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Microsoft sites, which have recently shown impressive month-over-month growth in core and explicit search queries, backslid a bit in November 2010, according to new comScore qSearch data. In particular, total core searches conducted on Microsoft sites (primarily representing the Bing search engine introduced earlier this year) dropped 10% between October and November 2010, from 2.3 billion to a little more than 2 billion.

Americans conducted nearly 17.8 billion total core search queries in November 2010, down 4% month-over-month from 18.4 billion in October 2010. Google sites ranked first with 11.4 billion searches (-4% from October 2010) followed by Yahoo sites with 3.4 billion. By remaining virtually flat, Yahoo was the only one of the top five total core search query providers to avoid losing core search queries from the prior month.

In terms of core search market share, little changed from October 2010. Google remained on top with flat performance of 64.8%. Yahoo grew its share about 4%, from 18.5% to 19.3%. Number three Microsoft lost more than 6% of its share, dropping from 12.1% to 11.3%.
comScore also tracks market share in terms of “powered by” search. Google’s “powered by” share is composed of searches conducted at Google entities, as well as branded searches at AOL and Ask. Bing’s “powered by” share is composed of searches conducted at Microsoft entities as well as branded Yahoo! entities.

In November 2010, 69.2% of searches carried organic search results from Google, while 24% of searches were powered by Bing organic results.

Although Microsoft saw its total number of explicit core searches drop 2% month-over-month, from 1.9 billion to 1.88 billion, Microsoft’s explicit core search market share improved more than 2%, from 11.5% to 11.8%.

Otherwise, Google sites led the US explicit core search market in November 2010 with 66.2% market share, followed by Yahoo sites with 16.4% and Microsoft sites. Ask Network accounted for 3.6% of explicit core searches, followed by AOL LLC Network with 2%. Fluctuations were minimal.

More than 16 billion explicit core searches were conducted in November 2010, down 4% from October 2010. Google Sites ranked first with 10.6 billion searches (down 4%), followed by Yahoo sites in second with 2.6 billion (also down 4%) and Microsoft sites in third. Ask Network accounted for 580 million explicit core searches (down 3%), followed by AOL LLC Network with 327 million (down 5%).

Wealthy Americans are more likely than middle- and lower-economic class Americans to conduct web searches for a variety of data, according a recent study by Pew Internet & American Life Project. On a given day, 40% of wealthy Americans research a product compared to 19% of other Americans, and 20% of wealthy Americans will search for a map, compared to 12% of other Americans.

When it comes to seeking health information online, once again the highest income bracket has the highest levels of engagement in areas including medical issues, treatment and facilities, doctors and test results; while the lowest income bracket has the lowest levels of engagement.

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After a six-month investigation, the Australian Federal Police has determined Google may have breached telecommunications interception laws when it hoovered up reams of personal information from home Wi-Fi networks.

However, it has decided not to pursue the matter further due to the difficulty of gathering evidence and its determination that the privacy breach was inadvertent.

The breach, which landed Google in hot water with authorities all over the world, was dubbed the “single greatest breach in the history of privacy” by the Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy.

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It involved Google sucking up 600GB of “payload data” from unsecured wireless networks over several years while taking pictures for its Street View mapping service.

In July, the Privacy Commisioner’s review into the matter found the company breached the Privacy Act, but the then commissioner, Karen Curtis, said she did not have powers to impose any sanctions on the company.

Instead, Google gave several undertakings to improve its privacy credentials and published an apology on its official blog.

Late on Friday, the AFP announced it had concluded its investigation into whether Google breached the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act after receiving external legal advice.

“Advice provided by the senior counsel concluded that the activities of Google may have constituted a breach of the TIA,” the AFP said.

“Evidence exists to suggest that the potential breach of the TIA by Google was inadvertent. Coupled with the difficulty of gathering sufficient evidence required for an examination of potential breaches, the AFP has concluded that it would not be an efficient and effective use of the AFP’s resources to pursue this matter any further.”

The AFP said it believed the likelihood of a successful criminal prosecution in this matter was low, and that it was satisfied that Google had given undertakings to the Privacy Commissioner in relation to preventing similar incidents in the future.

“Law enforcement agencies have made comparable conclusions in relation to similar experiences in overseas jurisdictions that have been resolved within the privacy regimes that exist in those jurisdictions,” it said.

Meanwhile, earlier this year a Senate inquiry into the adequacy of online privacy laws wondered whether Google may have also been breaching the TIA by scanning the contents of users’ emails on Gmail for keywords in order to push more relevant advertising.

