Survey Finds 30% of College Faculty Use Twitter
Faculty Focus released some interesting findings from a survey about Twitter usage and trends among college faculty. They surveyed about 2,000 faculty members and found that about a third of the respondents say they use Twitter. Over half say they have never used Twitter at all.
Opera Reports Global Mobile Browsing Trends
Opera released its monthly report on the state of the mobile web. The report looks at the link between downloads and usage by Opera Mini users. Reports say that Opera Mini is the most widely downloaded mobile app, so this is quite significant.
Music Publishers Sue Websites Over Lyrics
National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) members have filed copyright infringement lawsuits against two businesses for publishing unlicensed lyrics on four websites.
Peermusic, Warner/Chappell and Bug Music filed an action against LiveUniverse, and its owner Brad Greenspan, co-founder of MySpace, in the Federal Court of the Central District of California for willful copyright infringement on a vast scale.
The Ups and Downs of Paid Tweeting
Update: Izea has launched thier paid tweeting service (discussed in the original article) on its own site at SponsoredTweets.com.
Forbes.com CEO Thinks Publishers are Killing Web Ad Potential
Jim Spanfeller, President and CEO of Forbes.com, who also happens to be treasurer of the Online Publishers Association and Chairman Emeritus of the Interactive Advertising Bureau spoke his mind on the state of the online advertising industry in a guest post at PaidContent.org.
Searching For Jessica Biel Puts Users At Risk
Jessica Biel is now the most dangerous celebrity to search for on the Web, according to a new report from McAfee.
Fans searching for "Jessica Biel" or Jessica Biel downloads," Jessica Biel wallpaper," "Jessica Biel screensavers," Jessica Biel photos" and "Jessica Biel videos" have a one in five chance of visiting a website that’s tested positive for online threats, such as spyware, adware, spam, phishing, viruses and other malware.
Yahoo to Launch Arabic Versions of its Properties
Yahoo has announced its intent to acquire Maktoob.com, an Arab portal that reaches one in every three people online in its region. That accounts for about 16.5 million people. Yahoo says this is its largest geographic expansion in years.
Yahoo Unveils New Search Design
Yahoo discussed the future of Yahoo Search today. They are launching a new search design that goes along with the new look of the Yahoo Home Page, which was recently launched itself.
The new search has a three-column layout (Search Engine Land has a bunch of screenshots), with most of the changes occurring in the left-hand column. This is where filters and search applications reside.
Google on Online Ads Boosting Offline Sales
Google is talking about how online ads can boost in-store sales at a couple of its different blogs today. The first one looks at the relationship between POS (point of sale) and O2S (online to store).
MTV Launches New Online Video Ad Unit
Target and MTV Networks have partnered to launch a new online video ad unit called "The Scrubber."
The Scrubber is a custom video player that allows advertisers to insert product icons into the playback timer and highlight various items as the video plays. The unit is designed to be interactive, relevant and non-interruptive to the user.