According to an interesting article from Online Media Daily, Yahoo has formed a partnership with Dash Navigation to integrate Yahoo’s local search function into the company’s wireless navigation system. This will allow people to find local businesses and products using Yahoo local search right from their cars. The product is due to launch in California in the spring.

The driver, hopefully sitting in a stationary vehicle, will be able to tap into local wifi networks and conduct searches just like they would on their pc at the office. No word yet on whether the search algorythm will be the same, but there will be one crucial difference. In this brave new world of mobile search, there will be no paid ads.

This will put more pressure on etailers who rely on ppc to kick the habit and get their sites positioned in the natural or organic search. It will also be interesting to see if video optimization will play a part as companies release videos and podcasts that target defined local geographies.

In a related story, Google is said to be working with Volkswagen to install Google earth into VW’s.

Emarketer recently came out with its predictions for 2007. Here are the highlights;

Online ad spending will top $20 billion, an increase of almost 20% from 2006.
Online video advertising will see a dramatic upturn.
Social Networking sites will see $1billion worth of advertising dollars.
Positive word of mouth advertising will become increasingly important for retailers.

The trends are clear. Companies will spend more and embrace all new technologies available in order to grab a larger piece of an ever growing online sales pie. The early adopters will see the largest gains.

An interesting study done by Leichtman Research Group recently in regards to the US market for internet access, found that over 2.5 million subcribers added broadband service in the third quarter of 2006. There are now over 50.9 million broadband subscribers in the US.

This is great news for etailers in general and those using online video in particular. One of the constant complaints about using video as a promotional tool is that it takes too long to load, or is of poor quality. With more and more people using broadband and high speed internet, the video optimization market can only grow. Companies who do not tap into this new method of promotion will simply be left behind.

According to the Consumer Internet Barometer, shoppers are becoming increasingly accustomed to incentives like free shipping and free return postage. Over 90% of shoppers said that free shipping would incent them to buy, while 65% mentioned that if they had a special incentive availble online that was not available in brick and mortar locations, then they also would be more likely to make their purchases online. Return postage was also mentioned as a prime motivator.

What does that mean for your e-tail business? Are you offering these kinds of incentives? How are you telling your clients? Are you using viral marketing? If you have a blog with subscribers, you can inform your buyers via email or RSS, that you are offering a special or incentive . They in turn will tell their friends and people in their sphere of influence. You announce a great promotion. Spread the news using subscriptions and RSS. Even better, do a video product release, and spread your message or promotion using video optimization.

It looks like Firefox is getting involved in delivering Fan Based TV commercials to select local markets in the US. The ads will be done by advocates of the browser, of which I am one, and will focus on spreading the message that the user experience on Firefox is superior to that of other browsers, notably Internet Explorer. Obviously this is a smart move by Mozilla, as they will undoubtedly increase market share by embracing new marketing methods. Retailers should pay attention to what is going on here. Video and video optimization is here to stay. US households have the bandwidth and they want to see and share videos that they find interesting. It is the purest form of viral marketing around. All retailers need is an expert in the field to make sure they are taking advantage of this competitive edge. Triangle Direct Media is that company.

According to a recent article on Media Post, it seems that social networking sites are starting to out perform the smaller search engines. Apparently MySpace, Facebook and others are responsible for around six percent of all retailer traffic, which is almost as much as Yahoo and MSN search put together.

So if you’re an etailer, and you don’t have any rankings on Google, you may see your market share erode along with the share of the Looksmarts, Alta Vistas, I Wons and Hot Bots of the internet. Or you need to figure out a way of reaching a growing demographic that is using blogs and social networking sites. The solution to both is through blog marketing efforts. Blog linking, Video optimization and blog writing will all play an important role in this new marketing mix.

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It was recently announced that Yahoo, Google and MSN will all be using the same format for site maps, a format based on the Google sitemap. Most people think that a good site map will help your site get increased search engine rankings, but according to Google, that is not the case. According to Vanessa Fox from Google, sitemaps don’t affect rankings at all, they are merely a way of ensuring your pages are being picked up. The site map is a tool to help search engine crawlers access more pages.  So put a site map on your website, but don’t expect it to increase sales. In order to do that you have to generate fresh content and back links. The quickest way to do that is with a company blog, viral marketing and video optimization.

We are in the midst of the most important quarter of the year for onine retailers, but is it too late to generate more sales for the year? It is probably a little late to expect increased natural search traffic, unless of course you are using blog marketing, but retailers can convert more of their visitors with a few simple steps.

Your pages should all have a definite call to action, and these marketing hooks should stand out from the rest of the text on the page. You should be able to spot the call to action from six feet away, and you can achieve this by contrasting colors, fonts and print or graphic sizes.

Testimonials should be placed on the right hand side of the page, while associations should be at the bottom; BBB membership, secure checkout, Versign, credit card logos, chamber of commerce etc. You should also make sure that your customers know you have a company blog, message board or forum. If you are doing any video optimization or podcasting on your blog, be sure and provide a link where people can view a category page of video.

With the ever increasing popularity of podcasting and online video, it is only natural that firms use this medium to enhance their internet branding. RSS presents an opportunity to disseminate information quickly and easily throughout the internet. Video Optimization is the manipulation of video sharing sites such as UTube and Google videos to ensure that a company’s marketing messages are properly and efficiently delivered to as wide an audience as possible.

Proper distribution of video not only leads to invaluable viral marketing opportunities, but also assists the retailers’ main site with the addition of hundreds if not thousands of natural links. As with everything else internet, there are a tremendous amount of factors involved in this process. It is very important that the blog marketing company you use knows this new market and can achieve results in a timely and cost effective manner.