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Yahoo!’s mobile search product, oneSearch, has been selected by T-mobile for Web2go, their new customizable mobile web portal.

Yahoo’s oneSearch is designed to provide answers. For example, if you query a sports team, the results will give you scores, schedules, team profiles and the team’s web site.

David Ko, senior vice president, Connected Life, Yahoo! Inc. had this to say: “With our innovative products and global partnerships we are a leader in mobile search and are incredibly excited to bring Yahoo! oneSearch to more and more users every day. Together, T-Mobile and Yahoo! are providing users with compelling mobile services, while creating unique opportunities for advertisers to reach the rapidly growing audience of mobile consumers.”

In September, Yahoo! announced that oneSearch had been set as default on AT&T’s mobile web portal. In August, a shortcut to oneSearch was launched on select Nokia devices.

While some sectors in the economy are struggling, 24/7 Real Media brings some much needed good news. They are the fastest growing top ten ad network in the six months ending October 2008, according to the comScore Media Metrix report.

24/7 grew by 36% and now reaches 135 million unique users. That’s 71% of U.S. internet users.

“We will continue to diversify our publisher network to provide advertisers with unmatched targeting and reach, to accomplish their specific program goals and experience increased ROI for every campaign,” said Ari Bluman, president of North American sales and operations for 24/7 Real Media, Inc. “As a result of our robust targeting options and tremendous reach, we have one of the highest performing networks available.”

Related Reading:
WPP Seals Deal to Acquire 24/7 Real Media
Yahoo, WPP Partner To Sell Ad Inventory
24/7 Real Media Launches B2B Ad Network

Microsoft has struck a deal with Sun Microsystems to have the MSN toolbar downloaded with Java Runtime Environment (JRE). The agreement will give Internet Explorer users in the United States the option of downloading the toolbar when they download JRE. The toolbar offers access to Live Search features, the MSN network, Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger.

“This agreement with Sun Microsystems is another important milestone in our strategy to secure broad-scale distribution for our search offering, enabling millions more people to experience the benefits of Live Search,” said Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of the Online Audience Business at Microsoft. “With the vast array of Java software-based Web applications that are downloaded every month, this deal will expose Live Search to millions more Internet users and drive increased volume for our search advertisers.”

Earlier this year, Microsoft reached a deal with HP to have the toolbar shipped on 2009 PCs.

Related Reading:
Live Search to Be Integrated with Blackberry Browser and Maps
Live Search and Windows Live Toolbar Now Offer Translation

AOL’s Platform-A has collaborated with T-mobile for a two day ad blitz. The campaign will have the mobile carrier buying 1 billion impressions over the two day time frame, which is expected to reach 81.5 million consumers. Platform-A currently reaches 90% of the U.S. internet audience.

What will be advertised? The new Android-powered G1, of course!

“The T-Mobile G1 offers a rich, accessible mobile Web experience for the masses, so we want to drive that message to the broadest range of U.S. consumers possible,” said Brett Dennis, director, branded entertainment and media management, T-Mobile USA. “The groundbreaking experience of the T-Mobile G1 is really what motivated us to pursue this exceptional online advertising program.”

Clearly, both AOL and T-mobile are gunning for the upcoming holiday season:

“The innovation behind the T-Mobile Billion Block clearly demonstrates the value marketers place on the combination of reach, impact and innovation that only Platform-A can offer,” said Lynda Clarizio, President of Platform-A. “It also spotlights the role online media will play in the upcoming buying season, with strategic marketers like T-Mobile relying on the near-universal reach of Platform-A to connect with United States consumers in an effective, efficient and engaging way.”

No, the two are not related, as far as I can tell. But Congratulations to Firefox (my personal browser of choice) for reaching 20% of market share. They reached the number for 2 out of 4 weeks in October. For a browser that doesn’t come pre-installed on most computers, that’s quite impressive.

The new privacy feature is included in a pre-release version of Firefox 3.1. It’s called “Private Browsing” and you can turn it on via the Tools tab. When you do, it won’t store data such as history, cookies, and cache. But it only prevents such storage for the browsing you do when the feature is turned on. To store that info again, just turn it off.

What Private Browsing does NOT do is keep you anonymous on websites or your ISP. It also is not a security tool to prevent spyware downloads and such.

A good use of the tool is if you’re looking online for Christmas gifts but you don’t want your husband to find out what you’re getting him! (Just make sure to take note of the things you want to remember.)

Related Reading:
Yahoo’s Inquisitor Plugin Now Available for Firefox and Internet Explorer
Download Firefox 3 Today: Firefox Download Day to Set a Guiness World Record

The number of small businesses using deeply integrated social networking services will double in the next year, according to projections by Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc. Currently, there are about 300,000 small businesses engaged in social networking, which is 5% of the total number of small businesses in the U.S. AMI expects that number to reach 600,000 in the next 12 months.

