PM's Facebook discussion turns nasty

A Facebook QA with Prime Minister Julia Gillard has attracted sexist and hateful comments, with her office having to censor the comments.

Ms Gillard took to the social networking site on Monday to talk about her education policies.

But the discourse turned ugly, with one man calling the prime minister a slut.

Another man asked how her father was. John Gillard died last month.

'Get my dinner ready' posted another man, while one asked if her 'pubes' were as 'radiant, shiny and glorious' as his own.

A number of other Facebook users labelled her the worst prime minister and criticised her voice, with one saying her voice and demeanour were like nails on a blackboard.

Others jumped to Ms Gillard's defence, one posting that 'nothing any of these sexest (sic), Hateful, disrespectful, unaustralian idiots can get to you!'

'You are an inspiration to Australians and the world,' said another.

And another: 'Keep up the great work running the nation Julia! You have quite rightly earned the respect you deserve.'

Ms Gillard has an official Facebook fan page, which is maintained by her office.

A spokeswoman for Ms Gillard said the site was moderated to remove offensive comments and, like all Facebook sites, comments could only be removed after they had been posted.

'A handful of comments after the session were offensive and have been removed,' the spokeswoman said in a statement.

The question and answer session was the first of its kind by a senior politician in Australia.

While in Tasmania last week, Ms Gillard took part in a live question and answer session for a news website, with no levelling of offensive remarks.

Story source: www.bigpond.com

SOPA blackout: Bills lose three co-sponsors amid protests

In case you missed all the news on the proposed bill to Stop On Line Piracy, or SOPA as it has become known, is a bill that was introduced into the  US house of representatives in October last year. 

The bill, if made law, would expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods.^[2] Presented to the House Judiciary Committee, it builds on the similar PRO-IP Act of 2008 and the corresponding Senate bill, the PROTECT IP Act.

The originally proposed bill would allow the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as copyright holders, to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Depending on who makes the request, the court order could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators from doing business with the allegedly infringing website, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites. The bill would make unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content a crime, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison for ten such infringements within six months. The bill also gives immunity to Internet services that voluntarily take action against websites dedicated to infringement, while making liable for damages any copyright holder who knowingly misrepresents that a website is dedicated to infringement.

In an update of this story, below is a article from the Los Angeles Times:

“Three co-sponsors of the SOPA and PIPA antipiracy bills have publicly withdrawn their support as Wikipedia and thousands of other websites blacked out their pages Wednesday to protest the legislation.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) withdrew as a co-sponsor of the Protect IP Act in the Senate, while Reps. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) and Ben Quayle (R-Ariz.) said they were pulling their names from the companion House bill, the Stop Online Piracy Act. Opponents of the legislation, led by large Internet companies, say its broad definitions could lead to censorship of online content and force some websites to shut down.

In a posting on his Facebook page, Rubio noted that after the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously passed its bill last year, he has "heard legitimate concerns about the impact the bill could have on access to the Internet and about a potentially unreasonable expansion of the federal government's power to impact the Internet."

"Congress should listen and avoid rushing through a bill that could have many unintended consequences," Rubio said in announcing he was withdrawing his support. While he's committed to stopping online piracy, Rubio called for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to back off plans to hold a key procedural vote on the bill on Tuesday.

Rubio's withdrawal will reduce the number of co-sponsors to 39. Last week, two other co-sponsors, Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), joined four other Senate Republicans in a letter to Reid also urging him delay the vote. But Grassley and Hatch have not withdrawn their support.

Terry and Quayle were among the 31 sponsors of the House legislation before they withdrew their support Tuesday.

Quayle still strongly supports the goal of the House bill to crack down on foreign websites that traffic in pirated movies, music, medicine and other goods.

"The bill could have some unintended consequences that need to be addressed," said Quayle spokesman Zach Howell. "Basically it needs more work before he can support it."

Terry said that he also had problems with the House bill in its current form and would no longer support it.

Wikipedia, Reddit and about 10,000 other websites blacked out their pages Wednesday with messages warning of the dangers of the legislation and urging people to contact their congressional representatives. Howell said Quayle's office had not seen a major increase in calls or emails Wednesday, but that the piracy bills have been the main issue in recent weeks for people contacting the office.

There has been a "manageable increase" in visits to House member websites Wednesday, said Dan Weiser, a spokesman for the House office of the chief administrative officer.

"It’s possible some users will see a short delay or slow loading of a member's web page," he said.”

Original story from The Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com/

If you would like to read more on how this bill, if passed, would affect how you use and research on the Internet, please read this link to Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act.

Anything we can do to stop this bill becoming law, lets do it now, and protest what is essentially an act of total censorship.

How Blogs Influence Purchases and Recommendations

Bloggers comment on brands and post to social media, expanding reach

Bloggers, from hobbyists to professionals, often write about brands, and their growing influence should make brand representatives continually evaluate the relationships they have with these bloggers.

Most bloggers write about brands in some way or another. According to the “State of the Blogosphere 2011” report from blog directory website Technorati, 38% of all bloggers post about brands that they love or hate and 34% write product or service reviews. Professional full-time bloggers or part-time professional bloggers who write as a way to supplement their income are more likely to blog about brands than their hobbyist, corporate or entrepreneur counterparts.

Bloggers are increasing in their influence over readers and other bloggers. Last year’s Technorati “State of the Blogosphere” reported that 29% of bloggers are influenced by other blogs they read. This year, that number jumped to 68%.

