For quite some time now, John Battelle, author and general search guru, has been looking to understand how the 'great unwashed' signal their motivations and wants by using search engines and social media channels. In his original blog post he articulated how this huge corpus of data can be of huge value to search marketers. But how many of us actively mine this "database of intentions" for the good of our search campaigns? In my experience, it can vary across industries.

For quite some time now, John Battelle, author and general search guru, has been looking to understand how the 'great unwashed' signal their motivations and wants by using search engines and social media channels. In his original blog post he articulated how this huge corpus of data can be of huge value to search marketers. But how many of us actively mine this "database of intentions" for the good of our search campaigns? In my experience, it can vary across industries.

Its Wednesday at AdWeek 2010 and today Microsoft showcased exciting products across three screens: the PC, the mobile and the television. The PC Deepzoom and Pivot are two exciting technologies that people can currently use to visualise and navigate their way around data. In the Deepzoom demo, Stephen Kim, General Manager at Microsoft showed us a great example of how to navigate and interact with high-resolution images on the Hard Rock Memorabilia site.

Carolyn Everson of Microsoft Advertising It must be both a marketers worst nightmare and his sweetest dream to reflect on the volume of new consumer gadgets that are launched every day. Each represents yet another platform with another technological challenge to overcome, but also has the potential to tap into an audience that has remained elusive. Three particular segments of this 2-hour slot stood out; Scott McDonalds piece on how magazines are being consumed on the iPad,

I must admit that Ive been slow to start using location-based services for the mobile, such as f oursquare , GoWalla and the recently launched Places from Facebook . The merit of checking-in to places I visit has so far escaped me. However, Im coming around to the idea that I would like to get something back in return for generating social content around restaurants, pubs and various public places.

TV for Me was the theme today at the Microsoft Advertising workshop on How Consumers Want to Interact with Television at IAB MIXX 2010. Mark Kroese, General Manager at Microsoft, led the discussion on how consumers are increasingly wanting to watch TV on their terms. He neatly presented the concept of TV for Me in five ways: 1. My content consumers are increasingly favoring relevant content that suits their tastes.

IAB MIXX 2010 kicked off in dramatic style with Seth Godin bringing his purple cow ideas and more to a packed audience at the Crown Plaza on Times Square. In his address, he challenged the global marketing community to rethink how to connect with tribes and to forgo the old ideas of constant advertising bombardment. Throughout his piece, Seth referred to the conventional thinking of old which was to promote a brand to the masses as often as possible.