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Nielsen Reports Search Overlap Among Leaders - Most online searchers are not loyal to a single search engine, reports Nielsen//NetRatings in new data looking at month-to-month user retention. MSN registered the highest level of overlap, with 84% of its users searching elsewhere. For advertisers, it pays to diversify.                        

News Clips Most Popular Online Video Content: Study - News clips are the most popular form of streamed video content, according to a new study by Advertising.com. Meanwhile, 94% of survey respondents said they would prefer ads to subscription fees.                  

Insurers Poised For 41% Growth In Online Ad Spend: eMarketer - A new study from eMarketer projects that online ad spending by U.S. insurance companies will grow by 36% in 2007 to $980 million, and increase by 41% in 2008, to reach $1.38 billion.

Texting to Teens from E-Mail - Could full-sentence texting be next? Web-based e-mail users will soon be sending text messages to mobile phones. Yahoo! has already announced the feature for Yahoo! Mail users. “If history is any guide, the other major e-mail providers will soon follow Yahoo’s move,” wrote MediaPost’s Wendy Davis. “In the past, whenever a major company upgraded its free e-mail capabilities, a rival soon did likewise.” Ms. Davis noted that when Yahoo! upped the storage capacity of its free Web-based e-mail, Google followed suit within the week.      

NBC Ditches iTunes As Competition Mounts - It would appear that Apple Inc. is losing its grip on the digital download industry, after NBC Universal decided not to renew its contract to sell its programming via iTunes, Apple’s media store. NBC made the decision because the companies were unable to agree on packaging and pricing terms. The media giant’s contract with Apple expires at the end of December. NBC, whose programming accounts for 40% of the video downloads sold on iTunes, is the second major media company to walk out on Apple because of the way it sells content through its media store.         

U.S. Can’t Compete With Japanese Web Quality - Americans invented the Internet, but the Japanese are running away with it. Broadband service in the Land of the Rising Sun is anywhere from eight to 30 times faster than the U.S. (depending on where you live)–not to mention cheaper. Studies show that it has the world’s fastest connections, too, which will likely make Japan the vanguard of Internet innovation for years to come.

Companies Offer Web TV Powered By P2P Technology - In an AP report, Veoh founder Dmitry Shapiro confirms what the aforementioned Washington Post article alludes to: “the experience of online video is still very poor,” which is precisely what’s driving companies like Shapiro’s Veoh and Web TV rivals like Joost and Babelgum forward. Each is looking to provide a viewing experience that’s as good as TV; each uses peer-to-peer technology to circumvent the bandwidth limitations that plague the quality of the video experience in the U.S.

P2P Network Turns Bandwidth Into Currency - A research team has created a new peer-to-peer file-sharing system that penalizes those who take while rewarding those “selfless” sharers who contribute content to the network. A manners-enforcing file-sharing network addresses the issue of clogged networks; networks become sluggish when more users are downloading content rather than sharing it. The new system, dubbed Tribler, effectively turns bandwidth into a currency, promoting P2P stewardship.        

Google’s Dangerous Game - Google’s rise to the top of the Internet pile may be unprecedented, but it also evokes fear and paranoia. Some of the concerns are justified. Media and technology companies around the globe are angered by the fact that Google profits enormously from the distribution of their content. And it’s not just copyrighted videos on YouTube: There’s also Google News, which culls news stories and brings them to a centralized, personalized hub, and Google Search, which compels goods sellers and content providers alike to make their content more visible to Web users by bidding against one another for placement in Google’s sponsored listings.

Yahoo Adds Search Marketing Tools To Panama - Yahoo has packed a number of new enhancements into its Search Marketing platform, aimed at helping advertisers create, compare and optimize their Panama ads more effectively. Marketers can group up to 20 ads and then create, manage, and compare their performance in one section. There’s also a new monthly email for quality index score information, as well as a designated section in the Account Summary tab that helps advertisers see how well (or poorly) their ads are faring when it comes to Yahoo’s quality index scores.