As bloggers gain influence and write about brands, the relationships between blog writers and brand representatives are important for companies to focus on. Most bloggers have a good relationship with brand representatives. Nearly half of all bloggers (49%) characterized their interactions with such representatives as somewhat or very favorable. Only 3% said their interactions were not at all favorable. However, 40% of all bloggers said they didn’t know how to characterize their interactions with brand representatives.

This large group of unsure respondents could have mixed feelings about the communications they receive from these brand representatives, affecting their relationships with the reps and their brands. Of all bloggers, 17% said brand representatives had asked for things that would compromise the credibility or content standards of the blog. This is roughly the same percentage of those that said the representatives were knowledgeable about their blogs and content (14%), are genuinely interested in building a relationship (16%) and provide information that has value for readers (23%).

As bloggers continue to grow in influence, their coverage of brands and their interactions with brands’ products, services and employees will be of greater interest to companies. Brand representatives who connect with bloggers must be sure to work with these writers to keep the relationships thriving.

News Corp. sells ailing Myspace for $35 million

News Corp. has sold Myspace for a fraction of its purchase price, bringing the curtain down on Rupert Murdoch's tie-up with a one-time social networking star that ended up being eclipsed by Facebook.

Myspace, which was bought by News Corp. in 2005 for $580 million, was bought by Specific Media, a digital ad-targeting platform, which said financial terms were confidential.

The News Corp.-owned technology blog All Things Digital put the purchase price at $35 million, however, and said the deal includes slashing about half of Myspace's staff of between 400 and 500 people.

"Myspace is a recognized leader that has pioneered the social media space," Tim Vanderhook, chief executive of Irvine, California-based Specific Media said in a statement.

"The company has transformed the ways in which audiences discover, consume and engage with content online," Vanderhook said. "We look forward to combining our platforms to drive the next generation of digital innovation."

Vanderhook said News. Corp. would take a minority equity stake in Specific Media as part of the deal. According to All Things Digital, News Corp. will retain a five to 10 percent stake in Myspace.

Myspace, which was launched in 2003, was the leading social networking site on the Internet when it was bought by News Corp. six years ago but it has been losing members to Facebook for years.

According to tracking firm comScore, Myspace had 21.8 million unique monthly US visitors in August 2005 to Facebook's 8.3 million.

Facebook surpassed Myspace in the number of US visitors in May 2009 and has just kept adding users since then while Myspace's membership eroded, according to comScore.

In May, Facebook had 157.2 million unique monthly US visitors compared to Myspace's 34.9 million, comScore said. Facebook, which was launched in 2004, has nearly 700 million members worldwide.

Myspace chief executive Mike Jones, in a memo to company employees obtained by Silicon Valley technology blogs, said he would leave Myspace in two months after helping Specific Media with the transition.

"While I regret we won't be working together at Myspace any longer, I am very proud of the work we have done here and believe we have performed with excellence -- even under extremely difficult circumstances," Jones said.

Myspace has gone through a series of layoffs, chief executives and makeovers in recent years as News Corp. sought to cut losses at the site and reverse the decline in membership.

As its popularity waned, Myspace has been seeking to reinvent itself recently as a destination for music fans.

Lee Brenner, a former Myspace employee, said Wednesday in a blog post that Myspace's slide was probably the result of a number of factors.

"I'm sure most employees (former or current) will argue that it was poor management, or a need to hit revenue targets once News Corp. took over, or a bottleneck in the technology department, or lack of resources given to their division, or a poor public relations effort, etc., that set the course of MySpace's downfall," Brenner said.

"It is most likely a combination of these factors, along with a 'low attention span' public," said Brenner, writing at a site he co-founded called Hypervocal.

"It probably didn't help to be doing business, and trying to grow, along with all of these issues, in the midst of a global economic crisis," said Brenner, who was Myspace's executive producer of political programming from 2007 to 2009.

News Corp. chief operating officer Chase Carey put Myspace on notice in November saying the losses at the social network were "unsustainable" and the news and entertainment giant formally put Myspace up for sale in January.

News Corp. was reportedly seeking $100 million for the site.

According to the News Corp.-owned Wall Street Journal there were two leading bidders for Myspace -- Specific Media, the eventual buyer, and private equity firm Golden Gate Capital.

News Corp. does not break out results for Myspace in its earnings but the "other" segment, which includes the social network, reported a second quarter operating loss of $156 million, $31 million wider than a year earlier.

News Corp. shares gained 1.25 percent on Wall Street on Wednesday to close at $17.39.

Source: AFP

Long-Tail Websites Boost Ad Efficiency

Placements on smaller, niche sites increase response to ads

Many advertisers stick to the top sites on the web when planning an online campaign, but overlooking less-trafficked sites could be a mistake.

A study by contextual targeting firm CONTEXTWEB of more than 1,000 ad campaigns across 18,000 publisher sites during the second half of 2010 found that ads placed on long-tail sites—those with an overall reach smaller than 1.5% of the internet population—had a significant lift in clickthrough rate compared with ads on larger web properties. Overall, long-tail sites lifted click rates by 24%.

All advertiser verticals studied showed lift when ads were placed on sites in the long tail. Alcohol ads enjoyed the highest lift, at 50%, while automotive advertisers experienced a lift of only 12%.

The site categories that provided the biggest lift in the long tail were education, technology and computing, and hobbies and games. Some site categories, including pets, home and garden, arts and entertainment, parenting and family, and automotive had a negative lift.

However, accounting for the decreased cost of placing ads on long-tail sites, even a negative lift often translates into a more efficient ad.

