According to research conducted by ZenithOptimedia in 2010 over $64 Billion was spent in 2010 on online advertising. Over 64% of this revenue went to only five companies; Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Facebook, and AOL. You can see the graph below for the full breakdown showing the percentage that each controls.

With such a large percentage of the market being cornered by a small number of businesses where should smaller businesses be putting their online advertising budget? Marketing via social media seems to be a popular choice as businesses are starting to allocate more of their marketing budget in to this portion of online advertising. Facebook is already #4 on this list, how much and how quickly will they be taking over market share in online ad spending?

A handful of airlines including AirTran Airways, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta, United Airlines, U.S. Airways and Virgin America have teamed up to free in flights Facebook access during the month of February. Gogo Wi-Fi network and Ford will be making it possible to logon and update your current status while in the air this month. Additional internet access other than Facebook with start at $4.95.

While people ranging from ages 18-30 have been spending more time on the Internet as opposed to the television, others ranging from age 32-44 are starting to do the same. A recent Forrester study revealed that people are spending more time on the Internet than they are watching TV, and it is up 121% since 2005. The average time people in the U.S. use the television is 13 hours, which is now the same as internet use. The rise of Broadband has contributed to these technological advances. E-Commerce remains the main interest on the Internet, followed by social networking which was accelerated because of the utilization of Facebook and other social networks.

The internet has been buzzing today about Google’s new home page and how the logo has changed. The previous logo has gone from the solid colored “Google” font to moving colorful dots that scatter through out the screen when the mouse goes by it.
Many people are speculating if the new logo has to do with Google’s 12th Birthday, new innovations, or if it’s just an entertaining change for the site.

This morning, a Google spokesperson stated,

“Today’s doodle is fun, fast, and interactive, just the way we think search should be,”.

Last time Google received this much attention for their homepage was back in May when it was turned into a playable Pac-Man game for the game’s anniversary. This page was so popular it was reported to have used 4.8 million hours of productivity from those who used it.

One way or another, Google is once again  receiving attention for simply changing their home page look.

The US may not hold the world record for fastest texting any longer. Melissa Thompson from Salford, England has just broken the record for fastest typing on a phone using the sentence,

“The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human.”.

The previous Guinness World Record was held by Franklin Page from Seattle with a text speed of 35.45 seconds. If approved by Guinness, Thompson will hold the new record for texting the sentence the most quickly in 29.54 seconds. Although she says she has slowed down, Thompson accredits her texting abilities to writing her boyfriend 40-50 times a day. Clearly, she’s had quite a bit of practice.

Can you text the above sentence used by Guinness Records in less than the current record time? Being on the internet so often, I’m almost willing to bet some of the people here at Leadpile could!

According to recent articles, the amount of money being spent on paid internet searches (such asPPC) has notably risen. Between 2008-2009 there was a 14% rise. Many believe the increase in paid searches can be due to the retail industry being down, leaving more opportunity for non-retail related businesses and consumers to make purchases on the  internet. Search engine sites, such as Bing, are up an impressive 26%, with Google up 15.9% for paid searches.

Paid searches on the internet continue to grow strong and prove to be beneficial to websites on the internet. Leadpile works with PPC publishers to help maximize a site’s potential and bring in consumers who are looking for a service.

Can it be true? Is the cost of sending a letter going to be raised again? Investing now in the “Forever Stamps” may be a smart move to make in the near future. The postal service which has thrown around many ideas such as limiting mail delivery to 5 days a week, has announced that it would like to raise the cost of a first-class stamp 2 cents, from .44 to .46 cents starting in January 2011. Consumers who purchase the Forever Stamps at .44 will continue to be able to use these stamps for the full cost of postage even after the change.

With the changing time, economy, email, and so many things being taken care of over the internet the postal service has seen a steady decline in profits facing a potential $7 billion dollar loss in 2010.

Paying off your debt can be one of the most rewarding and experiences and bring a feeling of relief. Often times if you have multiple sources of debt, there is one that bothers you more than the others do even if the payoff amount or interest not as high.

