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Google will pay cash to acquire Motorola Mobility for a total of about $12.5 billion dollars. This bold move intends to drive innovation for the Android Platform, an open source environment for mobile and online, and most importantly it aims to fill the gap left by the nearly obsolete cable entertainment services. The acquisition plans to build new and innovative programs and devices for the home market to create a seamless experience to engage users in creative ways and bring about a conversion between home and mobile devices.

Android started 6 years ago through the vision of Andy Rubin, Senior Vice President of Mobile at Google, to align standards across the internet and mobile under a single Open Source platform: Android. According to Larry Page, "since November 2007, more than 150 Million Android devices have been activated worldwide through a network of 39 manufacturers 231 carriers in 123 countries. 550,000 [new] devices are lit up [activated] every day."

Twitter began allowing access to the redesigned front end today and will roll-out the new homepage to its millions of users in the next coming months. Here is the video provided during the conference.

One of the biggest questions companies ask themselves before investing in online social marketing revolves around the challenge of evaluating the return on investment (ROI). In general companies have few benchmarks as compared with traditional media to measure the success of these campaigns.

Nevertheless, it is possible to quantify them. Starbucks got one million clients in only one day thanks to a campaign launched in social circles. Read the complete engagement study in PDF here.

Recently, a new study (PDF) was published by Syncapse whose objective was to evaluate the commercial impact of clicking on the Facebook "Like" button. The conclusion is that on average those users that are fans of a company in the most popular social network spend an additional $71.84 on products for which they are fans compared to those who are not fans.

As location becomes more and more relevant for users, businesses and advertisers, I am picking up a thread here from Carlo Longino/MobHappy.com and Matt Silk/Mobile Demystified that sheds light on the subject of location via SMS, still the most ubiquitous way to reach consumers on a mobile phone.

On the value to consumers of location-based ads

Marketers are expanding their focus to include more ways to digitally and directly reach consumers, so their vendors must follow suit. It’s just smart business.

Nearly every major email service provider has announced social media integration plans in one form or another, and most have selected a mobile partner or are building messaging into their platforms.

In general, and in particular for direct marketers, mobile continues to represent tremendous opportunity. As we’ve seen with these acquisitions, the appetite for social and digital media technologies is growing.

We regularly make the point that marketers should have a multichannel strategy – one that includes email, online, mobile and social media. The more opportunities you have to reach a customer, the more opportunities you have to engage with them.

Apple’s iPad hasn’t saved publishing just yet, with Conde Naste revealing just 365 sales of its iPad-edition of GQ, while fresh research claims the average iPhone app sells 101,024 copies. [Via 9to5 Mac]

By Emilio Castellanos

We are entering times where mobile geolocation will change our concept of privacy. Whether we embrace it or become afraid of it and how it is regulated greatly depends on how we choose to use it or abuse it.

Privacy has become more elusive since the internet era. Personal information posted online on social sites along with information collected through webcam services, street cameras, records stored by financial companies, etc., is all susceptible to be intercepted by 3rd parties.

However privacy issues become even more critical when we consider the mobile device: it contains a chip which constantly broadcasts your whereabouts. This locator has been monitored by government agencies since 2005 (FCC's E911) and is now standard on all new mobile phone models. Some devices will emit a signal even while turned off.

From MC Marketing Charts, Read original article here

More than 70% of US print publishers in a recent survey say that mobile is receiving more attention at their publication this year than last, though only about one-third believe they have a well-developed plan for attacking and conquering the mobile market, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), which conducted the research.

The study, “Going Mobile: How Publishers Are Preparing for the Burgeoning Digital Market,” (pdf) found that most publishers are already focusing on the mobile market or planning to do so soon in an attempt to expand their brands, reach new audiences and generate additional revenue.

By Jordan Crook, Mobile Marketer

NEW YORK -- Despite the overall decline in marketing budgets nationwide, companies are allocating their marketing dollars to mobile.

