Google Celebrates 200th Brith Anniversary of Robert Bunsen

If you have observed the Google logo today it shows a very interesting image of chemistry lab instruments with bunsen burner.



The Google doodle is dedicated to a German chemist Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen (31 March 1811 – 16 August 1899) who investigated emission spectra of heated elements, and discovered caesium (in 1860) and rubidium (in 1861) with Gustav Kirchoff.

In order to perform a research area called spectrum analysis, Bunsen and his laboratory assistant, Peter Desaga, had perfected a special gas burner by 1855, influenced by earlier models. The newer design of Bunsen and Desaga, which provided a very hot and clean flame, is now called simply the "Bunsen Burner".

Its a very interesting fact that although he is popular for Bunsen burner he has not invented this instrument.

Education Sector Marketing Emails have High Open Rates In India

India's leading Email marketing software company Juvlon has released a report email marketing trends in India named as "Email Trends in India". The analysis is made on the basis of over 15 million business-to-consumer emails sent through Juvlon by large, medium and small enterprises within a period ranging from October 2010 to December 2010. The report measures various metrics and highlights prevailing trends in Indian online market arena.

The report reveals that Education sector stands at top with a 14.74% open-rate, whereas sectors like Retail has an email open rate of 12.93% and Finance performed lower with 11.92% opens. Email open rate is the percentage of emails opened as against those sent.

Industry Email Open Rate:














Education Industry Email Bounce,Open,Click Rate:














Retail Industry Email Bounce,Open,Click Rate:














Finance Industry Email Bounce,Open,Click Rate














Definitions
Bounce Rate = Total Bounced / Total List
Sent Emails = Total List – Total Bounced
Total Open Rate = Total Opens / Sent
Unique Open Rate = Unique Opens / Sent
Click to Open Rate = Total Clicks / Unique Opens

This report shows that the finance industry has delivered lower (nearly half) click-to-open rates compared to that of retail and education, although, the average open rate for finance is comparable to the others.

If we compare this report with the data released by Email Experience Council for North America for the same quarter, it’s pretty obvious that there is tremendous scope to improve Indian benchmarks in email marketing and a huge scope for growth.

HTC Incredible S – Android Based Smartphone Launched in India

Taiwanese mobile manufacturer HTC has launched an android based smartphone Incredible S for in Indian market. Featuring a large 4-inch Super LCD screen, HTC Incredible S runs on Android 2.2 Froyo platform and is upgradable to Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

Detailed Specifications:

Platform - Android with HTC Sense (Android OS, v2.2 (Froyo), upgradable to v2.4)

CPU Speed - 1 Ghz

Camera - 8 megapixel color camera with auto focus and dual LED flash - 720p HD video recording - 1.3 megapixel front camera

Battery type: Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery, capacity: 1450 mAh

WCDMA: Talktime - Up to 380 minutes, Standby Time - Up to 370 hours

GSM: Talktime - Up to 580 minutes, Standby time - Up to 290 hours

Internet

3G:Up to 14.4 Mbps download speed, Up to 5.76 Mbps upload speed

GPRS: Up to 114 kbps downloading

EDGE:Up to 560 kbps downloading

Wi-Fi: IEEE 802.11b/g/n

The phone comes with built-in DLNA technology which is used to share videos, pictures and music with other DLNA capable devices. HTC Incredible S is priced at Rs 28,900.

For more details you can visit official HTC website.

Real Time Conversation Targeted Ads - Forthcoming Ad Feature in Facebook

We know about Google Adsense which displays add relevant to the content around it and quite familiar with Facebook ads. Facebook is rolling out a new ad feature which will enable advertisers to show up there ad relevant to the content.

It is sort of similar to Google Adsense but with added feature - the ads will be targeted to real time conversations. These have to be afterall its social networking conglomerate.

Facebook started to mine real-time conversations to target ads. The delivery model is being tested by only 1% of Facebook users worldwide.

So with this feature the ads will be served immediately after a status is posted, getting the brand in front of the user much faster, hopefully during decision-making time.

For example if I posted my interest in computer games then I could be immediately added to the group of people who are interested in computer games. Then, ads for computer games could immediately appear in the sidebar, related to my current mindset.

This real-time test could make a huge difference in how Facebook ads perform, as well as how they are perceived by users.

Yahoo Search Direct introduced New Alphabets

Do you remember your kindergarten days when teacher makes you learn A for Apple, B for Boy :) ...Gone are those days now!

Recently Yahoo launched "Search Direct" which gives entirely different meaning to these alphabets. 21 out of 26 alphabets show only Yahoo products in suggestion.



Curious searchers had conducted the same test on Google Instant for single letter when it was launched and it had shown only Google pointed only to G for Gmail.

If Search Direct were to be based on search activity — “F” should probably lead to Facebook, which has been the number one search term for any letter for a couple years running.

We can conclude that there is long way ahead for Yahoo Search Direct in terms of improvement and showing better results.

Yahoo "Search Direct" Ready to Compete with Google Instant

Yahoo introduced "Search Direct" to compete with Google's search feature "Instant". Although it is sort of similar to instant but with richer content.
Yahoo CTO Blake Irving mentioned that Yahoo Search Direct is much faster with rich results in expanded query box.

Yahoo suggests that the Search Direct is answer to the question "Why can’t a search engine just give me the answer, not links?"

As opposed to results shown up in Google Instant, the Yahoo Search Direct results seem to be interactive.

Google Instant Result

Yahoo Search Direct Result

Although Yahoo Search Direct weather results results appear glossy and more attractive compared to Google Instant weather results, but does Yahoo pass various other acid tests successfully. You can check out Danny Sullivan's post Head-to-Head: Yahoo Search Direct Vs. Google Instant in which he has done a comparative analysis among both and in most of the tests Google Instant surpassed Yahoo Search Direct.

