I've been hearing the phrase "Drinking from the fire hose" more often than usual lately. The curious thing is that it's coming from Interactive Media Professionals (including myself), as much as from end users. With the exponential growth of the Internet and its related technologies, we now have access to more information, in more places, in more ways than ever before. Web 2.0, Social Media, Application Software Development, Mobile and related technologies are having a profound impact on Interactive Marketing Strategies. Many agencies are capable at traditional & online media marketing, or they may have strong technical capabilities--but, it is rare to find an agency that has all of these abilities and deep technical resources such as Definition 6.

To follow the fire hose analogy--anyone faced with that situation would get out of the way. The high volume and velocity of incoming data require some type of control and direction to be useful to ourselves, our clients, and our business.  Developers, interactive designers, and marketers are faced with the same questions as consumers--how to manage the onslaught of incoming information. Interactive Ad Agencies are faced with the additional responsibility of creating new tools to distribute information in a clear and meaningful way. These interactive professionals are the firemen holding the hose. 

At the height of the dotcom boom, an old colleague used to remind me that technology is simply a way of doing things. As the old broadcast model of advertising becomes obsolete, and user discovery & social interaction drive engagement, the function of marketing itself must now change to meet these communication challenges. This new model now poses new questions about where marketers should be, how they communicate, and when that interaction will occur.  I still remember the first  7-Eleven convenience store that opened in my neighborhood, and discovering that name comes from its operating hours—--it was a big deal to be open until 11PM! Marketers didn’t create more ads to attract customers from 9-5, they simply changed to meet customers on their own terms.

Integrated interactive marketing campaigns must be open and immersed in the culture to create value and be relevant. Successful marketers are positioned alongside their target market, making use of tactics such as Branded Content and Branded Entertainment to engage the user, enabling them to discover that value on their own, and decide what truly fulfills their needs. This is not an easy task, and creating meaningful user interaction grows out of qualified analysis of users and their interactions. Those of us in Media and Advertising have been exposed to these ideas before, but never before have these been more important to interactive design. Today's consumer has become a partner in the design process, and defines how we approach our interactions with them. Social media tools such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter provide marketers with a limitless cache of information to help segment, target and engage users as never before— which only highlights the need for efficient processing of data.

Our obligation to clients is to find the relevant information, manage and organize it, and disperse it to potential customers.  To do this, we interpret client requirements and translate those requirements into a meaningful Interactive Experience. We need to collect and analyze enough user data to create strong, branded messages that reach the intended target. In addition, we must combine data with the tools and applications that make it meaningful to those target consumers.

In this new age of discovery, the true Integrated Interactive Agencies are taking the time and effort to find the tools necessary to do the job, or when needed, create them. With information coming constantly from every direction, those who are efficient at organizing, managing, and presenting it will be successful. Otherwise, we're just spraying a fire hose.  If we attempt to do that, consumers will just get out of the way.

In recent years it seems as if E-Mail marketing has fallen by the wayside in light of emerging technologies and trends. Time and time again statistics have supported the profitability and legitimacy of E-Mail marketing, so it’s important to take a step back and see how E-Mail marketing is or more importantly isn’t, affecting your company.
Here are three questions to ask yourself or your marketing team in order to answer the bottom line; do we need to invest or reinvest in E-Mail marketing?

1) Have you forgotten about the basics?

In this new Web 2.0 world marketers are constantly scrambling to keep up with the latest trends, throwing money at anything deemed “cool,” “trendy,” or “popular.” At first glance new social outlets and advertising mediums may seem appealing, but sites such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace have short track records in terms of performance and viewership capabilities. These mediums aren’t poor investments by any means, but more often than not companies are blinded by the popularity of new social sites and forget about the basics of interactive marketing; E-Mail marketing. 
In one Forrester survey E-Mail more than 80% of businesses surveys achieved a significant return on investment - double that of most other marketing initiatives. I highly doubt any current social media site can boast 80% ROI satisfaction for use of their advertising and marketing platforms.

There’s a reason social media and Web 2.0 technology is called the “frontier” of internet exploration; IT’S UNKNOWN TERRITORY. If you’re hoping to catch the wave early and become one of the first settlers on the new frontier, be prepared to sacrifice quite a bit of blood, sweat, and treasure. A word of warning though for those looking to brave these mysterious, ever-changing virtual landscapes;  by the time you and other businesses jump on the bandwagon, the consumer has most likely started getting off to ride the new model bandwagon – the one that has three axels instead of two.

