PERFORMICS AND ROI STUDY: 49 PERCENT OF MOBILE SEARCHERS MADE A MOBILE PURCHASE IN PAST SIX MONTHS

Performics, the performance marketing agency owned by Publicis Groupe,  released results from its 2011 Mobile Search Insights Study, conducted by ROI Research Inc. The study, which focused on people who use the mobile Web at least weekly, found more than half (57 percent) use the mobile Web more than once/day, with more than three quarters (77 percent) using mobile search more than five times in the last month.

This study has some great data and implications in it, one of them being 63 percent of mobile internet browsers search before purchasing offline in a store or from a catalog. Mobile advertising is a must in this case. Out of those 63% of users, how many do you think would click an ad if that ad was advertising the same product for less than in-store?

There Is One Thing Missing From Google’s +1 [OPINION]

Sr. Director of Emerging Media & Innovation for digital marketing agency360i Mashable! writer, David berkowitz, hits on some great points in this opinion article on Google’s new +1 algorithm.

What is the new +1, you ask? Very similar to Reddit’s way of ranking its links, Google has rolled out +1 for search, a concept where instead of trusting a search engine’s algorithm to deliver the most relevant search results, one will see the best results based their friends’ preferences (or vote, +1), along with the preferences of all other searchers.

It raises many questions, will Google be able to control the spam accounts that will be created to rig these results (much like content farms?)

Can users opt into this rather than being forced to partake?

How relevant do searches really become if the search ranking is dictated mostly by other searchers? And how does that affect SEM results?

I don’t know if the digital world is ready for this kind of change, what do you think?

Twitter’s Status: More Robust Than It May Seem

Twitter may be, “flatlining” according to a study conducted by comScore. “Out of 200 million users, 100 million of those Tweeters are absent altogether, and Twitter.com has fewer visitors per month — about 20 million — than MySpace, according to comScore.” Less visitors than the flaling Myspace? I know a great percent of its (Twitter’s) content comes from a small percentage of its users, but that is an alarming number.

So Twitter still isn’t turning a profit, even with it’s “new” mission that seems to support its new focus on connecting users via their interests, and now Echofon, a mobile Twitter app is rumored to be developing their own Twitter-esc service that breaks the 140 character barrier. Will users jump ship if someone else comes along and finally ‘get’s it?’

Skype Reveals Android Security Risk

Another security blunder from Android. It seems that the malicious third-party appsthat were deleted from the Android store last month apparently are still experiencing some fall out… with Skype no less. It’s is unclear if any user data has been accessed, or if the fall out from this will be anything major, but it goes to show you that apps are not 100% safe, and while consumers may call Apple big brother in regards to the strict app download policies, maybe there is something to it… Say, security.

There may not be any damage from this incident, but how long before the “incidents” will culminate into consumer outrage at their security on Androids?

Comments or thoughts welcome.