The Week in Review

InMobi Joins the US Mobile Ad Fray

InMobi, a mobile ad network that has strong positioning in the Asia-Pacific, Africa and Western Europe markets, announced that it is entering the U.S. market after a successful soft launch back in January. The company has seen its worldwide impressions surge 122.7 percent since the start of 2010, and hopes that its analytics tools and real-time buying product will enable it to compete against Google’s AdMob and Apple’s iAd/Quattro Wireless. Meanwhile, Unilever sent out a news release proclaiming its use of the iAd platform. (ReadWriteWeb, NYTimes.com)

E-Mail Marketing Analogies

The Olympics, junk food and sex – these are just three of the many things e-mail marketing is like. Read this for entertainment and enlightenment. (MediaPost)

Finance, Retail Have Strong CPC Growth in May

The finance category saw its CPC rise 11 percent to $1.99 in May from $1.79 in April. However, compared to May 2009, the category’s CPC is down 14 percent. The retail category saw its CPC increase 8 percent to $0.50 in May from $0.46 in April, while the travel category saw its CPC drop 15 percent month-over-month. (ClickZ)

2 Free SEO Tools You Must Use

Many have caught on already but many still have not. Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics are two of the best SEO tools out there, and they’re absolutely free. Here’s a rundown of what each is and what each offers. (Daily SEO Tip)

10 Ways Search Engines May Re-Rank Search Results

Here is a list of 10 ways search engines may re-rank search results. Methods include phrase-based indexing, navigational queries and diversification. “What’s more important then knowing whether or not a Google or Yahoo or Bing might be using a particular method described within a patent is understanding the reasons why the search engines might have considered one approach or another.” (SEO by the Sea)

Twitter Links Will See Big Changes, Be Counted Differently

Get used to seeing t.co, Twitter’s planned URL shortener, which has already begun rolling out. While not much is yet certain, it appears that links won’t count against the 140 available characters until after link wrapping. While users of Brizzly won’t see much that’s special here, it appears that very visible changes will be introduced to the tweeting masses sometime this summer. (Mashable)

Display Advertising Will Grow (More Complicated)

It’s not as sexy as other channels, but display advertising is still an important part of the online marketing realm. The medium is set to grow in the near future and is still in its early years. The problems with display advertising are well known and the bad news is that things will get more complicated for the fragmented industry before they get less complicated. (Econsultancy)

A Look at Bros Icing Bros

Bros Icing Bros has taken on a life of its own, without Smirnoff’s help. Here’s a look at how the game started, and how the phenomenon has blurred the line between guerilla advertising and genuine social media trends. (NYTimes.com)

Increased SEO and PPC Spending in the UK

According to Econsultancy’s latest “Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2010,” SEO and PPC spending is up from 2008. The biggest hurdles for paid search are the lack of internal resources and poorly converting websites, while the biggest obstacles for SEO are internal resources and lack of a budget. Google was used by 83 percent of respondents for PPC, followed by Yahoo! with 36 percent and Bing with 34 percent. Sixty-four percent say they are unable to measure ROI from social media marketing campaigns as well as they’d like. (Econsultancy)

6 Recruiting Outlets for Startups

Help a Startup Out, Cofoundr and Staruply are three of the six resources for startups who are looking for talent. Pros and cons are listed for each. (Mashable)

iAds: 48% of Mobile Advertising Market?

In the midst of all the shimmering announcements Apple made for its official iPhone 4 introduction, Steve Jobs noted that 48 percent of mobile advertising spending in the U.S. from July through December 2010 will go to iAd. He also noted that iAd already has commitments totaling more than $60 million, which “represents almost 50 percent of the total forecasted US mobile ad spending for the second half of 2010,” according to the Apple’s press release. (VentureBeat, PR Newswire)

New Facebook Analytics Shows ‘Like’ Data

Facebook revamped its Insights dashboard, revealing data for “likes,” reshares and user demographics. (Mashable)

Yahoo Lays off Search Team Employees

Going back on its word, Yahoo! has laid off employees who were part of its search team. The company maintains that it “remains focused on innovating the overall Search experience over the long-term, and the Yahoo! Search group is hard at work on some new experiences that we believe will convert Yahoo! users to Yahoo! searchers.” This could be part of the fallout of the Yahoo!-Bing search deal. (TechCrunch)

Internet Week

Don’t forget that this week is Internet Week in New York City, whose startup scene has come a long way. (CNET, Internet Week)

Android is Smart for Google

While giving Android away for free may appear to be a bit detrimental to Google, it’s actually a smart move. AdMob, iAd’s limitation to Apple devices and Google’s potential to generate $1.00 per mobile phone in the installed base by 2013 are three keys reasons why. (Seeking Alpha)

PPC Tips

Here’s a basic, yet helpful, overview of how to run a successful PPC ad campaign. For the creative aspect, aligning intent, query, Google algorithm, advertising and landing page concepts are key. Also, the three-step paid search management process requires adeptness at targeting, valuing and satisfying. (BryanEisenberg.com)

