It’s that time of year when we give our email stats a gander to see how well our campaigns have performed over the past 12 months; gauging successes and failures, and gaining insights into emerging trends and challenges.So how have your 2011 email campaign efforts measured up against other people’s worldwide?Enter email marketing benchmarks by various industries: Benchmark email marketing statistics offer a glimpse into the broad performance of various industries and industry sectors. These studies usually go beyond traditional metrics ...

With soaring stock valued at over US$7-billion, Twitter, a veritable startup success story, has without doubt been one of the most desirable employers in Silicon Valley. However, revelations from recent ex-employee Adrien Gaarf may change that.The San Francisco-based company’s ranks have, in a relatively short space of time, swelled from 150 to over 750. But in recent months, despite an expected IPO announcement which would be a windfall for those with stock options, it has seen a run of departures ...

South African fast food chicken outlet, Nando’s, has struck again with a holiday-themed campaign. This time it has taken its hunger for parodying current events to the world of dictators, with a new YouTube video featuring a man who bears a striking resemblance to long-standing Zimbabwean commander-in-chief, Robert Mugabe.The ad features "Mugabe" sitting at a dinner table alone reminiscing about the good times he had with his "friends" -- all deceased dictators. The star-studded cast features Uganda's one and only Idi Amin Dada, ...

BlackBerry is soaring ahead in Africa, the Middle East and Europe. In July, it disclosed that it had added one-million new subscribers across this region in less than three weeks. This is huge. Balance that out with a net decline in subscribers in its mature North American markets, however, and the outlook isn’t fantastic. Basically, it needs to keep adding more (net) subscribers in emerging markets than ones it’s losing. So far, it’s keeping pace. But the company and platform ...

Early this month, a bunch of kids in Queensland, Australia, created a Facebook fan page called "Sneaky Hat". The original page has since been taken down, but it has quickly been replaced with alternatives such as this one. If you thought Planking or HorseManing were weird, I have to warn you that clicking on a Sneaky Hat link while at work may be somewhat risky.The new photo fad started with young men taking photographs of themselves naked except for ...

Microsoft has joined a small league of companies in a bid for Yahoo!. The software giant signed a non-disclosure agreement making a deal to review the internet pioneer's financial books, reports The New York Times.According to the report Microsoft has been collaborating with private investors to raise a multi-billion-dollar offer to purchase the internet firm that spurned its initial takeover bid in 2008. (Microsoft was publicly humiliated when Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang rejected a generous bid for the company at ...

China has overtaken the US to become the world’s largest smartphone market in terms of devices sold. That’s according to a report by research firm Strategy Analytics.Although China has overtaken the US when it comes to smartphone volumes, the latter still leads when it comes revenue.According to the research firm, shipments hit 24-million units in China during the third quarter of 2011, compared to 23-million in the US."China is now at the forefront of the worldwide mobile ...

It’s everything you want in a cheap point and shoot, and more. Remember every time you took a pic, and went, “Jeez, how awesome would it be to just beam it up to the Web or Facebook!” The Samsung SH100 does this via Wi-Fi – and there’s more! It also lets you use your smartphone as a remote viewer. How awesome is that? Not very, unfortunately. Only suckers and those who don’t read Gearburn reviews buy first generation technology.The SH100 ...

Groupon's fun time, it would seem, has come to an end. Following a 15% drop in the value of Groupon's stock price on the NASDAQ, its many detractors are enjoying the schadenfraude of having "called it". There are arguments, however, that this glee may be somewhat precipitous.The day Groupon's stocks finally went live, at US$20 per share, they soared to highs of US$31.14 per share. In the weeks following, the stock fell from those highs but remained at stable or ...

Aside from being one of the internet's best procrastination tools -- OMG! Look, it’s my house! -- Google Street View is also said to be a nifty tool for something or other. It has in no way been connected with any form of art however. Well, that is, until now. Award winning artist, Aaron Hobson, has shown the beauty that can be found in a series of Google StreetView images he calls “cinemascapes”.Hobson introduces the series in true artist ...