I found this post interesting and I thought I’d share here:
I like to share interesting posts and information about internet marketing that read in my Google reader. Let me sort through the junk to bring you the real goods when comes to local internet marketing for small businesses. I thought this was super useful. if you like it be sure to share maybe subscribe to the authors blog: http://www.lostremote.com When The Weather Channel launched a new version of their iPad app in October, we wrote about how they’re the “largest location-based services company in the world.” The Weather Channel was just honored by “Advertiser Perceptions” for the work they’re doing in the mobile space. Their monthly audience is a whopping 163 million monthly unique visitors… http://www.lostremote.com/2012/02/17/how-the-weather-channel-is-mastering-mobile-social-advertising/) Don’t forget to comment and subscribe to the authors blog.

I found this post interesting and I thought I’d share here:
I like to share interesting posts and information about internet marketing that read in my Google reader. Let me sort through the junk to bring you the real goods when comes to local internet marketing for small businesses. I thought this was super useful. if you like it be sure to share maybe subscribe to the authors blog: http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/
The latest trend in retail mapping appears to be tracking the street price of marijuana. Cannaberg.com is a Google Map monitoring the current strains and prices of weed at different locations around the world.

This isn’t exactly a new idea. The guys behind The Price of Weed have long been enterprising supporters of the free market in wacky baccy. In order to gauge the true street value of this globally traded product the Price of Weed are also trying to crowdsource the cost of marijuana and display the results on a handy Google Map.

However before rushing out to find your local dealer you might want to take a little look at Young People’s Stories

Australia’s National Cannabis and Information Centre put together this rather beautiful collage using the Google Map’s API. The collage contains nine real stories, by young people, telling their experience of using cannabis. And, whilst the map may be pretty, their stories aren’t.

The names of the nine narrators are linked at the top of the mapped collage. When you click on one of the names the map zooms in on that young person’s part of the collage and an information window opens on top of the map containing their story.

Also See

Potlocator – mapping medical marijuana dispensaries
Weedmaps.com – map of doctors and dispenseries

http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~ah/f/mlt77t7umtdq933vcomat278d8/300/250?ca=1&fh=280#http%3A%2F%2Fgooglemapsmania.blogspot.com%2F2012%2F02%2Freal-time-marijuana-prices-mapped.html

http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/2012/02/real-time-marijuana-prices-mapped.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GoogleMapsMania+%28Google+Maps+Mania%29) Don’t forget to comment and subscribe to the authors blog.

I found this post interesting and I thought I’d share here:
I like to share interesting posts and information about internet marketing that read in my Google reader. Let me sort through the junk to bring you the real goods when comes to local internet marketing for small businesses. I thought this was super useful. if you like it be sure to share maybe subscribe to the authors blog: http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com

When it comes to SEO, there’s an awful lot of misinformation, confusion and bullshit around.

What matters? What doesn’t? And – most importantly – what should YOU invest your time doing?

Here’s what you should do:

1. Keyword research, to identify search phrases that you can make content about that will get you the most traffic for the least work.
2. Then, you should publish Kick-ass Content that people will want to link to.
3. And tell the world about it. Get the word out.

If you do these three steps right, your traffic will take care of itself. But you’ll get nowhere unless you understand what really matters.

This free, radical video explains all the fundamentals of step one – keyword research.

This is part of a series I started, which I was going to sell. But it’s so important, I thought I had to publish it for you to get free!

http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/seo/seo-what-you-absolutely-totally-must-know-right-now-about-keyword-research/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+webdesignfromscratch%2FThMa+%28Web+Design+from+Scratch%29) Don’t forget to comment and subscribe to the authors blog.

I found this post interesting and I thought I’d share here:
I like to share interesting posts and information about internet marketing that read in my Google reader. Let me sort through the junk to bring you the real goods when comes to local internet marketing for small businesses. I thought this was super useful. if you like it be sure to share maybe subscribe to the authors blog: http://blog.kelseygroup.com/

Mobile local ad network xAd just released its Q4 Mobile Insights Report, detailing the activity seen on its network. Like its Q3 report (covered here), it further supports the growth and the opportunity in mobile local search.

XAd, for those unfamiliar, hangs its hat on in-app search and display ads. That’s opposed to browser-based search where Google dominates. As we discussed at ILM West, in-app search has a greater opportunity because of its growth and fragmentation (read: lack of Google dominance).

