February 2011

For at least the fourth time since last January, Google is facing questions regarding its views on privacy.

This latest incident stems from the company's Doodle-4-Google contest for students, which allows students to win prizes including a $15,000 scholarship. This year, the company initially asked the entrants, who ranged from kindergarten students to seniors in high school, for the last four digits of their social security numbers. Google said it did so because it wanted to keep better track of entries, since not all of the students attended schools that had registered for the contest. When the move came to light, people immediately questioned why Google would collect that type of sensitive information -- and from children, no less. Among others, Reps Ed Markey (D-MA) and Joe Barton (R-TX), co-chairmen of the House Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus, said they were "deeply disturbed" by the news.

More and more brands are directing resources to mobile advertising, according to a new survey from DM2 Media and Jumptap. According to the study, nearly 85% of marketers are doing some form of mobile marketing or advertising, and many (60%) that have near-term mobile marketing plans are paying for the programs out of their online budget.

Twenty percent said mobile will be a separate line item. According to the survey of nearly 350 mobile marketing executives, targeting is the most important attribute when selecting a partner. Nearly three-quarters said targeting was their top priority. The survey aggregates responses from nearly 350 mobile advertising executives including brands. Advertisers were almost evenly split between using the format for direct-response campaigns and branding, and nearly two-thirds (62%) participate in a mobile ad network or exchange.

Though it doesn't often happen, the social and mainstream media were in sync last week as bloggers focused on two primary topics- the U.S. budget and Mideast unrest.

For the week of February 14-18, 22% of the news links on blogs were about President Obama's $3.73 trillion budget proposal, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. That subject, along with the state budget strife in Wisconsin, topped the mainstream agenda as well last week. The president's budget proposal included a projected $1.6 trillion deficit, which was a concern for bloggers on both sides of the political aisle. However, conservatives and liberals linked to dueling columns from the Washington Post to support their differing views of the economic debate. Conservatives highlighted a Post editorial criticizing Obama for refusing to include tough choices about entitlement reform in his proposal. Liberals focused on a piece by Dana Milbank in which he accused House Speaker John Boehner of hypocrisy for saying that jobs are his party's first priority, but appearing indifferent to layoffs that could occur if the GOP's budget cuts were passed. The second story on blogs, at 21%, was the situation in Egypt following the protests and the February 11 resignation of President Hosni Mubarak. Two weeks earlier, the upheaval in Egypt had dominated the blogosphere, accounting for 57% of that week's links.

[Commentary] The recent snowstorm raises the following question: What century does Pepco think its customers are living in?

During the storm, Montgomery County citizens were rightly outraged. While we understand that there are financial trade-offs involved in preparing for storms that may or may not occur, the number and length of power outages were inexcusable. Worse, Pepco's emergency response system is both more expensive and less efficient than it should be, because it is based not on the technology of today, not on the technology of the last decade, but on the technology developed in the 19th century: voice communications. And attempting to report an emergency electronically was impossible. Customers with smart phones or working computers found an emergency page with an emergency phone number along with a message that says, "We regret that we cannot respond to outages reported by e-mail." E-mail? Pepco hasn't even caught up to the communications of the 1990s. It obviously needs to include an e-mail component in its emergency response system. But an even more effective way to report an emergency would be through a cell phone application. By using a broadband connection (such a smart phone) linking to the Pepco home page and filling out a simple form with the address, customers could access a dropdown screen to click on the nature of the problem and a phone number for a contact person. Such applications — a staple in many industries for reporting a problem — are routinely built in days, not months. Companies find that they save money through this type of reporting, because the information can be collected, analyzed and utilized far more rapidly. Decision-making becomes more efficient, more effective and more precise. The system can handle an unlimited number of reports (because it is not necessary to hire emergency operators to take the reports), and resources can be spent on responding to, instead of just collecting, information.