The capability of social media vehicle in online advertising cant be determined by its reach. It’s in reality the propensity of the intended users to consume, retain and respond to ads that matters. Google search is the biggest medium used by advertiser’s to communicate with users. It is believed that user’s purchase preferences and content are correlated. The inability to create subsets by user interest within a given property restricts the relevance of content association to the property as a whole. Social media websites like Facebook allow users to talk about their interests, making each user relevant to diverse advertisers. With its reaches worldwide and its monetization capability, sites like Facebook can help expand online advertising revenues.

Advertisers use Facebook to reach out to the buyers who want to buy diapers, as also to those who are not really focused on one thing alone. Facebook as such has emerged as either the biggest or the only component of the social media budget and is quite often seen as an independent component of online advertising plans. As advertisers get caught up in alphabet soup of CPC (Cost Per Click), CPL (Cost Per Lead), ROI (Returns On Investment), CTR (Click Through Rate), online marketing offers correct convergence of text, relevant banners, videos, interactive games to build consumer loyalty and awareness like no one else. Online marketing is however often incorrectly used and under-funded to effective marketing channel. As such it important to leverage this channel to cash in on its Returns On Investment. However for doing that a few things need to be covered by online marketers, these include learning about social media, develop strategy about using social media, use social media the correct and honest way, educate the target audience, develop creative strategies and back them up with careful planning and analytics to lure potential customers, explore options to make sure that if one option doesn’t work the other should,  increase budget to improve ROI, develop fresh and updated content for the ads on regular basis, develop case studies, leverage various online marketing techniques to ensure extra revenues.

India and Indian internet surfers are the second most popular spam originators worldwide, with 10.98% spams being sent globally from Indian IP addresses. PandaLabs, the malware analysis and detection laboratory of Panda Security said in a study. According to PandaLabs apart from India, countries like Brazil, Vietnam, Korea and US together make up the top 5 list of countries from which most spam were sent to other parts of the world during the first 2 months of 2010.

PandaLabs, which analyzed and picked close to 5 million emails as spams also came to a conclusion that these spam messages were originating from nearly 1 million different IP addresses, meaning that on average, each address was responsible for 5 spam messages.  Also according to PandaLabs, internet surfers based in major cities were the biggest spammers. According to PandaLabs, Seoul topped the list, followed by Hanoi, New Delhi, Bogota, Sao Paulo and Bangkok. According to PandaLabs, the spam messages generated are used primarily to distribute malware or sell illicit products, such as videos or photos of Brazilian girls.

Google Inc closed its China-based search service and began redirecting web searchers to an uncensored portal in Hong Kong on Tuesday. Though part of China, Hong Kong with its semiautonomous status due to its past history as a British colony, and Google is not legally required to censor results there. The company said it intends to continue research and development in China, as well as maintain a sales staff there, even after closing Google.cn and rerouting traffic to the unfiltered search site in Hong Kong. China reacted to the move by saying Google was “totally wrong” and had “violated the written promise it made on entering the Chinese market”. The Chinese government on its part denied involvement in Internet hacker attacks said to have generated from China and defended its online. The USA had urged Beijing to investigate complaints of cyberintrusions, after Google complained its site was hacked from China, especially endangering the emails of human rights activists in Tibet and Xinxiang.

The standoff that began on January 12 culminated with “Welcome to Google Search in China’s new home.” displays to search results in the simplified Chinese characters that are used in mainland China. However, the results can’t all be accessed inside China, because government filters restrict the links that can be clicked by mainland audiences. The Chinese-language version of Google search in the US as well as the mapping and music services on Google.cn have been untouched. The Chinese government has reacted by threatening to block access to Google’s other services, such as YouTube, which is owned by Google and social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter. The tensions with China have prompted Google to delay plans to sell some new wireless phones running on its mobile software. David Drummond, Google’s top lawyer said “Figuring out how to make good on our promise to stop censoring search on Google.cn has been hard. We want as many people in the world as possible to have access to our services, including users in mainland China, yet the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a nonnegotiable legal requirement.”

