Like many women of my generation, I thought of myself as not quite good enough for the various powerful positions in politics.

Baroness Shirley Williams talks openly on radio 4 about how she and many women always think about themselves as the Deputy…the deputy eduction minister but not the education minister, the deputy prime minister but not the prime minister…

Why do so many women although qualified, never put themselves for the top jobs? Why, when asked do women say they make a good no 2 but not a good no 1? Why do they often say they are not visionary or entrepreneurial but are more happy just doing the job?

If you go back to show and tell in American schools, more often than not the boys are the first to put their hand up to’ show.’ As girls, we are often taught not to put ourselves forward but stand back and watch from the sidelines.

I have some wonderful, smart confident female friends. None of them think they would make great leaders or could run their own business.

I am convinced that this has nothing to do with their ability. It is more about the way society and their families set expectations about what girls should do. Rather than what they could do.

The reason for this perceived lack of ability, according to Baroness Williams, is that women perceive men as ‘giant size’ and themselves as ordinary human size. She concludes by observing that it took all her political life to realise that while those men had projected a giant size image, they were not themselves giants either.

Whatever the reason, the fact remains that while women are not represented in the higher echelons of corporate life (62% of FTSE 100 companies still have NO women on their boards), men continue to dictate what products and services are available to women, particularly in areas such as technology and science which are still dominated by men.

We must ensure women have a voice, if not a seat, in the boardroom. We must raise the agenda collectively and make sure women are seen not as a ‘niche’ audience but as the future drivers of growth and profitability.

After last week’s incredulous blog post about eBay leaping onto Patrick Swayze’s demise, and the general state of advertising (Go Compare anyone?), I’ve actually been paying a little more attention just in case there’s anything good in between the main events.

Barclays seems to have caught a great advertising team – two ads for two different products were clever and eye-catching. I liked the latest ads for some car marque, which seemed to offer three different cars depending on your budget but I can’t remember which brand; likewise the “chasing her metaphors” piggy bank ad again, amusing ad but can’t recall the brand. I loved the army ad detailing a strike on an insurgent gun, but on reflection felt underwhelmed when this turned out to be the chap’s career highlight (the army chap, not the insurgent chap). I really liked the Cadbury’s Fair Trade ad. Actually, it was a mixed bag. I’m very glad I can avoid it all with a PVR’s ffwd button.

None of it however has been designed to develop a relationship. Even the Cadbury’s one, which presumably is part of a series designed to give me a rounded sense of the brand new brand onion, felt stuck on – unrelated to the Gorilla or those other ones that didn’t work. I’d love to see advertising that deliberately led off-screen, not just to the shop but to a place where a relationship can flower.

I can’t remember the last time an ad told me to visit the website in a clear, beneficial way. Oh, apart from all those second-string insurance aggregator sites of course, which do so so risibly it’s more a distraction than marketing (“let’s grab the consumer’s attention, at any cost” we imagine the account guy saying, shortsightedly – smacking of desperation on the part of both client and agency). I’d love to work with an ad agency that had the confidence to work with a digital specialist to create a genuine journey. Meerkats and Army aside, they just don’t cross-refer – and the beauty of the modern customer journey is that it can and should be fluid, media savvy and engaging, not ephemeral, boorish and – in some cases thankfully – entirely negligent of brand recall.

Welcome to the round-up compiled by eModeration’s research consultant Kate Williams, of all that’s new, controversial or just plain weird on the social media scene in the last few days.

THE HEADLINES…

The UK Govt is to rush a controversial broadband tax
into law before the General Election. The tax, which levies 50p per
month on everyone with a fixed-line telephone, was first mooted in Lord
Carter’s Digital Britain, and could raid £175m to ‘make high speed
networks nationally available.’

First Direct’s new campaign will highlight both positive and negative comments
made about the brand, and includes a microsite which will aggregate
every brand mention on more than 5m social media sites. Don’t worry,
perhaps it’s like free-running. It seems counter-intuitive now, but in a year’s time I’m sure we’ll all be doing it…

There was some anxiety this week – and not a little resentment
- as social-heavyweight Seth Godin launched Squidoo, a service which
aggregates all conversations around Brand X and funnels them onto one
page. The resentment began to bubble when it emerged that Brand X would
have to pay $400 per month for the privilege of responding to any
negative comments.

