Google Makes First Amendment Challenge To Publish FISA Request Counts

Jun 18, 2013 at 4:43pm ET by Danny Sullivan   

Google wants to be transparent to its users about the number of super-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) requests it is served by the US government — and it is claiming a First Amendment right to do so, in a new legal challenge the company has mounted. The Washington Post has news of the filing, along with [...]

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Canadian Govt. Asks Google To Explain Google Glass Privacy

Jun 18, 2013 at 4:32pm ET by Matt McGee   

Google Glass isn’t publicly available yet, and even the Explorer edition is supposed to only be for US residents, but that’s not stopping the Canadian government from getting out in front of what it considers to be several privacy issues surrounding the device. Data protection authorities in Canada sent a letter today to Google CEO [...]

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Google Glass & How Facebook, Twitter & Other Apps Aren’t Really Apps

Jun 18, 2013 at 1:48pm ET by Danny Sullivan   

I’ve joined the Google Glass crowd, picking up my pair last Friday. Perhaps the biggest adjustment is understanding that Glass isn’t like a smartphone, where you select and use apps. Sure, there’s a Twitter app. A Facebook App. Even apps from the New York Times and CNN. But you can’t use them directly, as you [...]

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Google Celebrates 10 Years Of AdSense: Says Over 2 Million Publishers Earned More Than $7 Billion Last Year

Jun 18, 2013 at 10:34am ET by Ginny Marvin   

Today marks the official 10th anniversary of Google’s advertising network for publishers, AdSense. In a post on the Google blog, Susan Wojcicki, SVP of Ads and Commerce, reflects on the early days in 2003 when AdSense was a fledgling product to today when AdSense is an integral part of Google’s advertising business. The AdSense community [...]

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Facebook Updates Page Post Link Ads In An Effort To Produce Better Conversion Rates For Advertisers

Jun 17, 2013 at 5:54pm ET by Amy Gesenhues   

Facebook announced three updates to their Page post link ads today. With the new updates, advertisers can customize images, create unpublished Page post links ads directly in the ad create flow, as well as have more options when posting an ad with an off-site link destination. Advertisers can now customize images by uploading their preferred [...]

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Twitter’s New @MagicRecs Account Promises Content & User Recommendations Via Direct Message

Jun 17, 2013 at 4:10pm ET by Matt McGee   

Shhhhhh. It’s still pretty hush-hush at the moment, but there’s a new Twitter account that aims to increase awareness of activity from your “follow graph” — i.e., the notable things that are happening in the accounts that you follow. In the process, it also opens the door a tiny bit on the idea of direct [...]

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The Frustrations Of Brand Marketing On LinkedIn

Jun 17, 2013 at 12:12pm ET by Monica Wright   

Have you noticed recent changes to LinkedIn? If you have looked beyond checking out Who’s Viewed Your Profile (I know you have) you’ll see they recently updated their navigation. Unless you use the search field at the top, the nice easy navigation to your preferred areas — such as companies and groups — is no [...]

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Fancy Brings E-Commerce To Google Glass

Jun 17, 2013 at 8:55am ET by Matt McGee   

Fancy has launched an app that brings product discovery and e-commerce to Google Glass. The help page linked above offers a detailed video tutorial that shows a user taking a photo, getting product suggestions based on that photo and completing a transaction — all within the Glass interface. The Fancy app even confirms the purchase [...]

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Google, Facebook In Transparency Battle Over PRISM Disclosures

Jun 15, 2013 at 11:17am ET by Greg Sterling   

Last night, what might be called a “transparency battle” erupted between Google and Facebook following Facebook’s disclosure of government-related user-data requests: For the six months ending December 31, 2012, the total number of user-data requests Facebook received from any and all government entities in the U.S. (including local, state, and federal, and including criminal and [...]

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‘Tweet,’ ‘Big Data’ & Other Marketing Terms Are Now Official Words

Jun 14, 2013 at 2:05pm ET by Matt McGee   

Hey marketers: a few of the words you and I use in our common speech are now official words. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has just announced its June 2013 update, and it includes several marketing/tech words that folks like us have been using for years. Here they are, in alphabetical order: big data crowdsourcing [...]

