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.

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The online extension has "the protection of children and consumers at its heart", the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said.

However, in an effort to protect freedom of speech online, the rules will focus on ads that sell products rather than journalistic and editorial content, the ASA said.

The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP), the body responsible for writing the regulations, said it had decided to extend the ASA's powers in response to a formal recommendation from a wide cross-section of UK industry.

The ASA will have the ability to demand the removal of paid-for links to pages hosting a banned ad, with the agreement of search engines.

It could also place its own advertisements online highlighting an advertiser's continued refusal to comply with a ruling.

The ASA urged website owners and agencies to become familiar with the new rules ahead of the March 1 deadline.

ASA chairman Lord Chris Smith said: "This significant extension of the ASA's remit has the protection of children and consumers at its heart. "We have received more than 4,500 complaints since 2008 about marketing communications on websites that we couldn't deal with, but from 1 March anyone who has a concern about a marketing communication online will be able to turn to the ASA."

For more details on the ASA’s new code, click here.

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.

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Switching back to the standard view of the inbox can be done with a click on a link along the left side of the Web page.

Google's e-mail analysis is based on a variety of factors, including a person's most frequent contacts and how many other people are getting the same message.

The content of the e-mail also is factored into the equation.

With more than 100 daily e-mails pouring into some inboxes now, people now need help to identify "the bacon and baloney" along with the spam, said Keith Coleman, Gmail's product director.

According to report in the Wall Street Journal, Amazon has approached media companies including Time Warner. with plans to start an online video subscription service to rival Netflix in the US. The paper quoted three people ‘with knowledge of the talks’. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos is broadening the retailer’s digital entertainment services to combat rivals such as Netflix, Hulu LLC and Apple.

Time Warner, MTV owner Viacom and General Electric’s NBC Universal have also been contacted, the people said. Amazon.com Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos is broadening the retailer’s digital entertainment services to combat rivals such as Netflix, Hulu and Apple, which distributes a range of music, TV and film through its iTunes online store.

Amazon would structure content deals in ways similar to Netflix, which pays media companies for rights to stream TV shows and films over the Web, said one of the people.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the subscription service would be accessible on Web browsers and Internet-connected TV sets, Blu-ray players and Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 video-game console.

Amazon currently sells film and TV show downloads and rents movies through its website and on Roku, TiVo and Sony devices, among others. Warner Bros. is the biggest non- network producer of broadcast television shows.

A total of 34 per cent of those questioned said they watched TV shows on the internet while for students the figure was even higher at 56 per cent, meaning more students are viewing programmes on their laptops than on television sets. Only 39 per cent of students said they watched programmes in the traditional way while more than half of those questioned over the age of 65 generation said they had watched a programme online in the past year.

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“Technology means television isn’t a passive activity any more. We hunt down what we want to watch, we gather up great shows we’ve missed and we chat and joke about what we’ve seen – whether friends and family are sitting next to us or are online thousands of miles away.”

The survey of 2,000 adults also found that viewers want to see more drama and documentaries rather than reality shows such as Big Brother.

It showed that nearly a third of viewers, 31 per cent, want more drama, while 30 per cent would prefer to see more documentaries.

Just 2 per cent of those polled said they wanted more celebrity content, and 3 per cent wanted further reality TV.

A total of 44 per cent said Big Brother was the show they were most likely to avoid, with the X Factor landing 6 per cent of the poll. Top Gear was named as the nation’s favourite show.

John Keeling, platform controller of online TV service SeeSaw, said: “Viewing across the board is in robust health but scratch the surface and a quiet revolution is taking place. Whilst the nation continues to watch fantastic shows like Doctor Who and Top Gear, a whole new generation of TV fans are enjoying these shows online.”

At an event in San Francisco, Google said the new service, which will roll out this week, is free for calls to the U.S. and Canada at least until the end of the year, though there are costs to make international calls to landlines and mobile phones. Google said it hoped to later offer the service to international Gmail users and possibly to businesses.

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Google said its PC-to-phone call rates will be cheaper than those of providers of similar services. Gmail calls to landlines in China, France, Spain, Mexico, the U.K. and more than two dozen other countries will cost two cents a minute.