To the former point, xAd points to comScore data that show apps have greater overall use, compared with mobile Web (browsers). That’s not necessarily correlated to more searches but could be a leading indicator for the growth in search volume happening in-app.

Overall, xAd delivers a billion locally targeted mobile search and display ads across its network. From that it’s seen a 60 percent increase in mobile local search requests over Q3, supporting some of our forecasting for the growth of local. The number of searchers has also increased.

Also notable, and along the same lines, xAd reports strong performance for mobile local ads (compared with online equivalents). Specifically, search ad CTRs were 7 percent and display saw 0.6 percent. High secondary action rates further support mobile local ad performance.

These secondary actions are what lots of advertisers are looking for, particularly bottom of the funnel advertisers (i.e., calls, directions, etc.). This has long been one of the battle cries for mobile advertising and its ties to local commercial intent, but proven out here.

Along those lines, search (interestingly but not suprisingly) had greater portion of calls and directions, while display ads were strong in leading to reviews. That fits the intent driven nature of search versus the discovery mode of display (discover places you haven’t been).

Other general data included category, geography and daypart breakdowns. Consistent with what we see elsewhere, restaurants were the leading category for local search, followed by high immediacy categories like gas and shopping (bars were curiously low on the list).

But the daypart breakdown was more interesting for revealing incremental distribution opportunities for display and search ads. Their respective daily peaks vary between late morning (search) and evening (display), signaling lots of tactical implications for mobile ad campaigns.

There are lots more implications buried throughout the data, which we’ll save for a longer report … and longer conversations during ILM East and other upcoming conferences. More will also be in our fresh mobile ad forecast next month. We’ll keep you posted on all of the above.

http://blog.kelseygroup.com/index.php/2012/02/17/mobile-local-data-galore-xad-reports-network-activity/) Don’t forget to comment and subscribe to the authors blog.

I found this post interesting and I thought I’d share here:
I like to share interesting posts and information about internet marketing that read in my Google reader. Let me sort through the junk to bring you the real goods when comes to local internet marketing for small businesses. I thought this was super useful. if you like it be sure to share maybe subscribe to the authors blog: http://battellemedia.com

The news alert from the Wall St. Journal hit my phone about an hour ago, pulling me away from tasting “Texas Bourbon” in San Antonio to sit down and grok this headline: Google’s iPhone Tracking.

Now, the headline certainly is attention-grabbing, but the news alert email had a more sinister headline: “Google Circumvented Web-Privacy Safeguards.”

Wow! What’s going on here?

Turns out, no one looks good in this story, but certainly the Journal feels like they’ve got Google in a “gotcha” moment. As usual, I think there’s a lot more to the story, and while I’m Thinking Out Loud right now, and pretty sure there’s a lot more than I can currently grok, there’s something I just gotta say.

First, the details.  Here’s the lead in the Journal’s story, which requires a login/registration:

“Google Inc. and other advertising companies have been bypassing the privacy settings of millions of people using Apple Inc.’s Web browser on their iPhones and computers—tracking the Web-browsing habits of people who intended for that kind of monitoring to be blocked.”

Now, from what I can tell, the first part of that story is true – Google and many others have figured out ways to get around Apple’s default settings on Safari in iOS – the only browser that comes with iOS, a browser that, in my experience, has never asked me what kind of privacy settings I wanted, nor did it ask if I wanted to share my data with anyone else (I do, it turns out, for any number of perfectly good reasons). Apple assumes that I agree with Apple’s point of view on “privacy,” which, I must say, is ridiculous on its face, because the idea of a large corporation (Apple is the largest, in fact) determining in advance what I might want to do with my data is pretty much the opposite of “privacy.”

Then again, Apple decided I hated Flash, too, so I shouldn’t be that surprised, right?

But to the point, Google circumvented Safari’s default settings by using some trickery described in this WSJ blog post, which reports the main reason Google did what it did was so that it could know if a user was a Google+ member, and if so (or even if not so), it could show that user Google+ enhanced ads via AdSense.

In short, Apple’s mobile version of Safari broke with common web practice,  and as a result, it broke Google’s normal approach to engaging with consumers. Was Google’s “normal approach” wrong? Well, I suppose that’s a debate worth having – it’s currently standard practice and the backbone of the entire web advertising ecosystem –  but the Journal doesn’t bother to go into those details. One can debate whether setting cookies should happen by default – but the fact is, that’s how it’s done on the open web.

