This Week’s Industry News

Compiled By Rocket Clicks

Yahoo! Announces Release Of CLEAR Ad Notice

Yahoo! is attempting a more self-regulatory way of advertising with CLEAR Ad Notice, which allows users to pick and choose what personal information is collected or used to produce specifically targeted ads. An Advertising Option Icon is dropped down above Yahoo! display ads, at which time users make a decision about the personal information/cookie history in question.

If I were the Rain Man, I’d be in Vegas betting that Google and Bing aren’t planning on following suit with this transparency effort. Yahoo!’s motive could very well be to distance themselves from the shady data collection reputation of the other major search engines. It’s a commendable effort in the face of an easier path, but Yahoo!’s market share is probably too small to make an industry-wide impact.

Source: Yahoo! Advertising Blog

Twitter (Finally) Opens Its Own Photo Sharing Service

Until now, any photo shared through Twitter was hosted by YFrog, Twitpic, ImageShack, or Flickr. Now you’ll soon start noticing photo sharing through Twitter’s own service, which could be a major detriment to the photo sharing services listed above that rely heavily on Twitter traffic.

Source: Business Insider

Twitter And iOS5 Will Make Wonderful Music Together

The next versions of Apple iPhones and iPads will be integrated with Twitter. This includes a “Send To Twitter” button that sends content or a link to the real-time social site with a simple finger tap on the screen.

Source: Business Insider

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt Screws Up

When ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt was questioned about Google’s delayed RSVP to the social media party at the D9 tech conference in L.A., he offered a couple succinct explanations:

“I screwed up.”

“I was busy.”

Schmidt admitted he knew Facebook and Twitter were rapidly becoming major forces on the Internet, but failed to do anything about it. In a loose way, Eric Schmidt is to Google as Jim Tressel is/was to Ohio State.

Source: Wired

Mr. +1 Goes To Web Sites

Speaking of social media integration, Google’s +1 button has been a fixture on Google search results and display ads since its unveiling in March. However, the button will now be available in a widget-like form on a number of partner and popular web sites.

Some of these popular sites include Mashable, The Huffington Post, Rotten Tomatoes, The Washington Post, Best Buy, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, Reuters, Nordstrom, and O’Reilly. Google partner sites involved include YouTube, Android Market, Blogger, and Product Search.

Source: The Official Google Blog

Google Offers Is Coming! Google Offers Is Coming!

The fact that Google Offers is in beta is not necessarily news. However, it is headline-worthy that the Groupon/Living Social lookalike has officially gone live. The first deal came from a Portland, Oregon, coffee shop named Floyd’s Coffee. Some of the biggest differences between Google Offers and the other popular daily deal sites is Google will take a considerably smaller cut of the profit than its competitors, and will cap the number of deal coupons available.

Source: The Official Google Blog

Pentagon Formulates Strategy To Counter Potential Cyber Attacks

The Pentagon has declared that a cyber attack against the U.S. from any country could constitute a traditional military response. This formal decision comes in the wake of a few attacks on the Pentagon’s system, a 2008 hack of a few U.S. military computer systems, and even on Iran’s nuclear program.

This isn’t just a black and white situation either, as the Pentagon also has acknowledged they would have to definitively determine where the attack came from, and where the line is drawn that constitutes a use of force. The U.S. is also expected to hash out some more specific courses of action with NATO and other allies.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Sony Pictures Becomes The Latest Hacking Victim

It’s safe to say that Sony is having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Groundhog’s Day in 2011. Despite the recent re-boot of the PlayStation Network, over one million Sony Pictures accounts were exposed and mined for passwords, usernames, emails, and other personal information. LulzSec, a hacking group, was responsible for the attack, which stemmed from Sony’s unsurprisingly arcane security systems.

Source: CNN

Test Your Web Site On Four Different Mobile Platforms With Gomez

As smartphones and mobile devices grow in popularity every day, advertisers and web site owners need to make sure their sites look good across multiple platforms. The Gomez Cross-Device Web Site Compatibility Test is a free tool that lets you view your site on up to four different mobile platforms.

Source: Gomez

AT&T CEO Admits Their 4G Is 2-3 Years Away From Verizon’s

On Thursday at the All Things Digital conference, AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega said the wireless company’s 4G service would meet the quality of Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE service by 2013 or 2014. This is obviously not encouraging news to those of us that are stuck in a contract with AT&T (me), but at least de la Vega is honest. So I got that going for me; which is nice.

Source: CNN

Family Video Game Nights Are Wii-lly Fun

If you grew up with Family Game Night’s, there were probably quite a few games of Monopoly where everyone gave up when the properties were all bought, or maybe you enjoyed a Crossfire tournament that was as epic as the game’s signature commercial.

But with a new generation comes new games. According to a new survey, nine in 10 families own a gaming console, 88% of which play video games together. Four in five parents consider family video gaming as a great time to bond. For some reason, I’m picturing a family of four sitting round a widescreen LCD TV talking smack to each other while playing Halo or Call of Duty.

Source: WISN

Notable Commentary

Cooler Than Your Air Conditioning

How To Get Your Stolen Traffic Back From Facebook, Commando Style

Brian Massey discusses some of the easy-to-see ways that Facebook and other social media sites poach traffic from a web site after a user shares a link. The keyword to remember here is “dopamine.”

Analysis By: Brian Massey, Search Engine Land

Looking Into The Dark Side Of Link Building

Everyone involved in SEO knows something about black hat link building, but Julie Joyce digs a little deeper into some of the origins of link spam and the ease with which they spread like Alien hatchlings.

Analysis By: Julie Joyce, Search Engine Land

Interested In Seeing The Value Of The Biggest Social Media Companies?

Of course you do! Plus, it’s in infographic form, which makes it 10 times more awesome!

Analysis By: Derek Thompson, The Atlantic

Facebook Profile Photos Are Important

Here’s another infographic detailing the frequency of profile picture updates on Facebook (women do it more than men) and a couple things to remember about this trend if you’re a business.

Analysis By: Nichole Kelly, Social Media Explorer

Every Day Is Hawaiian Shirt Day In Japan

The Japanese government is rightfully channeling its inner Bill Lumbergh in an effort to save electricity this summer. Entitled “Super Cool Biz,” this campaign calls for Japanese employees to wear Hawaiian shirts, sandals, and shorts to work because electricity is in short supply after the country’s now-inactive nuclear power plants.

Analysis By: Mariko Sanchanta, The Wall Street Journal