Google has announced that a service that was previewed last December is now live for mobile devices. I’ll call it the “Blue Dot of Availability” which is stupid but it’s the best I can do. This function is just more evidence that Google is making mobile a top priority and it is giving retailers the ability to come along for the ride.

The Google Mobile blog tells us more

We’re happy to announce that as of today, if you’re searching for a product that is sold by participating retailers, including Best Buy, Sears, Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, or West Elm, you can just look for the blue dots in the search results to see if it’s available in a local store. If you see a blue dot, you can tap on the adjacent “In stock nearby” link, and you’ll be taken to the seller’s page where you’ll see whether the item is “In Stock” or has “Limited Availability” near you. You’ll also see how far away the stores are from you — as long as you’ve enabled My Location or manually specified your location.

Here’s a look at it as well.

The initial list of retailers for this offering looks good and it is only going to grow as one would expect. At the end of the blog post Google puts out a request for retailers interested to fill out a form to get in the game.

My only question is why do you have to click on the More tab in order to get to the Shopping tab, which this function is under. For those in the know this will work but for the general searching population they may not know that this option even exists. I know there isn’t much room on mobile screen but a cool function that is buried may never get the exposure to make it truly successful.

But heck, what do I know?! Happy shopping for your blue dot specials.

Being a resident of North Carolina I have had the experience of watching the state government take away an income stream for people in a time when income streams can be little more like a trickle. It did this through imposing a tax on Amazon affiliate sales in the state and Amazon essentially said “No problem, we’ll just remove the program from your residents reach”. I marveled at what can only be seen as utter stupidity on the surface (I say on the surface because that’s where I sit and have no other details) as the government pulled the rug out from under its own citizens thus removing dollars from the North Carolina economy over a dispute about the tax on those transactions. The state essentially threw out the baby, the bathwater and the tub. Way to go NC state government!

Now we have another state that is entering the Pantheon of short-sightedness: Colorado. Techdirt reports

You may remember last summer that Amazon shut down its affiliate programs in North Carolina, Hawaii and Rhode Island in response to new laws being put in place in those states, which would effectively make any Amazon affiliate an “official” representative of the company in that state, thus requiring that Amazon start collecting sales tax. This followed a similar mess in New York the year before. This is really short-sighted on the part of the states, pushing for additional tax revenue (of course). But it stretches the definition of what it means to have a physical presence in a state to the point where someone who is running an ad for you (all that an affiliate really is) is treated as an employee.

I don’t know what to make of this quite honestly. I would need to hear the entire argument from each states’ side to see if there is any kind of logic here. You are essentially telling your citizens who may not have other viable income that they can’t perform their job in our state. The state is telling them, “If you are doing this as a significant part of your income please get up and move away because your money is no good here”. Huh?

What are your thoughts on this kind of jockeying between states and Amazon? Is there a way that this could turn against Amazon? What if there is suddenly a slew of states who enact the same rules? Does Amazon keep removing itself from these states? Will Amazon affiliates need to secede from the Union or start their own state? How does Amazonia, the 51st state sound?

Everyone in the world of marketing whether you are online or offline (or hopefully the right combination of the two) wants to better define social media and its uses. Different sectors or verticals see how the various social media tools impact their particular type of business and no two seem to act alike. Much of that has to do with having too little real data to draw firm conclusions from and the learning curve that is occurring on the customer side of this equation.

One sector that is well suited for the social media game is the retail industry. If you are a retail outlet of any kind, high end or low end or all stops in between, social media has proven its worth more quickly than say the B to B space. A study released by ForeSee Results helps to show this and it also shows that the social media outlet, or tool, that is showing the greatest promise is Facebook. This study is taken from the customers’ point of view and was performed by the retail arm of ForeSee’s practice.

As part of a study of nearly 10,000 visitors to the biggest e-retail websites in the United States, ForeSee Results wanted to use the methodology of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) to examine these issues, because the ACSI is able to show how different elements of a shopper’s interactions with a company (including on social media) impact their purchase intent, loyalty, and recommendations.

What we found is validation that social media is a viable marketing strategy when we understand what our customers want and know which social media platforms they frequent.

While that last statement in and of itself doesn’t state anything new some of the actual findings are of interest.