The Journal article does later acknowledge, though not in a way that a reasonable reader would interpret as meaningful, that the mobile version of Safari has “default” (ie not user activated) settings that prevent Google and others (like ad giant WPP) to track user behavior the way they do on the “normal” Web. That’s a far cry from the Journal’s lead paragraph, which again, states Google bypassed the “the privacy settings of millions of people.” So when is a privacy setting really a privacy setting, I wonder? When Apple makes it so?

Since this story has broken, Google has discontinued its practice, making it look even worse, of course.

But let’s step back a second here and ask: why do you think Apple has made it impossible for advertising-driven companies like Google to execute what are industry standard practices on the open web (dropping cookies and tracking behavior so as to provide relevant services and advertising)? Do you think it’s because Apple cares deeply about your privacy?

Really?

Or perhaps it’s because Apple considers anyone using iOS, even if they’re browsing the web, as “Apple’s customer,” and wants to throttle potential competitors, insuring that it’s impossible to access to “Apple’s” audiences using iOS in any sophisticated fashion? Might it be possible that Apple is using data as its weapon, dressed up in the PR friendly clothing of  ”privacy protection” for users?

That’s at least a credible idea, I’d argue.

I don’t know, but when I bought an iPhone, I didn’t think I was singing up as an active recruit in Apple’s war on the open web. I just thought I was getting “the Internet in my pocket” – which was Apple’s initial marketing pitch for the device. What I didn’t realize was that it was “the Internet, as Apple wishes to understand it, in my pocket.”

It’d be nice if the Journal wasn’t so caught up in its own “privacy scoop” that it paused to wonder if perhaps Apple has an agenda here as well. I’m not arguing Google doesn’t have an agenda – it clearly does. I’m as saddened as the next guy about how Google has broken search in its relentless pursuit of beating Facebook, among others.

In this case, what Google and others have done sure sounds wrong – if you’ve going to resort to tricking a browser into offering up information designated by default as private, you need to somehow message the user and explain what’s going on. Then again, in the open web, you don’t have to – most browsers let you set cookies by default. In iOS within Safari, perhaps such messaging is technically impossible, I don’t know. But these shenanigans are predictable, given the dynamic of the current food fight between Google, Apple, Facebook, and others. It’s one more example of the sad state of the Internet given the war between the Internet Big Five. And it’s only going to get worse, before, I hope, it gets better again.

Now, here’s my caveat: I haven’t been able to do any reporting on this, given it’s 11 pm in Texas and I’ve got meetings in the morning. But I’m sure curious as to the real story here. I don’t think the sensational headlines from the Journal get to the core of it. I’ll depend on you, fair readers, to enlighten us all on what you think is really going on.

http://battellemedia.com/archives/2012/02/a-sad-state-of-internet-affairs-the-journal-on-google-apple-and-privacy.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+JohnBattellesSearchblog+%28John+Battelle%27s+Searchblog%29) Don’t forget to comment and subscribe to the authors blog.

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Yelp reviews are susceptible to a lot of noise — relatives and friends of a business, mischief makers, people without any perspective (or taste). In fact, most review sites — Trip Advisor, Zagat, etc. — are affected by these factors.

Some sites have tried to get around this problem by using proxies for reviews. A few years ago, for instance, Grayboxx used “mentions” of a location as a proxy for reviews, assuming that the majority of mentions would be positive ones. That method, however, proved to be inaccurate and especially dicey in smaller markets. Other sites are experimenting with the use of check-ins and tweets as review/rating substitutes.

Now comes Bundle, a new service with seed funding from Citibank, Microsoft and Morningstar. Bundle, which is based in New York City, has built the algorithms to clean and sort “mentions” from 20 million-plus Citibank credit cards. While other services work with credit card companies for loyalty programs and recommendations, we haven’t seen companies that can actually apply algorithms to aggregated, anonymized credit card data.

Bundle scores are based on the popularity of a restaurant (i.e., number of visits); the number of repeat visits by customers to a restaurant; and the amount people are willing to pay when they eat at the restaurant. One assumes scoring can easily be applied to other categories as well.

CEO Jaidev Shergill tells us that the company started two-and-a-half years ago as a money management site that would analyze statements for better budgeting practices, etc. But the company changed its business model to “solve problems for people using our differentiated data asset.”

