OneRiot Launches Social Ad Targeting for Mobiles

OneRiot has launched what it believes is the world’s first social targeting service for mobile ads. OneRiot now enables advertisers to reach targeted audience segments on mobile devices.

Segmentation and targeting are based on factors such as audience interest profiles, demographics, social influence and realtime conversations.

OneRiot Blog

75% of TV Viewers Now are Multitasking

Deloitte’s latest survey of media habits indicates that nearly three quarters of American consumers are multitasking while watching TV.

According to the research, 42 percent are online, 29 percent are talking on cellphones or mobile devices, and 26 percent are sending instant messages or text messages.

That might suggest to some that TV simply is not as engaging as it once was.

Deloitte’s “State of the Media Democracy” Survey

Skype Angles for More Share of Outbound Landline Calls

"Skype To Go" has been available for some time, but Skype now is positioning the service as a way to provide lower-cost calling from landline phones or mobile phones.

"You don’t need an Internet connection, and you don’t need to be in a 3G coverage area," Skype says. "Let’s say your aunt lives in Australia and you live in New York. Simply give us your aunt’s number in Australia, and we’ll convert it into a unique Skype To Go number with a New York area code."

"Then, all you need to do is call this number from your mobile or landline, and you can talk right away to your aunt in Australia at Skype’s amazing rates," Skype says.

Perhaps oddly, many such applications now are marketed as "communications as a service." It is odd because legacy communications always was a service. What is new is the ability for applications to provide that utility. But sometimes those application-based approaches are marketed as new "X as a service." In many cases, these new application or "over the top" approaches also were services, before. "Communications as a service" is a Non sequitur.

Skype - The Big Blog - Introducing Skype To Go - a new way to save on calls abroad from any phone

Why Mobile Will Not be as "Commoditized" as PC Market

One reason the mobile application environment will not be as simple as the PC environment can be glimpsed by looking at the state of mobile browser usage or operating systems in use. There is no uniformity similar to what one seems in the PC market.

http://paidcontent.org/article/419-infographic-mobile-browsers-compared-worldwide-or-what-nokias-giving-up/

Bandwidth Demand Pushing Higher-Speed DSL

New subscribers to very-high-speed digital subscriber line (VDSL) services are set to nearly quadruple by 2014 as more competitors begin to ramp up their support for the technology, according to new IHS iSuppli research.

The number of new annual VDSL subscriber additions will grow to 60.1 million in 2014, up from just 15.6 million in 2009. A total of 23.3 million new VDSL subscribers were added in 2010.

Make Netflix Pay for Universal Service?

Mark Cooper, director of research for the Consumer Federation of America, thinks Netflix should have to pay into the Universal Service Fund. To the extent that the Federal Communications Commission is looking to shift USF funding to support broadband, rather than voice, that notion, though sure to be resisted by application providers, also is likely to receive support from access providers.

It would not be unusual, for example, to hear executives from rural phone service providers say that application providers driving bandwidth consumption by consumers should also share in the support burdens.

The FCC is trying to migrate USF subsidies to fund broadband rather than phone service this year. The question of who must contribute into the fund now comes into view precisely because of the shift to a broader business ecosystem, where most of the new value and revenue accrue to application providers rather than the access providers.

Debates over USF and other support mechanisms always are highly contentious, but in the past have largely pitted various parts of the access provider community against other members of the community. These days, though those sorts of issues remain, at least for voice services, there is new attention being paid toward spreading a support obligation more broadly.

Consumer group wants to tax Netflix to pay for rural broadband - The Hill's Hillicon Valley

80% of Users Not Getting Top Value from Unified Communications

A non-scientific survey of 126 people registered to attend a unified communications conference in the United Kingdom has found that half of respondents have a unified communications solution in place, but 80 percent do not feel they are getting the most from it, Unified Communications Expo 2011 reports.

The results also show that lack of finances is significantly slowing adoption of unified communications in both business and technology sectors.

"The research suggests that UK businesses are still struggling to get to grips with the approach, and that the wealth of communication channels, especially social media related channels, is hindering rather than helping them," says Mike England, Unified Communications Expo director.

UK Businesses are Struggling to Communicate With one Voice - new Research From Unified Communications Expo 2011

Cloud or Unified Communications or Something Else?

Communications industry personnel are not always noted for creating snappy, easily understood product or service names. "Unified communications" might be a case in point. Granted, it is in some ways a tough, perhaps overly-elastic concept to put across. A recent survey of providers shows more than a little variety, made more complicated by the new "cloud" appellation.

Of course, a continuing problem is that there is not universal agreement on the minimum, or core, or common features a "UC" solution represents.

No Jitter | blog | Cloud Communications Provider Survey

New Chrome Extension Can Hide Unwanted Search Results

Google has launched an experimental Chrome extension that allows people to "block" ("hide," at any rate) sites from their web search results. If installed, the extension also sends "blocked site" information to Google, allowing Google to study the resulting feedback and possibly using that information as a potential ranking signal for search results.

You can download the extension and start blocking sites by downloading the extension here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/nolijncfnkgaikbjbdaogikpmpbdcdef.

Official Google Blog: New Chrome extension: block sites from Google’s web search results:

YouTube to Launch Video Service in U.K.

Google's YouTube is reportedly getting ready to launch a movie-based video subscription service, bringing YouTube into more direct competition with Netflix and Amazon, and will launch first in the United Kingdom and other European markets.

Google apparently has earmarked $100 million for buying content, as part of the launch. YouTube reportedly also is in negotiations with both the National Basketball Association and National Hockey Leage to start broadcasting live pro-basketball and ice hockey games, according to a Bloomberg report.

YouTube users tend to spend 15 minutes on the site daily, on average. Google has found, to no surprise, that showing live sports can boost viewing to an average of 40 minutes.

Hit Fast-forward: Goole eyes UK launch of YouTube movie service - NYPOST.com

Honeycomb: The Next Generation for Android

Google Tweaks Search Algorithms

Google says it tweaks its search algorithms virtually all the time. Now Google says it has made some changes that will affect search rankings for perhaps 12 percent of queries.

Google says it has revised the algorithms to reduce rankings for low-quality sites that add little value add for users, especially those that copy content from websites or sites that are just not very useful. Google doesn't say so, but we obviously are talking about "content farms" that are created for the nearly-exclusive purpose of generating traffic to support ad impressions, producing "webspam." See http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/google-search-and-search-engine-spam.html.

Webspam is the "junk" users might see in search results when websites successfully cheat their way into higher positions in search results or otherwise violate search engine quality guidelines.

At the same time, the new algorithms will provide better rankings for high-quality sites, those with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on, Google says on its blog.

The new changes presently affect only U.S. searches.

Official Google Blog: Finding more high-quality sites in search

Mary Meeker on Mobile

If you have an hour, and really want to learn something, here's Mary Meeker's full presentation. You'll learn a lot:

Half of U.S Broadband Homes Have Video Stored on PCs

Nearly 50 percent of U.S. broadband households report that they store their electronic video home library on their desktop PC. Some 30 percent use their notebook PCs.

Smaller percentages store electronic video on their gaming devices, portable media players, Flash devices, and mobile handsets.

Digital video usage models are now a mix of physical discs, free content, video on demand, streaming and rental models, in addition to outright purchases, says says Keith Nissen, Principal Analyst.

Nevertheless, downloading and storing video is a growing and important element in the overall mix. By 2015, collectively, U.S. broadband households will be storing over 4.5 million GBs of professional video content. This translates to up to 65GBs stored per household.

In-Stat - Press Releases

How Netflix Beat Blockbuster

Source: Online MBA Programs