• 56% of shoppers to top e-retail websites who interact with social media websites have elected to “friend” or “follow” or “subscribe” to a retailer on a social networking site like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
• Facebook is, by far, the best place to reach shoppers—both because it’s where they already are, and it’s where they want to hear from retailers.
• Customers mainly interact with retailers on social media sites to learn about products and promotions—a marketer’s dream come true.

It’s the last point that needs to be focused on and has been noted here in the past as well. While we like to talk about brands and how people interact with brands and associate themselves with brands let’s face it: people want a deal. The type of brand loyalty that is desired and discussed is a lot more theory than reality. It makes for good blog posts but the main reason why people use social media is because they want something from the brands they follow: discounts. Not very sexy is it but it’s the truth.

What is the main reason you interact with this company through social media sites? (% of respondents)

Learn about sales / special offers 49%

Learn about products 45%

Get customer support 5%

Other reason (please specify): 1%

The study also told us that 81% of shoppers you are users of social media use Facebook regularly while only 16% of that same group said the same for Twitter. For those who are online shoppers but not regular users of social media still 56% of those people use Facebook and only 11% use Twitter. And as you can see, at least as far as retail is concerned Twitter has some work to do and the whole customer support thing hasn’t caught on yet.

So Facebook is the place to be but it appears that full adoption of this practice is not quite there. One quarter of the top online retailers had no Facebook presence while another quarter had less than 10,000 fans. It feels like the same conversation that has occurred for years with the Fortune 500 and blogging. Everyone likes to talk a great game but the execution is often lacking.

So what’s the takeaway here? People who are fans of brands historically are the most likely to be friends or followers in the social media space. What do they want? They want a deal. They want to be treated separately from the rest of the retail customer base of a brand because they are a ‘fan’ of the brand. So while putting together really cool ‘user experience’ type pages and sites might have a WOW factor, the one social media practice that falls to the bottom line is as old as the retail game itself: customers respond to deals.

Let us know if your experience validates or contradicts this study. Let us know if you agree or disagree. Just let us know. Oh and by the way make sure to visit the Marketing Pilgrim Facebook page and be our ‘friend’. Maybe we’ll discount something someday (usually it’s my opinion that is discounted but I’m working on that).

When Google announced that it would no longer play nicely with China, some suggested that this was a just a ploy to pull out of a country that it was struggling to dominate.

Of course, Google’s official stance was that it was just too much of a compromise to operate any business in China:

We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

Except maybe, for one that’s already successful…

A consortium led by Walt Disney Co is in advanced talks to buy into China’s largest in-bus digital media and advertising company…Google was expected to take only a small stake in the Bus Online deal, while Disney aimed to take the greater part, said the sources, adding that no agreement had been signed yet.

Wow, Google! That stance against China lasted all of four weeks!

Here we were thinking that you were putting your foot down so that other US companies might be able to get behind your efforts to stop censorship in China, when all along you were looking for a back door into the country.

Buying a stake in a successful Chinese company kind of gives credibility to the suggestion that you only backed out of China, because you weren’t able to compete. After all, if you were on such moral high-ground, you wouldn’t be buying into a company that already plays nicely with the Chinese government.

Would you?

We’ve seen the trend for a long time: social networks are sending more and more downstream traffic to retail sites. Hitwise has the numbers from December—and the downstream traffic from social networks is up 37%.

The change doesn’t look super significant, I know, but it’s the biggest percentage increase for any category. Fewer people are starting at retailers’ sites or through permission email, so search engines and social media are more important than ever.

So is it more because users are recommending deals to their friends, or is it because of retailers’ presence on social networks? Likely both. Hitwise found that many users were actively seeking info on popular retailers.

As an example, we ran a custom analysis of internal searches on Facebook to look for retail brands during the holiday season. . . . During the holidays over 2% of the traffic to Facebook (the 2nd ranked website in the US) visited a website in the Retail 500 immediately after. Retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, and Bath & Body Works (and others) all appeared within the internal searches taking place on Facebook signifying that consumers were actively seeking their content and offerings.

The first week of December, that rate topped 3%. With 175M daily visitors, even 3% is nothing to sneeze at.

What do you think? Is this proof that even big brands should be on social media? Or should they focus their efforts elsewhere?

