YouTube Launches New Mobile Ads
March 10, 2010 by Chris Crum
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Google is launching ads on the home page, search page, and browser page on the mobile version of YouTube in the U.S. and Japan.
"This is a great way for advertisers to reach YouTube viewers across multiple platforms," says Google Strategic Partner Development Manager Taylor Cascino. "In fact, at launch YouTube will immediately provide one of the largest audiences for a mobile ad campaign anywhere on the mobile web. And because YouTube mobile attracts early adopters, the site can deliver to advertisers a coveted demographic of tech savvy trendsetters. We've already seen some early campaigns run on YouTube's mobile site by advertisers like Sony (for the DVD release of "District 9") and Kia, both of whom were able to easily reach their target audience, no matter where they were looking for video."
YouTube's mobile site traffic grew by over 160% in 2009, and you can probably expect that growth to continue along with smartphone usage. Don't forget that YouTube is the number 2 search engine on the web. That's a lot of people searching for videos.
"The increased usage of high-end devices like the iPhone and Android is also making mobile advertising easier and more effective for advertisers," says Cascino.
Ads on the YouTube mobile site will come in the form of banner ads sold on a full-day basis. YouTube tested the mobile ads with brands like L'Oreal and Land Rover, and the company says these showed strong results in terms of click-throughs, user experience, and brand awareness.
Google Maps Now Has Biking Directions
March 10, 2010 by Mike Sachoff
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Google has partnered with Rails-to-Trails (RTC), a nonprofit focused on creating a network of trails from former rail lines, to add biking directions to Google Maps.
Google Maps now has biking route details for more than 150 U.S. cities covering more than 12,000 miles of trails and bike lanes. Google says it plans to continue to add new trail information to Google Maps and is requesting feedback from riders via the "Report a Problem" tool.
The new feature allows Google Maps users to type in their destination and receive directions for the best bicycling route. Google says its algorithm is weighted to prefer routing on trails instead of roads open to automobile traffic as long as it won't take cyclists too far out of the way.
"We're thrilled to be working with Rails-to-Trails Conservancy to make RTC's extensive bike trail data available through Google Maps and Google Earth," says Shannon Guymon, Product Manager for Google Maps.
"Bikers all over the country now will be able to explore new trails or find specific directions in their local community with just a few clicks of their mouse."
Twitter Inspects Links To Prevent Spam, Abuse
March 10, 2010 by Doug Caverly
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Clicking on links that different people send can often be a cross-your-fingers experience, considering that there are malicious tricksters, unknowing victims, and hijacked accounts to watch out for. So Twitter's attempting to make the experience less dangerous by checking (and sometimes rewriting) the links found in direct messages and email notifications.
Del Harvey, Director of Trust and Safety at Twitter, explained on the official corporate blog, "[W]e're launching a new service to protect users that strikes a major blow against phishing and other deceitful attacks. By routing all links submitted to Twitter through this new service, we can detect, intercept, and prevent the spread of bad links across all of Twitter."
Harvey later continued, "For the most part, you will not notice this feature because it works behind the scenes but you may notice links shortened to twt.tl in Direct Messages and email notifications."
This move is bound to ruffle a few users' feathers - changing the text in private messages is a sort of bold step - but on the whole, it should prove welcome enough. A safe environment is in just about everybody's best interests, from regular users to marketers to Twitter itself.
Let's just hope the new feature works well and doesn't create a false sense of security.
Actor Corey Haim Reported Dead
March 10, 2010 by WebProNews
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Actor Corey Haim, best known for roles in movies like the Lost Boys, License to Drive, and many others (a number of which also featured Corey Feldman), has reportedly been found dead of an apparent drug overdose.
>>> You can leave your condolences on FamousDead.com.
The LA Times reports:
The Los Angeles Police Department said Haim, 38, was pronounced dead after 3 a.m. at a Burbank hospital. He had been living in the San Fernando Valley.
Details of his death were not immediately available. The L.A. coroner's office was investigating. A police spokesman said more details would be available later.
Haim connected with his fans through social media, specifically a MySpace page, which currently has 4,253 friends.
The "about me" section reads:
The real Corey Haimster here! I asked Jenny J to set this up for me, so here it is. I'll be checking in to read all your shout outs & when I get the time, I'll leave a message for you all. Thanks for hitting my MySpace page!
Love & peace out,
Corey
"Actor Corey Haim" and "Lost Boys" are currently both trending topics on Twitter.
Haim's latest movie American Sunset premiered in Las Vegas in January. He had also been seen in the realty TV show The Two Coreys with Feldman. More on Haim here.
Google Apps MarketPlace Greatly Expands Google’s Enterprise Offerings
March 10, 2010 by Chris Crum
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Last night at Campfire One, Google launched the Google Apps Marketplace, where developers can create apps that integrate with Google Apps and sell them to users. According to Google, they can reach over 2 million businesses and 25 million users.
Right off the bat, the Google Apps Marketplace launched with over 50 applications from companies like Intuit and Atlassian, with more coming soon from companies like NetSuite and SuccessFactors, a Google spokesperson tells WebProNews.
