research into online video ads shows that consumers want to investigate brands in their own time, and are more open to receiving ads around quality video content. The results of a year-long study from Sky and the Internet Advertising Bureau – the trade body for digital advertising - reveal the true branding effectiveness of online video, showing how consumers prefer to ‘store’ advertising information, rather than clicking-through immediately.

The study, run by media research company Decipher, found that whilst 6% of people who recalled a video ad clicked to make an immediate purchase, around 54% of people chose to delay a purchase or investigate the brand in their own time, once again calling into question whether click-through rates are the best measure for online branding campaigns.

07/10/2010

Continue reading "Video ads: Branding campaigns work online… eventually " »

Internet Explorer's share of the worldwide browser market has dropped below 50 per cent, according to new data. According to StatCounter findings, in September, the Microsoft browser's market share was 49.87 per cent - down from 58 per cent this time last year.

It has even dropped to 40 per cent in Europe, yet IE still narrowly dominates the market in North America at 52.3 per cent. This fall has been coupled with a rise in both Firefox (31.5 per cent) and Google Chrome (11.54 per cent). Chrome has jumped from 3.63 per cent this time last year.

Continue reading "Internet Explorer use drops below 50% for first time" »

People who spend the most hours on Facebook are the most likely to be "defriended" on the social networking site, according to new research. Researchers from Colorado University found that friends' frequent posts about nothing in particular were most likely to lead to a severing of online ties. This was followed by comments about polarising topics like religion and politics.

Computer scientist Christopher Sibona, who surveyed more than 1,500 Facebook users on Twitter to get to the bottom of the new phenomenon of 'unfriending', said: "The 100th post about your favourite band is no longer interesting."

08/10/2010

Continue reading "Frequent Facebook users ‘more likely to lose friends’" »

Digital Ethnic marketing firm Indoor Media has been acquired by Komli Media, Asia Pacific’s leading digital media network platform. The deal marks Komli’s second acquisition since June, as it aggressively expands its international operations.

Founded in 2007 by Murly Tiwari and Jay Rai, and headquartered in London, Indoor Media has established itself in the UK as the leader in online ethnic marketing. It provides online solutions to brand marketers reaching out to the UK’s 7million strong ethnic minority consumers through its proprietary ad network, AdMasala.

08/10/2010

Continue reading "Ethnic marketing firm Indoor Media bought by Komli" »

Over nine in ten (92%) of American mothers share information about their children online, according to new research. The study, commissioned by information-security company AVG and carried out by Research Now, surveyed 2,200 mothers of young children in US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan for a week in September.

The study showed that American parents had a higher tendency to share information about their children online than parents from the other countries. One-third of US mothers surveyed said they had posted pictures of their newborn infants. 34 per cent of American respondents also admitted to posting sonograms of their unborn babies online.

08/10/2010

Continue reading "Most US toddlers ‘have established online presence before they are 2’ " »

Ranked by daily active users (millions).

People in China and the Middle East use the web far more than their Western counterparts, according to 'the largest ever' global study of online habits. The Digital Life study by global research firm TNS also found Malaysians are the most sociable online with an average of 233 friends on social media websites, while the Japanese are the least friendly with just 29.

The research shows four out of five online users in China (88 per cent) and over half of those in Brazil (51 per cent) have written their own blog or forum entry, compared to only 32 per cent in the United States. TNS said the study was the 'largest ever global research project into people's online activities and behaviour', surveying almost 90 per cent of the world's online population through 50,000 interviews in 46 countries.

11/10/2010

Continue reading "Digital Life study: Chinese use web twice as much as Americans" »

Search and social conversion agency Tamar has published a white paper, called Mobile 2010, showing that desktop/laptop search has fallen by 15% while mobile search engine traffic has seen an increase of 247% in the past year.

Tamar’s research also found another key trend, a big increase in users who accessed websites directly via mobile. This figure more than doubled from 2009-10.

