Among the most popular mobile sites visited by women are People.com and Horoscope.com.  Among men, sites included Maxim.com, NBA.com, and Gizmodo.com, and DrudgeReport.com.  While the general engagement of such websites by each gender is logical, what may be more surprising is the widespread use of the mobile web by seniors.  According to these Nielsen statistics, 17% of iPhone users who watch videos from their phones are 55 years or older.  Wonder what type of media programs this general cohort is watching on their phones!

The two principles state that internet service providers (ISP’s) cannot discriminate against certain content or online applications, and, that internet broadband providers must disclose the the procedures they use to manage  internet traffic.  Both principles will ensure that service providers are providing equal opportunities for all those who wish to distribute content across the net.

These moves already have large service providers like AT&T speaking out about where the line will be drawn in the new regulations.  Carriers seem to accept these rules for broadband internet, but are ready to defensively discuss why the rules should not be extended to wireless internet (including the growing use of mobile internet).

While it seems that different wireless carriers are handling the news of the new rules in varying ways, as a whole they seem to seek more deliberation surrounding wireless and mobile services.  Should be interesting to see how these discussions pan out over the next few months.

Such instances show that social networks and micro-blogging sites can be used in emergency situations if and when a phone call cannot be made.  Perhaps it would be wise for emergency service providers like EMS or the 911 call center to consider using social networking sites  as an avenue that individuals in emergency situations could use.  Those responding to emergencies could also use this type of communication to respond to a victim in need, assuring them that help is on the way or providing directions if the individual needs to take steps to get themselves or others out of danger.

Obviously, the use of micro-blogs or social networks in emergency situations would need to be greatly considered, as there is room for people to abuse the systems (i.e. individuals who falsely post emergency situations as pranks).  Still, however, emergency responders should not ignore the growing use of these sites, and the potential for using these websites to help those in need.

An occurrence like this has many implications in people’s everyday interactions with the online environment.  Gmail is indeed a popular service, and individuals use it for communication for both personal and business reasons.  Since Google continues to be a leader in providing online services, many people fail to remember that the company and its services are run by skilled programmers who can manipulate advanced computer systems and technologies.  In the end, every decision and procedure that is automated by Google’s systems are put into place by… humans!  The bottom line?  Everyone makes mistakes, and we shouldn’t think that simply because Google is the front runner in its services means that it won’t encounter problems, glitches, or widespread outages.

So, what have Gmail users learned from yesterday’s problems?  Perhaps that we should always back-up our important information.  Most intelligent people already know to back-up  documents, notes, etc.  Maybe, this will even motivate people to back-up other things like copies of e-mails and online chats.  Hopefully, the outage won’t happen again in the near future.  But in the meantime, grab that external hard drive and back-up your stuff!

I’ve touched upon the option of working abroad in previous posts, and after a recent month-long trip traveling in Europe, I have spoken with some professionals about the idea of working in a foreign country.  Most of the conversations led to similar conclusions; that many companies abroad value the American educational system and perceive recent U.S. graduates as skilled candidates because of their tendencies toward entrepreneurial thought.  However, another idea that came up is that it can be quite difficult for Americans to get international jobs because of difficulties in obtaining international work visas and papers.  I know several expatriates working in London and Brussels agreed that getting the right papers is difficult.  Often when a person can secure working papers he/she is only covered for a 6 month period.

Still, there are international opportunities out there, and there are ways to successfully navigate the systems.  I welcome any comments or insights on the subject matter.

Curated by Rubel, the paper explains the importance of PR and marketing professionals to have a basic understanding of search engine marketing.  A key point the white paper discusses is the growing need for PR people to keep search optimization in mind when creating content for a client.  Whether it is online in social networks or in a press release, PR/marketing pros need to make sure that content they are publishing will be visible to search engine  “crawlers,” or robots that comb through web pages in efforts to provide results for individual searchers.  As a result of reading this digital white paper, I decided to do an online certification course in Advance Search Engine Optimization with an organization called SEMPO.  So far, it’s been an interesting experience and I’ve learned how to optimize sites using tailored keywords that are strategically put into web page descriptions.  I think it’ll be really valuable in the long run to add SEO knowledge to my skills, and I urge other aspiring professionals to consider expanding their knowledge of search marketing.

Bing takes a bit of a different approach to Search Engine Optimization.  Rather, it calls it decision engine optimization (DEO), and pages are ranked to appear according to a different set of guidelines (check it out at www.bing.com).  Those of us looking to go into marketing, specifically online marketing, definitely need to follow the Bing adoption.  It could also have an influential effect on social media networking sites.  For example, if Bing becomes very popular and its DEO is less favorable of content on blogs or social networking sites, then it is likely that this will have a negative effect on the number of people reading and following blogs.  Technology is changing so fast, but its ability to affect the way we act (and think!) is just as rapid.

Apparently, the rate of increase of joblessness in the US has recently slowed down.  Still, positions that are available for new grads are few and far between.  I’m keeping my chin up, however, and plugging through these difficult times.  One of the things I’m delving into is a self-study of SEO analysis and online marketing tactics.  I figure if I can learn this stuff on my own – then it is likely that I will have more to bring to the table.  Hopefully employers will recognize and appreciate a self-starter.  We’ll have to see…