Marketo CEO, Phil Fernandez rang the opening bell at the NASDAQ today. Marketo, Inc. is listed under the symbol MKTO.

The firm’s competition in the marketing automation market includes Eloqua, which was acquired by Oracle last December, Pardot, HubSpot, and Silverpop.

The company has yet to realize a profit, but is banking on solid customer growth to get into the black. Marketo had revenues of $58.4 million last year with a loss of $34.4 million.

In a post titled “@yahoo delivers #bestoftheweb,” Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said users will see “relevant and personalized Tweets alongside stories from Yahoo! and other sources.” Users will be able to follow tweet sources by clicking on the “Follow” button displayed in the tweets.

It is not yet clear how the tweet personalization will function, but one would think that users who are signed in to Yahoo and or Twitter will be served more personalized results.

This may bring back memories of that falling out Google had with Twitter to include tweets in Google’s go at real-time search a couple of years ago. Though the Yahoo partnership isn’t search based per se, Yahoo clearly sees opportunity in integrating real-time news and information — not least because Twitter has turned into the go-to source for finding and publishing breaking news. Giving users access to newsworthy tweets within Yahoo should help keep them on, and coming back to, Yahoo. For its part, Twitter stands to gain added exposure and user engagement with the addition of the follow buttons. Financial terms, if any, were not disclosed.

Users in the U.S. will start to see the Twitter integration over the next few days on desktops and mobile.

FBX, which only officially launched last September, allows advertisers to target ads to site visitors when they are on Facebook. Triggit will use the funds to invest in engineering and staff to support Facebook’s news feed retargeting capabilities that debuted in March and other new product developments.

Triggit now claims to be the leading FBX retargeter with a reach of 1.1 billion monthly Facebook unique users. Zach Coelius, CEO of Triggit said in a statement, “For the next phase of Triggit’s growth, we’ll be deploying bigger and better dynamic creatives on Facebook’s News Feed, ensuring our clients benefit in time for the holidays.”

Triggit has focused on serving dynamic ads on Facebook by leveraging advertisers’ product feeds on their platform. The ad platform can then serve ads featuring the exact products a visitor viewed but didn’t buy on an advertiser’s web site.

In a first, marketers will be able to feature and promote user-generated video testimonials and stories from brand advocates within native ad units in users’ Facebook newsfeeds.

VideoGenie’s video platform enables easy user-generated video creation and sharing, while Moontoast has developed interactive and transactional Social Rich Media ad units to run in Facebook timelines.

The partnership allows them to merge their offerings and host VideoGenie’s video creation and sharing tool within Moontoast’s Facebook newsfeed ad unit.

The companies don’t have any final screenshots to share yet, but imagine a blending of the companies’ capabilities shown in screenshots here.

Users will see their friends’ video testimonials within their own feeds. They can then share their friends’ videos and record their own video from within the ad unit. “The viewer of the video can also become the star of a commercial for that brand,” says Justin Nassiri, founder and CEO of Video Genie.

Moontoast leverages the Facebook Exchange and their ads API partnerships with SocialCode, Kenshoo, BLiNQ, SHIFT to meet client targeting needs.

Brands will have full moderator controls and be able to approve and reject user submissions. Marketers then select the user submissions they want to promote. Videos can be pushed out to a brand’s website, YouTube, and even banner ads.

Nassiri wouldn’t disclose initial client names, but did say a major automotive brand is among them. Budlight, ShoeDazzle, Levis and UNICEF are among the brands that have worked with VideoGenie to create earned social media campaigns. Moontaost has worked with companies such as Lexus, Intel, Hyundai and was a 2013 Facebook PMD Innovation Competition winner.

The companies plan to launch the first campaign in June.

The stand-alone version of Hangouts allows users to combine images, video conferencing and text chats (now complete with emoji) in one experience.

Video calls can include up to 10 people. As the new tagline — “Conversations that last, with people that you love” — suggests, Hangouts can now be archived (though you can turn off history if you don’t want to relive your chats and calls).