11/10/2010

Continue reading "Desktop search falls 15% year-on-year as users move to mobile search" »

Microsoft is gearing up to unveil its new Windows Phone 7 operating system and a compatible range of devices at a New York event today, as the software giant looks to take on the likes of Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android in the fast growing smartphone market.

The company has been building up to the launch in the past week, giving hints about its plans for Windows Phone 7-based smartphones and a possible iPad competitor running on Windows 7 by the end of this year. The company will be launching the smartphones in the US along with AT&T, followed by a European launch within a week. Microsoft's hardware partners include HTC, Asus and LG.

11/10/2010

Continue reading "Microsoft launches Windows 7 smartphone range" »

Daily online access by region - among those who have access.

Over two-thirds of comments on Twitter go without response, with the first hour being critical to a Tweet’s lifespan, according to new research. Sysomos, maker of social media analysis tools, researched 1.2 billion tweets over two months and reported results that appeared less than influential on a worldwide scale.

Of all the tweets produced, the majority, 71 percent, received no response (retweet). Of the 29% of tweets that produced a reaction, 19.3% were retweets and the rest replies. This means that of the 1.2 billion tweets examined, 6%, (or 72 million) were retweets. The study found that of all tweets that generated a reply, 85% have only one reply. Another 10.7% attracted a reply to the original reply - the conversation was two levels deep.

12/10/2010

Continue reading "The short lifespan of a Tweet: Two-thirds of Twitter messages are ‘ignored’" »

Google has developed cars that can drive themselves, testing seven such automobiles on 140,000 miles across the roads of America, in a move that could one day revolutionise the transport industry. Google said that the seven Google cars have driven 1,000 miles without any human intervention, apparently the 140,000 mile number includes occasional human control. These cars are a modified version of the Toyota Prius, and there is one Audi TT as well.

Google says it has gathered the best engineers from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Challenges, which have promoted autonomous-vehicle development. And the company is also quick to point out that safety has been the first priority in this project. The driver's seat is never unmanned, and a trained software operator sits the passenger seat to monitor the software.

11/10/2010

Continue reading "Google’s ‘driverless’ cars complete US roadtrip- with a little help from humans" »

Orange and T- Mobile have finally unveiled their ‘Everything Everywhere’ brand, following the merger of the two mobile networks last year. The launch, dubbed the ‘big switch-on’ allows the company’s combined 27 million customers to access coverage on both networks, and is backed by a £4m advertising campaign.

Orange customers are now able to make calls and send texts on the T-Mobile network and T-Mobile customers are able to do the same using the Orange network. Customers who want to sign up for access to both networks will benefit free of charge, with no changes to their existing tariff or call or text charges.

12/10/2010

Continue reading "Orange and T-Mobile customers share coverage with ‘Everything Everywhere’ brand launch" »

Microsoft has partnered with China’s largest online retailer Taobao.com, using Bing to power the web results for its new shopping search engine Etaosite. Taobao, which is a part of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, launched Etao as a public beta version, calling it a shopping search engine.

The site also offers a range of search categories, including general web results that are powered by Bing. Microsoft already has a Chinese version of its Bing search engine, also still in its beta version, but it currently holds an extremely small share of the search engine market at less than one percent, according to Beijing-based research firm Analysys International.

13/10/2010

Continue reading "Bing takes on Baidu, partners Chinese retail giant for search push" »

Nearly half of web users have shared their internet passwords with at least one person in the past year, with youngsters being the most reckless with their sensitive information, according to new research. Research released by Webroot has revealed that most commonly used password-protected sites among consumers are banks (88%), personal email accounts (86%), and Facebook (72%) - all of which are rife with sensitive information.

Webroot surveyed more than 2,500 individuals across the US, the UK and Australia and found that 4 in 10 respondents shared passwords with at least one person in the past year, and nearly as many people use the same password to log into multiple Web sites, which could expose their information on each of the sites if one of them is compromised.