BOTTOM LINE: Like my great grand pappy use to say, sometimes the best things in life are the simplest things; E-Mail marketing may not be as flashy as a MySpace page, but 9/10 it will dole out a much larger reward upon investment.

2) Are you putting your data to good use?

For those already utilizing E-Mail marketing it’s important to take a step back and review your E-Mail marketing process. Do you simply click “send” every two weeks to blast your newsletter or promotion? One of the foremost reasons E-Mail campaigns fail or plateau revolve around the marketers lack of interaction, understanding, diligence, or experience analyzing and applying the data generated by their E-Mail campaign.  E-Mail is light years ahead of almost every other advertising medium in terms of accountability and tracking, the question is whether you’re leveraging this unique capability or not. With the ability to instantly review the results of your efforts, it’s important to analyze the outcome through multiple lenses rather than just a couple such as “E-Mails opened,” “conversions,” or “bounced rates.”

As a rule of thumb every time you receive the results of an E-Mail blast you should be changing at least ONE aspect of your next E-Mail strategy or design. It’s entirely possible to deploy E-Mail blasts without acknowledging the data and still receive a good response and return. As a marketer you need to apply the data you receive in order to run a GREAT campaign. Just because you’re running a “good” campaign with minimal effort doesn’t change the fact that in reality you’re really running a poor to mediocre campaign.
The most effective E-Mail marketing is an evolutionary process consisting of hours, and hours, and hours (and hours) of data compilation, review, and reform. If you or your marketing team takes performs no action other than clicking “send,” odds are you’re missing out on the true strength of E-Mail marketing; quick, intuitive, statistically supported campaign adaptation.  

BOTTOM LINE: We don’t live in a static world; neither should your E-Mail marketing.  

 3) Are you maximizing your dollar during the recession?

Marketing departments across the world have been laying off employees in droves. Even higher level management today is looking for any way possible to show their superiors that they add value to the company. What would your superiors say if they saw you could not only boost revenue but cut costs at the same time?
Marketing budgets have shrank, but thankfully E-Mail marketing prices have stayed relatively the same – cost efficient. Of all the advertising mediums both virtual and physical, E-Mail marketing is among the most cost effective with the privilege of being able to boast one of the highest ROI’s. A single print ad can cost thousands upon thousands after the cost of graphic design and ad-space. Instead of paying $10,000-$25,000+ for one month of magazine advertising, you can run a four month e-mail campaign which normally entails better audiences, conversion rates, and accountability. If you find the costs of traditional advertising to be exorbitant, it may be time to dust off the E-Mail marketing proposal and take another look.

BOTTOM LINE: As the great Benjamin Franklin once said, “A penny saved is a penny earned.”

So ask yourself:

1) Would it be beneficial to scale back on costly new-age technology investments in order to temporarily invest in more dependable marketing initiatives?

2) Would it be beneficial to engage in an E-Mail marketing discovery phase to see if you’ve truly been interacting with your campaigns and applying the data you find?

3) Would it be beneficial to divert your limited budget to more cost effective (and often times profitable) marketing venture such as E-Marketing?

 

Social Media Strategy is one of the most interesting things we do here at Definition 6, Atlanta Interactive Agency.  The rise of Web 2.0 Applications as commonplace within our daily lives has made Socail Media mainstream.  Sometimes we are asked how can we use social medai to improve search engine optimization and other times we are asked how can make social media fit into an integrated online marketing plan.  But it is a daily topic of conversation and I've found a really good report from destinationCRM.com that talks about a 5 year forecast for social media. The key points from the author, Jessica Tsai citing Jeremiah Owyang, are:

The report breaks down the past, present, and future state of the social Web into five overlapping eras:

1. The era of social relationships: Beginning in the mid-1990s, people signed up for online profiles and connected with their friends to share information.
2. The era of social functionality: As it exists today, social networking is more than just a platform for "friending," but one that can support a broader array of what Owyang calls "social interactive applications." However, identities are essentially disconnected silos within individual sites.
3. The era of social colonization: By late 2009, technologies such as OpenID and Facebook Connect will begin to break down the barriers of social networks and allow individuals to integrate their social connections as part of their online experience, blurring the lines between networks and traditional sites.
4. The era of social context: In 2010, sites will begin to recognize personal identities and social relationships to deliver customized online experiences. Social networks will become the "base of operation for everyone's online experiences."
5. The era of social commerce: In approximately two years, social networks will be more powerful than corporate Web sites and CRM systems, as individual identities and relationships are built on this platform. Brands will serve community interests and grow based on community advocacy as users continue to drive innovation in this direction.

