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Ed Kountz | August 08, 2008, 09:48 AM
Fed Data - Strong Growth in Credit Card Borrowings Continue
US consumers who received one of the 105 million-plus economic stimulus checks mailed through mid-July apparently aren’t using those funds to pay down debt. The Federal Reserve’s latest G.19 report, released this week, indicates that revolving credit (mainly credit card debt) increased at an annualized 6.8 percent rate during the...( more )

Diane Clarkson | August 07, 2008, 08:07 PM
Southwest: I'm ready for my close-up Mr. Kelly
In a report I wrote earlier this year called “Travel Blogs: Aligning Marketing Objectives with Blog Strategy”, I talked about the potential of corporate blogs as a branding opportunity and the importance of allowing readers to post comments to maintain a conversational dynamic. Today, Southwest Airlines launched an online casting...( more )

Michael Gartenberg | August 07, 2008, 03:00 PM
Blackberry Bold in the house
Have the new Blackberry Bold in the house. First thoughts? Excellent. Love the fit and finish. New updated UI is wonderful and it's fully loaded with all the features and radios you'd expect in a flagship device. My software build isn't final (should have an updated build shortly) so I...( more )

IanFogg | August 07, 2008, 07:31 AM
iPhone Achilles Heal - Mobile Internet is Not Always-On
Mobile Internet and Mobile Broadband is not an always-on experience and this isn't going to change soon. Near term, there will always be places or situations where the cellular data network doesn't reach or where only a poor slow 2G signal is present (+). Product managers must design around it....( more )

John Lovett | August 06, 2008, 04:59 PM
Measuring the Olympics
As the world prepares to watch the games of the XXIX Olympiad, NBC is preparing to watch the world. The research team at NBC Universal is well aware that TV’s, laptops and cell phones across the globe will be tuned into Olympics news and coverage and their intention is to...( more )

Emily Riley | August 06, 2008, 03:42 PM
Fox on a decent track with MySpace
Fox CFO David DeVoe noted on yesterday's quarterly earnings call that interactive properties earned $225 million. They saw a 23 percent increase from the same quarter last year and that half of that was from search results, primarily on MySpace. This shows that they are still very reliant on their...( more )

David Card | August 06, 2008, 08:52 AM
Q2 Online Advertising Scoreboard
For those of you keeping score, a roundup of Q2 online ad revenues: - Google. Own sites up 42% to $3.5 billion. Network up 22% to $1.7 billion. International outgrew US and is over half of Google's total for the first time. - Yahoo. Own sites up 14% to $1...( more )

Mark Mulligan | August 06, 2008, 07:23 AM
Three Flavour of 7 Digital
You have to hand it to 7 Digital, they innovate hard and are ceaseless in their efforts to raise their profile and to carve out market share. Their latest initiative is a series of digital music service solutions for ISPs, split into three key tiers that appear aimed to address...( more )

Julie Ask | August 04, 2008, 04:34 PM
SinglePoint's Ad Insertion Technology
SinglePoint announced today their availability of dynamic ad insertion technology. Kudos to them for getting this done. Ads a layer of targeting to SMS that has been limited to content to date. Granted, there isn't much space in an SMS for much advertising, but it's a big step in the...( more )

Nate Elliott | August 01, 2008, 02:06 PM
Thoughts on the Brand Value of Paid Search
I've always been curious about how marketers use search for branding. Search is such an obviously direct response medium, but whenever we survey online advertising executives, they tell us creating brand impact is one of their top search marketing goals. I've actually spoken to marketers who admit they bid themselves...( more )

David Schatsky | July 31, 2008, 07:25 AM
Forrester Buys Jupiter
It was announced today that Forrester Research has bought JupiterResearch from MCG Capital for $23 million in cash. Forrester plans to integrate Jupiter's staff into its Marketing & Strategy division. The goal is to create a dominant marketing & strategy research organization that will become the indisputable leader in our...( more )

Thomas Husson | July 30, 2008, 12:07 PM
Declining prices for mobile banner ads
Not sure why but there were some articles today about the deal between Virgin Media and mobile advertising firm 4th Screen deal. 4th Screen was already selling ads for Virgin Mobile, but it may well be an extension of the deal with 4th Screen collaborating with Virgin's in-house advertising unit...( more )