13/10/2010

Continue reading "Youngsters ‘more reckless’ with internet passwords" »

UK shopping and comparison website mySupermarket has closed a $7.4m round led by Greylock Partners and Pitango Venture Capital and angel investors. mySupermarket has raised $22 million to date. Greylock and Pitango are both leading venture capital firms, and Greylock’s investments include Facebook, Pandora, Wonga and Linkedin.

In tandem with the fundraising, mySupermarket also announces the appointment of former co-CEO and President of Wix.com, Allon Bloch, as CEO. Allon will be driving the expansion of mySupermarket’s business, as well as focussing on website development for its one million site visitors.

13/10/2010

Continue reading "MySupermarket gets $7.4m funding boost" »

Google has launched a new ‘Price Index’ tool, which will be based on the cost of goods sold online and could use real-time search data to forecast official figures. The Google Price Index could prove more accurate and up-to-date than official statistics due to the instant nature of the transactions measured.

Google's mountain of web shopping data could also be used by the online group for economic forecasting ahead of the publication of official statistics, the Financial Times reported. Google's chief economist Hal Varian said that he is working on "predicting the present" by using real-time search data to forecast official figures which often are published at least a month after the period they cover.

13/10/2010

Continue reading "Google Price index offers alternative measure of inflation" »

When exciting new research landed from TNS, we thought we'd share it straight away rather than wait till the end of the month. Here are the topline points, with more on research and announcements from the global giants that caught our eye over the last two weeks.

Digital Life is a global study into people's online behaviour. TNS interviewed around 50,000 people from over 45 countries to explore the different ways internet behaviours are evolving. They used consistent questions and built an interactive dashboard that lets you compare the data.

Other stories we've been tracking include the race to TV (launches from Google and Apple), UK online adspend rising 10% (to just under £2bn in the first half of 2010), YouTube winning the copyright case in Spain, and in Antarctica Google's Streetview making its debut.

As you plan your 2011 digital strategy, let us know if you need more on any of these areas, or support from the management coaches at the Digital Training Academy to ensure you choose the right digital channels for your audience.

Read October 2010

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Nearly six in ten Britons (60 per cent) believe online advertising is neither relevant nor well targeted, according to a new YouGov survey. The research, carried out for the technology and media company Collective shows that brands are simply not connecting with the right audiences and wasting money on ineffective campaigns.

According to the online survey, only a quarter (25 per cent) find targeted adverts to be relevant in anyway. Despite that, 57 per cent said they would choose targeted adverts over a blanket approach if it meant there were fewer of them, which indicates that brands who can be relevant, will connect with a receptive audience and induce purchasing intent.

14/10/2010

Continue reading "Do targeted ads work? Brand advertisers ‘fail to reach their audiences online’" »

Facebook has launched two new features aimed at making the social network more secure.The company has introduced ‘one-time passwords’ aimed at people accessing Facebook on a public or shared computer, where other people could access profiles through browser history and stored cookies.

Users can now text "otp" to 32665 to be sent a unique password. This password only lasts for 20 minutes and will be sent to the mobile number they have synced with their Facebook account. Facebook has also introduced remote logout. This means that users can see how many other computers or devices they are logged into on Facebook at any one time and sign out from them if necessary.

14/10/2010

Continue reading "Facebook offers ‘disposable’ passwords via text" »

Yahoo’s shares rose 11% yesterday on the back on speculation that the struggling online media giant is the object of a takeover attempt, with both AOL and News Corporation in the running as possible bidders. Reuters reports that several private equity firms have approached Internet and media companies including News Corp and AOL to gauge their interest in buying out Yahoo.

The news agency quoted a source ‘with knowledge of the approaches’ as saying a potential deal would be contingent on Yahoo selling its lucrative Asian assets, including a 40% stake in China's Alibaba Group and 34.5% of Yahoo Japan.

15/10/2010

Continue reading "Yahoo takeover bid rumours: AOL and News Corp named as suitors" »

New research from the Internet Advertising Bureau – the trade association for online and mobile advertising – reveals that mobile commerce has already become widely adopted in the UK, with 51% of mobile owners (23 million people) using their device to make payments, redeem coupons or research products and services.

