Yahoo Search Share Sinks, Google, Bing Rise in February 2012

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Yahoo’s slice of the U.S. search engine market continued to evaporate in February reaching a new low, according to comScore's latest figures. Google and Bing both saw gains, with Google nearly matching its highest recorded search share (in December 2010).

Google-Bing-yahoo

Yahoo has seen its share of searches drop for six straight months. After peaking in August 2011 at 16.3 percent, it’s been all downhill since for Yahoo.

For the first time, Yahoo’s search market share dropped below 14 percent in February – to 13.8 percent, down from 14.1 percent in January and down from 16.1 percent in February 2011.

A recent search engine usage study from Pew also highlighted how Yahoo’s popularity is sinking among the general public. Only 6 percent of respondents reported using Yahoo most often, whereas 26 percent of people named Yahoo as their top choice in 2004.

Meanwhile, Bing, the company the powers Yahoo’s organic search results, continued its incremental growth for the second straight month. At 15.3 percent, Bing grabbed its highest search engine share since launching in 2009, topping its previous high of 15.2 percent, set in January.

Bing became the number two U.S. search engine in the U.S. when it surpassed Yahoo for the first time in December 2011. In February 2011, Bing’s search market share was 13.6 percent.

Least surprisingly of all, Google continued to lead the U.S. search market, with 66.4 percent, up from 66.2 percent in January. Google commanded 65.5 percent of the search engine market last February.

However, Google’s 66.4 percent is noteworthy because Google nearly matched a high previously set in December 2010 – 66.6 percent. Still, that was good enough for its second all-time highest monthly share. Google has also seen its share of searches increase for three straight months.

In the all-important Google vs. Bing “powered by” metric, Google continued to dominate, powering 68.6 percent of organic searches (up from 68.4 percent in January), while Bing powered 26.2 percent of organic searches (down from 26.5 in January).

As for Ask, its 3 percent share of searches in February remained unchanged from January. AOL saw its share of searches fall to 1.5 percent, down from 1.6 percent in January.

More than 17.6 billion explicit core searches were conducted in February, down from 17.8 billion in January. Google ranked first with 11.7 billion searches (down from 11.8 billion in January); Bing with 2.7 billion; Yahoo with 2.4 billion (down from 2.5 billion); Ask with 535 million (up 2 percent); and AOL with 266 million (down from 277 million). 

Infographic by Neil Tweddle/Search Engine Watch

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Sources:-http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2158888/Yahoo-Search-Share-Sinks-Google-Bing-Rise-in-February-2012

Manzil Bhi Teri Thi Aur Rasta Bhi Tera Tha

Manzil Bhi Teri Thi Aur Rasta Bhi Tera Tha,
Ek Tera Pyar Pa Lu Bs Yhi Sapna Mera Tha,

1 Hm Akele Rh Gye, Aur Pura Sansar Tera Tha,
Sath Sath Rehne K Soch Bhi Teri Thi,

Fir Akele Chhod Jane Ka Khayal Bhi Tera Tha,
Hatho Me Hath Lekr Mujhe Hasaane Ki Kasam Bhi Teri Thi,

Fir Meri Ankho Me Ansuo Ka Silsila Bhi Tera Tha,
Hum Q Yaha Tanha Rh Gye, Mera Dil Sawal Krta H,

Kismat Teri Thi Pr Kya Khuda Bhi Tera Tha?
Khuda Bola Uspe Aitbar Krne Ki Galti Teri Thi,

Use Dost Bnane Ka Khayal Bhi Tera Tha,
Use Chahne Ki Galti Bhi Teri Thi,

Use Apnane Ka Khayal Bhi Tera Tha,
Use Q Gam Ho Tere Dur Jane Ka?

Kya Usne Kbhi Kaha Tha Wo Sirf Tera Tha…

Twitter Brand Pages Adding E-Commerce, Contest Features

Twitter Brand Page

Twitter plans to go the way of Facebook, opening their platform up to developers to create “experience” apps for Brand Pages sometime this year, says Advertising Age. Citing anonymous executives familiar with the matter, they claim the new features will include e-commerce, contests, and sweepstakes.

Though Twitter declined to comment on the new apps, Chief Revenue Officer Adam had said at the time Brand Pages launched in December that features were in the works. Brand Pages were first available to 21 select advertising partners, including Bing, Coca-Cola and HP. In January, Twitter opened the pool to those advertisers with $25,000 or more committed in active ad spend.

Twitter seems to work closely with the group of core advertisers originally offered Brand Pages, consulting with them on new features and using their feedback in the development process.

Search Engine Watch spoke with companies using Twitter Brand Pages back in January, when Coca-Cola’s director of worldwide interactive marketing Michael Donnelly told us, “Twitter is a close and valued partner that really listens to brands, so while detailed lead times were short, we had been working with them on the some of the concepts for a few weeks.”