Calls through Gmail to mobile phones internationally will be more expensive, with users paying 18 cents a minute for calls to the U.K. and six cents a minute to India, for example. Google said it hopes to generate enough revenue from the foreign calls to keep domestic and Canada calls free.

Skype charges users about 2.1 cents a minute to make calls to landline and mobile phones in the U.S. and dozens of other countries, according to its website. Skype also sells monthly subscriptions.

Gmail users who have a Google Voice account can also receive inbound calls in Gmail, the company said. Google Voice is a free service that gives callers a new phone number that can be used to ring different real-world phones they own and can send them an email transcript of voicemails they received, among other features.

For Google, the move helps drive users to Gmail as well as the potentially to add a feature to its software for businesses, called Google Apps. More than 200 million people currently use Gmail actively, said Todd Jackson, a Google product manager.

The move is Google's latest foray into the telecommunications industry. Two years ago, Google launched a feature that allows Gmail users to do free video chats with other Gmail users.

The company has also launched its Android operating system, which powers dozens of mobile phones made by Motorola, HTC. and others. It also backed a Google-branded phone made by HTC Corp, which has been discontinued.

Skype, which is planning an initial public offering, also has a paid service offering low-cost calls to landlines or mobile phones, similar to Google's new plan.

Skype, which generated revenue of more than $400 million for the first half of 2010, said only about eight million of its 560 million registered users paid for their service as of June 30.

The Oxford University Press would instead focus on selling subscriptions to the OED's online version.No official publication date is set for the third edition of the OED. Scholars have been working on the text since 1989, but as of June 2010 only entries from "A" to "Rococoesque" have been completed, representing approximately 0.83 letters of the alphabet every year.

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The OED is widely considered to be the preeminent authority on the English language, and has been available in print since 1884.

The second edition of the complete OED was published in 1989 as a 20-volume hardcover set. The OED contains more than 21,000 pages detailing word pronunciation, history, usage, and spellings.

The entire text of the OED's second edition takes up just 540 megabytes of digital storage space. That means you would need just three-quarters the storage capacity of a typical blank CD to store all of the current OED's 291, 500 entries.

The Web version of the OED (launched in 2000) receives 2 million hits a month, while the complete OED has sold just 30,000 copies total since its publication in 1989, according to the AP.

Access to the OED online costs $295 per year or $29.95 monthly for an individual.

The Oxford University Press says that despite the fate of the complete OED, the publisher will continue to publish smaller versions of the dictionary such as the condensed and pocket editions.

From browsing the internet, updating social networks to listening to the radio and using a mobile phone the statistics show that over half (58 per cent) of those surveyed are regularly consuming a least one other type of media while watching a TV. This trend for ‘media stacking’ is most prevalent amongst 18-24 year olds with 76 per cent saying they browse the internet whilst watching TV.

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Specifically using social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter is particularly common, especially with female TV viewers (40 per cent) compared to 29 per cent for men. Just over one in ten (11 per cent) of adults claim to use a video games console while watching TV content.

Delivering an instant verdict

The increase in the number of people who are media stacking while watching TV is leading to discussions about TV programmes leaving the confines of sitting rooms and being instantly shared with friends and family.

Diffusion’s research shows that 45 per cent of UK adults rising to 86 per cent of 18-24 year olds, have at the same time as watching a TV programme on a TV set, discussed or commented on that programme with other people using digital channels.

For the population as a whole, this is most likely to happen via SMS text message (27 percent), one in five (21 per cent) have used Facebook and 12 per cent have discussed the programme they are watching in real time over instant messenger.

For 18-24 year olds, this trend is even more pronounced, with 56 per cent having commented on what they’re watching via SMS, 55 per cent via Facebook and 40 per cent via instant messenger. One in ten of this age group has also left comments about the shows they are watching on forums or blogs.

An integrated experience

Many of the leading TV manufacturers enabling access to the internet via a TV set in their latest models, with this capability set to become increasingly common feature in people’s living rooms in the years ahead. With this in mind the Social TV Trends Report examined which websites they would like to access by splitting the TV screen at the same time as watching a TV programme.

Google was the most popular site that people would like to access through internet TV services, with 28 per cent stating they would like to access the search engine.

A quarter of those surveyed stated they would like to access online retail sites such as Amazon and ASOS via their TV sets while watching programming.