The Attorney-General’s Department examined the matter and late last week responded that it did not believe Google was breaking the law.

This was partly because Gmail’s terms of service say that users consent to having their emails scanned for advertising purposes. Furthermore, the scanning takes place once emails are open in the mailbox of Gmail users, not when the communications are passing over the telecommunications network, meaning there was no “inteception”.

Story by Asher Moses www.smh.com.au

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THE competition regulator has punched a hole in the business case for the $36bn NBN by urging the government to reject a proposal to extend its monopoly.

It is understood the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has told the government to discard the NBN Co’s contentious plan to build only 14 points of interconnection – where retail service providers will hook into the fibre network to deliver broadband services to consumers – in five capital cities and require 200 points to be implemented.

The rejection could slash the NBN Co’s commercial returns from the services it plans to eventually sell and would curb its market dominance.

NBN Co expects to produce returns that will beat the long-term government bond rate, which is a modest 5.41 per cent – but this was predicated on its strategy of 14 interconnection points.

The heavily edited summary of its business case, released last week, argued that if the government’s solution on interconnection points “does not promote the same intensity of retail competition”, the company’s internal rate of return could be 50 to 80 basis points lower. This would be because of a “slower take-up of broadband and slower introduction of retail services that require higher speeds”.

Start The ACCC’s advice has been presented to the government and is awaiting delivery to cabinet next week for final consideration.

Critics had complained the NBN Co’s plan was wasteful because it bypassed hundreds of millions of dollars worth of existing fibre-optic cable built by companies such as Telstra and Optus.

Concerns were also raised that the plan would make the NBN Co too powerful and crowd out competition. “It was crazy of them to want to overbuild parts where there are functioning competitive markets,” said one industry source. “It’s a win for the industry and it will remind the NBN Co who is in charge here.”

The NBN Co has been arguing its plan is the best way to deliver uniform national wholesale pricing. An NBN spokeswoman said last night the body had “said consistently that industry structure is a matter for government and that we will build whatever number of POIs they decide following consideration of the recommendations flowing from the ACCC’s public consultation process”.

Julia Gillard promised a uniform national wholesale price as part of a policy aimed at maintaining the support of independent MPs Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor. There are now concerns about how the government will deliver on that promise.

It is understood the advice to government seeks to tackle the issue via other mechanisms, such as subsidies to regional and rural areas funded from the federal budget or an industry levy. The NBN Co’s plans had infuriated major telecom companies, which said it would serve only to leave unused assets that could otherwise have been used to lower the costs paid by consumers.

The telcos had warned that execution of the strategy would have resulted in compensation claims worth “hundreds of millions” of dollars.

Yesterday, the industry was relieved at suggestions the advice to government supported their position. “People seem to think we support an NBN under any circumstances, ” said Optus director of government and corporate affairs Maha Krishnapillai. “There are a whole lot of decisions that make NBN borderline and this is one of them. One of the most important principles has been wholesale-only and maximum competition wherever possible, so it’s a good thing we are now moving in that direction.”

Story by Mitchell Bingemann and Annabel Hepworth www.theaustralian.com.au

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Many marketers still struggle with the loss of control over their brand that comes with the ability of consumers to discuss them—and have those messages widely disseminated—across social media. But most brand-related chatter, both online and offline, is positive. And positive buzz carries more weight with consumers, according to research from Keller Fay Group.

In a study of hundreds of thousands of conversations, the firm found about two-thirds of word-of-mouth brand references were “mostly positive.” Those can be powerful.

Two-thirds of study respondents thought positive word-of-mouth was credible, compared with fewer than half who believed negative buzz. Positive information was also more likely to be passed on to others, more than twice as likely to get people to look for more information, and had nearly four times the chance of pushing consumers to make a purchase.

Overall, word-of-mouth is generally positive, but some industries do get better buzz than others. Children’s products and food brands tended to get the most positive mentions, while net advocacy on behalf of companies in the telecommunications, financial services and healthcare industries was lowest. But even for those brands, the majority of word-of-mouth was still upbeat.

The Keller Fay research supports findings by women-focused marketing and communications firm Harbinger, which reported a greater motivation to share good brand experiences than bad ones among female internet users in North America. Consumers trying to give others advice seem to be more interested in directing friends and family toward brands they like than away from brands they have had a problem with.

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The Chinese government may have ordered cyber attacks on Google, according to the latest US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks.

Citing the cables, the New York Times said China made repeated and often successful hacking attacks on the US government, private enterprises and Western allies as far back as 2002.

Google closed its China-based search engine service in March, two months after saying it would stop censoring results.

