Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 web browser goes live

The improvements to Internet Explorer are as much about what you don't see as what you do see. Internet Explorer 9 has a streamlined design, fewer dialog boxes to click through, more intuitive navigation, and many new features that speed up your web browsing experience. Features like Pinned Sites let you pin your favorite website directly to the taskbar for one-click access. Other features, like hardware acceleration, deliver an all-around faster browsing experience. With Internet Explorer 9, websites perform and feel more like the programs you use every day on your PC.

[Read the rest of this article...]

Actions: E-mail | Permalink | Comments (1) | Kick it! | DZone it! | del.icio.us | ReTweet

Online advertising is thriving in the U.S., according to figures released in the latest IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report.

Businesses and individuals spent approximately $12.1 billion on online advertising in the first six months of 2010, up 11.3% from the from the first half of 2009 and 13.9% from the second quarter of 2009. In fact, this was both the highest first-half and second-quarter revenue ever recorded.

Search advertising continued to monopolize the greater share of online ad dollars, having attracted more than $5.7 billion in spending between January and June this year — a year-over-year increase of 11.6%. Display advertising, which includes banner ads, digital video, rich media and sponsorships, garnered more than $4.4 billion in the first half of 2010, a 16% increase over the same period in 2009.

Digital video recorded the greatest growth of all. More was spent in video advertising from January to June than in any other half-year period before, an increase of 31% from the first half of 2009.

IAB’s SVP of Industry Services Sherill Mane cited growing online advertising budgets among consumer packaged goods and pharmaceutical companies for the growth.

“While the recession clearly affected short term growth in 2009, with double digit growth in both search and display during the first six month of 2010, the long term prospects continue to be strong,” added David Silverman, PwC Assurance partner.

Source: Mashable.com

Cross posted from WSI Internet Marketing UK

Actions: E-mail | Permalink | Comments (0) | Kick it! | DZone it! | del.icio.us | ReTweet

When shopping for something which can be bought both online and in store, 34% of UK shoppers would prefer to buy online, with 55% opting for the high street.

While this stat shows that offline retail still holds an important place in customers' minds, 34% is still a sizeable portion of the sample.

These stats are taken from Econsultancy's Habits and Motivations of Consumers report, which looks at e-commerce consumer behaviour in both the UK and US.

Factors influencing online purchases

The survey also looks at the features on websites which make it more likely that consumers will decide to shop online.

Free shipping was the most popular motivation for 82% of UK and 80% of US consumers, and gives etailers that offer this option a clear advantage over competitors.

Plenty of well-known retailers have caught on to the power of free shipping, with the likes of ASOS, John Lewis, Amazon all offering some degree of free shipping, and just as importantly, promoting it heavily throughout the site.

Price guarantees were an influence for 72% of UK and 64% of US shoppers, and suggests that providing promises to match competitors' prices and even listing them on site can be a useful tactic for online retailers.

Offering alternative payment methods makes sense for etailers, as it allows them to capture as many customers as possible, appealing to those that may be concerned about card fraud or who simply don't have a credit or debit card.

Cross posted from WSI Internet Marketing UK

Actions: E-mail | Permalink | Comments (0) | Kick it! | DZone it! | del.icio.us | ReTweet

The term “marketing” gets used a lot and, sometimes, it’s used rather loosely in search and social media circles.

“Not all, but a lot of the search industry tends to be kind of search geeks who are trying to figure out what marketing is,” says Bill Leake of Apogee Results, formerly Apogee Search.

To make a long-term difference in customers, he believes effective marketing is key. Factors such as determining what the customer wants to do, how you can make it happen, and how you can transfer business objectives into strategies that can be implemented, are all instrumental aspects of marketing. He goes on to say that search is just one area of marketing that is important, but it works best when used with the other aspects.

Source: WebProNews

Cross posted from WSI Internet Marketing UK

Actions: E-mail | Permalink | Comments (0) | Kick it! | DZone it! | del.icio.us | ReTweet

Small businesses in the UK and US increased their spending on online marketing in the second quarter of 2010, according to a new report.