“As social networking evolves, we can see the emergence of targeted offerings for business users,” says Nikki Lamba, New York-based analyst at AMI Partners. “In order to attract a greater share of SBs, social networking services must provide customized services that SBs can leverage in order to realize their business goals.”

Social media might be an increasingly attractive option for small businesses in their advertising and marketing efforts. The current economy has businesses scrambling for affordable marketing methods and social media is a possible option, depending on how its leveraged.

AOL has launched an online events guide, When.com, which is powered by Zvents. The site is very reminiscent of Upcoming.org, which is owned by Yahoo.

Mapping for events is supplied by AOL’s MapQuest and events can also be bookmarked to AOL, Google, Outlook or Yahoo Calendar.

“Whether you’re looking for events that are suitable for the whole family, something to do on a Friday night or ways to entertain out of town guests, when.com makes it easy for users to find where to go and what to do in their community or places they are traveling to,” said Chris Spanos, General Manager of AOL Local and Search Verticals. “When.com is also a powerful way for event organizers and advertisers to reach and connect with a targeted audience by providing them the ability to quickly and easily submit their events right from the when.com homepage.”

The Interactive Advertising Bureau has announced new initiatives aimed at improving workflows and best practices.

Here they are:

• E- Business Interactive Standards, a beta release of an XML-based solution for automating the transfer of business order information between advertising agencies and media companies. Beta testing partners will be implementing and refining this solution throughout 2009.
• Interactive Advertising Workflow Best Practices, a document that provides comprehensive process recommendations to agencies and publishers for improved communications and efficient operations throughout the entire lifecycle of an advertising campaign. The document’s best practices focus on how to improve the management of advertising accounts by decreasing discrepancies, campaign set-up errors and billing cycles between advertising agencies and publishers. www.iab.net/workflow
• Digital Video Ad Serving Template (VAST), an XML-based solution designed to standardize communication between digital video players and servers. VAST allows publishers to increase digital video yield by utilizing ad networks to sell unsold inventory and reduce friction with buyers by allowing third-party ad tags
• Ad Load Performance Best Practices, a document that details how agencies and publishers should develop and serve digital advertising campaigns to reduce load time for ads and improve their performance. www.iab.net/adload
• Best Practices for Rich Media Ads in Asynchronous Ad Environments, a solution that establishes a standard set of rich media implementation rules for rich media ad vendors, creative development teams, and publishers when serving ads into dynamic environments.

“These initiatives will revolutionize our industry by improving efficiencies in the interactive business—which means growth for publishers, for agencies and for marketers who will now reach their customers even more effectively,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB.

What do you think of these initiatives? Let us know in the comments.

Related Reading:
Internet Advertising Up 15.2% for the First Half of 2008
Online Publishers Turning to Ad Networks to Sell Unused Inventory

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I’ve just returned from the PRSA International Conference in Detroit, Michigan. The Public Relations Society of America is the world’s largest organization for public relations professionals.

But there were a number of sessions on the agenda about search engine optimization. On Saturday, Oct. 25, Lee Odden taught a half-day workshop on “Optimizing Content for Optimum Search Results: Search Engine Optimization of News.” Lee, as most of us in the search industry know, is the CEO of TopRank Online Marketing.

Bill Wagner, the CMO of Vocus, talked about “Uncovering the Potential of PR to Drive Sales.” Lee Odden, Rob Key, the founder and CEO of Converseon, and David Bradfield, senior vice president and partner of FH Digital, discussed “The Changed PR Landscape: What Works, What Doesn’t.” And Laura Sturaitis, senior vice president of media and product services for Business Wire, and I spoke about “What’s the ROI on Your Press Release?”

In other words, SEO and PR people are starting to “reach across the aisle” to build some pretty interesting alliances.

In February, I interviewed Lee Odden at SES London 2008, about news search engine optimization and related topics. And in December, Lee and Sally Falkow, the President of PRESSfeed, will be speaking about “SEO Through Blogs and Feeds” at SES Chicago 2008.

Lee Odden, TopRank Online Marketing, at SES London 2008

As Frank Watson noted earlier this morning, Lee and Jay Byrne, President of v-Fluence Interactive Public Relations, are holding a free PRWeb webinar entitled, “Use PR To Drive Better Search Results,” today at 2 p.m. Eastern Time.

And PRSA has asked me to teach a teleseminar on “The Secrets of Search Engine Optimization” on Thursday, Nov. 6, at 3 p.m. Eastern.

What’s all this mean to search engine marketers? Get the folks over in public relations to check out this topic. They may have missed it at the PRSA International Conference. But it is a subject that they’ll want to understand as they prepare for 2009.

And getting your PR specialists on the same page with your SEO specialists could give you the best bang for your buck in a global recession. Consider this tip a “recession special” you won’t want to pass up.

One last note: I hadn’t been back to Detroit in a long, long time. Wow, is the Renaissance Center impressive. And the Detroit Riverwalk. And the GM Next Showroom. Now, I remember Detroit as Motor City and Motown. But it has experienced a renaissance while I wasn’t looking. Cool. Very cool.