This notion of a music-centric social network isn’t entirely new. In fact, Last.fm has offered an almost-identical service since 2002. Popular music streaming sites like Grooveshark, Pandora and Playlist.com also allow you to share what you’re currently listening to with your social networks (like Twitter, Facebook, etc.). That said, Apple does have a very clear advantage, and that’s its already massive user base that will simply need to “opt in” to become a part of Ping. Jobs noted that Ping could potentially attract 160MM users – more than Twitter’s 100MM, though significantly less than Facebook’s more than half a billion.

Image via Apple

Apple tapped Lady GaGa, arguably one of the most socially savvy stars in the music scene, as a Ping launch partner. Lady GaGa is the most followed Twitter user (nearly 6MM followers) and one of the top 5 pages on Facebook (16MM Likes), so if anybody is going to get people buzzing about Ping, it’s probably her.

How does it work? Ping users can follow their favorite artists (like GaGa) to keep tabs on their concerts, appearances, music releases and more. They can browse artist playlists to learn what they’re listening to. You can even learn when artists are playing and where, and then buy concert tickets via Live Nation.

In addition, Ping allows people to follow their friends’ consumption habits within iTunes – what music they’ve purchased, what they recommend, etc. – and sample/purchase new music based on their friends’ activity. This piece is significant, as social recommendations form a huge trend that only continues to gain momentum (think services like Digg, Yelp and Polyvore, a social shopping site).

Ping is built directly into iTunes 10, and can be accessed via the desktop version of the app or the iPhone/iPod Touch version. In order to join, current iTunes users will have to opt in to the service – though they can choose whether they want their profile to be private or public.

While it’s not shocking that Apple has come out with this product, Ping does stand as an example of yet another way technology is changing the way consumers interact with various forms of media. And as always, this feature brings with it a plethora of new opportunities for entertainment properties (i.e. artists, record labels, concert venues) to connect with consumers and provide them with information and access that aligns more closely with their tastes and preferences.

Will you get on board with Ping? Let us know in the comments below.

Historically, a Google keyword search (brand or non brand) would only result in a single subdomain such as ‘www.yourdomain.com’ appearing one or two times within the natural rankings.  But today, the number of ranking opportunities for a single subdomain (and consequently a portfolio of subdomains) has expanded to an unknown limit. Therefore, if a given domain according to Google’s judgment (algorithm) provides multiple results across unique URLs, the domain might rank numerous times. This update shakes up the natural rankings and potential domination strategies for certain types of search queries, those with a “brand plus” combination.

Brand Plus = A search query that includes a brand name + keyword phrase

For example:  Previously, a domain www.amazon.com might have only occupied two top rank positions for a search on brand plus term such as “Amazon bedding,” but today Google allows www.amazon.com URLs to rank for nearly all page one results.

Google’s update appears to be a step towards better supporting highly navigational queries, and in a sense restricting the scope of this to branded search terms for now. In the past, search engines have rolled out various means to assist searchers in this respect, but this is the most extreme manifestation of it to date. (Remember the additional search box ?) In fact, the revise algorithm produces very similar search results as seen in Google’s advanced site colon search.

The new result shakeup does not appear to be affecting all brands equally, arguably by establishing a threshold for brand entities that exhibit a high level of navigational click-through. Retailers offering products across many verticals such as Amazon are able to surface a large amount of options on the first search result page for brand + category keywords.

Conclusion

If you are investing heavily in search, it’s important to evaluate some key areas that coincide with the update:

-Evaluate trends in your natural traffic, specifically for brand plus keywords to measure any lift that has occurred.

-Begin testing strategies in your Google PPC campaigns to alter “brand plus keyword” budgets, bid tactics, those aligned to keywords now rendering multiple natural rankings or total page dominance.

-Review the website’s top level navigation and taxonomy to understand if certain categories or sub categories are producing more authority in relation to the Google update. As you learn more, consider new SEO best practices to capitalize on, such as domain authority for your “brands + keywords.”

• Evaluate individual domains under your ownership. Hosting tactics should be considered, for example ‘http://www.parentbrand.com/subbrand/content.html‘ vs. ‘http://www.subrand.com/content.html.’ Evaluate the pros and cons of both scenarios.
• Determine if your domain(s) offer enough content to even support multiple brand plus rankings.
• If you do have multiple brand plus rankings, how well do your title and meta data read in the SERPs, and do they produce optimal user click-through rates? Appraise those ranking URLs to ensure the landing page experience delivers on conversion goals.

