Google Ads Developer Blog: New AdMob SDK v6.3.0 and Deprecation of Old SDKs

Google Ads Developer Blog: New AdMob SDK v6.3.0 and Deprecation of Old SDKs: We are happy to announce the latest SDK release , v6.3.0, for both Android and iOS. v6.3.0 is a bug-fix release that includes: Improved lo...

Inside AdWords: Enhancing AdWords for a constantly connected world...

Inside AdWords: Enhancing AdWords for a constantly connected world...: Today we’re upgrading AdWords, by rolling out enhanced campaigns. This is a first step to help you more simply and smartly manage your ad c...

Google Mobile Ads Blog: Protecting our mobile ad network

Google Mobile Ads Blog: Protecting our mobile ad network: We recently described some of the work that we do to keep ads safe , and our broader efforts to protect against invalid activity in the Ad...

Google App Engine Blog: Scaling SongPop to 60 million users with App Engin...

Google App Engine Blog: Scaling SongPop to 60 million users with App Engin...: Continuing our Developer Insights series , today’s guest bloggers are Olivier Michon, CTO, and Alexis Hanicotte, software engineer, from Fr...

Google Mobile Ads Blog: New Mobile Ads Showcase App puts the best of mobil...

Google Mobile Ads Blog: New Mobile Ads Showcase App puts the best of mobil...: Smartphones and tablets can be great creative canvases for brand advertisers, and many agencies are helping brands go big on mobile. But it...

Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Making Websites Mobile Friendly

Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Making Websites Mobile Friendly: Webmaster level: Intermediate We’ve noticed a rise in the number of questions from webmasters about how best to structure a website for mobi...

Google+ for your mobile phone gets greater

Google has released a flurry of updates for the Google+ Mobile App, just in time for the busy Holiday season. Merry Christmas to us! The udpate includes Google+ Community support, profile editing, a brand new stream design and more. There are updates for both Android and iOS users, and some of the features are a little different depending on the platform.

According to the app store, the update includes:

 - New features: Google+ Communities
 - Ability to subscribe to any circle for notifications
 - Ability to indicate how many guests you're bringing to an event
 - Support for time zones in Events
 - Basic profile editing
 - New compose UI for easier sharing
 - New visual stream design
 - Discover people and topics more easily using 'Find people

Read more

Google Mobile Ads Blog: Protecting our mobile ad network

Google Mobile Ads Blog: Protecting our mobile ad network: We recently described some of the work that we do to keep ads safe , and our broader efforts to protect against invalid activity in the AdSense network. Here are some of the ways that we’re protecting ads on mobile networks.

We’ve adapted many of our systems for protecting desktop ads to do the same for mobile ads. These include automatically discarding invalid traffic as it occurs, refunding any money from this traffic, and investigating each and every claim to make our systems better. You can learn more about why and how we do this in the Ad Traffic Quality Resource Center.

YouTube Creator Blog [UK]: Coming soon: Link your channel with a Google+ page...

YouTube Creator Blog [UK]: Coming soon: Link your channel with a Google+ page...: Over the past several months we’ve been giving YouTube users the ability to change how they appear on YouTube, by using their Google+  profile on their YouTube channel.  Well-known creators such as Michael Buckley, Philip DeFranco, Kina Grannis and Felipe Neto have chosen to use their Google name as their identity on YouTube, by linking their Google+ profile with their Channel. This has helped them access engagement and social features like Hangouts on Air.

Analytics Blog: Mobile App Analytics Updates And Public Beta Launc...

Admob & Google Analytics
With ever-expanding mobile application marketplaces (more than 600,000 apps on Google Play at the time of writing) and a shift in focus to mobile (more than 80 percent of marketers are planning to increase emphasis in mobile initiatives in 2013, according to recent research we conducted with ClickZ) measuring mobile is more important now than ever. With this, we are excited to be movingGoogle Analytics Mobile App Analytics (initially launched at I/O) out of closed and into open beta. We’ve listened to feedback from more than 5,000 mobile app developers during the closed beta, improved the product, and are now making it available to all developers and marketers. 

Analytics Blog: Mobile App Analytics Updates And Public Beta Launc...: With ever-expanding mobile application marketplaces (more than 600,000 apps on Google Play at the time of writing) and a shift in focus to

Google Mobile Ads Blog: Get local in time for the holidays and beyond

Google Mobile Ads Blog: Get local in time for the holidays and beyond:
This make it easy for your customers to find, visit, and call your business with AdWords location targeting and location extensions. Location targeting shows your ads to customers in specific geographic areas you want to reach, while location extensions dynamically attach your business address and phone number to your ads.

Mobile Advertising Ecosystem Explained

We are in the post-PC era, and soon billions of consumers will be carrying around Internet-connected mobile devices for up to 16 hours a day. Mobile audiences have exploded as a result.

Mobile advertising should be a bonanza, similar to online advertising a decade ago. However, it has been a bit slow off the ground, and its growth trajectory is not clear cut.

Read more

Inside AdSense: Social Fridays: See how your content was shared on...

Inside AdSense: Social Fridays: See how your content was shared on...: Every Friday, we’re posting Google+ tips to help publishers make the most of all of the features and resources available. Be sure to check ...

With Ripples, you can now see how your public content was reshared over time on Google+, and what users were saying about it. To try it out, just find a public post and select ‘View Ripples’ from the drop-down menu in the upper right-hand corner of the post. You’ll see a number of circles that each correspond to a user that has reshared your content, and inside the circle you’ll see the people who have reshared the link from that person (and so on). Circles are roughly sized based on the relative influence of that person -- so the larger a person’s circle is, the more reshares have resulted from their original reshare. 

Google Chrome Blog: Always getting faster

Google Chrome Blog: Always getting faster: Every time you launch Chrome, you see the same simple browser window. What you may not know is that things are changing under the hood every...

Inside Search: Spiffing up your search results page

Inside Search: Spiffing up your search results page: You’ll notice a new simpler, cleaner design on the search results page — we’ve been working on ways to create a consistent search experience...

Google Chrome Blog: One click to Docs, Sheets, and Slides

Google Chrome Blog: One click to Docs, Sheets, and Slides: Google Drive is a place where you can create, share, collaborate and keep all your stuff. Of course, there are times you want to start a new...

Analytics Blog: Announcing Enhanced Link Attribution for In-Page A...

Analytics Blog: Announcing Enhanced Link Attribution for In-Page A...: In-Page Analytics provides click-through data in the context of your actual site, and is a highly effective tool to analyze your site pages...

Mobilizing the Web

 Gives a Lots Of Opportunities

Mobile web is the accessing of the internet via wireless devices such as smart phones and tablet computers.

According to the International Telecommunications Union, the mobile access to the internet exceeded desktop computer based access for the first time in 2008. This phenomenal success of the mobile web is in part due to the smart phone revolution and the advent of the tablet computers.