SEO Site Audits

A typical full SEO site audit can take up to six weeks to complete, but much of the best stuff is uncovered in the first day. Here’s a seven-hour timeline of an effective SEO site audit, which includes template preparation, a coffee break and population of data, among other thing. (SEOmoz.org)

Blogosphere Demographics

Sysomos recently revealed the findings from its mini-census of the blogosphere. Among them are that 53.3 percent of bloggers are between 21-35 years old, 50.9 percent are female and 29.22 percent live in the U.S. (ReadWriteWeb)

52% of U.S. Adults Have Watched or Downloaded Video via Internet

Pew Internet & American Life Project’s latest “The State of Online Video” report shows that 69 percent of adult Internet users, or 52 percent of all U.S. adults, have used the Internet to watch or download video. Comedy or humorous videos lead the way with 50 percent viewership, up from 31 percent in 2007. Also, 28 percent of video uploaders say sharing videos online has helped them meet new people. (Pew Internet & American Life Project)

4G Wireless Explained

Wired offers a rundown of what 4G is, including discussion of speeds, different technologies and the 4G plans for the major U.S. carriers. (Wired.com)

Is the Internet Making us Smarter or Dumber?

The debate about whether the Internet is making us smarter or dumber echoes the debates about books doing the same when the printing press took off. The foundation of this debate’s answer will hinge on whether the good stuff will survive into the future. (WSJ.com)

Chegg is Banking it

If you haven’t heard of Chegg, the successful “Netflix for textbooks,” you should start paying attention. (TechCrunch)

5 Ways to Boost Registrations

Registered users are more engaged than anonymous visitors, so it’s important to make the registration process as easy as possible. Some of the keys to increasing user registrations are keeping things simple and open, providing a choice and using analytics to adjust. (iMediaConnection)

Citysearch is Now CityGrid Media

Citysearch is all grown up and is taking on a new moniker: CityGrid Media. CityGrid is the name of its ad network, so the renaming of the IAC subsidiary is “basically putting our name where our money is.” (VentureBeat)

Mobile Shopping Expected to Double in 2010

According to Coda Research Consultancy, mobile commerce revenues in the U.S. are set to double this year to $2.4 billion. While downloading apps is the most popular form of m-commerce today, comparing prices, 38 percent of mobile users expect to purchase items via mobile phones in the next 6-24 months, according to PriceGrabber.com. (eMarketer)

Windows Live Essentials is Great at Faking it

Microsoft’s making some impressive improvements to its Windows Live Essentials suite, which is a set of online and desktop tools, including Hotmail, Messenger and Sync. Movie Maker and Photo Gallery, in particular, are set to receive some crowd-pleasing upgrades. For a preview, just take a look at this faked photo. (TechCrunch)

10 Tips to Revamp Your Blog’s Content

Setting a blogging schedule, writing weekly/monthly columns, using various content types and interlinking your posts are some of the ways you can supercharge your blog’s content. (Search Engine Journal)

5 Insights Into Why Marketers Should Expand Views of Contributing Channels

Knowing which online channels contribute the most to your sales is key, but many marketers fail to do this effectively. Insights include revealing top contributors via equal attribution, lifting all channels’ performance by spending more and improving PPC by using a revenue participation model. (MarketingSherpa)

Google Explains Invite Media Acquisition

Google says the acquisition of Invite Media is its response to requests to make a bidding platform directly available to them, and that the new addition will be made to work “seamlessly” with DoubleClick for Advertisers. It also assures everyone that Invite won’t be a Google-exclusive service. (AllThingsD)

Social Networking Apps are Very Popular

According to the latest figures from comScore, social networking applications were accessed by 14.5 million users in the U.S. in April, up 240 percent from the same month last year. Smart-phone users lead the way, as browser and application usage both more than doubled during the past year. (comScore)

Social Networking’s Importance for Lead Generation

Social media was the top emerging channel for lead generation for 74 percent of U.S. technology marketers in May, according to Unisfair. A R2integrated survey also found that 61 percent of U.S. marketing professionals use social media strategies for increasing lead generation. (eMarketer)

Making the Most of Web Content

Here are some typical, yet unappreciated, ways to make sure that your Web content is doing the most for you and your users. Suggestions are broken down by four content categories: 1) articles, guides and static information pages; 2) images; 3) video assets; and 4) blogs. General essentials are also included. (Econsultancy)

Disney Selling ‘Toy Story 3’ Tickets on Facebook

Disney is selling advance tickets for “Toy Story 3” on Facebook via an app created by Disney. The app enables users to purchase tickets in groups, generate an event and publish it in news feeds. This isn’t the first time tickets have been sold by way of Facebook. Facebook doesn’t get a cut of this money. (Inside Facebook)

Facebook Draws More Advertisers

Facebook says that it now has more than four times as many advertisers as they did at the beginning of 2009. (BusinessWeek)

Google Chrome OS Coming in Q4

Google Chrome OS is set to be unveiled in the fourth quarter of this year. This report comes on the heels of reports that the search giant is eschewing Microsoft Windows. (ReadWriteWeb)