-Retail sites should evaluate shopping comparison engine performance for any new changes in performance. Shopping Comparison Engines such as bizrate, mysimon, shopzilla along with affiliate sites will probably get hit hard by the update, becoming suppressed in the rankings. In turn, retail brands who actively participate in Shopping Comparison Engines are likely see a decrease in traffic or CSE revenues over the next month.  But, they should not panic! It’s very likely that traffic and revenue is being seen through natural clicks without a CPC routed through the shopping comparison listing previously ranking.

These are just a few initial things to look out for. Google is not averse to test and learn with these  evolving algorithmic conditions, but the update appears official for now.  As Google states in their blog post: “We are always reassessing our ranking and user interface, making hundreds of changes each year. We expect today’s improvement will help users find deeper results from a single site, while still providing diversity on the results page.”

Regardless, the update is now in effect, and marketers must start evaluating “brand plus” keywords in their search campaigns.  Site owners should not be surprised if natural traffic notices a lift for these terms.

This latest report from 360i covers:

• Changes search marketers can expect within the Yahoo! search results page
• New features within Bing’s Webmaster Center interface
• Key recommendations for brands to consider now that the integration has fully taken effect

Read & Download: Impact of Search Alliance on SEO

Google Expands Its ‘RealTime’ Search of Tweets, Buzzes

On Thursday, search market leader Google made strides in order to make its results more up-to-the-minute. Google Realtime Search (google.com/realtime) displays the latest conversations in a self-refreshing newsfeed as they happen across services like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and Google Buzz.

When a user searches within Google Realtime, new results appear as they become available. Depending on the topic, these updates can be quite frequent – as the Wall Street Journal reports that people provide more than 70 million updates via Twitter on a single day. Above the results, users can see how the volume of conversations grow or shrink over time. To the right of the results, Google lists “top links” related to the user’s search query.

Google first began incorporating realtime updates back in December 2009, but up until this week those results had been limited to the “Updates” feature within the main search product. Now, these results have been given their own offshoot page.

SCVNGR Brings Location Game to Facebook Places

In the Geo-Social War, it’s important to have allies, and SCVNGR is making a smart play by teaming up with the Facebook, which recently launched their own location-based check-in system.

The new SCVNGR integration for Facebook Places will allow SCVNGR users to send their check-ins to Facebook and Facebook Places users to import their check-ins onto SCVNGR. The integration will also apply to SCVNGRs challenges, or treks, allowing users to share when they scan QR codes, take pictures or complete other challenges directly onto their Facebook wall, while tying them into the Facebook location. In addition to the incorporation on the Facebook platform, SCVNGR will also have access to Facebook Places APIs.

This new integration is sure to boost the number of people using SCVNGR, though SCVNGR is yet to release any data as to how many users they currently have.

It’s Official: Bing is Now Powering Yahoo Search Results

Yahoo and Microsoft have announced that Yahoo’s move from its own engine to Microsoft’s Bing engine is finally complete after a one-year transitional stage. This means that Bing is now the engine behind Yahoo’s organic search results (text, image and video) in the United States and Canada.

This news is significant to digital marketers as they may need to rethink their search engine optimization strategy in light of the transition. Stay tuned for our insights right here on the 360i blog.

More Shoppers are Using Social Media, Survey Says

A recent Compete survey of 3,119 internet users found that there has been a 17% increase in people who are shopping online through social media platforms since 2009.

Nine West provides a shopping experience via its Facebook Page.

A survey conducted between May and July of 2010 found that 31% of respondents reported visiting Facebook fan pages and retail Twitter feeds. But not only have respondents been visiting these pages, 83% reported that they shop online at least once a week. The survey’s findings predict a steady increase in online shopping over the next six months, mainly focusing on entertainment products including movies, music, video games and books.

Time Magazine’s 50 Best Websites

Last week, Time magazine released its annual list of the top 50 websites around. There are a lot of winners here, but here are a few of our favorites:

• Mint – Making financial responsibility cool (and easy) since 2006
• Grooveshark – Cloud-based music site that allows you to build and save custom playlists with minimally intrusive ads
• Tumblr – Super-simple blogging service that has attracted big names like Newsweek and even John Mayer himself (and not so big names, too, like whoever the clever soul is behind Hungover Owls)
• Foodspotting – Location-based social networking + food, what more could you want?

You can check out all 50 over at Time.com.

-Katie Wall, Account Coordinator at 360i, contributed to this report. 

Let’s be honest – we’re digital strategists, not interior designers. But that doesn’t mean we can’t try our hand at other crafts, or harness the creativity and innovation of our employees in the name of more artistic pursuits. Perhaps as a result of watching a little too much Design Star, our Atlanta team recently held an office-wide competition – Cubes2Cribz – which challenged employees to transform their work areas into posh living spaces.