Smart phones are equipped with multicore processors and come with various input options such as touch screens, accelerometers, GPS receivers etc. These coupled with modern mobile operating systems make a solid platform for accessing the internet.

In the beginning, mobile web comprised lightweight web pages which were optimised for smaller screens and lower resolutions and written in Extensible Hypertext Mark-up Language (XHTML) or Wireless Markup Language (WML). Because of this this, the mobile browsing experience was never even close to that on a computer. But with the progress in technology which enabled for faster mobile processors and better mobile browsers, modern mobile devices are moving beyond these limitations by supporting a wider range of Web formats, including variants of HTML commonly found on the desktop Web.

Advertisers have realized the potential of mobile web and are increasingly using it as a platform to reach consumers. In 2007 the total value of mobile advertising was estimated to be in excess of 2 billion dollars. This fact in itself speaks volumes about the growing size and weight of the mobile web.

The major problems with the mobile web faces is the fragmentation of platforms and the resulting lack of standards. The development of standards is one approach being implemented to improve the interoperability, usability, and accessibility issues surrounding mobile web usage.

The Mobile Web Initiative (MWI) is a new initiative set up by the W3C to develop best practices and technologies relevant to the Mobile Web. The goal of the initiative is to make browsing the Web from mobile devices more reliable and accessible. The main aim is to evolve standards of data formats from Internet providers that are tailored to the specifications of particular mobile devices. The W3C has published guidelines for mobile content, and is actively addressing the problem of device diversity by establishing a technology to support a repository of device descriptions.

Many of the technologies which were once considered to be a part of the computers have literally moved "out of the box". The way digital music has almost totally moved from computers to iPods, internet seems to be moving towards the mobile devices. After all its much more convenient to have all the web in the palm of your hands than to have it sitting on the top of your table! This is opening new frontiers and is nothing less than a complete revolution in its own.

Apps Dominate Mobile Time Spent Accessing Travel in U.S. August 29, 2012 As the summer travel season comes to a close, Nielsen looked at the usage of travel-related mobile apps and websites during June 2012. Findings showed that U.S. Android and iOS users spent 95 percent of their time accessing travel information from travel apps, versus only 5 percent from the mobile Web. This discrepancy was largely driven by Google Maps—the top Travel category app and mobile website during June—which accounted for 78 percent of all mobile time spent on Travel. Americans’ decision on whether to open an app or their mobile Web browser depends on the type of travel information they seek. The Cruise Lines category was exclusively accessed through the mobile Web, while 98 percent of time spent browsing map/navigation information was through an app. The Travel Destinations/Theme Parks category seemed to have the most balanced usage among smartphone owners, as 54 percent of time spent was through an app and 46 percent via mobile Web. Read More.

Internet Marketing

Internet Marketing

Mobile Web

The mobile revolution is sailing ahead at full steam, and your customers are on board. Embracing mobile can help you win the moments that matter, make better decisions, and go bigger faster, but you’ve got to start somewhere. Consumer gets new tools to help their shopping path, you get new tools in your marketing path

Consumers can now use smart-phones and tablets to interact with businesses 24/7, from anywhere - at home, at work, on a bus. And companies that embrace this always-on behavior -  can disrupt entire industries. 

Read more at Internet Marketing

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Bringing Google+ to work

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Bringing Google+ to work: Posted by Clay Bavor, Product Management Director, Google Apps On the Google Apps team, we wake up every day excited to work on products t...

Comparing Tablets

Comparing A look at the new Microsoft ‘Surface’ tablet compared to the third-generation Apple iPad and the Samsung Galaxy tablet. Which would you go for - if you didn't already own one? (assumptions made that you do or have thought about a particular model)

From Reuters

Mobile social networking is good news for startups on web.

The majority of consumers worldwide will soon have smartphones. Smartphones are about the most important thing to happen to social networking since Harvard sent its acceptance letter to Mark Zuckerberg.
Smartphones know where you are, who your friends are, who's nearby, and soon thanks to NFC, they'll know what you're buying and where. They are the key element of the next, mobile phase is social networking.

Facebook is the power hitter in social networking today, and is likely to drive the most activity and a fair share of the innovation in social networking in 2012. But it's not the only company driving things forward. Google+, Twitter and Linkedin is also in this business.

Facebook is serious about mobile social networking, but it is not the leader in this space in terms of design or technology. Smaller companies, like Path and Milk (with its first app, Oink) are coming out with new takes on mobile interaction. Square could play in this economy as well. All these services will likely use Facebook's network to put people or businesses or in touch with each other in new ways. More specialized mobile networks (really riders on top of Facebook) will appear this year.

A Rumor sad that Facebook will go Into Mobile Ads by End of March 2012.

Facebook plans its first push into mobile advertising by the end of March, giving the company a fresh source of revenue ahead of a possible initial public offering, two people with knowledge of the matter said. An idea being considered is putting Facebook’s Sponsored Stories ads, which feature friends’ interactions with brands, within the mobile News Feed, said the people, who declined to be identified because the plans aren’t public. The News Feed lets users view status updates, photos and other content.

Facebook, which boasts more than 800 million users, is increasing its focus on mobile technology, aiming to take advantage of the shift to smartphones and tablets. The company expects its next 1 billion users to come mainly from mobile devices, rather than desktop computers. More than 350 million users already access Facebook through their mobile devices, according to the site. Read more:

Go Mobile

Mobile is delivering on its promise at the moment. The technology is in place and people are engaging in droves, on smartphones in particular. but many businesses still hasen't started walking the mobile road yet. Most have not yet meaningfully engaged with mobile consumers and adapted their strategies to capitalize on the mobile opportunity. But, not too late. Here are some steps that businesses should take today to build the foundation of their mobile marketing and commerce strategy.

Thinking Local
Mobile searches have more ‘intent’; but what does that mean? It’s a way of saying that when people are looking for information on a mobile device they intend to act on it fast. Mobile users search for information because they want to take action. After looking up a local business on their smart phone, 61% of users have called the business and 59% have visited. Because of this, location is exceptionally relevant to mobile users, and should be especially important to marketers. If people intend to act fast on the information they find on mobile, they’re more likely to take action somewhere near their locations. So,as a business, to try to reach a mobile consumer, understanding geo-targeted advertising campaigns and products is critical.

You need a mobile specific site
That giv's your conumers a great mobile experience when they visit your site on their mobile phone. And what’s a mobile specific site? It’s a website that’s been designed specifically for a smartphone, and it prioritizes what’s important for a user on the go, it features elements that are easy to see and interact with.
A mobile optimized site isn’t a desktop optimized site. In fact, it may be just the opposite: websites that look great on the desktop may be illegible, or require endless zooming-in, or may not work at all on mobile. The mobile web is not a smaller, portable version of the desktop web. When designing a mobile site, think as a customer. Make site navigation easier, put key action-items front and center, and build for the on.the.go user. Think about the mobile behavior of your customers and design for it.

