I found this great illustration on Mashable on the statistics of internet users in 2009. The focus is on exactly who uses the Internet, and how often. It breaks things down by gender, age, income level, and nationality. It even serves up average broadband speeds for both landline and mobile users at the bottom. Some of this stuff surprised us a bit — For example, desktop computers are still much more common than laptops. You wouldn’t guess that in day-to-day life in the developed world — at least not when it comes to personal use. Here are some of the points we thought were interesting: There’s no gender bias when it comes to the Internet; 74% of men use it, and so do 74% of women. The older people are, the less likely they are to use the Internet. 93% of people ages 18-29 use it, but only 38% of people 65+ do. 65 is where the big drop off – Read the full article
We have many great new features and functions planned for 2009. Stay tuned for more updates along the way, but here is a sneak peak of things to come: Search & Internet Marketing , SEO & SEM Workshops in Chicago (http://www.lakeshorebranding.com/classes/) Videos (http://www.vimeo.com/lsb) & (http://www.youtube.com/lakeshorebranding) Online tools for small business marketing Many more articles and tutorials
In the last fifteen years the Internet has gone from a platform for businesses and students to use in the workplace, to a tool found in every household and referred to daily for leisure, information and shopping. Because of the astronomical rise in the popularity of the net brands, large companies have had to adapt their products and services accordingly. Some, such as supermarket chain Tesco have been very successful and secured their rightful place in the World Wide Web. Some however have not and here we look at the companies which have failed miserably in their Internet rebranding. The Times The Times newspaper was and still is one of the most popular broadsheet newspapers around. It has been established for over two hundred years when it was first known as The Daily Universal Register. Since then it has been at the forefront of newsprint and considered a source of authority in the UK. However, in the last few – Read the full article
Quirky, peculiar and sometimes downright outrageous, soft drink advertisements have often courted controversy due to a trend towards off-the- wall campaigns. Shock tactics and unconventional subject matter are all part and parcel of reeling in the much-sought-after youth market. We take a closer look at some of the weird and wonderful soft drink TV ads that have brightened up our screens over the years, including the good, the bad, and the out-and-out freakish. Tango Tomfoolery Tango Advert – Scotsman (1994)Video Credit Ever since the Nineties, Tango ads have been characterised by their deliberate wackiness. The whimsy originated from the first ‘You Know When You’ve Been Tango’d’ ad, which showed a Tango-drinker being slapped around the face by a little round orange man, accompanied by a mock-commentary from pseudo sports-pundits. The ad came up against complaints due to an unfortunate playground copycat craze, so the ad was altered to replace the contentious slap with an extravagant kiss. Over time, the ads – Read the full article
Small businesses have a daunting task as they compete with larger companies that boast more resources and staff. How can a small business compete for a share of the search engine market with so much stacked against them? Here are some tips on creating an SEO strategy for your small business: Learn from the Competition Promodo’s SEO specialist Anna Moseva suggests starting your small business SEO strategy with a thorough analysis of the competition. You’re probably familiar with piecing together keywords on Google in order to figure out what people are searching for and what’s already out there by way of content, but Moseva advises that you take the top 20 results in Google and analyze their Alexa Rank with the SEO Quake plugin for Firefox. Once you know the top sites among your competition, you can analyze the kind of traffic they generate and which keywords and adwords are linked to their sites at SEM Rush. This technique will – Read the full article
Internet domain registrar, Web hosting company, and SSL Security Certificates provider GoDaddy has been sold to a consortium of private equity firms in a deal reportedly worth $2.25 billion. The company, which grew by 25 percent to $947 million from 2009 to 2010, and which has been expecting 2011 revenues to hit $1.1 billion after managing more than 48 million domain names and 9.3 million customers, will now enter into a strategic partnership with venture capitalists KKR & Co., Technology Crossover Ventures, and Silver Lake Partners. GoDaddy follows in the footsteps of Groupon, Zynga, and Skype as the latest in Silver Lake Partners’ series of technology investments. “I’ve always said we would make a move like this when the right deal with the right partners could help us do the right thing for our customers and our employees,” said Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons in a press release. “This is it! We are partnering with KKR, Silver Lake and TCV – Read the full article
A few days ago we talked about how important local search / SEO has become – and what you can do to enhance your local search performance and Internet marketing efforts. Well, as we conducted our research for that story, we stumbled upon a number of neat local search engine optimization tools. And, knowing how much readers love lists (our competitive intelligence tools post is one definitely worth checking out), we made another one – this time, to help you in your search for tools that are designed to give you an edge over local competitors. Enjoy! Local Search Toolkit This is one of our favorite local SEO tools right now. The invention of seOverflow’s Mike Belasco and Mary Bowling, the Local Search Toolkit features a Google Places Results Analyzer which generates competitive analysis and data from search results in Google Places. With the Local Search Toolkit, you can download, analyze, and review citation sources – and sort seamlessly through – Read the full article
If many who were expecting a blockbuster acquisition in the tech industry were disappointed with the recent Google-Groupon deal that never happened, well – a bigger deal just came through – to the tune of $8.5 billion in cash. In a definitive agreement announced Tuesday, software giant Microsoft Corporation has acquired Luxembourg-based Internet phone service and communications company Skype. The investor group, Silver Lake, which bought Skype from eBay in 2009, oversaw the transaction. The deal represents one of the highest-valued acquisitions in years, and is expected by both companies to soon increase market opportunity as well as benefit individual consumers and businesses. It will, in particular, integrate the Skype platform and connect its 170-plus million users to a portfolio of Microsoft products, including Lync, Outlook, Xbox LIVE, and Kinect. “Microsoft and Skype share the vision of bringing software innovation and products to our customers,” said Skype CEO Tony Bates, who will now become the president of the new Microsoft – Read the full article
