2006 Search Engine News
April 2006 SEO News 2006
by Dan Thies, During our link building class last week, an issue came up about directory submissions, where we were finding for the first time that some very useful directories appeared to have stopped passing PageRank and reputation with Google.
Since directory submissions are often an important part of launching a new site, I was naturally concerned. The good news is that I have spoken with the operators of these directories, and they have taken immediate steps to remedy the situation and avoid future difficulties.
Big kudos to Robert Barger of GoGuides.org and Bruce Stoner of Skaffe.com and WoWDirectory.com for taking fast action on behalf of their clients. These are definitely two of the "good guys" in the directory world.
So what was the big problem? These directories were all offering text link ads (you know the kind), in addition to the regular editorial listings in their directories. This kind of advertising isn't exactly Google's favorite, because of the way it can influence search engine rankings.
Google's approach to the text link advertising problem has been to simply filter the outbound links on sites that they find selling TLAs. This makes text link advertising incompatible with the mission of a web directory, in my opinion.
I'm not the only one who feels that way. Patrick Gavin of TextLinkAds.com, probably the world's biggest broker of text links, told me that he does not seek out directories as publishing partners for this very reason. Good for him.
In order to get to the bottom of this, and try to avoid a link-filtering disaster in the world of web directories, I am working with quite a few people to investigate a large number of directories, and to reach out to directory operators like Bruce and Robert.
We should have some results to report within a couple weeks, and subscribers to this newsletter will be invited to join us on a conference call some time in May to discuss our findings.
In the meantime, when you are submitting to directories, think twice about submitting to any directory that is selling text link ads, with the following in mind:
Tip #1: If you see what appear to be text link ads on the directory, check the source code (view->source) to make sure the links are part of the HTML code. Robert at GoGuides is keeping the ads, but using a Javascript wrapper to prevent them from being seen by search engines. This should be acceptable to Google, since it's the exact method they use to deliver Adsense ads.
Tip #2: If the text link ads are part of the source code, check to see if the anchor tags have the "rel=nofollow" attribute. Google will not follow such links, so selling text link ads with the nofollow attribute is also acceptable. This is the solution Bruce @ Skaffe is using.
Microsoft searches toward the future By Aaron Tan, ZDNet Asia 28/4/2006
BEIJING--Judging by its showcase of future technologies, Microsoft is clearly steering its focus strongly toward search, an area which the software vendor admits it is still lagging behind.
Microsoft Research Asia
At the annual Microsoft Research Asia (MRA) Innovation Day, held here this week, the software giant displayed next-generation technologies from its Asian research center where at least 10 out of 30 showcases were search-related.
Microsoft has similar research facilities in India, Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom, which aim to develop new technology for the company's future products. So far, 201 technology projects have been incorporated into offerings such as Office 2003 and Windows Vista, according to Microsoft.
In an interview with ZDNet Asia, Harry Shum, managing director of MRA, acknowledged that the software vendor still lags behind competitors Yahoo and Google in the search space.
"[Microsoft CEO] Steve Ballmer kicked our butts and said we have to catch up in particular research areas, including search," he said. However, Shum was undaunted by the rivalry in the search business.
"As research guys, we welcome challenges," he said. "We take the competition very seriously, and will make the necessary investment to get to the top [of the search market]."
Microsoft spends some 17 percent of its revenues each year on research and development, totaling US$6 million, according to the vendor's CTO Craig Mundie.
And some of that money has gone into solving the biggest problem with search engines today--staying relevant.
Ma Wei-Ying, MRA's research manager for Web search and data mining, said internal Microsoft studies have shown that search users hardly venture beyond the third page of search engine results, which are often irrelevant to what they are actually seeking.
"People do not have the patience to look through all the results pages," he added. "Search engines need to be more intelligent and provide exact answers right on the first page of search results."
The key to providing accurate and relevant search results is vertical search, which Ma described as single-purpose search engines that trawl the Web for a category of information. This may include academic papers, which Microsoft's Live Academic Search currently addresses, or products for sale at online shopping sites, he said.
Ma noted that Microsoft's product search engine, due to debut in a few weeks, would allow users to search for merchandise across online stores, beyond the likes of Amazon and Shopping.com.
He added that Microsoft will also be unveiling new methods of searching such as Photo2Search, where images--instead of text--captured with cellphones are used as search queries.
