If you have Flash on your web site you know how huge this development really is.

In a move that could add substantial volumes of Flash content to Internet search results, Adobe is working with Google and Yahoo to provide optimized Flash Player technology to enhance the searching of this content. The project, being announced Tuesday, will enable searches on Flash content to return text and links, which can then be indexed, said Justin Everett-Church, Adobe senior product manager for the Flash Player. Content from a Flash application or even a game or advertisement will be available to search engines. Pages containing a Flash .SWF file will be returned in a search.

Read the whole article in InfoWorld

The security landscape is becoming more dangerous by the minute. Readers of this blog have seen multiple articles here about the growing security threat that we all face (see: security archives). I think that most of you have taken the warnings to heart and checked that your web browsers, and your mail clients, are up to date, and properly patched against the latest threats. However, the study referenced below suggests that over 40% of the machines on the web are not properly patched and thus represent a serious problem for their owners and ultimately for all of us on the web. If your computer is not patched and fully up to date, then you need to do something about this today. Check your browser status

Study: Unpatched Web Browsers Prevalent on the Internet

Only 59.1 percent of people use up-to-date, fully patched Web browsers, putting the remainder at risk from growing threats from diligent hackers, according to a new study published by researchers in Switzerland.

The study, published Tuesday, is one of the most comprehensive analyses of what versions of Web browsers people are using on the Internet. The study was conducted by researchers at The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology,Google and IBM Internet Security Services.

Read the rest of the story in PC World

After years of hype the mobile advertising medium is starting to gain real momentum. Advertisers who are willing to invest in customizing their messages for this new medium are gaining real advantage in their markets, particularly with localization. The future belongs to mobil devices; if you doubt this just look at what your kids and their friends are doing with cell phones; the small size of the screen is no impediment to this group.

The differences between advertising on the mobile Internet and the PC-based Internet are due to the physical differences between the devices -- most notably the limited size of the interface, which creates new user habits and necessitates innovative approaches for those advertising on the mobile screen. This may seem obvious, but advertisers who recognize how to turn these differences to their advantage are far ahead of the game in mobile advertising.

Read the rest of the story at Adotas

I spend a fair amount of time helping Signal clients create and send legitimate email marketing messages to their list subscribers. But this work is made ever more difficult by the fact that there are so many 'bad guys' out there (10 million?) spamming every mail box in site. I also spend a lot of time talking to clients about how they can reduce the amount of spam that they see in their mail boxes. It seems like half of the time a think about how to block messages, the other half I think about how to get message through.

Botnets winning spam wars

Report says that by the time anti-spam systems have identified compromised PCs and servers, most botnets will have shifted to using new machines. The world's anti-spam systems are fighting a furious but hopeless battle against botnet spam, a new threat analysis from Commtouch has claimed. According to the U.S. company's zombie monitor, by the time that reputation and source analysis systems have identified compromised PCs and servers responsible for sending the spam that floods the Internet every day, most botnets will have shifted to using new machines. Given that the company reports there being an average of 10 million botnet 'zombies' active on any one day in the second quarter of 2008, the only way to of stem the spam tide is to filter it out in a reactive way using costly technologies at the ISP or gateway level.

Read the whole story at InfoWorld

Who are your site visitors likely to be, and what are they likely to be coming to your web site for? They're coming on a 'quest'; what is it? If you can figure this out, and create site content that fulfills your site visitor's quest, you have a chance of keeping them on the site long enough to realize what a great product you have. If you fail to figure this out you are probably wasting your time with your web site. It's all about 'relevance' these days. We're way beyond the idea that people "surf" the web looking for interesting and beautiful web sites. Today we know that most web traffic is mediated by 'search', and most search driven traffic is driven by an information 'quest'. Match the quest with the content of the site they land on after a Google search, and you have relevance... bingo!

As a part of a larger communications plan, an effective site has a specific job. (Notice here that I didn't say simple. Simple and specific are different things. Simple isn't always good for a site -- specific is.) The more specific the job, the more effective the site can be. On top of that, there's a bonus. The more specific the job for the site, the more creative your creatives can get with it. Specificity has always been a critical component of great traditional creative. Not only is that also true on the Web, it's magnified. Specific goals lead to better creative. Better creative leads to deeper engagement, which further boosts effectiveness.

Read more at Adotas.com

Gartner says smartphone sales to women doubled last year, and that these sales figures continue top grow at a faster rate than among men. We've known for some time that Japanese teenage girls were the most aggressive users of state of the art mobile communication devices in the world. We should not be surprised that western women would eventually discover the social and community enhancing powers of mobile technology. Mobile tech is simply not about geeks anymore, it's about community; having something to contribute, a need to participate, things to say, and to learn from each other. Clearly women have something powerful to bring to the table in this area.

In general, women may not be the earliest adopters of new gadgets or technology, this is true. However, as a New York Times article by Laura M. Holson tells us, that doesn't mean women haven't been scoping out the scene the whole time, waiting for their perfect moment to buy. They are experienced shoppers, and when they do go to make that purchase - they've already done all the research and will quickly become their new tech gadget's biggest fan!

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Sales of "smart" phones doubled in North America in the first quarter, outstripping the category's growth in the rest of the world, research firm Gartner, quoted by an Associated Press report, said.

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In the last year the number of American women using smartphones more than doubled to 10.4 million, growing at a faster pace than among men, according to Nielsen Mobile, which tracks wireless trends.

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