Figures from WebVisible show that US expenditure in particular shot up by 159 per cent compared with the same period last year.

In the UK, Yahoo! saw the biggest increase in web marketing spending by small firms, while both Bing and Google registered declines.

The cost-per-click (CPC) metric rose by 5.4 per cent on Google and 3.7 per cent on Bing, while click-through rates increased for the former and dropped for the latter.

Source: DirectNews

Cross posted from WSI Internet Marketing UK

Actions: E-mail | Permalink | Comments (0) | Kick it! | DZone it! | del.icio.us | ReTweet

We all know that how we conduct our business has not changed much over the years, as the most important thing that you need to do is market your brand. However, how we approach has certainly changed. Going back five years the best way to do this was with email campaigns, but now most of us use social media marketing for that end goal of success.

We are being told time and time again that marketing your brand on social media services such as Facebook and Twitter is the key to growth, but an article on IABUK offers some interesting stats that refute this belief.

According to research provided by Econsultancy over 38 percent of people have still not embraced social networking sites – so the need to focus on email marketing is still as important as ever.

In the survey taken the results showed that out of 36 percent of consumers studied, they said that they were more likely to purchase something online via an email that was sent to them.

So this tells us one thing, do not underestimate the power of an email campaign.

Source: Econsultancy

Cross posted from WSI Internet Marketing UK

Actions: E-mail | Permalink | Comments (0) | Kick it! | DZone it! | del.icio.us | ReTweet

Online retain Grows by a fifth in June 

The UK online retail market grew by 20% in June, according to IMRG figures published today. It is only the second time growth has reached this level for two years.

The month saw total internet sales reach £4.4bn, equivalent to £72 for every person in the UK and a record for June. The rise in sales builds on a 22% rise in May, making these the most successful two months for e-retailers since June 2008.

In the first half of the year, £26.2bn was spent online in the UK, up by 15% on the same period in 2009. The second quarter of the year recorded an 18% lift, compared to last year.

Alcohol was one of the fastest-growing categories, gaining 23% thanks to the World Cup, Wimbledon and the third hottest June since 1929. Online electrical goods sales were up by 26%, compared to last June, while clothes sales rose by 22%. Web purchases of accessories rose by 73% compared to the same month last year.

Multichannel retailers saw online trade grow by 27% compared to last year.

Chris Webster, vice president and head of retail consulting and technology at Capgemini, said: “Despite turbulent times June has seen the second consecutive month of year-on-year growth above the 20% mark.

Source: Internet Retailing, IMRG

Cross posted from WSI Internet Marketing UK

Actions: E-mail | Permalink | Comments (0) | Kick it! | DZone it! | del.icio.us | ReTweet

eBay UK sees 18% rise in new business sellers since recession

eBay UK has proved a significant outlet for entrepreneurship during the recession, with the number of new businesses registered on it growing by nearly a fifth since the recession started.

eBay says 25,000 new businesses have registered on the UK auction site since September 2008, taking the total to 140,000, a jump of 18%. Between them these new businesses have turned over more than £200m since then.

The figures chime with a new study from PayPoint.net, released today. It found that a third of Britain’s office workers, fed up with the drudgery of office life, would like to start their own online business.

Source: Internet Retailing – Chloe Rigby

Cross posted from WSI Internet Marketing UK

Actions: E-mail | Permalink | Comments (0) | Kick it! | DZone it! | del.icio.us | ReTweet

Google profits up sharply but fail to impress

Google is spending more money on research and development, analysts say

Internet giant Google has reported a sharp rise in profits and revenue in quarterly results that nonetheless failed to impress Wall Street.

Net profit for the three months to the end of June came in at $1.84bn (£1.2bn), up by a quarter on the $1.48bn it recorded a year earlier.

Revenue was $6.82bn, also up sharply on the $5.52bn posted a year ago.

However, analysts had expected better and chose to focus instead on operating expenses, which increased sharply.

Source: BBC Technology

Cross posted from WSI Internet Marketing UK

Actions: E-mail | Permalink | Comments (0) | Kick it! | DZone it! | del.icio.us | ReTweet