Further audible gulps came with the announcement of Google’s Sidewiki,
a new tool which lets anyone comment on any web pages – including brand
sites. One furious but anonymous commenter said “This service is like
posting a whiteboard in front of my house, that I’m not allowed to
erase, and giving a marker to anyone that walks by.”

THE LOWDOWN…

Squeeeal! Justin Timberlake casting rumours confirmed! The Timble is to play Napster co-founder Sean Parker in the The Facebook Movie – and look, he speaks Mandarin too! A Renaissance man indeed.

A rookie Redskins linebacker
tweeted that his team’s fans were “fake” and “dim wits”, before asking
“who are you to say you know what’s best for the team and you work 9 to
5 at Mcdonalds?” Touché, you’ll agree. Sadly, the account has now been
deleted.

The developers of the dystopic MMO Fallen Earth say
their players thought female characters should look “more feminine”.
Which, if the results are anything to go by, translates as ‘considerably younger’ and ‘no stranger to the surgeon’s knife’.

Using just their phone number, DateCheck rifles through
your prospective paramour’s online drawers, and alerts you to Sleaze
factor (past sex offences) and Compatibility (their star sign).
Conveniently, it also lets you know their Net Worth. Pragmatic – or
creepy? You decide.

ON TWITTER…

The micro-blogging upstart drew astounded gasps this week when they announced that a new financing round had pumped £100 million
into the 3 year old service. With characteristic reserve, Twitter
called the injection ‘significant’ – but the rest of the world was less
restrained, and valuations zoomed straight to $1bn. The news
predictably put co-founder Biz Stone’s revelation that Twitter won’t, after all, carry ads this year into the shade.

Following legal rumblings from Ewan McGregor
amongst others, Twitter is moving swiftly towards an account-validation
system. Other slebs who’ve been stung include Britney, the Dalai Lama -
and David Milliband, who it turns out didn’t tweet “never has one soared so high and yet dived so low. RIP Michael” after all…

MySpace has rolled out a two-way Twitter synch
allowing updates to appear in Twitter feeds, and vice versa. Fits
neatly with the recent news that Twitter’s teen share is looking pink
and healthy.

Some fabulously odd
Twitter stats to mull here: a deathwish-tastic 11% of Twitter users
tweet while driving, double the number of Facebook-users who do so.
(Tiresomely, the stat has a useful point to make: it highlights
Twitters superior compatibility with mobile phones.)

Just under
a quarter of Twitter users have posted Tweets which seemed at the time
to be of a pithy or hilarious nature, but which they later bitterly regretted. And for every user who tweets on a daily basis, there’s one who never has, or who no longer does. Finally, key concerns
of Twitterers remain, if not Neanderthal, then basic: the top 5 most
frequent recurs on Twitter are “working,” “home,” “work,” “lunch,” and
“sleeping.”

AND ON FACEBOOK….

The weather was rather changeable for Twitter’s rival, Facebook:

On the upside, they partnered with Nielsen to launch Brand Lift.
The new platform will poll those who have and haven’t seen specific
ads, and compare the two groups – offering brand advertisers
performance measurement. And a new home page unit of engagement will
help brands target potential customers with a pop-out window to
register for free samples.

But the social giant also announced the death of Beacon
- the no-opt-out monitoring platform which noted when a user visited
advertisers’ sites, then auto-invited that user’s friends to join him
or her. Disgruntled Facebook users launched a class suit – the $9.5
million will now be going to a foundation dedicated to online privacy
and security.

And there wasn’t a huge amount of love for The ‘Book swilling around the marketing blogosphere either. Chris Brogan was a bit meh
about the risqué ads he’s being served (“Call me a prude, but I find
these ads offensive”) and wondered why Facebook isn’t more concerned
about scratching its shiny.

And Social Media Playground pointed out that the new sample pop-outs might be a way of charging brands for what they’ve been doing free for a while. As Todd Deffren
says, “here’s the trouble with Facebook: it’s a proprietary network…
the rules change pretty frequently… and there’s little the average
Corporate Marketer can do about it.”