It said the move was a response to what it described as a sophisticated cyber attack that it traced to China.

The dispute was resolved in July after Google tweaked the way it directs users to an unfiltered search engine.

The paper quoted one cable dated earlier this year as saying: ‘A well-placed contact claims that the Chinese government co-ordinated the recent intrusions of Google systems.

‘According to our contact, the closely held operations were directed at the Politburo Standing Committee level.’

It added that the cable quoted the contact as saying the hacking of Google ‘had been co-ordinated out of the State Council Information Office with the oversight’ of two members of the Communist Party’s Politburo: Li Changchun and Zhou Yongkang.

It said Zhou is China’s top security official.

But the New York Times said that in an interview with the paper, the redacted contact named in the cable, ‘a Chinese person with family connections to the elite,’ denied knowing who directed the attack.

The person said it was one of Li’s subordinates who orchestrated a campaign to force Google to abide by censorship regulations, and Li and Zhou signed off on the plan at several points.

‘But the person did not know whether senior leaders directed the attack,’ the paper added.

There has not been an explanation of the discrepancy between what the person said in the interview and what was attributed to the person in the cable.

The cables did not make clear how the cyber attacks blamed on China were co-ordinated, and it is believed that the cables contain suppositions passed along by diplomats.

According to the cables, at least one previously unreported 2008 attack, which US investigators code-named Byzantine Candor, yielded more than 50 megabytes of email messages and a complete list of user names and passwords from a US government agency.

Source: bigpond.com

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International drug syndicates are using social networking site Facebook to recruit young Malaysian women as ‘drug mules’, the deputy foreign minister said.

The government has previously sounded the alarm over the number of Malaysian women becoming caught up in drug trafficking, many of them drawn into the trade by smooth-talking conmen.

Deputy Foreign Minister Richard Riot said that men in the syndicates, many from Nigeria and South Africa, ‘picked up’ their unsuspecting victims on Facebook, promising them rewards to carry packages for them.

‘It has been happening for quite some time, these girls are being lured by these men on Facebook, these men chat with them, become friends, gain the girls’ trust then use them as drug mules to smuggle narcotics,’ he told AFP.

‘They even offer to pay for holidays to Japan, China and South America, asking the girls to carry packages, bags or gifts that contain drugs,’ he added.

‘We are advising these Internet savvy university-aged girls to think before accepting such holidays and gifts as such things always come with strings attached.’

Riot said that 785 out of 1,560 Malaysians arrested overseas since 1991 were drug mules, including 149 women.

Seventy of those on drug trafficking charges are facing death sentences, he said, but was unable to say how many were recruited on Facebook.

Concerned over the large number of young women caught up in trafficking, the government in 2008 considered forcing those travelling abroad on their own to have written approval from their parents or employers.

The idea was shot down following criticism by women’s groups.

Malaysians have embraced social networking sites enthusiastically.

According to a study by global research firm TNS released last month, they are the most sociable people on the Internet with an average of 233 friends in their network, compared to 68 in China and just 29 in Japan.

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Eleven key consumer trends to watch in 2011 include acts of kindness from brands, the developed world launching products for emerging economies, and online status symbols, according to consumer insights firm trendwatching.com.

Following is a brief overview of each of the 11 consumer trends which trendwatching.com predicts will have a global impact on marketers in 2011.

1.Random acts of kindness: Consumers’ cravings for realness, for the human touch, ensure that everything from brands randomly picking up the tab to sending a surprise gift will be one of the most effective ways to connect with (potential) customers in 2011, especially beleaguered consumers in North America, Europe and Japan.

trendwatching.com advises that the rapid spread of social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook among consumers gives brands previously unavailable insight into their moods, wants and locations, and also provides a new direct channel to deliver acts of kindness.

2.Urbanization: Urbanization remains one of the absolute mega trends for the coming decade, with about the global population currently living in urban areas. Urban consumers tend to be more daring, more liberal, more tolerant, more experienced, more prone to trying out new products and services. In emerging markets, these effects tend to be even more pronounced, with new arrivals finding themselves distanced from traditional social and familial structures, while constantly exposed to a wider range of alternatives.

3.Pricing Pandemonium: Mobile devices and social networks allow consumers to constantly receive targeted offers and discounts, even at the point of sale from a rival brand, as well as join interest groups. Brands should target consumers with offers and features such as instant mobile coupons and discounts, online group discounts, flash sales, and dynamic pricing based on real-time supply and demand.

