Huddle has shown exponential growth during a period of economic uncertainty, maintaining ambitious targets to build a billion dollar empire, with plans to eventually go public within the next three years.  Awarded Best European Enterprise Company by the Telegraph, Huddle’s success exemplifies the impact of social media marketing, still prevalent within business environments, and likely to continue it’s dominant position; with businesses looking to implement internal and external social networks as a means of communication.

Alastair Mitchell, Chief Executive of Huddle, told technology news site V3 that the objective is to position Huddle as a user focused social platform, making internal business communications simpler and more effective: “our vision is to replace email for sharing content in a business context just as Facebook has replaced email for sharing social content such as photos”.  Mitchell has ambitious plans for the social networking site, with plans to grow the firm by 60% before the year is out.

The biggest win for the UK based social media platform was a ten-year contract with the UK government, in which Huddle’s collaboration and project management software will be managed by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and hosted in their private cloud.  It’s anticipated that the partnership with the UK government will lead to new opportunities within other public sector organisations.  According to VP and Gartner Fellow Tom Austin: “By YE14, cloud email and collaboration services, at 10 per cent penetration, will have passed the ‘tipping point’, with broad scale adoption underway.”

Huddle has also welcomed Simon O’Kane, former Managing Director of cloud based CRM platform Salesforce.com for the UK and Ireland, as part of Huddle’s management team, in a bid to develop Huddle into a billion dollar business.  Earlier this year Salesforce made their social networking platform ‘Chatter’ available for open use, with a similar look and feel to Facebook and Twitter, Chatter is specifically designed to be utilised as part of a private social network, providing business users with the ability to collaborate and send communications to their colleagues, without risking conversations being tracked by external observers or, more problematically, competitors.  No doubt Huddle will be looking to recreate similar networking tools as part of Huddle’s portfolio of products, as social media dominates personal networks, it’s integration and establishment in workplace practices exemplifies it’s continued popularity, and the pivotal role it continues to play in developing business strategies.

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One of the key benefits provided by the new tool is the ability to produce reports measuring the impact that social media has on web traffic.  Google uses the example of ‘campaign tagging’ links that are shared between a blog, social platform or a website; when a new post is published, if users operating the Analytics PPC dashboard also tweet about their new content, by utilsing the real-time report function, the immediate affect that a tweet has on site traffic can be tracked, as John Jersin, of the Google Analytics Team explains:

“For example, last week we posted about the latest episode of Web Analytics TV and also tweeted about the post. By campaign tagging the links we shared, we could see how much traffic each channel is driving to the blog as it happened. We could also see when we stopped receiving visits from the tweet, which helps know when to reengage.”

The enhancement will largely benefit users who utilise social media as a means of driving web traffic to their site or online store front, as it affords the opportunity to draw correlations between these two factors and their interdependence, allowing users to measure just how important social platforms are, as well as providing insights into tweets, posts or updates that have the highest rate of click throughs and ultimately sales conversions.

Aside from the ever increasing importance of social media when it comes to marketing strategies, the added benefit of the Google Analytics Real Time functionality is the ability to ensure that campaigns are being correctly measured before their launch, as Jersin goes on to explain:

“Another way I’m using Real-Time is to make sure campaign tracking is correctly implemented before launching a campaign. When getting ready to launch a new campaign it’s critical to make sure your measurement plan is working before you start driving visitors to the page. With the Real-Time reports you can find out in seconds whether you’re getting the data you want in Google Analytics.”

The Google Analytics PPC dashboard is likely to come under scrutiny, and receive a number of updates similar to those provided by the ‘Real Time’ tool, in order to maintain it’s dominant position in the SEO market space, as the web’s more junior players, such as Twitter, increase their service offerings and provide their own analytics tools, in a bid to rival the established search engine giants like Google.

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With the well documented success of smartphone technology, Intel are keen to break into the market, currently dominated by ARM, used by Microsoft’s Windows smartphones, while other companies manufacturing mobile processors such as Texas Instruments and Samsung, license ARM’s architecture.