Before 2006 Chinese users could search through Google sites such as Google.com, although filters inside China kept people there from clicking through to links generated by queries such as “Tiananmen Square massacre”, “Dalai Lama”, “Uighur”. But when Google tried to better reach Web users in China by setting up Google.cn, it meant complying with rules requiring the omission of search results the government deemed subversive or pornographic. But this compliance sparked criticism by Google supporters, including some of its own employees, who believed the company was violating its “Don’t Be Evil” motto. The worlds largest internet search company vowed to shake loose from government-imposed restraints on the Internet; after it determined that Google and more than 20 other US companies were targeted in computer hacking attacks originating from China. Although Google never made a direct accusation the Chinese government role was

Google had earlier hoped to persuade China to let it run a search engine that could deliver unrestricted results; failing that wanted a common ground to maintain its research center and sales team in the country. Google which earned US$250 million to US$600 million from China said its decision to re-route traffic to an uncensored Hong Kong site for users in mainland China is ‘entirely legal’; but China issued a blistering public attack on Google through a high-profile Communist Party newspaper. It seems by challenging Chinese government, Google appears to have violated an unspoken rule of doing business in China, especially in the Internet industry where Beijing feels its crucial to maintaining its authoritarian rule. This has resulted in realignments of business. Tianya.cn, a popular portal with 32 million registered users, said it was taking full control over social networking and question-and-answer services operated jointly with Google. China Unicom Ltd., one of China’s biggest mobile phone companies, hinted that it would shelve plans to offer two cell phones made by Motorola and Samsung with Google’s Android program. Publicly, Google’s continuing to work with its Chinese business partners by providing them with censored search services in an effort to abide by already existing contracts.

The U.S. State Department meanwhile has said it was not involved in Google’s decision over its search engine, and championed for internet freedom. This has added to Beijing’s concerns about collusion and aggravated recently tense U.S.-China relations. With growing pessimism in the US and European business community that Beijing was closing off access to the domestic market, Google is likely to face a tough road ahead to rehabilitation in the China market.

One of world’s leading social-networking website Facebook has passed Google to become the most visited website in the US. According to industry tracker Hitwise, Facebook started by Mark Zukerberg in 2004 finished the week ending March 13 as the most visited site in US. Heather Dougherty, Director-research (Hitwise) said it’s a important milestone with Facebook enjoyed a 185% increase in visits in the same period, over Googles’ 9% increase in the same time. However it does not include Google websites such as social-networking website Orkut started by Orkut Büyükkökten in 2004, or the popular Gmail email service, YouTube and Google Maps.

Together, both Facebook.com and Google.com accounted for 14% of the US Internet visits last week. However David Drummond, SVP-Google said “We are at a critical point in the future of the internet. All of us have a choice. We can allow repressive policies to take flight and spread across the globe, or we can work together against such challenges and uphold the fundamental human right to free expression.” It may be known that Google has added the social-networking feature Buzz to its Gmail service as well as new message inbox that echoes Gmail’s format, to reposition itself from challenges faced from Facebook.com and micro-blogging site Twitter.com.

According to online tracking firm, comScore; Facebook boasts some 400 million users while Gmail had 176 million unique visitors in December, 2009. Google, meanwhile has taken measures to limit online free expression, in 40 countries. It may be known that Google and YouTube services are or have been blocked completely in 25 countries.

Google India under an initiative with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is set to provide Google Maps users information on Delhi Metro train schedules and routes. The information to be regularly updated will be made available through Google Transit, a dedicated service that allows users to plan a trip using public transportation system and can give information on train timings, station locations, frequency of service, time taken for travel and ticket fares.

E Sreedharan, Managing Director-Delhi Metro Rail Corporation said “In line with Delhi Metro’s vision for a people-centric public transport system, we have launched several initiatives that will help commuters better manage their travel time, transfers, and make more informed transport decisions. The collaboration with Google is another step in this direction to make it even more easier for the public to plan their trips with transit information on Google Maps”.

Manik Gupta, product manager of Google Maps and Local, Google India said “Google Transit’s goal is to make public transport information easily accessible and useful. With just a click on a station, metro commuters can get information about timings, stations, passing lines, frequency of service etc. As Delhi Metro becomes the favored public transportation for thousands of commuters every day, this service will help attract new commuters and help existing commuters to discover new routes.”