4.Made for China/Emerging Economies: In 2011, expect an increasing number of ‘Western’ brands to launch new products or even new brands dedicated to consumers in emerging markets. Growth in consumer spending in emerging markets far outpaces consumer spending in developed markets, and Western brands are favored more than local brands in emerging markets. Western brands including Levi-Strauss, Apple and BMW have already capitalized on this trend.

5.Online Status Symbols: In 2011, trendwatching.com recommends that brands supply customers with any kind of symbol, virtual or ‘real world,’ that helps them display to peers their online contributions, interestingness, creations or popularity. This includes personalized social networking memorabilia as well as location-based games and contests which award virtual or real-world prizes.

6.’Wellthy:’ Growing numbers of consumers will expect health products and services in 2011 to prevent misery if not improve their quality of life, rather than merely treating illnesses and ailments. Products such as mobile health monitoring devices, as well as online health apps and health-dedicated social networks, will serve the multichannel wellness needs of consumers.

7.‘Twin-sumers’ and ‘Social-lites:’ Both of these types of online consumers identified by trendwatching.com are critical to spreading positive word-of-mouth recommendations. Twin-sumers are consumers with similar consumer patterns, likes and dislikes, and who are hence valuable sources for recommendations on what to buy and experience, while social-lites are consumers who consistently broadcast information to a wide range of associates online.

8.Emerging Generosity: This trend is about brands and wealthy individuals from emerging markets (especially China) who will increasingly be expected to give, donate, care and sympathize, as opposed to just sell and take. And not just in their home countries, but on a global scale. It’s a profound cultural change and a consumer demand that their counterparts in mature markets have had a few years to getting used to.

9.Planned Spontaneity: With lifestyles having become fragmented, with dense urban environments offering consumers any number of instantly available options, and with cell /smartphones having created a generation who have little experience of making (or sticking to) rigid plans, 2011 will see what trendwatching.com calls full-on “planned spontaneity.”

Brands can expect to see consumers in 2011 rushing to sign up to services (the planned part) that allow for endless and almost effortless mass mingling with friends, family, colleagues or strangers (the spontaneity part). A developing segment of this trend is consumers signing up for mobile services that passively and constantly broadcast their location.

10.Eco-Superior: When it comes to ‘green consumption’, brands should expect a rise in “eco-superior” products; products that are not only eco-friendly, but superior to polluting incumbents in every possible way. Trendwatching.com says brands should think of a combination of eco-friendly yet superior functionality, superior design, and/or superior savings.

11:Owner-less: Fractional ownership and lifestyle leasing business models have re-emerged, with services such as car-sharing and public bike programs enjoying success around the globe. For many consumers, access is better than ownership.

Emerging economies are an increasingly important source of consumer innovations, according to earlier findings from trendwatching.com. The company cites a number of statistics to support its premise that emerging economies are becoming a major source of consumer innovations that will have a global impact. For example, these economies have accounted for nearly 70% of world growth during the last five years, accounted for 34% of global GDP in 2010 and will account for 39% in 2015, and will account for two-thirds of world trade in 2050.

In addition, trendwatching.com says emerging economies contain a growing middle class of 2 billion people who spend $6.9 trillion USD annually. That figure is expected to rise to $20 trillion by 2050.

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Next year, marketers will need to rethink their approach to advertising and marketing and intensify their focus on creating magnetic content that will naturally attract consumers, rather than relying solely on the interruption model of advertising, which consumers are responding to less and less. Think pull vs. push.

Magnetic content can include anything created on behalf of a brand—be it an ad, YouTube video, online game, Facebook page, Twitter promo or mobile app—that consumers genuinely want to engage with and pass along to others. This content entertains, amuses, informs, serves a function or satisfies a consumer need. It’s welcome instead of annoying or interruptive.

Marketers, especially those working in social media, have seen the proven value of branded content, sometimes also referred to as “earned media.” Nearly three-quarters of US companies with a social media strategy used such content in their campaigns, making it the most common type of content used, according to a June 2010 study by King Fish Media, HubSpot and Junta42.

Creating effective, breakthrough advertising has always been a challenge for marketers, as well as for the agencies charged with the task. But the classic interruption-disruption model of advertising is moribund. Marketers should ask themselves five questions about the magnetic content they are seeking to create to determine whether it will be truly attractive to their audience:

Is the content unique? Is the content useful? Is the content well executed? Is the content fun? Does the content make good use of the channel in which it appears (e.g., social, mobile, video)?