“Local search and discovery have become bigger and the importance of accurate, relevant reviews is increasingly important. However, there is no way to tell whether the review is relevant to you,” says Shergill. Credit card data, coupled with aggregated demographic and behavioral data, clears the hurdle.

The service launched last December in New York and San Francisco, and nationwide on Jan. 1. “We have 2 million merchants ‘rated,’ ” said Shergill. “That’s as many as Yelp. It will get richer as the months go by.” He also notes that unlike review sites, Bundle doesn’t need to go market by market for reviews.

Shergill acknowledges some limitations to Bundle’s methodology. If there is no data, there are no ratings. So that rules out cash-only places. The data also can’t distinguish how many diners are on the check, although individual prices can be estimated based on pattern analysis. But a quick look at my ZIP code (“92009”) showed fairly robust, accurate results.

Bundle CEO Jaidev Shergill is speaking at ILM East March 26-28 in Boston along with Next Jump CEO Charlie Kim and Cartera Senior VP Jim Douglass. Register here.

Bundle CEO and Founder Jaidev Shergill

http://blog.kelseygroup.com/index.php/2012/02/16/citibankmicrosoft-backed-bundle-rates-restaurants-others-via-credit-card-data/) Don’t forget to comment and subscribe to the authors blog.

I found this post interesting and I thought I’d share here:
I like to share interesting posts and information about internet marketing that read in my Google reader. Let me sort through the junk to bring you the real goods when comes to local internet marketing for small businesses. I thought this was super useful. if you like it be sure to share maybe subscribe to the authors blog: http://www.smallbusinessonlinecoach.com Is anyone else noticing a Google Places hiccup with more reviews.  I can’t seem to get any Google Places listing to go past page two of reviews and even on Page 2 of reviews it is ONLY listing 3 of the reviews.  Not a huge problem, but a minor bug in Google Places. I’ve noticed [...] http://www.smallbusinessonlinecoach.com/blog/minor-google-places-bug/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SmallBusinessOnlineCoach%2FMwlZ+%28SmallBusinessOnlineCoach.com%29) Don’t forget to comment and subscribe to the authors blog.

I found this post interesting and I thought I’d share here:
I like to share interesting posts and information about internet marketing that read in my Google reader. Let me sort through the junk to bring you the real goods when comes to local internet marketing for small businesses. I thought this was super useful. if you like it be sure to share maybe subscribe to the authors blog: http://blog.kelseygroup.com/

80 percent of respondents in a recent JiWire Q4 report state a preference for locally relevant ads over non-local advertising. The report examined three emerging trends in the location and mobile markets: response to location-based messaging, location specific shopping behaviors, and the usages of emerging technologies. Not only do mobile consumers prefer locally relevant ads, but 75 percent took action after seeing a location specific message.

Key insights include:

– The top three actions overall include clicking on a location specific ad, searching for the nearest location and/or conducting additional research.

– Smartphone owners show higher response than non-smartphone owners to locationized messaging.

– iPhone users are most likely to conduct additional research; Android users search for the nearest location; and BlackBerry users immediately make a purchase.

http://blog.kelseygroup.com/index.php/2012/02/16/local-ads-preferred-among-mobile-audiences/) Don’t forget to comment and subscribe to the authors blog.

I found this post interesting and I thought I’d share here:
I like to share interesting posts and information about internet marketing that read in my Google reader. Let me sort through the junk to bring you the real goods when comes to local internet marketing for small businesses. I thought this was super useful. if you like it be sure to share maybe subscribe to the authors blog: http://www.portent.com

For us in the internet marketing community, Twitter is the best way to get the latest insights from all the top minds in our field. The world of SEO is always changing, and if you’re working off old information you could be doing more harm than good to your website. In order to stay ahead of the curve, make sure to follow these 10 awesome internet marketing Twitter accounts:

Brian Clark – @Copyblogger

7 Essential Tips for WordPress Beginners – copy.bz/xrJDTA

— Brian Clark (@copyblogger) February 13, 2012

Due to its complexity, the technical side of internet marketing tends to dominate online discussion. But none of that will mean anything if you can’t write compelling web copy. Bryan Clark is the head of Copyblogger, one of the best sources for marketers to hone their writing skills.

Matt Cutts – @mattcutts

Today’s webmaster video: Should I make up filename extensions to improve my rankings? goo.gl/CMsDK — Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) February 8, 2012

Matt Cutts is the head of the webspam team at a little site called Google. In other words, while the rest of the world guesses at what the best SEO practices are, he’s one of the few to actually know all the answers. Follow him if you want to stay up on all the latest tweaks Google is making to their ranking algorithms.