Currently, Brand Pages offer select advertisers a large banner at the top of the page, with a pinned and auto-expanding tweet. By its very nature, though, Twitter sends users outside the platform with most interactions, while Facebook dominates for brand interaction. There isn’t much incentive for users to revisit a Brand Page after they’ve chosen to follow a brand, as they can see the content in their tweetstream.

Experience apps like those developed on Facebook should help brands increase user engagement. Eric Hadley, general manager of worldwide marketing for Bing and MSN, told us in January, “We are very pleased with the growth of our Twitter handle – our Twitter base has grown nearly 50 percent in the last six months. We’re seeing significant increases in engagement as well – with re-tweets increasing 28% last month alone.”

Still, Bing’s 188,000 followers on Twitter pales in comparison to their 2.3 million fan army on Facebook. There is a massive opportunity for Twitter to steal away a piece of the advertising revenue pie of they can get engagement up and increase time spent on Brand Pages for advertisers. According to eMarketer, revenue is expected to reach $259.9 million this year, up from $139.5 million in 2011. Facebook, in comparison, grew their advertising revenue 69 percent in 2011, to $3.1 billion.

The rumored introduction of e-commerce to the Twitter platform is made more believable by the fact that co-founder and Executive Chairman Jack Dorsey is also CEO of Square, a mobile payments company.

E-commerce will be a lucrative avenue for both Twitter and the brands using it, if they really are entering the fray this year.

Over the 2011 holiday season, we saw that retail traffic driven from Twitter spent more on average, per order, than that from Facebook or organic traffic from AOL, Yahoo, Bing, and Google. Still, Twitter had the smallest percentage of session share, at just 0.02 percent; together, Facebook and Twitter accounted for less than 1 percent of organic retail holiday traffic.

EMarketer credits social commerce, mobile commerce, and daily deals sites with the continued growth of the online retail space. They predict over $100 billion in annual online retail sales by 2015. more digital marketing article on Digital Marketing COntest 2012

source;-http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2158198/Twitter-Brand-Pages-Adding-E-Commerce-Contest-Features

People Started Thinking about 5G Wireless

Just as consumers are wrapping their heads around 4G, the wireless industry is thinking ahead to 5G.

Soaring smartphone and tablet sales mean networks are growing clogged with cellular data traffic. For the time being, 4G technology can help relieve the congestion. Modern networks are able to cram more data into their airwaves than older technologies can.

But soon, even 4G's efficiencies won't be enough.

By 2020, industry analysts say the amount of cellular traffic created by smartphones and tablets will be dwarfed by the data generated from the world of connected "things." Shoes, watches, appliances, cars,thermostats and door locks will all be on the network.

That's a big problem for wireless carriers, which are hitting a point of diminishing returns on their network efficiency improvements. They're butting up against the limits of physics as they try to add capacity.

Any further improvements will be incremental, at best.

Take LTE-Advanced. It's the next big post-4G upgrade in the pipeline, and it's theoretically capable of speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second, about 10 times that of current 4G networks. In real-world situations, though, LTE-A will only deliver speeds of up to 15 megabits per second -- just slightly faster than the 12 megabits per second that 4G networks currently offer.

So what can 5G offer that 4G can't?

"5G won't be about more speed, necessarily," says Tod Sizer, head of wireless research at Alcatel-Lucent's  Bell Labs. "It may be faster, but it will be more about meeting the expectation of service quality." Visit Digital Marketing Contest 2012 for regular updates on Digital Marketing.

sources:- http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/08/technology/5G-wireless/index.htm?iid=Lead

Infographic: Google+ for Business (Digital Marketing in 2012)

Google + for Business

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Vidya Balan achieved National Awards , Onir's 'I AM'

This is the first time Vidya Balan is achieving National Award for her steller performance in the biopic of southern Sex symboll Silk Smitha in "The Dirty Picture" and director Onir antholos Onir anthology film "I AM" Onir anthology film 'I AM' at the 59th National Film Awards announced on Wednesday.

Byari, the first film in the Beary language spoken in coastal Kannada, and Marathi film Deool shared the award for Best Feature Film. Byari is about how girls in the small Muslim Beary community are mistreated in the name of marriage and divorce. Through its female protagonist director Suveeran conveys the trauma of a woman who has to deal with unjust religious strictures.

Acclaimed actor Girish Kulkarni also won the Best Actor award for political drama Deool, which has featured in the major film festivals around the world. Deool is a satirical and penetrative account of the politics involved in the commercialization of religion in India. Kulkarni's portrayal as a good-hearted simpleton who sets tumultuous events in motion won over the jury who described his performance as ingenious.

Directed by Umesh Kulkarni, 'Deool' is a wonderfully authentic depiction of village life and a penetrating account of commercialisation of religion. "It is a great moment for us as we worked hard on the film for two years. It was a closely knit team. It is very encouraging for us who want to make movies without compromising on content.

