Checking testimonials is a common way to evaluate the product or service you consider to purchase. What could be better than hear a feedback from people who already use it? Unfortunately, testimonials are not as reliable as we may think and I will explain why below. Read on

Alexes reaction: Why you should not trust testimonial (even real, not fake) too much

Article I wrote for Marketing Magazine reviewing The Australian Direct Marketing Association Forum 2010. Read on

Lucios reaction: Article I wrote for Marketing Magazine reviewing The Australian Direct Marketing Association Forum 2010.

Apple announces social networking service which will display the music interests of friends via iTunes, iPhones and iPod Touch Read on

Johns reaction: Another week another product launch. Apples world domination project continues

Facebook is rolling out a new security feature that lets users log out of their accounts remotely from another computer. It follows the news of a Sydney mother-of-three, her daughter and daughter's friends being subjected to a two-week ordeal at the hands of a Facebook stalker they have been unable to get the social networking company to do anything about. Read on

Jennifers reaction: I'm personally pretty thrilled that they are starting to think about the security issues inherent in the current system. Unfortunately, this step seems to be smaller than a baby one. We need more progress in this area desperately!

It's worrying enough that this was as a result of some serious stalking of a young girl. And even more worrying when you read the lack of support that the family (and even the police) were given by Facebook.

You know when Google, Facebook and other major internet players are throwing their money around that it must mean that a hot new trend is emerging and that trend is online social gaming. Whilst it is too early to tell what the big boys have in store as one of the hottest trends in digital there is no doubt the space will evolve rapidly over the coming 12 months particularly with the level of investment occurring in the space. In the last 6 weeks alone the online gaming segment has seen the following; Google have completed a series of acquisitions which include buying SocialDeck (an org which makes gaming apps for Facebook, iPhone and Blackberry), as well as purchasing social games developer Slide (who have developed some of the most popular games on Facebook). A more unlikely competitor has entered the arena with Disney acquiring Playdom showing their intent to become a serious player in this market. Whilst Facebook has hired their first Head of Gaming Partnerships which shows how serious the social networking giant is about exploiting the opportunity. Read on

Teresas reaction: Read about how Google and Facebook are going head to head in the social gaming arena.

The growth in adoption connected TV's and TV apps will result in revenues from apps on TVs going from just $10 million in 2010 to $1.9 billion by 2015. Read on

Jameses reaction: Contact me to discuss your connected TV strategy for 2011

We re declaring this week Infographics Week on The Learning Network because we know how important it is for students to be able to read and interpret visual representations of information and because The New York Times consistently creates useful and elegant examples that we think teachers across the curriculum should know about. Not only do charts, graphs and maps show up on standardized tests of all kinds, but whiteboard technology has made the graphic depiction of information that much more useful and ubiquitous in classrooms. We have a lot to say about this topic and scores of interesting examples to show you, so we re breaking it down over five days: Read on

Christians reaction: Great summary of links on data visualisation best practice and how to get started!

The ADMA Analytics & Data Council invites you to discover just how advanced the Australian direct marketing industry is when it comes to analytics and investigate the importance of media attribution. When: 5.30-7.00pm, Tuesday 28 September Where: Level 2, City Hotel, cnr King & Kent Streets, Sydney RSVP: councils@adma.com.au Read on

Christians reaction: Interested in data and analytics? Want to learn more or just network with like-minded people? Worth coming along to this one.

At his startup s headquarters in New York, Avi Muchnick, a 2010 TR35 member, explains where the inspiration for his online multimedia editing suite, Aviary, came from, and how people can use it to share work. Read on

Johns reaction: Interesting idea

Over the past few months the ADMA Data & Analytics Council conducted an online survey to establish how evolved the direct marketing industry in Australia really is in terms of data and analytics. Key findings of the survey included Although 62% of respondents said that they tie sales data back to campaigns and media channels driving them, 59% admitted that they were not actually using web analytics which is interesting given the increased importance of online channels in driving sales. A similar trend emerged when asking marketers about whether they had a single customer view. A surprisingly large amount of respondents (44%) said they had a single customer view but interestingly only 41% of those companies were incorporating web analytics data into their single view. Given the growing amount of online customer touch points this raises the questions how complete these single customer views really are. Although the survey was only a quick and dirty exercise I think the results are quite interesting and the council is now considering to extend and refine the survey to shed some more light on the highlighted issues above. Read on

Christians reaction: I wasn't too surprised at the results to be honest, how would you rate your company's data and analytics capabilities from 1 to 10?