Not only can the long tail provide greater efficiency in clicks for advertisers’ dollar, according to the report, it is critical in providing a truly mass reach for ad campaigns. The large crop of long-tail sites frequently provides access to a large audience unduplicated by top sites in the same category, and often with similar demographics as visitors to those top sites. And according to comScore, the vast majority of time spent on the web is spent with long-tail sites, while the lion’s share of ad dollars is spent on the short tail.

Advertising on top websites is, of course, still critical, especially for major campaigns or for branding. But advertisers can use the long tail as a low-cost, efficient way to augment the reach and scale of their campaigns.

Australian consumers behind on web travel fees

With the Aussie dollar leading the greenback, it's no surprise the US has become a destination of choice for travel-loving Australians.

But it seems Australia is lagging behind the US when it comes to booking holidays over the internet and paying fees and charges for the service.

A major online travel agency says Australia is one of the few countries in the world where booking fees are still a feature of the online travel market.

But pressure is growing for Aussie sites to cut booking fees, as the sector competes to stay ahead of airlines and hotel chains who are increasingly seeking to win consumers over the internet.

'Surprisingly, Australia is one of the rare countries in the world that charges booking fees for online travel transactions,' Expedia Australia and New Zealand general manager Nicholas Chu said.

'We don't charge booking fees in the US anymore, most of the countries in Europe don't charge booking fees.'

Expedia.com cut booking fees 18 months ago in response to market demand, Mr Chu said, although it was not the first in the US to do so.

Research conducted by Expedia earlier this year found there is nearly universal hatred among Australian consumers - 75 per cent of us - for the booking fees.

'In the US, which is a much more mature online travel market, everyone is aware of fees, and I can tell you that no one wants to pay fees,' Mr Chu said.

'Why would you pay an extra $50 for nothing, while if you book directly with the carrier you won't have to pay the fee.'

Mr Chu's comments come in the wake of action by the consumer watchdog against a group of airlines who failed to display airfares inclusive of all fees and charges.

The group of eight carriers, including Tiger Airways, Air Asia X, and Qantas subsidiary Jetstar, reached a deal with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) last week.

But laws that prevent component pricing by airlines don't apply to booking fees charged by online travel websites.

According to the ACCC that's because travel sites charge fees across an entire booking, rather than per flight.

In Australia, online travel sites have captured about 20 to 30 per cent of the market, compared with 50 per cent penetration in the US.

Margins for online retailers are being squeezed as airlines and hotel chains compete by offering bookings directly from their websites.

Mr Chu said the industry must respond with greater transparency, cut fees and charges and focus on adding value for the customer.

'What was quite interesting was that actually when people were aware of fees they were quite angry about those,' Mr Chu said.

'Why would they have to pay for something that they are doing by themselves?'

Mr Chu said fees contributed a small portion of revenue and Expedia had 'been able to compensate for that with the increased volume'.

'The whole idea is to offer consumers added value that they won't get from the supplier direct.'

'We need to be transparent, but we also need to bring something, we need to add value for consumers.'

Story source www.bigpond.com

How Well Is Social Media Fitting into the Marketing Mix?

Budgets are rising, but integrating social media into overall strategies is still a challenge

 

Over the next several years, social media spending will become a bigger percentage of companies’ overall marketing budgets. Yet CMOs report there are still challenges when it comes to integrating social media into their overall business strategies.

The American Marketing Association and Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business surveyed more than 400 top marketers for the February 2011 CMO Survey. They reported that over the next 12 months, social media spending will jump to 9.8% of marketing budgets, up from the current level of 5.6%. In the next five years, that percentage will increase to 18.1%.

Service companies are planning the biggest increases, as both B2B and B2C service companies have a higher percentage of their budgets set aside for social media than their product-focused counterparts. They also plan to have bigger percentages looking ahead both 12 months and five years.

This is a remarkable difference from the August 2010 CMO Survey, when service companies were decreasing spending and future projections of spending, while product companies were seeing increases. In this survey, the results are flipped, with service companies seeing increases and product companies seeing decreases.

Social media is no longer brand new, and many product companies have been experimenting in the space for some time. The current challenge for companies is to figure out the balance of marketing that works for them, and that includes a focus on product development and traditional advertising. Service companies are also realizing they must be on the cutting edge to gain clients, which includes being savvy when it comes to social media.

Yet while these CMOs are setting aside more of their budgets for social media, they are still working on integrating this newer form of communication into overall business and marketing strategies.

CMOs are more confident in the integration of social media into marketing strategies, as 10.5% feel social media is very effectively integrated into those efforts. But when it comes to companies’ overall business strategies, 25% of CMO respondents said social media is not effectively integrated at all.

As social media becomes a bigger budget line item, CMOs and their companies must face the challenge of integrating it into overall business and marketing strategies. Not only is it more cost-effective to incorporate social media into marketing and overall strategies, but it also makes marketing more effective overall.

The Impact of Cookie Deletion on Website Audience Measurement in Australia

comScore a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its white paper, The Impact of Cookie Deletion on Site-Server and Ad-Server Metrics in Australia: An Empirical comScore Study.

The study addresses the key sources of discrepancy between server-based and panel-based data and reveals that cookie deletion can lead to large overstatements in servers’ measurement of the size of online audiences. Without appropriate adjustments, site-server measurement of the size of website audiences in Australia can be inflated by up to 2.7 times the actual number of unique visitors.