The app is now available on desktops through Chrome as well as on Android and iOS devices.

For more from I/O see our live blog coverage.

More than one in three large social media advertisers are not satisfied with their efforts from both paid and organic social media strategies. Those marketers that are satisfied with their social efforts are happiest with the results they achieve from paid social advertising than from using organic tactics alone.

These are conclusions of a study published by Kenshoo Social today called “The Key to Successful Social Advertising.” Kenshoo Social commissioned the study from Forrester Consulting to look at the strategies and tactics used by marketers in the U.S whose companies spend more than $100,000 per year on social advertising.

With 73% participation among respondents, organic posting on branded pages on general social networks like Facebook is the most popular social media tactic. Just over half (52%) say they use and post to branded accounts on microblogs like Twitter and Tumblr. While all of the advertisers surveyed use paid social advertising tactics, they were more likely to implement organic tactics like branded pages and content than to use paid ads.

Paying to promote content on general social networks, followed by paying to promote trends on microblogs and buying ads on general networks are the top three paid tactics used by the 69 respondents which indicated they were satisfied with their paid social advertising efforts. Interestingly, you can see from the graph below that the participation percentages of the top five tactics are all under 10%.

When it comes to social network advertising, 60 percent of respondents use ad rotation, but only 35 percent of large social media advertisers use granular audience targeting. Most of those that do use audience targeting use basic criteria like demographic targeting. Less than one-quarter use tools to either manage their bids or creative.

According to the study, satisfied brand-focused advertisers were happiest with the ability of promoted content to drive awareness.

Response-focus advertisers were  happiest with their ability to drive purchases by using standard social ad units. These action-oriented advertisers said that social ad units allowed them to use stronger calls-to-action than in posts, which could lead to better conversion rates.

Lucky Sort CEO, Noah Pepper announced on the company website that it will be closing down, and he and other team members will be joining Twitter’s “revenue engineering department” in San Francisco. TechCrunch reported that Jesse Smith and Daniel Fennelly will join Pepper in the move.

Launched in February 2012, TopicWatch offered analysts a big data visualization tool for exploring trends in from news, comments and social media streams. The platform was designed to be user friendly for non-programmers to be able to analyze huge swaths of information.

The company started with a focus on the financial sector, writing on the blog in September 2011, “Rather than merely provide sentiment metrics, we aim to change the atom of information consumption so that traders, analysts and fund managers can quickly digest the global conversation in real time”. In November, Lucky Sort announced a partnership with StockTwits to offer a visualization of both StockTwits’ historical database of and its ongoing real-time data.

Twitter has not responded to our request for more information. We’ll update here if they do. See related stories below on Twitter’s other recent acquisitions and deals.

Ready for your friends and friends-of-friends to have access to your music and photos? Want to find out about all the events you’ve been invited to? Take the tour!

Here it is: A Facebook Update In Real Life

Click here to view the embedded video.

There is a high level of industry debate over the bill, with e-tailers on either side of the issue. Will it be the panacea proponents claim, making sales tax collection fair and streamlined? Or will it place an undue burden on e-commerce companies and hurt business?

What the Bill Says

At just nine pages, the Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA) is a surprisingly fast read. Here are some key provisions you might not be aware of:

• Not Mandatory for States: Most say the bill will simplify online state sales tax collections to two options: states that qualify and collect, and states that don’t.
• No Effect On Nexus: The MFA specifically states it has “no effect on nexus” and does not change how states define nexus, or the physical presence of a business. There are nine states that include affiliate marketers in their definition of nexus.
• State Requirements: States that want to collect sales tax from out-of-state sellers must simplify their tax processes and create a separate entity specifically for remote sales tax collection. Twenty two states have already begun the process as part of the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement (SSUTA), which is a move by states to simplify their tax laws and regulations.
• Free Software: Qualifying states must also provide free sales tax collection and filing software for remote businesses. In addition, the states must put in place certification procedures to approve certified software providers.
• Liability protection: Sellers will not be liable for errors or omissions made by a certified software provider. Likewise, software providers will not be made liable for inaccuracies made by remote sellers.