Marketers should base their magnetic content ideas on well-researched customer behaviors, attitudes and lifestyles. This entails altering your emphasis in marketing from “selling product” to identifying and solving a consumer need or want that transcends or complements the physical product or service you are selling. Ask yourself this critical question: Besides your product, what can you do for the consumer?

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About one-quarter of mobile advertising campaign actions in October 2010 led to social media post-click, according to the October 2010 Millennial Media SMART Report.

Social media, as a post-click campaign action, represented 26% of the mobile campaign actions in October 2010. The top advertisers on the Millennial network from the finance, automotive, entertainment and retail verticals leveraged the social media platform to drive further brand engagement, as well as lead generation.

Retail promotion and m-commerce as post-click campaign actions experienced tremendous growth month-over-month with a 13% and 8% increase, respectively. Millennial analysis shows the increase is tied to brands in the retail and CPG verticals developing promotions to drive increased holiday sales through mobile advertising.

Traffic to Site continued to be the top destination for brands advertising on mobile and represented a 42% impression share in October 2010. Custom Landing page as a campaign destination grew slightly to represent 40% share of impressions.

More than eight in 10 (82%) of campaigns on the Millennial network drove to these two mobile web destinations, providing further validation that brands are finding value in maintaining a persistent mobile web presence.

The trend of advertisers leveraging targeted-audience campaign methods (GEO, Demographic, Behavioral Audience and Audience Takeover) continued for the fifth consecutive month, with 44% of campaigns on the Millennial network leveraging these methods.

Broad reach methods (Run of Network, Custom Subnet and Channel) represented 56% of the campaign targeting mix in October 2010. These methods are recommended for broad-reaching brand campaigns and brands first entering the mobile space.

Audience takeover as a targeting method accounted for 7% of the targeted audience mix in October 2010. Millennial data indicates brands in the entertainment and CPG verticals utilized this targeting method to achieve 100% share of voice for new movie releases and product launches.

The restaurant vertical received a significant 51% spike in mobile interaction during the four-day Thanksgiving weekend (November 25-28, 2010), likely due to consumers seeking a break from cooking after preparing a large holiday meal. CPG had a 31% mobile interaction lift, which Millennial analysis indicates resulted from consumers seeking cooking tips on the actual Thanksgiving holiday.

The movie sub-vertical of entertainment received a 31% lift as consumers sought options to amuse themselves on their day off, which also probably led to a 19% spike in mobile access of dating sites.

Looking at a variety of retail-related consumer mobile activities, text coupons lead both in terms of current engagement (25%) and planned engagement in the next 12 months (47%), according to a recent study from IHL Group. Probably due to the high percentage of consumers who will already be using mobile text coupons within 12 months, planned engagement within 12 to 24 months is only 9%, tied for second-lowest with consumer self-checkout.

The other two retail-related consumer mobile activities currently used by more than 20% of mobile phone subscribers are regular barcode (22%) and 2D barcode (21%). Coupons on mobile screen only have 16% current engagement, but 38% planned engagement within the next 12 months, second only to text coupons in this category.

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An Adelaide computer hacker infected more than 22,000 computers in Australia and overseas with a program to capture banking details, a court has heard.

Anthony Scott Harrison, 20, used the internet to teach himself the necessary hacking and programming skills to launch his attack in 2009 but was caught when suspicious web activity was spotted and tracked by federal police.

He also modified and sold software to allow others to infect computers, with his offending flowing from his obsession with the world of cyber fantasy.

Harrison pleaded guilty to seven charges including four counts of modifying computer data to cause harm.

Defence counsel John Edwards told the South Australian District Court on Wednesday that from the age of 14 his client had become obsessed with playing online computer games and had become ‘immersed in the world of cyber fantasy’.

At one stage he was playing online for up to 15 hours a day, often using a simulated hacking game called Slave Hack.

Mr Edwards said Harrison became quite skilled at computer programming and had the capacity to commit serious offending.

But he said a clear distinction should be drawn between what he had the potential to do and what he actually did.

Harrison took only small amounts of money, and his actions were mostly experimental or the result of youthful curiosity, the court was told.

‘He never had any intention to make it a large-scale, criminal enterprise,’ Mr Edwards said.

He asked Judge Paul Rice to impose a suspended jail sentence and told the court Harrison was interested in becoming an internet security consultant.

Prosecutor Tracey Nelson said 22,370 computers had been infected, and the impact of Harrison’s offending had the potential to be felt across the globe.

‘Any of us could become a victim to this type of offending very, very easily,’ she said.

Harrison will be sentenced on January 13. The judge was told there had been no similar cases across Australia to guide him in regard to what penalty to impose.

Story source: www.bigpond.com

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