Google Analytics bid Farewell to Connection Speed

In its Visitors section, Google Analytics provides details of how visitors arrived to your website. The visitor section shows plethora of options like map overlay, browser capability, visitor trending etc.

In its recent blog post Google mentioned that they are no longer offering network connection speed details and they are planning to remove this very soon.

As per the update the connection speed report will not be available in the current version of GA, however we can still be able to access historical connection speed data prior to February 25th, 2011 through the current version of Google Analytics and the Google Analytics API.

It is also mentioned that although this will not be available in the dashboard but it can be used as dimension in the custom reports.

Google Started Guessing Release Dates for You

The magic search box of Google allow you do calculation, conversions and provides best search results although you misspell the word many times; still it never stop working on improving the same. Recently it has added a new feature to its search box in which it guesses the release date of any game or movie.


Search Engine Land has a recent update on this from Google:

A Google spokesperson tells us this feature is not limited to movies and video games (or any other type of query), but “we won’t show the feature unless we have enough high quality sites corroborating the answer.” It uses Google Squared technology.

New Lenovo Classmate PC Computer for Students

To help the students adapt to the advance technology and to help them in their studies Lenovo and Intel have come up with an all new Classmate+PC Netbook. They have signed up to sell child-friendly computers to government and schools.

Lenovo is now making its Lenovo Classmate+PC and will sell them for $300 to $400, depending on configuration. The laptops have educational software on them and they’re targeted at grades K-8. Lenovo has the ability to offer the laptops on a global basis in custom configurations as needed, said Michael Schmedlen, director of worldwide education at Lenovo.

Lenovo Classmate+PC Netbook Specs

--Rugged functionality and pack a carry handle
-Running on Windows 7 OS
-Pre-installed with Intel Learning Series software
-Powered by a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N455 processor
-1GB/2GB RAM, and choice of 8GB/16GB SSD or 160GB/250GB HDD
-10.1-inch LED-backlit TFT display
-Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n connectivity
-Three USB ports, and card reader
-1.3-megapixel camera, and stereo speakers
-D-Sub connector for an external monitor
-Dimensions: 267.6 x 237.22 x 29.9 – 34.7 mm and weighs from 1.33 kg to 1.54 kg (depending on battery and storage)

These Classmate PC computers will be sold to educational institutions and governments. The company has The company has already signed a deal to ship 158,000 units to students in Argentina this spring.

Facebook Acquires Snaptu to Dominate Social Networking on Phones

In a recent update on its blog, Snaptu revealed that they have agreed to be acquired by Social networking giant Facebook. However there was no official confirmation on the deal amount but if we rely on industry sources it is estimated $70 million. The deal is going to be closed in coming weeks

According to Snaptu’s blog, its goal is to provide useful services for consumers without Smartphone and as such, this acquisition will help it work with Facebook to make a bigger impact on this market.

Facebook also confirmed the news by stating “As part of our goal to offer people around the world the opportunity to connect and share on mobile devices, we’re excited to confirm that we recently signed an agreement to acquire Snaptu. We expect the acquisition to close in a few weeks, subject to customary closing conditions.”

By accessing devices in the midpoint between basic mobile phones and smartphones, it will allow Facebook to attract more mobile users to the service.

Background:

Snaptu, founded in 2007, is a free mobile application platform that runs on virtually every type of Internet-enabled mobile phones. It allows the user to access popular services, varying from social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Picasa to entertainment news, blogs, sports and local guides.

Nokia X2-01 Qwerty - New Features Packed Phone at Affordable Price

Nokia has everything for everyone in its kitty. As part of strategy to capture large market segment with its high features packed mobiles on low cost, Nokia has launched X2-01 qwerty phone. With its combination of features and form factor versus price, the Nokia X2-01 has a market segment of its own. The is mobile is targeted towards facebook, messaging and music lovers.

Features:

Nokia X2-01 is equipped with a full QWERTY keypad, new Communities app which integrates Facebook, healthy emphasis on music, one click access to music, the media player, FM radio and the Ovi Music service, for unlimited access to a vast library of tunes, Ovi Store, Ovi Life Tools, 2.4-inch QVGA screen and a VGA camera on the back etc.

Nokia X2-01 supports up to 8GB external memory with microSD but no Wi-Fi available in X2-01.

• Size : 119.4 x 59.8 x 14.3mm and weighs 107.5
• External microSD supports up to 8GB, 55MB internal memory
• Full QWERTY keymat, 1 click access to email and chat
• Easy Ovi Mail and Ovi Chat account creation
• 1 click access to social networking from home screen
• Quick navigation to social networking friend’s posts
• single click access to music and Ovi Music
• VGA camera, 3.5 AV connector and hands free speaker
• GSM/EGSM 850/900/1800/1900
• 2.4” QVGA (320×240), up to 262k colors
• 20 Days standby time and 4.5 hours talk time
• Nokia BL-5C 1020 mAh battery
• GPRS/EDGE, EGPRS, Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR

Nokia X2-01 Price in India: Rs 4,459/- which differs from store to store.

Opera Announces Opera Mini 6 and Opera Mobile 11 Browsers

A good news for smart phone users from Opera! Opera has announced the latest versions of its mobile browsers Opera Mini 6 and Opera Mobile 11.

The Opera Mini 6 browser works on devices using the Android, Blackberry. Symbian/Series 60 and J2ME operating systems whereas the Opera Mobile 11 works on Android, Symbian, Windows 7 and Meego.

Although Opera's web browser hasn't been doing well on desktop and laptop PCs, due to strong competition from Microsoft, Google and Mozilla however, Opera is eying on around 100 million mobile users with its mobile browsers offerings which are doing pretty well.