Monday, January 16, 2012

Links of the week: January 16, 2012

As part of my effort to blog on my own  site more regularly, I'll be starting each week with a recap of the articles I found most interesting from the previous week. Most of these will be geared toward the marketing/emerging media crowd, but not exclusively. Essentially, it'll be a compendium of things I found interesting or articles that made me think, laugh, weep for our future, etc.

Gizmodo: Google just made Bing the best search engine

Did Google's overhaul of search results to add "Your World" (essentially including Google+ further into the algorithm) sufficiently alter the results enough to no longer provide the most relevant information about a topic? Does it give too much weight to content sources engaging on Google+? What about content your social networks and circles promote? Do you care if your friends have "+1-ed" an article? One guy thinks Google has gone too far this time and the Twitter leadership tends to agree. This article even goes so far as to argue that Google violates anti-trust legislation and offers Microsoft's Bing as the best option. Ironic, no?

Forbes: CES Wrap: The end of the editorial, commercial divide is here

As another Consumer Electronics Show ends, Forbes looks at how brands are utilizing events and their own products as channels to serve up content, beyond traditional product placement. As editorial content and product offerings continue to evolve new ways to provide revenue streams, is the separation between "church" and "state" becoming blurred? As smart TVs and content served on computers, tablets & mobile device increases, the ability for marketers to deliver branded commercial content alongside editorial content becomes seamless. How long until the average consumer is no longer able to delineate the paid from the unpaid?

Pinterest, out for a little over a year, the upstart social product tagging aggregator is taking off, now reaching over 3 million users. Mashable looks at the Top Brand on Pinterest and evaluates 5 Ways Brands Can Use Pinterest to Boost Customer Engagement. These are interesting because I've been trying to find ways to promote the use of the site for a year, but now that I have a different type of client base, I can take these examples as a springboard to a larger conversation. Of course, it helps that the Pinterest numbers are growing. What brands do you follow on Pinterest? What do you like about them? Is it about personality? A way to find new product offerings?

In a Gorilla Costume delivers a great infographic (which still continue to drive huge traffic. People like their facts delivered in this format. I think it says something about our attention span) on The Real Cost of Social Media. Many of us already understand this concept, but this graphic will be helpful for taking to the client and saying "free isn't really free."

That's what I read last week. How about you?

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