According to Microsoft, Photo2Search users can seek information on an object by taking a photo of it and sending the image, via e-mail or MMS (multimedia messaging service), to a Web-based server.
The system then searches an image database for relevant matches, and delivers the information--whether it is a Web page featuring the object or data associated with the object--to the user. Upon receiving the data, Photo2Search users can then choose how to make use of the information, such as to book a hotel room or make a purchase.
Xing Xie, a researcher for MRA's Web search and mining group, led a team of five to create Photo2Search which included two academics from the University of Science and Technology of China.
Xing's team noted in a research paper that the value of camera phones as devices that are capable of capturing and acquiring information on a daily basis, "has not been sufficiently recognized" by the wireless industry and researchers.
With the necessary technologies, the Microsoft researchers believe that mobile phones could become powerful tools to acquire information about the surrounding world on-the-go.
However, Microsoft will have to work with existing infrastructures to deliver services over the Web, while Google was able to start on a clean slate. Asked if he considered this a disadvantage, Microsoft's Shum said: "I'm not sure if that will continue to be true, because by now, [Google] probably has more baggage than we do. We probably started even fresher in terms of search."
He noted that while "it's good now to be Google, which is so popular and successful", Microsoft has a good platform and it is "up to the company to ensure its products stay relevant".
Aaron Tan from ZDNet Asia reported from Beijing, China.
Sunday April 23rd: Google on Cloaking and IP Delivery
Matt Cutts and Google have always had a strong stance of any form of cloaking, for as long as I have been covering the search industry. While I was away, Matt Cutts posted a comment at his blog where he provided the "short answer from Google’s perspective."
IP delivery: delivering results to users based on IP address. Cloaking: showing different pages to users than to search engines.
IP delivery includes things like "users from Britain get sent to the co.uk, users from France get sent to the .fr". This is fine-even Google does this.
It's when you do something *special* or out-of-the-ordinary for Googlebot that you start to get in trouble, because that's cloaking. In the example above, cloaking would be "if a user is from Googlelandia, they get sent to our Google-only optimized text pages."
So IP delivery is fine, but don't do anything special for Googlebot. Just treat it like a typical user visiting the site.
It all comes down to intent, as Cre8asite Forum Site Admin says in the forum thread named Final word on cloaking?
Saturday April 22nd: User Behaviour and Google Site Profiles
A discussion thread at WebMasterWorld, “Google algo moves away from links, towards traffic patterns”, has been mentioned in several SEO/SEM related news sources and blogs this week. Started
on April 4, the thread has been picking up steam with discussion
generally ranging towards Google’s tracking of user behaviours
and how that data might affect search results.
The
term “user behaviours” describes any number of actions
taken by people while using a Google branded search tool, while
visiting a particular site in Google’s index, and while moving
from site to site or document to document.
Basically,
Google wants to know what its users like and dislike. Those
user-judgements have become important factors in how Google ranks sites
in its index and in personalized search results shown to registered
users.
Hundreds
of millions of Internet users subscribe to or otherwise use Google
products every day. Google tracks each of their actions to one degree
or another. For some, a simple cookie feeds
basic data back to Google’s servers. For others, products such as
the Google Toolbar, Bookmarks, News Alerts and even Google Analytics
feed large amounts of online behavioural information to Google.
Google
pays attention to what its users do when they visit a particular
website, page or file listed in its index, keeping an active record in
order to compile historic profiles of those documents. If a visitor
accesses a document while performing a Google search or from a bookmark
file, Google notices and takes note. If visitors find a document by
following a link from another, that action (or behaviour) is noted. How
long visitors tend to stay on a document is counted, as are the actions
taken by those visitors after they are finished viewing the document.
Local.
The goal of search is to deliver the most relevant set of results
possible, and Google is trying to account for the fact that relevance
is relative to the searcher’s personal needs. Google also views
user-behaviours as a way to filter out sites that a mass of users might
deem less useful.
Google’s
core ranking algorithm, PageRank has long used links as an indication
of the relevance of unique documents. One facet of user-behaviour
tracking looks at how site-visitors use those links as a factor
determining the relevance, or importance of those links. It is also
interested in knowing which documents its users take seriously by
gauging the number of visitors and the time each visitors spends
examining the document, and other documents associated by domain or
link.
