A recent survey suggest that while six out of 10 small business owners say they believe social media tools are valuable to their company’s growth, just three percent of the 835 surveyed believe Twitter has the most potential to help the company. Twitter faces challenges convincing small business owners of the advantages of using the short-messaging system to reach customers and expand their brands. Continue reading Small Businesses See More Potential in LinkedIn Than Twitter

While online video continues to grow, one challenge has involved effective revenue models. YouTube is addressing that hurdle with its decision to launch paid subscriptions for individual channels on its video platform. It is the Google-owned company’s “latest attempt to lure content producers, eyeballs, and advertiser dollars away from traditional TV, according to multiple people familiar with the plans,” writes Ad Age. Continue reading YouTube to Test Paid Subscription Channels on Limited Scale

According to M2 Research, companies will be spending around $2 billion on gamification services by 2015. “By that same point, Gartner Group’s Brian Burke forecasts that 70 percent of the Global 2000 will employ gamification techniques, but that 80 percent of those projects will fail unless they’re designed thoughtfully,” writes GigaOM. Continue reading Five Ways Big Companies are Effectively Using Gamification

Netflix and YouTube have combined efforts to launch DIAL, “a protocol that helps developers of second-screen apps to discover and launch applications on smart TVs and connected devices.” DIAL is already seeing support from Samsung, Sony, Hulu and BBC and “could become a key piece in efforts to establish an open alternative to Apple’s AirPlay,” according to GigaOM. Continue reading Netflix, YouTube Take On AirPlay with Second Screen Protocol

Ad execs are imagining ways the upcoming Google Glass Internet-connected eyewear could transform the ad industry, despite Google’s repeated assertion that there are no plans for advertising on the device. “Those who make their living via augmented reality have even more vivid dreams. For them, Google Glass isn’t some weird 20 percent project, it’s the future of advertising,” writes Mashable. Continue reading Is Google Glass Poised to Change the Advertising Industry?

Despite federal law that states authorities do not need warrants for e-mails stored for longer than 180 days, Google demands probable cause warrants when asked for user data from Gmail or other cloud-based services. “Google requires an ECPA search warrant for contents of Gmail and other services based on the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which prevents unreasonable search and seizure,” Google said in a statement. Continue reading Google Demands Warrants for Access to Email and Cloud Data

Google may soon increase Internet speeds across America by a factor of 100 as the search giant explores expanding its Google Fiber across the nation. The service currently operates out of Kansas City, Missouri, and is opening new “fiberhoods” in Kansas and Missouri. Google CEO Larry Page and CFO Patrick Pichette have told reporters that the super-fast Internet experiment is more than a hobby for the company. Continue reading Super-Fast Google Fiber Could Be Coming to a City Near You

U.S. broadband connections over 10 Mbps have grown 73 percent over the past year, and overall broadband speeds have risen 20 percent. “The number of people who have adopted broadband (measured at anything above 4 Mbps) was 62 percent, which puts the U.S. at No. 12 in the worldwide rankings when it comes to adoption and No. 9 when it comes to average speeds,” reports GigaOM. Continue reading U.S. Broadband Adoption Increases, Trails Japan and Korea

Google uses targeted ads and so does Facebook. But it turns out that Amazon’s treasure trove of 152 million customers’ data is at the top of the digital heap. “Since last year, the world’s largest online retailer has been packaging information on what it knows about consumers so that some marketers can use it to make split-second decisions about where to buy ads online and how much to pay for them,” reports Technology Review. Continue reading Will Amazon Generate New Ad Revenue with Customer Info?

Americans oppose the use of disconnection and rate-limiting as penalties for illegal file sharing, according to a new survey from Columbia University research center, the American Assembly. With the support of Google, researchers Joe Karaganis and Lennart Renkema commissioned a public opinion survey about copyright enforcement attitudes and how consumers obtain media. The results may surprise you. Continue reading Study Shines Light On How Americans Feel About File Sharing

Amazon has launched a browser-based MP3 store featuring 22 million songs. The move directly challenges Apple since the store allows consumers to use their Apple devices to access music through Amazon’s Cloud Player app. Much of the music is cheaper than iTunes because Amazon does not have to pay Apple the 30 percent commission for sales through iTunes. This allows Amazon to offer specials like 69 cent songs and $5 albums. Continue reading Amazon Launches HTML5-Based MP3 Store to Compete with Apple

Do Aereo’s search marketing tactics prove that the TV service infringes copyright? A coalition of networks suing the company “says in court papers that it needs to examine records from Google about Aereo’s AdWords campaigns. That advertising information allegedly ‘bears directly’ on whether Aereo’s $8-a-month service potentially harms the market — which can be a factor in copyright infringement,” reports MediaPost. Continue reading Aereo: Will AdWords Campaign Prove Copyright Infringement?

As we reported earlier this week, Facebook’s new Graph Search allows users to find answers to questions by searching their own connections and personal network instead of going the route of a traditional open Web search a la Google. According to Variety, the new search tool has the potential to “give media companies more firepower to leverage the social network for content discovery.” Continue reading Facebook Graph Search to Open New Doors for Media Companies

Apple and Google dominate the smartphone software market with a combined 87 percent control, but new competitors hope to chip away at this duopoly. New entrants including Tizen, the Mozilla Foundation and Ubuntu hope that introducing competing operating systems would help convince consumers to purchase products through alternatives to the Google or Apple stores. Continue reading New Mobile Operating Systems Look to Disrupt iOS and Android

On Tuesday, Facebook announced its new feature called Graph Search, which “promises to transform its user experience, threaten its competitors, and torment privacy activists,” according to Wired. It allows users to “dive into the vast trove of stored information about them and their network of friends.” While it is fundamentally different from Web search, it also has the potential to transform it. Continue reading What the New Facebook Graph Feature Means For Web Search