Here’s how it worked: We divided into ten teams based on workspace location and the big bosses gave each team a $200 American Express gift card, which we could use to make our design dreams a reality. In addition to going all out to transform our cubes to cribs, we were also asked to concoct a custom drink to go with our themes.

Check out the slide show below to see Cubes2Cribz in action:

Cribs were judged on three criteria: Funk (Is the space trendy/cool? Does it have personality?), Function (Would you actually hang out there?) and Feng Shui (open to interpretation). And to make sure the competition was legit, we found judges that actually knew what they were talking about. We invited Joe Remling, partner of award-winning architecture and design firm ai3, and Amy Price, interior designer at ai3, to assess our crib creations and help us crown the winner. We also nabbed Regan Smith, owner and mixologist at Holeman & Finch, as our Signature Cocktail Judge.

Congrats to the winning teams – Home Away from Home (featured in the video below) and Urban Lodge – for scoring highest in the design category. Props also go out to Team Tailgaters for winning the signature cocktail portion of the competition.

What should our next office challenge be? Tell us in the comments below.

Over the past few months we’ve embarked on quite a large endeavor — 7 mobile reports covering nearly every topic of this emerging landscape, from mobile-social and apps to SMS marketing and search. Below is a final rundown of the series. You can download the full PDF for any of these by clicking the “Download” button within Scribd.

• Mobile Marketing Overview
• Mobile Search
• SMS (Text Messaging)
• Mobile Social Marketing
• Mobile Applications
• Mobile Shopping, Coupons & Barcodes
• Mobile Marketing & the Challenges that Lie Ahead

You can expect lots more from us by way of mobile in the coming months. Which topics would you like to see more of on the blog? Let us know in the comments below.

Facebook Gets in On the Check-in Game with Places

Last Wednesday Facebook announced its much-anticipated location feature, appropriately named Facebook Places, which allows users to let friends know where they are in real time via their mobile devices. With this new feature, Facebook (and its 500MM strong user base) could potentially make “checking in” a mainstream social activity, rather than one limited to early adopters who use much smaller services like Foursquare and Gowalla.

Image via Telegraph.co.uk

In our report we take a look at Places and the opportunities it holds for businesses of every size. Check out our full recap here, where you can also download a PDF of our newest POV.

ComScore: Yahoo Gains Search Share in July

This week ComScore reported that Yahoo gained U.S. search market share in July largely at the expense of Google. In July Yahoo had 17.1 percent of searches (up from 16.7 percent in June). Meanwhile, Google’s share fell from 66.2 percent to 65.8 percent. Bing was stagnant at 11 percent of market share.

Bloomberg’s coverage of the news also included findings from eMarketer that the U.S. search ad market could grow 16 percent this year, while the overall online ad market is expected to grow by just 11 percent.

Study: Parents More Open to Receiving SMS Alerts from Brands

A new survey by Harris Interactive and Placecast, a mobile marketing platform, found that marketers looking to reach consumers via SMS should target parents – as 33 percent of mobile users with children said they were at least “somewhat interested” in receiving SMS messaging from select retailers. Among those surveyed without children, only 26% said they were equally interested.

The research also found that the age of the children in the household influenced parents’ interest in receiving mobile alerts. Parents with children under the age of six generated more interest, for example, than parents with teenagers. As eMarketer points out, most early adopters when it comes to consumer electronics are male – yet this survey indicates that families hold the most potential when it comes to opt-in SMS marketing efforts. For more charts and findings, head over to eMarketer.

Read 360i’s complete Report on SMS Marketing.

New App Shopkick Includes Real World Rewards

Shopkick is a new location-based service app for the iPhone, launched last week, that rewards shoppers with tangible incentives in the form of discounts and other goodies that the company says will “turn offline stores into interactive worlds.”

Image via ReadWriteWeb

Shopkick’s technology not only knows when you enter a store, but it can also identify which floor on which you are shopping. Rewards are based on points, or “kickbucks,” that can be redeemed for virtual credits within Facebook or even giftcards. Some actions that earn kickbucks include checking in and scanning product barcodes. At launch, five retailers are on board, including Macy’s, Best Buy, Sports Authority, American Eagle Outfitters and the Simon Property Group.

Which headlines grabbed your attention? Let us know in the comments below.

In the spirit of #findajobfriday, we’ve put together a list of some reasons why we love working at 360i – these of course in addition to serving as strategic advisors to our growing roster of big brand clients.