We already know that 84% of marketers plan to shift some of their direct marketing budgets to social media. Now, a new report from the Society of Digital Agencies suggests that 50% of marketers will shift budgets from traditional to online media.

Not only that, but the highest priority for this newly allocated budget is social networks:

Now, before all of your social media experts pee your pants with excitement, consider this. While social networking is the top priority, that doesn’t mean that companies expert to spend boatloads on it. In fact, according to this chart, social networking is #4 on the pecking order:

You’ll notice that the amount to be spent on “viral campaigns” is one of the lowest numbers. I don’t think it means that companies don’t want their campaigns to “go viral,” I think it suggests a new level of maturity in thinking. As one respondent put it:

“Rather than spending another misguided year trying to “engineer” viral campaigns that will propagate themselves, regardless of consumer intentions, it’s time to refocus our marketing efforts to align with the way that people actually behave.” – Ivan Askwith, Big Spaceship

Aw look, we’re growing up!

The numbers are in according to one tracking firm, comScore, which tell us just how good, bad or indifferent this past holiday season was from an online perspective. With a 4 % increase over last year I wouldn’t say good or bad and maybe not even indifferent. How about we’ll just take it because let’s face it, the economy still sucks.

The data covers the entire November through December time frame. There were some contributing factors that lent to the overall numbers being in the black. Here are some comScore observations.

“The 2009 online holiday shopping season was a positive one as its growth rate slightly surpassed our forecast and returned to solidly positive rates after nearly a full year of marginally negative growth,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “Among the highlights of the season was the first $900 million online spending day and a strong late season spending surge, propelled by effective retailer promotions, guaranteed shipping and a major snowstorm on the eastern seaboard that convinced many to shop from the comfort of home. It’s possible that this better-than-expected end-of-year performance is a harbinger of renewed vigor and optimism for 2010 as the consumer economy seeks to rebound from one of the worst years in memory. At the same time, we need to remember that consumers’ spending power remains constrained by high unemployment levels, substantial debt and a new-found desire to save.”

Drat that new-found desire to save! Wonder if the government is catching on yet but I digress. The chart below shows just how consumers were willing to wait longer to make their purchases. That may be attributed to waiting to see if any deals would show up or just that people waited to make sure they could afford to actually buy things.

There were a few categories that made significant gains over last year’s really crappy results. Here’s a ‘look see’ at some of the top performers.

At this point in time I think anyone will breathe at least a small sigh of relief when any shopping numbers have a plus sign in front of them these days? What do you think?

ForeSee Results has issued the results of its annual E-Retailer Satisfaction Index—a survey of 10,000 shoppers at the top 40 retailers—and the results are good—if you’re a big e-tailer. If not, well—let’s just say you’re pulling down the average.

As the Wall Street Journal reports, the 40 largest online retailers averaged a satisfaction score of 79 on a scale of 100, up five points from the 2007 and 2008 steady results. But for their sample of over 100 large and small e-tailers, overall satisfaction was down to 73, off from 75 in 2008 and 77 in 2007.

MediaPost adds an important finding, too:

ForeSee’s research also finds that shoppers who are highly satisfied are 65% more likely to purchase online, 44% more likely to purchase offline, 70% more likely to recommend, and 49% more likely to return than a dissatisfied shopper.

While satisfaction drives purchases, a leading indicator of satisfaction wasn’t competitive pricing or free shipping—but the website’s ease of use. ForeSee CEO Larry Freed noted that most of the top 40 also work hard to integrate their online experience with that of their offline brick-and-mortar. Only six of the top 40 are not associated with an offline retailer—with Amazon, the long-time satisfaction leader, one of those notable exceptions. (Amazon leads the satisfaction survey with its score of 87.)

Web-only stores, Freed says, succeed when they make sure to include information such a product reviews and continually invest in their user experience, including the look and feel of the site.

Naturally, the satisfaction index shows a strong positive correlation with sales. According to comScore reports, the top 25 retailers saw a 13% increase in holiday spending YOY, while small and medium companies saw a 10% decline. The overall holiday spending was up 4% over last year.

What do you think? Were you more satisfied with online shopping this year? Do you use smaller retailers or do you tend to stay in the top 40?

