SOURCE SMH: Google Chrome last week unseated Apple Safari for the first time as the third most used internet browser in the United States, according to new figures.”This is quite a coup for Google as they have gone from zero to almost 10 per cent of the US market in under two years,” StatCounter chief executive Aodhan Cullen said. Globally, Chrome remained in a solid third place with 9.44 per cent of the browser market and slowly closing the gaps with second-place Firefox, which had slightly more than 31 per cent, and IE with 52.78 per cent….READ MORE

The Internet Marketing Training is held approximately every 3 months. For more information Inquire Now.

SOURCE NYTimes: Nielsen published statistics on Tuesday saying that people spend one in every four and a half minutes of their online time on a social network or blog. In the aggregate, Web users spend a total of 110 billion minutes on social Web sites and blogs each month.

The study says that this is the first time social networks or blogs are “visited by three-quarters of global consumers who go online.” This number has also increased 24 percent since the same time last year. In addition, Web users spent almost six hours during the month of April on social sites, versus 3 hours, 30 minutes during April of last year.

The most popular social brands online are Facebook and YouTube. In Brazil, the list includes Orkut, a social networking site owned by Google.

Last week, comScore reported that Web users were watching 13 billion videos on YouTube a month. Facebook also said that its users were watching 2 billion videos each month.

According to the Nielsen report, Facebook managed to steal the show in terms of global time spent online. Its nearly half a billion users spend six hours a month there. Facebook also proved to be the most popular social site in Italy. Two-thirds of Italian Web users visit the site each month….READ WHOLE ATRICLE

The Internet Marketing Bootcamp held in Sydney provides a wealth of information on Digital Marketing topics from social media to Google Analytics and how to optimize your business website. Inquire Now  for more information on the BootCamp.

SOURCE SMH: YouTube users can now edit their own videos online without the need for third-party desktop video editing software. The Google-owned video-sharing site added an online editing tool this week that allows YouTube users to combine multiple videos, shorten a video or add soundtracks from songs in the AudioSwap library. Newly created videos can then be published to YouTube directly from the editing site…READ MORE

With nearly 100,000 unique viewers in the United States (SOURCE Neilson Net Ratings April 2010), You Tube pulls together one of the web’s largest audiences. To fine out how and why would you could utilise this medium to communicate your product/service ask about Internet Training Courses in Sydney. Find out more

SOURCE SMH: Austria’s national library has struck a 30-million-euro deal with Google to digitise 400,000 copyright-free books, a vast collection spanning 400 years of European history.

Johanna Rachinger, the head of the ONB library, hailed what she called an “important step,” arguing at a news conference that “there are few projects on such a scale elsewhere in Europe.”

The Austrian library project concerns one of the world’s five biggest collections of 16th- to 19th-century literature, totalling some 120 million pages, the ONB said in a statement.

Under the deal, Google will cover the costs of digitising the collection — set at around 50 to 100 euros (60 to 120 US dollars) per book — a sum the library says it was unable to raise without external funding. READ WHOLE ARTICLE

Google have digitalised approx 12 million books so far and won’t be stopping there. They have similar deals with Rome and Florence universities so whilst you have willing participants who benefit from the digitalising of the books and are handing them over,  there’s no stopping Google. The Digital Internet Marketing Course in Sydney addresses the issues of copywrite and digital mediums for advertising but also what technology should companies be tapping into. For more information inquire now.