User
Behaviour has become an important pillar supporting the PageRank
algorithm. A short note in the discussion thread from WMW admin Brett Tabke
suggests Google has been tracking a wide range of information supplied
by its users, along with a wider array of information supplied by the
web documents in its index since November 2003’s Florida Update.
Data
supplied by user-behaviour is included in a larger and more important
profile Google keeps of each document in its index. As it visits and
revisits documents in its index, following and evaluating every link it
can from document to document, Google forms an evolving impression of
each document. It records that impression in document-specific historic
profiles. These profiles are thought to generate a reputation score for
each document that acts as a major factor in its algorithm.
Google
also pays attention to any changes made to documents in its index. It
finds site or document changes during its normal spidering cycle. It
notices when new text is added to a document and when text is deleted.
When a new link, or set of links, is added to a document, Google
notices and follows the links, recording the date of insertion and its
impression of the pages or files the new links lead to.
It
adds this all data to a profile that already includes specific details
about the history of a URL, historic details on document and site
content, and an evaluation of all links leading to and from the
document. User behaviour forms a fourth pillar of PageRank’s
overall relevancy formulas.
It should be noted that Google takes interest in user behaviour for a number of reasons but with the exception of specific personalized search data, it’s nothing personal, it’s only data. There is no reason to think that Google is playing Big Brother by tracking user-behaviour. It might use specific personal data to serve advertising, as is the case with Gmail and with personalized search results but it appears to have acted ethically to protect user data from various governments over the years. Google recently earned a notation from the Thomas Jefferson Center for “strenuously” resisting the US Department of Justice’s request for user data.
The writing has been on the wall, (or on the server at any rate) for over two years. After several algorithm changes and a four-month infrastructure upgrade, Google results are starting to show the direct influence of its users as they vote with their mouse-buttons. User-data is an important factor in search engine placement, making website usability an important factor in SEO services.
Tuesday April 18th: 62% of users click on first page results (PDF) "Key among the findings relating to the current search engine user community is that 62% of search engine users click on a search result within the first page of results, and a full 90% of search engine users click on a result within the first three page of search results."
Brand searchers finding competitors' sites
"Fifteen percent of people who search for a company's brand name
end up going to Web sites of the brand's competitors, affiliates or to
price-comparison sites because those sites rank high in the results."
Search engine newslets
- Google gets a patent for technology to let the human voice command Internet search engines.
- Google releases Google Calendar.
- Yahoo! releases search engine, FareChase, for travel.
- Microsoft launches specialized search engine for academic searches.
- Comparing the mapping services.
- Google might be working on Google Travel.
- Qwika is a search engine that searches wikis.
- Strange official Google pages can be found here and here.
Search Queries Gain in March, Google Leads the Way
RESTON, Va.,
Share of Online Searches by Engine March 2006 vs. March 2005 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore qSearch Mar-05 Mar-06 Point Change Total Internet Population 100% 100% N/A
- Google Sites 36.4 42.7 6.3
- Yahoo! Sites 30.6 28.0 -2.6
- MSN-Microsoft Sites 16.5 13.2 -3.3
- Time Warner Network 8.9 7.6 -1.4
- Ask Jeeves/Ask Network 5.5 5.9 0.4
-- Americans conducted 6.4 billion searches online in March, up 10 percent from last month and 15 percent from last year. The increase in search queries from the previous month marked the largest gain over the past twelve months. --
- Google Sites led the pack with 2.7 billion search queries performed, followed by
- Yahoo Sites (1.8 billion),
- MSN-Microsoft (849 million),
- Time-Warner Network (486 million), and
- Ask Jeeves/Ask Network (376 million).
-- The toolbar search market continues to be dominated by Google and Yahoo!, which combined for more than 95 percent of toolbar searches in March. Google led the way with 48.9 percent, while Yahoo! captured 46.5 percent.
Divining the Future of Search Advertising
By Patricia HurshWhat does the future hold for search advertising? Thousands of people attending the recent Search Engine Strategies Conference in New York packed the conference hall to hear Danny Sullivan explore this very topic with executives from Google, Yahoo, AOL, MSN and Ask's IAC.
A special report from the Search Engine Strategies conference, February 27-March 2, 2006, New York, NY.
The first question Danny posed focused on the astonishing growth of the search marketing industry in recent years. "Have we hit the ceiling?" he asked.
