Marketing Pilgrim

Millennial Media released their 50th Mobile Intelligence Report today which covers Q2 2011 and includes a look back at where we were in 2009.

One of the biggest changes is Apple’s rise to dominate the top of the mobile device charts. In 2009, they were number 3 with 11.35% of the market, but in 2011, they’re number one with 30.76%. Samsung dropped down to number two, but 2009′s second place LG has dropped all the way to 6th place.

Going along with Apple’s supremacy is the rise in touch screens. Currently 60% of devices have them, as compared to only 33% back in 2009. The mobile phone biz has changed so radically that only two phones made the Top 20 list both then and now, the iPhone and the Blackberry Curve. In 2009, it was all about the T-Mobile Sidekick and the Samsung Instinct. My, how times have changed. Of course, compared to the first portable phones, the Sidekick is a true marvel.

If your regular Google routine includes searches that are not in English, you’ll now find your results have extra Kung Fu.

OK, so maybe not, but they will now have extra Panda, after Google announced the rollout of its controversial update to all languages:

Earlier this year, we rolled out our “Panda” change for searches in English around theworld. Today we’re continuing that effort by rolling out our algorithmic search improvements in different languages…

…For most languages, this change impacts typically 6-9% of queries to a degree that a user might notice. This is distinctly lower than the initial launch of Panda, which affected almost 12% of English queries to a noticeable amount.

What was brought to light over the past few days regarding LinkedIn’s attempts to engage in social advertising appears to have impacted the professional social networking leader. There has been enough discord from the social media industry that LinkedIn has made a change. From their blog post

Our core guiding value is Members First. And, with regards to the social ads we’ve been testing, we’re listening to our members. We could have communicated our intentions — to provide more value and relevancy to our members — more clearly.

Most importantly, what we’ve learned now, is that, even though our members are happy to have their actions, such as recommendations, be viewable by their network as a public action, some of those same members may not be comfortable with the use of their names and photos associated with those actions used in ads served to their network.

Well, that didn’t take long now did it? Yesterday, Google’s star of Mercedes commercials, Vic Gundotra, put the post up on Google’s blog that equal amounts of people were waiting for and feared regarding Google+. Simply stated, “Let the games begin!”

The best part for me personally is the last sentence of the following quote from the post.

Today we’re adding games to Google+. With the Google+ project, we want to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to the web. But sharing is about more than just conversations. The experiences we have together are just as important to our relationships. We want to make playing games online just as fun, and just as meaningful, as playing in real life.

That means giving you control over when you see games, how you play them and with whom you share your experiences. Games in Google+ are there when you want them and gone when you don’t.

Continue Reading…

Check Twitter later today and you should find another new upgrade designed to keep you from using those third-party encroachers.

First, they’re adding more data to the @YOURNAME tab so you can easily see who is reTweeting you along with messages directed at you. It also lists Tweets that were favorited but does anyone really use that function? I’m a big Twitter user and don’t think I’ve ever favorited a Tweet. This tab will also drop you a note if someone follows or lists you.

Next, they’re adding a whole new tab called Activity. Activity should mean everything that happens in your account but it doesn’t. This new tab will show you what the people you follow are up to including their favorites, new follows and reTweets.  Here’s the example from the Twitter blog:

Sometimes I feel like one of those kitchen gadgets they sell on late night TV. It slices, it dices, it makes perfect julienne fries, diapers the baby and writes your blog for you while you sleep. The irony is, that the computer age was supposed to help us get things done faster so we could have more leisure time, but in reality, it’s given us even more to do.

Yesterday, Zen Habits delivered a refreshing post on living the minimalist lifestyle. Avoiding “Groundhog Day” syndrome and 4 hours a day to contemplate my navel while at the beach sounds nice, but truthfully, I’m not ready to give up my TV or my internet.