MarCom Professional

More people than ever before are spending part of their day searching online. The latest research from the Pew Internet group has revealed that apart from email, it's the most common thing we do online. Almost half of all people who go online each day engage in search.

At first sight this might sound like it's great news for Google. But it isn't - look inside the report of this study and you discover that the reason for the dramatic increase in search is not taking place in search engines. Instead we are using a variety of other search tools, such as site-specific search or search within social networking sites. More...

Researchers at McKinsey, the business analysts, have discovered that the initial enthusiasm there was for "Web 2.0" is now waning. In fact, far fewer businesses have taken up things like blogging and social networking than was predicted.

As you can see from McKinsey's own graph (above) on average only around a third of all businesses have actually engaged in any form of Web 2.0. Hardly a resounding ring of support for these new technologies is it?

Yet blogging, for instance, has been with us for more than 10 years - it's hardly new in the Internet world. Social networks also began 10 years ago - Ecademy, for instance, was one of the first online social networks and that was formed more than 10 years ago now. More...

How often do you check your email? When you install email software, such as Microsoft Outlook, it is set up to automatically check for new messages every 10 minutes. Few people change the default settings, so most people get used to emails popping into their inbox regularly throughout the day. It becomes the norm to keep on seeing that inbox grow.

But wait a mo....! When you didn't have email, did you check your postbox every 10 minutes for physical mail? Or did once, or perhaps twice a day, do?

A new study by AOL has revealed we are becoming ever more addicted to email. According to the research, almost half (46%) admit to being hooked on email. More...

Sometimes data comes along and you just have to go - "oh my goodness, how daft is that?". Well, new research from search engine marketing specialists, iProspect, shows that the vast majority of online marketers appear to have forgotten there is a real world out there. That's because this study shows that the majority of people responsible for marketing their businesses online tend to ignore offline marketing.

Say that again? That's right, the study shows that online businesses are largely ignoring the offline marketing they could be doing. Even more surprising is that a quarter of online companies say they don't integrate their search engine marketing with their offline marketing because they are not doing any offline marketing whatsoever. More...

A couple of years back, there was much talk about the increased use of online video, thanks to the launch of YouTube. Then along came video on the iPod and the BBC launched its iPlayer. The online video revolution, we were told, was upon us; soon, we were "reliably" informed by all those gurus, that we'd stop watching the TV and that the Internet was going to be the place where we would watch video. Some even predicted the end of broadcasting.

Well, unless I'm in some parallel universe, broadcasters are doing OK; true they might be down in advertising revenue, but on the whole, viewing figures are holding up. More...

Before the Internet came along there were two main ways of finding suitable suppliers for things we wanted to buy. If we knew we wanted something but didn't know who to get it from, the first thing we used to do was ask a friend or colleague. And if they couldn't come up with the answer we had to thumb our way through Yellow Pages.

Then, the Internet arrived and we had a "third person" we could ask. Gradually, web sites replaced the Yellow Pages. Indeed, each year now we get two copies of Yellow Pages delivered (because we have two phone lines) and both of them sit in a corner gathering dust. More...

Today sees the launch of a brand new search engine, Cuil - and it's an important development in the world of search. For a start it has been developed by a former Google engineers, plus it has a unique way of delivering results.

As you can see from the screen shot, the design is much clearer than Google - plus because it is multicolumn it makes it easier to read, especially online. But, here's the clever bit - look at the top of the screen shot. I've done a broad search for Internet Marketing, but it has automatically produced tabs for related, more in depth searches (such as Internet Marketing Strategy and Internet Marketing Services). More...

Social networkers who form groups, clubs and the like, often worry that they are not getting enough participation. They point to the fact that even though many people may have registered, few take part. Indeed, there are social networking clubs and forums dedicated to helping club owners increase their participant rate..!

However, new research suggests that the "lurkers" (the people who just read the group, but don't contribute) may actually be getting something out of it. So  that means you group will have influence - even if only a handful of people actively contrbute. More...

Exposing your knowledge online is a principal way of doing business these days. The reason is that potential customers want to see what you are about; they want to experience you. In the past, they had to arrange a meeting with you - then you had to follow-up and it all took a long time. Now, people can come much more prepared to those meetings with you if you have a significant online presence, which has shown them what you already know.

Businesses use a variety of ways of exposing their knowledge online. They use newsletters, email campaigns, blogs, social networking and online forums. Wikipedia is also a useful way of showing off your knowledge and now, Google has launched what many see as a competitor to this leading online encyclopaedia. More...

Internet marketers sometimes astound me. They seem to think the world starts and ends with Google. Everything they talk about is how to get to Number One on Google, or how to maximise your pay per click listings in Google AdWords, or the latest "buzz" on Page Rank.

This is the kind of attitude that will inevitably lead to tears. In fact, it actually means these so called entrepreneurs are actually working for Google. Far from being independent they are totally and wholly dependent upon Google. The search engine only needs to change one element of its business and those Internet marketers are sunk. More...