Amazon is the Hottest Shop Online

Online shoppers in the UK have unanimously chosen Amazon.com as their favourite shopping destination. According to a new research, the site has surpassed 50 online shopping portals on the basis of number of visits to claim the top spot. It is followed by Argos.com, Tesco.com and Play.com who had the next three positions in that order.

Industry experts have noted that shoppers are becoming increasingly loyal to their favourite websites and therefore, most of these sites have not witnessed major shifts in their rankings when compared to last year's data. The figures state that 26 companies out of 50 are appearing within three rankings of their spot last year.

Customer satisfaction is being cited as the main reason behind the success of these sites. Also, these shopping portals have reached a stage where competitors can barely affect their business. The only competition that actually exists is the one between the top five on this popularity list.

Online sales have also witnessed a remarkable rise, with figures touching about £4 billion in the month of July. It is truly party time in the UK Internet marketing circuit – enjoy till it lasts!

Traders get into Social Networking

Nowadays, Bears and Bulls are busy setting up profiles on social networks. Don't panic... we are not talking about the animals here. These are the bears and bulls of a stock exchange, or in simple words, these are the stock traders.

Traders are networking with community members to keep themselves up-to-date with stock-related information. They are also brandishing members with stock tips, setting up their own blogs and podcasts. Making full use of the flourishing Internet marketing brigade, they are keeping their customers informed about latest happenings with the help of techno-savvy sources like blog posts.

A few online social networks have created special features to suit the functionality of traders. These features strive to connect traders with shared stock interests. In fact, many network owners believe that more than finding investors, these networks are being used for challenging customers to be more effective as traders.

The World Wide Web is actually entangling people from across the world, irrespective of their personal and professional tendencies. With stock exchanges also establishing a prominent presence in the online networking community, one simply wonders what to expect next.

Glamorous Search Engine for Women

The most popular women's network, Glam Media has come up with a vertical search engine meant for women-oriented content. The publishing network, with more than 350 sites and blogs, will now have all its media outlets covered in this new engine.

The search engine will have a feature called 'Intelligent Search' which will crawl content from lifestyle, fashion and celebrity websites and return results that are most relevant to the search query typed in by a user. The engine's search algorithm will index pages on the basis of the content's relevance, timeliness and editorial analysis.

Women of the world will be eagerly awaiting the launch of this 'glamorised' search engine. Because, they will know where to look for when it comes to their favourite topics – fashion, movies and gossip!

Search Engines press the Panic Button

Privacy issues are getting on to the nerves of popular search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.com. The concern over the large amount of personal data gathered and stored by search engines is constantly on the rise in the online marketplace. Increasing pressure from general public and regulatory agencies have driven these sites into pressing the panic button.

The whole debate heated up in the US in November 2006 when certain advocacy groups asked the Federal Trade Commission to keep a tab on consumer profiling by online marketing firms. In due course, it was discovered that the privacy policies of these websites are still wanting in a number of areas.

As a consequence, Microsoft recently announced that it would make all personal data on search queries anonymous within a span of 18 months. Yahoo and Ask.com are also working towards limiting the use of a user's search history. In fact, the latter will give users the option of not retaining their Web searches.

Search industry bigwig Google has been at the forefront of this ire. It is working towards shortening the life span of cookies, and plans to make search queries anonymous after 18 to 24 months.

Although search query data has helped advertisers in improving upon their strategies, it is time the user's right to privacy was given due respect. Search engines, pull up your socks... users are indeed getting smarter!

Search Engines press the Panic Button

Privacy issues are getting on to the nerves of popular search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.com. The concern over the large amount of personal data gathered and stored by search engines is constantly on the rise in the online marketplace. Increasing pressure from general public and regulatory agencies have driven these sites into pressing the panic button.

The whole debate heated up in the US in November 2006 when certain advocacy groups asked the Federal Trade Commission to keep a tab on consumer profiling by online marketing firms. In due course, it was discovered that the privacy policies of these websites are still wanting in a number of areas.

As a consequence, Microsoft recently announced that it would make all personal data on search queries anonymous within a span of 18 months. Yahoo and Ask.com are also working towards limiting the use of a user's search history. In fact, the latter will give users the option of not retaining their Web searches.

Search industry bigwig Google has been at the forefront of this ire. It is working towards shortening the life span of cookies, and plans to make search queries anonymous after 18 to 24 months.

Although search query data has helped advertisers in improving upon their strategies, it is time the user's right to privacy was given due respect. Search engines, pull up your socks... users are indeed getting smarter!

Air Max Viral

"Air Max", We Know Its NIKE. But damn it where the F@#k is it moving huh? 

Yeah and thats what keeps us sticking all through out the Ad, 
people would call it an advertisment 
I say its a shit which you want to throw every where..

What do you say? 

Viral Marketing

Viral Marketing a method of passing information to others, thus creating growth through exposure. This could be a viral game or viral advertisement. The old methods of multi-level marketing relied on word of mouth, as people networked through friends and relatives.
The viral e-mail is a similar phenomena growing as it spreads between users on the net. Provided the message is easily scaleable small to large and creates the will to pass on to others it will replicate with amazing speed.

One fine example of Viral marketing is a screen saver which can be installed on any computer and be forwarded to any one. What is the thing that will make some one have that screen saver on his computer even if the screen saver has some other companies logo on it??????????????????

Well my friends thats the beauty of this kind of marketing. A clever marketere's viral marketing plans take advantage of common human motivations.So does the hunger to be popular, loved, and understood.

The resulting urge to communicate produces millions of websites and billions of e-mail messages. Design a marketing strategy that builds on common motivations and behaviors for its transmission, and you have a winner.

Elements of a Viral Marketing Strategy:

1. Gives away products or services
2. Provides for effortless transfer to others
3. Scales easily from small to very large
4. Exploits common motivations and behaviors
5. Utilizes existing communication networks
6. Takes advantage of others' resources

by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, E-Commerce Consultant

Well its your turn to play with it.... so go ahead and do some Viral....