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A Brazilian based start-up called Power.com has launched its portal in the United States and allows social network users to connect to multiple profiles without having to navigate from site to site.


Users can join by registering their social profiles at Power.com. Their Power start page displays all of their friends, messages, and content from all their social networks in one place.


Once users log on to Power.com, they are automatically logged on to all the social networks they are members of. Power.com currently supports users on Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, MSN Messenger, Orkut, and YouTube.


In the future Power says it will support LinkedIN, Twitter, Flickr, Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, Skype and other email accounts.


The company says it currently has about 5 million users. It had a stealth launch in Latin America and India in the past year. It says users arrived organically after seeing their friends using Power.com.


“Today many people have multiple social network, email and IM accounts,” said Steve Vachani, CEO of Power.com. “Power synchronizes their friends, messages, photos, updates, and everything they care about. We’re taking down the boundaries between social sites, so users can keep in touch, and even synchronize friends and photos automatically. We call this Social Inter-networking.”


Power says it was able to attract 5 million registered users because of messaging. According to the company,” The historic analogy is Hotmail, which grew to be the world’s largest Internet service with over 500 million users by promoting itself at the bottom of each email its users sent.


“Power users are sending millions of inter-networked messages every day, across all social networks, email, and instant messengers. Like Hotmail, each Power Messenger message promotes Power.com.”

Google has launched a Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide that goes beyond its Webmaster Help Group.


Google says its new starter guide cover about a dozen areas that webmasters might want to consider optimizing.


The Webmaster Central Blog provides more details. “We felt that these areas (like improving title and description meta tags, URL structure, site navigation, content creation, anchor text, and more) would apply to webmasters of all experience levels and sites of all sizes and types.”


“Throughout the guide, we also worked in many illustrations, pitfalls to avoid, and links to other resources that help expand our explanation of the topics. We plan on updating the guide at regular intervals with new optimization suggestions and to keep the technical advice current.”


Google has also launched a Search-based Keyword Tool that allows you to view what keywords you may be failing to optimize for.


The Inside Adwords Blog explains. “Here’s the scoop: you know that the Google search engine starts with searches conducted by users and helps them find relevant pages. But for keyword targeting, what you want is a tool that goes in the opposite direction by starting with your pages and identifying keywords that potential customers are searching on to find your products or services.”


“The Search-based Keyword Tool does exactly this, leveraging search query data relevant to your website’s content. In other words, this new tool gives you keywords that are highly relevant to your site but are not part of your AdWords campaigns. This helps you take advantage of missed opportunities.”

Most marketers are still in the early phases of adopting and measuring social media, according to a survey by the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG).


The survey found that 67 percent of respondents consider themselves beginners at using social media for marketing purposes. Additionally, more than 87 percent said they are not regularly measuring the return on investment (ROI) of their social media marketing efforts.


“Our members are excited about the potential of social media, but most have not yet fully integrated social media practices into their traditional marketing efforts,” says Richard Guha, Chairman of MENG.


“While many marketers are worried they’re missing the boat, in reality even the Fortune 500 companies don’t feel they’ve mastered social media just yet.”


The majority (75%) of marketers define social media as media that is based on conversations among users. More than 67 percent said they will increase their social media advertising budget in 2009, almost 80 percent said social media is not a fully integrated part of their marketing programs.


“Many marketers are unsure where to start with social media,” said MENG member Dwight Griesman, Chief Marketing Officer at Forrester Research. “It’s important to make the decision on what to do based on your target audience and your strategy, not the technology

More major financial service companies are embracing social media according to a new report from market research firm, Corporate Insight.


The report found that 15 percent of the firms have added significant social media features to their online platforms in 2008, and 70 percent have developed online communities.


“Two years ago, very few financial services companies offered social media features,” said James McGovern, Vice President of Consulting Services at Corporate Insight.


“That was before social media really exploded in popularity. Now, sites like Facebook and YouTube are some of the most recognized destinations on the Web. Financial institutions are beginning to understand that customers want the ability to share knowledge with fellow customers, especially given the challenges posed by today’s investing landscape.”


Overall, the report found that online communities are rapidly growing in popularity but companies are using them for a variety of reasons, from collection customer feedback (Schwab) to marketing themselves to clients and customers (American Express).


In addition, many brokerage firms have turned to social media, using online communities to engage clients and provide a platform for investors to communicate with each other.


Six of the 20 brokerage firms studied have YouTube channels. OptionsXpress, Scottrade, Vanguard, Wells Fargo and Zecco all feature investing ideas and tools on their website.


Eight of the 20 banking and credit card firms tracked have YouTube channels. Bank of America and Citizens Bank feature content from their viral marketing campaigns and American Express focuses its channel on philanthropy.


American Express, Bank of America and Capital One have also developed their own online communities geared towards small business owners. Visa has launched its own Facebook application targeting small business owners.


“We’re at the beginning of a major new development that will have a significant impact on the way firms serve Generations X, Y and beyond,” said McGovern.

The Internet and cell phones have become a central part of modern family life. Among all household types, the traditional nuclear family has the highest rate of technology usage and ownership according to a new survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.


The majority (89%) of married-with children households own multiple cell phones, and close to half own three or more mobile devices.


Over half (66%) of married-with-children households have a high-speed broadband Internet connection at home, well above the national average for all households of 52 percent.


Both spouses and at least one child go online in 65 percent of married-with-children households. Fifty-eight percent of married-with-children households have tow or more desktop or laptop computers.


The survey indicates that these high rates of technology ownership affect family life. Specifically, cell phones allow family members to stay in touch regularly when they are not physically together. Also many members of married-with- children households view content online together.


“Some analysts have worried that new technologies hurt family togetherness, but we see that technology allows for new kinds of connectedness built around cell phones and the internet,” noted Tracy Kennedy, author of the new report about the survey called “Networked Families.”


“Family members touch base with each other frequently with their cell phones, and they use those phones to coordinate family life on the fly during their busy lives.”


Less than half (42%) of parents contact their child/children on a daily basis using a cell phone, making cell phones the most popular communications tool between parents and children.


Kennedy added: “A lot of families treat the internet as a place for shared experiences. They don’t just withdraw from the family to their own computer for private screen time. They often say, ‘Hey – look at this!’ to others in the household.”


Over half (52%) of Internet users who live with a spouse and one or more children go online with another person at least a few times a week. Another 34 percent of such families have shared screen moments at least occasionally.

Google accounted for 71.16 percent of all U.S. searches in the four weeks ending September 27, 2008, according to Hitwise.


Google increased its percentage of the search market 7.61 percent over its September percentage of 63.55 percent and was up slightly over August 2008 by 0.15 percent.


Yahoo! Search, MSN Search and Ask.com each received 18.06 percent, 5.63 percent and 3.63 percent respectively.


The remaining 45 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis Tool accounted for 1.80 percent of U.S. searches.


Search engines continue to be the primary way Internet users navigate to key industry categories. Comparing September 2008 with September 2007, business and finance, sports, online video and social networking categories showed double-digit increases in their share of traffic coming directly from search engines.