Be more ‘Personal’
200 million videos are viewed every day on Mobile YouTube, an increase of over 3x from last year.65 million minutes (over 125 years!) of Angry Birds games are played every day on mobile. We’re glued to our mobile devices, and engaged like we’ve never been before. There’s an opportunity to connect with consumers in ways that are both special, and only possible, because they’re on mobile.

Track your mobile site
The web looks and feels different on a mobile device and people engage with it differently, at different moments of the day, and often with different objectives. Google sees a 50% spike in usage on weekends for Google Maps for mobile and in general, mobile engagement increases in the evenings and on weekends, when people are away from their desks, or on the go. So, mobile is distinct from desktop; your mobile site tracking should be distinct as well. When you separate your desktop and mobile website data, you’ll better understand the users visiting your site, what phones they have, and what actions they are taking. You can then use this data to optimize your website and improve it, along with your campaigns.

Iterate
We’re in the earliest chapters of mobile’s history. Change is in the air and hopefully will be for a long time. Just remember, before 2007, the iPhone didn’t yet exist, and neither did Android handsets, or any app marketplaces. The rate of change in mobile over the last five years is astounding and you need to have a fast development cycle to stay ahead of that change. The tactics and strategies that work today may be very different from what works months, or even weeks from now.

Marketing in Google+

Convert to mobile websites

If you convert a traditional website into a mobile version, it’s important to make sure a number of things happen:

Auto-Detect Mobile Phones. Mobile-friendly websites automatically detect that users are on a mobile device and then display the appropriate version of the site.

Clear Calls to Action. The most important features of the site should be the at the top of the page and should include clear calls to actions.

Avoid Mobile-Unfriendly Elements. The design should avoid mobile-unfriendly elements such as Flash, large images, video, and complex layouts.

Fluidity. Design with a fluid layout that will gracefully adapt to a range of typical mobile screen resolutions.

Touch Interface. Touch screens don’t have hover states — it’s all about fingers tapping, so don’t build a site that requires users to move their mouse over menus or other elements. Also, make sure links and other clickable elements are big enough to tap with a fingertip.

Scrolling. Limit scrolling to one direction — the site should only scroll vertically. Having to manage a page that scrolls horizontally and vertically is difficult to navigate.

One Window. Avoid pop-ups and new windows. A user’s entire experience should take place in a single window.

Use Alt Tags. Sometimes images won’t load, either because of issues with the mobile browser or because a user’s connection is too slow. Always include descriptive alt tags for images, in case they don’t appear.

Simple Navigation. Simplify your navigation. Typically, a site’s traditional navigation is too complex for a mobile site.

Clean Code. Most desktop web browsers allow a lot of leeway when rendering HTML and will usually display a site correctly, even if the code has flaws. Mobile browsers usually have less room for error, so there is an added value to having clean, simple code.

Label Forms. Some modern websites embed form labels inside the form field. On mobile, it’s much more difficult to keep track of the fields, and users often make use of “next/previous” buttons built into they keyboard. Without clear labels alongside the form fields, it might be impossible to know what information is supposed to be in which field.

Escape Hatch. Sometimes users just need to use your normal site. If possible, always have a link back to the original, unoptimized site.

It all comes down to leveraging design and technology to keep things simple, clean, fast to load and easy to digest on the go.

Local Now Accounts for 40 Percent of Mobile Searches, according to Google, “Distance” Now an AdWords Ranking Variable.

Google announced new mobile ad-units along with some interesting new stats in regards to mobile search.
According to the company, 40% of all mobile searches coming to Google are local in nature at this point, which continues to trend upward.  As such, the search giant also announced that “physical location,” or the proximity of a local business to a user’s location will become a targeting variable when serving ads to mobile users.

The new AdWords ranking variable that takes into account a user’s location is good news for local businesses and retailers as it aims to drive more relevant foot traffic at lower costs.  Local businesses will need to use Location Extensions to take advantage of the new location targeting, and the smartphone user will need to be opted-in to share their location for location proximaty to kick in.

Custom Search Ads for apps: will appear when users search within apps for content. Search ads now can be integrated into apps, which wasn’t available previously.

Click to Download ads: will direct users to download areas in Android Market or iTunes app store.

Mobile App Extensions: these ads can direct people to specific apps or pages within apps already on their phones.

Circulars (not limited to mobile): these are more graphically rich ads that contain product images, pricing and deals/offers. Google says, “When someone clicks on a search or display ad (on desktop, mobile or tablet devices), they may see these engaging ads which contain photos of relevant products and special offers.”

Here’s Google’s example: “If someone searches for sneakers on a mobile device, they might see an ad that takes them directly into a cool shopping app they’ve installed on their phone.” It’s not clear what happens if the app isn’t on the user’s phone already.

Marketing on smartphones

Before smartphones arrived, much of mobile advertising was limited to small text links on WAP sites, opt-in mobile messaging, or ad banners too small for the mobile user to read and much less be impressed by. Standardization was difficult or impossible becauce of the many different devices, and mobile advertising was subject to a scale problem much worse than the one experienced by web advertising in its early days. Not only because ad units couldn't be effectively standardized, but also because the technology used by each carrier was different -- further compounded by the notion that two handsets might have the same carrier, but might also have a completely different set of capabilities and enabling technologies fueling how they worked. On top of this, many people looked to their mobile phones primarily as interpersonal communication devices, not as content consumption devices.
So it's no wonder the mobile web wasn't the huge game-changer we thought it might be.

Smartphones arrived. Apple has half the market. I've had my iPhone 3G for several months now and still love it, even though it can't handle email as well as my BlackBerry did. With Apple holding 50 percent share in the smartphone market, we might see a scalable solution coming our way. The problem is that mass marketers won't likely understand that people still see phones largely as an interpersonal communication device, less so as a content consumption device.

Many iPhone apps are free. I do occasionally check the weather, the stock market, and use the Safari web browser to access content. More often, though, I'm using Twitterific to tweet from the road, using Facebook's mobile app to approve friend requests and upload mobile photos, or making use of location-based services like Loopt.

Many mass marketers would like to think that mobile devices will simply replace desktops and notebooks for web browsing, but that's not what is going to happen. If we are going to figure out a way to use smartphones as a marketing channel, we can't think it's just web advertising on a small screen. While it is true that mobile web browsing is on the rise, and that the iPhone can surf the web more elegantly than any mobile device that came before it, the truth of the matter is that mobile applications are increasingly being used to enable interpersonal communications rather than to provide brand platforms in the vein of mass media.

There's always room for mobile apps that provide content, but the ones that will scale quickly and will integrate more closely into the lives of people who download them will be the ones that provide utility and community, not straight content. So, if you're looking to make smartphones a viable channel for your brand, you need to branch out beyond content distribution and into mobile utility and community.

Go Mobile With your Marketing

Mobile advertising is growing fast. With the gradual introduction of sophisticated new technologies, marketers are beginning to track results and manage mobile metrics in ways similar to those used online. Opportunities abound for creating new channels of profitability when based on measurability and accountability.
Understanding the unique potential and the proven power of the mobile platform - as well as its limitations, can improve performance and allow mobile advertising to become a significant layer in the marketing mix.