1. Drinking on the job (Calm yourselves and keep reading…). Okay, so our world famous Tweeting Bar doesn’t actually open for business until 5 p.m. – BUT, there is something to be said for the seamless work day-Happy Hour transition that such technological innovation affords. Can you imagine being notified of a near-empty keg via Twitter back in your college days? Revolutionary.

2. Ping pong. When it comes to ping pong, our Atlanta team isn’t messing around. In between brainstorm sessions and strategy meetings, you can find ATL 360i-ers blowing off some steam at the office table – which you can check in to on Foursquare. (P.S. You can pong in NYC too, but you’ve gotta do so via the office Wii.)

3. Decent views. Um, hello. Check out the panorama our San Francisco team gets to take in each and every day.

4. Our wacky science lab. The 360i Emerging Media Lab, which recently served as fodder for Mashable’s Cubicle Spy series, is where we test out the latest tech innovations and figure out which will make their mark on the marketing industry – and which will fall by the wayside. If you’re looking for a robot bunny to provide updates on your stock quotes – we’ve got it covered.

Emmy the Bunny holds down the fort at the 360i EM Lab (photo via Mashable).

5. FOOD. We don’t know what it is about this place, but for some reason we’re always eyeball-deep in delicious treats. (Not complaining.) In fact, at 10 a.m. this morning we spotted two varieties of cake sitting in the kitchen – just WAITING to be consumed. Much love to our awesome CPG clients and our super-talented SEO Manager/resident Cake Boss for hooking us up. Related perk: Corporate discount at the gym next door.

Radiohead cake, created by SEO Manager Mari. Epic.

6. Tuesday is the new Friday. Not to fixate on the food topic or anything, but have you ever heard of Tasty Treat Tuesday? Perhaps 360i’s best kept secret, TTT means that every other week employees are surprised with a special surprise – just because! Past treats have included fresh crepes, ice cream floats, Korean chicken wings, and even some non-edible surprises, like complimentary massages.

7. A denim-friendly environment. For the most part, we keep it casual around here. Want to wear a Canadian tuxedo? Knock yourself out.

8. Start-up mentality. It’s no big secret that we’ve been hiring like crazy these days (if our #findajobfriday posts have been any indication) – but as we grow we’re committed to retaining that same fun, creative, entrepreneurial spirit that got us where we are today. Here, you can eat breakfast with the CEO, pitch new ideas in an open environment, contribute to the blog and have a voice in general office life. Anything is possible, and our employees can often have a big say in their career direction. In fact, several of us have been known to write our own job descriptions.

9. Giving back. We’ve launched several charitable initiatives to support our surrounding communities. For example, all of our new hires participate in a day of service in which they’re able to give back to the community (at parks, soup kitchens, etc.) and bond with other new hires.

10. Competitive fun. While 360i employs some of the hardest workers you’ll meet, we also know how to have a good time –whether that be embarrassing our competition at company softball games, participating in our annual Summer Challenge events, or going head-to-head with colleagues in one of the most epic interior design/mixology competitions corporate America has ever seen. (That last one actually happened and yes, we will soon have full coverage on the blog.)

Is 360i your kind of company? If you’re fun, creative, smart and eager to learn – we want to meet you!

Check out our latest openings and apply today.

So, what does this mean? For one, checking in has just gone mainstream. If you weren’t convinced that a couple million Foursquare users checking into businesses mattered, what about over 500 million Facebook users? Facebook Places made the strongest case yet that location will play a pivotal role in mobile social media.

In our latest POV, we take a look at Facebook Places — how it works, where marketers might fit in and what the new feature means for Foursquare. You can read and download the full report below.

360i POV: Facebook Colonizes Locations with Places

Last week, the 2011 SXSW Interactive PanelPicker opened for public voting and more than 2,300 sessions (4 of them ours!) are now vying for slots at one of the most celebrated media/tech conferences of the year. The PanelPicker plays a significant role in determining the programming for the highly competitive event, with a full third of the decision resting on public votes (staff votes and Advisory Board votes also count, at 30% and 40%, respectively).

While it’s tough to find a “bad” PanelPicker idea, there are some proposals that really caught our eye this year. Here we list 10 of our favorite ideas – and, of course, plug our own (can you blame us?).

Gettysburg 2011: This is so much cooler than your high school U.S. history class. In this session, Ian MacKinnon of Mindgrub Technologies takes you through a digital tour of famous Civil War battle via augmented reality and explains how historical landmarks can come alive through emerging mobile tech.

Vote for this session.

