Google Android surged past RIM BlackBerry to become the most popular smartphone platform in the US, accounting for 31.2% of market share as of January 2011, up 7.7 percentage points from the previous three-month period, according to data from the comScore MobiLens service. more

In a recent post at Search Engine Watch, Peter van der Graaf notes that local search results are becoming more important to the SEO mix. In Google Places, for example, businesses can now promote themselves on Google Search and Maps, he notes. But have you ever wondered how you can rank ... more

Mobile Web traffic to high-traffic e-commerce sites grew more than 300% during the 2010 online holiday shopping season over levels registered during the same period a year earlier, according to a report by Conductor. more

Driven primarily by Facebook, social networking is the fastest-growing mobile content category in the US: Nearly 58 million mobile subscribers accessed a social networking site at least monthly via mobile device as of December 2010, up 56% from the previous year, according to a report by comScore. more

Driven by changes in consumer behavior and competitive forces, 80% of marketers say they plan to increase the volume of digital projects in 2011, with much of those investments focused on corporate websites and social technologies, according to a survey from AnswerLab. more

If you've been shoehorned, by choice or necessity, into the role of a social community manager, your fingers must ache. It's not easy navigating a multiplicity of social media accounts for yourself and a client—sometimes multiple clients—at the same time. But thumbs up! The super-helpful iPhone app MySocialMania doesn't just keep you ... more

Some 63.2 million Americans owned smartphones in the three-month period ended December 2010, up 60% from a year earlier, according to data from comScore MobiLens. RIM led the smartphone platform ranking with 31.6% of US market share, while second-ranked Google accounted for 28.7%, up 34.1% from the three-month period ended ... more

Google's Android operating system (OS) accounted for 40% of smartphone visits to Myxer's mobile content site in December 2010, up from 12% a year earlier, toppling the once unshakable BlackBerry from its leadership position for the first time, according to a report by Myxer. more

More than 70 million US mobile users—roughly 30% of all mobile subscribers—accessed email via mobile device as of November 2010, up 36% from the 51.6 million who did so a year earlier, according to comScore Media Metrix. Meanwhile, fewer visited Web-based email destinations during the period, and spent less time ... more

"Mobile holds tremendous potential for B2B audiences," says CK Kerley in a slide presentation at CK's Blog. But many B2B executives "still see mobile as B2C media," she notes. Well, if you're a B2B marketer still trying to convince the C-suite that it's time to go more mobile, take heart. ... more

Before you optimize your next piece of content, Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman have some advice. "Bust your content silos!" they write in their new book Content Rules. "Do you have a print newsletter? Do you produce a regular podcast? Run a version of a print article on the blog, ... more

Social media stories dominated the list of most popular marketing charts and articles in MarketingProfs in 2010. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Wikipedia, figured prominently in seven of the Top 10 articles, which also covered subjects such as email, mobile, marketing budgets, and content marketing. more

One of the most frustrating things about the iTunes store is its unintuitive search function. That's why folks have invented new apps like AppsFire for iPhone. It's an application that is search-engine optimized to float the most popular mobile apps sold through folks like iTunes to the top of the ... more

We love photographing food—local gems we hope to immortalize and share. Now there's an app for that! Inspired by Foursquare, Foodspotting lets users snap pictures of food and share the name and location via iPhones. It's a great way for iPhone users to find yummy dishes nearby. (Just think: Now you ... more

Today's consumers are "eager to use mobile devices to inform in-store decisions," says Target's Kris Roberts in a recent article that quotes experts on the subject at Knowledge@Wharton. Digital innovations, the article argues, are transforming how people shop. As mobile networks improve, it's becoming easier for retailers to target customers based ... more

In less than five years, more than 50 percent of users at any given time will be accessing the Internet from a mobile device, according to Morgan Stanley. Frankly, it feels like that number is already being reached in the business world. After all, Internet-ready mobile devices are ubiquitous, and the ... more

Now, even your offline world can have a social element: Sotokolan, whose slogan is "Objects get social," enables you to attach your Facebook page to a custom QR code. (A QR code is like a barcode that, when scanned, points users to a Web page or reveals other digital information.) Through ... more

In April, Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker issued her report on this year's Internet trends. It included this revelation: Mobile is a hit, and in the next five years, people will be using it to get online far more often than any of their desktop devices. The current leader of this ... more

Ever wanted to share a snowman in springtime, send a love letter to a stranger—or surprise a loyal customer with a gift message? Get a load of Layar, which puts the magic of augmented reality in the hands of anyone with an idea and an iPhone 3GS or a phone that ... more

Remember Foursquare, the mobile game where users check in to gather badges and mayorships at their favorite local spots? If you're not a brick-and-mortar retailer, it's understandably hard to imagine how to leverage this strange new breed of socnet, which now serves more than 800,000 users worldwide. To help you get ... more

Having a mobile app can make sense for a B2B company, says Jennifer Leigh Brown in a post at the B2B Insights Blog. "But there are key considerations when deciding between investing in a mobile application instead of designing a mobile website," she cautions. And when money is tight, you ... more

Time to start thinking "i" again—this time for the iPad. Like it or not, it's a mobile device, and 120,000 were preordered in the first 24 hours of its release in April. And as of May 3, iPad had already hit 1 million units sold, and 12 million iPad apps ... more

The Blackeyed Peas' will.i.am recently raised eyebrows during a concert in Florida when he freestyled, in real-time, anything users sent to his BlackBerry. You're thinking, "Whoa, that's a lot of people with will.i.am's number." Thankfully, he still reserves that for his friends. The messages were sent to him via the instant-messaging ... more

Dipping your brand into unfamiliar territory (like marketing a mobile app to the masses) isn't just a matter of learning new terrain, it's a matter of rethinking what you think you know. A good place to start? Other companies' success stories. Enter Vogue Stylist ("Your closet. Styled by Vogue."), an iPhone app ... more

"With 4.6 billion current mobile subscriptions projected to surge to 6.5 billion mobile connections by 2014, there's no denying it, marketers: Mobile has arrived—and it's changing how (and where) business professionals communicate with each other, and how (and why) business audiences interact with B2B brands," says Christina "CK" Kerley in ... more