Photo credit: Joel Telling

I know you’ve been waiting with bated breath all holiday season to find out which of the made-up online shopping holidays would be the winner—Cyber Monday for the first time ever? Green Monday again? Brown Monday? Purplish-Blue-Like-a-Bruise Monday?

Sadly, none of the above. Nope, it was some no name: Tuesday, December 15. Coming from behind, that all-but-forgotten day of the week topped the online revenue charts for the first time with $913M in sales. That’s right, nearly one billion dollars in revenue online in one day—and yes, that would be the record for the most online spending in a single day, ever.

*Corresponding days based on corresponding shopping days (November 2 thru December 21, 2008)

As you can see, overall, spending is up just 4% over last year. The peak day is up 6% over last year’s peak, Green Monday (December 15).

Wait a minute. December 15, 2008; December 15, 2009. Coincidence? I think not.

Of course, there’s always room for the last minute shoppers to set another record. Polls indicate that, as of Sunday, the average shopper has 38% of their Christmas shopping left, with 17% who haven’t even started yet. That’s one in six Christmas shoppers who left it to the last four days before Christmas to even get started. (via)

Have you finished your Christmas shopping? Did you win big on December 15 again this year, or did you help drive up that total spending?

Here’s a fun Christmas game for you to play.

How many different types of lawsuits can you think of that include Google AdWords? Put your party creative hats on and see what you can come up.

OK, Sellify, you go first!

Sue Amazon over defamatory statements posted in Google AdWords by one of its affiliates?

Wow! That is creative!

And, it’s actually true! Writes Techdirt:

The two main complaints are over trademark violations of buying keywords, and then defamation. Defamation? Yes, because apparently when people do searches on Sellify or some of its related trademarked names, like OneQuality, some of the ads that come up say things like:

Beware of the SCAM Artist
Camcorders at the Best Price
From the Trusted Source
amazon.com

As Mike Masnick points out, this lawsuit is unlikely to go anywhere. Not only is Amazon not actually the appropriate party to sue, but trademark infringements in search ads tend to get bogged down in the courts anyway.

Still, you have to admire the creativity of Sellify. If we were really playing the above game, it would have a good chance of claiming the top prize.

The results are in: Cyber Monday (and Black Friday) = success! The numbers are actually up from last year, despite the state the economy is still in. And according to Hitwise, social sites helped to drive sales. (Yeah, FOR REAL.)

Their data shows that not only was US traffic up to social sites over the holiday weekend, but downstream traffic to online retailers was also up—especially to Amazon (Cyber Monday winner), Wal-Mart (Black Friday winner), Target, Best Buy and Toys R Us. Wal-Mart also saw the highest increase in downstream traffic from Twitter (among the Retail 500 that Hitwise tracks).

However, let me just pull out my favorite wet blanket—sort of. Let’s see, how can I put this? #1—Cyber Monday is a made-up holiday. Nobody outside of Internet marketing/retailing has ever heard of it and it has nothing to do with their shopping patterns. However, there’s good news here, too. We are a nation (world?) of procrastinators—and another day is actually the biggest (revenue-wise) online shopping day of the year—and it’s yet to come.

The thinking behind Cyber Monday, created in 2005, was that workers returning from their Thanksgiving holiday would use the Internet to do a lot of their holiday shopping. (At work? Don’t they have the Internet at home, where they have all those glossy ads from stores to compare prices? Were they too lazy/agoraphobic to go out on Black Friday? (Hey, no worries, me too.) Clearly, the logic behind this “holiday” was always flawed.)

Two years ago, it was “Green Monday” (although now there seems to be some confusion as to whether that label applies to the first or second Monday in December)—with $881M in online sales (versus $733 on Cyber Monday, tied for tenth among the big online sales days in 2007). Last year, it was the day after Green Monday, with $887M (versus $846M on Cyber Monday)—but with this year’s Cyber Monday total the same as last year’s highest sales day (and last year’s highest sales day only a 1% increase over the year before), could we hope for anything higher?

All of the talk of how things were on ‘Black Friday’ is now followed by the yearly quest for the Cyber Monday data. We in the online world love to see just how much the shift to online commerce continues to overtake the traditional way that goods and services are sold. Whether these numbers are inflated or given too much credit is always a concern but this year’s trends, at least from a few sources, points to the continued rise of online growing while brick and mortar struggles.