BRANDS ON SOCIAL…

Woo-hoo for Cadbury’s Wispa and CocaCola’s vitaminwater: the two brands saw considerable fan gains on their Facebook pages this week, according to Inside Facebook.

Boo-hoo for Sara Lee, whose social media campaign failed to rise. One eMarketer analyst was succinct: “I’m a mom and I didn’t see the point.”

A new, mobile-only social network
is being launched by Albion London. The O2-backed network’s members
will get rebates for participating in user-generated marketing
campaigns, and voting on the company’s business decisions.

And finally, if you’re a brand who’s courting the bookish, steer clear of social networks: less than 3% of readers find them useful.

SOME MORE SOCIAL STATS

WHOOSH! (that’s the sound of social networking usage on Smartphones skyrocketing). Nielsen reports a rise of 187 percent
to 18.3 million unique users in July 2009. That figure triples the 6.4m
users of a year ago, and Socnets now account for 32% of all Smartphone
activity. Nielsen also reports that nearly a third of all mobile video
is viewed by 24-35 year olds.

I’ll have what she’s having:
Science Daily reports that there are two intriguing tipping-points in
the conformity of groups. Researchers discovered that, after one
menu-item has been ordered by 30% of a group of diners, the tendency to
go for something different weakens. But after 80-90% had chosen the
same dish, the instinct to be different kicked in again.

Yikes! 84% of companies don’t measure social media ROI and 40% didn’t even know whether or not they had the tools to do so.

Even the ones that are measuring don’t feel that they are doing enough. The full results of the survey are definitely worth a look.

TEENS…

To
highlight some of the threats which face teenagers online, US
communications net Verizon have teamed up with the Ad Council to create
a campaign which will run across mobile, web and TV. The ads spotlight
the various forms of digital dating abuse with the tagline ‘Where do you draw your digital line?’.

The New Jersey School Boards Association recently published their policy regarding staff, students and social networking. The paper, which other bodies can use as a template, advises that ‘teachers should be friendly, and not friends’.

The new gTrend Teen Report
was launched this week, based on a nationwide survey of more than 1,000
American teen influencers. The reports authors say they have identified
15 new trends around teens’ relationship with technology.

ALL RISE…

The Pizza Kitchen
in Knox County has embraced social media – perhaps a little too warmly.
After falling out with their marketing company, its owner posted his
disgust – and allegations of the theft of his email list – on both
Facebook and Twitter. The marketing company in question have now filed
a libel suit against the restaurant.

Amongst many interesting takeaways from a recent conference which pulled together the legal brains from 100 top companies:
companies are most at risk when employees contribute company-specific
information online but don’t disclose that they’re an employee. Plus,
it’s not a good plan to block employees’ access to social media, since
it drives workers to their mobiles instead.

PalTalk has launched scattergun lawsuits
against six virtual world/MMO developers, including NCsoft and Sony,
alleging infringement of their patents for real-time chat during
gameplay.

ELSEWHERE IN VIRTUAL WORLDS…

Linden Lab released some stats
which reveal that globally users have spent more than a billion hours
in Second Life. User hours have grown 33% year-on-year to an impressive
126 million, and they’ve transacted the equivalent of more than $1
billion USD between themselves.

Dizzywood,
a virtual world for kids aged 8-12, has nabbed a National Parenting
Publications Award. Previous winners include Club Penguin, and the Word
Girl PBS Website.

The 20 fastest-growing Facebook apps
are social games – with Zynga scoring particularly well. FarmVille hit
46 million, and Mafia Wars 23 million – placing them at number 2 and 4
respectively.

That’s all folks! Do let us know if you’ve found this of interest.

It has been another interesting few weeks for the music
industry. In the same week that Spotify’s iPhone app has stormed to the number
one spot of iTunes Top Free Apps within just 48 hours of Apple approving it, we
have had Sony and EMI come out and slam Virgin’s plans to offer a subscription
based music download service.

This of course this is nothing new from an industry that is
determined to avoid change of any kind. The industry has even been given
renewed confidence in recent months as Peter Mandelson waded into the debate by
announcing the government’s plans to cut off the internet connection of those
who file share – a government decision even more extreme than Lord Carter’s
recent Digital Britain report. Mandelson’s intervention may well have been influenced
by recent meetings with certain music industry figure heads; but it highlights
(as some commentators have suggested) that this really is a case of an analogue
man living in a digital world. Trivial details such as who is going to be
responsible for regulating this across ISP’s and not to mention who is going to
pay for it, as usual, seem to have been brushed aside as minor formalities.