What You Need to Know
There are a number of issues that should be considered once the decision has been made to begin advertising via mobile, in order to increase the success in mobile marketing. Here are a few things that result-based marketers should do when planning a mobile campaign.

There Is A Vast New Markets
There are global markets where mobile phones are commonplace and often used instead of landlines and where the amount of traffic is vast and rapidly growing. Marketers should take advantage of the reach and potential of these relatively untapped and unsaturated markets. Advertising costs are often significantly lower than in other parts of the world and, at the moment, there is considerably less competition.

The Process Should Be Short
Less time and less hassle translate into more conversions. This is especially true in the mobile realm, where campaign success depends on keeping the advertising process as short as possible. Unlike stationary PC users, mobile device users are constantly on the go. They can be exposed to an ad anywhere, at any time, in an endless variety of situations and occasions. Not less important, mobile screens are considerably smaller than PC screens.
Given these limitations, in order to successfully attract the user’s attention, messages (both on the creative and the landing pages) need to be short, precise and effective. The call-for-action should be instantly understood, delivered from a single landing page, and should employ a simple registration form. The form should include a minimum number of required fields that can be quickly and easily completed without the need for lengthy responses or multiple clicks

Multiple Landing Pages
The process should be optimized, from impression to conversion, in order to reach the campaign’s goals. The use of multiple landing pages for each product is critical for the success of the campaign, as is the use and testing of a variety of different banners. Multiple landing pages enable a quick determination of what works best, what turns users into buyers, and delivers the best results for the advertiser.

Text Links
Text Links are ideal for mobile advertising. They deliver excellent conversion rates for result-based advertisers, usually cost less than banners, can bring a higher CTR (Click-Through Rate), and often account for the majority of a campaign’s traffic.

Use Advanced Technologies
Result-based advertisers can benefit from the intelligent use of the latest campaign tracking and management technologies, which can make all the difference for mobile campaign success. Conversion Tracking enables a view of the entire process as well as ongoing measurement and optimization, thus allowing for continuous improvement of campaign results. By focusing on the total process, from impression through conversion.
Unified Reporting Capabilities consolidate campaign data from all relevant networks into a single, unified report. This facilitates the simple detection of campaign variations, strategy, and effectiveness including the relative performance of specific landing pages and network/landing page matches. Innovative new tools that enable the tracking of a campaign’s progress without requiring the advertiser to check each mobile ad network separately are critical for the success of mobile campaigns.

Extend Campaigns to the Widest Range of Devices
Marketers should match their campaigns and technology to the widest possible range of mobile devices including both feature phones, smart phones and tablets, in order to maximize effectiveness and expose the campaign to as much traffic as possible. When planning campaigns, it is particularly important to take into account the rapid growth in smart phone traffic

Campaign Partners (Publishers and Ad Networks) Keep Them Updated
Marketers should keep traffic sources continuously updated. Publishers and Ad Networks should be kept informed about the advertiser’s selected operators, and about the agreements signed with them. This avoids running campaigns via unsuitable operators and on ineffective traffic, and prevents running wasted campaigns.
Mobile Advertising has become an exceptional opportunity for result-based advertisers to increase their revenue sources as well as their reach. New marketing channels can be created and new markets can be tapped. Cutting-edge technologies can be utilized to develop smart, fully optimized campaigns that maximize conversion potential and deliver rapid ROI.

Optimizing For Google Places Page

As increasing number of searches have local intent behind them, Google is showing Places listings in many more SERPs. This presents an opportunity to either gain a spot on the first page for many businesses or to gain more space on the first page for companies already ranking on the first page.

Five things that hav impact on rankings in Google Places.
• Keywords
As with traditional SEO, having your keywords in the right places is important for ranking while stuffing keywords in the wrong places will make you look like a spammer.
Avoid placing your keywords in the business name (unless the keyword is part of your business name) and the business categories. Both of these will bring the wrath of Google upon you and end up with your Places page removed. Do make an effort to strategically use your keywords in your description. Don't keyword stuff, but word your description carefully and use your primary keyword phrases.

• Service Area
Specifying a service area is a great idea for many businesses that come to you such as tutors, maids, and handymen. If you are unfamiliar with the service area option, it is simply being able to set an area that your business serves rather than specifying an address for your company; it will show up on the map as a circle rather than a pinpoint. The problem is that we have seen a decrease in rankings when businesses have selected to display a service area rather than their business location. So, for now, stay away from the service area feature.

• Consistency
There are several fields to fill out when creating or editing and some of them may not seem like they are really necessary. Google wants to give users the best experience possible; in most circumstances the user will have a better experience if there is more information present on the Places page. This means not only filling out the required text fields but also the optional ones:
• Website
• Email address
• Description
• Categories
You should make sure the hours are accurate, that you have filled out additional details, as well as uploading photos and videos of your business. While these may seem auxiliary, they all count towards profile completeness and should be submitted. When filling out your profile, be as thorough as possible, doing much more than the minimum required.

• Encouraging Reviews
Reviews are one of the best ways to increase your local search rankings but good reviews can be difficult to come by as it seems the only folks motivated to write up a review feel they have been treated unfairly.
You might try some of the following:

• Send a message to your Facebook fans or email list and ask them to leave a review at your Google Place page
• If you send out follow up, or reminder, post cards incorporate a call to action to review your business
• Put a call to action (and link) asking for a review on your web site
• Display a sign by your cash register or hand them a flier with their receipt asking for a review
Make sure to make the process as easy as possible, provide a link to your Places page and give detailed instructions on what they need to do leave a review.

My place Page

Facebook marketing and mobile users

Smartphones provide a window through which internet marketers can reach consumers even when they aren't sitting at their desktops. According to a new report from ExactTarget, social media content is an especially powerful way to reach these on-the-go consumers, with many checking Facebook at least once daily through their devices.

The study shows that 50 percent of consumers log into Facebook through their smartphones at least once per day. Nearly one in five users (17 percent) say they check Facebook “constantly throughout the day” while 18 percent log into the social site via smartphones “several times per day.”

Moreover, consumers who check Facebook through their smartphones seem to be open to brand engagement via the social site. ExactTarget reports that 27 percent of respondents users have Liked a business through their smartphones.
Plus, mobile Facebook users tend to be members of the lucrative 18- to 34-year-old demographic.

Both men and women check Facebook frequently – approximately two-thirds of smartphone-owning men and women age 34 and under use their smartphones to check Facebook at least once per day, notes the report.

Tapping consumers through mobile Facebook efforts can even lead to sales. More than one-third of respondents (35 percent) said they have received messages through the social network that have encouraged them to make a purchase.