Gerry Campbell, vice president and general manager search and navigation at AOL, pointed out that with four major search ad networks (Google/AOL, Yahoo, MSN and IAC) advertisers now have more options than ever before. And, these options have created greater price variance in the market, providing savvy advertisers the opportunity to find increasingly better deals. He also explained that as Web content grows, so does the available ad inventory. "The growth rate might be slowing... but we definitely haven't hit the ceiling," said Campbell.
Tim Cadogan, vice president of search at Yahoo! Search Marketing, said he feels that the market is still heavily dominated by smaller advertisers. However, as more large companies and consumer packaged goods (CPG) firms increase their level of search advertising a new wave of growth will occur. These companies are different from smaller firms in that they "view search advertising as part of a multi-channel strategy, focusing primarily on offline conversions," added Cadogan.
The Role of Traditional Ad Agencies
Many in the audience took particular interest in Danny's next question. "As the industry continues to grow and mature, what is the role of the ad agency in all of this?"
MSN's David Jakubowski said that as the industry becomes more complex, agencies will become increasingly more important. Yahoo's Cadogan described the industry as "an eco system with many different roles and room for all types of specialists. The value chain will keep expanding as the market matures." AOL's Campbell agreed, stating that "the industry is in the middle of a transformation."
Meanwhile, Google is watching Madison Avenue very closely. Armstrong said that traditional marketing agencies now realize that search engine expertise is required to maintain a competitive advantage. To this end, agencies are looking to partner with or acquire firms that have strong search expertise.
IAC's Speer added that, on the other hand, "Madison Avenue brings some valuable skills and experience to our young industry. Things like cross-channel integration and reporting."
Integration with the Marketing Mix
Next, Danny turned the panel's attention to the bigger picture, asking "now that search is part of the marketing mix, will we ever see the day when search is the primary driver... the lead channel?"
Everyone agreed that the role and importance of search advertising will vary greatly from advertiser to advertiser. They pointed out that many companies today are utilizing search marketing as their primary means of lead generation or customer acquisition. Even if it isn't the primary channel, search marketing is now a required, core competency for all marketers.
And, search's piece of the marketing pie will only continue to grow - at what rate, though, remains to be seen. Consider, consumer behavior has been rapidly shifting from traditional media to online avenues for several years but, to date, media budgets have been slow to follow. Closing this gap represents both a huge opportunity and challenge for online advertising and search marketing in particular.
What about Image Ads?
At a more tactical level, Danny asked if we can expect to see image ads in search results anytime soon.
For starters, IAC's Speer reminded the audience that Ask's Branded Response product has allowed advertisers to add images for quite some time. He added that the product was recently scaled back to allow the company some time to figure out exactly where it makes the most sense to show images.
One interesting idea offered by AOL's Campbell was whether trademark owners should be allowed to add a logo to text ads for branded searches. A timely suggestion based on the plethora of trademark infringement issues and lawsuits currently underway.
MSN's Jakubowski explained that while an image might not add value to someone searching for "car," or even "BMW," a photo may be very useful to someone searching for "BMW 360i." or something that is very specific in nature.
It's clear that all the big players are exploring more graphical display possibilities, and they all agree that the use of images must add value to both advertisers AND searchers to gain acceptance.
Recent Successes & Biggest Challenges
Finally, Danny gave each executive a chance to discuss recent successes, along with the biggest challenges they face moving forward.
Speer pointed out that Ask's biggest success has been not just surviving, but actually growing... despite having considerably less resources than the other, larger players. He feels that IAC's biggest challenge moving forward is integrating search (and search advertising) across all IAC properties such as: Ticket Master, CitySearch and Lending Tree.
Campbell suggested that the value people find in AOL's unique content and member services will continue to drive their competitive advantage. He believes the biggest challenge ahead is to think outside of the search box and develop new advertising solutions. "AOL is focused on consumer intent. Our goal is to provide advertising FOR users... not TO users," stated Campbell.
"MSN is late to the party and our competitors have a substantial head start," acknowledged David Jakubowski. Yet, he feels that MSN has recently "done a really good job of listening to advertisers and giving them more control, better targeting, a simple interface and integrated research tools."
Yahoo's Cadogan said his firm's focus on social networking will continue to provide a competitive advantage. He said Yahoo's biggest challenge is the fact that it was the first to offer pay-per-click search advertising (first as GoTo, then as Overture, and now as Yahoo! Search Marketing). "Quite frankly," he said, "our infrastructure, tools and the user interface need some work."