The report revealed the following key findings for the Australian market:

• Approximately 28 percent of Internet users in Australia delete their first-party cookies in a month. Third-party cookie percentages are even higher, with nearly 37 percent of Internet users deleting their third-party cookies in a month.
• “Serial cookie deleters” have a profound impact on inflating site-server logs because they represent a small percentage of computers, but a very large share of observed cookies.
• Because of the high rate of cookie deletion, a server-centric measurement system which uses cookies to measure the size of a site’s visitor base will typically overstate the true number of unique visitors by a factor of up to 2.7x in Australia.
• Similarly, the study found that an ad-server system which uses cookies to track the reach and frequency of an online campaign will overstate reach by a factor of up to 5.7x and understate frequency to the same degree.
• Comparing cookie deletion in Australia with other markets across the globe including the U.S., U.K., Brazil, France, Germany and New Zealand found that each country saw third-party cookies being deleted by approximately 30-40 percent of Internet users, with first-party cookies deletion in excess of 20 percent in each country. Australia fell in the middle of the distribution among the included markets for both first-party and third-party cookie deletion percentages.

To download the full report, The Impact of Cookie Deletion on Site-Server and Ad-Server Metrics in Australia: An Empirical comScore Study, please visit: http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Presentations_Whitepapers/2011/The_Impact_of_Cookie_Deletion_on_Site-Server_and_Ad-Server_Metrics_in_Australia_An_Empirical_comScore_Study

CFOs Have Stagnant Financial Expectations

CFOs of large North American companies lowered their sales and earnings expectations in Q4 2010, according to a new study from Deloitte. The Deloitte CFO Signals quarterly survey for Q4 2010 indicates that after two quarters of rising expectations, CFOs now project lower year-over-year sales gains of 6.5% (down 40% from 11% in Q3 2010) and earnings gains of 12% (also down 405, from 20% the last quarter). Deloitte data indicates variability of expectations is high. Median sales growth is just 5%, and median earnings growth is just 8%. However, all surveyed industries are projecting sales improvements.

Benefit Costs Seen Exceeding 5% Growth

Built into CFO earnings expectations are cost projections that are fairly consistent with those from the previous two quarters. CFO expectations for employee benefits cost increases have been rising in each of the last three quarters, outpacing the other cost categories and surpassing 5% during Q4 2010.

Many CFOs Expect Flat Dividends, Spending

CFOs are expecting dividends to rise 4%, down more than 50% from 8.5% during Q3 2010, but Deloitte analysis reveals nearly three-quarters are predicting flat dividends. Energy/resources is the outlier, projecting nearly 11% dividend growth.

Capital spending is expected to rise 8.5% (up from 8% last quarter), but the median expectation is just 4%, with more than 40% of CFOs anticipating flat spending or cuts. All sectors expect increases on the whole, but healthcare/pharma expects only 1%.

Research and development spending, a new metric for this quarter, is expected to rise 4%, with technology and healthcare/pharma companies higher at roughly 7.5%.

Domestic Hiring Growth Seen Slow

Domestic hiring growth expectations of 1.8% for Q4 2010 are slightly below those from the third quarter, and the median expectation is just 1%. On the plus side, no industries are projecting decreases, and energy/resources is projecting increases of 4.5%.

The outlook for offshore and outsourced employment is better with an expected 3.6% increase in offshore personnel (2.8% the previous quarter) and a 2.8% increase in outsourced staffing (1% during Q3 2010). Technology companies expect increases in both offshore and outsourced hiring of nearly 7.5% (and no increases in domestic hiring).

Hiring Challenges Remain

Despite high and persisting unemployment, almost half of the CFOs say their companies are finding it more difficult to acquire sufficiently-skilled people than they did five years ago and 32% indicate no change. Roughly half of CFOs citing difficulties blame changes in staffing needs, and the other half say their regular staffing profiles are getting harder to find. Energy/resources CFOs indicate the highest difficulty filling open positions with nearly 65% citing hiring concerns.

Only 21% of CFOs are finding it less difficult to acquire skilled talent -half because their staffing needs are changing and half because their regular staffing profiles are getting easier to find. More than one-third of retail/wholesale CFOs say hiring is getting easier because their staffing needs are changing; one fifth of technology CFOs agree. Financial services CFOs are unique in answering that their regular staffing profiles are getting easier to find (28% make this claim). If you remove the effects of financial services, only 6% of CFOs are saying their regular staffing profiles are getting easier to find.

Despite the common perception that manufacturing layoffs have created a glut of manufacturing staff, only 5% of manufacturing CFOs say their regular staffing profiles are getting easier to find (roughly one quarter say their regular staffing profiles are getting harder to find).

North American CFOs Remain Optimistic

CFOs of large North American companies were more likely to be optimistic than pessimistic in Q4 2010, although job stresses have reduced CFO optimism since Q2 2010, according to other study results. The Deloitte CFO Signals quarterly survey for Q4 2010 indicates that overall, 53% of surveyed CFOs at North America’s largest companies are more optimistic than they were in the previous quarter.

More than Half of Marketing Budgets to Increase

The majority of global marketing professionals expect their overall budget to increase, with about half of respondents projecting overall marketing expenditure to increase slightly and an additional 9% saying it will increase greatly (25% or more increase) during the next year, according to [pdf] a new survey from Alterian. With only 10% estimating a decrease, Alterian projects this indicates good opportunity for industry growth in 2011.

Agencies Most Optimistic

When looking at industry segment, marketers appear most conservative about spending, where agencies appear most op¬timistic. Agencies (14%) are more likely than marketers (10%) to say expected marketing expenditure will greatly increase (25% or more) during the next 12 months. Marketers are more likely than others (32%, compared to 21% of marketing service professionals and 18% of agencies) to say they plan to maintain overall marketing expenditure during the next 12 months.