Whilst this Government backing may show signs that the music
industry is winning its battle to desperately carry on with business as usual,
I feel it may be short lived. In recent weeks we have seen YouTube lift its
block on music videos after the PRS and Google came to a licensing
agreement.  Whilst the lump sum has not
been disclosed, I wouldn’t mind betting it is a lot less than the PRS was
initially demanding. However, a deal was always going to have to be struck as
the prospect of cutting off one of the industries key marketing channels was
never a long term solution.

You might hope that this is a sign that the industry will
start to face the realities of the digital world it has resisted for so long.
This however will not sit easy with the major labels; they have for too long
enjoyed far too much control over their distribution channels and avoided any
deviation from their long established ways of doing things. Losing grip of even
a little bit of this power does not sit easy with them. However, no matter how
much government support they are able to drum up, a business model that relies
on harassing, bulling and even suing its customer base seems destined for
failure.

It has of course been obvious for years that the music
industry will eventually have to move with the times and face up to a changing
market which is seeing their revenues dwindling. What they seem to be missing
is that people sharing and accessing music for free has always been a vital
life blood of the music industry. Ok 25 years ago you had to sit down and make
a mixed cassette tape, but the point is music has always been driven by a buzz
that is created from people talking about and sharing music. The technology may
have changed the scale on which this is possible, but this has also expanded
the potential. 

People have to make living and it is yet to be
seen if the likes of Spotify, Virgin and others can actually turn a profit out
of subscription or ad supported revenue. My guess is that the industry will
have to start embracing a more varied approach and spread their interests
across licensing, ad supported revenue, subscription, merchandising and live
music promotion. And yes there may even be a case that people will pay for a
certain amount of digital tracks, although I feel a higher quality offering
than is currently available will be needed. Naturally the major labels will
continue to lobby for the government to support their out dated business
models, but sooner or later they will have to take their heads out of the sand
and come to terms with the fact that a more creative use of digital channels is
the future of their industry.

A new book looking at gender in technology professions has just been published by Palgrave.

Performing Gender at Work develops a new understanding gender: that gender is not something one is but rather something one does. This means that we perform gender and are performed by gender. Drawing on detailed academic research in the IT industry, the book outlines three implications of performing gender for the workplace.

First, many skills that are needed for at work today have a gender dimension. Skills like listening and nurturing are said to be perfect for building teams, creating networks and fostering innovation and they are also seen as feminine. However as this book shows it is not women who profit from showing feminine skills: it is men who are valued for performing what is seen as atypical gender behaviour.

Second, telling your own career story is something that is increasingly important in the workplace. The book argues that there is a gender difference in how men and women perform their career stories. Women tend to tell their careers as if they were due to coincidence and luck, whereas men appear to be on a mission to success. Organisations tend to expect the latter in their hiring and promotion decisions.

Third, the book explores the sentiment that gender problems are solved today. We live in a time of ‘gender fatigue’ where we know of the importance of gender equality, but people lack the energy to talk about and address gender inequality. Because of this gender fatigue, we do not have the right language to address gender inequality leading a situation where gender inequality exists but cannot be talked about.

The book urges us to think about stereotypes and biases when we evaluate skills, to give validity to different career stories and to develop a language, which allows us to address gender inequality. The book illustrates vividly how gender is something that is performed in the workplace and which implications this has.

This month’s HBR echoes much of what Lady Geek has been highlighting for the past 18 months-perfect timing for my upcoming Symbian
talk.  Firstly, that women represent the largest market opportunity in
the world- in aggregate, the opportunity is bigger than China and India
combined.

Secondly that despite this, most companies continue to market to men
and fail to explore how they might meet women’s needs. Or they target
women as an afterthought through patronizing initiatives.  Dell’s Della being a perfect example.  The NY Times said Dell needed to go to the ‘school of marketing hard knocks.’

And namely, that those companies that can offer tailored products
and services to women are in prime position to win, when the economy recovers.