Tim Armstrong closed by saying Google's success stems from "staying focused on the user. Staying connected to the customer and constantly testing new offerings." The biggest challenge is one shared by the entire industry, bridging the gap between online usage and online media spend. Google is focused on getting media dollars to shift online as quickly as possible.
The Future Looks Bright
Attendees of this session likely walked away with the impression that the future of search advertising looks quite bright. Yes, the growth rate may be slowing... but it certainly isn't coming to a halt anytime soon. Media budgets are shifting as search is being integrated into the overall marketing mix. Marketing agencies and large advertisers are embracing this channel, and search networks are working on new distribution channels, ad formats and pricing models. All this creates opportunities for advertisers, agencies and specialists of all kinds.
Most telling was the fact that Danny was talking with executives from not one company, or two, or even three... but from the FIVE leading search ad networks. Clearly, search advertisers have more choices than ever before, and this increased competition means that the networks are under pressure to listen to their customers (both advertisers and users), continue to innovate and deliver better and better results. What a good thing!
Monday April 10th: Is Google No. 1 Forever?
Google is without a doubt the world's number one search engine. According to the research firm Neilsen/NetRatings, Google's share of the global search market in February 2006 was 48.5%, more than double the 22.5% share its nearest rival Yahoo saw. Having been the engine of choice for nearly five years, Google is synonymous with search. Because Google is the first thing most folks think of when they think about search, it is the most important search marketing venue, at least for the vast majority of SEOs.
That might be changing in the coming years. There's a sense in the SEO sector that the horizons have expanded significantly and the search marketing map has gotten far larger. What the new landscape will look like exactly, and how large Google's footprint will be, is still unknown. The emerging online environment is still being explored, so to speak. As it is explored, it is evolving very quickly. In many ways, it feels like the early days of the commercial web where everyone knew that everything was about to change, but no one really knew exactly how.
While Google's influence is incredible and its dominance appears unassailable, a number of newer products and changes in public perceptions have prompted subtle shifts in the habits of Internet users. Search marketers and online advertisers have started taking notice, putting more energy into helping clients understand and use tools such as blogs, images, press releases and video content as marketing devices.
The evolution of the Internet, in regards to search depends a lot on four unique groups; users, online marketers, search engine developers, and creative web developers. How each group reacts to these new user/marketing channels in the coming months and years will determine if Google's dominance is threatened. As it stands today, Google remains synonymous with search, however, users are starting to venture away from the Google brand, even if it is the most recognizable one in their minds.
A recent survey conducted by UK-based online marketing firm, Harvest Digital (reg. req.), shows that Google is almost universally recognized as the UK's leading search engine. (When thinking about North American search engine usage, similar results are assumed to be a somewhat safe assumption.)
When asked, "What search engine do you use?" 94% of respondents said Google. 40% said they used Yahoo, 39% said Ask Jeeves and 37% said MSN.
The answer clearly shows that Google is the first thing consumers think of when asked about search but it also shows that most search engine users are looking at more sources when looking for information. It also confirms that Ask continues to enjoy high popularity in the UK, even after dropping ex-pat butler Jeeves. Of the 205-person test group, only 24% said they only used one search engine with 56% using two or three search engines.
A large group of search engine users express less than stellar expectations from their experience with search engines. There appears to be a growing dissatisfaction among UK search engine users with only 22% of the survey group stating they felt "... confident that search engines would always give them the information that they needed." More often than not, users blamed themselves when searches produced less than useful results. 36% assumed they were using the wrong keywords. 32% figured the information they were looking for was too specialized. These statements should be noted by SEOs when thinking of creative keyword targets along with alternative search venues such as vertical and local search.
Interestingly, nearly a quarter of respondents said that advertisers paying for higher position are responsible. 24% agreed with the statement, "Advertisers are paying to come top of the results", is the reason "... some searches are less successful". While the survey draws the conclusion that this is a paid-search issue, it is unclear if respondents are noting PPC ads or well-optimized sites dominating organic results.
When choosing results to click on, 60% said it is because that result appeared on the first page with 17% tending towards the top results. 32% stated the description as an important factor when choosing which search results might best match their needs. Again, 78% of them will express some sense of dissatisfaction with the results.