This was the topic of conversation at the Mobile Marketing Association's Mobile Marketing Forum in the Grand Hyatt Hotel where Peter Johnson, vice president of market intelligence and strategy, MMA, led a panel discussion titled "Marketing Industry Research: 2009." "Our main purpose is to create a model of who we are as an industry so when we make decisions we can tell clients, ‘if you do this or that, I know what will make a difference for you and consumers," Mr. Johnson said.

Google recently released Fast Flip - http://fastflip.googlelabs.com/: a categorized collection of screenshots from print and online that allegedly allows "faster" news browsing. It is a promising experiment. Google now needs to include more publishers and level the playing field to showcase quality content. Once there are enough players users should be able to customize views, topics and sources.

Basic features include a "magazine style rack" homepage layout that lets users browse "as quickly as flipping through a magazine"; top stories and topic tabs generated by most read, most emailed and most popular partner attributes; voting and recommending to friends; personalization of relevant topics with your Google account login; and available apps for iPhone and Android.

By Clay Dillow, from Fast Company
Read the full article: click here

By Adam Broitman
Read the full article here

So much can change in a year. We have a new president, I have a new company, and the notion that a brand's main digital presence is its website is just about dead.

One year ago, I penned an article for iMedia Connection called "Learn to syndicate your brand identity." (In terms of marketing innovation, it feels like five years ago.) In this article, I explored the notion of the distributed web, which I defined as "a consistent brand presence across various social channels." I received a lot of inquiries about the article, as the concept was still new to many marketing executives. Upon reexamination of this article, my mind travelled back in time. Not too long ago, Barack Obama's presidential campaign schooled marketers about integrated marketing in the 21st century -- and the marketing world will never be the same.

Expect significant growth in this sector, eMarketer says - Published July 2, 2009 on AdWeek

NEW YORK.- The U.S. Hispanic Internet population is young, vibrant and growing -- in numbers, broadband connections and time spent online.

In 2009, there are nearly 23 million Hispanics online, about 51 percent of the U.S. Hispanic population, according to eMarketer estimates. Hispanics make up about 12.3 percent of the U.S. Internet population in 2009, and will increase to 13.9 percent in 2013.

Like its offline counterpart, this group of Internet users is young -- 63 percent are under age 35 -- and mobile. Some 81 percent of Hispanics own a mobile phone, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, and for 25 percent of these adults, their mobile device is their primary phone. Hispanics use more phone features, including Internet access, at higher rates than other mobile subscribers.

New Mintel report shows online Hispanics adopting new Internet technologies fastest

March 25, 2009

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As Internet technology spins ahead, US Hispanics are clamoring to stay on top of the latest and greatest in online communication. A new report from market research firm Mintel shows that online Hispanic adults are quickly surpassing other demographic groups in acquiring new online communication skills.

Date: June 25, 2008 9:56:09 PM EDT
Source: VentureBeat (http://venturebeat.com/2008/06/25/hispanic-mobile-media-and-advertising-...)
Author: Jake Swearingen

For companies looking to make a move into mobile advertising, it might be good to a get a few bilingual Spanish speakers on staff. While money has already been following Hispanics online for a while, with Hispanic consumer spending expected to top $1 trillion by 2010, and use of mobile phones exploding within the Hispanic market, expect more and more mobile marketing targeted at Hispanics in the coming months [...]

The world wide web might be living an evolutionary leap with these bridging applications

What is a widget, really?

The web is becoming a widget. You heard it: “build us widgets!” should be the cry to battle of any web savvy organizations. But what exactly is a widget? What is their intrinsic purpose? How can they be monetized? Turns out that what started out as an exercise in coding, might well take over and transform the world as we know it. It already has.

Perhaps coined from the word used to describe a mechanical contraption or a ‘gadget’, when widgets sprung up, someone was smart enough to baptize them with a generic name: in essence, widgets are compact and modular interactive programs similar to web applications, or short snippets of code, that are used to produce a desired result, whatever this might be. They can do anything. Typically, for a program of this sort to be called a widget it needs to live outside of its original environment, thus it could even be called a third party application.