VP Biden Kick Starts National Broadband Plan

Vice President Joe Biden, speaking to industry leaders in Georgia in mid-December, announced that $183 million in government economic recovery funds have been awarded to 17 states to kick start President Obama's National Broadband plan, which hopes to provide every American with affordable broadband Internet access.

The money announced by the Vice President is part of a package totaling over $7 billion. The National Broadband plan aims to bolster the broadband network in under-served and remote areas, and in public facilities and schools. The Obama Administration believes that the “science, technology and innovation the Administration is making through the Recovery Act (will) lay a new foundation for economic growth,” according to a press release from the United States Department of Agriculture.

According to the press release, Vice President Biden said, “New broadband access means more capacity and better reliability in rural areas and [under-served] urban communities around the country. Businesses will be able to improve their customer service and better compete around the world … This is what the Recovery Act is all about—sparking new growth, tapping into the ingenuity of the American people and giving folks the tools they need to help build a new economy in the 21st-century."

Since the announcement of the National Broadband Plan, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been scrambling to develop strategies to implement the plan, but they are struggling with ways to overcome the main roadblocks to broadband growth.

According to Marguerite Reardon, a CNET reporter specializing in high-tech news, hurdles to growth include—

1.) the redirect of funds from the Universal Service Plan (USF) from voice networks to broadband networks;

2.) the attitude among what few service providers there are who refuse (or find it economically infeasible) to service smaller markets, or who only provide limited options in areas where the average income is lower;

3.) the lack of spectrum available for use to expand the broadband market; and,

4.) the lack of innovation (due to lack of competition) from TV setbox suppliers.

The National Broadband plan visionaries hope to see broadband available on everyone's TV eventually. According to Reardon, in order to boost competition and spur innovation, “the FCC is considering requiring paid TV providers, such as Comcast, Time Warner Cable, AT&T, and Verizon Communications to supply a low-cost network interface device that would allow people to access the Internet on their TVs and to access cable TV without using a cable box.”

The FCC plans to present its strategy to Congress in February, 2010.

Ustream Broadcaster app: Yet another example of how mobile devices are changing the web.

Ustream, a live video broadcasting platform, for iPhone, Android, and Nokia phones on December 9, 2009, and further strengthened the role mobile devices will play in the future of the Internet.

This free app will allow live streaming over 3G and Wifi. Ustream users are also able to chat with your viewers through Ustream's Social Stream, which incorporates live feeds from Facebook, MySpace, AIM, and Twitter. The ability to share with family and friends special moments as they happen should have mass appeal.

Mobile devices have begun to play an increasingly important role in how we access and use the Internet, and the new broadcaster app is no exception. People everywhere will be able to broadcast anything, including breaking news as it happens.

Just like Twitter brought the rest of the world news of the Iranian protests back in June, the potential for Ustream has to provide real-time access to similar events is profound. Authoritarian countries will be limited in their ability to censor the flow of information as it will be broadcast in real-time.

Google's Favorite Places provides a window of opportunity for local businesses

Google continues to provide increasingly relevant local search information through their new feature Favorite Places.

As part of this new feature over 100,000 local businesses throughout the US will be receiving a sticker they can place in their window that states “We're a Favorite place on Google,” along with a unique bar code that window shoppers can scan with their mobile devices, like the iPhone or Blackberry, which will immediately take them to that business's Places Page, which is part of the Google's Local Business Center.

Window shoppers will be able to read reviews, find information about the business, or simply mark it as a point of interest through their mobile device immediately after scanning the bar code. Businesses can even offer coupons through their Places Page. Favorite Places is likely to increase the amount of information that is shared by consumers about local businesses when they see how their opinion can help others make informed decisions.

Businesses are determined to be a Favorite Place if they receive a high amount of searches through Google maps and Google.com, and have high activity on their places page—through customer comments and reviews. Local business will need to increase their online presence as well of their use of Google's Local Business Center to achieve the prestige of being one of Google's Favorite Places.

With Google's purchase of AdMob and the increasing emphasis of making the Internet more accessible through mobile devices, Google's Favorite Places could be just another step towards the future of the Internet.

Mobile devices will need a camera and an application to read the QR code on the decal. Google suggest searching for “QR reader” in your devices application marketplace.

Twitter Joins Forces With Bing and Google

Both Bing and Google have made deals with Twitter to start integrating search with Twitter tweets. Although both search engines have a different approach as to how Twitter is integrated, each is attempting to change how we search on the Internet.

Bing's approach is to provide a way to search through the tweets for a given search phrase. Bing displays the Hottest Topics related to your search based upon the amount of people on Twitter linking to it. Bing also provides a real time tweetstream based upon your search.

Google takes a slightly different approach through their Google Social Search. Google takes your search and then searches your social circle for relevant information. If you are searching for local entertainment, it can search what your circle has tweeted about.

Bing's purpose it to provide real-time search information while Google's purpose is to try to provide more relevant search results to the user based upon their social circle. Both provide solutions to very different needs based upon the same technology provided by Twitter.

Money Spent On Search Engine Marketing Expected to Double by 2013

In a report released February of 2009, Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) predicts that expenditures on Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is predicted to almost double by 2013 to over $26 billion in North America alone. This is based on the $13.5 billion spent on SEM in 2008.

This report, conducted by Radar Research, attributes this to:

• Increased use of SEM within small and mid-sized businesses.

• SEM's ability to reach target markets.

• Continued increase in consumers using search utilities.

• An increased focus on accountability and ROI by advertisers.

Paid placement was the top area in which companies spent most of their 2008 SEM budgets, however most of the companies that participated in the report expected to only moderately increase their spending on paid placement in 2009. Organic SEO, which attempts to achieve top placement in search engines through keyword rich text and quality links, came in second.

The report also showed that close to 30% of the companies surveyed are diverted spending from print magazines towards SEM. TV, newspapers, and direct mail advertising are also areas that companies are spending less on in favor of SEM.

Google Bets on Mobile Devices as Future of Advertising

Google's purchase of mobile-phone advertising giant AdMob showed that they're willing to place a big bet on a major source for future advertising—mobile technology.

Purchasing the mobile advertising platform for $750 million in stock seemed like a risky move by some. But Google defended the move.

“We've written in the past about how mobile phones are becoming an increasingly indispensable part of our daily lives,” Google posted on a November 9 blog, “and we continue to see how great devices with full Internet browsers and vibrant app marketplaces are driving an explosion of usage.”

Google went on to list some interesting statistics: iPhone and Android devices are the most common means of browsing the Internet, while one quarter of these users spend around 90 minutes online per day.

Google's choice to get into the mobile advertising industry while it is “still in its early stages,” indicates how mobile technology is proliferating online culture and becoming, or will become if it hasn't already, a major area of focus for Internet businesses. As the ability to access the Internet through mobile technology evolves, marketing and consumer purchasing will likely follow in its path. Businesses that take time to establish an online presence now may reap large benefits as the technology becomes a standard platform in the not-too-distant future.