Interviewing over 12,000 women about everything ranging from their jobs and education to their hopes and fears, BCG found that women
are vastly underserved.  Women feel few companies have responded to
their need for products and services specifically designed for them. Too
many businesses behave if women had no say over purchasing decisions. 
With the recovery in sight now, women will represent one of the largest
opportunities and are an important force in spurring a recovery.  One
of the findings echoes Wave 1 of the Lady Geek Brand Survey;

I hate being stereotyped because of my gender and age, and I don’t appreciate being treated like an infant.”

Interestingly, the research highlights that women are happiest in
their early and later years and the lowest point is early and mid
forties.  Women struggle to cope with both children and aging parents,
so are most receptive to products that help them better control their
lives and balance their priorities.

I could not agree more with their final point;

A focus on women as a target market-instead of a
geographical target- will up a company’s odds of success when the
recovery begins.

Off the beaten fashion path, between showrooms in central London, and at Somerset House, visitors of London Fashion Week have been getting treated to tea, cakes and intimate peeks at six select new designer’s lines, inside the city’s oasis that is the boutique hotel 40 Winks. 

The showroom hosted by David Carter, an interior designer who opened the 40 Winks hotel earlier this year, earning the description from German Vogue as being “the world’s smallest most beautiful hotel” provided the venue as an alternative showroom featuring new designers. On view at 40 Winks, included:

Alexandra Kaegler, who mixes unusual materials to craft pieces with dramatic lines. Most impressive was her dress made of laser-cut leather pieces, that had both awe-inspiring wow-factor, because of the garment’s construction from hundreds of small cut leather pieces, and a distinct earthy scent.

Lisa Gibson
A new graduate, her “Abstract Nature” designs included hand-crafted fabric evoking the romance of roses in pattern and design for her collection.

Elegant gowns from Ruti Danan’s
line are ready to be worn on the Oscar’s red carpet by a lucky starlet. Her ruffled Cami Shawl’s turn any outfit in your wardrobe into a luxurious, glamourous experience.

Katherine Wardropper sculpts silk fabric into impressive necklaces, brooches and other accessories. The technique of skillfully rolling fabric and attaching it into a complex design is her own creation and makes for a beautiful and original complement to adorn the body, and invite curious conversation.

Timothy Foxx designer Rosalie Eustace has captured a whimsical spirit of the English countryside by mixing fun prints with traditional cuts of tweed to create short shorts, blazers and skirts. This gives the classic tweed a modern, festival-like feel that Kate Moss would be thrilled to wear at Glastonbury.

Atelier Annick‘s handbags are inspired by her African ancestry, and one of her very rock ‘n roll zebra print and red patent leather bag is already a hit with celebrity X-Factor judge Cheryl Cole, who can be seen carrying the bag.

Enjoyed taking a quick peek at the fashionable 40 Winks showroom,
-Lisa

I wanted to share eModeration’s (more-or-less) weekly round-up of the latest, greatest or simply weirdest in the social media scene with the Brand Republic audience.  Hope you finding it engaging!  More good stuff on our blog at http://blog.emoderation.com.

THE HEADLINES…

Facebook became embroiled in global politics this
week, after pressure from some residents of the Golan Heights, a
disputed region connecting Israel to Syria which was captured by Israel
in 1967. Until a few weeks ago, if you lived in Katzrin, a town in the
region, your profile said you lived in Syria. Now users can opt to live
in Israel.

Social Media – it’s Chicken-Lickin’ Good. When British supermarket giant Asda discovered that an
employee had posted a video of himself licking frozen poultry, it used
the same platform to hit back. Their own YouTube post features four of
his shocked co-workers’ expressing their clearly heartfelt dismay – and
has effectively headed off the Domino’s Effect.

In a case which is either evidence of a serious social media addiction, or of chronic dim-wittery, a burglar left a hefty clue to his identity when he checked his Facebook page whilst on a job, and failed to log out before scarpering with the loot. Doop.

Doop 2: Martha Lane Fox’s Digital Inclusion office
(target: get 6m of the digitally-excluded online, ASAP) was this week
hit by a thief, who broke into its offices and stole some laptops. One down, 5,999,999 to go.