Ultimately, the survey tells search marketers and their advertisers to spread their focuses to see the much wider horizon. Almost one third of respondents stated their search queries are too specialized to produce successful results. This suggests there is a lot of room for adoption of more targeted search tools such as the vertical search sector and local search engines.
Google is working to cover the vertical bases with its all-in-one solution, Google Base. Several search marketing forums have noted the appearance of Google Base results in searches conducted around the travel, home sales, and automotive industries. It is assumed by many SEOs that Google is trying to see if it can take a share of the market from popular advertising boards like Craigslist and e-commerce facilitators such as eBay.
Yahoo and Google continue to compete against each other and smaller firms such as A9, Ask, and even AOL, in the race to perfect a local search model. As Internet access is integrated in smaller portable devices, local search is seen as one of the greatest growth areas for search marketing.
Other search firms are moving to explore the expansive web as well. Last month, Lycos announced it was introducing a number of self-publishing and distribution options for content creators. It recently entered the VOIP market with Lycos Phone and today announced the release of a desktop Blog editing tool, Lycos-Qumana.
Google has another problem on its plate in regards to user loyalty. Its footprint has grown large enough that at times, it sort of steps on people's expectations in the course of its operations, as is the case with Google's relationship with the Chinese Government. While the other major search engines are active players in the Chinese market, and actively make values-based compromises their Western users might find unacceptable, Google tends to attract the majority of user outrage. That's likely because users have come to expect Google to hold itself to a higher standard, one that goes beyond compromising fair search results. A minor migration from Google happens every time the tech-press cracks a shot across Google's bow.
As Internet usage increases, and the online environment evolves through growth, search engine users are being offered more options while becoming more educated about the medium. Social networks (which enjoy enormous traffic) such as MySpace have search features that users turn to when logged in to the network.
The goal of online marketers is to drive traffic to client websites or documents. For search marketers, the expanding horizons can bring a bounty of business. Today, the reality is that Google is the most difficult engine to achieve a high ranking on, but it is also the most effective search marketing venue. Google is the most popular search engine and continues to drive the most traffic.
We
expect that fact to remain the same but, at the same time, we are
strongly advising our clients to think about other search marketing
channels. The habits of Internet users are changing as the incredible
growth of MySpace demonstrates. There is a lot of new search marketing
turf out there and it is time to work towards establishing a presence
there.
About The Author
Jim Hedger is a writer, speaker and
search engine marketing expert based in Victoria BC. Jim writes and
edits full-time for StepForth and is also an editor for the Internet
Search Engine Database. He has worked as an SEO for over 5 years and
welcomes the opportunity to share his experience through interviews,
articles and speaking engagements. He can be reached at jimhedger@stepforth.com.
Sunday April 9th: Google buys search algorithm invented by Israeli student by Oded Yaron
Search
engine giant Google recently acquired an advanced text search algorithm
invented by Ori Alon, an Israeli student. Sources believe Yahoo and
Microsoft were also negotiating with the University of New South Wales
in Australia, where Alon is a doctoral student in computer science.
Google, Alon and the university all refused to comment, though Google
confirmed that "Ori Alon works at Google's Mountain View, California
offices."
The University acknowledged that Yahoo and Microsoft had conducted negotiations with its business development company. Alon told TheMarker in an interview six months ago that the university had registered a patent on the invention.
Orion, as it is called, which Alon developed with faculty, relates only
to the most relevant textual results. In addition the software, which
currently operates only in English, offers a list of topics directly
related to the original source.
"For example, if you search information on the War of Independence,
you'll receive a list of related words, like Etzel, Palmach,
Ben-Gurion," he explained. The text will only appear on the results
page if enough words relevant to the search and the link between them
is reasonable. Orion also rates the texts by quality of the site in
which they appear.
Monday April 3rd: Mobile Lifestyle Survey Results
AOL, in conjunction with the Associated Press and the Pew Research
Center, has released results of a survey showing that Americans are
becoming increasingly dependent on their mobile phones, and that the use of online mobile services is increasing. Some highlights:
- 52 percent of adults keep their cell phone turned on all day, everyday
- 40 percent of those aged 18-29 are likely to drop their landline
- 30 percent of adults want to browse the Web from their cell phone
- 47 percent say that mobile maps and driving directions are a "must have" on the next phone they buy.
