Microsoft is officially announcing the launch of Bing, its new search engine brand.  The site is set to go live on June 3rd and was built as a “decisive engine” which saves users from sifting through thousands of links.

Microsoft believes that Bing will be very competitive with Google because of it’s immediate narrowing down of search results.  Bing promises to automatically group search results into various categories, depending on the type of searches that users are conducting.  Bing’s layout is simple, a white search box at the top of the page, but results will then be broken into different topics, like shopping, travel and health.

The site does have some similarities to Google.  It will provide users with suggested search results and allow for simple task-oriented searches, i.e. traffic, flight status, etc.

Microsoft is planning on spending approximately $100 million on marketing Bing.  The question is, are people that dissatisfied with Google’s lists of irrelevant results, that they would consider a change in search engine?  What do you think, will you try Bing out?

For more information on Bing and its upcoming launch, go to: http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3i6ec2932c7d29e992789f992db693a53f

A new study by Sway Research and Mast Hill Consulting called Capturing the Hearts and Wallets of Peak Accumulators, they found that individuals between the ages of 28 and 53 are “tired of being ignored” by wealth managers.  The two demographics, 28-42 and 43-52, represent more than 50 million households and are worth an estimated $5 trillion in investable assets.

The study aims to show advisers that the Generation X-ers are completely different from the older boomers.  They consult and average of 7.5 different information sources before making financial decisions.  It was also found that they like to date before making the big, marriage commitment.

These demographics also don’t want to give wealth managers all of their money up front.  But the good thing about them is they aren’t going to take up an investors time, they don’t want to meet face-to-face, they would rather utilize technology to get the information they need.

The bottom line for wealth advisers: “Wealth managers who successfully court this demographic should be able to compensate for lower per-client assets if they leverage technology to serve more clients.”

There are lessons that advertisers and marketers can learn from this article as well.  Generation X and young boomers have money to spend (and invest).  It is the marketers job to show them why your product, business, etc is worth their money.  Knowing their net worth and feelings toward technology, advertisers can get a leg up on their competition if they spin their ads in the right way.

For the full article, go to: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090527-708067.html

It definitely took me a while to warm up to shopping online.  I wanted to make sure that all of my information was secure and that when I typed in my credit card number, it was actually going to a store and not a scam.  Knowing how long it took me to feel comfortable on my computer, I don’t know if I am ever going to have the same trust in shopping via a cellphone.

According to a Harris Interactive study, Americans, specifically young adults and men, are warming up to the idea of making purchases via their cellphones.  A few of the findings are listed below:

• Out of the 2,029 adults that were surveyed, 45% think that shopping on your cellphone is somewhat safe
• 46% said they would be willing to shop using their cellphones even in safety was not an issue
• 50% of men find the concept of cellphone shopping safe, while only 39% of women agree
• Most of the respondents said they would be most interested in purchasing movie tickets, music, mobile video and games via their phones

Personally, I think I will stick to shopping in-store and online for the time being.  What are your thoughts? Do you think that cellphone shopping is safe?  Would you do it?

For more, go to: http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/direct/e3i4fb04ccd3a536c41aeeae812b1d91978

Huntington Beach Restaurant Week starts today and runs through June 2.

There are 22 eateries taking part, some of them high-end (Shades at the Hilton Waterfront) and some of them as budget-friendly as it gets (Lucci’s Deli at the intersection of Magnolia and Adams).

Click here for more information: http://www.hbrestaurantweek.com/restaurants/

Just because you may have a small, or smaller advertising budget than some of the big companies, it does not mean that your dollars can’t work for you.  The key to success when working with a smaller budget is ingenuity.  For example, The Taco Maker, a Puerto Rico-based fast-food chain that has 80 stores in the US, had approximately $50,000 to spend on advertising, so they tried the direct mail route.  Unfortunately, they weren’t seeing the response rate they had hoped for so they turned to their advertising agency who came up with an idea that gave The Taco Maker a 21% same-store sales increases in central Florida.

