New research from Google addresses the much debated issue about advertiser relevance. The results from the study which examined more than four hundred advertisers, show that on average, when search ads are paused, 89% of paid clicks are lost and not recovered by organic clicks.Watch our short video for a brief overview of the study and its highlights.

If you would like to read the full study, please download it here.

Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Facebook all compete for top talent. In doing so, they lure and acqui-hire the brightest minds in tech — who, unfortunately for them, later go on to trade these cushy jobs for the rough-and-tumble life of a startup founder.

Which of these four mega powers in tech (at one point or another) has produced, and hence pushed out, the top talent in the industry? A little analysis of the startups that have come from the former employees of these tech heavy-hitters, and a look at the funding these startups have raised, might shed some light on the answer.

Article first published in Masahable Image courtesy of Flickr, satanslaundromat

Naughty Facebook, trying to stop Google + from allowing you to export your friends list. Well here’s a quick video that show’s you how you can do it.  Guy Kawasaki originally shared this post:

Interesting presentation from Ian Carrington Googles UK sales director who spoke at the Google THINK Mobile event in early July. The presentation is quite long [Nearly 30 mins] however there are some interesting insights and findings.  What the presentation again. See below.

The Nominet Trust is a UK-based charity with the mission to “support initiatives that contribute to a safe and accessible Internet, used to improve lives and communities.” Recently, they published a report entitled, “The Impact of Digital Technologies on Human Wellbeing.”  It makes for interesting reading about the impact of digital technologies on human wellbeing.

Everyone talks about which social / business platform they prefer and why.  What we find more interesting is what people are actually doing on these platforms.

In wanting to find out the answers we came across this nice  infographic from Jason Falls showing actual insights into the usage of social media. Full size image can be found here

A recent study by google which looked into the effect of the internet on conversations involving a mention of a brand, showed how important online channels, particularly search, are to inspiring and informing these conversations.

Please watch our short video to find out more.  The full study is also available for download

Google announced this morning a new service that will take NFC to a whole new level – Google Wallet. With Google Wallet, the search giant intends to give you more reasons to leave your actual wallet at home.

You’ll be able to make payments, use loyalty rewards programs and a whole lot more just by tapping or waving your phone near an NFC module if your phone is equipped with a near-field-communications chip.

Rumor has it that Google has a big announcement planned for Thursday. According to a report published late Tuesday from Reuters, sources close to the Internet search giant say Google will unveil a new mobile payment system this week.

Given what little is known of the rumored forthcoming service, Google will likely enable consumers to pay at checkout with their mobile phones instead of credit or debit cards.

The mobile payments system will run on the Android operating system and be available on phones from Sprint Nextel Corp.

If inside sources prove as knowledgeable as they sound, Google will partner with MasterCard Inc, the globe’s second-largest credit and debit card processing network, to make the mobile payments system happen.

In March, the Wall Street Journal reported that Google had been in talks with the likes of both MasterCard and Citigroup to lay the groundwork for what is expected to be unveiled tomorrow.

It has now signed up retail partners Macy’s Inc, American Eagle Outfitters Inc and Subway, though it is unclear if the project will be launched nationwide or just in New York initially, the Journal cited sources as saying Tuesday.

Google, however, can only do so much at this point to keep the project covert until its formal announcement. The company has already invited select reporters to a “partner event” on Thursday in New York. Google says the occasion will provide a platform for the company “to demonstrate its latest innovations.” Original post via Mobile Marketing Watch

Google have recently launched The +1 button.  The  +1 button is shorthand for “this is pretty cool” or “you should check this out.”You can click +1 to publicly give something your stamp of approval. Your +1′s can help friends, contacts, and others on the web find the best stuff when they search. Check out the video for a google style overview.

Shortly after Yahoo released its list of the year’s top searches, Google has announced the results of its annual zeitgeist report, revealing the most popular search terms of 2010 by region and worldwide.

The search giant analyzed billions of searches performed in 2010 and compared them with searches from 2009 to surface emerging trends. Chatroulette, the iPad and Justin Bieber were the three fastest-rising search terms in 2010; Twitter and Facebook also made the list, at numbers eight and 10, respectively. via mashable

Video Branding Study Uk Sep 2010

Are you eager to optimise your Conversion Rate, but feel a little bit overwhelmed by all of the tools available to help you? Then check out this free e-book Improving Online Conversions for Dummies

Millions of people click on Google AdWords ads every day. ‘Improving Online Conversions for Dummies’ explains how you can make sure your ads show on searches that are most likely to convert into sales. Understand which ad clicks and impressions lead to conversions, better apportion your marketing spend and even develop your own conversion attribution model. Discover the secrets to getting more bang for your buck with this ebook.

According to an Adage story back in may 2010, Facebook was preparing to roll out their location product.  The company was granted early access to the location service thanks to a large ad buy.

The social-networking site will give users the ability to post their location within a status update. McDonald’s, through digital agency Tribal DDB, Chicago, is building an app with Facebook which would allow users to check in at one of its restaurants and have a featured product appear in the post, such as an Angus Quarter Pounder, say executives close to the deal.

Facebook is not directly charging McDonald’s to build the app; Facebook generally does not charge developers to build on its platform. But executives with knowledge say it was negotiated as part of a bigger media buy on Facebook, and McDonald’s will be the first marketer to take advantage of the service.

The fast feeder won’t be alone for long. While McDonald’s is expected to be involved in the rollout in the next few weeks, execs at other digital shops have begun to spec out location-based campaigns in anticipation of Facebook’s impending functionality, which will allow users to include their location in a status update.

Will this be the start of location wars with Google? With Facebooks 500 million active users it was not a case of if but when they would roll out these services. Ding ding, round 1.

Whilst doing a quick search on our title I scrolled down to the bottom of the search results and happened to notice something different than the usual search results that I was used to. At the bottom was  this:

I then clicked on the social circle link and was presented with this page

This is the network of connections Google uses to identify relevant social search results. It is based on a combination of the following:

Direct connections from your Google chat buddies and contacts
Direct connections from links that appear on your Google profile
Secondary connections  that are publicly associated with your direct connections

And when you click on the social content link you are presented with the screen below.

What is clear is that Google has a fight on their hands when it comes to commanding the attention of all of us, what with Twitter and Facebook growing daily.  Is this Google trying to work with what was Google buzz and incorporate it into social search, if so then will definitely have a fight on their hands in winning the hearts, minds and search of the masses.  Leave a comment and let us know your thoughts

Go beyond status messages  Share updates, photos, videos, and more. Start conversations about the things you find interesting. What do you think?

Story breaking from mashable:

Gmail is set to become Google’s next major push into social media. According to The Wall Street Journal, the popular webmail service will soon launch a new feature for sharing content and status updates with friends. [Update: We think Google might announce these features on Tuesday]

As WSJ points out, Gmail users can already update their statuses — sort of — through Gmail’s chat feature. Currently, this feature is more akin to the traditional IM “away message.” However, with this new social push, Gmail will offer a…