Yesterday, Google announced the launch of Google Wallet, a system that uses near-field communication devices inside of mobile phones to send payments. At this time the system is only supported in the US on Samsung Nexus S 4G "Google Phone" wireless devices. Sprint is the only carrier offering support, with Citi PayPass MasterCard credit cards as the primary supported payment method. There are also virtual prepaid credit card options through Google and many other payment methods coming up quickly. In addition to payments, Google Wallet will keep receipts, and store multiple cards, coupons and loyalty programs.

The system may have slightly limited support at launch, but the range of future applications is mind-blowing. Google is currently testing links between Google Wallet and their other products, such as Google Maps, Google Latitude, and Google Offers. It’s possible that a user may be able to be pushed a coupon for local businesses (imagine walking by your favourite restaurant and having a coupon sent to your phone) or that retailers will be able to issue coupons via mobile and easily track when and where they’re being redeemed via Google Wallet.

Near-field communication payment systems on mobile went mainstream back in 2005 in Japan and South Korea, and now are widely accepted. Google’s challenge now is getting the system’s device support expanded quickly enough - and payments accepted widely enough – to take advantage of the appetite in the North American market for payments via mobile phone.

This week's post has another popular viral social campaign from Coke and a video on some of the issues with YouTube's "closed captioning" capabilities.

This campaign (as seen in the video below) from Coke, is a feel good social campaign that is right up there with the Old Spice Guy campaigns in terms of entertainment value. You can read more about the campaign on Mashable.




This amusing video from RhettandLink highlights some of the biggest issues with YouTube's "closed captioning" functionality. While we applaud YouTube for trying to improve usability--this video shows how this attempt may still need some improvements.




Have a great weekend!

This week's post has a presentation on trends in digital marketing and advertising and a report on the state of the twittersphere.

This presentation from Space150 discusses several trends in the world of digital marketing and is definitely worth taking a look at. I especially liked the real world examples of the effects of social marketing technology.
This report by Kathryn Corrick has some interesting statistics on the, "State of the Twittersphere." If you're looking to get some deeper insight into things like twitter users, twitter accounts, tweets per day etc it's definitely worth taking a look at.

This week’s web marketing digest post has a humorous take on the influence of Facebook on our lives, an infographic on envisioning the future of technology and a video on how Twitter helps people discover what’s going on in the world.

This video from The Onion News Network shows a different way to look at Facebook and the influence that it has on our lives.


CIA's 'Facebook' Program Dramatically Cut Agency's Costs

This infographic from Michell Zappa shows the "near" future of technology and highlights many of technology's uses and main industries including warfare, energy and the internet.

We all know that Twitter can help us get a better idea of what's going on in the world and what people are thinking and doing. This video uploaded to YouTube by Twitter describes how some Twitter uses utilize the platform to "discover their world."



Have a great weekend everyone!

This week's web marketing digest post has an infographic on the top social media trends for 2011, another infographic on the key characteristics of modern media agencies and a how to guide for watching March Madness online.

This infographic shows several of the biggest trends for social media in 2011 including QR codes, group buying, facebook advertising and the major social media sites. If your company is using social media, this infographic will give you a good idea of some of the big trends that you will face in the upcoming year.


For those basketball fans out there, this post from Mashable highlights the many ways that fans can watch and engage with March Madness through social media.

This infographic also from Mashable, shows the characteristics of a modern media agency. Does the agency you use fit these parameters?



Have a great weekend everyone!

This week's Web Marketing Digest post has an innovative ad from Volkswagon, a must-watch TED talks video and a presentation on mobile marketing trends.

This ad from Volkswagon is an interesting and informative way to engage audiences using both mobile and print marketing channels. The ad, which encourages users to download an app which lets them interact with the print ad is entertaining, but it doesn't lose sight of the it's original message: to educate Volkswagon fans and car buyers about some of their cars' features.

I am a big fan of TED talks. These talks highlight "ideas worth spreading" and often help me look at common ideas and topics in new and interesting ways. This video presented by Malcolm Gladwell discusses spaghetti sauce, but also why it's so important to have a strong understanding of the needs and wants of your target audience.




This presentation from Vision Mobile highlights some of 2011's biggest trends in mobile marketing.
Have a great weekend everyone!

This week's post is all about social media and shopping. It has a video on the popularity of Facebook, a report on e-commerce and an infographic on the rise of mobile shopping.

This video from Alex Trimpe shows the degree to which the world is "obsessed with Facebook." Thought you knew how much people use Facebook on a daily basis? This video may surprise you.

The World Is Obsessed With Facebook from Alex Trimpe on Vimeo.

Forrester has released a new report showing that online shopping will keep on taking over in-store shopping, by providing loyal customers with brand knowledge (sizes, fits etc) with a more convenient way to purchase. You can read a full description of the report on Mashable here.