So if we are doing a good job of being Interactive Marketing Strategists to help prepare our clients for the "era of social context" and upgrading our customer's sites to incorporate OpenID and Facebook Connect today. This will help them meet their customers where they are and with what they are doing online today.  I'll talk more about being ready for your customer in some future posts.

A client sent me two articles to react to about online advertising.  The title that I chose for this posting states my position:  I'm not sure why people think that advertising alone should support a website.

The first article is from The Economist and is entitled The demise of a popular but unsustainable business model for the Internet now seems inevitable.  This is one of the best articles I've read that explains the reality of Internet business models, whether realistic or not.  Read the entire article at www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13326158.

Great explanation of the dotcom crash…
Firms sprang up to offer content and services online, in the hope that they would eventually be able to “monetise” the resulting millions of “eyeballs” by selling advertising. Things did not work out that way, though, and the result was the dotcom crash.

…and of the Web 2.0 bubble…
Google’s ability to place small, targeted text advertisements next to Internet-search results, and on other websites, meant that many of the business models thought to have been killed by the dotcom bust now rose from the grave.

….and economical realities.
The idea that you can give things away online, and hope that advertising revenue will somehow materialize later on, undoubtedly appeals to users, who enjoy free services as a result.  Ultimately, though, every business needs revenues—and advertising is not going to provide enough.

The second article is a provocative one entitled Why Advertising Is Failing On The Internet and states that advertising cannot fully support the Internet.  Read it at www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/22/why-advertising-is-failing-on-the-internet/.

Websites need to sell real products, services, information or 'access' to information like TripAdvisor.com.  Or, offer an 'experience' like LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, or World of Warcraft.

It's true that most people don't trust ads, online or offline.  They don't 'want' them or 'need' them.  The Internet allows users to get information from a variety of sources and from sources they trust.

But, no company expecting to maintain market share in today's economic environment is going to say "Stop telling potential customers about us." 

Organic search, paid search and display banners can increase awareness and conversions even in today's climate.  Display banner advertising works because it reaches users where they are on the Internet.  You don't advertise just with your name on the building.  You advertise in high traffic areas, too.

How does Definition 6 ensure that online advertising succeeds for our clients?   First, we're big into collaborative strategy.  How can you differentiate yourself?  How can we build synergy with your other initiatives?  Who should you target with banners?  What should the messaging be?

Bottom line:  Appropriate targeting and messaging still works online.  We go beyond traditional banners; we use rich media to make the experience engaging and interactive.

Project Manager, Lisa Seals, shared a great case study with us that she found on the Marketing Professionals site.  The study talks about how the Days Inn chain uses mobile text marketing as opposed to mass email marketing and rich media advertising to communicate with guests, build loyalty, increase revenue and provide value-add services.  The article boasts text marketing as “customer service 2.0” for the hospitality industry.  Here are a few key items Lisa shared with our Client Services team…

1. Building the opt-in list.  The campaign began by generating awareness for the new texting program - front-desk associates ask guests at check-in whether they'd like to participate.  Special contests are set in place driving people to text (and opt-) in order to win a weekend getaway.  The program was promoted through elevator notices, keycard holders, and other key collateral.

2. Engaging the opt-ins.  The chain implemented a marketing plan of text messages which consisted of general promotions, hotel-specific promotions, and customized messages based on guests’ specific needs.

3. Lessons Learned.  The chain used a double opt-in program to attract only those guests who were truly interested – guests were reassured that their information would not be shared.  The time of day for messaging was considered for nationwide messages and messages were managed on frequency depending on a guest's length of stay.

Days Inn had a 22% increase in room upgrades and substantial increases in website traffic through their text marketing campaign.  There was even an increase in the use of hotel amenities with a 15-20% increase in reward program signups – not to mention the immeasurable increase in brand awareness.
 