3 in 4 Social/Digital Marketing Expenditures to Rise

Three-fourths of those surveyed estimate their social/digital marketing expenditure will increase during the next year, with one-fourth overall projecting it will increase greatly (25% or more). Alterian says the estimated growth above and beyond overall marketing expenditure projection is indicative that social/digital marketing will drive general marketing growth in the coming year.

MSPs Maintain Social/Digital Expenditures

MSPs are more likely than others to say they plan to maintain overall social/digital media expenditure during the next 12 months. They are less likely than others to say they plan to slightly increase (5-25%) social/digital media expenditure in the next year. Again, agencies maintain the most optimistic outlook and are more likely than others to say expected social/digital media expenditure will greatly increase (25% or more) in the next 12 months.

Few Company Websites Tailor Experience

When it comes to audience engagement on company websites, only a small number (11%) tailor each visitor’s experience. With one third using their site as a corporate brochure and more than half (55%) concentrating on offers and campaigns, the large majority do not focus on any kind of individualized company or brand experience based on each customer’s needs and/or information. When it comes to websites, this indicates a mass marketing strategy is still the norm, as opposed to personalization.

Agencies Least Likely to Use Site as Brochure

Moderately ahead of the pack, agencies are less likely than others to say a client website’s main focus is to serve as a corporate brochure. Alterian analysis indicates that perhaps due to the nature of their business, agencies tend to be more advanced along the engagement maturity model. As consumers begin to expect more from their brand experiences and interactions, other industry segments will be obliged to catch up.

Top Performers More Likely to Have Data Access

Results of the recent Aberdeen Group report “”Predictive Analytics – Driving Sales with Customer Insights” indicate that top performing marketing organizations are more likely to have access to different types of customer data. Dividing respondents into best-in-class (top 20% aggregate performance) and all others (including industry average with middle 50% industry performance and laggard with bottom 30% industry performance), the study shows that 77% of best-in-class organizations have access to all customer transactional data, compared to only 58% of other organizations.

In addition, 64% of best-in-class organizations have access to customer behavior data, compared to 53% of other organizations. Similar discrepancies exist in levels of access to internal unstructured data (55% compared to 39%) and external unstructured data (41% compared to 26%).

Aberdeen advises that access to customer data enables sales-enhancing activities such as modeling lifetime customer value, market segmentation, and prioritizing inbound sales leads.

About the Data:This survey of 1,462 global marketing professionals was conducted from October 9, 2010 to December 17, 2010, both online and offline.

Internet Armageddon all my fault: Google chief

The "father of the internet" says the world is going to run out of internet addresses "within weeks" – and it will be all his fault.

Google's chief internet evangelist, Vint Cerf, who created the web protocol, IPv4, that connects computers globally, said he had no idea that his "experiment" in 1977 "wouldn't end".

"I thought it was an experiment and I thought that 4.3 billion [addresses] would be enough to do an experiment," he said in group interview with Fairfax journalists.

The protocol underpinning the net, known as IPv4, provides only about 4 billion IP addresses - not website domain names, but the unique sequence of numbers assigned to each computer, website or other internet-connected device.

The explosion in the number of people, devices and web services on the internet means there are only a few million left.

The allocation of those addresses is set to run out very shortly but the industry is moving towards a new version, called IPv6, which will offer trillions of addresses for every person on the planet.

"Who the hell knew how much address space we needed?" Cerf said.

"It doesn’t mean the network stops, it just means you can’t build it very well."

Google's leadership shake-up

Cerf said Google's surprise leadership shake-up was essential because the search giant was beginning to move too slowly.

Today the company announced that Google co-founder Larry Page would take over as chief executive from Eric Schmidt, who has become its executive chairman. Until this point Page and co-founder Sergey Brin ran the company with Schmidt as a "troika".

"'As we got larger it was harder for us to move as quickly as we would like so I think this is part of the whole practice of speeding up decision processes," he said.

"Quick rapid execution is absolutely essential, especially in a highly competitive world like this."

Recent ex-Googlers who left the company to join Facebook, including former Google Australia engineer Lars Rasmussen, have said Google has become too unwieldy as it has grown.

Schmidt gave similar comments in a blog post today, saying that, as Google had grown, managing the business had become "more complicated" and the trio had been "talking for a long time about how best to simplify our management structure and speed up decision making".

Cerf said Schmidt, 55, had been chief executive for 10 years - "a nice round number" - and Page, now 37, was ready to lead the company into the future.

"Larry and Sergey are 10 years older than they were when they thoughtfully hired Eric to be the CEO ... so everybody's growing up," Cerf said.

"He was the only guy that stood up to them - these were two young, smart, incredibly brilliant guys who literally had just dropped their PhDs to go start this company."

It has long been held that Schmidt was brought on at Google to counter the lack of business experience of Google's founders, and Schmidt alluded to this in a tweet today.

"Day-to-day adult supervision no longer need!" he wrote after the leadership change announcement.

Taking on Facebook

Cerf would not be drawn on whether Google was developing a social networking site to compete with Facebook, as has been rumoured. But he said "our interest is less in the social networking aspect as it is in the patterns of behaviour".

"We really don't care about you personally we care about the patterns that you make. If we can match the patterns that you make with the patterns that the advertisers are trying to get in front of you, you benefit as well as the advertisers," he said.

"This is quite independent of the sort of things that go on in Facebook, which is more about personal information and personal interactions."

