As of July 2010, Google owns more than 90 percent of the search market share and almost 99 percent of the mobile search market share, according to StatCounter Global Stats. In fact, Google is such a commonly used tool that it has become a verb.
With that popularity comes obstacles. In Google’s case, those obstacles are in the form of malware.
In its 2010 Midyear Security Report, Barracuda Labs conducted a study across Bing, Google, Twitter and Yahoo! and reviewed more than 25,000 trending topics and nearly 5.5 million search results.
Some of the key findings include:
- Overall, Google takes the crown for malware distribution – turning up more than twice the amount of malware as Bing, Twitter and Yahoo! combined when searches on popular trending topics were performed. Google presents at 69 percent; Yahoo! at 18 percent; Bing at 12 percent; and Twitter at one percent.
- Over half of the malware found was between the hours of 4:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. GMT.
- The top 10 terms used by malware distributors include the name of a NFL player, three actresses, a Playboy Playmate and a college student who faked his way into Harvard. Google users who clicked on these returned search results found themselves on sites that were not too kind to their computers.
Do you think Google as a brand owes its customers a safe searching environment? Or, is it simply Google’s job to return results and up to the user to decide whether or not to click on a link?
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Labels: Barracuda Labs, Google, search engines
Move over, Foursquare. Facebook has officially checked-in to the location tagging game with its new “Places” feature. Available on the Facebook application for iPhone, Places allows users to alert their friends to where they are and who they’re with.
Once users have checked-in using Places, their location will be shared on friends’ news feeds and in the recent activity section on the page for that place. In addition, users can tag the friends that they are with and post an update to include more information about the place and what they are doing there.
Hot on the heels of criticism regarding their privacy regulations, Facebook is quick to assure its users that sharing information with Places is strictly voluntary.
“With Places, you are in control of what you share and the people you share with. You choose whether or not to share your location when you check in at a place. When you check in, you can tag friends who are with you but only if their settings allow it. When you are tagged, you are always notified.” – Facebook
For those of us actively using location-based social media, it is convenient to have these services combined with our existing Facebook friend collection – the whole “killing two birds” thing definitely applies here. However, Facebook Places doesn’t offer the coupons and deals that Foursquare is still struggling to popularize.
Do you think Facebook Places will make Foursquare and Gowalla obsolete or will it up the ante and force them to provide more user incentives?
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Labels: Apple, apps, Facebook, social media, social media tools
Just because someone is dead, should they not be online? For those of you who want their online presence to continue living even if they are not, 1000Memories is your solution.
“1000Memories is the passion of three friends who have lost loved ones and believe that the Internet offers a better way to bring people together and build something special in their memory. We aspire to create a place that visitors can gather and remember the lives of the people they love most; a place where visitors know that their loved ones will be treated with respect and where their memory will be maintained forever.”
This is a sample page:
The site allows users to build photo albums, post comments on a guest book and even start a project in someone’s honor – providing a place to direct donations to a favorite charitable cause.
Would you create a profile for a deceased loved one on 1000Memories? Do you think it’s a good idea or slightly morbid?
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Labels: 1000Memories, social media
Introducing the newest thing in plate ware: your iPad? Yup! An avid Apple user from Japan has discovered a way to turn the electronic device into an iDish.
All you need is protective film for the iPad and an Internet connection. Just access the web, get a picture of a plate that best fits what you want to eat, place your food on top of the iPad screen, and you’re set. – CrunchGear
Of course it would be great if we could get Apple to create an iPad that actually produces the food for you, but we’re not going to hold our breath on that one.
At $499 a plate, this is a very expensive set of china!
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Labels: Apple, apps, iPad, social media, social media tools
Online dating isn’t new. Match.com launched 15 years ago, and eHarmony, claims responsibility for 2% of all U.S. marriages.
What is new is that people are bypassing matchmaking sites and creating their own online presence to solicit dates.
Brian, a 23-year-old from Milwaukee, Wisconsin is using his site Dating Brian to wade through the very large pool of single women in NYC. His goal is to go on 30 dates in 30 days, all with women suggested by visitors to the site. If you’d like to date Brian, you can even nominate yourself. He uses Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to update his followers on date status and to request date suggestions.
Colby Brin (as seen on a recent Today show) is another interesting example of someone taking ownership of the online dating scene….sort of. His mom, Geri Brin, actually solicited dates from eager young women on her son’s behalf, whom she describes as family-oriented, cute, funny and a fabulous writer.
Brin’s idea inspired a new dating site where moms can add their single kid to the dating pool.
The Fab Over Fifty website includes a “Date My Single Kid” link. In the site’s first few days, profiles are already pouring in, with moms extolling the virtues of their kids, from their smarts to their culinary skills.
