Twitter announced enhanced profile pages for brands in early December, and the official roll out may occur next month. BusinessInsider reported from a source that the enhanced profiles will roll out after February 1st. There are a handful of companies who currently have enhanced profile pages including, Coca-Cola, Bing and Staples.  The new pages will allow for custom header images, featured (or promoted content), and a more consistent  mobile experience. In addition to the confirmed features, BusinessInsider mentioned vague information about iFrame environments being added as well [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Twitter | Twitter: Accounts & Profiles

With the debate continuing after Google announced a sweeping new approach to its privacy policy on Tuesday, the company has issued a fairly terse statement that also confirms reports that Congress has questions about Google's changes. In a short blog post, Google Policy Manager Betsy Masiello says Google "look(s) forward" to answering questions from Congress. That's in response to, and confirmation of, an earlier Reuters report that the House Energy and Commerce Committee wants to talk to Google about its privacy policy. From the Reuters article: In a letter to Google Chief Executive Lar [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Legal | Legal: Privacy | Top News

Here's our daily recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web. From Marketing Land: New Google+ Badges Feature Unified +1′s, Darker Themes & Smaller SizesGoogle+ badges are getting some new duds, enhanced +1 counts and a few more size options. When Google initially released badges for users only two options existed: an icon version and standard badge version. A new darker version can be chosen for darker sites, and a smaller interactive button can be used in tight spaces. [...] Facebook Joins Washington AG [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Marketing Day

Google+ badges are getting some new duds, enhanced +1 counts and a few more size options. When Google initially released badges for users only two options existed: an icon version and standard badge version.  A new darker version can be chosen for darker sites, and a smaller interactive button can be used in tight spaces.  Also, all badges will feature the correct +1 follower counts from the December update. Why put the Google+ badge on your site?  Google states: We recently looked at top sites using the badge and found that, on average, the badge accounted for an additional 38% of [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Google: Google +1 | Google: Google+ | Top News

Washington state and Facebook have double-teamed on separate lawsuits against Adscend Media, a company that allegedly runs "likejacking" campaigns to collect money and/or personal information from Facebook users. As GeekWire reports, the practice was allegedly adding up to $1.2 million per month to Adscend's coffers. Likejacking, or "clickjacking" as the official release from Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna calls it, is described as follows: Scammers design Facebook Pages to look like they will offer visitors an opportunity to view salacious or provocative content. They condi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook: Legal | Legal: General | Social Media Marketing: Spam

Until now, Twitter's not had the ability to censor certain tweets or accounts, to prevent them from being seen -- if legally required -- by users in particular countries. That's now changed, though Twitter stresses that it hasn't yet used this new ability and that should it have to, anything withheld will be disclosed. Twitter has shared the news on its blog, saying: As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression. Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there. Others are simi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Legal: Censorship | Legal: Copyright & Trademark | Top News | Twitter | Twitter: Legal

Google has come under fire as of late with all new privacy policy changes, real name restrictions and forced Google+ account creation.  But today Bradley Horowitz, VP of Product - Google+, released a public post on his Google+ profile letting the world know of of upcoming safety enhancements for teens.  Horowitz stated: With Google+, we want to help teens build meaningful connections online. We also want to provide features that foster safety alongside self-expression. Today we're doing both, for everyone who’s old enough for a Google Account (13+ in most countries). The new safety f [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Google: Google+

In the last several weeks there have been several bullish reports on mobile, culminating in Apple's blowout holiday quarter where the company sold 37 million iPhones and 15 million iPads. Smartphone adoption is on a tear and various financial analysts now expect Google to generate mobile ad revenues of between $4 and $6 billion this year. Accordingly, eMarketer has upwardly revised its mobile ad revenue projections for the US. Previously the firm thought mobile ads would bring in just under $2 billion. The new projection says that US mobile ad revenue will reach $2.6 billion in 2012. That's [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Mobile Marketing

The Social News battle between Reddit.com and Digg.com is nearly over - with a clear winner prevailing.  A recent post from AdamSherk.com, studied traffic from 12 major magazines and web-only destinations from both Digg and Reddit. The results?  Reddit referrals rose 360% from 2009 to 2011 while Digg traffic dropped to 4.6 million in 2011 - just 14% of the referrals the site was sending 2 years ago. [caption id="attachment_4495" align="aligncenter" width="431" caption="Image Courtesy of AdamSherk.com"][/caption] Even with 45 million in funding, Digg continually found a way to aliena [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Digg | Reddit | Social Media Marketing | Statistics: Popularity & Usage

Here at Marketing Land we are a big fan of tracking links. We have a specific UTM codes we use across all of our marketing channels, and have had great results measuring and understanding where our traffic is coming from. (Caveat: Except for LinkedIn, they strip the UTM codes, more on that another day.) We just like clean data. Today Matt Lambert emailed us, asking if we have noticed that the links from Google+ using the iPhone app don't link anywhere. Personally, although I've been a fan of Google+, the iPhone is app is something I wish Google would put higher on the priority list. Sure [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Channel: Social Media | Features & Analysis | Google: Google+ | Social Media Marketing | Top News

