Yesterday Google launched a new feature that is sure to have hardcore Gmail users jumping for joy: Priority Inbox.

Priority inbox is your virtual mail clerk for managing your massive email overload. At the heart of the feature is a comprehensive algorithm that sifts through emails and replies to find important keywords, people you email the most and other important relays between you and others. All of this information is factored in to how Priority Inbox categorizes important email over non critical replies.

Besides the alogorithm, starred emails are grouped in to Priority Inbox. What Google hopes to accomplish with grouping starred emails with pre-sorted email is that users will be more diligent in grouping emails that need acting upon.

In your Gmail window, you should see a tab above inbox showing off the new menu item. If it doesn’t show up for you, don’t worry, the feature is being rolled out slowly to users throughout the week.

Priority Inbox Makes Users The Number One Priorirty

Priority Inbox is not new by any means, it was originally included in Gmail but was taken out before launch to undergo further refinement. While the feature was being tested internally, Google found users saved 16% of time checking emails.

The Official Google Blog further refines the purpose of Priority Inbox:. “Gmail has always been pretty good at filtering junk mail into the “spam” folder. But today, in addition to spam, people get a lot of mail that isn’t outright junk but isn’t very important–bologna, or “bacn.” So we’ve evolved Gmail’s filter to address this problem and extended it to not only classify outright spam, but also to help users separate this “bologna” from the important stuff. In a way, Priority Inbox is like your personal assistant, helping you focus on the messages that matter without requiring you to set up complex rules.”

Bringing efficiency to email checking is Google’s next major step with Gmail and is a drastic step towards refining spam filters. Users who receive hundreds if not thousands of emails a day are the ones that will benefit the most from this new implementation in Gmail. Google estimates users who spend 13 hours per week on email will save a week’s worth of time after a year of using Priority Inbox.

However, the feature is considered Beta so Google Apps users won’t be able to take advantage of Priority Inbox unless their IT department configures beta features to be used.

As a Gmail user, I’m really excited Google is taking active steps in going above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to Spam filtering and instead focusing on filtering emails that are relevant to me and other Gmail users. Let me know what you think of this feature.

Via: PC World

Today Yahoo announced that all of its organic searches are powered by Bing, the search engine created by Microsoft as a direct competitor to Google. The switch is finalized from a deal hammered out between Yahoo and Microsoft over a year ago.

Now that Microsoft powers Yahoo’s searches, the software giant commands 28.1% of the search engine market which is contrasted by Google’s share of 65.8%. Yahoo’s Senior Vice President of Search Products gave his take on the switch:

Yahoo! Web, Image, and Video search experiences on both desktop and mobile devices are now powered by the Microsoft platform in the US and Canada (English), with more markets to come. The speed in which this was completed is a testament to the great work and partnership between a number of Yahoo! and Microsoft employees, the ranks of which are numerous.

While the backend has changed dramatically and Yahoo’s web development team didn’t need to step in, searches will start to look different. However, users are left asking one question; why should I continue to use Yahoo instead of Bing now that the two search engines are virtually the same? The answer comes down to preference, which brand do you trust more? Loyal Yahoo users may shy away from Microsoft’s new search engine but those who have been using Bing may not find Yahoo interesting enough to ‘switch’ to. If you’re an ad agency dealing with Yahoo, be prepared to switch over to Microsoft’s AdCenter this coming October. The ad platform is one of the last platforms to switch over to Microsoft’s solution.

Via: Search Engine Journal

Foursquare is more than just a simple check in service, it can be leveraged by businesses to promote their brand and connect with consumers.

Foursquare Marketing Campaigns

Don’t knock Foursquare as just your regular check in service, businesses are already using it to promote themselves; by having users check in to them.

Starbucks, one of the biggest Foursquare promoters created a special campaign just for its loyal customers. The coffee chain instituted a special that gave users who checked in to five different Starbucks a Barista badge. The badge gave Foursquare users access to promotions other customers couldn’t take advantage but the offers varied between locations.

However, the campaign fell flat on its face. While the coffee titan created the campaign on a company wide basis, not many outlets were informed of the offer or even what the Barista badge meant on Foursquare. This left Foursquare users looking at a dumb founded manager when they requested an offer that could only be unlocked by the badge. This shows poor management on Starbucks’ part on what could have been a great social media opportunity.

Foursquare Promotions & Deals

But there have been brands that have successfully used Foursquare to create some awesome marketing campaigns such as lifestyle brand Diesel. The company launched one of the most elaborate social media marketing campaigns the fashion industry has seen; “Be Stupid.” The Ad was combined with a special one day event at Diesel’s flagship New York store as part of the company’s experimental organic social media campaign. During the one day event, users who checked in to Foursquare within a three-city block radius were alerted a promotion available directly from the store. When those users checked in to the store, they were treated to special printed tees; a great marketing tool for Diesel considering four people within the first hour of the campaign took advantage of the Foursquare offer and dozens more walked in.

