Laffitte Conseil

Mobile TV Awareness, Then Adoption

Mobile broadcast TV subscribers will total 155.6 million worldwide by the end of 2012, up from 4.4 million in June 2007, according to Datamonitor's "Opportunities in the Mobile Broadcast TV Market, 2006-2012" report.

Infonetics had estimated previously that paying mobile TV subscribers would total 46 million in 2010. Datamonitor's 2010 estimate is a more aggressive 65.6 million.

eMarketer projects that by 2011 there will be significantly more paying mobile video subscribers than mobile TV subscribers worldwide, largely because of the level of 3G penetration. Specifically, there will be approximately 120 million 3G subscribers who pay a premium on top of their data subscriptions for mobile video clips or streams. There will be nearly 80 million mobile TV subscribers worldwide by 2011.

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The Ups and Downs of European Online Travel

eMarketer estimates that online travel sales in the five major travel markets of Europe — France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK — will total nearly $49 billion this year, up 27% over 2006.

That's the good news.

"Over the next four years, as the European online travel market matures, sales growth in the sector will steadily decrease," says Jeffrey Grau, eMarketer Senior Analyst and the author of the new report, European Online Travel. "Conversely, that means competition for online travel dollars is going to increase."

After peaking in 2005, personal travel and tourism spending growth (online and offline) by the 25 European Union member states entered a moderate phase, as evidenced by data published by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).

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Webwag Widgets Go Mobile

Webwag, a personalized portal similar to iGoogle, Netvibes, Pageflakes and others, has launched a mobile version of their service. Webwag Mobile beta version synchronizes with the Webwag.com start page; for example, the RSS items you read on the mobile version should be marked as read on the desktop version.

We’re a bit skeptical about mobile widgets: how many widgets can you actually place on a small screen of a mobile? And how much sense does it make to have tiny apps in an even tinier form on a tiny device? But, judging from the screenshot Webwag has done quite a good job at smallifying their widgets even further, so it just might work.

Webwag mobile will first be available on Java mobile handsets, and by the end of this month, Webwag will provide developers with an API to build mobile widgets.

J-Board - a Job Board for Everyone

J-Board is a job board application which anyone can download and install on their website/blog. It’s built using PHP/MySQL, and features include listings with microformats, widgets, tag clouds, automatic submission of new listing to social search engines, RSS feeds, a theme system for easy customization, and a language file which makes translation simple.

The application is built to be versatile, so it doesn’t have to be used as a job board; in fact, it will do for classifieds, event announcement and similar tasks.

After installing J-Board, you’re free to charge users for job listings, or add text advertisements such as AdSense to the board. J-Board comes with a price, though: 30 dollars.

TripAdvisor Adding More Social Features

TripAdvisor, the travel blogging service, is scheduled to roll out more social networking aspects to its service, making it easier to find and share information from others. The new features should launch sometime tomorrow.

The new social components of TripAdvisor will let you register your network of travelers, importing contacts from all the major email services such as GMail, Hotmail, AOL and MSN. Some new search technology is being included in the site revamp, which will make content from your friends network show at the top of your search results.

Moving towards a more social existence is something TripAdvisor is surely interested in. The company released its Facebook application last week, enabling users to display their account map on their Facebook profiles and marking where they’ve traveled. Other travel social networks include TripTie and Matador.

Vietnam hotels accused of “grab for cash”

Hoteliers in Vietnam are proposing a 50% plus rate increase for rooms next season, and Exotissimo Travel has united with other destination management companies to protest.

Exotissimo says key properties in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have failed to honour existing contracts, and are increasing their rates to levels as "a grab for cash."

An Exotissimo spokesman said, "With the recent room shortage, almost every premium hotel (from 3-5 stars) is operating at close to full capacity throughout the year, and the low-season has all but disappeared.

"This problem is most severe in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, where most 4 and 5 star hotels are almost always fully booked.

"Many of the hotels are now taking advantage of this current situation, and are not honoring their prior commitments, including previously negotiated and contracted room rates.

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Java : Webwag se lance dans les widgets sur mobiles

Fort du rachat en mars dernier de la société Mobease, spécialiste du widget mobile, la jeune pousse Webwag a lancé il y a quelques heures « Webwag Mobile », une solution Java permettant d'ajouter du contenu aux smartphones.

Surfant sur la vague des contenus personnalisés sur des terminaux mobiles par l'intermédiaire de programmes comme Widsets, ZenZui ou comme le futur programme S60 de Nokia, Webwag Mobile se base sur le portail web éponyme pour fonctionner. Concurrent de Netvibes, qui a ouvert récemment une partie accessible depuis les mobiles, Webwag en version mobile nécessite donc un compte Webwag pour fonctionner, son téléchargement étant assuré ensuite après avoir entré son numéro de téléphone mobile (envoi du lien par SMS).

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Online Video Ads Bringing Results

Online video ads are leading to sales, according to the Online Publishers Association (OPA) "Frames of Reference: Online Video Advertising, Content and Consumer Behavior" report, conducted in partnership with OTX.

Of the 80% of viewers who had watched an online video ad, just over half had taken some sort of action. Nearly a third had checked out a Web site, while 22% had searched for more information, 15% had gone into a store and 12% had actually made a purchase.

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Des résultats discordants d'un moteur de recherche à l'autre

Ils se veulent concurrents, leurs résultats sont dans la plupart des cas complémentaires. L'étude menée par le métamoteur Dogpile montre les différences accrues entre les principaux moteurs de recherche.

L'étude menée par le métamoteur Dogpile avec les étudiants de l'université technologique du Queensland et l'université de l'Etat de Pennsylvanie a mis en exergue les différences de résultats entre quatre moteurs majeurs : Google, Yahoo, Windows Live et Ask. Au total, 19 332 requêtes ont été saisies sur chacun de ces moteurs.

Alors que les moteurs se placent en concurrence frontale, avec des fonctionnalités et une présentation quasi-conforme, les quatre acteurs affichent des différences flagrantes dans leurs résultats.

Avec des algorithmes différents, ces derniers n'indexent pas à la même vitesse, ne classent pas de la même manière et donc ne restituent pas la même chose. L'étude chiffre ces différences : 0,6% des résultats sont communs aux quatre moteurs de recherche.

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Search Fueling Retail Site Traffic

Search engines accounted for quarter of visits to US shopping and classifieds Web sites in May 2007, up 0.7% from May 2006, according to Hitwise data.    

Google accounted for 15.6% of the visits, an increase of 8.7% from May 2006.    

Nearly a quarter of search terms that sent traffic to shopping and classifieds Web sites in May 2007 were single words, including domain names and URLs. One-word searches were up 20% from May 2005.

MySpace accounted for 3.2% of upstream visits to shopping and classifieds Web sites in May 2007.

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