Google Doodles: Burning Man to Pac-Man and Beyond: An entire SXSW session on Google doodles? Yes, please. Google’s Ryan Germick takes us through a history of the engine’s creative logo designs (there have been more than 700 in all) and examines them through lens of the small team of artists and developers who create them.

Vote for this session.

Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: It’s hard to imagine Jerry Garcia on an episode of Mad Men, but David Meerman Scott says marketers have much to learn from the eclectic jam band. In this panel, Scott outlines the “contrarian marketing” style of the Grateful Dead, and how their innovations (e.g. providing “freemium” content and community building) can be applied today.

Vote for this session.

From Woodstock to Facebook: Connecting with Baby Boomers: Nataki Clarke of the AARP discusses how marketers should target boomers in the digital space. How does this demographic differ from Gen X-ers and Millennials? Boomers represent one of the fastest growing demographics in the social space – and form a large subset of the US population at 70MM – so understanding their online behavior is critical for brands.

Vote for this session.

What if Ross and Rachel were Facebook Friends?: Much has been written about how social media is affecting relationships – not only between brands and consumers (our primary focus), but also between people and groups of people in a much more general sense. Has Facebook killed the blind date? In this session, dating coach Maria Avgitidis illustrates how much things have changed from just a few years ago.

Vote for this session.

Younger Than Pete Cashmore: Fact — Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore has only been able to legally drink for three years. Cashmore and other new media young-guns are at the helm of some of the web’s hottest star-ups – but what does it mean to be young when dealing with big brands and established agencies? Gareth Hornberger of Levi’s leads a panel session that explores the value of youth within the world’s largest organizations and outlines what it takes to be a young luminary.

Vote for this session.

Awkward Family Photos: Building the Brand: AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com, a blog that features “strange, humorous and disturbing” family portraits, began as a fun side project but has quickly grown into an Internet sensation (if you’re wondering why, take 5 minutes and browse the site). In this session, founder Douglas Chernack uncovers how the crowdsourced phenomenon took off and how it evolved from a successful blog to a successful brand.

Vote for this session.

Q&A With Google & Bing on Website Ranking: While there are no curse words or crazy puns in this title (two things that can often make a SXSW panel stand out among thousands of others), we’d still be down to check out this SEO session led by Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan. This panel brings together reps from Google and Bing (which now powers results for Yahoo as well) to answer questions about how the engines rank websites.

Vote for this session.

Social Viewing for Fan Engagement at MTV: We’ve blogged here before about how the Internet has changed the way people consume entertainment, especially when it comes to television. One of the earliest brands to recognize this trend and leverage it to create conversations and communities around TV content has been MTV. In this panel, MTV Networks’ Kristin Frank discusses how the company is evolving the fan experience online through social viewing tools (e.g. live streaming and on-demand video content) and other platforms.

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Unleashing Employees – Empower Innovation from the Ground Up: Forrester’s Josh Bernoff leads this session on how “empowering technologies” are upping the ante when it comes to your company’s CRM efforts. As new tech puts power directly in the hands of customers, companies that grant employees with the ability to directly engage the increased needs of customers (think Best Buy) will soar. How can companies empower employees to solve problems at the ground level – and at minimal risk? We’re eager to see what Bernoff says here.

Vote for this session.

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And finally, here’s a roundup of our proposed sessions for SXSW 2011. We’re currently accepting votes, so be sure to give us some love if you like what you see.

Tasty Conversation: Social Media + Food Brands: First things first: There will be food served at this session. Bring your appetite to this fireside chat-style panel. David Berkowitz joins a lineup of top food and beverage brands that are harnessing social buzz to spice up their real world presence. What are these brands cooking up across the social landscape? And what can we learn from them?

Vote for this session.

Scan This! The Mobile Barcode Showdown: Mobile barcode tech is red hot – and there are a lot of new players on the scene. Watch us play referee as several start-cups duke it out in this interactive session. Which tech has the coolest features and biggest shot at mainstream love? They’ll show you some of their best stuff; you decide and vote.

Vote for this session.

Mobile Face-off – U.S. vs. Japan: Which country is leading the mobile market – the U.S. or Japan? In this head-to-head panel, experts from both sides of the Pacific face off to determine which country holds mobile supremacy. Attendees will learn about the latest innovations and case studies and determine for themselves which country is leading – and which is lagging.

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Social, Sharable & Mobile-Friendly – 11 Web Design Tips for 2011: Websites just aren’t what they used to be — They’re so much more. Learn from web designers and brands that are leading the market in creating digital destinations that inspire, engage and excite.

Vote for this session.