To what degree this year’s trending points to a larger economic trend is a huge TBD (to be determined). Honestly, more people may have experimented with online purchasing to save time and money including gas and food that is part of the in-store shopping experience of a venture out on Black Friday. That’s just my thought and there is NO scientific backing on that one.

As for more ‘official’ statistics, Retailer Daily sums it up this way

Both annual consumer spending and traffic levels went up on “Cyber Monday”, according to third-party research results. Consumers’ interest in shopping online appeared to carry over from “Black Friday” last week, when e-commerce sales increased at a significantly higher rate than brick-and-mortar sales.

Here are a few highlights from the Coremetrics Cyber Monday 2009 report (PDF):

• E-commerce sales were 13.7% higher on Cyber Monday this year than they were last year
• Average dollar amount spent by consumers per online order rose 38.2%, from $130.24 to $180.03
• Apparel retailers and jewelry retailers drove this increase with 26.4% and 14.3% jumps in average dollar amount spent per online order, respectively.
• Sporting goods segment, retailers reported a nearly 55% increase in new site visitors, but a 3.1% decline in average dollar amount spent per online order.
• Department store retailers reported a 33% increase in new site visitors, but a nearly 10% decrease in the average value of each online order.
• Per order, consumers purchased 30% more items this year than they did last year.

November 2009 American Express Spending and Saving Tracker reports that this e-commerce surge may trend though the holiday season

• 79% of overall respondents plan to use the internet as a tool for holiday shopping
• 45% plan to purchase items online
• 28% will use the internet to buy hard-to-find items
• 27% will use the internet for product research
• 25% will go online for gift ideas

One particularly interesting piece of data is around the projected use of mobile in the holiday shopping experience is on the rise.

According to the Deloitte 24th Annual Holiday Survey, 19% of consumers plan to access the internet via their mobile phones while shopping to find store locations, obtain coupons and sales information, as well as research products and prices. This percentage rose to 39% in the 18 to 29 age group.

So do we dare take this information and say that the economy is truly on the rebound and rosier days are ahead for all? Probably not a good idea. I guess the solace that can be taken is that if there is one industry in the marketing world that is at least going to stay afloat during these rough times it’s the Internet marketing segment. Maybe we should just count those blessings and move on.

Let’s face it this holiday season is a pivotal one for all of us from a macro point of view. While many retailers will be focused on their individual bottom lines it will be important to look at how this whole ‘first weekend’ of the holiday shopping season plays out from start to finish with the latest entry, Cyber Monday, happening as you read this.

First the good news. Online sales for Black Friday were up 11% over last year according to comScore and the rest of November was an improvement over the prior year. Let’s remember, though, that last year’s holiday season was on the heels of “Bailout 1” and waiting for a new president to be inaugurated. In other words, last year sucked so any improvement over those numbers needs to be tempered.

Overall, meaning the performance of the Black Friday weekend in total, was less heartening in that it appears that people are intent on spending less and there was virtually no increase in spending overall from last year. Yahoo News reports

Consumers spent significantly less per person at the start of the holiday season this weekend, dimming hopes for a retail comeback that would help propel the economy early in 2010.

Consumers said they will have spent nearly 8 percent less on average, or about $343 per person, over the weekend that includes Thanksgiving, Black Friday and runs through Sunday, according to the NRF (National Federation of Retailers).

Traffic to stores and websites rose to 195 million people from 172 million in 2008, but shoppers were focused on buying low-priced items, like $10 toys and $9 books, the NRF said.

Total spending for the holiday weekend rose to an estimated $41.2 billion, up 0.5 percent from a year earlier, NRF said.

Since I am not a prognosticator I am not going to offer some thoughts on where this will all go. What I will say is that this will not be the time for irrational exuberance over numbers that look nice in a silo. This season is about online and offline together and if there is little or no increase (or even a decrease) in spending then we are looking at some interesting times ahead.

As I mentioned yesterday, I love Bing’s shopping engine. In no small part because I can earn some serious cashback. As long as I make sure I’m getting the lowest price in the first place, the cashback makes it worth using Bing.

So, Google Product Search can wave all the new fancy features in front of me that it wants, if I ain’t getting a kickback, I ain’t using Google!