Use Tax & Nexus Laws

Currently, online businesses are required to collect sales tax from online sales only if they have a physical presence or nexus, like a sales office, call center, warehouse or store in that state.  When sales tax isn’t collected, tax payers are responsible for paying Use Tax on items they bought online from out-of-state businesses. However, proponents of the MFA say most tax payers ignore the Use Tax law at filing time.

In 2011, California was the first to extend the concept of nexus to affiliate marketers. The state passed an “affiliate nexus” law, claiming that Amazon affiliates located in California constitute an in-state presence for the company. After a prolonged dispute, Amazon came to agreement with the state to build two warehouse fulfillment centers in the state. There are now nine states with similar “affiliate nexus”  or so-called “Amazon laws”, including Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, New York and North Carolina,

South Carolina, Texas, New Jersey and Tennessee have each struck their own deals with Amazon, deferring sales tax for a period of time in return for new distribution centers and the jobs that go with them.

Who Is Supporting The Bill?

According to a study commissioned by the National Conference of State Legislatures (which supports the bill), states lost out on roughly $11 billion last year from out-of-state sales tax on online purchases. States are looking to the growing e-commerce industry, expected to top $400 billion this year, to help fill their depleted coffers. Both the National Governors Association and National Conference of State Legislatures are proponents of the bill.

Amazon has had an about-face on the issue as it looks to expand physical operations in more states to facilitate faster and same-day delivery to compete with big box stores. The company says that by January 2014, it will already be collecting sales taxes from more than half the U.S. population.

The National Retail Federation supports the bill along with many other brick-and-mortar retailers who hope the sales tax will cut down on “showrooming.” Lowe’s, for example, has said it has a 5% to 10% price disadvantage compared with online rivals and that some customers go to Lowe’s to research products and then order online from another retailer to avoid sales tax. BestBuy, Target and Wal-Mart, which have a national presence and already charge sales tax for all online purchases, are also backing the bill.

Since the bill requires participating states to offer free sales tax software, it’s logical that sales tax software companies like Avalara and FEDTAX are open supporters of the legislation. They argue that the software already makes it easy to collect sales tax from the more than 9,000 taxing jurisdiction across the U.S. Steve Johnson, CEO of FEDTAX said of e-commerce businesses on Bloomberg, “The only reason they aren’t [treated equally today] is because of a perceive burden that technology somehow can’t keep track of several thousand jurisdictions, and that’s simply not the case anymore.”

The affiliate marketing industry, which has been hurt by the passage of “affiliate nexus” laws, also supports the MFA. Many online businesses in “affiliate nexus” law states simply opted to end their affiliate programs  there  in order to avoid paying sales tax. Rebecca Madigan, executive director of the Performance Marketing Association wrote that the bill will “remove the ability to avoid collection obligation if [online businesses] sever Internet advertising agreements.” She concluded, “This will allow online retailers to reinstate their advertising agreements and get 76,000 small Internet advertising companies back in business.”

Peter Hamilton, CEO of affiliate network program HasOffers, has been encouraging customers to call their congressional representatives in support of the bill. Writing on the HasOffers blog, Hamilton says, “The impact of the Nexus Taxes have been incredibly detrimental. We have seen many publishers and performance marketers actually move to another state just to stay in business and avoid the severance of their contracts with retailers.”

MFA Opponents

Steve DelBianco, Executive Director at NetChoice, an eCommerce trade association whose members include eBay and Overstock.com said in a Bloomberg interview that the bill imposes a “huge burden that gets in the way of an internet that’s been such an engine of growth for the U.S. economy.”

Opponents argue that the playing field is already level. They say online and brick-and-mortar businesses pay sales taxes exactly the same way: they pay in every state where they have a presence. Under the bill, online sellers instead would be subject to every tax jurisdiction in the country. In addition, companies based in states without sales tax—Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon—would still need to collect sales tax for goods shipped to sales tax states.