Bryan Eisenberg – @theGrok

Online Form Optimization: 3 Simple Form Problems to Fix bit.ly/wzd8aS #CRO #LPO — Bryan Eisenberg (@TheGrok) February 10, 2012

Bryan Eisenberg is a great authority on market optimization. When he’s not writing columns or best-selling books on the subject, he’s tweeting out great content on everything from design to analytics.

Rand Fishkin – @randfish

White Hat SEO F$#@!ing Works: seomoz.org/blog/white-hat… Worried that some of the newer folks to the field missed that memo.

— Rand Fishkin (@randfish) February 13, 2012

Rand is the CEO of SEOMoz, and one of the big fish in the internet marketing world. His company’s blog is an excellent source for all things in the world of internet marketing, and following his Twitter account is like tapping into an IV of liquefied internet marketing awesomeness.

Avinash Kaushik – @avinash

“Did You Know…” A collection of web stats on content consumption, engagement etc courtesy of Google: goo.gl/n98Kj — Avinash Kaushik (@avinash) February 8, 2012

Avinash is a digital marketing evangelist for Google, and one of the true gurus of marketing analytics. If you want to learn how to use metrics to inform smart decisions about your website, Avinash is a must-follow.

Ian Lurie – @Portentint

The Google Search Plus Your World mega-post: portent.co/wStsjw Data, sarcasm, the works.

— Ian Lurie (@portentint) February 14, 2012

What, you didn’t think we’d include the CEO of my own company on here? Along with having a beautiful signature on paychecks, Ian has great Twitter game. His blog is an excellent source for plain-English guides on internet marketing, with a little bit of his trademark snarkiness sprinkled in. Hey, if you want to be an internet marketer, you’ve got to be ready for some snark.

Geno Prussakov – @eprussakov

Just posted: 8 Ways to Get Advice on Affiliate Program Management – bit.ly/AMadvc

— Geno Prussakov (@ePrussakov) February 14, 2012

Many internet marketers overlook affiliate marketing techniques, but it can be an essential element of your online marketing plan. Geno Prussakov is one of the world’s best authorities on the subject, so tap into his Twitter feed and feast on some of his knowledge.

Danny Sullivan – @dannysullivan

Bing & Google: “Spreading Romney” Ranking Tops For “Romney” Is Normal selnd.com/zWUwT1 & my analysis a @maddow factor’s at work

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) February 14, 2012

If you’re an internet marketer, SearchEngineLand is an absolute must read blog. Danny Sullivan is the site’s editor, and how do I put this, he’s kind of a big deal. Follow his Twitter account if you want to sound like you know what you’re talking about.

Adam Sherk – @adamsherk

StumbleUpon Channels: Which Media Brands Are Doing Well? adamsherk.com/social-media/s…

— Adam Sherk (@adamsherk) February 14, 2012

Adam is an SEO/PR strategist who does a great job tweeting out content from a wide variety of sources, on anything from social media tactics to digital marketing news. Definitely a great follow for marketers and brands alike.

Dan Zarrella – @danzarrella

The Twitter 20 Interview About Viral Marketing with Me: zarrel.la/zYzATY (from @jaybaer‘s Convince and Convert)

— Dan Zarrella (@danzarrella) February 10, 2012

With each passing day, social media is becoming a more integral part of internet marketing. What’s even more amazing is how long we’ve been saying that. Following Dan Zarrella will help you step up your social media expertise.

http://www.portent.com/blog/internet-marketing/internet-marketing-experts-on-twitter.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+portentinteractive+%28Portent+Interactive%2C+Seattle%2C+WA%29) Don’t forget to comment and subscribe to the authors blog.

I found this post interesting and I thought I’d share here:
I like to share interesting posts and information about internet marketing that read in my Google reader. Let me sort through the junk to bring you the real goods when comes to local internet marketing for small businesses. I thought this was super useful. if you like it be sure to share maybe subscribe to the authors blog: http://www.websearchguide.ca/netblog/ New version of Twitter, now on for everyone, Twitter Blog (Feb 16) Desktop users get to see what mobile users have had a for a while. Get introduced to the new look through the video…. http://www.websearchguide.ca/netblog/archives/010878.html) Don’t forget to comment and subscribe to the authors blog.