AdMob adds Windows Phone 7 support

WebOS, iOS, and Android, now AdMob is going for the Windows Phone 7 users. The Admob company, owned by Google, launched a beta SDK for Microsoft’s latest mobile OS, allowing developers to make some cash out of their free apps.
The SDK allows developers to control where the ads appear, and what types of ads are shown in the apps. Both text and banner ads are supported with a variety of post click actions including opening a webpage and linking directly to the App Marketplace.
AdMob have taken steps to customize the ad experience for the look and feel of Windows Phone 7 and make it easy for users to return to their app after engaging with the ad. AdMob updated its existing iOS and Android SDKs to include enhanced HTML5 support for more engaging ad units. Moreover, full screen interstitial formats are now supported on iOS and Android-based tablets.
[Via: Google Mobile Ads Blog]

Your Mobile Search Strategy

Mobile usage is growing and because location is often at the heart of mobile search queries, mobile is important to businesses that rely on local search. So the question is, what are you going to do about it? Recent investigating on mobile search is showing the following:

• Mobile visits from search to your site are growing fast. On average, each site we looked at, experienced a 500% growth in mobile visits from search over the past year. We are still talking small numbers – the biggest site we tracked only got 50 mobile visits in one week last, but in general, these are 50 very local visitors most likely very interested in finding the particular business in question.

• But Mobile visitors will view fewer pages than web visitors. And that make sense. Who wants to click around when they are on the phone?

• While page views per visit is not always the best number to rely on – maybe the person just wants to find your address or phone number – it still can be a proxy for how engaging your site is. Perhaps you might want to consider designing a version of your site specifically for mobile users that reduces the amount of clicking necessary to get to a desired result.

• Mobile visitors spend a lot less time on your site. This may not be true for all sites

• Mobile search behavior can be different than web search. While this fact entirely dependent upon the type of business. It’s important to understand how a mobile device would change the way a person might search for your services v. a normal Web query.

What to do:

If you are thinking about a mobile search strategy for your business and not sure where to start, the best thing you can do is to figure out how mobile visitors are using your site.
If you are a Google Analytics user, the best thing to do is to set up an Advanced Segment that filters reports by visitors who are classified as Mobile, and here’s what to do:

1. Click on the “Advanced Segments” link on the lower left hand side of the Google Analytics navigation
2. Click on “Create a new custom segment” at the top of the page
3. Under the “Dimensions” section click on “Visitors”
4. Drag the green “Mobile” rectangle into the “dimension or metrics” box. Make sure the “Condition” equals “Matches Exactly” and the “Value” equals “Yes”
5. Name the segment “Mobile”, test and save
6. Now you can view any report in Google Analytics with only mobile user data simply by choosing “Mobile” from the Advanced Segment menu at the top of the page.
7. You can also create similar reports for different phones and browsers if you want to really drill down.

Creating a mobile strategy and building a mobile version of your site sounds like a lot of work and is going to be expensive. In fact this may be the case, although you can do it easy, you only need find where the help is. There are any number of services ready to do it for you.

Learn Mobile Advertising in a New Online Course

Learn mobile advertising from a new interactive course

To day there are more than 4 billion mobile users globally. Half of all new internet connections come from mobile devices.

The course are for those who are interested in learning more about mobile advertising and how to easily setup your AdWords accout to target more users on mobile devices.

Mobile marketing vs Internet Marketing – What happens?

It’s more and more obvous that Mobile will be the next big thing for various platforms. In social networking, gaming or advertising, mobile has definitely been touted as the next device for taking all of the earlier mentioned to the next level by making it available to everyone, no matter what their location. When we think mobile marketing, the first thought that comes to mind is SMS marketing, which most of us do not appreciate. But the advent of 3G will change mobile marketing leaps and bounds. Inevitably, mobile marketing will probabely overtake internet marketing sooner or later.

And Why is this inevitable?
The only two words that should answer the question is; Google, Apple. Google purchased AdMob, one of the leading mobile advertising companies, and Apple, who had initially tried to buy AdMob, bought Quattro, another mobile advertising company, and shortly later after that Google acquisition. Apart from these giants, InMobi, formerly known as MKhoj, and that is also in the race to rule the mobile advertising world.

Why will Mobile be bigger than Internet Marketing?

The answer is, Mobile phones will have higher penetration than computers. Also, the number of users using mobiles to surf the internet has increased immensely and will only continue to increase. This is precisely the reason why big names like Google and Apple are investing in mobile advertising companies. It probabely only a matter of time before mobile marketing overtakes internet marketing. The real question is how far behind will it leave internet marketing?

Google, iPad, Geo-targeting, AdMob

AdMob has been acquired by Google, and are now testing new geo-targetedads, releasing a new They will also release a new SDK to support theiPad, and updating their AdWhirloptimizer.

This is the latest activities and give some ideas of where this mobile advertising pioneer company is heading.

Google Acquisition
The biggest news of course is that Google’s acquisition of AdMob was finally approved by the US FTC (Federal Trade Commission) after the FTC concluded that the deal was unlikely to harm competition in the emerging market for mobile advertising networks. In particular the FTC cited Apple’s acquisition of ad network Quattro and the launch of the iAd as part of the iPhone OS as indicators that the market would remain open and competitive.

see MobiAD article: The Future of iPhone & iAd

Ad format for iPad
In June AdMob released an SDK that supports special iPad ad formats. Both iPad Text & Tile Ads and iPad Image Ads are supported within the SDK. The AdMob SDK is now unified across all devices running the iPhone OS, which means that developers can download one binary for development across all Apple iPhone OS devices – iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

In May 2010 according to recent numbers from the AdMob, they served ads on approximately 850,000 unique iPad devices. 38% of the unique iPad devices in AdMob’s network came from outside of the US.

Geo-targeting
AdMob has recently begun testing their new, real-time, geo-targeting targeted advertising in the UK, partnering with location-enabled dating site Lovestruck.com.

AdWhirl
An AdMob’s product that has not received too much attention to date is AdWhirl, which they acquired in late 2009. AdWhirl is an ad mediation product for mobile applications. It enables the app developer to easily source ads from several mobile ad networks to be served in their application. This is accomplished with a single set of ad codes, and the ads are selected according to rules setup by the developer.


AdMob has made the following changes to AdWhirl:
• It now supports both the iPhone platform as well as the Android platform
• Developers can now use an unlimited number of ad networks in their apps
• AdWhirl now fully supports Apple’s iAd
• House Ad functionality has been expanded so developers can centrally manage their own house ads

AdMob currently sees more than 100 million ad requests coming through their AdWhirl platform, from some 1,700 mobile applications. AdMob says they are commited to AdWhirl, saying “We believe that open source mediation plays an important role in the mobile ecosystem by giving developers the control they need to manage their business.”

Mobile SEO is important in 2010

2010 is the year mobile search need to implement mobile SEO best practices and that’s more important than ever. Optimization evolves in a high speed, and with the emergence of mobile search, staying connected to potential customers, and where and how they search, has just gotten a bit more complex than it was. With global mobil usage around 5 billion and rising, the importance of establishing a strong SEO presence should not be underestimated. More striking is the fact that iPhone users represented about 6% of the smartphone market in 2009, yet drove 70% of all mobile searches. This means that people want to search on their mobile devices, and they just need a capable phone to do it.