Hi-Media To Acquire Fotolog For $90M - Photo-blogging community Fotolog has agreed to be acquired by Paris-based interactive media company Hi-Media for about $90 million. The weighty cash and stock deal is an attempt by Hi-Media to leverage Fotolog’s millions of members for the benefit of its ad network and micro-payments business.

Baby Center Buys Maya’s Mom For Its Social Skills; Affiliate Network Next - By acquiring Maya’s Mom, BabyCenter can quickly enter the marketplace with a viable social media platform to create an affiliate network program, deploy a white label solution and maintain Maya’s Mom’s own white label program targeting local mom groups throughout the country.

TheFind.com Acquires Glimpse - Shopping search engine startup TheFind has acquired the high-fashion shopping site Glimpse.com for an undisclosed amount. It’s an early deal for Glimpse, which just launched this year. TheFind is a comparison shopping search engine that crawls many shopping sites across the internet (190 million products at over 500,000 stores).

Lagardere Buys French Interactive Media Agency Nextedia For $68 Million - A day after announcement of buying online ad firm ID Regie, the French media giant Lagardere has made another acquisition announcement: it has bought Nextedia, a French interactive media agency. Price: 50 million euros ($67.97 million) in cash, with earn-out payments in 2011 and 2013 up to a maximum of 50 million euros. Last year, Nextedia made a gross profit of 9.7 million Euros and EBITDA of 1.7 million Euros. More details in release.

Cholula is located about 15 km west of the city of Puebla, at an approximate elevation of 2135 meters (about 7,000 ft) above sea level. Cholula, or in Nahuatl Acholōllān, was an important city of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, dating back to at least the 2nd century BC, with settlement as a village going back at least some thousand years earlier. Cholula was a major center contemporary with Teotihuacan and seems to have avoided, at least partially, that city’s fate of violent destruction at the end of the Mesoamerican Classic period. At the time of the arrival of Hernán Cortés, Cholula was second only to the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan (modern Mexico City) as the largest city in central Mexico, possibly with a population of up to 100,000 people. In addition to the great temple of Quetzalcoatl and various palaces, the city had 365 temples. During the Spanish Colonial period, however, Cholula was overtaken in importance by the nearby city of Puebla.

Cholula is most famous as the site of the Great Pyramid of Cholula, the largest man-made structure by volume in the world. Below is some video I took at the site. Enjoy!

In my humble opinion, Acapulco is a tourist trap! After falling out of favor with the international jet set decades ago, this not-so-hot spot is heating up again. We decided to visit Acapulco as part of a respite from the pyramids and more urban grittiness of Central Mexico - and boy did we live to regret it!  Don’t get me wrong, this is a beautiful place with gorgeous beaches, high-rise hotels and sunny weather.  But beware of the over priced taxi cabs, the expensive restaurants, and most of all…the time share sales scum!  You have been warned!

Archaelogical evidence indicates that people first inhabited Acapulco around 3000 BC, growing crops and fishing. Around 1500 BC the area was settled by the Nahuas, a tribe related to the Nahuatl, who populated much of southern Mexico. The Nahuatl language provided the name Acapulco, meaning “place of canes” or “reeds.” Although it is generally accepted that the first non-natives to reach Acapulco were Spaniards led by Hernán Cortés, some local historians claim that a Chinese monk named Fa Hsein predated Cortés by 100 years.

From 1565 to 1815 the Spanish maintained a thriving port and trading center in Acapulco.  Acapulco became a town in 1799, but started to decline with the War of Independence, when locals sided with the Spanish royalists. The town remained in relative obscurity until 1927, when a road was built connecting the port to Mexico City and bringing the first tourists. It wasn’t long before Hollywood celebrities and other wealthy world travelers started to arrive, and Acapulco began its transformation. By the 1960s it seemed everyone in Hollywood was vacationing in Acapulco: Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Leslie Caron, Cary Grant, Lana Turner, John Wayne, Errol Flynn, Bridgitte Bardot, Elvis Presley, Elizabeth Taylor, etc. Acapulco today, although not the Hollywood hangout of times past, is still a major tourist destination, especially with Mexican nationals, who comprise about 80% of its visitors.

