Signal Blog http://www.signalz.com/blog/ en Copyright 2008 Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:06:11 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss How Small Stores Can Lure Holiday Shoppers Call it a customer service Christmas. Consumers are expected to rein in spending this year, and the retail climate favors big-box stores that can offer bargains. But becausesmall retailers can't win price wars (BusinessWeek.com, 4/14/08), experts say independents need to leverage their biggest advantage over the chains: personal relationships with customers and the ability to deliver superior service. Read more of this article]]> http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/10/how_small_stores_can_lure_holi.php http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/10/how_small_stores_can_lure_holi.php Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:06:11 -0500 Value is more important than ever for consumers Change, everybody is talking about change today--our two presidential candidates; consumers grappling to keep pace with inflation, falling housing prices, declining incomes, and shrinking investments; and CPG manufacturers and retailers looking to drive profitable growth at a time when they are being squeezed with soft consumer sales as well as increased costs. In the world of retailing, the magic formula of leveraging value, variety and convenience to win shopper dollars is changing, and value is the variable in the formula receiving the most attention from consumers, shoppers, manufacturers and retailers. Read more of this article]]> http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/10/value_is_more_important_than_e.php http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/10/value_is_more_important_than_e.php Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:44:28 -0500 Community Engagement According to an article in the Financial Times published earlier this week, the economic slowdown has forced large companies like Coca Cola and General Motors to cut their marketing budgets. But all is not gloom and doom. Many Fortune 500 and SMB marketers are maintaining, even increasing their advertising budgets by implementing new economic measures for new economic times. What's at the heart of the new strategy for these brand marketers? In one word, "Engagement." Read the rest of the article at Adotas.com]]> http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/09/community_engagement.php http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/09/community_engagement.php Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:52:51 -0500 Postini: Threat Advisory: CNN and MSNBC Spam Over the past two weeks, we've seen waves of high-volume attacks (over 15% of all spam messages) using false CNN and MSNBC content. Our botnet protection has blocked the vast majority -- over 99% -- of these attacks and mutations, and we continue to release filter updates that automatically delete some variants. During this time, you may want to remind your users about the protection they're receiving and best security practices. Read the complete Postini Security Advisory]]> http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/08/postini_threat_advisory_cnn_an.php http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/08/postini_threat_advisory_cnn_an.php Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:26:37 -0500 Internet growth: Fast or faster? Cisco's Internet traffic growth projections for the next several years continue to be somewhat lower than mine. But since their initial report last August, they have raised their projected compound annual growth rate from 43% to 46%. Cisco thus believes world IP traffic will approach half a zettabyte (or 500 exabytes) by 2012. My own projections yield a compound annual growth rate for U.S. IP traffic of around 58% through 2015. This slightly higher growth rate would produce a U.S. Internet twice as large in 2015 compared to Cisco's projections. Last winter George Gilder and I estimated that world IP traffic will pass the zettabyte (1,000 exabytes) level in 2012 or 2013. Read the whole article at techliberation.com]]> http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/08/internet_growth_fast_or_faster.php http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/08/internet_growth_fast_or_faster.php Fri, 08 Aug 2008 07:20:23 -0500 Honest list mailers caught in the spam storm A recent court ruling in Illinois has vast implications for direct marketers. And if there's one lesson DMers must take from the decision it's this: Rightly or wrongly, simply complying with Can Spam is not enough to get e-mail delivered. It doesn't matter if the sender's list is triple-verified-we-even-called-just-to-make-sure opt-in, if an Internet service provider decides a mailer's e-mail is spam and blocks it, the ISP has every legal right to do so. Read the whole article in Direct Magazine ]]> http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/08/honest_list_mailers_caught_in.php http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/08/honest_list_mailers_caught_in.php Marketing Security Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:46:35 -0500 Women take the lead with Smartphones 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! Read more
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.
Read more]]> http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/07/women_take_the_lead_with_smart.php http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/07/women_take_the_lead_with_smart.php Information technology Marketing Mobile Data Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:05:57 -0500 What do they want? 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]]> http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/07/what_do_they_want.php http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/07/what_do_they_want.php Marketing Search Engine Optimization Web Design Mon, 28 Jul 2008 11:23:36 -0500 10 Million Zombies! 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]]> http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/07/10_million_zombies.php http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/07/10_million_zombies.php Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:36:23 -0500 Mobil Advertising is picking up speed! 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 ]]> http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/07/mobil_advertising_is_picking_u.php http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/07/mobil_advertising_is_picking_u.php Information technology Marketing Mobile Data Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:15:40 -0500 Don't be part of the problem... be part of the solution. 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]]> http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/07/dont_be_part_of_the_problem_be.php http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/07/dont_be_part_of_the_problem_be.php Security Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:55:23 -0500 Adobe, Google, Yahoo enabling Flash searches 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]]> http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/07/adobe_google_yahoo_enabling_fl.php http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/07/adobe_google_yahoo_enabling_fl.php Information technology Marketing Search Engine Optimization Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:47:44 -0500 Is that a laptop in your pocket? Your laptop is likely to soon go the way of 5.25-in. floppy disks, made obsolete by smaller, more useful technology: the smart phone. Based on current trends for low-power chips used in devices like cell phones and iPods , we're likely to see eight times the CPU power in handheld devices by 2010 that we have today... The progress behind such advances isn't the overall boost in processing capabilities seen under Moore's Law (doubling the density of transistors on a chip every two years), Cockcroft said, but the increasing robustness of low-power chips and devices that use them. In other words: handhelds are advancing faster than laptops. For example, laptop memory capacity typically doubles every two years, while pocket devices are seeing such doubling annually. Read the whole article at ComputerWorld.com]]> http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/06/is_that_a_laptop_in_your_pocke.php http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/06/is_that_a_laptop_in_your_pocke.php Information technology Marketing Mobile Data Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:49:54 -0500 Tools To Lure (And Keep) Consumers A Web site doesn't live in a vacuum. It has support from multiple directions encouraging people to go. (The bigger the effort, the bigger the support, and the more directions.) You're asking people to visit. So, what do you want them to do when they get there? What do you want them to take away? And most important (but, hopefully, least apparent) what do you want out of the transaction? Tell them. Tell them why they should go, what they'll find, and what you want them to do. Tell them with content. Tell them, and lead them, with architecture and design. Tell them, especially, with your support media, so they know what to expect before they ever click. Read More...]]> http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/06/tools_to_lure_and_keep_consume.php http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/06/tools_to_lure_and_keep_consume.php Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:36:17 -0500 Get ready for Location Awareness With the imminent availability of the iPhone 3G, we're seeing the emergence of a new category of personal productivity applications that will prove as important as e-mail, word processing, and the spreadsheet: Location-aware applications, software that knows where you are and helps you take better advantage of what's around you. Read the whole article]]> http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/06/get_ready_for_location_awarene.php http://www.signalz.com/blog/2008/06/get_ready_for_location_awarene.php Information technology Marketing Mobile Data Thu, 12 Jun 2008 10:15:06 -0500