The study shows once again the urgent need for retailers to catch up with the mobile consumer and enhance the user experience to ensure they don’t miss out on sales. The study – based on a nationally representative sample of over 1000 mobile owners and carried out by work research - was designed to investigate genuine consumer engagement with m-commerce in the UK.

18/10/2010

Continue reading "23 million Brits have used phone to make purchases" »

Mobile app store GetJar has exclusively launched the full Android version of the popular Angry Birds game for free, funded by advertising. The move means GetJar becomes the first distributor of the game, ahead of the Android app store.

As a testament to the game's popularity, the huge volume of traffic to GetJar following the announcement took out the store's servers within minutes. Despite this, Angry Birds was downloaded almost 95,000 times within the first three hours on Friday. The game is free but features mobile advertising, and Rovio said a future update will include the option to purchase and opt out of advertisements.

18/10/2010

Continue reading "Angry Birds comes to Android: GetJar App store crashes due to demand" »

Microsoft's Bing search engine has begun showing users which sites and products their Facebook friends like. The move, which will initially be rolled out in the US over the coming weeks, forms part of a continuing four-year deal between the two companies.

The function is optional and only works when users are logged into Facebook or have ‘cookies’ on their PC that store Facebook data. The deal will mean that if someone is searching for a film on Bing, they will see faces of friends who have ‘liked’ the movie on Facebook returned in the results page.

18/10/2010

Continue reading "Bing gets personal: adds Facebook ‘likes’ to search results" »

Greater Manchester Police have completed a Twitter hashtag campaign, as a means of protesting Government cutbacks by revealing the sheer number of incidents they face in a single day. The project, which began at 5:00am Thursday last week, revolved around the Twitter account GMPolice tweeting every incident it deals with over a 24 hour-period, accompanied with the hashtag #GMP to help users search and share their comments.

Manchester police said the tweets were being sent by a team of people from its corporate communications department, along with two force inspectors. Incidents would not be tweeted if their publication threatened anyone's safety, a spokeswoman said.

18/10/2010

Continue reading "Police Tweet all 999 calls to protest Govt. cutbacks" »

Google registered a 32 per cent jump in profits, beating market expectations and highlighting the success of its emerging businesses. The internet giant posted net income of $2.2 billion (£1.4bn) after revenues rose 23 per cent to 7.3 billion US dollars (£4.6bn) in the third quarter of the year.

Google said its core business grew very well, while its newer businesses continued to show significant momentum. Google recently paid $3.2 billion for DoubleClick, a display ad network, and $681 million for mobile-ad firm AdMob.

18/10/2010

Continue reading "Google beats forecasts as mobile business begins to pay off" »

The top 10 applications on Facebook have all been transmitting user data, including access to people's names and, in some cases, their friends' names, to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking firms, according to a news report. The Wall Street Journal investigation found that the issue affects tens of millions of Facebook app users, including people who set their profiles to Facebook's strictest privacy settings.

The Journal found that all of the 10 most popular apps on Facebook were transmitting users' IDs to outside companies, including well-known games such as FarmVille, Mafia Wars and Texas Hold’em. Responding to the report, Facebook has admitted to the problem, which it said was ‘inadvertent’ and was down to a technical fault.

19/10/2010

Continue reading "Top Facebook apps caught ‘leaking data to advertisers’ " »

Internet brands are now the closest to UK consumers’ hearts, with the three most popular brands in the UK coming from the web, according to a new survey. The latest Millward Brown celebrity and brand (Cebra) research revealed that Apple had the most buzz (a measure of how much a celebrity or brand is talked about) followed by Google, Facebook, X-Factor and Wii, highlighting the popularity of consumer technology.

In terms of people, David Beckham has been named as the UK’s most powerful celebrity Despite no longer playing football in England, the survey found. The Cebra research now includes a measure of marketability alongside familiarity, affinity, media attention.