Praising the NBN

Cerf heaped praise on the National Broadband Network, saying Australia was making a long-term investment that would "serve you incredibly well in ways that even I can't figure out".

"The idea of being able to export your talents without having to export your people ... this is a very attractive proposition," he said.

"I honestly envy the political will to make this kind of long-term investment."

Google as ISP?

But despite Google's work in building municipal Wi-Fi and experimental fibre broadband networks in the US, he said it was unlikely Google would ever become an ISP.

"The intent is that as we build these [networks] out we will then turn them over to some other parties to operate and to make openly accessible," he said.

"This is not our business model. Our purpose was to document what the costs and problems are ... we're not in the business of building physical infrastructure except for our internal operation."

Asked whether recent privacy breaches at Sydney University and Vodafone - both of which kept detailed customer records online - highlighted the pitfalls of moving toward hosting everything in the online "cloud", Cerf said the cloud was not at fault.

"Just because it's sitting in an enterprise server doesn't mean that you're any better protected than you would be in the cloud," he said.

"When you're in the cloud business you better be good at securing your systems otherwise you lose all your customers."

Story source: Asher Moses and Ben Grubb www.theage.com.au

Are Impersonal Messages Hurting Your Online Marketing?

Marketers who fail to segment and target their messages may be at risk

Marketing trends—especially in digital—are motivating brands to be more interactive and engaged with their customers. Rather than pushing out interruptive messages that targets will ignore or find annoying, many are working to create marketing experiences that appeal to customers as individuals. And they know if they neglect to do so their brand could be at risk.

In an Alterian survey of marketing professionals, nearly three-quarters said they or their clients tried to create personalized customer experiences through email, the top channel for doing so. Direct mail, website and social media fell far behind but nearly even with each other in the 53% to 59% range.

Notably, less than 9% of respondents said they did not use any of the cited channels for a personalized customer experience. While marketers may not use every channel at their disposal to do so, they recognize the importance of personalization.

Asked specifically about email, a plurality of respondents said they segment their audience and send different messages based on the segmentation. The second-most-popular response, however, was blast emails with basic personalization—which is often not enough to appeal to recipients. Only about half as many said they delivered truly personalized email marketing messages based on individual preferences.

Based on their usage of digital channels for personalized and interactive marketing, most respondents felt their brands could be at risk because of a lack of customer engagement. A majority of that group claimed to be taking action based on problems they had already recognized, but some still did not know where to start. Less than a quarter reported they were fully engaged.

Floods go global in online coverage

Queensland's floods are making news in some, but not all, parts of the world.

America's CNN network is reporting online a 'scene of utter devastation' with aerial footage of the flooded Lockyer Valley and people being airlifted from their rooftop refuges.

Britain's BBC is leading its online news service with a story about the Brisbane flooding, reporting that 20,000 homes may be hit.

It is running eyewitness accounts from Toowoomba alongside footage of cars being washed away and smashed against bridges by gushing waters.

The networks' TV bulletins are also covering the story.

Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale told Sky News on Wednesday that many calls from international media were among hundreds of mobile phone inquiries he has been attempting to answer.

The New York Times is leading online with stories from the Arizona shooting and its own weather emergency, a giant snowstorm approaching, but has a story about the floodwaters threatening Brisbane in its Asia-Pacific section.

The Times newspaper in Britain is leading online with the Brisbane floods, showing images of people wading through waters with their possessions.

However, the floods are not news everywhere, with no reports on the home pages of Canada's Ontario Times and Paris' Le Monde online sites.

Closer to home, the Jakarta Post online has news of the floods in its world section, while The China Daily has a story about the NSW floods trapping 1,700 people but has not updated its online coverage to include the latest on the Queensland floods.

Further east, the Times of India online is leading its world coverage with the floods, depicting thousands fleeing Brisbane 'to escape a tsunami-like tidal wave' and reporting 30 people dead, despite an official toll of 10.

Story source: www.bigpond.com

The Demographics of Social Shopping Sites

Many consumers unaware of the category

Retailers are eager to jump on social trends, be it a simple Facebook or Twitter presence, customer ratings and reviews, or more sophisticated experiences that bring the social graph to retail sites. Social shopping sites like Groupon and LivingSocial form another piece of the social commerce space, and despite the hype many shoppers have not yet jumped on the bandwagon.

According to JPMorgan’s “Nothing But Net 2011” report, two in five online buyers surveyed had not heard of social shopping sites, and another 28% knew what they were but had never used them.

Age and income were major determining factors for participation in social shopping sites, the survey found. Web users ages 18 to 34 were 10 times as likely as those 55 and older to have purchased from such a site, and twice as likely to have done so as 35- to 54-year-old respondents.

Income’s effect was less dramatic but still clear: 23% of web users with an income of at least $100,000 annually bought from a social shopping site, vs. 10% of those making less than $50,000. Income also determined whether internet users had heard of social shopping at all; the least well off respondents were significantly less likely to be familiar with the sites even though they did not use them.

Stay Safe Using Location-based Services

Walk by The North Face store in several major cities in the near future, and your mobile phone may suddenly buzz with a new text message -- a coupon from the store.

That’s because the company is planning to push offers over your mobile phone whenever you're near one of their stores. The service is available to anyone who signs up for ShopAlerts.

It will be easy enough to sign up -- at the store, on The North Face Web site, or via text message, mobile Web sites and even Facebook. ShopAlerts also plans to carry coupons and offers from American Eagle Outfitters, REI and others.

It sounds like a very useful new service, but the technology holds dangerous pitfalls, say the experts.

