Marketing Pilgrim

Google has shown an affinity for Wikipedia for years, often listing entries as a top source for many types of web searches. Now they’ve added links to Wikipedia pages with news stories on Google News.  This seems like a small detail, but it gives Wikipedia even more credibility with the most popular search engine.

Google News already gets news from both traditional media like major newspapers, CNN and Reuters (though the AP hates this fact), as well as new media (popular news blogs like Marketing Pilgrim).  There are also links to YouTube videos. This further blends how we get news and what is credible.

Last year PRLeap added social features to their press releases. Last week they added a new feature called PRTube. It’s like YouTube for press releases. You can embed a viewer to display PRLeap press release on your blog, web site, etc. This is a great addition. I only wish you could resize the viewer – it’s a little big. To embed any press release, click on it and on the right hand side you can get the code.

It’s been a year since Southwest Airlines announced they were going to test in air Internet service. Now it’s really happening. The satellite broadband will be tested on one plane first. Then they plan to expand to at least three more planes by March.

The test will run for 60 days. They will gauge demand and see how the service works before determining if and how much they’ll charge.

Southwest has already contracted with Yahoo as a partner. Yahoo will provide a home page for the airline that will include information about the flight and destination.

Econsultancy recently ranted about the one-dimensional marketing world many top brands like Coke operate in. Coke may have the worlds biggest Facebook Fan Page but they’re not on Twitter!! And they aren’t integrating their online and offline ad campaigns either.

“All too often the internet (and mobile) is a last-minute thought, when it should be built into a campaign at the outset. More than that, it should now be hardwired into marketing strategies by default.”

-Why do Top Global Brands Like Coca Cola Ignor Twitter?

Facebook’s popular “25 Things About Me” meme  has gone viral and has even hit mainstream media (it’s in Time Magazine!). And since you have to have a Facebook account to participate, this simple request has driven a lot of new signups and traffic to the site.

Here’s how it works: you write 25 facts about yourself, post it on Facebook, and tag your Facebook friends so they could fill out 25 random things about themselves. Have you done it yet? If you don’t know how to tag someone, you learn.

The co-founder of Twitter Biz Stone has confirmed that Twitter plans to charge businesses for extra services. There are few details or dates. But that’s the question in all of our minds—especially the investors who put $20 million into Twitter and I assume want to see a return.

No doubt Twitter has proven its value—TechCrunch wrote that Dell made a million over the holidays by using Twitter to tell people about discounts and sales.

Newspapers and traditional media are bleeding profits and jobs. It’s one of the hardest hit sectors, so it’s not as if they couldn’t see this coming. But News Corp’s CEO Rupert Murdoch says it’s even worse than he thought. The company just announced they are writing off $8.4 billion of losses.

News Corp. is the largest media conglomerate in the world. They own MySpace, Hulu, Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, Photobucket, HarperCollins, and on and on. The company doesn’t break up revenues and losses by companies but did say MySpace ad revenues haven’t grown – profits are flat. In this climate you can take that as good news.

For all of you lucky iPhone owners, there’s a new source to get books and magazines (like Vegetarian Times), for free on your mobile phone. Google Book Search has gone mobile.  The service is also on phones built on Google’s Android platform.

I’m the kind of person who likes to read – especially in an airport – and this gives free access to over a million books. Most of the books are in the public domain – which means published before 1923.