In my role as CTO of a company that utilizes technology as part of everyday life not only in how we work but in what we build as solutions for our customers it is of constant interest and concern to me how people use technology and emerging technologies. But equally important is how people misuse technologies. As a heavy consumer of social media, social networking, communication and collaboration technologies I am intimately aware of the value these can provide. Time saving communication technologies that also let you expand your reach, do more with less, and be more effective are wonderful but only when used appropriately.

Particularly, as more and more of the masses of people who are not necessarily technically elite or savvy become daily consumers of this same technology we begin to see confusion about what technology is appropriate for what use, and a reciprocal amount of misuse or lack of understanding of appropriate etiquette in their use.

That’s all my really, really, really nice way of saying that a lot of non-tech people are using these amazingly powerful communication technologies and driving me and many others completely crazy. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled they are using them and that adoption is becoming so widespread. But many of these users jumped the adoption curve of predecessor technologies or aren’t aware of surrounding technologies and are thus left with no notion of how to use them properly or make discerning variances in how they use them. The results are creating scenarios that threaten to kill the use of the same technologies that can be so valuable to us. The digital highways are becoming littered with the early adopter corpses of people once enamored with micro-blogging and social networking who found themselves unable or unwilling to withstand the barrage of misuse. They have either abandoned use, retreated to more secretive and closed usage, or moved on to lesser known emergent technologies. And that’s a shame.

I’m going to address two main things in my upcoming rant: using the right communication technology for the right purpose, and good etiquette when using these technologies. I’m absolutely certain many will disagree with my assertions on both of these areas. That’s fine. We all have our perspectives. If you disagree, go write your own blog. This is mine.

I’ve noticed widespread use of one technology for a purpose another was intended to serve. Different communication technology is intended for different purposes and we need to be aware of this. Misuse leads to discontinued use. I’m sure we’ll eventually see some consolidation in the marketplace among vendors and tools leveraging capabilities of one platform and another into a combined format. But the ideas I’m talking about still apply. You need to take into account a number of principles in your communications before selecting a means and technology for that information dissemination: is it short form or long form, one-way or 2-way with dialogue, intended for the masses or reasonably private, one-to-one or one-to-many, synchronous or asynchronous, personal or business, welcomed as a constant or desired as occasional? All of these factors dictate how you should communicate your information and what medium you should use to communicate it.

To put it simply: I don’t want you to be my friend on Facebook if I just met you at a networking event or in a business meeting, that’s what LinkedIn is for. You are not my friend if we just met and I don’t care to see constant updates that you just enjoyed a great latte. And even if you are my friend I don’t need to see an update of every 5 minutes worth of a conversation you are having or a presentation you are listening to. I’m not saying you shouldn’t share it. I’m saying Facebook isn’t the right forum for it. Nor is text messaging or e-mail. But Twitter probably is right for that purpose. I could subscribe to your tweets and read them all day long if I wish. If you create more clutter in people’s lives which are already overloaded with digital information then you will become worse than noise and static, you become a negative force.

I recently opened up my Facebook page to see the same persons face staring at me 10+ times in a row. It was a series of updates on what they were doing, all centered around the same subject. I wanted to scream, “It is possible to comment on your own thread!”. It could’ve been a nicely condensed thread that people could expand if they wished. In this instance I suspect it was someone who’d tied Twitter to Facebook and didn’t even realize what kind of end experience they were inflicting on their friends and followers. Don’t get me wrong, the material was of interest and I’m ecstatic to see people engaged in sharing information so instantly and constantly. This kind of communication is making things extremely interesting. But consumers of these technologies need to really get to understand them from both their perspective as well as others. And unfortunately you simply can’t expect the providers of the technology to make everything 100% immune to improper use.

I don’t want to see a personal argument or discussion between people on a social media site. Do it in email or even better… call each other and talk! If you want to espouse your personal political, religious and social beliefs in long form then use a blog and tell people on MySpace and Facebook and Twitter to go visit it, keep your Status posts short and to the point. If you want me to know every web site you think is cool just let me visit your del.icio.us account. You can still post killer links in your various social networking forums, but if you find yourself posting a half dozen links a day I might suggest you are cluttering up a lot of people’s reading material who don’t necessarily care.

Text people when it’s important. Use email when it’s interpersonal, inter-team or intercompany and long form. Twitter to the masses. Facebook with your friends. LinkIn with your business connections to find out how far you are from Kevin Bacon and reach out when you need a job or need to reach that key client that you are just 2 degrees away from! Yammer to your business colleagues from atop the highest mountaintop from which you still get a signal!