This infographic from Daily Infographic shows some interesting statistics on the popularity of mobile shopping. Is it more popular than you thought it was? Don't discount mobile as an important part of your online marketing strategy.

 
Also, for anyone who didn't hear, WikiLeaks has been nominated for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. What do you all think of that? Do you think they deserve to win? Or do you think they even deserve to be nominated along with the likes of Afghan rights activist Sima Samar and the European Union? We'd love to hear your thoughts.

Have a great weekend everyone!

This week's post has an initiative to use Twitter to create video art, a guide to watching the 2011 Oscars online and the results of Duke University's CMO survey.

The recent political events in Egypt have been dubbed the "Twitter Revolution," and, because this title, Jigar Mehta, a former New York Times video journalist has initiated an interesting project. The initiative will use crowdsourced images, posts and information, gathered from Twitter to create an "interactive documentary" of the issues and events in that took place. The project uses the hashtag #18DaysInEgypt and you can read the full story via Mashable here.

Many people now choose to watch their favourite TV and award shows online rather than on traditional channels. Well if you're one of those people, this guide will help you get the inside scoop on how you can access the content.

The CMO Survey performed by Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and the American Marketing Association gives a insight analysis of the opinions of c-suite marketers.

Have a great weekend!

This week's web marketing digest post has an infographic on small business and social media, and article on trends in social media and a report on social media and B2B marketing.

This infographic from Mashable shows some of the ways in which small businesses are using social media as part of their marketing efforts.



This article from Stanford University and HP discusses some of the continuing trends in social media: persistence and decay.

Trends in Social Media: Persistence and Decay
This presentation, put together from information gathered from the LinkedIn B2B Marketing Technology Community has useful information on trends.


Have a great weekend!

This post has an infographic on social commerce, a presentation on trends in teen communication and some tips on improving your mobile email marketing tactics.

This post from Copyblogger gives 5 tips on how to get better results out of your mobile email marketing. The tips include:

• Including plain text versions of emails
• Keep links uncrowded
• Have an effective subject line
• Use the right tags on your images
• Having a clear call-to-action

This infographic which we saw on flytip.com shows a "year in social commerce" and covers how several companies have monetized the social space.

    
This presentation from Pew gives insight into teen communication trends and social media usage and is definitely worth looking at.

This week's Web Marketing Digest post has a video on social media best practices, an interesting remake of "The Social Network" and a presentation on the future of social media in 2011. It's all about social media in today's Web Marketing Digest.

This video from msmiciklas (of Social Media Explorer blog) on Youtube gives a good visualization of 19 social media best practices.



For those of you who have seen The Social Network (recently nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture) you may appreciate this parody from Kids Act Out which we saw on Mashable earlier this week.

You’re watching Kids Act Out - The Social Network. See the Web's top videos on AOL Video

This Presentation from eMarketer gives their "Social Media Outlook for 2011" and it is definitely worth taking a look at.


Have a great weekend everyone!

This week's post has an infographic on the history of social networking, a graphic depicting content creation problems, and a presentation on how we experience media.



Have you ever wondered what the biggest problems with communication and content are? well this graphic from yackstar.com

This infographic from Mashable traces the history of social media from the first email being sent in 1971 to the age of Facebook, Twitter and other popular social networks today.


Have a great weekend everyone!

Today’s Web Marketing Digest post has an infographic on social sharing and one on the size of the internet, and a video on the “plight of the technologically challenged.”

This infographic from Readwriteweb.com was developed by the link sharing service Addthis and highlights the main types of sharing that occurred and the biggest locations where social sharing took place.


This infographic from thenextweb.com (hat tip to litmanlive.me, where I originally saw the graphic) shows the estimated size of the internet today compared with its size in 1998.


This video which we originally saw on Mashable  is a humorous depiction of the "plight of technologically challenged," which we're sure many of you hav experienced at one point in time or another.




Hopefully you all enjoy these links! Have a great weekend.

Well here it is everyone: the first Web Marketing Digest post of the New Year. Today’s post has another (the last one I promise) wrap up infographic for 2010 which looks at the blogging community, some statistics on the continuing battle between TV and internet news, and an interesting new program that might protect your privacy online.

This infographic from the Grasshopper Group looks at the blogging economy in 2010 and analyzes it's popularity and demographics.



Do you get your world news from the internet? or TV? Well according to this study from Pew Research, found that 65% of young adults turn to the internet for their news, which has almost doubled since 2007.

Internet privacy is a hot topic right now and DeleteMe from Abine Inc, an internet privacy solutions provider, offers to delete all the information you don't want about yourself from the internet. The company is pretty new so I'm not sure how successful this will be, but it's definitely an interesting idea. Have any of you tried DeleteMe? Let us know!


Have a great weekend everyone!

