Google announced last year that Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest version of the Android operating system would solve the fragmentation issues in the Android market place. However Android fragmentation worries hit the mainstream news this week when Michael DeGusta announced the results of a report which summarised that, despite Ice Cream Sandwich,  it was hard to find an Android phone running the current version of the operating system. Furthermore, with most contract phone owners on two year contracts, their phone were likely to be on the latest version of the operating system for just six...

One of the buzz words going around in marketing circles this year, is gamification. Agencies are touting gamification as a way to increase customer engagement with brands, especially through advertising,mobile sites and mobile apps. But is gamification just  a buzz word? Or can it increase customer acquisition and expand user participation? Gamification principles come on the back of Web 2.0. Web 2.0 was all about creating a two way dialogue with the customer rather than having a read only message. Marketers realised that customers wanted to contribute and collaborate. The phenomenal...

Yelp is a US based review site, at position 45 of the Comscore top US sites and in April 2011 attracted 50 million visitors. Internationally Yelp has sites in Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Spain, The Netherlands and here in the United Kingdom. Yelp is available in the US and Europe on iPhone, iPad and Android platforms where Yelpers in France, Germany, Austria and The Netherlands can use Yelp in their native language (French, German or Dutch). The Location Based Services Recommendation market is growing fast with 17.6% of Smartphone users, using Location Based Services, yet we...

Well Are you playing games with me? Not only Facebook, but YouTube, FourSquare, Google and just about every Web 2.0 site out there are probably playing games with you. Many web based customer communities have realised that the game mechanics which game designers use to attract, hook and retain game players can be used by commercial web sites. This gamification of websites started with Web 2.0 as designers made their sites or apps more engaging, sticky and more viral. Last year was the year of the location game when location based services (LBS) such as Gowalla and FourSquare helped...

There are a number of US sites which explain how to claim a Google Places entries for Small Business Owners and then where to find the necessary citations which help their Google Places ranking. This is great for US business owners, but what about UK businesses? On this side of the pond we have a different set of directories and review sites whose firehoses feed Google Places with interesting customer reviews and scores. My personal favourite places for citations are:- Qype FreeIndex WeLoveLocal Yelp However with the recent Google Panda algorithm changes, some of these sites have become...

There was a great example yesterday of how Social Media can be used to quickly stir up a response within community groups to some even which they feel is unjust. Yesterday’s example was a flash mob “kiss in” at the John Snow pub in Soho, London. Events unfurled as follows as reported by The Guardian newspaper. Wednesday 12th April – James Bull a charity worker and Jonathan Williams, a journalist for a financial magazine, dined in Covent Garden. They subsequently strolled to the popular John Snow, which Williams said he was accustomed to visiting around once a week....

The Panda or Farmer Update from Google which has been causing all sort of upset in the US, has reached the UK. In the US claims are that up to sixteen percent of websites have had their ranking affected. However, these do seem to be sites which are aggregating or reposting content. These include price comparison sites which are included mostly duplicated manufacturers product information, rss aggregated sites, robotic feed sites and some web 2.0 sites. The Web 2.0 sites in particular may be some cause for concern. People may have seen their Lenses and Hubs disappearing down the Swannie,...

These are definitely jobs that you wouldn’t have seen just 18 months ago, but now there several ads for Social Media Managers who are required both in-house and outsourced. Agencies of course will manage a social media presence for big brands and blue chips. What the agencies are doing is now filtering down to SME and local businesses. Watch the video.