Mission E-Commerce

The last time Britain had a big Royal Wedding, one didn’t tweet about it, Facebook about it, Flickr about it and certainly didn’t air it on YouTube. One couldn’t. These things didn’t exist. But the 21st century British Monarchy is hip to the social media channels of today. Here’s how to tune in to the Royal Wedding, via social media.

YouTube: Streaming The Royal Wedding Live

Want to watch the Royal Wedding when it starts tomorrow (Friday, April 29, 2011) at 11am British Time (3am Pacific; 6am Eastern). Fire up your web browser and tune to YouTube:

The Royal Channel is the official channel of the British Monarchy. It’ll be airing the nuptials live — and hopefully holding up under the pressure. There’s some speculation the livestream will break the internet.

Tweeting Down The Aisle

OK, no — neither William nor Kate will be tweeting while they’re getting married in Westminster Abbey. However, the pair do have an official Twitter account looking after them:

Clarence House on Twitter is the official account of Clarence House, the official residence of Prince Charles, his wife the Duchess of Cornwall and the two princes, William and Harry. It’s taken the lead on tweeting official Royal Wedding information.

It’s not clear how much tweeting will be happening when the wedding actually starts. But Clarence House feels a bit cheeky and chatty compared to the official British Monarchy account. I get the impression there will be updates throughout the event.

The Royal Hashtag, by the way, seems to be #royalwedding — that’s what Clarence House has been using the most, recently. It was also using #rw2011 and occasionally still does (and that’s better, being shorter), but it seems to be adopting the longer one — the People’s Hashtag, I suppose.

Oh, rumors that there’s a ban on tweeting and attempts to block phones near the wedding location are being denied.

Continue reading: http://searchengineland.com/your-guide-to-the-royal-wedding-2011-social-media-style-75058?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed-main

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Wondering when that next tablet or smartphone will be coming out? We do, too! To keep track, here’s a rundown of what we know about particular devices.

Devices below are listed roughly in order of release date. I’ll add more items over time. This isn’t a complete list of all coming gadgets out there. Far from it. Rather, it’s mainly a list of devices that have caught my attention and which might be of interest to Search Engine Land readers in general. It’s also focused on US releases. Sorry, but that’s where I based.

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer: Out April 26 (and already sold-out online at Best Buy), this 10″ tablet runs Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” like the Motorola Xoom tablet but costs $100 less — selling for $399. You can spend that extra savings on a $150 docking station designed to make it laptop-like. It has a 10″ screen and sports dual cameras. Engadget has a long review about it, rating it above the Xoom. Motorola never sent me a Xoom review unit, so I can’t comment on it. But for $100 less, the Asus looks pretty attractive.

Amazon Kindle With Special Offers: Want to save $25 and get a Kindle for $114, versus the $139 regular price for a wifi-only version? Amazon has a new version with little offers that show on the bottom of your screen or on the screensaver. Me, I don’t think $25 is enough of a discount for Amazon to be showing ads. But I also think the Kindle is a low-tech toy (so far, in my few days of owning one) compared to reading books through the Kindle on the iPad. Seriously, no touchscreen? Seriously, I need a light to read the Kindle in the dark? But “E Ink” lovers, well, love the Kindle’s screen.

Verizon Samsung Droid Charge (and see here on Verizon): Due out on April 28, according to Samsung, this is Verizon’s second 4G Android phone. As an owner of Verizon’s first 4G Android phone, the HTC Thunderbolt, I can’t wait. The Thunderbolt is amazingly fast downloading data, but it’s also a clunky battery-hogging mess compared to other Android phones I’ve used. Seriously, no “delete” button in the native mail app? Geez. I’m hoping to get a test unit from Samsung to compare to the Thunderbolt (waiting to hear back from them). If it’s positive, I’ll probably sell the Thunderbolt and convert.

Sprint Google Nexus S: The Nexus S is “pure” Google Android, without carrier or handset makers adding their own stuff to the mix. I loved the version I tested on T-Mobile (see review below) but hated it not being 4G. Sprint is getting a 4G version, which sounds attractive. When?Due out May 8 for $200 with a two-year agreement. What about the Nexus S for AT&T or Verizon? There’s an unofficial version that works with AT&T’s system. Sadly, there are no fresh rumors of Verizon getting one.