Services that track your physical location through your mobile phone or other mobile device send information about where you are to various sources. Some sources are legitimate, such as retailers, restaurants, and other businesses. But some sources that get access to the information about where you are may intend to do you harm.

For example, if you use a service that publicises where you are, such as FourSquare, a tool you can use on your phone to “check in” at a restaurant, cinema or other location, you are also indicating that you are not at home. A Web site called PleaseRobMe has popped up to point out that this very public information can alert thieves and the like that your home might not be currently occupied. As the site states, “The danger is publicly telling people where you are. This is because it leaves one place you're definitely not ... home.”

Most of us -- 95.7 million, according to research group Gartner -- don’t think twice about allowing these services to know where we are. We get in our cars and turn on the GPS map to help us get to our destination; it couldn’t function without pinpointing our exact location. We are thankful when 999 is automatically clued in to where we are in times of trouble, like car accidents. And when a service on our phone lets us connect with others by broadcasting our location at that moment, it seems just as harmless. That’s just what thieves are counting on.

“Knowing where a target is is crucial,” says Richard Weinblatt, director of the Institute for Public Safety at Central Ohio Technical College, who runs the TheCopDoc.com. He advises that you give out information selectively and that you consider whether you trust the service with your information before you sign up.

In addition to the risk of having your home burgled, you are also putting some crucial data in jeopardy when you give the OK to services that ask for your location to help you find what you are seeking. There are two primary ways these services find you: Your cellular service approximates your location based on your distance to nearby cell towers, or the GPS software in your phone relays your spot to satellites. Your wireless provider then transmits your location to the service company, which in some cases stores that information on its servers.

The good news is, location-based services find out where you are only when you let them. Whether you’re actively posting your location or allowing a service to use GPS and cellular service technologies to find out where you are, it’s because you’ve made the choice of letting them know. What this means is that it’s already within your control to manage what information gets out there.

Here’s what you can do to protect yourself, your belongings and your personal information while still participating in these useful location-based services:

• Don’t link your home address to your account. This is the easiest way for thieves to find out where you are not. Most services either won’t make this information public or will allow you to choose what information you share. Pay special attention to ensure control of this information.
• Don’t use your full name. Robbers can easily look up your name if there is a record of your home address available anywhere online or even in the local phone book. To limit broadcast of where you are, hide your full name.
• Be selective about which services you allow to pinpoint your location. Many applications will automatically ask you if they can find out where you are so they can offer you content and services most useful to you. Allow them access only where you feel most comfortable.
• Be selective about who sees your location. In social networking applications involving your location, set limits on who is able to see that information -- everyone, all your contacts, select contacts or no one.
• Read the privacy policy. Above all, arm yourself with information on how each service works. Each privacy policy should indicate how the service uses any of the data it requests from you.

So-called location-based services can be as innocuous as the GPS-enabled maps you use in your car or on your mobile device, and they can even help save lives. But be vigilant about your use of them, and you will enjoy only their benefits.

Story by Laura Rich, Laura is a freelance writer based in Boulder, Colorado.

Most Marketers Shift Toward Branded Content

Majority consider it a tool for education

Marketers are recognizing the value of magnetic content over traditional disruptive forms of advertising, according to research from the Custom Content Council in partnership with branded-content newsletter ContentWise.

Overall, 68% of companies said they were shifting from traditional forms of marketing to more emphasis on branded content, including 61% who reported a moderate shift and 7% who said their shift was “aggressive.”

On average, spending on branded content represented 29% of respondents’ total marketing, advertising and communications budgets in 2010. That was down slightly from 32% last year. The report noted that 2010 had the fourth-highest total marketing spend recorded but the second-highest branded content spend, suggesting that branded content will continue to increase in importance among marketers.

About 35% of total spending on branded content went toward electronic forms this year, according to the survey.

Respondents’ top reason for using branded content was to educate consumers, cited by 54%.

“The 2010 numbers illustrate a spending level that is nearly 100% above 2008,” said Keith Sedlak, chair of the Custom Content Council and CMO at Meredith Integrated Marketing, in a statement. “Add to that the fact that 68% of companies surveyed continue to shift their ad dollars to branded content. And lastly, there was a 20% increase in companies surveyed this year vs. last year that plan to grow their branded content budgets.”

Social media marketing is one factor contributing to the importance of branded content. According to the “2010 Social Media Usage, Attitudes and Measurability” study from King Fish Media, HubSpot and Junta42, 73% of US companies with a social media strategy were using branded content they created in their campaigns. Such original content was considered the most important part of a successful social campaign, with nearly half of respondents calling it “extremely important.”

Advertisers Demand Proof of Online Video’s Efficacy

Finding evidence for video’s branding power

Online video advertising is growing at a fast pace in the US. eMarketer forecasts a spending increase of 48.1% to over $1.5 billion this year, followed by a further boost of about 43% for the next two years. But publishers and video ad networks have concerns about their effectiveness.

A survey of web publishers by online video ad service provider BrightRoll found that they considered standardization of formats across ad networks to be the greatest barrier to online video growth, followed by the interruption to the user experience.

Publishers also had concerns about working with ad networks, mainly about fill percentages and sales-channel conflicts.

But even more publishers—88%—said they thought advertisers would spend more if research proved the efficacy of online video advertising. An earlier BrightRoll survey that queried agencies found 52% said their clients would spend more under the same conditions.

“Today’s video metrics only partially answer the essential question marketers want to know: Did the ad convince the consumer to buy?” wrote David Hallerman, eMarketer principal analyst, in the October 2010 report “Measuring Video Ads: Metrics for Brand Marketers.” “Whether the metric data comes from servers (completion rates) or from surveys (awareness), it acts as only a proxy for answering that bottom-line question.”