What about Links
Not so important.Pagerank? Apparently mobile rankings is not an issue. Developing a mobile search strategy requires a shift in paradigm to drive mobile traffic to your site. With an amalgamation of traditional SEO and new best practices floating around, suggesting changes for mobile optimization could be a potential minefield.

This is a suggestion to prepare your SEO campaigns for success in mobile search.

What to do
The mobile web is different from the traditional web. Your homepage won’t help you here. Instead, you’ll have to recode your site to display properly on mobile devices in order to avoid losing visitors who land on a page of mumbo jumbo script. So, you have to use valid code and that mean that you need to use XHTML (at the moment), and using it well. By using W3C compliant XHTML code on your mobile site, you can ensure that users are seeing the content you want them to see, the way you want them to see it. While you are coding your site, and don’t forget traditional SEO practices. Keyword in headers and content are still effective and should be used, following traditional best practices.

Keyword Ranking
Mobile SEO success is dependent on two crucial factors: location and timing. If a user is searching for “car repairs in a spcific place”, the limited number of mobile sites in combination with a fast upload time for your site could make a small mom and pop auto shop rank just as highly as a Pep Boys in the area.
Keywords for SEO should be targeted, but in a different way than traditional SEO. Instead of focusing on long tail, multi-word phrases, keywords should be adapted to follow the mobile search style. This means shorter keyword phrases, 3 words at most, with geographical information included in highly competitive phrases.
Although this strategy may be of limited importance for global companies, it will allow local businesses to rank for terms in mobile search that are beyond their wildest dreams in traditional SEO, and this is good news for small businesses. Remember to use the word “mobile” in your content.

Microsites
Microsites are an excellent opportunity to provide mobile search capability without revamping an entire site.
Microsites can be adapted to implement all of the best practices listed above, but can be made to focus solely on mobile users, enabling businesses to maintain a traditional homepage for the benefit of non-mobile rankings and users. When crafting your new mobile microsite, keep in mind that display options are crucial when approaching the mobile market. Factors such as image display size, use of java, and varied browser usage should be considered when designing your site.

Conclusion
After your mobile site is near to perfection, you need to submit your site map to search engines’ mobile indexes, then sit back and wait for you traffic to come. But there’s only one small problem with monitoring your traffic: it might not be possible. To track mobile search is not an easy task. Google Analytics, doesn’t work if mobile devices don’t execute JavaScript, making it extremely difficult to judge what traffic is coming from mobile sites and what traffic is coming from traditional SEO efforts. But Google is working on this issue and it will be solved in the future.

Mobile Marketing

Mobile is growing all around us. more than 450 million people worldwide used the mobile Web in 2009. Is your business doing anything to take advantage of these mobile opportunities?

It isn't as hard as you might think and the benefits could grow your business to a new level. For starters, you need to mobilize your website. Some companies choose to have separate websites for mobile, but they don’t need to. If you need assistance mobilizing your current site, there are tools available. On the other hand, if you do create a separate mobile site, be sure to include a link to it on your main page in order to give visitors an option.

When your site is mobilized, you need to get your customers involved with your mobile efforts. To do this, you should send text messages letting customers know about special discounts and offers. Make sure to set up a system for customers to "opt-in" to your mobile endeavors. This form of mobile marketing allows businesses to not only expand their business, but also to build stronger relationships with existing customers.

Finally, you need to make sure your customers can take action on your mobile site, that’s the purpose of your mobile campaign. Your website needs to be capable of taking electronic payments via cell phones so that mobile transactions can be made. An additional benefit of doing this is that you can send invoices in the form of email or text messages, which saves costs, paper, time, and perhaps the climate.

Google Gives Mobile Users Location Based Suggestions

Google has launched location-based search results for iPhone and Android mobile device users.

What this means is that people using these devices performing a regular search (not Google Maps) may be directed to geographic location-specific results for any number of queries. Google itself uses the example of museums.

You know how some businesses have ads that simply tell people to Google them? Perhaps there is some more incentive than meets the eye in that strategy.

Read more

AdMob lunches new Video Ad unit for iPhone

Google has resently purchased AdMob. And Admob has unveiled a new interactive video ad unit for the iPhone today. Upon the announcement of Google's acquisition, the highlights of the purchase included SMS, search, web display, and app display ads. Now, video is part of the mix.

"For the first time, mobile video is truly interactive as we've included customizable in-player action buttons enabling consumers to engage with Web content and more video content without leaving the video player," says AdMob VP Product Ali Diab. The in-player action buttons enable users to browse web sites, view additional videos, etc. while the video is playing.

See a Video from Webpronews

Google to Acquire AdMob

AdMob has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Google for $750 million. AdMob’s says that people, products and tools will continue to work to deliver successful campaigns for you and to effectively monetize your mobile traffic – no interruptions. Their product and engineering teams will keep building great products for their customers. Their sales team will keep working with our thousands of advertisers to deliver successful campaigns. Their business development team will keep working to maximize ad revenue for the more than 15,000 mobile Web sites and applications that make up AdMob’s publisher network.

After the deal closes, AdMob will work with Google to accelerate the pace of innovation in mobile and do an even better job for you. This deal will benefit advertisers, developers and publishers.

You can read more about this deal at www.admob.com/google.

Google Tests New AdSense Management Console

Google Tests New AdSense Management Console

Google Maps Navigation for Android

Google Maps Navigation for Android

Google Custom Search: Google Custom Search for your smartphone

Google Custom Search: Google Custom Search for your smartphone

AdSense is Now Available for Full HTML Mobile Sites

Many mobile devices are now featuring a full HTML web browsing experience. As a result, web developers have often created mobile sites that offer a richer experience than a page full of text links.

Google AdSense is now allowing publishers and web developers to use bigger ads than the typical tiny mobile display ads.

The AdSense team has developed a snippet of Javascript that's easy to embed on your mobile site that gives you more control over the ads displayed on your mobile site. If you're targeting all mobile devices or, for whatever reason, are unable to change your website, AdSense will detect the full HTML mobile browsers and serve up bigger ads for you.

Live Motorola CLIQ / DEXT

The hardware is not exactly sexy, the software is really quite brilliant. This MOTOBLUR system takes all of your contacts and social networks and integrates them all into a really useful and usable system. You get all of your messages organized perfectly, and you can update status on one or all networks easily – all from the device’s 5 customizable home screens.


There is no multitouch support (yet), but apart from that, Motorola really seems to taking it to HTC and the Sense-based UI found on the Hero. It is going to give Palm a scare as well. For a company that’s never been good at UI design and software, the MOTOBLUR system on the CLIQ is really a very pleasant surprise.

