Display Advertising Explains "Google Me"

Google's rumored launch of its own social network "Google Me" might seem curious, but there is a good reason why the move would make business sense: display advertising.

According to ComScore, Google sites place sixth among web publishers for display ad impressions at 25.8 billion, the equivalent of 2.4 percent of the total impressions for the first quarter of 2010. Facebook easily dominated the display ad market for the same period at 16.2 percent or 176.3 billion impressions.

Google's Display Advertising Plans Include Gmail, YouTube - Advertising Age - Digital

Mobile Accounts for 17% of European Mobile Connections

Mobile broadband accounted for 17.3 percent of the total number of European broadband connections in Europe at the end of 2009, " according to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight.

The North American market has so far evolved at a slower pace, with mobile broadband accounting for just 7.1 percent of the total number of connections, says Berg Insight.

The number of HSPA/LTE mobile broadband subscribers (connected PCs) grew by 71 percent year-on-year in 2009 to reach 25 million and is forecasted to continue to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 21.6 percent to 81 million by 2015.

Berg Insight

More than 50 percent of applications are priced below or equal to $2.00 in all stores, with the exception of BlackBerry App World and Windows Marketplace for Mobile, says Distimo.

The average price of all paid applications and the 100 most popular paid applications in the Apple App Store for iPad ($4.65) is higher than in the Apple App Store for iPhone ($4.01).

Google Android Market has the largest share of free applications (57 percent) and Windows Marketplace for Mobile has the smallest (22 percent).

Ethernet Access Now Cheaper than SONET

Domestic access Ethernet circuits now cost less, in most case, than traditional SDH/SONET leased circuits, says Owen Irving, vice president, Commercial, Asia Pacific at Cable & Wireless Worldwide, CommsDay reports.

“10M Ethernet appears to have settled at approximately two times E1 pricing, 50 Mbps Ethernet is often a lower price than DS3, while 100M is often a similar price to DS3," he says.

Required Reading

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America:

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

A citizen's required reading for July 4th: The Declaration of Independence (with music) | Top of the Ticket | Los Angeles Times

Required Reading

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America:

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

A citizen's required reading for July 4th: The Declaration of Independence (with music) | Top of the Ticket | Los Angeles Times

European Commission Inquiry on Net Neutrality

The European Commission is looking into such issues as whether Internet providers should be allowed to adopt certain traffic management practices, prioritizing one kind of Internet traffic over another and whether such traffic management practices may create problems and have unfair effects for users.

The EC also will look at whether the level of competition between different Internet service providers, transparency requirements and whether the EU needs to act further to ensure fairness in the Internet market, or whether industry should take the lead.

The consultation will feed into a Commission report on net neutrality, which should be producedby the end of this year.

EUROPA - Press Releases - Digital Agenda: Commission launches consultation on net neutrality

Consumer Reports Says iPhone 4 Signal Reception Not a Serious Problem

All mobile phones can encounter signal reception problems when the devices are held, notes Consumer Reports "Your hand, your head, or any other part of your body that comes between the phone's antenna and the nearest cell tower will interfere with reception, and devilishly well."

"Humans are mostly made of water, and water is very good at blocking phone signals."

Consumer Reports Electronics Blog: iPhone 4's supposed signal woes aren’t unique, and may not be serious

Should Fixed-Line Providers Go "Over the Top"?

Now that residential voice and Internet services are no longer tied to a physical household, fixed-line operators can (and should) customize services for individual members of a household and compete on a nationwide basis versus a specific fixed territory,” says Diane Myers, Infonetics Research directing analyst.

The decline of traditional fixed-line voice service and the rise of broadband access, video, and mobile data is speeding up, and PC-based mobile broadband subscribers will surpass all other types of Internet access subscribers by 2013. Under such conditions, where some companies compete without regard to geography, firms that remain location-bound will be at a disadvantage, Myers seems to conclude.

In 2009, 70 percent of all North American voice subscribers were mobile; by 2014, that number will grow as an increasing number of consumers go mobile-only.

Infonetics Research - Broadband, video, and mobile services fuel the residential services market

Lance Takes Last Tour de France Ride

Lance Armstrong begins his last Tour de France ride on Saturday. Good luck, Lance.

Apple Appears to Permit Google Ads Inside iPad and iPhone Apps

Apple Inc. doesn't appear to have barred Google Inc. and others from selling targeted ads inside iPhone and iPad applications, after implying several weeks ago that it might do so, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Software developers say their new and updated applications are getting approved by Apple, even though the apps are enabled to serve ads by third-party ad networks such as Google's Mobile Adsense and AdMob.

Every smaller firm that finds it has become a dominant firm, or is perceived as potentially dominant, will incure antitrust and other regulatory scrutiny. It might be that Apple and Google both must move more cautiously now that each is seen as reaching the threshold of dominance in existing markets that might be leveraged to attain dominance in new markets.

If the pattern continues, it will be good for advertisers, content owners and software developers, as they will have more freedom to pick their partners and keep more business leverage.

Apple on iPhone 4 Reception Issues

Apple says the signal strength indicator on its iPhone 4 is displaying incorrect results. "Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong," Apple says. "Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength."

In areas of weak signal, the "big drop in bars" when the device is gripped is "because their high bars were never real in the first place."

Letter from Apple Regarding iPhone 4

Nexus One Lessons

There are perhaps some lessons Google and everybody else can learn from the mixed results of the "direct to consumer" Nexus One effort.

Though it is hard to say for sure, the experiment might have influenced the current direction of the leading Android devices, ranging from the HTC Evo to the Droid Incredible and Droid X. If that was the intention of creating the Nexus One, the experiment bore fruit.

It might also be important to note that we had a test of two retailing concepts: the idea that U.S. consumers actually hate contracts so much they will pay full retail prices for advanced devices, and the notion that such devices can be sold direct from a website, bypassing the retail distribution chain the leading mobile companies use.

One might conclude that demand for unlocked phones is not as significant as one might have thought. The other observation is that the current retail model works pretty darn well, compared to "web only."

Also, after-sales support proved to be another weakness. Customers do not appear to have been happy with "email-only" customer support, and seem to have been scarcely happier with the added "by phone" support.

There's nothing wrong with experimentation, to test such notions. But we might remember that Apple was highly criticized for opening its retail store network. It now appears those critics were wrong. The retail store experience is helpful, maybe even necessary, as a distribution channel for advanced mobile devices.

Wikipedia To Add A U.S. Data Center � Data Center Knowledge

Wikipedia plans to add a third data center, budgeting $3.27 million for the new facility, on top of the $1.87 million it expects to spend on maintaining the Tampa and Amsterdam data centers.

That might not be much by commercial standards, but Wikipedia is a non-profit organization. In part, Wikipedia will use a $2 million grant from Google to help expand its data centers.

Virginia is a likely site for the second U.S. data center. Wikipedia also has data centers in Amsterdam and Tampa, Fla.

Wikipedia To Add A U.S. Data Center � Data Center Knowledge

Google To Offer Threaded, Non-Threaded Email Formats

Google is planning to offer a standard email option in Gmail in the next few months, Henry Blodget reports. Currently, Gmail presents email in a threaded format, in which replies and follow-on emails with the same subject line are grouped together. That's helpful to people who want to follow a single conversation as it develops, or refer back to earlier messages.

Others will find it less useful since the threading feature means new replies do not automatically appear at the top of the inbox, and that's where people are trained to look for new messages.

Apparently Google will simply offer a way to select the "threaded" or non-threaded" formats.

Google To Change Gmail, Add "Normal Email" Option Instead Of Just "Conversations"