So far, the fix-up site is drawing moms posting about their kids ranging in age from young 20s to 40. The site doesn’t set the kids up directly; naturally, any potential suitor has to answer to mom first.
And if that seems like meddling, well, Brin won’t hear of it. “I don’t think it’s meddling at all; I think it’s casting a wider net,” she told Vieira. “Everybody’s busy today. We can be agents for our kids.” – MSNBC
Users are definitely embracing the online world to get real-life romance.
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Labels: eHarmony, Match.com, online dating, viral
Facebook is moving from your computer screen to the Big Screen. Set to release in October 2010, The Social Network centers on the creation of the social media networking giant and the person (or people) behind it.
On a fall night in 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programming genius Mark Zuckerberg sits down at his computer and heatedly begins working on a new idea. In a fury of blogging and programming, what begins in his dorm room soon becomes a global social network and a revolution in communication. A mere six years and 500 million friends later, Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in history… but for this entrepreneur, success leads to both personal and legal complications. – IMDB.com
While the film probably won’t have the cinematic impact of Citizen Kane, it has the potential to be a big eye-opener for Facebook users. With all of the concerns over privacy and current legal issues facing the company, this film might only help to fuel the anti-site fire that has been building.
May 31 of this year was the first official Quit Facebook Day, with more than 37,000 people committing to deleting their profiles from the site on that day – only a matchstick of a flame in the grand scheme of Facebook numbers, but a flame nonetheless.
At the very least, the casting looks pretty interesting.
Will you see the film? Will it impact the way you use Facebook or your opinion of the social networking site?
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Labels: Facebook, movies, social media, social media tools, The Social Network
The term “app” has so far been pretty synonymous with Apple’s mobile devices. However, Google is hoping to change that association with a new do-it-yourself app builder specifically made for the Android.
The “App Inventor” is so simple builders don’t even need to speak code to create what they want.
“Using an online interface, would-be developers visually design the app’s interface and interactions, using drag-and-drop blocks that specify what the app should look like and how it should behave” – ReadWriteWeb.com
While app building tools are not a new concept, Google’s approach to them is. By giving the power to create to the everyday user, Google gives anyone with a great idea the same app-creating power as programmers.
Although the approach is liberating and opens the door for more app concepts, you can’t help but wonder if this will create a collection of half-apped ideas. Just because the ingredients and recipe are in front of you, it doesn’t mean you’re a chef.
What’s your vote? Google’s open app building platform or Apple’s more controlled approach?
Think you have an awesome idea for an Android app? You can start here.
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Labels: Android, App Inventor, Apple, apps, Google, social media tools
Seeing ads on your iPods, iPads and iPhones is not anything new. However, with the new iAd platform that Apple launched earlier this month, you might be seeing them in a new way.
“iAd brings motion and emotion to mobile advertising. Entertain and inform with full-screen in-line video, wallpapers, games, interactive maps, in-ad app or iTunes content downloads, social networking tools, and more. Viewers can dive into immersive ads without ever leaving their apps. Tap the ad and the application pauses. Close the ad and the application resumes. Your ad will captivate your audience from the moment it launches to the moment it closes.” – Apple.com
Reports on the success of the new platform have thus far been positive, according to MarketingVox.com.
“One developer, Jason Ting, famously posted details of his initial iAd earnings for an LED camera light application - he has seen a click-through rate of nearly 12% and earned a total of $1,372.20 in revenue in a single day.”
The big question though is will the success last? Will the millions of Apple mobile device users embrace the more sophisticated ads or will they grow annoyed by them?
The good news (or slightly creepy, if you think about it) is that Apple is able to target which ads you see based on their “unique audience interest and preference data,” which includes:
- Demographics
- Application preferences
- Music passions
- Movie genre interests
- Television genre interests
- Location
So your ads will always be tailored to a specific audience that has already indicated interest in your products or products like yours.
Have you encountered any ads built on the new iAd platform? Are they interesting and engaging or do you find them annoying?
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Labels: Advertising, Apple, iAd, MarketingVox
Online video viewing continues to be one of the most popular online activities. According to comScore, in May 2010 online users viewed nearly 34 billion videos. “In total, 84.8 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience watched online video last month.” – NewTeeVee.com
Google sites, which include YouTube, saw the highest number of viewers at more than 14 billion videos viewed. However, Vevo, a site that focuses on music videos, saw impressive growth with more than 430 million music videos watched on the site in May alone. It seems that when MTV (Viacom Digital) dropped the ball, Vevo picked it up.
Cable providers might want to pay attention – customers want their videos now and they want them for free. With everything from full television episodes to movies, music videos and the latest viral spoofs right at their fingertips, consumers are becoming use to instant gratification.
It will be interesting to see how the continual growth of online video viewing is addressed by some of the larger cable providers – particularly in terms of advertising rates and opportunities.
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Labels: Advertising, online video, vevo