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This Week On Vine: E3 Tours, The X Factor Judges, HTC Goes Vineception & More

Jun 14, 2013 at 12:08pm ET by Kai Turner   

What happened on Vine over this past week? Vine took to E3, The X Factor showed its new judges, HTC has an Inception-like Vine within a Vine within a Vine and more. As a quick introduction, I’m Kai Turner, co-founder of Brands On Vine. We gather data on what’s popular on Vine. I’m looking forward [...]

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Report: iOS Has More Traffic, But More “Volatile” Than Android

Jun 14, 2013 at 11:32am ET by Greg Sterling   

Ad network Chitika has released data on iOS and Android usage throughout the day. Overall iOS is driving more Web traffic than Android (partly because of the iPad), but traffic coming from iOS devices is more “volatile” than Android traffic. In other words, Android usage is more consistent throughout the day, while iOS has greater [...]

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Twitter Loses French Appeal To Avoid Disclosing Hate-Speaker Names

Jun 13, 2013 at 11:38am ET by Greg Sterling   

Twitter has lost an appeal in France to avoid disclosing the identities of people behind anti-Semitic hashtags that appeared and trended last year. Among them were #unjuifmort, which translates “a dead Jew,” and “unbonjuif” (“a good Jew”), which became a source of jokes about The Holocaust and killing Jews. Anti-Semitism is currently on the rise [...]

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Twitalytics Arrive: Official Twitter Analytics Released To The Public

Jun 13, 2013 at 11:17am ET by Greg Finn   

The dive into user data that all Twitter users have been clamoring for has finally arrived. Found hidden within the Twitter Ads dropdown, the official analytics tools show data on specific Tweets and follower info – no ad spend required. To access official Twitter analytics follow these steps: Head to Ads.Twitter.com and log-in. Click on [...]

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Facebook Finally Gets Hashtags: How They Work

Jun 12, 2013 at 1:42pm ET by Danny Sullivan   

Twitter has them. Google+ has them. Instagram has them. Now Facebook has them, too. Hashtags have arrived on Facebook, giving the company a much needed way to tap into the marketing dollars that have been flowing into hashtag-focused campaigns. Meet Facebook Hashtags Facebook posted today about the new hashtag support with an overview, saying: Starting [...]

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Following Foursquare, Yelp Adds Local Recommendations

Jun 12, 2013 at 10:37am ET by Greg Sterling   

Yelp has introduced personalized local recommendations into its “Nearby” feature. Previously, Nearby was a list of basic categories that allowed users to find businesses by proximity and review ranking. Now, it offers a different look and feel with local recommendations built on a set of behavioral and contextual variables. Below is the new look for [...]

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Google, Facebook & Microsoft Ask US Gov’t For Permission To Report FISA Data Requests

Jun 11, 2013 at 2:51pm ET by Matt McGee   

Google, Facebook and Microsoft have all asked the US government for permission to include data requests made under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), requests that are currently so secret that they’re not even allowed to acknowledge if they’ve received any. During the whirlwind of news about the PRISM/NSA scandal, news has circulated that all three companies are providing [...]

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Google AdSense Expands Serving Smaller Ads In Larger Ad Units

Jun 11, 2013 at 10:21am ET by Ginny Marvin   

Google is expanding its practice of serving a similar-sized display ad in a larger ad format in order to increase competition for AdSense ad space. Google now allows the 336×280 ad unit to serve 300×250 ads. When the smaller ads are served they float in the center of the ad format as shown in the example [...]

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Study: Facebook Exchange (FBX) News Feed Ads Rival Paid Search

Jun 10, 2013 at 12:34pm ET by Ginny Marvin   

Facebook began opening up news feed ad inventory to Facebook Exchange at the end of March and expanded the inventory offering to all its FBX partners in May. FBX news feed ads allow advertisers to retarget their site visitors with Facebook Link Page Post Ad formats. Triggit, a Facebook Exchange (FBX) partner, released results today [...]

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Pew: 34 Percent Of Americans Now Own Tablets

Jun 10, 2013 at 10:04am ET by Greg Sterling   

This morning, the Pew Internet & Life Project is releasing telephone survey data showing that 34 percent of American adults now own tablets. Among better educated and more affluent households, the penetration rates are 50 percent or higher. Households earning at least $75,000 per year show tablet ownership rates of 56 percent, according to the [...]

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