Another Exec Bites The Yahoo Dust - Another executive is fleeing Yahoo for BermanBraun, the six-month-old brainchild of former Yahoo Media Group head Lloyd Braun and ex-Paramount Pictures president Gail Berman. Mike Weetman, presently CFO of Yahoo’s Network division, is scheduled to assume the position of COO at BermanBraun.                             

Stardoll Hits 10 Millionth Registered User - Stardoll, the online destination that lets tween and teen girls create, customize and shop for virtual dolls, announced that it hit the 10 million registered user milestone. The company will give out free virtual “swag bags” to all members featuring gifts like perfume, chocolates, and a version of ‘Seventeen’ magazine. Stockholm-based Stardoll AB launched the site just over a year ago–after a name change and upgrade from Paperdollheaven.com–and Stardoll.com has since been ranked by as the top destination in June for girls ages 9-17 (on comScore’s Top 1000 Web sites list).

Newspapers Incorporate Video, Other Web Offerings - A new study of newspapers’ Web offerings shows that online video has become a nearly ubiquitous feature offered by major U.S. publications. The Bivings Group study, which analyzed the Web offerings of the top 100 newspapers according to Fas-Fax data from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, found that 92 of the largest newspaper sites now offer video, a 31 percent jump from a year ago. Their video sources are varied: 39 papers offer original video content, 26 use video from the Associated Press, 13 use video from local news outlets and 10 papers use at least two types of video content on their site.

Chicago Scraps Wi-Fi Plans - Chicago’s municipal Wi-Fi project is the latest to hit the skids, yet another worrying sign that citywide WI-Fi as a business may not work. ISPs EarthLink and AT&T, which operate muni Wi-Fi networks for several cities, both opted out of the Chicago project after the city told them it was unwilling to pay to install the network. In trade, the city had offered to provide the infrastructure, but that wasn’t enough; Chicago has since pulled the plug.

Automatic AdWords Optimization Doesn’t Make the Grade - Google rolled out the AdWords Campaign Optimizer last month, a tool that analyzes existing keyword campaigns and suggests ways to improve performance, but StraightUpSearch blogger Matt finds that the tool falls short of its claims to help “fine tune” ad campaigns. The team at Oneupweb (parent company behind the StraightUpSearch blog) ran tests and found that the automated application’s recommendations would have sent “a perfectly profitable campaign into a tailspin.”

Coyuca Lagoon is one of the picturesque and colorful parts of Acapulco. We took a boat around the lagoon and observed lots of intriguing wildlife such as pelicans and crocodiles.  This area is famous for its tropical vegetation, which has been the location for many Hollywood movies such as that great American classic: First Blood II: Rambo! Just beware as there are lots of mosquitoes and flies!

The La Quebrada Cliff Divers of Acapulco are definitely worth checking out. In fact, they almost makes up for all of the tourist traps in town (*almost*). The divers are a group of professional high divers who perform daily shows for the public, which involve diving 45 metres (~147′ 8″) from the cliffs of La Quebrada into the sea below.

Although cliff diving at La Quebrada had taken place for many years, it was not until 1934 that the La Quebrada Cliff Divers was formed. One of the most interesting aspects regarding the divers are their ages. They couldn’t be older than 18 years old! Below is some video I took of the diving.

CNN Renews, Extends Google AdSense Partnership - CNN announced that it has renewed its Google AdSense partnership, a multi-year deal that will make Google the exclusive provider of auction-based text ads throughout CNN.com in the U.S. The deal will also open up the extensive inventory on CNN.com to AdWords advertisers, but both companies were mum on the deal’s financial details.                       

Tribal Fusion’s Dynamic Ads Offer Quick Customization and Targeting - Exponential Interactive’s Tribal Fusion ad network has rolled out Dynamic Ads, allowing advertisers to target users by crafting customized messages from a single creative unit.

