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Women are planning to spend less according to two surveys released today.

In a survey by the Marketing to Moms Coalition, moms plan to cut spending on holiday gifts. Offline is expected to be hit the hardest, with an 8% drop over last year. Online will decline by 2%.

• 87% of moms plan to shop at big discount retailers like Wal-mart and Target
• Department stores come in second at 37%.
• Shoe and specialty clothing retailers come in third at 35%.

“Older kids tend to want expensive presents like cell phones, video games, trendy clothes and computer equipment,” says Maria Bailey, a founder of the Marketing to Moms Coalition, and author of the book, Mom 3.0, Marketing with Today’s Mother by Leveraging New Media and Technology. “Moms are telling their older kids that this year, they’re just going to have to wait.”

Another survey from Frank About Women shows that women (not just moms) are planning to cut holiday spending. First on the chopping block? Themselves.

62% of women are asking friends and family to forgo buying them a gift this year due to the economy.

They asked survey participants who would be cut from the gift list that normally would be on.

• 57% of those who normally give gifts to their neighbors plan to forego the gift this year
• 53% will skip their bosses
• 52% will cut employees and service providers (i.e. hairdressers) from their list
• 50% won’t give gifts to co-workers this year

So, who is getting a gift this year?

• 96% said they won’t let a bad economy stand in the way of giving gifts to their kids
• 86% will give gifts to their parents
• 85% will give gifts to their spouse or partner (Stay out of the dog house, guys!)

“Not only are women planning to spend less on others, they are actively encouraging their friends and family to omit them from the gift list this year,” says Nicole Green, senior strategic brand planner at FAW. “This self-sacrificing mindset represents a significant cultural shift as a renewed sense of fiscal responsibility and frugality trump spending and splurging for many women. Marketers who speak to the real meaning of the holidays are more likely to resonate with women this season and benefit from their spending power.”

Related Reading:
Microsoft Study Reveals Online and Digital Behavior of Women
Mom Bloggers Prove Powerful Resource to Marketing and Branding Success
Moms See Search as Task-Oriented; Websites as Entertainment

Google is ending its search advertising partnership with Yahoo. It was never even implemented. Concerns over antitrust issues rose fast and furious since Google + Yahoo = an enormous chunk of the search ad market.

Groups of advertisers spurred on by Microsoft lobbied the Department of Justice to oppose the deal. But they might have just facilitated the search market going from 5 major engines to 4, providing less competition.

Yahoo is in dire straits and desperately needed this influx of cash. It’s looking more and more likely that their stock could drop (fairly or unfairly) to single digits, at which point Microsoft could get a great deal on a company they once offered $31 a share for.

Take that number 4 and reduce it to 3 if a Yahoo-AOL merger occurs before the (inevitable?) acquisition.

Both Google and Yahoo are saying that the cancellation of the deal won’t affect their commitment to search innovation.

Microsoft teamed up with Mindshare and Ogilvy Chicago to study the online and digital behavior of women. They surveyed 800 women of varying ages and careers, including stay-at-home and work-at-home moms. Here’s what they found:

• 22 percent shop once per day.
• 86 percent pass along interesting “finds” to others.
• On average, they have 171 contacts in e-mail, social networking and cell phone address books.
• E-mail is overwhelmingly, 85 percent, the most important tool.
• They view tools such as rewards, loyalty cards, cell phones, coupons via the computer, TIVO and DVR, video on demand, opt-in daily e-mails, and handheld wireless devices to be “blessings” in their lives.
• The majority views devices such as cell phones and computers as “extensions of themselves.”
• More than half “never” unplug from their digital devices, even when sleeping.
• Technology “curses” were few and centered on activities and types of communication that were “out of their control.”
• If forced to, they would “throw out” their television or cell phone first; only 11 percent would throw out their personal laptop.
• On average, they have 5.8 “screens” and 12 digital devices.

A special note about moms, which we already know are powerful influencers:

“For moms, the Internet serves as a link to the ‘outside world’ — especially moms with a new baby,” said Debbie Solomon, managing director, Business Planning of Mindshare. “And moms are really the future of content creation. They have an insatiable appetite to create and share content — posting more than twice the average U.S. adult, whether publishing, maintaining or updating a blog or Web page.”