The announcement comes just months after Google acquired hardware manufacturer Motorola mobility, and completes the circle of hardware, processor and operating system development, indicating that Google will be leveraging their partnership with Intel in the manufacture of mobile devices that can compete with the Apple iPad and iPhone; a move that has proved unsuccessful for many manufacturers in recent months, including HP and RIM.

The Intel and Google partnership is mutually beneficial, as Google’s Android platform holds a 40% share of the smartphone market, more than both Apple or Microsoft’s operating systems, enabling Intel to benefit from the dominance of Google’s operating system in this sphere.  The adaptation of their Pay Per Click Management Suite, also complements the full range of hardware, software and services provided to the mobile market by Google.  According to Real World Technologies analyst David Kanter:  “it’s really about Google saying that Intel is going to be a first-class citizen in the Android ecosystem”.

Both organisations are aiming to optimise Google’s Android mobile software, for use with the lower-powered Atom chips, in order to expedite the ‘time-to-market’ of smartphones using Intel technologies.   Until fairly recently, phone manufacturers have been solely responsible for enabling the compatibility of Android friendly hardware, for use with Intel processors; the new model will ensure Google’s Android software is optimised at the point of manufacture for use with Intel’s Atom chips.

The move is fairly critical for Intel, as the proliferation of tablets and smartphones has lead to increased speculation, and subsequent evidence, to suggest that the curtain is falling on the average PC, with sales declining in mature North American and European markets.  The x86 architecture adopted by Intel is aligned to the PC market, and has proved to be inefficient on smartphone devices; impacting on the battery life, with it’s high consumption of power.

This is not the first time Intel and Google have worked in collaboration, in 2006 the pair announced plans to bring together Google Video with Intel’s Viiv technology, making it easier for consumers to: “search, manage, and consume the huge amount of video information available on the Internet”.  Five years on, no doubt the objective in their latest partnership will be much the same; allowing users to consume the ever increasing amount of information that is available to them, on a device powered by Intel’s Atom chip and delivered via Google’s Android operating system, with web usage monitored by Google’s ever expanding portfolio of PPC and SEO management tools.

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The new functionality will allow AdWords users to optimise the positioning of their ads, in order for them to appear consistently in the listings above relevant search results, for new or existing campaigns.  The recently implemented metric complements the changes made by Google in the introduction of their “Top vs. Side” reporting mechanism, that indicates how ads that appear on top of the search results perform in comparison to those published at the side of SERPs.  As Google’s Hal Varian explains: “this distinction is important, since, on average, ads that appear above the search results tend to get substantially more clicks than ads that appear on the right-hand side”.

These two changes to the AdWords portfolio will provide key indicators for marketers managing their online advertising and search engine optimization campaigns.  By providing access to data that will allow users to conduct a more detailed analysis, and make distinctions between the location of an advertisement on Google’s SERPs, compared with the click through rate, and ultimately the number of conversions.  The changes will also give brand advertisers a better understanding of how critical ‘brand terms’ are impacting on the position of their ad campaigns above search result listings.

The most recent metric will give AdWords users the opportunity to maximise budgets and achieve more click throughs by positioning advertisements in the best possible location, according to Andrew Truing’s Inside AdWords blog post, where the announcement was made:

“This information helps you better optimise your search campaigns by more deeply examining the relationship between your ads’ locations and their clicks and conversions. On average, ads that appear above the search results tend to get substantially more clicks than ads that appear on the side.  Using this information in conjunction with the new top of page bid estimates can give you greater insight with which to plan your bidding strategy.”

Although the metric will enable users to spend their budgets more sagaciously on ad campaigns, Truing does point out that merely relying on one reporting mechanism to provide adequate data for maximising the success and optimisation of your ad is not advisable:

“While the top of page bid estimates can help guide your bid planning, bidding higher than the top of page bid estimate will not guarantee a top ad position.  Ad position will still depend on Quality Score, your CPC bid, your budget and account settings, and user and competing advertiser behavior.”

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Pivot Con surveyed a cross section of marketing professionals and brand managers as part of their research, headed by Editorial Director Brian Solis, who identifies social media marketing as a tool to measure what consumers are talking about, interested in, or responding to.  Solis cites organisations that are using these responses to campaigns in order to develop new approaches, as the driving force behind what is shaping the future and active development of online advertising across social platforms: “those brands that listen, measure and evolve programs as a result, will push advertising forward — to the benefit of consumers and ultimately the brand”.

