http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=134179

11:00am: Apps vs. WAP: Choosing the Right Mobile Platform for Your Brand:

You’re determined to get your brand into the pockets of millions of consumers, and the best way to do it is with a flashy new app, right? Maybe not. Join execs on both sides of the fence as they dig into the pros and cons of launching a branded app vs. leveraging other types of mobile content — images, video, ringtones and even mobile web sites– to reach your target consumer. Learn how to figure out which mobile platform will be the best for your consumer acquisition, engagement and retention goals, as well as how to use multiple platforms for maximum impact.
Moderator: Dan Flanegan, Managing Partner, Brand Anywhere

Speakers:
Bryson Meunier, Associate Director, Content Solutions, Resolution Media
Robert Samuels, Director, Mobile Products, The New York Times
Patrick Mork, CMO, GetJar
http://www.digidaymobile.com/agenda/

Looks like it’s going to be a great event, with a lot of interesting speakers with varied backgrounds. If you’re one of them, or in New York for the event, please stop by and say hello.

Register for the event here.

If you’re new here you may not know that I make my living helping companies optimize their sites, mobile and otherwise, as part of Resolution Media. If you want your mobile web content to be more visible, but are not an expert in mobile SEO, contact us about how we can help.

The moral of the story is don’t expect your mobile content vendor to include optimization if it doesn’t explicitly say so in the contract. This has been an issue for at least two years, but I’m hoping a little bit of publicity will help mobile transcoders and enterprise SEOs consider SEO as being relevant to what they do.

These days I’m primarily publishing on other web sites like SEL, but stay tuned to this site for notices on when I’ve published and more original content on natural search and mobile.

You may have heard that Amazon released a new mass market Kindle with wi-fi only last week. If you haven’t heard, there’s a message from Jeff Bezos on the Amazon homepage announcing it.

Unfortunately for them it’s invisible to search engines and people with screen readers.

Amazon can probably get away with this because they’re Amazon. Most businesses are not Amazon. If you’re not Amazon, avoid putting text in images, and if you can’t avoid it, add alternative text. SEO 101, I know, but there are many Fortune 100 companies that apparently need a refresher.

Why Google Wants To Turn Average Joes Into Apps Developers

Two caveats to my comments:

I�m skeptical that sheer number of apps is a good indicator of platform content quality, as many of these apps are going to be low quality, and the App Inventor could just add to the number of low quality boilerplate apps in Android Market. However, as with YouTube and video, there could be a few user generated apps that could bring visibility to the Android Platform.

I also don�t think that Apps on Android are really that important, as Google is working to increase the quality of mobile web sites (as they did recently with YouTube) so that apps will be less necessary for enjoying mobile content. It�s good that Google is allowing those who prefer to access content through mobile apps the ability to do so by continuing to develop Android Market with announcements like this, but I think a brand�s first step in reaching Android, iPhone and all other platforms is to develop a high quality, accessible mobile web site.

Think you�re maximizing your digital marketing?� Resolution Media is betting you an iPad you�re not!

On Thursday 7/22 from 6-8pm, Resolution Media will be hosting an evening of free food, drinks and engaging discussion at the Foundation Room in the Chicago House of Blues (329 N. Dearborn St., Chicago, IL).

Come hear Matt Spiegel (CEO of Omnicom Media Group Digital), David Gould (President of Resolution Media) and Dave Tan (VP of Product Development & Innovation at Resolution Media) discuss specific ways to maximize your digital marketing efforts across this ever-changing landscape.

Resolution Media will also be giving away a new iPad to one lucky guest.

If you�re interested, please email your name, company, title, email address and phone number to Kiley Peters at KPeters@ResolutionMedia.com to receive an invitation.� Please note there is limited availability.

FindResolution: Don’t Bet the Farm(ville) on Social Search

http://www.findresolution.com/2010/06/dont-bet-farmville-on-social-search.html

What do you think? Will Facebook be a viable contender to Google’s search throne?

http://searchengineland.com/dont-penalize-yourself-mobile-sites-are-not-duplicate-content-40380

If you’re a long time subscriber you know that I’ve expressed the opinion that mobile sites are not duplicate content before. Because the idea has persisted in spite of the evidence to the contrary, I’ve presented some evidence at Search Engine Land.

What do you think? Do you agree? Or are your mobile sites suppressed in the search results for relevant queries?

Using that tool, I recently put the letters of the alphabet on each line, and the tool returned me popular YouTube searches for March of 2010. These are not exhaustive, as I know keywords in other categories that have more volume but are not included here; but it is a good list for helping marketers understand the reach of YouTube, and the intent of its visitors, the latter of which can help them create more relevant campaigns, and drive more conversions from video search.

Top YouTube search keywords from March 2010

Click the image for all 97 keywords returned in the search, or use the tool yourself (or the Video Targeting Tool) to determine opportunity in your industry.

If you’re interested in video search and video marketing and you haven’t yet been to Matt Ballek’s video marketing blog, VidiSEO, be sure to check it out for more great tips on optimizing for YouTube.

If you’re like many of our clients and are in need an enterprise video marketing solution, contact us to discuss the best solution for your business.

Cindy Krum’s new book, Mobile Marketing: Finding Your Customers No Matter Where They Are is an important work in Mobile SEO, as it was written by one of the pioneers in the practice. I haven’t read the whole book yet, but I was fortunate enough to be technical editor on the Mobile SEO (mSEO) and mobile development chapters, and I can say that those chapters contain enough concrete information on optimizing mobile content to more than justify the cost of the book.

It’s worth noting that Cindy and I don’t always agree on mobile SEO best practices, and there are recommendations that she makes in the book that I still don’t agree with (e.g. blocking your mobile content from desktop spiders with robots.txt), and mobile search is changing so quickly that I doubt this is the last book you’ll ever buy on mobile SEO, but there are enough recommendations that I do agree with to recommend it with gusto. �If you are a fan of this blog and you’re looking to expand your knowledge of mobile SEO and development (not to mention mobile marketing in general), consider picking it up at Amazon.

For those of you who don’t know much about Resolution Media, I’ve been here for five years in August, and it’s really a great company to work for, in my estimation. Learn more about our current positions here:

Had a great time at SMX West last year and am happy to report that I will be speaking there again this year. This time I’ll be talking about Mobile search apps and their effect on SEO and SEM. Great topic among many and I’m happy to be a part of it.

If you’re kicking around the idea of attending, be sure to read Danny Sullivan’s Why You Should Attend SMX West before you register.

As always, if you’re attending, speaking or exhibiting, be sure to say hello at the show!

Thanks to the judges for nominating a post of mine again this year:

http://www.semmys.org/2010/analytics-all-2010-nominees/

Big changes coming for this blog in 2010. �Stay tuned for more details.