19/10/2010

Continue reading "Top UK brands: Internet firms Apple, Google and Facebook top list" »

Yahoo! is planning to launch Y Connect, letting users share content across multiple websites, in a similar way to Facebook’s connect platform. Facebook Connect has been a huge hit for Facebook allowing web users to login and comment on multiple websites with their Facebook ID.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, with Y Connect users will be able to do a similar thing by clicking on a Yahoo button allowing to then share it with contacts on Yahoo while content on non-Yahoo sites will be shared via Yahoo Pulse — the a hub connected to Yahoo Mail accounts.

19/10/2010

Continue reading "Yahoo takes on Facebook Connect with ‘Y Connect’" »

Google’s Android ad revenue has surpassed that of Apple’s mobile devices, despite the iPhone accounting for more ad impressions, according to new data from ad network Millennial Media.The study found that while the iOS platform remains the forerunner in terms of total market share, Android ad requests have grown 1,284 percent since January of this year while requests on iOS have only grown by 18 percent in that time period.

Android is up to 29 percent of total smartphone share, while Apple has dropped from a dominant 70 percent in March to just under half of total smartphone users at 46 percent at the time of the report. "This month, for the first time ever, Android revenue exceeded iPhone-only revenue amidst strong raw iOS impression growth," according to Millenial's October 19th report.

20/10/2010

Continue reading "Android ‘overtakes iPhone ad revenue’" »

Brits are predicted to spend £6.4 bn in December, up from £5.5 billion last year, but will be looking to spread the costs in times of economic uncertainty, according to a new study. The latest results from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index reveal that British shoppers spent a total of £4.8 billion online during September (year-on-year growth of 24%), equivalent to £79 per person and bucking the recent fall in sales on the high street.

Apart from home and garden, which saw a decrease of -1%, all of the retail sectors represented on the Index have shown a year-on-year and like-for-like growth of at least 10%, with clothing, footwear and accessories up 28% from September 2009. This impressive growth is attributed to consumers looking to keep spending in check by shopping online for the best deals.

20/10/2010

Continue reading "Xmas coming early: Brits to spend £6.4bn online… but will spread the cost" »

John Lewis’ website offers customers the best online user experience out of the top UK high street retailers, and has been the most consistently easy to use website over the last five years, according to a new study.

The 2010 Online Usability Report from user experience consultancy, Webcredible, revealed that John Lewis scored an exceptional 91 per cent for usability, an increase of 10 per cent on 2009, moving it to the top spot for 2010. The most significant improvement this year was made by Early Learning Centre which achieved a score of 90 per cent, improving by 15 per cent and climbing from eighth place in 2009 to second place in 2010.

20/10/2010

Continue reading "John Lewis site tops usability poll of high street retailers" »

Ofcom will not investigate YouView, despite claims from rivals that the TV-on-demand scheme from BBC, ITV, C4 and Five is anti-competitive. However, You View, previously know as Project Canvas was warned that the communications watchdog will act if it blocks rival platforms and services in future.

YouView is a collaboration of seven broadcasters and telecommunication companies including BBC, ITV, BT and TalkTalk. It plans to use a branded interface to bring on-demand web services to set-top boxes. Set to launch next year, YouView will develop a standard framework from which broadcasters and other providers can build TV-accessible online services, such as BBC iPlayer, and which hardware makers can incorporate.

20/10/2010

Continue reading "Ofcom rejects YouView ‘anti-competitive’ complaints" »

Google has added tools to the left-hand panel of its search results, letting users change location details. Google previously pinpointed a users’ location automatically, but the new tool lets users either change it completely or make it more specific, including by postcode.

Users need to click on 'Change location' to update the information. Google will then automatically run the search again with the new information. The change means the location information is now always visible, as opposed to automatically clearing it from the screen.The feature is being rolled out gradually globally over the coming weeks.

20/10/2010

Russians are the heaviest social networkers worldwide in terms of time spent per user, while Brits hold the fourth spot, according to a new study. The data, from comScore, found that in August 2010, 34.5 million Russian internet users (74.5 percent of the online population) visited at least one social networking site.