EBay and Etsy, fearing the law will hurt their seller communities, are among the most active opponents of the bill as it is currently written. EBay CEO John Donahue argues that the $1 million Small Seller Exception is too low and should be raised to $10 million or 50 employees. Many online sellers agree, saying that the Small Seller Exception is misleading since companies with gross sales of $1 million could have significantly lower net profits, or no profits at all.

Sylvia Dion, a CPA with PrietoDion Consulting Partners who advises companies on local sales and use tax issues, worries that the bill does not address the level of detail that retailers will need to deal with. “There are so many complexities that are not being addressed,” she says. “It’s much more than rate calculation.”

For example, the bill says tax is to be collected based on the shipping address, not the billing address of an order. This means purchases could be taxed based on where a gift-recipient lives rather than where the gift-giver is located, raising the question of whether this is a Use Tax or a Sales Tax. Add to that, Dion says, the facts that local sales taxes are based on geo codes, not zip codes, and that some products are taxed while others aren’t depending on the tax locality, add more complexity for remote sellers .

In answer to the argument that the software already exists to make tax collection easy and will be provided free by the states, Dion and others counter that while the software has been perfected and is as user-friendly as it can be, it’s not without human involvement. They say there is no denying that businesses will need to devote human resources to sales tax collection, and this will cut into profits, putting smaller sellers at a disadvantage and hurting the e-commerce industry as a whole.

As a counterpoint, Dion also raises the interesting question of whether smaller brick and mortar businesses will eventually start to question why their online counterparts get free software and a separate state-level entity devoted to their businesses.

What’s Next?

While many proponents are looking to this legislation to make things simpler, the fact that the bill is optional for states means that there could be three tiers of states e-commerce businesses will have to work with: states that choose to stick with their current nexus laws or agreements with Amazon; SSUTA states and those that opt-in and qualify to collect taxes from all online retailers with sales in their states; and states who choose neither option. Again, this is theoretical, but it does appear to be a possibility.

Unlike the Senate, which whisked the bill through without committee review, the House has shown to be less open to the bill and is putting it through the normal channels. It is now with the Judiciary Committee. Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) has expressed concern that the law raises inter-state regulation issues and could open the door “for states to tax or even regulate beyond their borders”. He said his committee will look at alternatives to avoid state overreach. What that means for the future of the bill is unclear at this point.

If the bill does pass in the House, the White House has signaled it will sign it. Then it will be up to the states to choose what to do and for e-commerce businesses to prepare to navigate a new landscape. Sylvia Dion suggests e-commerce companies follow the legislation closely and start looking at the non-nexus states they are selling in now. Consider what it will mean for your business to work with both nexus states and non-nexus states that could opt-in to the MFA (paying special attention to the 22 SSUTA states) if the bill passes.

Users subscribe to the channels from a computer, and then have access to their paid channels on their smartphones, tablets and TVs. YouTube says the ability to subscribe from mobile and other devices will come soon.

Early content partners include UFC, Comedy.TV and National Geographic Kids.

Jim Henson Family TV has both an English and Spanish channel which feature full-length episodes of shows like Sid the Science Kid and Fraggle Rock. The Spanish channel subscription is $1.99 per month or $17.99 per year, and the English channel is $2.99 per month or $24.99 per year.

The big questions, of course, are 1. will consumers pay for the content they have been getting for free either from YouTube or other sources (many episodes of Sid the Science Kid are available for free at PBS.org, for example), 2. will content producers be satisfied with the revenue split generated from subscriptions versus ads, and 3. will paid subscription channels stay ad-free?

YouTube says that over the coming weeks it will be rolling out paid channels as “self-service feature for qualifying partners”. This pilot is as much a test of whether content partners will see value in opting-in to the program — and continue to support their channels with new content — as it is about whether consumers are willing to pay for premium content.

The ad-free aspect of the paid channels does give YouTube a value proposition that differentiates it from services like Hulu. YouTube has invested $100 million into ad-supported channels with original programming, and this new pilot program gives YouTube, and their content partners, an opportunity to test both revenue models.