Paid-Search Traffic Lets Free People Analyze All Media Channels by Laurie Sullivan

Free People uses paid search to understand the type of consumers coming to its Web site, along with non-branded campaigns that generate new customer sales. It's not so unusual to monitor traffic from paid search, but it prompted the marketing department to open up the analytics package and review all the traffic coming to the site through all media channels. ...Read the whole story

  • Ad Industry M&A Investors Spend $32 Bil, Digital Soars by Laurie Sullivan There's no shortage of money for companies innovating in the marketing and digital advertising space. Business-to-business and business-to-consumer, Online Media & Technology, Marketing & Interactive Services and Mobile Media & Technology accounted for 79% of total merger and acquisition deals. ...Read the whole story
Google Chrome Hits iOS: Let The Cloud Skirmishes Begin by Steve Smith

Google Chrome on iOS is not a Safari killer, but its conveniences for users of the browser on other platforms are immediately obvious. It underscores how important the cloud is about to become in the mobile OS battle. ...More

  • Why Microsoft Is Going It Alone With Do-Not-Track by Mark Simon

    Microsoft got into hot water with the FTC and ad industry self-regulators recently over its decision to ship its next version of Internet Explorer, version 10, with the "Do Not Track" option turned on by default. How could anyone be against Microsoft - which is about to ship millions of copies of Windows 8 with IE 10 aboard - making the reasonable assumption that users would like to start their online computing experience in some level of anonymity, a state that they can of course modify should they positively elect to be tracked at a Web site of their own ...More

  • Paralyzed By Choice by Gord Hotchkiss

    In last week's column, I looked at how Harvard Business Review bloggers Karen Freeman, Patrick Spenner and Anna Bird spelled the end of the purchase funnel. Today, I'd like to look at the topic they tackled in the second of the three-part series, "If Customers Ask for More Choice, Don't Listen." ...More

  • Google Tip-Toes Toward The Robot Valet by Steve Smith

    Anyone interested in the data story and how consumers will grasp the power of data in their lives, will want to keep an eye on Google Now. this is one of the bolder steps into the realm of the digital valet. ...More