It’s all over between me and George Clooney:
when asked about Facebook, the star responded that he would “rather
have a prostate exam on live tv by a guy with very cold hands”, than a
Facebook page. That’s a pretty vivid picture you paint there, George, and now I can’t get it out of my head.

US start-up The Whuffie Bank now gives you tangible evidence of your online reputation (also check out our previous post on ReputationShare). The non-profit’s algorithm assigns Whuffies to your comments, posts and mentions by others - in other words, it’s Karma for Web 2.0. Go on – you know you want to.


ON FACEBOOK THIS WEEK…

A stunner of a week for what is now, definitively, our favourite place to waste time online, per Nielsen. The social behemoth reached a humungous 300 million registered users – putting the Great Twitter/Facebook Face-Off into some serious perspective.

Not only that, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg simultaneously revealed that the company was already cash-flow positive – a milestone which it had previously predicted for ‘sometime in 2010’.

Facebook’s
special sauce turns out to be ‘self-serve ads’ – targeted ads which
advertisers can create on-site, in minutes, to reach particular
demographics. According to Facebook’s Chamath Palihapitiya “all channels are doing very well, but that channel is just crushing it” and has been accelerating every quarter since it was launched.

AND ON TWITTER…

A mixed bag this week: researchers analysed half a million Tweets, and discovered that an astounding 20% of them were about brands. That’s 600 thousand brand mentions per day – time to get sentiment-mapping, folks.

And e-Marketer predicts 18 million Twitter users (that’s
those who tweet at least once a month) by the end of 2009. That’s an
impressive 50% up on their predictions of earlier this year - but not quite enough to worry Facebook, 120m of whose users check in once a day.

In that context, Facebook’s claim that that Twitter ‘is in the rear-view mirror’ seems entirely feasible – particularly when Nielsen’s latest figures show that 50-64-year-old users are twice those of 18-24s, with 22% vs. 11%.

And eyebrows were raised when it emerged that Twitter’s private investors had valued the company at a breath-taking $1bn. That’s quite a figure, for a company with no revenue in sight.

And this week’s best Twitter headline goes to… The Guardian, with ‘Avatar Loss Horror Afflicts Twittering Classes’. (It was a temporary glitch, we’re assured.)


BRANDS ON SOCIAL …

Home retailer Habitat has made a sheepish return to Twitter three
months after its spamming disaster (it hijacked an Iranian election
thread to promo its Sale) hit the headlines: “We’re back. Sorry it took
so long. This time we want to get it right.”

TGI Friday’s campaign to get 500,000 Facebook fans
signed up reached its goal far sooner than anticipated – leaving many
fans too late for the promised free burger. As negative comments piled
up on their fanpage, the brand narrowly averted a backlash by extending
the offer to the first 1m signups.

And..

Vitaminwater is crowdsourcing its next flavour – Facebook
members can download a shareable application which lets them vote for
their choice among ten flavor proposals. Each of those proposals will
have been chosen according to the amount each flavour is discussed in
online conversations on Twitter and other social media. Voters can also
specify the vitamin content, write the ad copy, and design the
packaging – with $5000 for the winner.

SOCIAL NETWORKS GOING NORTH…

Former Bebo CEO Joanna Shields heads up a new venture with Elisabeth Murdoch, which will meld TV production and social media.

And Nokia has bought micro social-networking site Plum in the latest expansion of its social media ambitions.

AND GOING SOUTH…

HMV is folding GetCloser.com, its social discovery network which launched last July to help film and music fans access content and find each other.

And poorly BusinessWeek, whose bid deadline is fast approaching, was revealed last week to have spent a hefty $16m creating its social networking site, which is thought to have generated just $600,000 in revenue.


SOME SOCIAL STATS…

The best overall way to raise a brand’s reputation is
via forums and social networks, according to new research by
Trendstream: 36% of 16-24-year-olds and 20% of 55-64-year-olds said
brands who did improved their opinion – by 29% on average.

But these new stats from E-Tailing suggest that brands are still rather, erm, conflicted about grasping the social media nettle. 34%
were concerned that consumers would think they were “using outdated
marketing/ merchandising techniques” if they didn’t do so – but a
whopping 49% were also worried that social media meant that “people can
trash my products in front of large audiences.”