"Once installed to a company's domain, these third-party applications work like native Google applications," explains Google Apps Marketplace Product Manager Chris Vander Mey. "With administrator approval, they may interact with calendar, email, document and/or contact data to increase productivity. Administrators can manage the applications from the familiar Google Apps control panel, and employees can open them from within Google Apps. With OpenID integration, Google Apps users can access the other applications without signing in separately to each. The Google Apps Marketplace eliminates the worry about software updates, keeping track of different passwords and manual syncing and sharing of data, thereby increasing business productivity and lessening frustrations for users and IT administrators alike. That's the power of the cloud."
This is the 2nd big move by Google regarding the cloud and Google Apps in less than a week. Late last week, the company acquired DocVerse, which "makes Word, PowerPoint and Excel Work like Google Docs," as the DocVerse title tag explains.
Developers can get more info about the Google Apps Marketplace at Google's Developer Programs site. The company will also be talking about developing apps for the enterprise at Google I/O in May.
Google Suffers Market Share Stumble In The UK
March 9, 2010 by Doug Caverly
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While we normally don't comment on market share fluctuations that occur in places other than America, some recent changes in the UK may bear mentioning. According to the AT Internet Institute, Google's share of the search market slipped by 1.6 percent between January and February.
That's a significant amount. Indeed, as the slightly upsized figure below shows (sorry for any blurriness), if Ask and AOL had suffered similar losses, they'd have been wiped out, hitting zero.
Of course, that didn't happen. Instead, both Yahoo and Bing benefited from Google's dip. Yahoo gained a not-bad 0.6 percent, and Bing increased its share by an even-better 0.7 percent.
Google's still in an extremely dominant position, but given that Microsoft's about to spend $2 billion on Bing commercials in the UK, these changes are noteworthy. Microsoft might not be throwing its money away, as some people have speculated; there's now the possibility that it could extend or accelerate this growth trend.
We'll be sure to write again about the UK search market next month if anything out of the ordinary happens. In the meantime, it should be interesting to see how those Bing commercials are received.
HR Pros See Value In Social Media
March 9, 2010 by Mike Sachoff
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Social media plays an important role in problem solving and strategy development in the workplace according to a new survey of 900 human resources executives conducted by Toolbox.com and PJA.
Among HR executives and professionals, social media usage outpaced editorial and vendor content consumption. Respondents used social media at a rate of 3.77 hours per week, compared to 2.77 hours of online editorial content and 2.13 hours of online vendor content.
The survey indicated active participation in social media is an important part of the HR job role and acts as a resource for experience-based knowledge in the workplace. Respondents said staying current (78%) and networking with peers (71%) as the most popular uses of social media.
Additionally, more than half have responded to a question asked by a peer in an online community, while nearly 50 percent have built their personal knowledge network by making connections with peers.
"This survey proves HR professionals have been fast adopters of social media, not just for networking but for improving their value as professionals," said Mike O'Toole, president at PJA Advertising + Marketing.
"They clearly identify social media channels as a way to increase their expertise and build their professional reputation."
Key highlights from the survey include:
*Social media represents 43% of total media consumption among HR respondents (compared to 32% for editorial and 25% for vendor content).
*Deep experience is seen as the most important attribute in a social media expert, followed by thoughtful and detailed responses.
*Nearly half of respondents say that a social media presence greatly increases or increases their value as a job candidate, while more than 50% claim that social media is important or very important in building their personal brand.
Google May Offer Services In Cuba, Iran, Sudan
March 9, 2010 by Doug Caverly
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It looks like Google may be ready to wade into another controversial censorship vs. availability of services situation. A high-ranking corporate representative has welcomed the U.S. Treasury's decision to allow the exportation of online communications tools to Cuba, Iran, and Sudan.
According to Frank Jordans, Bob Boorstin, Director of Corporate and Policy Communications at Google, said during a human rights meeting in Geneva, "This is a great accomplishment. We are hopeful this will help people like yourselves in this room and activists all over the world take a small step down what is certainly a long road ahead."
What's more, Boorstin indicated that Google isn't going to just sit on the sidelines, wishing everyone well. Boorstin reportedly "said the Web search company would now be able to offer some of its other products in those countries," including Google Earth, Google Talk, and Picasa.
This is an interesting turn of events, considering that China recently threatened to leave China over free speech issues. If Google follows through on Boorstin's remarks, the search giant's sure to face fresh questions over whether it's more interested in profits than human rights.
We'll of course report on any further developments as they occur.
How Important is Your Domain Name to Your Brand?
March 9, 2010 by Chris Crum
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How important is your domain name to you brand? Most online businesses would probably consider it to be quite important, and with good reason. Sometimes before searching, customers may simply opt to go to the "yourbrandhere.com" URL simply because it makes sense. Now, sometimes that URL is already taken, and for start-ups, that's something to consider in itself.
As Monte Cahn, Founder and President of Moniker mentioned in a recent interview with WebProNews, it's a good idea to make sure the domain name is available when coming up with a name for your brand, or at least make sure that you are able to acquire it. Products have their own brands, and this way of thinking can also be applied to them in many cases. Cahn notes that even the big companies make mistakes in this area. For example, you would expect Apple to own iPad.com, considering the huge announcement about the device the company made this year, but someone else has that domain.