IDC: Social Nets’ Revenue Could Reach $1 Billion In ‘07 - PROJECTING THAT SOCIAL NETWORK REVENUES will more than double this year to as much as $1 billion from $400 million in 2006, a new IDC study found nonetheless that, “so far, little advertising can be found” on them. In the study, titled “Social Networking Services in the U.S.–Popular, Yes, But How to Monetize Them?” IDC found that most social network services will employ a mix of business models in the future, including advertising, subscriptions, and ecommerce–with only advertising scaling well enough to make social networks interesting for portals and major media companies.

Buyers Transact at All Retail Channels - The distinction between online and offline retail is eroding, at least in consumers’ minds, according to a Sterling Commerce survey of US adults conducted in June and July of 2007. Sterling found that 55% of consumers thought it was important to be able to complete orders in a store, on the store’s Web site or through a call center, regardless of which channel was used to initially place the order. Nearly two-thirds of consumers also expected to be able to cancel or modify orders through any channel.                 

Report: Google To Announce Mobile OS - Google’s mobile phone operating system is getting ready for a formal unveiling, possibly next month, according to their sources. The tech blog has christened the Linux-based system the “Gphone OS,” which it says is a long time in coming. Google in 2005 acquired the mobile software company Android, whose former president and CEO Andy Rubin has been spearheading big G’s OS project. Apparently, Rubin’s team is currently shopping the program around to handset makers and carriers, whose various agreements Google needs to establish distribution. Engadget expects an OS announcement with distribution partners to come sometime after Labor Day.        

An Online Video Conundrum (Still) - There may be some 135.5 million Americans watching online video, but no one is cashing in on the phenomenon. Even with 89 percent growth this year, eMarketer predicts that online video spending will represent just 3.6 percent of the Internet ad pie, or $775 million. By 2011, the Web research firm expects the market to expand to $4.3 billion, but that would still only be around 10 percent of the greater market. Web video has a long way to go before it rivals search marketing, much less the huge numbers racked up by television advertising. Judging by its numbers, eMarketer doesn’t expect online video and online TV usage to overtake digital cable anytime soon.

Hulu Scoop: NBCU/News Corp. “Online Venture Named - The much-hyped online joint venture between News Corp. and NBC Universal that will stream full episodes of hit series such as “The Simpsons” and “My Name is Earl” finally has a name: Hulu.com. An invitation to get on the beta waiting list went live today. “Why Hulu?” wrote the venture’s CEO Jason Kilar on the site.

Google Shifts Into Local Gear With BMW ConnectedDrive - Google’s relationship with luxe auto maker BMW just got deeper, as the search giant will now serve info from Google Maps directly into cars equipped with the BMW ConnectedDrive driver information and comfort system. With a feature called In-Car Google Local Search, BMW ConnectedDrive model owners can search for and navigate to any Google Maps-listed business, and the service even has click-to-call functionality.

Mary Meeker’s YouTube Math - From Silicon Alley Insider: Morgan Stanley’s Internet analyst Mary Meeker was a good deal more optimistic than we and most others about the revenue impact of YouTube’s new overlay ads. Specifically, Mary concluded that the overlays could immediately add $4.8 billion of gross revenue and $720 million of net revenue to Google’s annual results. This compared to the tiny $12 million to $360 million of gross revenue that we projected. Well, we were baffled at how Mary could be so amazingly bullish, so, on a tip from a reader, we checked her numbers. And, Mary, it may be time to scream at yet another research assistant. Why? Because, in advertising lingo, “CPM” means “Cost Per Thousand” not “Cost Per One.” When Mary updates her model to divide by 1,000, therefore, we expect she will wish to revise her conclusions.

Will Internet Kill the Radio Star? - “Internet radio, satellite radio, podcasting, high-definition radio and mobile audio services are revolutionizing a radio industry that had remained virtually unchanged for a century,” said Ben Macklin, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, Radio Trends: On Air and Online. “Traditional radio is rapidly being subsumed into a new, broader sector called ‘audio.’” By 2008, online advertising spending in the US is projected to surpass radio advertising spending for the first time.                                         

YouTube Introduces Ads in Videos - Times are good for ad-supported online content. YouTube has put transparent ads on the bottom one-fifth of videos from its content partners. And The Wall Street Journal, one of the few paid-content success stories, is considering making its online version free. Most consumers think that viewing ads in exchange for quality content is fair, according to IBM’s “The End of Advertising” report, published in August 2007. More than six in 10 consumers IBM surveyed said they preferred ad-supported online content, while 28% preferred paying for ad-free media.                       