OK, maybe some of you aren’t quite so price conscious as me. Maybe for you, shopping is more about the journey, than the destination. If that’s the case, you’re going to love the scenery Google just added.

First, we have a new gallery view:

We also have new review summaries:

Nearby stores:

Video product reviews and a mobile friendly interface complete the list of new features.

But, what it doesn’t have is this:

And, until it does, I’m sticking with Bing!

Note: This is not a paid post, but someone, somewhere at Microsoft PR just got a raise.

I’ve decided that I really don’t need as many of you coming to Marketing Pilgrim each day.

In fact, I’ve decided to start charging for the content that we publish.

Oh, but I will still keep the advertisers’ money. They’ll just have to get used to the idea that we don’t have as many eyeballs viewing their ads.

And, lastly, I’m kicking out Google. Yeah, I don’t need it bringing any additional readers to the site. They just consume extra bandwidth.

Have I gone insane?

I haven’t–I’m not really doing any of the above–but media mogul Rupert Murdoch quite possibly has!

Speaking in an interview with his own Sky News Australia channel, Murdoch–whom I can never look at without thinking of Spitting Image–bluntly explained how he might ban Google from indexing his newspapers’ content:

“I think we will [remove our websites from Google’s search index] but that’s when we start charging,” he said.

He added: "The people who simply just pick up everything and run with it – steal our stories, we say they steal our stories – they just take them. That’s Google, that’s Microsoft, that’s Ask.com, a whole lot of people … they shouldn’t have had it free all the time, and I think we’ve been asleep."

I’m not going to bore you to death with obvious statements about the death of newspapers and web users expecting free content, so I’ll just let you make up your own mind as to whether Murdoch is a genius or not.

For those of you interested, you can watch the entire interview here, or below:

Welcome to this Friday’s version of surveys, research and statistics to ponder. Of course, how and what you ponder always has more to do with the source of the statistics and your mood which makes the numbers kinda funky but ‘Hey!’, if we didn’t have stats what would we do with our days?

This latest statistical ‘he said / she said’ consists of different numbers regarding the state of e-commerce. Today’s particpants are, “In the red corner”, comScore. They are in the red corner because they are reporting that e-commerce is slipping for the first time in the history of the world (you get it right?). “In the blue corner” is Forrester who tells everyone to not get our knickers in a twist because even in the cruddy economy e-commerce is the light on the hill or a veritable economic ‘beacon o’ hope’. Today’s match is brought to you by the Wall Street Journal.

On Thursday, comScore reported that U.S. online spending in the third quarter slipped 2% to $29.6 billion versus last year. That represents the first time since comScore began tracking the figures that online spending has shrunk for two quarters in a row. (Online shopping was flat in the first quarter, and slipped 1% in the second quarter.) ComScore was slightly more upbeat about the potential of growth in the fourth quarter, if only because we’ll be comparing it to last year’s dismal fourth quarter.

But on Monday, Forrester Research put out a report that reached a different conclusion: online sales in November and December are likely to grow 8% compared to last year. Moreover, a survey Forrester conducted with the National Retail Foundation found that online retailers reported sales in the third quarter grew 16%.

Geesh, can’t we all just get along? Let’s just say this. The rest of the article is the two researchers pointing fingers at each other saying that how they collect data is better than the other guy and having a researchers equivalent of a “my dad can beat up your dad” argument.

How about we do this? How about we look at what has happened and then work toward getting better. Then we assess if we did or did not get better after we actually DID SOMETHING! What a concept.

Aren’t rosy predictions and unfettered prognostications how we got into this mess in the first place? Isn’t predicting the future that never was a mistake? If the Internet truly is a better way to do things then why can’t we find a better way to assess things rather than act like we have some magic 8-ball or crystal ball that tells the future as well. We don’t.

My prediction? People will go out and do their very best to make something happen in Q4 regardless of these predictions and then they will live in the world of reality of whether things are good or bad, not in the fantasy land of what they may or may not be in the future. This research is for the big boys and not the rest of the world and even then it’s dicey at best. One man’s opinion. Have a fun Friday!

I think every single one of us could share a frustrating online shopping experience, especially one about trying to find a product you know a retailer offers, but doesn’t show up in their search results. Google wants to make it easier for all of us with their new enterprise offering, Google Commerce Search.

