None of the companies involved will confirm the new Google Music service – we have “no comments” or absolute silence from Google, LaLa, MySpace and iLike. But the new service is all but confirmed.
Read full story via techcrunch.com

While Yahoo occupies a distant second in the realm of search engines it certainly cannot be ignored. It has always had it quirks and different ways of doing things, the most obtuse of which was the paid inclusion “feature.” For a small fee you could guarantee inclusion in their database. It seems this “feature” has been deleted from the next version of Yahoo. Yahoo’s paid inclusion program Search Submit Pro (aka Yahoo SSP) is being discontinued effective December 31, 2009. The collaboration with Bing is forcing Yahoo to examine …

Conventional wisdom is that Intuit’s acquisition of the personal finance Web service Mint will mean the end of the line for the company’s standalone software app, Quicken. Upstart Mint, which is being acquired by Intuit for $170 million, has a personal finance product more in line with the times, with a younger demographic, a working business model, and a passionate CEO, Aaron Patzer, who’s slated to take over the Quicken product line at Intuit once the acquisition closes.
Read full story via  CNET News.

A firm’s finance, accounting, operations and sales departments all rely on hard numbers to optimize performance. Why should marketing be any different? Gone are the days when marketers could rely on gut feelings alone to make decisions. Top firms are making heavy use of data for customer engagement through segmentation, customer profiling, and multi-channel initiatives.
Read full story via E-Commerce News

Need marketing help for your business? SynaVista data driven marketing strategies provide you with real information and solutions for your business marketing. Creative Data Driven Marketing For Your Business from SynaVista …

An executive with Google says the company will launch a new platform next year that lets readers buy books that can be accessed from anywhere, be it a personal computer, cell phone or other platform.
Tom Turvey, the head of Google Books partnership program in North America, Southern America and Asia, said Thursday that the search giant, which launched Google Books in 2004, is “moving to a platform allowing users to buy a book.“
Read full story via Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Twitter has introduced a “report as spam” button so users can identify junk tweets to admins. The activity Twitter wants to stamp out, though, isn’t exactly the same as the junk you want to keep out of your email in-box. The Twitter equivalent is the “spitter” — users with botnets that create fake Twitter profiles, auto-follow users in order to get them to follow back, and spew out things like porn-related links.
Read full articel via E-Commerce News

The FCC is seeking more information from Google about its Voice application. AT&T had previously complained to the commission about Voice’s refusal to carry calls to certain numbers in locations where local carriers engage in so-called traffic pumping practices that drive up costs. Google counters that in the past, AT&T has asked the FCC for permission to block calls to these numbers for the same reason.
Read full story via E-Commerce News

Ask.com is a distant fourth among Internet search engines, but it may be able to differentiate itself and draw more users with new functionality that corrals coupons and deals offered online. “Google and Yahoo don’t have anything similar to this,” said Nick Stamoulis, president and CEO of Brick Marketing.
Read full story via E-Commerce News

Nees search visibility? SynaVista Search Optimization (SEO) Affordable search marketing alternatves to AdWords

The Federal Trade Commission today announced that it has approved final revisions to the guidance it gives to advertisers on how to keep their endorsement and testimonial ads in line with the FTC Act.
The notice incorporates several changes to the FTC’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, which address endorsements by consumers, experts, organizations, and celebrities, as well as the disclosure of important connections between advertisers and endorsers. The Guides were last updated in 1980.
Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his …

When Stanley Works, the hand tool maker, offered an iPhone App that turned the phone into a level, its goal was to create young loyalists to the Stanley brand. The company does not know if the iPhone app drove a single sale or fostered any brand loyalty but based on the 400,000 downloads, Stanley declared the iPhone level a resounding success and is now looking for other tool apps.
Read full story via NYTimes.com.

Need Professional Marketing Services? Cutting Edge Technology & Creative Marketing Services For Your Business from SynaVista