Research from Dynamic Logic and TubeMogul in Q4 2009 showed online video performed better than rich media or simple flash in online ad awareness, brand favorability, and a variety of other branding metrics.

Gaining Consumer Trust Online and Offline

Marketers must leverage trust, not just popularity

Trust and credibility are the gold standards by which relationships are measured. This is true of personal relationships as well as connections between people and brands.

The rise of social media has reinforced the importance of trust. Successful and enduring social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn are built on a foundation of trust and transparency. But social media has also distorted the notion of trust and put an emphasis on the size of a person’s network and connections.

“Most people’s decisions are shaped by word-of-mouth input, whether online or offline, from a tight circle of close friends and relatives,” said Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report “Word-of-Mouth Marketing: Leveraging Trust Online and Offline.” “Marketers seeking to maximize their reach should focus on the quality of social network connections rather than their sheer size.”

According to Invoke Solutions, quantitative measures such as the volume of content and participation, the length of time people have been fans or followers, or the raw number of followers or fans mattered far less in inspiring trust than the openness of the dialogue, the quality of the comments, and the responsiveness of the sponsor or author.

And Vision Critical found that among US consumers overall as well as daily social network users, friends and family were trusted for product recommendations far more than brand-originated content or people consumers did not know.

And marketers around the world agree that popularity does not equal influence on social media sites.

“The level of influence over one’s friends, followers or fans is the real key, and influence does not necessarily correlate to the size of the network,” said Verna.

In addition, there is a feedback loop between online and offline word-of-mouth, and marketers must understand the connections and differences between the channels.

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Teen Texting Jumps 8%

US teens age 13-17 sent and received average of 8% more text messages in Q2 2010 than in Q2 2009, according to new data from The Nielsen Company.

Teen Females are Queens of Texting
Teens age 13-17 sent and received average of 3,339 monthly text messages in Q2 2010, 8% more than Q2 2009 and more than six per waking hour.

No one texts more than teens (age 13-17), especially teen females, who send and receive an average of 4,050 texts per month. Teen males also outpace other male age groups, sending and receiving an average of 2,539 texts. Young adults (age 18-24) come in a distant second, exchanging 1,630 texts per month (a comparatively meager three texts per hour).

Texting Trumps Safety
Texting is the main reason teens get a cell phone, with 43% claiming it is their primary reason for getting one. Safety, which was the main teen reason for getting a phone in 2008, is now less important. It is secondary among girls and less so among boys. Keeping in touch with friends is still one of the top three factors, too.

Overall, percentages of teens citing specific reasons for obtaining a cell phone did not greatly vary between Q2 2009 and Q2 2010.

Voice Usage Drops in Younger than 55
Tracking use of voice telephony by age group, voice usage declined in every age bracket younger than 55 between Q2 2009 and Q2 2010. It slightly increased among the 55-to-64-year-old and 65 and older demographics.

Voice activity has decreased 14% among teens, who average 646 minutes talking on the phone per month. Teen females, who are more social with their phones, average about 753 minutes per month, while males use around 525 minutes.

Teens Use More Mobile Data, Apps
While teen usage of mobile data and applications does not reach levels of activity seen by young adults, it has increased substantially since Q2 2009, growing from 14 MB to 62 MB. This fourfold increase is the largest jump among all age groups. Much of this boost is led by males, who are more gadget-savvy and consume 75 MB of data, compared to 17 MB in Q2 2009. Teen females use about 53 MB of data, compared to 11 MB a year ago.

Teens are not only using more data, but they are also downloading a wider range of applications. Software downloads among teen subscribers who use apps enjoyed a solid 46% increase in activity, from 26% to 38%. This includes popular apps such as Facebook, Pandora or YouTube.

Usage of the mobile web has also surpassed activity on pre-installed games, ringtone downloads and instant messaging. Other mobile activities like mail and text alerts have also seen significant growth.

Teens Text 5x More than Adults
Teens ages 12-17 send and receive a median of five times more texts per day than adult texters, according to recent data from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Slightly more than half (51%) of adults who text send one to 10 texts per day, compared to 22% of teens.

The percentages of texting adults and teens who send 11-20 and 21-50 average daily texts are fairly similar. Where teens begin to outpace adults is in the percentage who send 51-100 average texts daily (18% to 7%), and more notably in the percentage who send 101-plus average texts daily (29% to 8%).

Ultimately, adults who text typically send and receive a median of 10 texts a day; teens who text send and receive a median of 50 texts per day.

Google eyes online consumer index

US internet titan Google is readying its own 'Google Price Index' based on a vast database of online purchases, providing a daily measure of inflation, said a top company official quoted in the Financial Times.

Google has not yet decided whether it will publish the index (GPI), which is still in development, the group's chief economist Hal Varian said at the National Association of Business Economists conference in Denver, Colorado.

Varian said the GPI indicates a 'very clear deflationary trend' for goods purchased online in just under a year of data gathering, a potentially worrying prospect for US officials.

The GPI, calculated differently from official statistics of consumption -- a key indicator of US economic growth -- as it only accounts for products sold on the internet, but can be a much faster tool as results could be modelled at real-time speed.

The most recent official data from the Commerce Department was released at the beginning of October and showed consumer spending in August. Those figures showed spending rose 0.4 per cent in August as consumers spent slightly more than expected for the second straight month.

Story from www.ninemsn.com.au