According to the report’s findings, 70% of the brands surveyed utilise traditional media formats to introduce their social advertising platforms, by including links to their online campaigns in long established mediums such as print media.  Although more traditional approaches still play a pivotal role in creating brand awareness, they are also a vehicle for perpetuating the continued exposure of a new product, or campaign, as well as providing a platform for measuring how customers are actively engaging with a product, and whether they are willing to associate themselves with it, or recommend it to other users.

More and more brands are turning to the consumer for the validation of their brand or product; and social media marketing is the ideal platform for achieving this aim; encouraging interactions, and analysing users responses to campaigns, plays a key role in the evolving social media space, providing a measure for the success of existing approaches to social media advertising and informing the development of future operations, as Pivot Con’s report illustrates:

“Brands are turning to the social consumer for endorsement of products and services. Over 80% of brands encourage user involvement, with 58% seeking users to become involved with the brand, and an additional 16% hoping consumers will endorse products or the company within their social streams.”

Using the Facebook ‘like, Google ‘+1’ and Twitter hash tag functions to circulate content amongst other social networking users not only effectively maximises the exposure of a brand or a particular campaign, but it also provides a key indicator for marketers to better understand what is making their customers tick, and the strategies that are reflective of, or even influencing, the current zeitgeist on social media marketing platforms.

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The dream for many could become a reality sooner than anticipated, as Virgin are currently in “advanced conversations” with London councillors about rolling out a WiFi network in London.  Neil Berkett, Chief Executive at Virgin Media confirmed that the provision of a free WiFi service in London is being discussed as part of their continued effort to innovate broadband services within the UK.  According to Berkett the move is one that customers have been calling for, as more and more people want faster internet services on the move: “I think it is a real opportunity if you think about consumers’ needs for data outside the home”.

The introduction of a free WiFi network in the capital has the potential to open up opportunities for businesses to take advantage of the increased amount of hours per week, that people will be spending online.  Search Engine Optimisation in the UK already plays a detrimental role for many businesses; but the early rumblings of a free, open internet, provide the scope for many to maximise on the additional hours every week that more and more people will spend surfing the web in the capital.

There is currently on average 1.1 million people commuting into London everyday by overground rail alone; outside of those traversing the London boroughs, or those using alternative modes of transport.  It was also recently estimated that people are now spending as much as 139 hours per year commuting.  The increased number of people who will have access to the internet at faster speeds will provide the opportunity for many businesses to explore marketing to captive audiences, and maximising the potential of these revenue streams by enhancing the profile of businesses online, and implementing an infrastructure that can cope with traffic from mobile users; making SEO for many UK businesses a pivotal area for investment.

The plans proposed by Virgin echo those of TFL earlier this year, who initiated a project for rolling out a WiFi service on London’s main tube lines, in preparation for the 2012 Olympic games; the project was later scrapped due to budget limitations, but the necessity to open up channels of communication in and around London is a pressing topic for many providers.

Should Virgin advance their plans to successfully implement a WiFi network in London, they will certainly be looking to capitalise on the existing demand for a free WiFi service in the capital, and stay ahead of competitors in the broadband market.

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The new purchase will come on the back of other key search engines undertaking similar acquisitions, with Google purchasing YouTube. Industry experts predict that video optimisation will form one of the biggest spheres of activity in the world of SEO for 2011, and is going to be of huge value when it comes to businesses of all sizes deploying effective search marketing techniques and SEO services.

GoViral is a Danish company, which was founded in 2005 by two internet advertising executives. It states that its company mission is to support people to understand the overall benefits of internet marketing through video, and support businesses to enhance brand awareness of their company online.

An AOL spokesperson has commented: “We believe that GoViral … allows us to match our ambition for premium content creation and engaging advertising, with highly targeted distribution at scale. Video is core to AOL’s consumer programming strategy.”

