About Frank Reed

Frank Reed is the Managing Editor of Marketing Pilgrim. He also provides consulting, speaking and education services. To learn more visit Frank's website. Frank contributes weekly to Mike Moran's Biznology blog. Follow Frank on Twitter @frankreed, Google+ and even LinkedIn.

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Bing Gets New Look

posted on May 10, 2012

Bing has introduced its new look for its search offering today. It will be rolling out to US users over the coming weeks and the m.bing.com search option for mobile devices will be getting it as well. From the Bing blog

The new Bing introduces a brand new information architecture with a three column design that focuses on bringing you information from the web to help you take action and interact with friends and experts without compromising the core search experience.

Sounds like an interesting take. Here’s Bing’s video presentation with Director of Bing Search, Stefan Weitz. It’s a little longish but worth the look so you get the tour of the new Bing and the theory behind it.

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Will Facebook’s App Center Answer Their Mobile Prayers?

posted on May 10, 2012

Facebook has announced their new app center.

From the Facebook Developer blog

Today, we’re announcing the App Center, a new place for people to find social apps. The App Center gives developers an additional way to grow their apps and creates opportunities for more types of apps to be successful.

In the coming weeks, people will be able to access the App Center on the web and in the iOS and Android Facebook apps. All canvas, mobile and web apps that follow the guidelines can be listed. All developers should start preparing today to make sure their app is included for the launch.

The App Center will apparently be driven by some strict quality control measures and high ratings for apps will be the way that apps get promoted. If you are not meeting the standard you won’t get the audience.

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Maybe We Now Know Why Facebook and Mobile Have Not Gotten Along?

posted on May 10, 2012

Many people complain about Facebook’s mobile experience. For the longest time their app was just not very good. Even with the latest improvements the Facebook mobile experience still leaves a bit to be desired.

While it seemed that Facebook was simply focused on building their 900 million user powerhouse and mobile was backburnered as a result, that may not have been the case at all.

CNBC reports that as a result of early investor meetings there has been a change to the filings for Facebook’s IPO which indicates the trouble Facebook has with mobile.

Facebook said growth in the number of users using Facebook on mobile devices, which is hard to monetize, “may negatively affect our revenue and financial results.”

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Google Maps For Android Now With Offers and More

posted on May 9, 2012

Google does one thing better than anyone else (in my opinion, of course, so feel free to disagree in the comments) and that thing is maps. There are always improvements happening and it’s one of the few times that I don’t feel like a second class citizen in the smartphone era since they roll updates out to us Android folks first!

The latest update integrates Google Offers into the map experience for Android. From the Google Lat Long blog we get

Today, in the U.S. only, we’re launching a way to discover nearby Google Offers in Google Maps for Android. To see great deals near you, tap on “Maps” to open the dropdown menu and then tap on “Offers.” If you see something you like you can click on it to learn more. Some Google Offers can be purchased and saved for later while others are immediately available for free. With free Google Offers, press “Use now” to redeem instantly or “Save for later” for future use. You can also opt-in to receive notifications in the app when there are offers near you.

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Google Places Unveils New Tool To Manage Bulk Listings

posted on May 9, 2012

If you have ever dealt with Google Places in any way you know how it can a maddening experience. As soon as there seems to be a semblance of calm and normality there is a sudden suspension of a listing, or a merge of two listings happens or Google just decides to replace your data with “new” data it dredged up from a data warehouse. Many local marketers and SEO professionals are likely to be cringing right now as they recall a moment from the past when that type of occurrence was all too present. Sorry about that ;-) .

Well, Google is at least trying to help businesses with at least 10 locations (considered the low end limit) by introducing a new bulk upload tool. It’s best for you to watch the tutorials that Google has prepared and posted on their Small Business blog

First, this tutorial is for those who are new users:

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Nearly 75% of Tablet Use Occurs in the Home

posted on May 8, 2012

A recent study by Viacom states that tablet users are most comfortable using their tablets in their homes. In fact, the number is 74% of the time. Why do you suppose that is?

Well, most tablets are Wifi only devices so it’s portability is somewhat limited. Of course, if you want to go to any room in a home with a Wifi connection that’s no problem. Of the most common rooms the study showed we see from eMarketer

Notice how the use goes down as you reach rooms where it is less likely to have a TV. No science there just an observation.

Now, what about the 25% of the time that the tablet leaves the property? Well, no real surprises here.

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Reputation Alert: Should AT&T’s CEO Just Be Quiet?

posted on May 8, 2012

If you are the person who has the responsibility of monitoring your brand’s reputation one of your greatest fears is that your CEO will be “found out”. Ask the folks at Yahoo today how it feels to put out the reputation firestorm that has been ignited by Scott Thompson’s “little white lie”.

Now the folks at AT&T look like they may have a cringe-worthy moment as their CEO, Randall Stephenson, is telling folks that when their Android device doesn’t update it’s not AT&T’s fault, it’s Google’s. The following comes from 9 to 5 Google reporting on Stephenson talking at a wireless conference

Stephenson blamed Google, claiming, “Google determines what platform gets the newest releases and when. A lot of times, that’s a negotiated arrangement and that’s something we work at hard. We know that’s important to our customers. That’s kind of an ambiguous answer because I can’t give you a direct answer in this setting.”