Doug Williams | July 28, 2008, 02:12 PM
Looking for a Trend in Net New Broadband Subscribers
Last week a reporter inquired as to whether AT&T's dismal net broadband additions (consumer and small business) of 46,000 for the entire second quarter was a problem with AT&T or an indication of a larger economic problem overall. While I agreed that 46,000 was a ridiculously low number by AT&T's...( more )

Zia Daniell Wigder | July 28, 2008, 11:43 AM
Innovative global online advertising campaigns
We’re gearing up for a series of interviews with some of the leading advertisers, agencies and technology vendors helping to enable global online advertising campaigns. Our upcoming report on the topic will highlight best practices in creating effective cross-border campaigns. If you’re interested in sharing your innovative initiative(s) with us,...( more )

Bobby Tulsiani | July 22, 2008, 08:10 PM
Competing with Hulu?
We recently published our report “Competing with YouTube”, where we explored strategies to compete with the video giant. Hulu, who has carved out a niche strategy around full length TV shows and premium content, has been one of the early success stories of 2008 in the competitive video space. Hulu’s...( more )

Barry Parr | July 10, 2008, 08:48 PM
Not disruptive, but definitely big
Although I'm not buying Yahoo's claim that it's "disruptive", their new BOSS (Build Your Own Search Service) API has the potential to greatly improve the Web, create businesses, and increase Yahoo's profile. By removing the barriers to entry of massive crawling, indexing, and linking of billions of Web pages, BOSS...( more )

Pfreemanevans | May 22, 2008, 10:28 PM
Update on Online Retail in Light of the Current Economic Situation
We continue to hear from economists that the rise in prices for gas and food-staple prices here in the US is driven by largely global demand. Coupled with that is a softening US job market and sagging home prices. Customers...( more )

Ina Sebastian | May 07, 2008, 01:45 PM
Deal for a National WiMAX Network Announced
Sprint, Clearwire, and additional investors (Intel, Google, Comcast, Time Warner, Bright House Networks) have reached an agreement regarding a national WiMAX build out through a new company named Clearwire. My colleague Julie Ask wrote a very insightful blog on the motivations of the investors yesterday. As she implied, success of...( more )

Zachary McGeary | February 25, 2008, 12:08 PM
The IVR Revolution Will NOT Be Televised: We Predicted it First
A recent BusinessWeek story highlights the dwindling popularity of the pro-consumer crusade established by GetHuman.com. Page views on the site have dwindled from about 40,000 a day in the spring of 2006 to some 4,000. The discussion board, while still active, has quieted down since 2006, when thousands of comments...( more )

David Daniels | December 18, 2007, 11:49 AM
Not Always for Geezers
My colleague David Card makes a good point about the merit of emusic’s unprotected MP3’s and their _gradual_ foray into the “mainstream.” Now this is the point that I evoke the Proton Pack wearing words of Harold Ramis – “whatever you do, don’t cross the beams, Ray.” Crossing my beams...( more )

Sapna Satagopan | August 27, 2007, 04:21 PM
Talking Multimedia at SES
I moderated a panel on ‘Optimizing for video search’, a topic that we wrote on last year here. What has changed since last year? Increasing advertiser interest and agency enthusiasm, for one. According to our survey, 15 percent of search marketers performed multimedia search optimization in 2006, and 36% plan...( more )

Peter Sargent | August 09, 2007, 11:10 AM
Findings from the Online Video Custom Research Report
One of the points within the report I discussed in my last blog will surely get the attention of advertisers and publishers alike. In the consumer survey, we presented respondents with a scenario in which online video content was free...( more )

Marcia Loewenstein | April 10, 2007, 12:51 PM
Accessibility and Dunkin' Donuts?
Recently, I have seen some great examples of ‘accessible technology’ and the more broad application ‘universal design’ rising in importance – a couple of examples that I will point to… · Apple’s Leopard release and ‘Universal Access’ highlighted as one...( more )

Marcia Loewenstein | May 17, 2005, 01:39 PM
Is Technology Accessible? (How Do You Increase the Font?)
My Mom just got an iMac. Most of it was up and running before I stopped by (except AOL). I wanted to show her some AAA rates on a hotel site, so while I was there she installed AOL - didn't need any help there. .....but, as soon as she...( more )