“AOL has made a clear commitment to deliver great original content and, with their strong US position, it is a great accelerator for us to grow internationally and realise the potential of video.”

The sale of the company will see its founders gaining around twenty million pounds. Industry experts are suggesting that this new acquisition by AOL will be much more successful than the 2008 deal which saw them purchase social networking site Bebo.

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According to police sources, the twelve people concerned with the allegations set out to deliberately scam the iTunes system by designing a ploy to produce revenue through fraud and deception. The group made the songs which were subsequently uploaded to the music site specifically to produce a product which could then be purchased fraudulently, in order to move up the download charts and generate illicit sales.

The group created approximately twenty songs and uploaded them, both in iTunes and various Amazon online music sites. By deploying both stolen and cloned credit cards, they were able to purchase songs worth almost five hundred thousand pounds, and claim all the royalties from the sales.

The group will appear at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court on September 15th. They are based in Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Kent and Birmingham. Scotland Yard e-crime experts became involved after being alerted by the online music sellers, and took each of the twelve suspected participants in for questioning. Initial enquiries were instigated following preliminary FBI claims that the online music stores were being targeted by an international group.

Police have named the people involved, as:

• Denver White
• Rajan Aheer
• Craig Anderson
• Arran Jassi
• Sandeep Aheer
• Colton Johnson
• Lamar Johnson.

In addition, four other people will appear in court following allegations of fraud and deception.

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As a landmark on Google Maps, Tessa has been positioned close to Westminster Palace and Big Ben, jostling with architectural stars to take her place as a genuine sightseeing attraction. She has issued a statement which suggests she is rather proud of her new position as a celebrated London landmark: “I’m not overly concerned. In opposition it can often feel like you’ve been forgotten in the public mind. I’m therefore grateful to Google for putting me back on the map.”

According to Google, the information they gathered from the site was offered by a third party, and they have issued a statement saying that they are unable to disclose details of who supplied the data. As with other landmarks, Tessa Jowell is available to be reviewed by tourists. So far, she has gathered twenty reviews, most of which state their admiration of her as a positive landmark.

Tessa Jowell has been described by visitors to Google Maps as ‘a must see’, ‘one of the finest landmarks the city has to offer’, ‘deeply moving’ and ‘resplendent in the evening light. Visiting London and watching the sun set over her is one of the most profound spiritual moments I have ever experienced.‏”

However, not all comments have been completely positive. One penny-pinching London visitor has advised that rather than spending time and money on a say out at Tessa Jowell, tourists should step off the common route and discover more remote landmarks such as Tony Benn or Ed Balls.

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A hospital in Scotland is all set to hire a new fleet of mechanical staff – robots. The willing helpers will be able to remove clinical waste, deliver food, clean the operating theatre and dispense drugs. This is a giant step forward in the field of technology, meaning the hospital has to hire fewer humans on the workforce, getting their metal team to do the arduous work instead.

The robots are currently undergoing final tests prior to the opening of the new £300m Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert, Stirlingshire, In August. By developing a new network of corridors beneath the hospital premises, the NHS team have been able to map out where and how the robots will undertake their chores.

NHS Forth Valley chairman Ian Mullen commented that the new hospital would be “packed full of design features to improve patient care and improve the life of staff. Members of staff will use a hand-held PDA to call up the robot to move meal trays, or linen, or whatever. The robot will come up in the service lift by itself, pick up the item and go back into the lift.”

The robots will follow a pre-programmed system of routes to get to where they need to be, using laser to determine their location and move from place to place. In-built computers will open doors using sensors, so the robots can tell if there is anyone in the way, and navigate about safely.

This is a huge step forward in the battle to control infection, as tasks can now be separated in terms of clean or dirty, meaning that some robots will only be required to undertake roles which carry an infection risk. Others can focus upon jobs such as delivering food and dispensing drugs.

You’re probably wondering right now if there are any stairs in the hospital, thinking back to the issues daleks used to have on Doctor Who. The hospital has not yet reported back about this practical issue.

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Apple have confirmed that they have bought the firm that are widely believed to be responsible for the design of the engine behind the CPU that powers the iPad.