A similar percentage (26%) would also like to be able to access social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Interestingly, YouTube was also a popular site which those surveyed would like to access, though much more so by men (18 percent) compared to just 8 per cent of women.

For 18-24 year olds, the most popular site they would like to access was Facebook (47 per cent) followed by Google (37 per cent) and 23 per cent selecting YouTube. Just under a third of this age group (31 per cent) stated they would like to access online retail sites via internet on your TV type services.

A shared social experience

Many UK television viewers are looking for a much more interactive television experience combining traditional TV viewing with the ability to share. Internet enabled TV sets show a clear potential for viewers to be able to interact with programming.

A third of all viewers rising to 44 per cent of 18-24s would like the ability to use internet services to vote and see the results of polls on screen, when watching shows such as The X Factor or BBC Question Time.

One in five 18-24 year olds would also like to see on-screen comments about the programme they are watching from other viewers, friends or family. Just over a fifth (21 per cent) of this demographic would also like to use instant messaging services on their TV sets to chat with fellow viewers and friends watching the same TV show.

In a further sign that internet enabled TVs could see the emergence of t-commerce, the research reveals that 27 per cent of viewers as whole, rising to 42 per cent of 18 – 24 year olds would like to see on screen information about the clothes being worn by actors or presenters, or the music being played with a link to where they could actually purchase them.

TV Co-Creation

Social TV also has the potential to spawn new programme formats where viewers can more directly shape the content they are watching. Almost a third of 18-24 year olds questioned would like the ability to vote and change the plot or the direction of the programme they are watching, such a soap opera.

Ivan Ristic, Director at Diffusion commented, “Social media is really making TV social again and creating a deeper and extended shared viewing experience. It’s no longer good enough to discuss the latest episode of Mad Men or Glee the following day at work, people are creating, sharing and reading real-time reactions via social media channels. The old adage that TV is a lean back experience compared to lean forward web surfing no longer hold true, our research shows that increasingly people are doing both simultaneously.

“The challenge for the TV industry is how best to take advantage of this trend to drive word-of-mouth buzz around programming, build a more loyal user base and identify new advertising and revenue opportunities.”

Ristic continued, “While there is a lot of attention being placed on online TV services and the integration of social media into platforms such as BBC iPlayer, the distinction between TV set and PC is also becoming blurred. There is a huge opportunity for programme makers, TV stations and advertisers to hook into the demand to access more online services via the traditional TV set as internet enabled models become a fixture in the average living room.”

Methodology:

YouGov survey of 2,086 nationally representative panel of GB adults aged 18-55+, the survey was carried out online.

Source: www.diffusionpr.com

The study, from Experian, found 15-24 year olds are highly receptive to direct mail, while the UK rural population prefer to engage face-to-face. The results challenge existing thinking on consumer preferences and highlight the importance of avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach to marketing.

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Young more receptive to direct mail than their parents

Although direct mail is more welcomed by those aged over 65, the Experian analysis reveals that the second most likely group to engage with this channel are those aged between 15 and 24.

Their parents, meanwhile, who are often comfortably off, living in the suburbs and commonly aged between 46 and 65 are less likely to respond well to direct mail.

The findings call for marketers and retailers to look beyond common misconceptions about channel preferences, and use detailed insight to establish how a brand should communicate with its audience.

Nigel Wilson, Managing Director, Marketing Information Services, Experian comments: “Mosaic TrueTouch insight allows us to analyse how consumers prefer to be engaged by brands, providing marketers with the information to make smarter marketing decisions. At first glance it might be surprising that in the age of digital interaction, young people are so receptive to a traditional channel like direct mail but, in reality, advances in marketing technologies have increased receptiveness towards this channel. For example, some brands now incorporate 2D discount barcodes into material that can be scanned by compatible mobile phones. The generation aged between 46 and 64 are less likely to benefit from these advances and, as a result of being over-targeted with direct mail in the past, are more indifferent to the channel.”

Clicks Vs Bricks: Understanding the ‘I want it now’ generation

Experian’s insight also shows that while the 25-34 age group embraces the online channel, younger consumer groups, especially those living in terraced but diverse, multicultural inner city areas (a group called Terraced Melting Pot by Mosaic) and young well educated city dwellers (Liberal Opinions) are most likely to purchase goods and services in-store.