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Google’s My Location technology is cool. When I’m using my iPhone, I just hit a button and it gets a pretty close assessment of where I am, using cell triangulation (yes, I still have a first gen iPhone).

Now, Google is outfitting My Location with the ability to use WiFi access points in determining location. The feature is also included on the Gears Geolocation API.

Blackberry users can download the newest version of Maps for Mobile to access this feature. Other mobile devices will get the feature soon.

ChaCha has been selected by Rock the Vote to provide SMS search for the duration of the 2008 elections. Rock the Vote is the effort by MTV to make voting cool among youth.

Users can text questions RTVOTE (788683) on their cell phones and receive nonpartisan answers from “politically-trained ChaCha Guides.” Texters can learn where their polling place is, candidate issues, and whether or not it’s possible to remain nonpartisan in this election anymore.

“As the presidential election continues to heat up, we’ve seen a sizable increase in questions about the election,” said ChaCha Co-Founder and President, Brad Bostic. “ChaCha has rapidly become a popular, trusted resource for young people who want information while on the go. By making credible answers easy to access on virtually any mobile phone, ChaCha and Rock the Vote are providing unprecedented access to the information voters need to make informed choices.”

Related Reading:
ChaCha is Fastest Growing Mobile Text Search Service
ChaCha Launches Enterprise Mobile Answers Service

When it comes to conducting a local search, where do people begin their searches? This is the topic of a recent survey conducted by TMP Directional Marketing. They found that search engines top the list of sources used first in local search. Here’s the breakdown:

• Search Engines (31%)
• Print Yellow Pages or White Pages (30%)
• Internet Yellow Pages Sites (19%)
• Local Search Sites (11%)

People searching for local businesses online has increased from 26% in 2007 to 30% in 2008.

90 percent of those surveyed find Yellow Pages directories a valuable source for business information, however, Yellow Pages usage experienced a 3 percent decline from 2007 to 2008.

20% of shoppers with standard cell phones have conduct a local search on their mobile device, while 60% of shoppers with Wi-Fi enabled phones have conducted local mobile searches.

What do you think of this data? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Related Reading:
Getting to Know Local SEO
For Local Search, It’s All About the Online-Offline Gap
Universal Thoughts on Local Search

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The oft rumored G phone is becoming a reality and given the popularity of the Google brand I wonder if the Apple crew are starting to worry. T-Mobile will soon be offer the Android-driven cell phone, according to reports.

The phone is being manufactured by a small Taiwanese-based company, “that makes its own (relatively obscure) brand of handsets, plus house brands for carriers including Vodafone and Telecom New Zealand,” the National Business Review reported.

Given Google’s popularity, this foray into the mobile space could have implications for the entire mobile industry. As NBR asks is the company “poised to take advantage of Google’s recent foray into buying large amounts of wi-fi spectrum – creating a possible future scenario for mobile VoIP calls that cut traditional cellphone service providers out of the picture altogether.”

The one plus is the phone is selling for the same price as the new IPhone - usually Google buys into an industry and gives away the services to dominate. If they start reducing pricing the industry may have cause to start worrying.

The other notable part of the new phone is the Google branding given they are not the carrier or the manufacturer - a first in the space. Guess Google sells!

Guess the new Androids dream of world dominance of the mobile industry.

Google has made some adjustments to the blue “My Location” circle on the mobile version of its mapping product.

If you’re in a metropolitan area, the circle will be smaller. If you’re in a rural area, the circle will become bigger. The reason behind the change and the sizes has to do with cell tower triangulation.

Google gathers data from cell towers near your phone to determine your location. If you’re in an urban or suburban setting, you’re likely to be close to more towers, giving Google the ability to pinpoint your location more precisely. If you’re out in the boondocks, you have access to fewer or maybe just one tower, so the location is more approximate.

What do you think about the change? Let us know in the comments!

Related Reading:
Google Adds “My Location” Search Feature to Windows Mobile Devices
Google Opens Location-Aware Application to 3rd Party Developers
Google Maps for Mobile Adds Public Transportation Directions