A German video of a two year old dancing to Elvis' "Jail House Rock" is a viral hit, chalking up 7 million views and pushing Invisible Children's anti-warlord video out of first place on Campaign's viral chart. The amateur footage has given his parents' online dance supply store unprecedented exposure. Two U.S. political videos, "Obamaville" and "The road we've traveled", have entered the top 10.

A start-up Belgian company is testing a system called Paycento, whereby people could pay to read a single article or download a piece of music with one click, negating the necessity of having to enter credit card details and fill out forms in order to subscribe to the whole she-bang. It could boost sales for newspapers, music vendors and other low-priced goods and services.

Privately, Internet businesses on Monday were raising concerns over the British government's plans to monitor social media use and email, saying there is "a question of jurisdiction." Their reaction comes on the heels of several MPs and civil liberties groups who argue that privacy and free expression online will be endangered. The proposal, which would allow authorities to have "on demand" access in real time, is expected to be outlined in detail on 9 May in the Queen's speech.

The polling firm will gather data in real time in order to help companies see a clearer picture of what people are saying about them on Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites. YouGov has a panel of 426,000 people that it uses for UK market research; this is taking the research farther. The pollsters said investment in this and other new products plus overseas expansion pushed profits down 9% in the six months until 31 January.

Industry watchdogs in the UK, Denmark, Norway and Sweden are looking into complaints that Apple is misleading consumers with its 4G marketing, given that the LTE frequencies supported by the iPad are available only in the U.S. and Canada. The move follows a firestorm in Australia that resulted in Apple refunding new iPad customers after accusations of false advertising.

"When did it become OK to text Mum happy birthday?" asks a $12 million marketing campaign that began on Monday. The outdoor effort dares people to consider the quality of their personal communications and introduces the tagline, "It's time for Skype". Taking a swipe at Twitter, another line proclaims, "140 characters doesn't equal staying in touch". The effort may be adapted for other markets if the first phase is a success.

The increased use of digital services such as iTunes and Spotify in 2011 have offset decreases in sales of CDs, giving British tunesmiths a happy payday. Also contributing is the huge international success of such artists as Adele. Royalty payments grew 3.2% year on year, to GBP635.3 million. Representing 75,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers, PRS for Music said the surge more than offset a double-digit fall in royalties collected from CD sales.

The market is estimated to be worth $821 million, up from $697 million a year before, and includes social media optimization for search, agency fees to revise and improve natural and paid SEO, SEO PR, and SEO staffing investments. Social, mobile and local search are now being added by practitioners into their responsibilities. Google continues to dominate in the UK, with more than 90% of searches done there.

Ofcom is reporting that the increased use of smartphones and tablets are the reason behind the increase, with eight of ten Brits accessing the Internet across a variety of devices. The amount of time spend online is up by half over 2006. Usage among older users is driving the trend, with more 45 to 54-year-olds than ever logging on. The figures for young users remains unchanged.

London’s claim to being the hub for tech startups in Europe got a boost last week, when Google opened the doors of its latest effort, Google Campus, a seven-story centre for startups, which it has launched in partnership with several existing organizations, and big ambitions to galvanize some of the tech activity that has already marked out London to take it to the next level.