This demonstrates the need for marketers to use a cross channel marketing strategy to engage with consumers, who use a mixture of online and offline resources to make purchasing decisions.

Nigel Wilson adds: “Younger UK consumers will engage with offline and online channels not only to get the best price, but also get their hands on the products as quickly as possible after purchase. After researching items and price comparisons on the internet, they will then purchase from the high street rather than wait for delivery. This really emphasises the rise of the ‘I want it now generation’, who use a cross channel approach to optimise their purchasing experience.”

Face time adds value to older and rural group engagement

For older groups, if direct marketing is to have a positive effect on the bottom line, retailers need to integrate activities over this channel with face–to–face engagement.

The research highlights that the ‘Yesterday’s Captains’ Mosaic type is the most receptive to this form of communication.

This group encompasses retired professionals and managers on pensions from successful careers, living in attractive and spacious houses in well established suburbs of large provincial cities.

The ‘Active Retirement’ and ‘Rural Solitude’ Mosaic groups are also cited as being responsive to face-to-face engagement. Both these groups incorporate older and more isolated communities, who are likely to make purposeful visits to the high street, with a specific purchase in mind.

Nigel concludes: “The research suggests older groups tend to be far more comfortable making a purchase based on face-to-face engagement. Retailers should note that while these shoppers are further away from the high street, they will look to make their trip to town count.

“Making assumptions about customer preference for any particular age group is neither necessary nor sensible. There is a wealth of information available to marketers to understand what makes their customers tick. Detailed research like the TrueTouch analysis gives real-time insight to the way marketers can engage with different channels and the route their audience takes when making purchasing decisions. This insight is an essential part of every marketer’s toolkit that we hope brands and service providers will consider when planning future campaigns.”

www.experian.com

The consultation will examine advertising of broadband speeds across the telecoms industry, including the advertising of mobile broadband speeds. The review aims to ‘provide better clarity for consumers’, the ASA said.

The review, which will look at the speeds advertised by operators on 3G networks as well as fixed line services, was launched at the end at of July following an Ofcom report into broadband speeds.

Vodafone and 3 confirmed they have shared their views with the ASA.

2pm isn’t the only time workers whip out their plastic to pass those work hours by, as research shows the largest surge of online shopping during the working week is at 4pm. Figures from Invisible Hand show there is an average 52% increase in online shopping compared to the morning.

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The largest shopping rush comes when employees are celebrating the 'hump' of the week seeing a 75% increase of shopping at 4pm on Wednesday.

% increase in online shopping… Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Average
From To
12pm 2pm 11% 27% 3% 3% 12% 11%
9am 4pm 53% 42% 75% 36% 52% 52%

Pre-Monday work blues means that midnight shopping on a Sunday is the most popular midnight hour for spending on plastic, with a 27% increase from the lowest level of the week.

Robin Landy, founder of InvisibleHand, says: “With work providing a number of stresses and problems, there's little wonder people head online to spend money. Whether it is for yourself or someone else, browsing the online stores offers light relief at work and at home.

"Whenever people are shopping online they should make sure they are not paying over the odds for products. Rather than shopping around and visiting a number of sites, often with out of date prices, Invisible Hand will automatically notify a consumer of the cheapest price without them ever having to leave the site they are on."

InvisibleHand is free to download via the website, www.getinvisiblehand.com.

India now ranks as the seventh largest market worldwide for social networking, after the U.S., China, Germany, Russian Federation, Brazil and the U.K. The total Indian social networking audience grew 43 percent in the past year, more than tripling the rate of growth of the total Internet audience in India.

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Social Networking Unique Visitors
(000)
Jul-2009 Jul-2010 % Change
Worldwide 770,092 945,040 23%
United States 131,088 174,429 33%
China N/A 97,151 N/A
Germany 25,743 37,938 47%
Russian Federation 20,245 35,306 74%
Brazil 23,966 35,221 47%
United Kingdom 30,587 35,153 15%
India 23,255 33,158 43%
France 25,121 32,744 30%
Japan 23,691 31,957 35%
South Korea 15,910 24,962 57%
_____________________________________________________________________
*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

Facebook Takes Top Spot among Social Networking Sites in India

Facebook.com posted an especially strong month in July, growing 12 percent versus June, to capture the top spot in the category with 20.9 million visitors.

