Google has turned another experiment into a full tie feature this time in their Maps environment and much to the chagrin of URL shortening services it cuts into their business much like Twitter’s t.co shortener announcement did recently.

Now if you have a link in Google Maps that you want to share or whatever you can shorten it within maps without having any add-ons to get you there. Here is a picture of the newly full-time option as incorporated in Google Maps (this comes from the Google LatLong blog).

What this really means is that Google is making sure that they get the attribution credit for traffic coming from maps through ‘standardizing’ this feature. It has worked well for Titter thus far so why not in this instance. Also, when it comes to mobile, less is more. The blog tells us

Think of all the things that are advertised as being done in just an hour a day. In the Internet marketing space there are books about just about any subject like SEO, social media, you name it, that can be done in an hour a day.

Well, Nielsen has given us a look into the life of the Android device user and found that even the mobile habit is handled in an hour a day. The first reported finding shows that of that hour (it’s actually 56 minutes but we round up for link friendly reasons ), 67% of that hour is spent with apps while the rest of the time is spent on the web. What constitutes web time is a question that would help us understand this a bit better but we’ll save that for later.

When I was a kid, flipping through the newly delivered Sears Christmas Catalog was one of my biggest joys in life. My sister and I would work our way through from beginning to the toys, playing “pick” on every page. (We did allow ourselves to skip the men’s clothing section and the tools.) When we were done, we’d each sit down with pencil and paper and make a wish list with page numbers and color options.

Fast forward to now where Google is breathing new life into the old catalog, via their new Google Catalogs app for iPad.

It begins by choosing the catalogs you want to receive. LL Bean, Williams Sonoma, Urban Outfitters. . . the catalogs update automatically just like when you used to get them in the mail.

QR codes are popping up on everything from magazine ads to bus shelters and slowly but surely, Americans are learning to point and click.

comScore has just posted the results of their June 2011 survey regarding the funky, black and white squares and here’s what they found.

14 million mobile users in the US have scanned a QR code. That sound like a nice number until you put it in perspective. It represents only 6.2% of all mobile users.

60.5% of the code scanners were men, mostly between 18-34 with an income of over $100k.

Where did they find these codes? Nearly half said a print magazine or newspaper. A close second with 35.3% was product packaging. Posters, business cards, flyers and storefronts also made the list. The two strange choices were websites (27.4%) and TV (11.7%).