Digital Trends that Matter!

Byron Smith for The New York Times Some people are so rude. Really, who sends an e-mail or text message that just says "Thank you"? Who leaves a voice mail message when you don't answer, rather than texting you? Who asks for a fact easily found on Google?

Can Ann Arbor become the next big thing in high tech? Story by Julie Halpert Photos by benjamin Weatherston Grace Hsia, a 23-year-old graduate student at the University of Michigan, thinks she has the next big business idea and she spends most of her waking hours making sure it succeeds.

How do you figure out that $1,000 you spent on Facebook was worth it? It's complicated. How could it be otherwise? Marketers have been spoiled by search advertising with its last-click attribution, but the reality is most advertising doesn't work that way. Think of a billboard, for instance.

As a designer you may have used Google Chrome for some time already, but are you using the browser to its full advantage? Chrome features a robust extension system that deserves to be explored and tested. It's one reason Chrome can now claim to be the world's most popular browser.

Majority of brands engage in influencer marketing Top brands spend a limited amount of time reaching out to influencers for marketing purposes, but these individuals-generally bloggers or social media users with a greater than average reach among consumers-still have a significant presence in the marketplace.

TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is where the world's leading thinkers and doers gather to share ideas worth spreading. TED.com shares those ideas with the world, for free, in videos that have been called "the best thing on the web, ever."

Find out how Chinese in different parts of Asia spend Chinese New Year

Digital Video Rising Stars Ad Units The IAB Digital Video Rising Stars are a key addition to the larger IAB Rising Stars initiative, which seeks to create new canvasses for brand advertising on digital platforms, including display and mobile ads.

To appreciate how broken most contemporary models of advertising and promotion have become, listen to Jeff Bezos complain about how Amazon's core values are misunderstood. "One of the early examples...was customer reviews," he recalls. "One [critic] wrote to me and said, 'You don't understand your business. You make money when you sell things.

Ask anyone in consumer goods why their industry is not more committed to sustainability and you'll hear the same thing: because the marketplace doesn't reward us for being so. Sadly, most "socially responsible" goods cost more to produce than alternatives that leave the world worse off, and those costs translate into higher prices.

Part of the explanation for our digital distractedness is the wealth - overabundance?! - of content choices online. But the more significant explanation, I think, is that digital content is inevitably archived and easily searchable. We graze and skim through content now because we know we can go back later, when we will have more time to actually pay attention.

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a global leader in digital measurement and analytics, today released the 2013 Mobile Future in Focus report. This annual report examines the U.S. mobile and connected device landscape in 2012, highlighting trends that have impacted mobile media consumption and shifted market dynamics across mobile networks, platforms, and OEMs. The report also highlights key mobile trends from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Canada, and Japan.

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a global leader in digital measurement and analytics, today released the 2013 Mobile Future in Focus report. This annual report examines the U.S. mobile and connected device landscape in 2012, highlighting trends that have impacted mobile media consumption and shifted market dynamics across mobile networks, platforms, and OEMs. The report also highlights key mobile trends from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Canada, and Japan.

Use a loyalty card for discounts at the drug store? The ads you see on Facebook could start looking familiar. Facebook is testing out a new kind of ad targeting that will let retailers market to users based on what they've bought in stores, according to execs briefed on their plans.

A Comprehensive Picture of Digital Video and TV Advertising Viewing, Budget Share Shift, and Effectiveness The study benchmarked how real TV schedules across key advertiser verticals perform as money moved to digital. To accomplish this, the research examined 18 real TV schedules across advertiser verticals.

USA Network's public-service campaign "Characters Unite" is aimed at putting an end to hate and discrimination. Earlier this month, the network launched a national bus tour called "I Won't Stand For."

Credit: Reuters/Regis Duvignau An illustration picture shows the logo of the Website Twitter on an Ipad, in Bordeaux, Southwestern France, January 30, 2013. The ads application programming interface, or API, would allow advertisers to connect their existing ad management software to their Twitter account to automate ads on the micro-messaging platform.

Pinterest, the popular social scrapbooking site, has completed a massive $200 million funding, which values the company at $2.5 billion, according to sources close to the situation. There have been reports that the funding was coming, but now it is done, in a round led by Valiant Capital Management.

2012 was exciting year for us, here at Socialbakers, as we conducted several studies that revealed interesting social media trends. In or...