And there is still something called a phone you can use to talk and avoid countless back-and-forths. You can still pull up a chat client like Skype and have a great textual conversation in real time. And you can still hop on a web meeting conference to work more collaboratively.

Now it’s one thing when an individual gets confused in this communication quagmire, there is a lot to take in and learn. I fully understand that my mother may have just heard from her friends about this new fangled Twitter thing and wants to know what her grandkids are up to so she can be a part of it and that some degree of misuse will occur in the valid purpose of moving to ubiquity. But what shocks me more is when I see companies failing to do their homework before embarking down the social media highway. These technologies can be tremendously powerful in helping drive sales and furthering your brand in the minds of consumers. There are great case studies on how companies effectively use social media and networking. But there are far more examples of those that do more damage than they do good. Use must be metered, highly targeted, and seen as useful and welcome by the receivers. Companies need to have more of a plan for their social media communications, just like they do for their websites, press releases, TV advertisements, and e-mail marketing campaigns. It’s a very different medium and you need to understand it well instead of playing ready-fire-aim. To do otherwise is to become noise, static, or much, much worse: an annoying nuisance who simply detracts from my effectiveness like that guy in Nigeria who keeps sending me e-mails so I can help him move his millions of dollars out of the country. Damn, I hate that guy.

Definition 6 Client Manager, Andy McCann on ‘what you need to know about Twitter if you’re a web strategist’…

There are endless possibilities and new opportunities to connect with online communities these days - one of which is through Twitter. So what’s all the twittering about?  And what is Twitter?  If you don’t understand the concept of how to use social networking web 2.0 applications to build brand awareness, engage your audience and allow them to become advocates of your brand then it can be difficult to even find a starting point.  Twitter provides just that – a starting point.

There is a great article on web-strategist.com that encompasses everything Twitter.  In the article, Jeremiah Owyang discusses the tool as an instant-messaging and communications platform.  He covers, from the ground up, how to get started and the basic fundamentals of Twittering.  I highly recommend this quick read if you’re responsible for the direction of your digital strategies.  Oh – and while you’re at, follow Atlanta Interactive Agency Definition 6 on Twitter!

Definition 6 Account Coordinator, Cecilia Barella, on the social media revolution...
 

Social Media Marketing and PR (as it relates to marketing your product or service) is a hot topic these days - and you'll often find a multitude of definitions on this subject.   Marketing Sherpa sums up Social Media Marketing and PR best in their recent Benchmark Guide. They define Social media marketing and PR as the "the practice of facilitating a dialogue and sharing content between companies, influencers, prospects and customers using various online platforms and social networks, video and photo sharing, wikis, forums and related web 2.0 technologies."  The article also seperates out the difference between social media and social media marketing and PR.

Here are a few other key points from the article that I think you'll find interesting...
 

• Social Media and Email are the only two tactics between online and offline marketing tactics in which more companies are planning to increase spending rather than decrease spending in 2009.
• Lack of knowledge is the most significant barrier to social media adoption -- even though people are familiar with social media, they do not know how to use it effectively for Marketing or PR
• More than 90% of companies believe that social media is most effective in achieving brand building goals, followed closely by goals of attracting website visitors.
   

Definition 6 Client Manager, Andy McCann, recently presented an article to our group on how more and more companies are utilizing SharePoint as their next Enterprise 2.0 platform.

Recognizing Sharepoint's dominance in the Enterprise 2.0 space, many other Web 2.0 companies are now beginning to release and develop Sharepoint Web Parts and features that allow for easy integration into the Sharepoint environment. Not surprisingly, Microsoft's ability to build a huge Sharepoint user base is building a platform for partners to grow upon. This will allow for an even richer experience for Sharepoint users which in turn should help drive even larger adoption of Sharepoint which in turn should grow the number of available tie-ins to Sharepoint.