Orkut ranked second with 19.9 million visitors (up 16 percent vs. year ago), followed by BharatStudent.com with 4.4 million visitors (up 3 percent).

Twitter.com had the highest rate of growth among the top five social networking sites, increasing 239 percent to 3.3 million visitors.

Yahoo! owned two of the top ten social networking sites: Yahoo! Pulse (3.5 million visitors) and Yahoo! Buzz (1.8 million visitors).
_____________________________________________________________________
Top Social Networking Sites in India
July 2010 vs. July 2009
Total India – Age 15+, Home & Work Locations*
Source: comScore Media Metrix

India Total Unique Visitors (000)
Jul-2009 Jul-2010 % Change
Total Internet: Total Audience 35,028 39,562 13
Social Networking 23,255 33,158 43
Facebook.com 7,472 20,873 179
Orkut 17,069 19,871 16
Bharatstudent.com 4,292 4,432 3
Yahoo! Pulse N/A 3,507 N/A
Twitter.com 984 3,341 239
LinkedIn.com N/A 3,267 N/A
Zedge.net 1,767 3,206 81
Ibibo.com 1,562 2,960 89
Yahoo! Buzz 542 1,807 233
Shtyle.fm 407 1,550 281
_____________________________________________________________________
*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

Source: www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

"BT is rolling out up to 20 meg speeds to give you a consistently faster broadband throughout the day even at peak times," intoned a voiceover. The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) investigated BT's claim that its new 20Mbps service is "consistently faster" than other leading broadband providers following 17 complaints, including challenges from rivals BSkyB, TalkTalk and Virgin Media.

The ASA ruled against BT, concluding that: "Because we had not seen sufficient evidence to support the claim that BT's new broadband service was consistently faster than its existing 8Mb service even at peak times, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead."

Ofcom's recent look at the actual speeds showed that BT was among those whose average broadband speed was significantly lower than the 'up to' speed that the service is advertised as.

On BT's 'up to 20Mbps' service the average speed is less than half, with Ofcom's average suggesting a speed of around 6.1 to 7.6 Mbps.

Google has long provided suggestions while typing in the search box, but this apparently experimental feature was first noticed by a UK search engine optimisation blogger who posted a video of his experience online. Rob Ousbey blogged: "This evening, I spotted that you don't even need to hit the 'Search' button anymore - Google updates the results for you while you're typing."

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Ousbey uploaded a video of the feature in action, and it shows search results changing dynamically as he types new words into the search box. We've tried to see if we can replicate this, but the trial is apparently limited to occasional users.

It is both fast and impressive though, and as Ousbey said, "It's a testament to the speed of not just Google, but also broadband internet and web browers!"

View the video below:

The reversal was expected following the purchase of Five by Richard Desmond’s Northern & Shell group from RTL, the pan-European broadcaster, earlier this month. “Project Canvas is set to shape the future of broadcasting and open up new and exciting possibilities for viewers,” Mr Desmond said in a statement on Tuesday.

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The previous management, beset by serious financial concerns as they underperformed the advertising market, pulled out of Canvas because they were having to find about £16m over four years to contribute to further development costs. Mr Desmond has promised to invest hundreds of millions of pounds into the renamed Channel Five.

Canvas, when launched next spring, will provide set-top box or integrated technology that will allow viewers to stream video from the internet on to their television sets. Similar technology is being launched by British Sky Broadcasting and Virgin Media, although release dates have not been set.

This month, Virgin Media has asked the Competition Commission to block Canvas, arguing that it is anti-competitive for so many of the large content and platform owners of the UK to run a service that is not wholly open.
The cable company is unhappy that, had it joined Canvas, it would not have been able to use its own brand on screen or incorporate the technology into the boxes being developed for it by the US company TiVo. BSkyB also objects to Canvas.

Canvas, which is expected to launch under the brand YouView next year, is pitched as a successor to Freeview, bringing free-to-air broadcasting into the internet age.

The venture is gearing up after being given regulatory clearance from the BBC Trust and the Office of Fair Trading in recent months.

The costs of developing and marketing Canvas in its early years are projected to total £115m.