Around the world, people are increasingly conversing using SMS, and making fewer and fewer voice calls, particularly in the youth market. A recent Washington Post article looks at how the “texting generation doesn’t share boomers’ taste for talk”. It is a fact that consumers are having interactive and fulfilling conversations via SMS.So why are so few companies really engaging with their customers via this channel? Too often, the mobile component of a marketing campaign is tacked on at the end, ...

You can call Facebook many things, but “simple” is no longer one of them. In the last three years they have piled on the features and, in doing so, cranked up the confusion.If you’re an online marketer you probably already know to avoid the most common mistakes when adding your brand presence to Facebook. For 90% of marketing initiatives, an “official” Facebook Page (aka fan pages or brand pages) is the best choice.But be aware that official pages are actually ...

I went to the launch of Google Instant yesterday morning. It's a major overhaul of Google search in that it seeks to lessen the time people spend typing in their search queries by trying to guess what the user wants. It's a glorified "I'm feeling lucky" button without requiring a click.But will this interactive search function distract users from Google ads?During the 90-minute launch Google executives showed off the result of an eye-tracking study of users interacting with Google Instant. ...

Google made some big announcements yesterday, most notably the ability to search as you type, aptly called Google Instant Search. Currently available in the USA, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Russia, older browsers and users who are not signed will not see the auto results. In essence, Google is turning search into an AJAX application much like Gmail.What it comes down to is the appearance of search results before you finish typing your query. According to Marissa Mayer, Google’s ...

South African web startups, Cognician, GetAGreatBoss and iSigned are packing their bags for London.Seedcamp, the European micro-seed fund that focuses on early stage startups has announced the selection of three South African technology startups to attend ‘Seedcamp Week’ in London from the 13th till the 17th of September.This is great news for South Africa, having secured three of the 23 available places at Seedcamp week, from the more than 600 teams worldwide that have applied over the year. The Seedcamp ...

Breanna Hughes, a prolific blogger and product manager at Artez Interactive in Toronto was surprised to receive an offer from Virgin America for free round-trip airfare between Toronto and San Francisco or Los Angeles. She hadn't entered any competitions recently. The reason she got the offer? She was categorised as influential in her social network and had authority on topics related to travel. Companies are utilising new developments in predictive analysis to make startlingly accurate assumptions about their customers. Beyond using ...

Recently, I was asked to defend Joomla, the content-management system which enables you to build websites and powerful web applications. Defend it? Does that imply there is something wrong with it? The question forced me to think about why I remain loyal to this incredible CMS. I was going to spend hours, maybe days, researching and comparing Joomla to Drupal and to WordPress, but in the end I decided it was best not to criticise other systems, when it’s so ...

Are you tired of the bland catch-all nature of Facebook? Confounded by the sheer scale and volume of Twitter? Then Pic-Nic Village, a brand new social network, might be just what you're looking for.Wearing its new-age, alternative colours proudly on its sleeve, Pic-Nic Village aims to be "the first social networking community that targets people who are passionate about creativity, innovation, ideas generation and seeking positive solutions to everyday problems."This is a network with a firm, strong social ethos. It ...

We’ve all met the type. They use the Web all the time but they shun Twitter. They’re willing to try new sites and applications, but each time the topic of Twitter comes up, they make a little clicking sound or make a snarky comment.  Something like: “I don’t need to know what kind of sandwich everybody had for lunch today.” The Twitter faithful know better. For all the random junk on Twitter, and the obnoxious downtime, the application’s utility far outweighs its ...

NOTE: This competition is now closed. Please see the runner-up and winning tweets here, but feel free to Like our Facebook pages, below.The legendary iPad is still not available on local retail shelves, but anticipation is already reaching fever pitch. And for you, the wait could be over. Memeburn and leading online shop WantItAll are giving away an iPad to one deserving reader.WantItAll.co.za, South Africa's premium online shopping site, offers more than 14-million products nationwide, and the iPad is currently ...