Official Google Mobile Blog: The bright side of sitting in traffic: Crowdsourcing road congestion data

Official Google Mobile Blog: The bright side of sitting in traffic: Crowdsourcing road congestion data
now you can use Google Maps for mobile with GPS enabled on your phone. When you choose to enable Google Maps with My Location, your phone sends anonymous bits of data back to Google describing how fast you're moving.

2009 is A Great year for Mobile Ad

AdMob is getting ready to serve its 100 Billionth ad, and other AD firm’s states that mobile advertising is booming. The AdMob company notes that this is over 14 times the entire world population (as of 2008), 107 times the distance (in miles) to the sun. Suffice it to say, that's a lot of mobile advertising. And that's just from AdMob.

AdMob tells that smartphone shipments worldwide are projected to grow 13% this year. You can expect a lot more mobile advertising to come.

eMarketer estimates that there will be 280.8 million mobile phone subscribers by the end of the year. comScore says there will be 29 million smartphone users. eMarketer also projects that US mobile advertising spending will reach $760 million in 2009.
Remember that not that long ago, mobile used to mean simple WAP sites or worse, trying to view a traditional website with a sub-par transcoded experience. Mobile websites have come a long way since then and now provide a rich user experience optimized specifically for mobile.

More and more people are buying smartphones and mobile has become a real medium for advertisers & publishers. No longer for just early adopters, as smartphones have become mainstream, having a strong presence in the mobile landscape has become essential for both mainstream brands and emerging developers alike.

New Mobile Marketing Guidelines Open for Public Review | WebProNews

New Mobile Marketing Guidelines Open for Public Review | WebProNews

iPhone 3G is Coming: Be prepared

AT&T Mobility and consumers marked will offer the iphone to its customers.
iPhone 3G S is the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet, and we're extremely proud to offer it to our customers on the nation's fastest 3G network, We're also pleased to offer these innovative phones and plans at incredible values, including free Wi-Fi access at nearly 20,000 hot spots.



Pricing is as follows:
- iPhone 3G S will cost $199 (16GB) and $299 (32GB) for new and qualifying customers.

- iPhone 3G will cost $99 (8GB) for new and qualifying customers.

- The 16 GB iPhone 3G will be available for $149 while supplies last.

The prices come with a two-year contract and approved voice and data plan. There are other options to purchase one without the contract.
75% of mobile search is done on iPhones. Around that time, we also learned that smartphone usage continues to grow despite even the economic downturn. Clearly the iPhone is the top dog

Specifications

Steve Jobs announces 3G iPhone

WolframAlpha On iPhone Mobile Search

The WolframAlpha Blog announced they have launched an iPhone mobile friendly version of their search engine. If you visit www.wolframalpha.com on your iPhone, you should see an iPhone friendly home screen. It looks like this:



The issue is, if you conduct any search, it doesn’t give you an iPhone friendly version of the results page. Yes, the iPhone loads the normal page just find, but I find it weird to announce an iPhone version of a search engine when the search results are not specifically iPhone friendly. Here is a picture of a search results page, which I had to pinch to look good:

Google Launches Local Search Application for Android

A new app for Android, "Places Directory", that finds businesses that are close to your location. The app will list various business categories, such as restaurants, hotels and banks. Click on a category and get a listing with distance and star ratings. Click on an individual listing to see reviews and photos.
The app is available in the Android Market and initially supports English and Chinese. "Places Directory" is a Google Labs product.

IPhone Gets Bigger as Ad Medium

In the past several months, companies such as Burger King Holdings Inc., Zippo Manufacturing Co. and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. have experimented with promotional software applications that can be downloaded onto the iPhone, or they have created ads that are placed within other popular applications for the device.

From Wall Stree.

List of iPhone Advertiser Best Practices

Iphone Marketing & Advertising
Advertising to users on their devices is the most effective way to promote your application. While the quality of an app is the biggest driver of success, advertising can help users discover your app among the thousands of competing apps in the store. Below are some tips for success that we have learned working with our iPhone partners.

Advertising is most effective when launching a new app
A concentrated burst of downloads is the best way to maximize your ranking in the App Store. Combining downloads you receive as a new application with downloads generated from advertising can create a boost to your initial ranking. In addition, establishing a user base quickly means you receive product feedback, obtain user reviews, and gather usage data. You should also consider advertising when your app drops out of the Top 25 or Top 50 to keep it discoverable by users browsing these lists.

Read more

This will help you to avoid common advertiser mistakes

There are a lot of variables for an advertiser to consider when setting up and later evaluating the success of their mobile ad campaign. We’ve previously published best practices and optimization tips for all advertisers and tips specifically for iPhone advertisers, however we know that managing an effective campaign is an art and a science. As such we wanted to share a few of the mistakes we’ve seen advertisers make to help you avoid these common pitfalls.

iPhone Searches Longer and More Diverse Than Other Mobile Phones - Search Marketing News Blog - Search Engine Watch (SEW)

iPhone Searches Longer and More Diverse Than Other Mobile Phones - Search Marketing News Blog - Search Engine Watch (SEW)

Publisher Bonus in May from AdMob.

Between May 4 and May 18, mobile advertising network AdMob is giving publishers a 35% bonus on any money transferred over to ads. For example, if you transfer $100 of money made through published ads to actually running an ad yourself, AdMob will add an additional $35 worth of advertising.

With the economy the way it is, We suspect we will continue to see these incentive-based campaigns. It was just yesterday that news came of social search site Scour offering $1,000 in search-based prizes. And Microsoft claims it has had success with its incentive-based programs such as Cashback and Search Perks.


Between May 4 and May 18, mobile advertising network AdMob is giving publishers a 35% bonus on any money transferred over to ads. For example, if you transfer $100 of money made through published ads to actually running an ad yourself, AdMob will add an additional $35 worth of advertising.

With the economy the way it is, we suspect we will continue to see these incentive-based campaigns. It was just yesterday that news came of social search site Scour offering $1,000 in search-based prizes. And Microsoft claims it has had success with its incentive-based programs such as Cashback and Search Perks.

Google Releases Product Search for iPhone and Android

Now, Google is trying to be part of the on-the-go purchase decision process. They've made product search available to Google.com searchers on the iPhone and Android.


video

Report: Yahoo Top Search Performer On Mobile Web

Report: Yahoo Top Search Performer On Mobile Web

Gomez, Inc. and dotMobi have joined together to rate mobile sites across several verticals according to how well they perform on the mobile internet.

IPhone will get free calls on Skype

Skype will release a free application for the iPhone on Tuesday, enabling owners to make Internet calls via Apple's popular handset. Skype calls do not count against regular cellphone minutes.

Because of restrictions imposed by Apple, you can be on a Skype call only while you have access to Wi-Fi. In cellular-only coverage, you can chat only with Skype buddies.
Parhaps Apple is trying to keep its cellphone carrier partners happy. Skype calls could cut into AT&T's cellphone business.