The agency’s idea was to launch a radio and mobile marketing promotion offering free burritos, which would be promoted with the chain’s new character, Juan Maker.  The radio appearances were recorded and then made into a series of ten 60-second spots that ran in central Florida for six weeks and offered a free one-pound Maker burrito to consumers who sent in a text as instructed by the commercial.

The results: The Taco Maker received nearly 5,000 texts and gave away nearly 2,500 burritos, a response rate of about 50%.  The Juan Maker character was so effective that people were actually calling into the radio station to speak with him directly.  The agency was also able to track consumer response by station, time of day and even DJ, which allowed the company to focus its ad dollars where they were doing the most good in real time.

The moral of the story…not everyone has a nine figure advertising budget.  But if your in-house or agency team can get creative with the budget you have, you may turn that small budget into amazing sales.

For more on this story, go to: http://adage.com/article?article_id=136796

A few months ago, we raved about the amazing technology that Skype provides users for free.  On this Memorial Day, I can not think of a better thing to discuss than video chatting.  Whether you have family, friends or neighbors that have or are currently serving our country we would like to give thanks…and we would like to give you the free technology tips that will allow you to communicate with your loved ones overseas more easily.

Voice-over-IP services are amazing (there is Vonage for your home line and Skype for your computer or even home and cell lines).  The new product that is invading the VoIP  marketplace called ooVoo 2.0.  The free version of ooVoo supports voice and video calls with other ooVoo users, and lets you have two or three people on a call at once, something I have not been able to figure out with Skype.  You can also record video messages, set up a video chat room and even share files.

All reviews have raved about this program.  Video streams are smooth with little distortion, audio quality is generally solid and the only complaint is that there tends to be a bit of echo.

For more about this product, go to: http://www.oovoo.com/

Thank you again to our service members!  Happy Memorial Day!

Here are seven ways to make social networking less complicated and less time consuming.

Digsby is great for aggregating your entire social life, wrapping social networking, IM, and email into one tight little package.  This download integrates AIM, Facebook, Gmail, Twitter and more. www.digsby.com

Google Latitude acts like a LoJack for your location.  You install this application to your phone or browser and family and friends can find your location at any time via a Google map. find.pcworld.com/62668

NutshellMail consolidates messages from networks like Facebook, Twitter and secondary email accounts into one place. www.nutshellmail.com

Ping.fm is all about managing your status.  When you use this service with your Facebook and Twitter accounts one single update will automatically post a status update on the other network for you.  This program can support up to 30 social networking sites.  Talk about saving time! www.ping.fm

Pipl is a people search engine that scours the web to find every last fingerprint that the person your seeking has ever left behind online, including photo, address, and blog posts.  What a great way to check-in on long lost friends, or those exes you have always wondered about. www.pipl.com

Spokeo searches the farthest corners of 41 social networking sites to uncover the deep, dark secrets of your friends and loved ones. www.spokeo.com

TweetDeck is a no-cost download that puts Twitter on steroids, letting you easily track particular search terms, group your friends, shrink unwieldy URLs and more, all from one window! www.tweetdeck.com

Hopefully one or more of these programs will work for you!  Let us know which one(s) you like best!

Men are from Facebook; Women are from Twitter?  Well, not exactly, but according to a recent eMarketer study, gender, more so than race, ethnicity or economic status, determines how and what we look at online.  More women admitted to using the Internet than men, but once men were online they tended to spend more time there than women.

Understanding the gender roles online is a must for advertisers.  Especially because eMarketer also reported (separately) that U.S. marketers will spend 37.2 billion dollars on online advertising by the year 2013.  If marketers know their target audience, and they understand how to reach them online, this marketing spend won’t seem so outrageous.

“Smart companies use behavioral targeting to try to reach their desired target demo online, but even then, they can’t tell who exactly is behind the IP addresses they are following,” says Lisa Phillips, an eMarketer senior analyst and author of the report “Men Online.”

This article also cautions marketers to stay away from generalizations and stereotypes from the consumer world outside the web because a good portion of the time, these stereotypes don’t apply to online behaviors.

Go to: http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/20/technology/kattan_gender.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2009052011 to read more about the eMarketer study.