Some estimated 4.000 web addicts are attending Google’s I/O conference taking place today and tomorrow in San Francisco. Besides re-emphasizing its commitment towards HTML 5, which we will cover in more depth in an article coming up this weekend, Google announced the immediate availability of Google Web Elements.

This is how Google Web Elements typically will look like:

(Note: We’ve included a screen capture here, so you cannot interact with the “widget”.)

These new Google widgets are supposed to make embedding features provided by popular Google products more simple. The Google I/O site currently has a Calendar, a Conversation widget, one for including a Custom Search, the obligatory Maps widget, one for embedding News, Presentations, Spreadsheets and YouTube News.

Almost all of these products were available for embedded use before. Google just did not do a good job in guiding users how to use them. Having all of the widgets in one place and making customization easier might help to increase the reach.

We do not agree with TechCrunch which is predicting Google Web Elements to “spread across the web like wildfire” for two primary reasons:

First: Google Web Elements still don’t come with clean CSS. This limits a web master’s ability to adjust the look and feel of the widget to the overall site theme. And often you simply don’t want that your site looks too much like Google.

Second: The extremely popular WordPress blogging engine still has difficulties when it comes to embedding content contained within iframes. However, all Google Web Elements come in form of iframed HTML code. What should have been a simple copy and paste action becomes much more cumbersome. I’m not sure how the folks at Google could have missed this one.

Did you stumble across a cool use of Google Web Elements anywhere? Let us know!

Today, Facebook officially confirmed the offer of $200 million from Digital Sky Technologies and their acceptance. The deal will see Facebook give up  1.96 percent of the company, valuing the social network at $10 billion. The company also has plans to purchase an additional $100 million in common stock, a move that will help help Facebook employees cash out some of their current shares.

As yet there is no confirmation as to whether DST have also gained a board seat as part of the deal.

Below is the press release:

According to a survey conducted by data security company Credant, 25% of all Brits use laptop or mobiles in bed.

57 per cent of bed workers work in there for “between 2 and 6 hours every week,” and it should come as no surprise that “their bed companions found their partners’ obsession with their mobiles ‘a very annoying habit’.”

“A staggering 8% of people admitted that they spend more time on their mobile devices during the evening than talking to their partners!”

The survey was based on the responses of just 300 city workers however, so the results are likely to a little skewed.

What are your nightly or morning rituals? Do you pull out your iPhone, mobile or laptop minutes before or after sleep?

image courtesy of LapDawg.

If your carrier offered to take a hefty chunk off the cost of a mobile handset but you let them put advertisements on the home screen, would you take the deal? Nokia thinks you might.

Our source deep within Nokia’s headquarters has just leaked us a bunch of information about the company’s future operating system release, Maemo “Harmattan”. It’s jam-packed full of unexpected twists, including their new-found love for home screen ads.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Online display ads have gotten a bad rap lately. It’s a format, according to many sources, with declining investment and waning effectiveness.

But a study from iProspect may have discovered an unexpected benefit of online display ads.

When Internet users were surveyed to find out what actions they took when viewing a display ad on an ad-supported Website, nearly one-third said they clicked on the ad.

In addition, 27% reported that they did an online search for the product, brand or company, and 21% typed the company Web address in their browser. Nine percent sought additional information using social media tools.

That means a click is only one measure of a display ad’s effectiveness.

Among respondents who saw a display ad and performed a related search at some point, the largest proportion (38%) visited the advertiser’s site through search results, 11% searched but did not click on any of the results, and 14% searched, visited the site and purchased the product advertised.

How likely ad responders were to purchase a product depended on how well-acquainted they were with the offering or company.

One-third of those who knew the product eventually purchased, compared with 14% of “first timers” who learned about the offering or the company and eventually bought something.

“Online display advertising is far from dead,” said Robert Murray of iProspect.

“In essence, search is an alternative mechanism for Internet users to respond to online display,” he added. “If marketers are going to invest in display then they should leverage search marketing to help them capture the demand that display advertising creates.”