JupiterResearch: Content Producers Need Intermediaries to Succeed - In order to succeed in the long run, content producers must acknowledge the importance of blogs, portals, and aggregators in connecting with their audiences, according to a new JupiterResearch report, “Networked Media: Thriving In An Intermediated World.” The report points out, for example, that 57% of 18- to-24-year-old Internet users get their news from portals versus 21% from cable news sites–and online users now trust portals nearly as much as traditional news media.                  

ePrize Reports Booming 1st-Half Figures - Online promotional company ePrize said it generated $22.98 million in sales from 678 online promotional campaigns in the first half of 2007, up 62% and 32% respectively year-over-year. During the period, ePrize said it hired 71 creative employees, adding that it plans to hire some 50 additional people by year’s end.             

Quality Time Takes on New Meaning - Nielsen//NetRatings’ elevation of time-spent over page views as its primary Web metric in July was generally applauded as a step toward improved audience measurement in a Web 2.0 world. Agencies and online publishers alike welcomed the new standard as a better gauge of online activity in the wake of technologies like Ajax and streaming video that let users linger on sites without reloading pages.

Social Networking Goes Professional - The press, still flush with love for Facebook, has declared that social networking is the Next Big Thing for business, too. Thousands of business professionals now use Facebook for business; targeted professional groups are sprouting up, too. But it’s not just Web professionals online. Doctors are congregating at sites like Sermo.com to share information about their various specialties, which in some instances can even lead to diagnoses. INMobile.org is a new social network for the wireless industry. LinkedIn, of course, is the granddaddy of professional networking, although it’s used more for growing contact lists and for job recruitment than actual social networking.

Web Tax Ban Likely To Be Extended - Congress may be mulling over the matter, but the federal government is unlikely to allow state and local taxes on Internet service–at least for a while. While speculation in Washington was rife that Congress would let the current Internet tax ban expire on Nov. 1, a glut of new bills on the horizon make that unthinkable. One new bill proposed by Senators Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) aims to extend the measure through 2011. Others would suspend the issue indefinitely.

Subprime Problems Hit Web Advertising - The subprime lending fallout will soon affect certain Internet companiess. Remember the ubiquitous ads for Experian’s LowerMyBills.com? Indeed, lending companies are now having to drastically cut back on spending aimed at consumers with lower credit; in fact, some analysts suggest the fallout heralds the end of cheap credit altogether.This will affect Web advertising. According to Nielsen/NetRatings, some 16% of online spending comes from financial-services firms. In July, mortgage lenders Countrywide, Low Rate Source, Experian Group (including LowerMyBills.com) and Privacy Matters were among the top 10 biggest U.S. advertisers on the Web.

Google Launches Official Facebook App - Mashable reports on the search giant’s newly launched Facebook app, which happens to be down at the moment. The idea is users can share query results with each other, but this part is a bit unnerving: “Your queries are automatically included in Facebook’s mini-feed, so your web history can be shared with your friends.” The move comes in the midst of the chat about whether or not Google should be scared of Facebook — either because of its social graph or its (supposedly) in-the-works targeting system.

‘OMG Advertising!’ YouTubers React To In-Video Ads - Reactions from YouTube viewers to the new InVideo ads unveiled on the site last week ranged from mean and critical to favorable and constructive. More significant may be the feedback from companies already trying the format, such as Brightcove, which found resistance from advertisers.                       

Yahoo Searchers are Top Spenders, Says Online Retailer - SiCap Industries, a natural health products company, says that on average, Yahoo searchers spend 30% more on its goods than other consumers. The company has a robust e-commerce site, as well as relationships with brick-and-mortar stores to sell its OTC remedies. According to Wayne Perry, SiCap’s president, Web analytics data found that “consumers referred by Yahoo definitely spend more money on our Web sites, and according to data collected from our retailers, Yahoo surfers also spend more money in the stores that carry our products. This has been a consistent theme for nearly three years,” says Perry.             