Here's our daily recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web. From Marketing Land: Poll: 66% Say They’ll Cancel Google Accounts Over Privacy ChangesIs Google facing an angry backlash of users canceling accounts in response to Google’s new terms of service & privacy policy? It will if respondents to a Washington Post poll are a reliable barometer. With more than 14,000 people responding, nearly two-thirds said they would cancel their Google account, with 15% saying no and just [...] Is Chrome Slower Than I [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Marketing Day

Is Google facing an angry backlash of users canceling accounts in response to Google’s new terms of service & privacy policy? It will if respondents to a Washington Post poll are a reliable barometer. With more than 14,000 people responding, nearly two-thirds said they would cancel their Google account, with 15% saying no and just under 20% not sure. Look at other indicators of customer outrage, however, and the picture isn't so clear. For example, instructions on how to delete a Google account aren't appearing as a hot search on Google trends. Nor are they appearing as an auto-complet [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Accounts & Profiles | Legal: Privacy

This may come as a surprise to a lot of Chrome users: A new study about page speed and website performance says that Google's Chrome web browser performed slower than both IE9 and Firefox in a recent analysis of retail website home pages. The findings come from Strangeloop Networks' annual e-commerce page speed and website performance report, just released today. The company tested the home pages of the top 2,000 Alexa-ranked retail websites and found that both IE9 and Firefox 7 were about five percent faster than Chrome. In its report, Strangeloop doesn't claim that its study "d [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Content Marketing | Firefox | Google: Chrome | Microsoft: Internet Explorer | Statistics: General | Statistics: Web Browsers

At the two-minute warning of the NFC Championships last weekend, the country got a glimpse of Bing’s new ad campaign, Bing is for #Doing. Bing just hopes that Gen Y viewers were taking notice. The spots, which take a storytelling approach and feature adventure sports athletes Kevin Pearce, Bobby Brown, Kaityln Farrington and Gretchen Bleiler, are the beginning of a long-term shift in the Bing advertising strategy -- a focus on “doing” versus being “a decision engine,” as well as a continued goal of attracting younger online users. Video: Bing is for #Doing: Kevin Pearce’s St [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Microsoft: Bing

Apple surprised even the most optimistic financial analysts when it released quarterly earnings yesterday afternoon. As you've already read, the company had a gargantuan quarter, with revenues of $46.33 billion and quarterly profit of $13.06 billion. (TechCrunch's MG Siegler does a nice job of putting those numbers in some context.) As was pointed out on Twitter, Apple's quarterly net was larger than Google's Q4 gross revenues ($13 billion vs. $10.6 billion). The giant holiday quarter was led by sales of the iPhone, to the tune of 37 million units. Most analysts were expecting around 30 mil [...]

Related Topics: Apple | Apple: iPhone | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Features & Analysis | Statistics: Market Share | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Popularity & Usage

This morning Google is releasing research, conducted by Ipsos in September-October of 2011, that shows mobile device adoption and usage trends in five countries. According to the survey findings, 38 percent of US mobile subscribers own smartphones. However these numbers do not reflect Q4 holiday sales. Indeed, Nielsen has said that 46 percent of US mobile users now have smartphones. Verizon also reported this week that 44 percent of its mobile customers have smartphones. The Google-Ipsos data compare the US with the UK, France, Germany and Japan. The research documents the shift from featur [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Mobile Marketing | Statistics: General | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Popularity & Usage | Top News

When Google launched its Google+ social network, the marketing world (along with everyone else) barely noticed. When Google decided to make this social network a bigger part of search results, marketers had little choice but to sit up and take action. Over the last week or so, we at Motivity  have spent a fair amount of time talking to clients and constituents about Google’s latest move, and what's emerging is a picture of concern and skepticism. But don't fret yet. And don't get so caught up in the controversy that you fail to evaluate the marketing implications. Is Participation Ma [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Google: Google+ | Search Marketing Column

Here's our daily recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web. From Marketing Land: Yahoo Q4 Blah: Display & Search Down SlightlyYahoo today reported Q4 and full year results. Unlike Apple, the company didn’t have a blowout holiday quarter. Revenue was down YoY by 3 percent. However income was up 10 percent. Yahoo grew uniques by 12 percent over 2010 but its search audience was down by 4 percent. Revenue was up in EMEA and Asia [...] Google’s New Terms Of Service & Privacy Policy: Anything You Do [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Marketing Day

Yahoo today reported Q4 and full year results. Unlike Apple, the company didn't have a blowout holiday quarter. Quarterly revenue was down YoY by 3 percent. However income was up 10 percent. Yahoo grew uniques by 12 percent over 2010 but its search audience was down by 4 percent. Revenue was up in EMEA and Asia, but down 6 percent in the Americas region. Everything was generally flat and came in roughly in line with financial analysts' expectations. Here are the financials at a glance: Display and search revenue: Display revenue ex-TAC was $546 million, a 4 percent decrease co [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Yahoo | Yahoo: Business Issues

It sounds like the Miranda warning so familiar to those who watch US cop shows: "Anything you can and do will be held against you in a court of law." On March 1, Google has a new privacy policy and terms of service that goes into effect. Anything you do on Google, under these new agreements, can and may be used to target you in a court of Google, so to speak. In many ways, this is Google growing up into the new portal it has become. Rather than people signing up for individual products, Gmail, YouTube and so on, they're now signing-up for Google -- or at least a single set of terms (in most [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Legal | Google: Privacy | Legal: Privacy | Top News