According to CreditCards.com not all debts carry the same psychological weight on people. Debt amounts that are linked with negative events such as divorce, fraud or medical can often times bring stress to a person. Even as this might bring emotional relief, it can be financially more beneficial to pay off the higher interest rate first.

Emotional attachment to debt does not always equal importance of repayment order. Looking at all of your debt amounts and weighing the cost of the interest and long term effects on your credit is a smart way to determine what should be priority in paying down first.

Debt settlement and debt consolidation are both options for consumers looking for debt relief options. Through Internet generation and live transfers LeadPile helps consumers in need of help find companies that are able to offer assistance in consolidating or lowering debt.

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A new bill to be passed that would affect what information needs to be disclosed in both online and offline companies privacy policies.

According to The New York Times the proposed bill would expand what information should be considered confidential. Such information would expand to include, health or financial data, a users race or sexual orientation, the users precise location and any unique customer identification number. This bill could also include the users IP address.

Online and off-line companies would have to disclose a description of the information being collected and how it is being used in their privacy policies

Representatives Rick Boucher, Democrat of Virginia and Cliff Stearns, Republican of Florida released the draft legislation on Tuesday May 4, 2010. Both parties will collect comments on the draft in hopes to have a formal legislation completed within a month or so.

Consumer groups have been fighting targeted advertisements, which could be based on the internets users actions. Google and Yahoo have already adjusted their own privacy policies around this concern.

This “would be the first law that applies generally to businesses requiring privacy notice, particularly in the offline space” said Lisa J. Sotto, a partner at Hunton & Williams.

The United States Appeals Court presiding over the District of Columbia has dealt a serious blow to the F.C.C. and small- and medium-sized Internet businesses this morning by vacating the Commission’s sanction against Comcast with regards to Network Neutrality regulations.

Network Neutrality regulations stipulated that carriers were forbidden from discriminating between certain types of traffic and customers, effectively requiring service providers to treat all traffic equally. Now that the Court has ruled that the F.C.C. lacks authority to impose such regulations, the market for Internet services could change dramatically over the course of the next several years barring congressional action.

Many analysts had feared that, were the Court to reach this decision, customers both on the business and consumer side may be forced to pay extra if they want to access certain websites or services much like current tiered cable plans. This could bode poorly for many businesses that rely on fast and cheap access so that they may provide customers with a positive end-user experience. Businesses that serve streaming video and audio content as well as those who host large files are likely to see impending changes should the ruling stand.

A couple years ago, there was an article that came out about the impact of the Google and does it really make us not use our brains? The verdict on this is up in the air, but one group did a study to detmine the impact the internet has on all of us. This study found that actually the internet helps to make us all smarter. “Most of the respondents also said the Internet would improve reading and writing by 2020, according to the study, conducted by the Imagining the Internet Center at Elon University in North Carolina and the Pew Internet and American Life project. Three out of four experts said our use of the Internet enhances and augments human intelligence, and two-thirds said use of the Internet has improved reading, writing and the rendering of knowledge, said study co-author Janna Anderson, director of the Imagining the Internet Center.”
I think studies like this have come up, determining if the internet really affects our intelligence, because the use of the internet and the power of it are indescribable. What else is there in this world that has so much inpact and access to so many people in this world? Of course there are going to be skeptics that think that it is making us “stupid”, but then again (like this study) many feel that the internet is truly something that is changing the way we think. So what do YOU think? OR don’t you?

Reuters is reporting that the FCC is trying to regulate a minimum broadband speed that American households are delivered by our nation’s broadband companies (ie-Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner and AT&T are the largest) provide all of us. “The planned initiative, which will be proposed in the National Broadband Plan report to Congress next month, comes a week after Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) said it would build a super-fast Internet network for up to half a million people, a project that could pressure telecommunications companies to loosen their control of Web access in the United States.”
So once again is Google pushing the envelope on the way things are done technologically? From everything I am reading it appears that they are in fact doing that and this is forcing broadband companies to compete technologically to stay in business. This new initiative potentially by the FCC could be a great thing for all of us and how we get out internet delivered to us. Nice job Google!