A study has revealed that more than half of ad impressions and a terrifying 95% of clicks in online ad buys could be fraudulent. Radar Research’s Marissa Gluck called it “the dirty little secret of the online ad industry”.

Mediaweek reports that increased user time on social networks is stolen from email and IM. Adults
spend slightly over 3 hours a month in online communities, whereas back
in the mists of time (well, 2003) consumers spent most of their online
time emailing and IMing.

But overall, Content is emphatically king: time
spent on content sites averages seven hours, a healthy increase of 88%
from 6 years ago. Meanwhile poor old e-commerce was 18.7% down, with
consumers spending a monthly 2 hours, 40 minutes on e-commerce sites.

AND ELSEWHERE IN E-COMMERCE…

A study by McAfee found that the majority of online shoppers – 65% – wait a day or more to complete their purchase. Far from being shopping cart abandonment, this behaviour might simply be indicative of the cautious shopper.

And
while that species will inevitably expand as the recession continues,
eMarketer predicts that the number of online shoppers will rise from
26.9m to 31.8m by 2013 – that’s over half the UK population.


ON THE BOX…

Rumours abound that Hulu, the free online viewing service, is already beta-testing a subscription version.
Precisely what the premium service will consist of – better content?
Zero ads? – is unclear, but analyst Laura Martin warns Trad TV
businesses to be afraid – be Very Afraid – of Hulu.

The BBC is opening up iPlayer to
third parties. Announcing the move, the Beeb’s head of future media let
slip that the most searched term on the iPlayer was ‘Coronation
Street’, the jewel in the crown of rival network ITV.

AND IN THE OFFICE..

Twitter breaks could become a regular feature of worker’s days
– with those who check their SocNets at other times subject to
disciplinary procedures. It follows research suggesting British firms
are losing millions of pounds to social networks each day. You can view the social media policies of large US companies here by the way.


MOBILE HOME…

Socks up, mobile sites! While 31% of phone users browse the Mobile Web, they give an extremely limp 52 out of 100 average rating to dedicated mobile sites.

Those very same users are also ‘extremely ad wary’,
according to research from Chitika: mobile as a whole hit a measly
0.48% clickthrough rate – just over half of the average non-mobile
rate, which hovered at 0.83%.

And of all measly clickthrough rates, iPhone users’ were the most measly. Though they browse the net the most, they were even less likely to click through than other mobile users, with a paltry 0.30%.

Perhaps matters will be improved by Microsoft’s launch of behavioural targeting service, which collects user data across Microsoft properties - Hotmail, Bing, Xbox and other MS-owned websites.


LEGAL BRIEF…

Evony
has filed libel suit against a blogger for causing ‘significant damage
to the company’s brand.” Though Evony is US-based, and blogger Bruce
Everiss resides in the UK, the suit has been filed in Australia where libel is easier to prove.

A federal judge in California has ruled that video-sharing site Veoh is protected from liability for hosting pirated clips uploaded by its users. The law “does not place the burden of ferreting out infringement on the service provider,” the judge wrote.

A California Judge has bashed out a compromise order which
may suit the current slew of requests to unmask anonymous commenters.
She’s ordered that a commenter’s IP address be disclosed to an
independent investigator: only if it turns out to be a specific
individual will the name be turned over.

An ex-Congressman who did successfully unmask an online commenter has had the resulting libel suit thrown out. The court ruled that the comments were a matter of public interest, and that the ex-Congressman had “failed to demonstrate that [his] action has a substantial basis in fact and law.”

France’s lower house of parliament has approved a bill which could see pirates who ignore email and postal warnings get their internet connections cut for a year - and face €300,000 (£267,000) in fines.

Entrepreneur Kevin Alderman, who sells virtual erotic goods in Second Life, launched a suit against Linden Labs for allegedly allowing other virtual marketers to offer knock-offs of his “SexGen” beds and other products.

Social game-maker Playdom responded cuttingly to a suit by
competitor Zynga, who apparently accused it of nefariously accessing a
document which contains “non-public … know-how and best practices for
developing successful and distinctive social games.” Playdom replied
that the lawsuit “comes as no surprise given Zynga’s penchant for
litigation”, and that the company has “no interest in Zynga’s ‘secret
sauce’”. Ouch.