With an average of 9.8 hours per visitor during the month, Russians spent more than double the worldwide average of 4.5 hours per visitors on social networks, ranking it #1 among all countries in social networking engagement.

21/10/2010

Continue reading "Top 10 social network audiences worldwide" »

The number of web users will surpass two billion this year, approaching a third of the world population, but developing countries need to step up access to the vital tool for economic growth, according to a report from a United Nations agency. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) said that users have doubled in the past five years.

Of 226 million new Internet users this year, 162 million will be from developing countries where growth rates are now higher, the ITU said in a report. The estimated global population is currently 6.9 billion. However, by the end of 2010, 71 percent of the population in developed countries will be online compared with 21 percent of people in developing countries.

21/10/2010

Continue reading "Third of world will be online by end of year- UN report" »

More than one in eight children have been bothered or upset by online content finds a report published today based on interviews with 23,000 young people across Europe. However researchers stressed that the majority of children had no upsetting experiences on the internet and indeed were often comfortable doing things that some adults consider risky.

While 12 per cent of children said they had been bothered or upset by experiences online – including encountering pornography, sexual or bullying messages and potentially harmful user-generated-content – another finding was that their parents were often not aware of the risks to which their children had been exposed.

21/08/2010

Continue reading "1 in 8 kids have 'had upsetting experiences online’" »

A new measurement standard, called ‘GEMS’ has won the backing of a number of European countries, in a move that could help online retailers and advertisers better understand how shoppers are using their sites, and compare their results with industry benchmarks. GEMS stands for Global E-commerce Measurement Standard GEMS, and is nowsupported by industry associations representing 75% of European e-commerce.

Ther standard was created by a number of key industry players, including the iMRG, and was launched this at the e-Business Strategy Europe conference. In 2010, business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce is estimated to be worth €550 billion worldwide and €200 billion in Europe.

22/10/2010

Continue reading "Measuring shoppers' habits: New ecommerce metric ‘GEMS’ gets European backing" »

Crunch.co.uk has secured a second round of funding with investments from Bebo co-founder Paul Birch and former Skype Chairman Michael van Swaaij, valuing the Online accounting service at £4m.

22/10/2010

Continue reading "Accounting site Crunch valued at £4m after funding boost from Bebo and Skype chiefs " »

Many Brits are unintentionally exposing personal information online, with men being more likely to let sensitive information slip, according to new research. The study, from fraud prevention firm Garlik, analysed the DataPatrol service alerts generated over the last 12 months for over 250,000 UK customers to produce the findings.

In particular the research has highlighted that men are 60% more likely to unintentionally disclose personal information, and that the probability a person will do this does not vary with age alone.

22/10/2010

Continue reading "Men ‘60% more likely to have personal info stolen online’" »

The Prime Minister has pledged to spend £650 million, over the next four years, on managing the risks associated with cyberspace. In his speech to the Commons earlier this week, David Cameron said the government is developing a National Cyber Security Programme aimed at overhauling the UK’s approach to cybercrime.

Under the cyber security initiative an agency, or a single point of contact, will be created where the public and businesses can report cyber crime. In addition, a major training programme will be set up to ensure that those tasked with tackling cybercrime have the necessary skills and knowledge to identify, understand and tackle it successfully.

22/10/2010

Continue reading "UK Govt. to spend £650m on fighting cybercrime" »

The web let anyone publish anything, but Google let people find what they were looking for. The rise and rise of the world’s largest web media business is something we've tracked since testing out the early versions in the late 90s.

As search engines have become the connectors between marketing in any media and people finding what they’re after on the web, getting Google right has become critical for brands and the teams that support them. That’s why in this edition of Digital Intelligence we collated some of the recent stories our team were researching, packaging them into one bite-sized email you could forward on to your colleagues.

Read Digital Intelligence Google special report

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Google has admitted to copying household computer passwords and emails while gathering images using its Street View cameras, adding that it is determined to learn lessons from the mistake.

