Archive for June, 2011

For quite some time, the Google recommendation button with which users could rate websites or search results with “this is cool” was only available on the English version of google.com. As of this week, the search engine giant is making the +1 button available worldwide, starting with google.de, google.co.uk, and google.fr. More countries should be made available soon, according to the Google-Webmaster-Blog. As if that weren’t enough: at pretty much the same time, the company started up its social network project Google+ as an alternative to Facebook. Read the rest of this entry »

The US market analyzers from Pyramid Research are forecasting a boom in Location Based Services (LBS), despite mobile network providers are dealing with data protection for saving personal user data: the main profit should come from mobile, location-based advertising.
The worldwide market volume for LBS are displayed in the Pyramid Study “Location-Based Services: Market Forecast, 2011-2015” and is expected to expand the 2.8 billion USD profits from last year to 10.3 billion USD by 2015. The main profit should come from mobile location-based advertising: the branch invested 588 million in 2010, and the experts expect this to raise to 6.2 billion USD by 2015. That would make mobile, location-based advertising responsible for about 35 percent of the entire mobile advertising market, and about 60 percent of total profits. Read the rest of this entry »

Even though the total number of users has gone down, according to US media reports, Facebook’s winning streak is holding up: the social network is expecting to double its 2010 profits through display advertising, launching the site to become the largest advertiser on the net, according to the research of eMarketer. Yahoo, the previous front-runner, will fall to second place, followed by Google in third. Read the rest of this entry »

The Internet giant Google introduced two updates for its mobile version at the Inside-Search-Event in San Francisco: shortcuts simplify the local search according to providers in the vicinity and suggested terms save the annoying process of manually typing in everything out, especially useful for longer searches. Read the rest of this entry »

Nowadays, who really even needs a directory to find a local service provider? – Eight out of ten U.S. residents! This is displayed in the recent Local Media Tracking Study from Burke researchers. So, enough with the speculation that search engines can outdo the Yellow Pages. Read the rest of this entry »

What are they key trends to digital economy? What will follow the Google dynasty? And why do local search servers belong to the most important providers in the social web? These questions were answered by a fascinating study by the Zukunftsinstituts.
“The Net Community – Key Trends of the Digital Age” is the name of the approximately 200 page work, that so extensively reviewed almost all facets of digital life like almost no other publication in the German language in the past years. One of the most interesting points made: the Internet will someday be integrated into so many facets of life, that we will no longer be aware of it’s true reach. The authors call this fourth and final phase of the net evolution “The Return to Reality”.
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The search engine giant has updated its Transit feature both in the mobile as well as the internet version of its local search Google Maps: starting immediately, the service will display departure times from busses and trains in realtime. Read the rest of this entry »

Shortly after the optimized app for the iPhone and iPad, Das Telefonbuch has also added some new, useful features to its mobile internet version. Read the rest of this entry »

After the release app for the iPhone and Android, the coupon portal DailyDeal has released its mobile app for the iPad. Users can now use the tablet on-the-go to find the best deal. Read the rest of this entry »

The city portal meinestadt.de has pepped up its interactive city guide: not only are traffic alerts integrated, but also hiking, jogging, walking, skating, and biking trails. meinestadt.de wanted to offer its users the new features just in time for the summer season to enhance their travel planning experience, according to a press release. The city guides are available in the “Tourismus” rubric, or hidden behind “Services” and “Adressen”. And for those that can’t manage that, they can simply enter http://www.meinestadt.de/deutschland/stadtplan into their browser. Read the rest of this entry »