Other restrictions: You can be on a conference call within the iPhone app but cannot initiate one. And you must be logged in to the app to receive an incoming Skype call.
Skype on the iPhone is welcome despite these drawbacks, especially if you communicate with friends and colleagues overseas and don't want to pay AT&T's lofty rates. As with Skype on your computer, calls to Skype members are free; you can call land lines and mobile phones at low rates. What's more, if you have a headset with a microphone, you can also now make Skype calls on an iPod Touch.

During a call, you can summon an onscreen dialing pad, place a call on hold or turn a speakerphone function on or off. You can display all contacts or only those online. You can consult your call history and change your "status" to indicate when you are online or want to be undisturbed.

Skype newbies can sign up from the iPhone. You can use the iPhone camera to shoot the little picture that will appear next to your name, or choose an existing picture. But you cannot make a video Skype call through the iPhone as you can on your computer. If Apple were to give its blessing, Skype says there's no reason why video calls cannot occur in the future.

इफोने अड़ मर्केद पायस ऑफ़ तो AdMob

Mobile ad network AdMob has moved aggressively into the iPhone ad market, and it's paying off.
Last month, the company served up 1.2 billion ads worldwide to Apple (AAPL) iPhone and iPod touch devices, In Feb. 2008, it served up about 33 million ads to iPhones, or about 1.3% of its 2.56 billion total ad requests. So while AdMob's overall business has more than doubled year-over-year, its iPhone business has grown much, much faster.

Much of the credit goes to Apple: It's sold more than 30 million iPhones and iPod touches, most during 2008. But give AdMob credit, too: It's been a leader signing up iPhone publishers to its ad network, including iPhone-specific ad units for apps sold through Apple's iTunes App Store and delivered on the mobile Web.

TechCrunch got this line directly from AdMob's report -- but that's the problem. While the iPhone may represent 50% of smartphone traffic on AdMob's network, that is not necessarily an accurate depiction of the broader mobile Web. Why not? AdMob's stats significantly favor the iPhone because of its vast ad inventory in iPhone apps -- ads that are not available on other phones -- and on iPhone-tailored Web sites, which won't work on some phones.
So while AdMob's stats offer a nice look inside their mobile ad business and could be directionally correct in a broader context, they are not an accurate, normalized gauge of overall mobile Web traffic.

Google Friend Connect Launches API

Google Friend Connect, the tool that allowed web developers to add social networking to any site, has launched API. Here's what site owners and developers can expect:

Site owners - Integrate Friend Connect more deeply into your site. JavaScript APIs allow you to integrate a social community directly within the markup of your page, and our REST APIs allow you integrate existing login systems and your existing data with new social data and activities. These are your visitors and this is your site, so you should be able to add social features the way you want.

Plugin developers - Make plugins to integrate with popular content management systems, bulletin boards, or any open framework. To get you started, we have created open source plugin samples for WordPress, Drupal, and phpBB.

Gadget developers - Make OpenSocial applications with greater control over how data flows across servers with signed requests. Use server-side authentication mechanisms so that a site with Friend Connect can act as an OpenSocial container.

Yahoo will gives us a new experience in Mobile Internet

Yahoo has announced an exciting new mobile experienced called Yahoo! Mobile.

This service will be available on the mobile Web, as an application developed for the Apple iPhone and for smartphones from Nokia, RIM, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Motorola as well as those powered by Windows Mobile.

“We think that the new Yahoo! Mobile will transform the way millions of mobile users around the world will interact with the Internet,” explains Marco Boerries, executive vice president, Yahoo! Inc. “Yahoo! Mobile will enable users to create their own Internet starting point on their mobile device so they can better discover, connect to and stay informed about the people and things that are important to them.”
There are several new features for Yahoo! Mobile including:

Yahoo! oneSearch - Yahoo!’s award-winning mobile search service providing the most current, relevant answers you need.
Today - The most interesting stories buzzing on the Internet right now, selected by Yahoo!’s editorial team.
Yahoo! oneConnect - Yahoo!’s service designed to provide consumers everything they need to stay in touch with the people about whom they care:
Email: Access to Yahoo! Mail and other popular email service providers, including Gmail, Windows Live Hotmail and AOL Mail.

Pulse: Access to their social networks, including Bebo, Dopplr, Facebook, Flickr, Friendster, Last.fm, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube.

Yahoo! Messenger
• Yahoo! Address Book
• Yahoo! Calendar
• Yahoo! News
• Yahoo! onePlace

iPhone WordPress App is now in the Testing Mode

The Wordpress – Iphone app is underway, but they are looking for hardware testers to get the next version ready for users.

Changes in the iPhones operating system delayed this new update, but now they are nearly ready for the release to the Apple store. The upcoming version includes landscape mode with the extra wide keyboard, link creation help, editing and creating Pages, comment moderation, asynchronous publishing, photo resizing, and a few more goodies.

Skyte integrates into Nokia Cellphones

To have an application for a mobile platform is one thing; to have it deeply integrated into the phone’s software is another. Knowing that, Skypehas partnered with Nokia to integrate its software into the Finnish company’s handsets, starting with Nokia’s N series of smartphones.

The first smartphone to receive the Skype treatment will be Nokia N97, starting somewhere in the third quarter of 2009, and other devices will follow.

This is especially handy for those international calls from conferences and similar events, when regular phone calls are expensive as hell, but WiFi is almost always freely available. Having Skype integrated with your phone’s core functions means you’ll spend less time fiddling with it to get it to work, which can make the difference between a very pleasant and a very annoying overall experience.

Google Docs are Improving Functionality for your Mobile devices

Google announced an improvement to the mobile version of Google Docs. That is list view for spreadsheets, which allows you to view, edit, sort, and filter your spreadsheets from your mobile device.

Previously, you could only view your spreadsheets on mobile devices. Now, they basically have full functionality.
The mobile access even made better by adding new capabilities with List View for spreadsheets. You can quickly view, edit, sort, and filter your spreadsheets on a variety of mobile devices including Android-powered devices like the T-Mobile G1, the iPhone and iPod touch, and the Nokia S60.

Google launches AdSence for search

Google has announced a new AdSense mobile product named AdSense for mobile search. AdSense for mobile search gives carriers and mobile publishers a quick way to simply embed a Google search box on their mobile sites.
This is a lot like AdSense for Search, but the mobile version. Currently, this is a private beta so you need to fill out a form and be accepted into the beta to give it a try. Plus, this is fully hosted by Google and runs of their servers.

Google Books Search are now Mobile

The Google Books Blog announced they have now created a mobile version of Google Books. If you have an iPhone or Android phone just navigate your mobile browser to http://books.google.com/m to start using Google Book search on your mobile device.
There are many differences between the mobile version and the regular version. The most obvious is the look and feel, but the biggest technological difference, as Google explains, is the use of OCR technology. Google Book Search typically shows scans of the page, but if you view the book on a mobile device, they will try to extract the text using OCR and show you plain text, not scanned text.