Google collected information from wireless networks while its vehicles drove around residential streets taking photographs for its Street View mapping product, which launched in 2008. Computer passwords, emails and web addresses were copied from private households which did not have encrypted wi-fi access. Google said the personal information was collected inadvertently.

25/10/2010

Continue reading "Google admits to copying email and Wi-Fi passwords from Steet View cars" »

Around a fifth of people (20.3%) claim to like or follow brands on social networks yet not enough brands are responding to consumer complaints, according to a consumer study. The research, from the Internet Advertising Bureau, research company Opinion Matters and social media agency RMM. The survey – designed to investigate how mainstream different types of social media activity have become – found that more consumers engage with brands on these properties than celebrities, with 13.4% of people liking or following celebrities on sites such as Twitter or Facebook.

25/10/2010

Continue reading "Brits more likely to engage with brands than celebrities " »

Total UK revenues for mobile content and services, mobile advertising and marketing, will be £407.10 million in 2010, rising to £1.10 billion in 2015, according to a new report. The 'Mobile Market Trends: UK: Usage and Revenue Forecasts to 2015' report from mobileSQUARED says revenue growth will primarily be driven by increased mobile advertising spend -- especially around 'conversational advertising'.

The mobile advertising market is forecast to grow from £50.25 million in 2010 -- 12% of total revenues, to £357.84 million in 2015 -- 33% of total revenues, as advertisers increasingly target this direct channel.

25/10/2010

Continue reading "UK mobile content revenues worth over £1bn in five years " »

Privacy issues made headlines this week as Google's Streetview cars were found to be capturing more than just photos. Data about local wi-fi hotspots went far beyond the hotspot location, raising concerns across government and business, while at the same time exposing how little most people know about the data clouds that fill their street. It's time to wake-up to privacy.

The week before it was Facebook's turn, with social media games uncovered as the gateway to a wealth of personal data for advertisers to target against. Nothing wrong with trading free games for seeing targeted advertising, but most consumers seemed completely unaware of what they'd agreed to. The key takeout? Read the small print.

Younger internet users were also found to be having a tough time. Across Europe 1 in 8 children have 'had upsetting experiences online', making clear the need to teach more in schools about privacy, social networking and trust.

And here in the UK the government may be deep in the most brutal spending cuts in history, but it still found £650m for a new initiative to fight cybercrime and protect personal data.

The internet is defining the culture of our generation, but new behaviours need to be taught to companies and individuals alike if we are to handle these tools responsibly. Digital strategies and data strategies are essential to all organisations, so I hope you enjoy the stories below and the clicks behind them.

Read October 2010

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Companies in the UK will soon have to ensure content on their websites and social network pages comply with rules set out by The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), or face being ‘named and shamed’ as part of a new initiative. From March next year, the rules covering misleading advertising, social responsibility and the protection of children will apply in full to all online marketing by all sectors, businesses and organisations, regardless of size.

The ASA's current remit online includes ads in paid-for space and sales promotions wherever they appear. The extension now means full advertising regulations will now also apply to parts of the internet that are ‘free of charge’ (unlike paid adverts) charge, such as brands’ own websites and online areas like Twitter and Facebook.

01/09/2010

Continue reading "Ad watchdog gets tough on web advertising" »

Google has added a new tool called "Priority Inbox" to its Gmail service, designed to help people wade through their overflowing e-mail inboxes. The feature uses formulas developed by Google engineers to automatically figure out and highlight which incoming messages are likely to be the most important to each Gmail user.

Users who opt to turn on the Priority Inbox will see their messages separated into three categories. "Important and unread" e-mails will be at the top followed by messages that have been previously stamped with a star by an accountholder. Everything else appears at the bottom.

01/09/2010

Continue reading "Google debuts ‘priority inbox’ for Gmail to cut through e-mail clutter" »

Amazon is reportedly planning to launch an online TV and movie rental service, and is currently in talks with major TV and film studios.

According to report in the Wall Street Journal, Amazon has