Andy pulled out three key points from his findings:

1. For many companies, SharePoint is the portal for all their business data - and not just docs, spreadsheets, presentations, and PDFs, but also browser-based forms that interact with built-in workflow technologies which add business logic to sophisticated online applications.
2. Microsoft and several partners announced new social networking, RSS feeds and other Web 2.0 technologies that allow integration with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 so users can integrate internal company data with outward-facing applications like external customer and partner communities. Awareness Inc., NewsGator Technologies Inc. and WorkLight Inc., for example, are all announcing updated versions of their Enterprise 2.0 tools integrated with SharePoint. Microsoft will also announce nine partners that have released or will release Enterprise 2.0 tools integrated with SharePoint.
3. Nine companies have recently launched Enterprise 2.0 offerings that integrate with SharePoint technology.  Here is an example of how NewsGator launched their SharePoint add-on



To read the article in its entirety, go to: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/sharepoint_to_run_enterprise_2.php

Contact us today to find out how Definition 6 works with clients to build and deploy Microsoft’s SharePoint applications.

Frequently, in larger-scale Custom Application Development, a good architectural approach is to model the processes for the application using Business Process Modeling (BPEL). and Business Process Execution Lanaguage (BPEL).

BPEL actually stands for BPEL4WS (BPEL for Web Services)

Other Business Process technology includes:
Workflow&Rules Engines
* Business Rules can dictate flow of control
* Long running transactions - where completion can take days or weeks (think telephone company)

Business Activity Monitoring (BAM)
* Alerts and information for management dashboards
* Allows management by exception
* Frequently integrated with portals and BPM
* Still in the Early adoption stages

Collaboration Software
* Examples: Groupware Portals, Web 2.0 collaboration, B2B exchanges
MS Project (Enterprise) & PM Tools

There are also:
Process Driven Integration (PDI) Best Practices
* Make an organizational commitment to continuous process improvement
* It is a discipline and a journey, and the highest rewards require the highest investment.
* Measure Process Performance.
* Time / Cost, Profitability, Customer Satisfaction.
* Reward Process Improvement.
* Provide Real-time Dashboards
* Promote Reuse

Jeremy Bromwell, a Definition 6 Account Coordinator, reported on an article he recently read in ADWEEK...

Web 2.0 technologies destroy the ability of image-based advertising to control product perception.  Interactive ad agencies must refocus and redefine traditional strategies for success in the online space.

Jeremy covered a few points from the article:

1. Traditional Ads lead to search traffic - not directly to purchase for many users.
2. Information comes from many sources beyond the "official" brand/product website with a large number of forums, blogs, and other shopping portal sites.
3. Products judged by objective standards, particularly, can be threatened by informed digital consumers.

Jeremy's concluding thoughts to the group were that social media and consumer reviews are an important component of your interactive strategy beyond email and web analytics.  This is a great avenue to leverage our expertise in the interactive space to help our customers.  The full article can be viewed at: http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/community/columns/other-columns/e3icaabfeb875c91a9eded38a30d7566be6

The needs of a user searching on a mobile device are different than one searching from a PC.

Today, a search on Google from a PC generates a massive Web “crawl” and returns pages and pages of search results with rankings based on number of daily hits a website gets or paid advertisement placement.  These rankings have little to do with the quality of the product or service.

In the mobile environment, such thoroughness can be the digital equivalent of using a shotgun to take out a housefly — way too much firepower for the task at hand.  Mobile consumers are typically on the run and have little patience for pages of search results and no patience for ads.  They want highly relevant and useful information.


By 2010, a growing segment will use wireless services to access the Internet 95% of the time.


Today about 1 billion people have PCs; about 3 billion have mobile phones and that number is expected to grow to 4 billion by 2010.

Search engines are trying to replicate a 20-inch experience on a 2-inch screen, and that's leaving them, inevitably, about 90% short.

Search engines that don't change could wind up following in AOL's famous footsteps. AOL in the '90s was an online juggernaut with a gold-plated brand name and more than 30 million subscribers. Today, it's a free service with a dwindling base of about 8.7 million customers.

Google is making a few accommodations.  Instead of giving wireless users pages of search results, for example, it only offers "snippets" — Google-speak for the first few search results that appear at the top of the page.  It's also limiting the number of ads to one or two per search.

They are also pushing the development of an open wireless operating system — dubbed Android — that would make it easier for consumers to use Google's mobile services.  Android-loaded devices are expected to hit the market later this year.


Bottom  line:  Unless traditional search engines adapt, they will be come dinosaurs.

A lengthy article appeared in USA TODAY:  http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/services/2008-06-09-mobile-search_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

Definition 6 helps clients with mobile marketing campaigns and can help you understand Web 2.0 and 3.0 trends.

Lynn Moss
Def 6 Client Manager