– 38% of cell owners used their phone to call a friend while they were in a store for advice about a purchase they were considering making

– 24% of cell owners used their phone to look up reviews of a product online while they were in a store

– 25% of adult cell owners used their phones to look up the price of a product online while they were in a store, to see if they could get a better price somewhere else

Read full article here: Pew Internet

Google reported an annual $5 billion in earnings from ads that ran on YouTube videos. Recently, the video-sharing site has been redesigned to feature unique “channels” that are set up for different types of content. Late last year, YouTube announced that it had signed 100 original video programming deals with strategic media partners. These partners include news outlets as well as celebrities such as Madonna and Jay-Z.

Mashable’s chief editor, Lance Ulanoff, summarizes it best with this comment, “At every turn, if you’re part of Google+, Google’s new search tools will only pull you further in, ensuring that the still young social engine is top of mind. As Google sees it, you’re getting more relevant results, because this is the information and the people you choose to connect with in the first place.”

What are your thoughts on this new social media integration by Google?

Read the full story here: Mashable

The inclusion, noted by researcher BrightEdge appears only for some brands at the moment. BrightEdge, which has tracked Google+ brand pages since they went live on Nov. 7, just noticed the Google+ integration on Dec. 20.(Though Search Engine Land discovered it last month.) In particular, the company identified the following Google+ brand page results in a search for AT&T:

As Brad Mattick, VP-marketing for BrightEdge notes, the addition of G+ brand pages in this case allows the marketer to wedge in a promotional message. In this particular case, a call for a sweepstakes gets a much bigger audience via Google natural search results than it would have otherwise.

Though AT&T appeared to be one of the first brands to get such treatment, a search for Toyota showed two Google+ entries (from late November).

Other brands, including T-Mobile and Macy’s, also displayed G+ results in their searches. A Google rep offered the following statement about the search results: “Content from the +Page, such as recent posts, will appear as annotations attached to its associated web page under the sitelinks in search results if that site is eligible for Direct Connect. It uses the same bi-directional link and algorithmic criteria as Direct Connect.”

For Mattick, integrating G+ brand page information into search results is an obvious enticement for brands to join and be active on Google+. Mattick says he believes blurring the lines between G+ and search results parallels Microsoft’s inclusion of the Internet Explorer browser in its Windows OS in the 1990s. The U.S. Department of Justice accused Microsoft of using its Windows near-monopoly to beat Netscape in the browser segment.

However, Google’s share of the search market — 65.6% in October according to comScore — is lower than Microsoft’s 78.5% share of the desktop OS market at the time of the IE bundling.

Nevertheless, the move may attract some unwanted attention for Google. The search giant’s push comes as Sens. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) have called on the Federal Trade Commission to look into Google’s search business practices.

What do you think? Is Google using its power in search to cajole brands to be active on Google+ or is the company within its rights. Sound off in the comments.

Source: Mashable

Google has long told marketers that though buying AdWords won’t help them in natural search results, creating great, well-linked content will.

But some marketers are preparing for another shift: Google’s incorporation of social signals from Google+ in its rankings. Brands aren’t waiting for the giant to make it official, which is a big reason they’re investing in Google+ pages. Their worry is that early adopters will reap the search benefits, while others will be buried by those who have collected more +1s.

Google is already “experimenting” with making a click on +1 buttons one of the more than 200 signals informing its search algorithm, according to a company spokesperson. But it could go much further and factor in the number and size of a “circles” — the pools of Google+ users following a brand — as well as how widely its Google+ content is being shared. That could give brands an incentive to be active on the platform and get fans to engage with content there.

Read full article.