SOURCE THE AGE: Conroy played on the trust issue earlier this week when he attacked Facebook in Parliament. ”What would you prefer? A corporate giant who is answerable to no one, and motivated solely by profit, making the rules on the internet, or a democratically elected government with all the checks and balances in place?”
The senator also attacked the site over its origins: Zuckerberg created the proto-Facebook site Facemash in October 2003 when he hacked into the Harvard University database and posted student photos online in pairs, inviting friends to vote for the more attractive of the two.
”For Stephen Conroy to denigrate Facebook because of its origins is like hammering BMW for having made bombers for the Nazis, when in fact these days they make a pretty reasonable car,” says Sydney-based digital marketing consultant Paul Dodson. ”Senator Conroy seems to want to restrict Facebook, but we shouldn’t restrict it. We should let other people come in and do a better job. Eventually Facebook will die, and so will Twitter and others, as a better business model comes along.”
Facebook must have imagined it had developed that business model itself when it announced Connections last month. This new application allows users to link to other users in virtual communities of interest simply by clicking on the ever-present ”like” button. But it also turns those communities into target markets for external parties. Crucially, it allows that linking to happen without users’ knowledge, and even when users ”like” something on a site outside Facebook…..READ WHOLE ARTICLE
There are those who are OK with giving up some privacy rights to share information as long as it is being put to good use and can ultimately benefit society? A hard one to decipher though – OK for government to have it but not McDonalds? It’s a work in progress and will eventually be sorted out probably forced by competition but in the meantime you can’t say it’s not interesting to watch Zuckerberg challenge the law and cause fury at the top level.

For more information the Internet Marketing Institute and DMI Consult services Inquire here

The magic never happens without understanding how to ’smell nice for Google’. Google WebMaster for example has a ‘Diagnostic Tool’ that offers many functions, one of which is ‘content analysis’. When building or updating your website, you have to insert things called ‘meta descriptions’. These are basically flags that tell Google what your site offers or stands for. A meta description appears under the link on the Google search results and describes what your website is, does, offers etc.

They are critical and generally have to be less than 70 characters in length (including spaces) or Google simply will not pick it up. It’s bummer if you have spent $40,000 on building a website only to discover that Google does not like the way you display your site and therefore does not rank it. We are amazed by the amount of ‘web agencies’ (large and small) who don’t understand these basic principals. This is one of many potential flaws that WebMaster will highlight for you. Webmaster also identifies external links that ‘link in’ to your site. Its a good idea to check that someone who promised to link to your website actually did what they said they would.

Once you have built a great site, you want Google to know about your site pages. A good starting point is to list your pages with WebMaster. This lets Google know all about your brand new site. Is your current Digital Marketing Agency doing all this for you now ?

Building a nice looking web site is great, assuming that your customers find you online. Remember that Google is blind to pretty pictures, nice music and bright colours. Google only hears what you tell it and what your customers tell it by clicking (or not) on your site. As far as Google is concerned, a pretty design means nothing. WebMaster will help you to speak to Google using a language that Google understands.

Now you know how to make your site easier for Google to find, you need to make your web pages more accessible. Images, Movies, Music or Flash make it harder for Google to understand your site. There are a number of things that you can do to ensure that Google can read your site pages and therefore secure a higher ranking. Inquire about the next stage of having a successful web presence

Paul Dodson
DMI Consult
Digital | Marketing | Integration
(02) 8003 7121

Firstly, some basics…a microsite operates as an auxiliary to your primary website, like a second tier and is used to promote and/or provide information on a specific product/service. Micro sites are often product specific OR customer segment specific. If you are marketing a pharmaceutical in (say) the rheumatology area, you might have several specialist customers and several consumer types (patients). By building a number of micro sites for each sub catehory, you can focus your message but more importantly you make it easier for Google to rank you. In Googles eyes if you stand for everything… you actually stand for nothing. This is a common mistake made my marketers, they try and cram too many keywords into a single site or page.

Microsites can have their own domain name or they can be seen to be an extension of the Primary website (sub domain).  The choice here depends on the purpose of the site. Do you want the site to have its own identity and therefore a name separate to the primary site? Or do you want to maintain an association with the parent website and its brand. For example the microsite may be about a hard sell e.g. Toyota promoting one of their latest cars and they require a site that is consistent with their offline campaign and a departure from their corporate brand and image. On the other hand you may be aiming for a softer sell, by way of educating the consumer and subtlety promoting a service or product therefore brand may be important.  Either way the choice won’t come down to dollars as the cost for a domain name is nominal and there is no charge for a sub domain.

So, how can they be effective for a business? When using direct marketing, the microsite domain name is referenced sending the user directly to the specific subject you know they are interested in. The consumer bypasses the primary site and has an efficient, personalised and focused experience.

Because microsites are about a specific subject they have the potential for rich editorial content. You know the person visiting the microsite is interested in this subject so why not provide them with dynamic editorial and video content to ensure they have a positive user experience and come back for more.

