Marketing Pilgrim

Earlier this month, the FCC lost a major battle when the US Court of Appeals decided they didn’t have the authority to regulate broadband. While the FCC can continue to appeal that decision, they’re also striving to get the definition of their authority expanded to explicitly include broadband.

And Google has no comment. On the definition issue, anyway. They’re all ready to pipe up on the central issue of the Comcast/FCC case—Net Neutrality. And they’re ready to speak up in the form of comments made to the FCC (i.e. not an amicus brief to a court):

We continue to believe that the FCC has ample legal authority to adopt broadband openness rules. In our initial comments, we explained that we agreed with the FCC that Title I of the Act appears to provide such a legal foundation for its proposed rules, and indeed for the FCC’s just-launched National Broadband Plan.

Since Facebook has added the “Like” button to the whole Internet (and now the real world), the social feature is seeping into other sites, especially third-party search results. OneRiot, which indexes the real time web, has already started indexing Likes.

The strategy is a marked shift for Facebook, notes VentureBeat. It’s the first time the service has allowed even its public social data (ie anything beyond the basic profile search page) to be indexed by search engines. Even last year, Facebook only allowed access to its walled garden by signing search deals.

Late yesterday, Microsoft publicly stated that Google’s mobile operating system, Android, infringes on Microsoft copyrights in everything from the UI to the OS itself. But they’re okay with that—as long as they get paid.

CNET reports on Microsoft’s accusations.:

In a statement to CNET, Microsoft deputy general counsel Horacio Gutierrez said that, although Microsoft prefers to resolve intellectual property licensing issues without resorting to lawsuits, it has a responsibility to make sure that “competitors do not free ride on our innovations.”

His comments came as Microsoft and HTC announced they have inked a new patent deal that specifically provides the Taiwanese cell phone maker with the right to use Microsoft’s patented technologies in phones running Google’s Android operating system. Microsoft said it has been in talks with other phone makers.

While Facebook is handing out stickers to the “Like” page businesses of the world, Google is continuing its move toward mobile integration of all things Google on the local level. The latest development is the introduction of optimized Place pages for the Android and iPhone/iPod Touch crowd.

As a result, I think the mobile experience of a Place Page trumps the desktop experience by a mile. One thing that I dislike about Google Place pages on a desktop or notebook is the amount of white space in the listing. You can never do enough to make a listing look like it has some depth. The presentation of the very same data on a small screen though, looks so much better and provides a much better user experience, in my opinion.

Google continues to change the face of the SERP’s (search engine results page) by taking more real estate on the first page with information that expands on the traditional “blue text link” results. Yesterday, they took a feature that has been around for a while but, as they put it in the Official Google Blog, “hasn’t been too visible” until now. Simply put, Google is telling its users what pages are similar in specific direct searches and taking out the need for another click to find them.

From the Google blog:

In an attempt to become even more ubiquitous, Facebook has started to send out decals to local businesses to put in storefront windows encouraging patrons to go the establishment’s Facebook “Like” page to do just that; like them. Here’s a picture

The above decal was sent to Mashable by an employee of The Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, CA. On the Mashable site is an accompanying letter telling the company about the “program” and offering a $25 credit to run Facebook ads to promote their page as well.