Digitally Crafted – a round-up of the week in digital marketing

In this week’s round up of the most important topics in digital marketing, we discover that tablet and mobile users are becoming increasingly needy, Olympic enthusiasts love getting event coverage on their mobile devices and Pinterest has ditched its invite-only approach.

Design and development

Tablet and mobile users expect pages to load within seconds: report
According to a study published this week, tablet users are becoming increasingly demanding when it comes to page load times, with most expecting content to load in less than three seconds. The survey of more than 5,000 individuals covered the browsing habits and expectations of tablet and smartphone users, with the latter only slightly more patient, expecting pages to load in four seconds. Read more

Organic search marketing

Up Close: Gmail in Google search results field trial
This week, Google unveiled its latest ‘field trial’, allowing users to submit Google searches and receive information from their Gmail messages relating to their web results. The trial is open to the first one million people who apply and is designed to provide a more rounded product for loyal Google users. Read more

Google’s Knowledge Graph gains ‘Carousel’ for English speakers
Google’s new ‘Knowledge Graph’ was launched worldwide for English speakers at the Google Search Breakfast by Amit Singhal, head of Google search. The Knowledge Graph will also be rolled out as an expandable product, known as the Knowledge Graph Carousel, which will enable users to explore lists and collections with real ease. Read more

Google: Nearly 50 per cent of Olympics-related searches coming from mobile devices
The 2012 London Olympic Games is being hailed as the world’s first truly multi-platform global sporting event as Olympic-related searches on all mobile devices soared since the opening day. Smartphone and tablet searches almost exceeded 50 per cent of overall search query volume in the UK, US and Australia, whilst hitting 55 per cent in Japan during the first two days of events. Read more

Social media

Facebook launches new mobile ad unit to capitalise on apps
In an effort to compete in the online gaming market, Facebook raised the bar this week by launching its very own real cash bingo app. As part of Facebook’s future growth and revenue strategy, this will also be complemented by new ad units that will encourage advertisers to promote their own mobile apps on the social media platform. Read more

Pinterest ditches invite-only approach and is now open for all to join
The latest social platform to make waves in the industry, Pinterest, has put a stop to its invite-only status and made the ‘pinning’ service open for all users to join. Following a recent redesign, which included a bunch of new categories to aid curation and usage, the move to open registration has been warmly welcomed, with traffic growing by more than 6,000 per cent in the second half of 2011. Read more

40 per cent of top brands use Instagram for its image filters
A Seattle-based company released a study this week examining the Interbrand 100 firms’ use of new social pictorial platform, Instagram. The results found that 40 per cent of the world’s 100 most valuable brands are active on the site, with Nike and Audi leading the pack in terms of social interaction. Read more 

LinkedIn revamps its Developer offering, redesigns third-party sign-in flow and more
LinkedIn has shared a number of key changes and updates to its platform which should appease developers with an update to its sign-in flow and process for third-party developers and sites. This should improve functionality for the site, whilst simultaneously making it easier for developers to use LinkedIn as their main platform for discussing and sharing professional content. Read more

Facebook advertisers forced to vet user comments
A landmark ruling by an advertising watchdog in Australia has resulted in advertisers having to factor in the cost of vetting user comments into their plans for advertising on Facebook. Experts are concerned that the constant policing of the world’s most popular social media platform could severely undermine the power of Facebook as an advertising platform. Read more

PR

Newspaper Licensing Agency launches code of conduct
The organisation that licenses news clippings has released its official code of conduct for the first time. The Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA) code has been unveiled amid pressure from the Government as the Coalition looks set to force similar moves on collecting agencies more broadly, announcing last month it would give collecting societies a year to introduce a code of conduct. Read more

Google and Oracle ordered to disclose paid bloggers
US Judge William Alsup has called for Google and Oracle to reveal any compensation that they’ve given to journalists and bloggers, along with a list of who. The demands are in relation to a recent copyright battle between the two companies. Read more