The winners were announced by chairpersons of the jury. The awards will be given to the winners in a ceremony on May 3. For feature films the names of the award winners were declared by actress Rohini Hattangady, who was the chairperson of the Feature Films Jury (Central Panel). Ramesh Sharma, the chairperson of the Non-Feature films jury and Vijaya Mulay, who chaired the jury on the Best Writing on Cinema announced the names of other award winners.

Traditionally, the National Awards keep the focus on regional films and the presence of Bollywood is limited to only a few select categories. This year 'I Am' won in the Best Hindi Film and Best Lyrics (Amitabh Bhattacharya) category. Director Anubhav Sinha'sRA.One won the award for Best Special Effects. Gurvinder Singh won Best Director for 'Anhe Ghorey Da Daan' (Alms of the blind horse), a low-budget Punjabi film that has won international laurels.

Appu Kutty won the Best Supporting Actor for the Tamil film 'Azhagar Samiyin Kuthirai while Leishangthem Tonthoingambi Devi won the Best Supporting Actress award for Manipuri film Phijigee Mani. The Special Jury Award went to singer/director Anjan Dutta whose film Ranjana Ami Ar Ashbona won the Best Bengali film.

'Ranjana Ami Ar Ashbona' that stars Dutta, Amyt Datta, Lew Hilt and Nondon Bagchi, is the story of a Bangla-band and the making of a rockstar.

Stanley ka Dabba's Partho Gupte, the son of director Amol Gupte, and the cast of the film Chillar Party won the Best Child Artist award while the Best Children's Film went to Chillar Party. Another Bollywood win was the Best costume award for Neeta Lulla for the film ‘Bal Gandharva’ (Marathi) and Niharika Khan for ‘The Dirty Picture’ (Hindi). The Best Female Playback Singer went to Roopa Ganguly for Bengali film Abosheshey and the Best Male Playback Singer to Anand Bhate for Marathi film Bal Gandharva.

The Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment went to Tamil film Azhagarsamiyin Kuthirai. Last year Salman Khan's cop romp Dabangg had won in this category. digital marketing contest 2012. Director Zoya Akhtar's 'Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara' won the Best Audiography and Best Choreography awards. Neel Dutt won the Best Music Direction award for Ranjana Ami Ar Ashbona while Mayookh Bhaumik won Best Background Score for Bengali film Laptop.

The National Film Awards, which were started as an annual incentive by the Government of India , for the making of artistic, competent and meaningful films have come a long way, to cover the entire national spectrum of Indian Cinema, to judge merit by the highest possible yardstick and to become the most coveted and prestigious award in the country. for nes related to digitalmarketingcontest2012 visit the link.

sources;-http://ibnlive.in.com/news/national-awards-byari-devur-win-best-feature-film/237000-8.html

Google doodles celebrate Holi and International Woman's Day 2012

Today Google is celebrating International Woman's Day 2012, as well as Holi, but if you move your cursor to on the doddle its showing International Woman's Day.
So I think Google users from India can be forgiven if they at the first glance mistake the International Women's Day doodle to be a Holi doodle. The colourful feel to the Google logo has a Holi feel about it. However the symbol of Venus is the giveaway (in addition to the title text and the link of the image, but we tend to notice them a little later).

Google doodles celebrate Holi and International Woman's Day 2012

This year's simple International Women's Day Google doodle is quite different from what Google put up on 2011, the 100th anniversary of the event, when it posted an interactive Google Map inviting users to join tens of thousands people on bridges all over the world to show support for women's causes.

The colours of the 101st anniversary of International Women's Day doodle are in sync with Google's official logo colours - blue, red, yellow and green. Only the blue is of a purplish tinge. The first 'G' is represented by the symbol of Venus and the second 'o' is a yellow flower. The red dots in place of the first 'o' and the 'e' seem to represent the bindi, a symbol identified with Indian women.

Google has doodled the International Women's Day on four previous occasions. First in 2005, then consecutively after a four-year break, from 2009 to 2011. International Women's Day was first celebrated on March 18, 1911 in four European countries - Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. The United Nations began officially supporting and sponsoring the event since 1975, the year that was designated as International Women's Year.

Google's Holi doodles in the past two years raised expectations of a Holi doodle in 2012. The first Holi doodle appeared on the Google home page in 2001.

The festival of Holi given its colourful nature would make for very interesting doodles, but Google's doodle team haven't yet been able to do justice to the spirit and gaiety of Holi.

The 2012 International Women's Day doodle is the 1324th Google doodle since the first ever on for the Burning Man Festival back on August 30, 1998. DO regular visit on the link for digital marketing Contest news

sources:-http://ibnlive.in.com/news/google-doodles-international-womens-day-no-holi-doodle-this-year/237125-11.html