Well this is it everyone, our last blog post of 2010. It's been a good year for our blog, we've made quite a few changes and worked to bring you as much valuable information as we can. Hopefully you find this last post just as helpful as the rest and you'll keep coming back for more in 2011!

We post a lost of slideshare presentations in our web marketing digest posts. This presentation from Rashmi Sinha called the "Slideshare Zeitgeist 2010" shows slideshare's top presentations for 2010, and analyzes the characteristics of the most popular ones.

This post from CNN discusses Pete Cashmore's (the CEO and found of Mashable) opinions on the tech winners and losers of 2010.

This idea is from a communications company in Brussels and it encourages people to use modern web technology to make strangers' lives a little better.

This post from Karine Joly's Blog shows some examples of the best higher education holiday cards. It's worth taking a look to see what higher education is doing to thank their students, prospects, and friends this holiday season.

Happy Holidays Everyone! In the spirit of the season, today's web marketing digest post is filled with holiday themed web marketing items including two infographics, a post on the best and worst advertising and marketing agency Christmas cards.

This first infographic, from Mashable, shows the demographics and economics behind holiday gift giving.

The next infographic from Daily Infographic shows the "Holidays by the Numbers" and includes fun information on popular technology and facts. Did you know that there are 50 million christmas trees sold in the US each year and 250 catch fire in someone's home?


This post from Adweek gives their opinion on 2010's best and worst agency holiday cards. There are some beautiful examples of creativity and originality--as well as some frightening examples of what you shouldn't do.

Happy Holidays to all of you. Have a great weekend!

This week's web marketing digest has a report from Pew Internet on internet usage, a video on the mobile year in review and a video based on the YouTube year in review.

This study, shows the internet usage demographics for 2010. The study is worth taking a look at to see which generations and demographics are using which internet channels.

This video, from The Mobile Future Coalition on YouTube, shows some very interesting stats on the state of mobile internet usage today.




This video,produced by YouTubes new "trends" section, reviews the most popular YouTube videos of 2010, and, if you're a marketer trying to breakdown the characteristics of viral campaigns and videos, it may be worth taking a look at.




Have a great weekend!

This week's web marketing digest post has a presentation on the value of brand authenticity, an article on segmenting your social traffic in Google Analytics and and infographic on the evolution of blogging.

This post from SEOmoz details how users of Google Analytics can segment their social traffic to get a better understanding of their social media marketing metrics. The post walks readers through, in detail, how they can set up and track their social media traffic.

This presentation from Izzie Zahorian discusses the changing culture of branding, and how companies can be successful by being authentic and trustworthy.

This infographic on the evolution of bloggers, from Flowtown, a social media marketing organization, shows the evolution of bloggers from those who used blogging as a personal diary to those who blog for corporate interests.

Flowtown - Social Media Marketing Application

Have a great weekend everyone!

This week's web marketing digest post is all about the newest web marketing charts. We have a char on blogger, one on how marketers make decisions and one on mobile marketing.

This chart is actually from a post written by Ann Handley on the MarketingProfs Daily Fix Blog. The chart shows consumer attitudes towards mobile, and the post (which is very useful) discusses the importance of mobile marketing in today's marketing economy. The post emphasizes the fact that there are currently 3.4 billion people using mobile devices currently on the planet and says that mobile marketing is most definitely not a "one-ff" marketing trend.

This report from Econsultancy describes how, "marketers across all business sectors are affected by trends which are shaping the foundations of marketing strategy and planning." In other words, the report looks at the marketing budget development process and how that relates to systems and technology. Sound pretty heavy? It is, but it's also filled with great information on marketing budgets and trends, information that is almost invaluable with the year drawing to a close.

A recent article from eMarketer looks at the "trendiness" of mobile apps and explains why developing one, just for the sake of having one, may not be the best plan for your organization. The article cites a survey performed by interface design agency EffectiveUI which found that despite the fact that most consumers consider apps to be a must (more than three-quarters expect all brand name companies to have one) but it also found that almost seven out of ten app users also said that a poorly developed app would affect their perception of a brand in general.

This week’s post has an infographic on B2B social media marketing, a presentation on designing for usability and a video explaining Facebook’s new messaging system.

This infographic from Mashable shows some facts on the state of  B2B social media marketing today.  It goes over how B2B companies use social media compared to B2C as well as looking at budgeting and tools used.



This presentation on “Designing Outcomes for Usability”  by Marko Hurst is an excellent resource for designers, and marketers who deal with the design process to take a look at.

I’m sure you’ve all heard that Facebook has overhauled its messaging system. This video from Facebook’s official YouTube channel does a good job of explaining the theory behind the new product and how it’s going to work compared to their old product and email in general. If you use Facebook and are interested in their new message service it’s definitely worth taking a look at, it’s got some pretty interesting features!



Hopefully you all find these links informative! Have a great weekend!