This dynamic and key-word rich content also makes the microsite a valuable tool for SEO purposes. When someone searches using the key words contained in the microsite there’s a good chance of the site being delivered in the top search results. This is a good reason to include contextual advertising in microsites as a component of the overall SEO strategy for the Primary website.

Because of the comparatively smaller scope of microsites they are less costly than websites and if required multiple versions can be produced. For example if you want a microsite for every product/service in your business they can be recreated using templates. A unique look and feel can be achieved by using different images, colour scheme, fonts and content. The unique Domain Name is then used in offline marketing campaigns for that product/service and directs relevant users straight to the microsite.

The key when considering a microsite for your web solution is to be clear about its objectives. There are obvious advantages but if you build one and you’re fortunate enough to get someone to visit your microsite you want make sure they are captivated by highly focused, rich media and up to date information and that it’s relevant. Keeping your microsite alive and relevant is essential for its effectiveness. DMI Consult have extensive experience in generating online strategic campaigns around your specific product needs.

Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices on-demand, like the electricity grid.

The great thing about ‘Cloud Computing’ is that all you need is an internet connection. Typically cloud based applications do not require an infrastructure to house your information but instead you rent it through a third party provider and pay only for the resources you use, significantly reducing your infrastructure cost. Now there are many ‘network based’ companies out there screaming about security issues. Of course they are, their whole business model is under threat. If you are worried about buyoing or subscribing to a ‘cloud based’ application or system, remember that you have been logging on and doing your internet banking for the past 10 years.

Last month, we heard the group executive of enterprise services and CIO of the CBA Bank, Michael Harte, speak about the bank’s push to cloud computing and how it will help the bank reduce much of the 50-80 per cent of its in-house infrastructure spend. He is also reported as saying that the security and privacy concerns are “actually the most easily fixed”. The most telling insights about his resolve to push the bank into a cloud strategy came with these comments: “We’re saying that we will never buy another data centre. We will never buy another rack or server or storage device or network device again” and also: “I will never implement an internal solution for a common problem that I could procure on subscription across the Web.”

With this speech Harte confirmed that cloud computing is well and truly here to stay and, once the reports start circulating of organisations realising significant savings, cloud computing will become well and truly entrenched as a common model… source

Businesses are understandably treading with caution when it comes to cloud computing, sure the cost savings are very attractive but many companies worry about holding customer information, employee information or both on a 3rd party network. In our experience many large organisations are carefully but increasingly moving in this direction. In fact, when youa re talking about a 50 to 80% saving on infrastructure costs…. solutions are found !

A key advantage of cloud computing is that the upfront savings on infrastructure are significant.

Creating confidence in cloud computing and having user trust and engagement is a challenge because many of us started work in the ‘off line’ world. Many businesses are testing the waters and opting for a hybrid model.

SOURCE SMH: ”Whether you were an aspiring filmmaker, a politician, a proud parent, or someone who just wanted to connect with something bigger, YouTube became the place where you could broadcast yourself,” the team said.

Renowned figures such as Vint Cerf, often referred to as the father of the internet, and television news anchor Katie Couric have been enlisted to curate playlists of videos in their areas of expertise.

In the scant time since the first video was uploaded to YouTube on April 23, 2005, the website has rocketed to global stardom and become a key player in a shift to internet television.

“YouTube has the potential to be a very instrumental part of Google’s future TV plan,” said Gartner technology analyst Allen Weiner…….READ MORE

Unlike traditional marketing campaigns, the use of digital platforms can give the campaign longevity.  For more information about Internet Marketing Training Inquire Now

SOURCE NYTimes:  One answer is in a new program at the University of Colorado, Boulder, called Boulder Digital Works, where Ms. Egan is a board member.

The university had had a strong undergraduate program in advertising, and it is one of the top majors, said David Slayden, executive director of Boulder Digital Works. When he thought about creating a graduate program, though, he wanted to take a technology-focused approach. ….READ MORE

The Internet Marketing Institute based in Sydney provides a 3 day boot camp. Inquire Now for more information.