Digital Marketing Blog

Massive increase in phishing attacks, claims FSA

The Financial Services Authority has expressed its concern about the rise in phishing scams to a Lords Parliamentary sub-committee, claiming that such incidences are on the rise.

A spokesman from FSA’s Crime Team told the Lords that such attacks have risen by a staggering 8,000% over the past two years.

Of course this statistic merely reflects a rise in 'reported' incidents, which does necessarily paint a precise picture of what's going on.

by Graham Charlton 15 December 2006 16:41pm 0 comments

Online consumers reluctant to shop around

Despite the number of e-commerce websites on offer, the UK's internet users seem to be playing it safe and doing the majority of their shopping at the more established ones.

According to Royal Mail research, despite the fact that there are more than 26,000 retail websites, 72% of online shoppers are buying from less than ten online retailers each year, with the average customer using just eight different e-commerce websites.

by Graham Charlton 15 December 2006 16:38pm 0 comments

StumbleUpon launches video service

StumbleUpon yesterday announced the launch of a new video service that will offer viewers a selection of videos from YouTube, Google Video and MySpace, based on their personal preferences.

StumbleUpon has until now been known for a browsing application which helps Web users discover sites based on the ratings of users with similar tastes. It is now applying the same idea to video. And it's pretty cool.

by Graham Charlton 15 December 2006 16:37pm 0 comments

Fashion network Glam raises $18.5 million

Glam, an online fashion and lifestyle publisher, has announced that it has raised $18.5 million in venture funding, which it plans to use for mergers and acquisitions.

Glam Media, which claims to have had 8 million unique users in November, has also announced a deal with Hearst magazines to add content from Marie Claire to Glam’s sites.

by Graham Charlton 15 December 2006 16:36pm 2 comments

Reevoo secures first round funding

Reevoo, the UK-based online customer review aggregator, has secured £2.5m in a Series-A funding round led by Eden Ventures .

The investment will see the firm expanding its Reevoomark service, which provides independent product reviews from confirmed purchasers to consumer tech sites such as Comet, Dixons, Currys, Jessops, Orange and Misco.

by Richard Maven 15 December 2006 08:55am 0 comments

Bright future for ad networks, says new E-consultancy report

There have been plenty of forecasts about the rosy future of online advertising recently, not least figures released by ZenithOptimedia last week which say the internet will account for 20% of UK advertising revenue within three years.

What isn't clear from this and other forecasts is the increasingly prominent role that Online Advertising Networks will play in this fast evolving landscape.

by Linus Gregoriadis 14 December 2006 16:47pm 0 comments

Myspace gains highlight reporting problems

This week’s news that Myspace has overtaken Yahoo! in terms of page views seems to have kicked off a much-needed debate about how sites' popularity is measured.

Research, released by comScore on Tuesday, found the social networking site had 0.6bn more page views than Yahoo! in November – a boost to Fox Interactive Media in its battle with the web giant for ad dollars.

by Richard Maven 14 December 2006 15:34pm 1 comment

Gartner predicts that blogging will peak next year

Gartner yesterday released its ten key predictions for business and IT in 2007 and beyond. These included forecasts that PC prices will halve by 2010, and that Vista will be the last major Windows release.

Another prediction caught the eye though - that the blogging phenomenon will peak next year and level out thereafter.

by Graham Charlton 14 December 2006 12:50pm 4 comments

New York Times allows user comments - on third party sites

The New York Times announced on Monday that it will allow its stories to be commented upon, yet it stops short of embracing user-generated content by allowing comments only through third party sites (Digg, Facebook and Newsvine).

It is the first time the newspaper's online site has added a news-sharing tool, which will allow users to discuss its stories on social news sites, though in truth users can do this anyway...

Nevertheless, the paper has embedded links to all three sites onto many of its online stories.

by Graham Charlton 14 December 2006 12:15pm 1 comment

Are PR firms paying Digg users?

Calacanis-flavoured rumours doing the rounds in the blogosphere suggest that some of Digg's top posters have been paid, or offered payment, by PR firms.

He may have resigned from his position at Netscape, but Jason Calacanis is still keeping an eye on events surrounding Digg. He reports in his blog that a number of Digg's top 50 users are on the payroll of a leading (unnamed, of course) PR firm.

by Graham Charlton 14 December 2006 11:44am 0 comments