Google’s integration of its various engines will redefine relevance - Google’s decision in May to roll out “Universal Search,” a model that involves combining information from videos, news, Web sites and other sources into one set of search results, has raised more than a few eyebrows. At every search-related conference since Google’s announcement, speakers have displayed screenshots of Google search results that show inserted video and news results–all in an effort to frighten us about how little real natural search is now available above the fold.                  

Internet Keeps Young People Upbeat - Young people age 13 to 24 today are generally very happy and optimistic about the future, according to an MTV-Associated Press study conducted by Knowledge Networks in April 2007. “Nearly two-thirds of the young people surveyed said they think that the Internet, instant messaging, cell phones and other technologies make people happier, and 61% said those things make them feel closer to their family,” said eMarketer senior analyst Debra Aho Williamson. “You simply cannot separate young people from technology; it is part of who they are.”

Print and Digital Need Not Compete - The printed word still holds a strong pull for many consumers, according to Deloitte & Touche’s “State of the Media Democracy” study, conducted by the Harrison Group in March 2007. Nearly three-quarters of respondents said they would rather read the printed version of a magazine even if they could get the same information online.

Interactive A Stock Crunch Alternative - As the housing market continues its collapse, the tech sector is starting to look like “somewhat of a safe haven,” says Standard & Poors’ analyst Scott Kessler. Since the stock market’s 387-point drop on Aug. 9, the tech sector hasn’t been impacted by the sustained slump. But a safe haven? “Money has got to go somewhere,” says David Geltner, professor and director of MIT’s real estate program. Indeed, there is a ton of cash out there–particularly among large caps, and media firms, especially, are investing in online advertising. So far, Wall Street seems to approve.

MySpace Unveils Ad Targeting - Facebook’s plan for a new ad targeting system received lots of attention, but News Corp.’s MySpace–social networking’s former media darling–actually launched a beta version of a similar platform, and almost nobody noticed.Targeting “the most valuable advertising real estate across MySpace” will “meaningfully increasing the advertising opportunity,” over the next several months, he predicted.             

Strike and Counterstrike: Analyzing The Next ‘Google-Killer’ - Rand Fishkin dives into blogger and technologist Robert Scoble’s three-part video series that aims to explain why Mahalo, Facebook and other sites that blend socially constructed features into their Web crawlers, will usurp Google and its algorithm in a few years. Fishkin, SEOmoz’s co-founder and CEO, tackles each of the points Scoble makes in his videos, countering his theories with a side-by-side analysis of search results from both Mahalo and Google, as well as a general defense of common SEO practices — which Scoble’s videos also seem to pan.

Truveo’s Revamp Rates A Thumbs Up - Katherine Boehret plays with four video search engines (Google, Yahoo, Blinkx and Truveo) and finds that the user experience on AOL’s Truveo comes out on top. When a user searches on the newly revamped Truveo, the crawler brings back videos that are tied directly to the specific search word or phrase — but also shows results that encourage users to browse videos with slightly related or unexpected content. It’s this lure to explore that makes Truveo different, and Boehret also finds that the site’s depth of content and interface is the most user-friendly of the four.

New On Yahoo: Text To Cells From Email - Yahoo today is unveiling a host of new features for its popular e-mail program including, most significantly, the ability to send text messages to cell phones directly from email. With that feature, anyone with a cell phone is now accessible to a far greater extent than before. For instance, senders can now send text messages to recipients who might not be in a position to answer their phones, or listen to a long voicemail message. In particular, parents can now more easily reach teens at school, where they can inconspicuously check for text messages.

The most spectacular presentation of the traditional Oaxacan dance of the Guelaguetza is at the Camino Real Oaxaca hotel. This performance is a collection of dances from the seven regions of Oaxaca. Held in the beautiful 16th century chapel, you will be treated to an Oaxacan buffet, 20 regional dancers in glorious costumes and a 14 piece village brass band provide high spirited entertainment.  Below is some video I took of the dance performance. Enjoy!