To participate, you submit all your data to Google Merchant Center and Google Product Search (via data feeds, direct uploads or the API), and then customize the look and feel of your search engine with Google. Although Google doesn’t mention this in the documentation, I can only assume you have to do something to incorporate the Commerce Search into your site (probably replacing your old search engine). (Oh, and PS, it starts at $50k/yr.)

And, now, isn’t that awfully handy? Just in time for the holidays, Google has come out with a solution for you that entails you adding your entire inventory to Google Product Search. They warn us that, on average, a user takes 8 seconds to decide whether to stay on a site (although several other studies have shown that people judge sites in less than a second). If we don’t have our products indexed with Google, in those eight seconds, we’ll lose all our potential customers!

Wait, why, again?

(To be realistic, this isn’t even close to being “in time for the holidays.” That would have probably been in June so they could get past the ramp up stage.)

And once again, for the visual learners:

Obviously, I’m all for better usability on eCommerce sites. But somehow, I don’t think Google really has us in mind as they rolled this out.

What do you think? Is this something Google is doing out of the goodness of their hearts, or out of interest for the bottom line?

Other than looking like an Old Navy commercial, I really don’t know what to make of this new Ask.com TV ad.

Still, when did Ask.com ads ever make sense?

I know it’s a conundrum you’ve just puzzled over for years. When will “the mobile” “arrive”? What will it take to get mobile payments off the ground in the US? A month ago, we looked at Read Write Web’s series on this subject, where they concluded that mobile payments wouldn’t take off until a site users know and trust implemented a secure system.

Facebook has already announced a mobile payments “solution” (all buzz words get scare quotes today) with Zong—but Amazon might beat them to the punch. Amazon, one of the (if not the) most popular online commerce sites, premieres its own Mobile Payments System today—and it’s not just for their site.

No, Amazon will let third parties use their system for mobile payments. As a trusted online retailer, Amazon could be the one to significantly increase mobile payments with its one-click checkout on other sites.

Amazon has been pretty forward thinking with its payment system. Two years ago, it premiered its Flexible Payments Service (FPS), a little like a Facebook Connect for online payments—they let developers integrate Amazon payments into their site, so users could login through their Amazon account, and use their Amazon payment and shipping info. (FPS users could use a highly flexible billing schedule for their Amazon-affiliated customers.)

The new Mobile Payments System (MPS) builds on those same features, integrating into third-party sites, adding to users’ trust, while expanding it to mobile offerings. Plus, if you’re already using FPS, MPS is automatically active for your site.

What do you think? Will Amazon MPS catch on, and will it bring mobile payments to the masses?

Professors at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley just conducted one of the largest independent studies on privacy and advertising tracking–and you may want take note of the findings.

Of 1,000 adult internet users:

…66 percent that said tailored ads were “not OK,” an additional 7 percent said such ads were not OK when they were tracked on the site. An additional 18 percent said it was not OK when they were tracked via other Web sites, and an additional 20 percent said it was not OK when they were tracked offline.

OK, so internet users don’t like the idea of targeted ads, but are we getting the complete picture here? Did the survey ask: would you rather have a site serve targeted ads or pay a fee to access the content? I doubt it! You see, it’s easy to ask questions that peel away at the sentiment of the general public, but are not necessarily representative of what they are actually willing to accept.

Think about it. If consumers knew what was being tracked each time they handed over their grocery store “super important VIP discount card” they’d be too scared to ever step foot in the store again! If questioned, they’d probably object to the tracking, but tell them that that “2 for 1″ deal on the 12-pack of Coke vanishes, and they might have a different perspective.

As marketers we should be concerned about this study. Privacy advocates are using it to scare the crap out of the FTC and Washington–neither of which will ask the questions I just did. And, with 69% of respondents saying they’re in favor of laws that force a web site to reveal ALL data they’re tracking and a whopping 92% favoring an option to delete all of that data, we could end up with some pretty lame ads.

Do we need regulation on what’s tracked and how the data is used? Perhaps–there are some shady businesses out there. But, we should do so only after web users are explicitly told, “look, you delete this ad tracking info and you’ll be bashing animated monkeys each time you come to our site!”