ELSEWHERE IN VIRTUAL WORLDS…

By the end of this year, Virtual Worlds will hit the 150 mark
, according to Kzero’s figures – and the total is set to double by the
end of 2010, driven largely by media companies launching IP-driven
platforms for their toy, film and tv properties.

There’s
little doubt that we are now a society which wants what it wants, when
it wants it – and so of course microtransactions are big business. Here, Massively explains all, and argues that we’re witnessing a rapid and far-reaching shift in the culture of MMORPGs.

With
new free-to-play MMO titles like Earth Eternal in development and other
titles ported from from Asia at a rapid-fire rate, has the market become oversaturated with free-to-play?

TOOLS AND TECH…

Vivox has launched VoiceChat,
an App which allows Facebook friends to chat while gaming. The
developers followed 100,000 users and found that those used voice chat
in their games were four times more likely to be playing a game five
weeks later than those who didn’t.

Twitter heroes Seesmic have come to the rescue of
both time-strapped Facebook brands and fans. Page admins can easily
update their content – and fans can view all their Pages as distinct
entities and engage with them more easily.

Our friends and partners Crisp, the online child protection specialist, have
unveiled Automated Behaviour Management (ABM). Working in real-time,
ABM allows NetModerator clients to automate responses to low-level rule
infringements such as sharing phone numbers or profanity, stopping
potentially serious offenders from taking root in the game.

Social review tool provider PowerReviews is launching BrandConnect, which features two elements: Listener and Megaphone. Listener
asks users to review a product in far more detail than usual, and also
carries out a 2-stage review-moderation programme. while Megaphone gives customers the option to syndicate their reviews to Facebook, Twitter, and their blogs.

Rookie social network Vreebit.com launched
last week. The site “combines the best of top social networking sites
with new organizational, e-commerce and promotional tools, changing the
way people connect, communicate and organize their social and
professional lives”

Centaur Media has launched Reputation Online, an ad-funded site aimed at PR firms, agencies and brands looking to better manage their image on the web.

BillMyParents has gone live: Teens
and tweens can use BillMyParents to purchase virtual goods and virtual
currency for game play upgrades inside Gala-Net’s gPotato online game
portal and Artix Entertainment’s AdventureQuest Worlds’ virtual game
worlds.

The other day the always informative journalism blogger Malcolm Coles showed how UK newspapers were doing a bit of SEO by stuffing their web-pages full of Patrick Swayze results and tags.  This follows Malcom’s earlier analysis
that the Daily Mail had become the UK’s most popular online
newspaper….thanks to its coverage of Michael Jackson’s death (on
another note, check out how the Mail is copying right wing blogs in the US with its Obama coverage).

With the launch of the Spotify App for the iPhone interest for streaming music is higher than ever. There seems to be no limit for its reach, with new users streaming free music every day, changing the way people think about ownership of music forever. And it’s spreading.

LoveFilm, the video rental company that sends DVDs directly to your door, has announced a new (and for some films completely free) online streaming service that could completely change the way films are rented. With films available immediately at your fingertips , ‘traditional’ rental companies like Blockbuster would have to think long and hard about how to compete. Their sluggish uptake of the LoveFilm model of sending DVDs to your door hurt them badly, and if they make the same mistake this time around, it could spell disaster.  Admittedly, most films are currently ‘pay per view’ when streaming, and with the average internet download speed being where it is the quality of the films is not exactly ‘Blu-Ray standard’. But the room for expansion is massive, and with broadband speeds constantly increasing surely the only way for this market is up.

With the prospect of such a big market there have been rumours that Google, as always, may be throwing its hat in to the ring. Following trials that included making the movie Ghostbusters available on the site to watch for free for a limited time Google-owned Youtube have apparently been in talks with Sony and Time Warner to discuss an online streaming service and the effect was dramatic. Shares in Blockbuster dropped by 10% overnight!

Streaming films online is nothing new however, for years films have been available on illegal (but popular) websites, even on YouTube as it is today some films can be found. It is with these sites that LoveFilm and similar sites will have to compete, and this will be a difficult task, with many people simply not willing to pay to watch a film online. If YouTube brings films to our screens for free It will be very interesting to see what advertising formats open up to support these new content distribution channels and, importantly, whether ‘free’ can really support content which has, up until now at least, been considered premium.