One month into the life of Bing, Microsoft's revamped search engine, the industry is buzzing over initial promising usage statistics and market share claims. Yet others are more cautious, suggesting that short-term usage stats do not necessarily equate with a change in consumer behavior and long-term market share gain.

In a bold move, Topsy Labs Inc. recently launched Topsy.com, a social Web search engine, and announced that it was backed by a handful of prominent investors to the tune of $15 million. The news confirmed what many marketers had anticipated - a move towards a social Web where the end destination is less important than the ability to rapidly discover and share the most important content.

Following Apple's announcement of 1 billion iPhone app downloads in just nine months, Compete released its quarterly Smartphone Intelligence report, indicating 28% of smartphone users have spent $5 to $50 on a mobile application. These early signs of ancillary revenue have marketers asking what it takes to build a successful mobile application — and what the price is.

Social media, social networks and now the social graph. The language might sound modern, yet the concept is timeless. Brad Fitzpatrick, a Google engineer and a respected thinker on the subject, describes the social graph as "the global mapping of everybody and how they're related." Fortunately for marketers, technology not only enables connections between people, but between people and brands.

Over the past decade, self-publishing platforms, such as blogs and YouTube, have made it significantly easier for a market­ing manager to both craft the message and press "send."

If you thought the days of sponsor men­tions were in the past, guess again. Advertis­ers, such as Warner Brothers and Janome, have found that custom content integration with Next New Networks can successfully reach targeted communities online.

What happens when semantic and behavioral technologies are introduced to display advertising? The medium can achieve the relevance and performance of search engine marketing. That's the opinion of Paul Knegten, head of marketing for Dapper.

This winter, some marketers are getting a rare glimpse at a growth market: The US-based online Latino population. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, most regions of the US are experiencing a growth in Latino population, a population that Global Insight's Hispanic Market Monitor says has a disposable income that is growing 8% per year.

This weekend, I headed to one fantastic sale at a well-known clothing store. Past experience had taught me that this particular store would have people waiting for the doors to open, so I left a bit early. I also brought along the mental protective gear; shopping in New York can be a contact sport. I arrived just after the doors had opened, and to my surprise, I was the only one there.

There's nothing like downturn to spur innovation. A rash of new product and feature updates have recently been flung upon the search marketing industry, some better than others