US based company Intrinsity do not actually make microprocessors directly, instead they specialise in licensing and designing chips for mobile applications.

Their primary and most well known product is a set of design tools known as Fast14 which includes the ARM family of CPUs that are at the core of many of Apple’s mobile devices.

Although the purchase of Intrinsity has only just been confirmed by Apple many of their employees had already changed their online Linkedln profiles to boast of their new employment with Apple some time ago.

As is always the case with such deals Apple have not disclosed what they paid for the company or how exactly they plan to use their technology, although it would seem that the technology will be used on their mobile devices.

Industry experts claim Apple paid roughly $120 million for Intrinsity, pocket change for a company that has just announced huge profits for the year so far.

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The CES saw what gadget fans are hoping will be the next wave of mobile internet gadgets in the shape of internet televisions, pocket PCs, and even internet watches. There are even reports that the experiment has escaped the lab – the Detroit Motor Show, which starts this week, looks set to boast a range of web connected cars.

So what does this all mean for web marketing? Well, unfortunately it’s complicated. In the good old days when mobile internet was a pared down version of the real thing, advertisers were limited to 18 word adverts and only really bothered to do mobile advertising when they were selling particular products. We’re talking emergency or convenience stuff here – locksmiths and pizza delivery, yes; networked business solutions, no.

Now however, the lines are blurred. The internet on iPhones, blackberries, etc., is no different to the real internet and so the changes required are that much more subtle. The market is still young enough, and changing quickly enough, that a range of concrete best practices has yet to emerge, though there are a couple of key things that I always consider when deciding whether or not to actively target the mobile market.

The first is whether or not the product is actually suitable. The lines are less clearly less defined these days, with the increased ease of searching there is the chance that someone is actually going to search for IT outsourcing through their iPhone, though it’s best not to forget that people are still searching on a tiny screen with a tiny keyboard, on a train or taxi. Therefore, with the best will in the world, mobile internet is never going to be the venue for in depth research. The way to approach mobile is to think, ‘how much thinking/browsing time will it take someone to decide to purchase my product?’ If it’s a lot then the only traffic you’ll be getting will be people browsing – as people are probably less likely to make a huge purchase or decision when browsing over the phone. If this traffic isn’t important to you, then it might be an idea to avoid mobile altogether.

The other thing is searching. If you have a campaign full of long tail keywords then you probably aren’t going to do too much business online for the simple reason that typing things at length on a pad or on-screen keyboard is a hassle. That’s why the best thing is to work generic for the purposes of mobile. If you can’t afford these in your main campaign, then create new one just for mobile. The costs may well be less when targeting only mobile, as competition will probably be slightly lower as will search volume.

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Keyword choice is the cornerstone of a good SEO campaign. As I’ve said before, SEO campaigns resemble super tankers, in that they are incredibly difficult to turn around if you make the mistake of setting off in the wrong direction. But how do you choose good keywords?

Well, the main thing to keep in mind is what you want out of the campaign. I know that sounds like a stupid question, increased profits obviously, but the trick is not to be sidetracked by unrelated concerns. A lot of people, for instance, get obsessed with the idea that they must rank for big keywords, if they sell printers they want to be number one for printers etc., just as a feather in their cap. But just because everyone else is fighting for that keyword, doesn’t necessarily mean you should.

What if you could make more money by targeting keywords with a fraction of the competition? Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? But actually, in many cases it isn’t. Many industries have a whole raft of longer more specific keywords that will generates sales, often in excess of those you’d get with more generic keywords… Why? Stay tuned to find out.

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As a result it’s very likely that we’ll see the position of this feature tweaked as part of the Caffeine update. It’s unlikely that Google will feel bullish enough to get rid of such a popular and useful application entirely, though I wouldn’t be even remotely surprised to see the section moved to the bottom of the results. This would be more of a relief for SEOs than an actual opportunity as it would basically mean that number one position would retain its cache, which has been slightly eroded by Google’s continual insistence on placing its own results, Google base etc., atop the search rankings.

Don’t get too excited though, Google are going to have to balance profitability with user experience here (as they usually do, to be fair to them) so where Universal Search actually ends up will be subject to change for a while.

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