U.K. Mobile Market: Share Changes as Prices Change

Some recent evidence from the U.K. mobile market illustrates the delicate issue of "raising prices" in a competitive market. Three recently added an unlimited plan that appears to have lifted its market share.

Other carriers have raised their prices, with results you might have imagined.

http://www.reghardware.com/2011/07/04/telcos_lose_customers_when_increasing_prices/

Social Media Changing Media

It isn't yet clear how much success Google+ will have. But the fact that Google has invested heavily in what has to be called a new social initiative tells you all you need to know about the growing importance of social networks in media, and as media.

Up to this point, search algorithms have been built around pages and links. Google never discloses its actual algorithms, but the "PageRank" formula uses the number, type, and reputation of other pages that link to any given site as a major ranking factor. These days, though, the explosion of social networks has had an effect.

Today, far more status updates, photos, videos and other social flotsam and jetsam are published and shared than fully formed Web pages. That’s because content creation is now about "small stuff," rather than "big stuff." The popularity of such "micro" bits of content is that there now is a need to index lots more "personal" content, compared to commercial, professional or other more traditional content sources and sites.

That doesn't mean traditional sites have to be abandoned for Twitter streams. It does mean that it makes a difference whether content gets re-tweeted, "like" or otherwise shared. Google, for example, now incorporates Twitter data into Google results.

Specifically, tweets and mentions of your published content receives has a material impact on how Google ranks your sites, pages, posts and stories.

It actually isn't easy to describe the suite of services that are part of Google+. See http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/introducing-google-project-real-life.html.

The issue for content marketing is that social sharing is becoming a more important SEO requirement.

Why Google Has the Hammer To Make Businesses Use Google Plus

Google+ Cost $585 Million?

By one back of the envelope calculation, it might have cost Google some $585 million to create Google+.

Google Costs $585 M, the Same as MySpace? - Daily Artifacts

Will Google+ Be a Kiler App on Mobiles?

"Because Google is also available on the iPhone you may be tempted to downplay the significance of the app for the Android ecosystem," argues Matthew Panzarino. But Google will be able to do things with the app on its platform that would never happen on iOS, he argues.

Things like a "Hangout" or "Huddle" widget, the system wide integration of Google into the operating system to capture photos and videos or email addresses and phone numbers categorized by "Circles" will only exist on Android. "In the end, it’s safe to say that Apple will never integrate even basic Google functionality into the innards of the iPhone’s OS," he argues.

And it’s not enough that Apple has its own equivalents to some of these features in its iCloud suite, Panzarino. For instance, every picture can be automatically uploaded to your Google gallery every time you press the shutter button of an Android phone, mimicking the behavior of the Photo Stream in iOS. But these photos cannot be instantly shared with a Circle of your friends, they can’t be viewed in a gorgeous, socially enabled, online gallery.

With Google , Android finally gets its killer app - TNW Google

Blogs Don't Work?

There is an argument to be made that "blogs" aren't relevant anymore. Of course, the possible reason is simply because "blogs" have become an indispensable part of a brand's online experience, adding the dynamic component that Google and other search engines use to rank sites. In other words, to get more attention, brand websites have to become more content rich. In that sense, "blogs" as a separate activity is an idea that might have become outmoded.

"Blogs are replacing the static websites that businesses have traditionally considered their online home," says Jeff Korhan. The reason, as noted, is that search engine optimization now makes fresh content an essential element for website ranking.

Blogs are where people in the know go to get the most relevant news, Korhan argues. This is precisely why AOL Media paid handsomely for top blog The Huffington Post, a site that is seldom referred to as a blog. Indeed, it isn't. It is a media site.

But there is one practical implication. "It may be time to forget about blogs and instead direct our communities to our interactive websites, these online forums where they can tap into our expertise and a great deal more," he argues.

Your Interactive Expertise Distribution Site

Smart Phone Mobile Activities Rival PC

Research from Google and the Mobile Marketing Association finds Internet usage on mobile devices is quickly becoming as important as internet usage via PC among those who own smartphones.

In the United States, 58 percent of smart phone owners had used their phone to go online every day, compared to 78 percent who said the same of their PC. When asked about usage, 53 percent of respondents said they used the mobile internet multiple times, compared with 67 percent who said the same of their PC.

Mobile Activities Rival PC for Smartphone Owners - eMarketer

DOCOMO to Develop New Services by Working with Twitter

NTT DOCOMO will be working with Twitter to develop new applications and services incorporating Twitter features for DOCOMO feature phones and smartphones.

Real-time tweets and other Twitter content will be added to the search results on the DOCOMO “i-mode” portal for feature phones and the “docomo market” portal for smartphones. DOCOMO expects to launch the service for feature phones this summer and for smartphones later this year or early next year.

DOCOMO also plans to update an existing “touch and follow” application for feature phones, which will allow two DOCOMO customers to begin following each other quickly and easily by simply placing their feature phones together to exchange follow permissions via the NFC data transmission function of DOCOMO phones.

DOCOMO to Develop New Services by Working with Twitter