Foursquare Business Tools

If your business is interested in using Foursquare to generate buzz without generating a marketing plan from an ad agency, the company has tools you can leverage. Their services for business allow them to create specials for Mayors (those who check in the most to a venue in the past two months), multiple checkin specials (which Starbucks implemented, albeit on an unsuccessful scale), frequency based specials and wildcard specials which require staff to see you’ve met certain conditions to receive an offer i.e. “show us your swarm badge and you’ll get a discount on this product.”

If you do implement Foursquare specials for your businesses, remember some basic etiquette. If you add tips to your venue, avoid making them sound spammy. The purpose of tips for a venue is to turn on new users to what’s hot or any deals. Even more important is alerting your staff to Foursquare specials. If Starbucks has taught us anything, you can’t rely on word of mouth for your employees to automatically know about the latest and greatest in social media offers. Make a graphic to detail what each badge means and what special is associated with it. Chances are a lot of your customers will show you their badges on Foursquare’s mobile App or website automatically matching up a badge with its corresponding offer is critical to good customer service.

Are you already using Foursquare to promote your brand or business? Let me know what tips or practices you’d recommend.

by Hartley Riedner

With more than 300,000 units sold within the first weekend, the Apple iPad is on track to be as popular as the iPhone (AT&T reported about 150,000 iPhones were activated the first weekend when released in June 2007). In less than three years, the iPhone has changed what the public expects, not only from their mobile device, but also from their favorite brands. Now marketers are scrambling to develop apps that provide another dimension to the consumer experience. So how will the iPad evolve the brand experience?

In a post for TechCrunch (http://tcrn.ch/ct25pM), Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff writes that “we are moving from Cloud 1 to Cloud 2, and the iPad is the accelerator.” If Cloud 1 is defined by chat, type, tabs, pulling information and the notebook, then Cloud 2 is all about video, touch, feeds, pushing information and the tablet. Benioff calls this transformation “cloud + social + iPad.”

I believe that the touch and video aspects of the iPad are going to have an especially large impact on the future of marketing and advertising. Advertisements are going to be forced to become even more interactive, finding new and better ways to engage their target audience. Consumers will be able to touch, drag and manipulate products that appear on a sidebar, or touch to play a video to see the product in action. Wired Magazine offered the industry a glimpse into the future with the video demonstration of their new iPad App (http://bit.ly/ccCLkR). The user in the preview touches a car in an advertisement, and turns it 360 degrees. In a body wash ad, the user touches the words to have more or less information appear. An article that highlights a product is touched to go directly to the product website.

Tablets are a new, mostly untouched avenue for marketers to reach consumers. And the tablet format will become much more pervasive as competitors like HP, Google and Dell join the race. The iPad is pushing brands to the brink of the next phase of marketing, and I think brands that are quick to embrace this opportunity will be seen as innovative, relevant and savvy, and those brands that are resistant to the tablet format will be seen as (literally) out of touch

This is a video about the United States and speaks to many of the challenges we face as the world changes and our nation goes though a shift in wealth and power.  Mortgaging the future of our country at a time when the world is becoming flat is a slippery slope and only time will tell if our nation will be able to sustain our current position as the global economic leader in GDP, technology and innovation.

By Arthur Chinski, Joshua Mizrahi, Philip J. Wolman,

David M. Kozak and Carol L. Lucas

April 2010

On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the “Act”) into law, and on March 30, 2010, signed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, which made significant changes to the Act. The Act, as amended, represents comprehensive health insurance reform that will have a direct impact on employers. The Act provides for the establishment of “exchanges” through which employers will be able to purchase health insurance for their employees, and imposes new requirements on employers and the employer-sponsored health insurance plans.

Click here to read more

HORIBA is a global instrumentation company, publicly traded on the Tokyo stock exchange. The HORIBA Group of worldwide companies provides an extensive array of instruments and systems for applications ranging from automotive R&D, process and environmental monitoring, in-vitro medical diagnostics, semiconductor manufacturing and metrology, to a broad range of scientific R&D and QC measurements. Proven quality and trustworthy performance have established widespread confidence in the HORIBA Brand. With over 5 business segments, they produce instrumentation covering medical, scientific, semi-conductor and automotive industries. To learn more, visit horiba.com

Twitter is not often thought of as an educational tool, but the fact is that there are many people on the service that offer a wealth of information. There are CEOs, executives, and more users who can help your career just as much as an MBA. Read on, and you’ll learn about 100 business executives that you can learn from on Twitter. http://bit.ly/45SMD

Rockville, MD April 15, 2009 — From digital PR campaigns to measurement strategies and budget breakdowns, PR and marketing professionals will learn the strategies employed by corporations, nonprofits and agencies in the just-published volume 4 edition of the PR News Top 100 Case Studies in PR. The guidebook features one-of-a-kind case studies, how-to articles, viewpoints and practical advice for improving all types of online and print communications efforts and bottom-line goals. www.prnewsonline.com/store/28.html.