HTC Flyer Android Tablet: Due out in “spring” according to Best Buy, that means you should expect it by late May or early June. You can pre-order from Best Buy now. The Flyer has a 7″ diagonal screen, two cameras and runs Android 2.3 or “Gingerbread” but supposedly, reports the LA Times, will be upgradeable to the Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” version used by the Motorola Xoom tablet. $499 for the wifi-only version. 3G and 4G versions due out later this year. But hey, you can get a Barnes & Noble Color Nook for $249 — same screen, size but $250 less. OK, you’re only getting Android 2.2 (not much lost versus Android 2.3) and no cameras. Also no promised upgrade to Honeycomb (though there are unofficial ways to do this).

T-Mobile HTC Sensation: Running on T-Mobile’s “4G” network, this is a 4.3″ Android-powered smartphone due out around June 8, as some ads have proclaimed.

Motorola Droid Bionic 4G: The third of Verizon’s 4G phones isn’t due out until the summer of this year, delayed, reports the Wall Street Journal, to incorporate new features from when it was shown earlier this year at CES. I’ve got high hopes for this phone, given I’ve generally liked Motorola’s implementation of Android on phones the best, so far. But tastes differ, as do particular phones.

Google Chrome OS Laptops: Expect Google’s cloud-based computing platform to come out in summer, according to Neowin. Rather than buy the units, you might instead “subscribe” to them for $10 to $20 per month

Continue reading: http://searchengineland.com/search-engine-lands-gadget-release-calendar-66328?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed-main

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Although Google Offers hasn’t formally launched yet, the service is already facing its first lawsuit.

Walker Digital, a private R&D lab that created and launched Priceline.com in the late 1990s, is suing Google for allegedly violating four of the company’s patents. The lawsuit, which asks the court for a jury trial, seeks unspecified damages and a permanent injunction.

Google Offers began taking sign-ups yesterday in three U.S. locales and technically hasn’t even launched yet. The Walker Digital lawsuit was filed in a US District Court last night.

Earlier this month, the company filed 15 similar suits against more than 100 defendants including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, eBay and Apple. Walker Digital also sued Facebook last year over its “friending” technology, according to paidContent.

To see a copy of the newest suit against Google Offers: http://searchengineland.com/priceline-com-founder-sues-google-over-offers-service-74467?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed-main

When I first started down this 6-lane highway called Online Marketing over six years ago, we used an absolutely archaic bid management software whose name escapes me. I want to say it was a Yahoo! (or precursor to Yahoo!) product, and basically it automated our bids so they would go up and down based on search volume. It worked about 10% of the time and was always down or broken….we quit using it pretty quickly.

Fast forward to today – and remember the leaps and bounds PPC advertising has taken in just the last 12 months – take a look at Google  AdWord’s “Automated Rules” and prepare to be amazed. This is seriously a feature that can make a 1-woman-show look like a 3-person department, with minimal time, setup and investment.

Think about the implications, especially for small business owners and those with limited time to monitor social media, news, etc – but rely on those same mediums to drive buzz and traffic to their products or services.

Here’s the scenario that comes to mind.

You sell Charlie Sheen T-shirts, but you never know when some diatribe or craziness is going to hit the news, and you don’t want to sit with your finger on the AdWords bid trigger waiting for it. While you don’t necessarily want to bid yourself into top or even first page position if he’s not “in the news” you absolutely do want to be there when he is.

Now, you can automate the whole thing. Set your keywords and daily budgets to increase based on the number of impressions those keywords receive, or the conversion rate of your keywords. On a non-buzz day, those keywords may average 20-30 impressions a day, but on a buzz day, the impressions could skyrocket to 1,000 impressions an hour.

Set your automated bid manager to increase your daily budget and your CPC bid for onlyCharlie Sheen T-shirt keywords when the impressions go over 100. You can also set specific ad text to show when impressions go over 500 or 1,000 – or whatever number shows a spike in activity for those keyword phrases.

To check out what options you have for automating bids, take a look at each Keyword, Ad Group, or Ad tab, select an AdGroup, Ad, or Keyword(s) and click “Automate”.

View more: http://searchengineland.com/how-to-use-automated-rules-in-google-adwords-73312?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed-main

Google Instant continues to spread. The company has just announced that it’s one of several new features on Google Toolbar 7 for Internet Explorer 8 and 9.

Google Instant has to be activated via the Toolbar Options menu, and once it’s on, Instant works the same way it does on Google.com. The Escape button on your keyboard takes you back to the page you were on before you started searching.

Another new feature is personalization on the toolbar — the tools you use most will remain visible, while others will be moved to a “More” button.

Finally, Google has collected all of its privacy settings on a new options menu tab. It looks like users can choose which “enhanced features” to activate/disable on an individual basis

Continue to read: http://searchengineland.com/google-instant-now-on-new-google-toolbar-7-73853?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed-main