Search guru John Battelle attacks "the myth" that social media and marketing don't mix, citing a recent article in Advertising Age that uses one P&G digital marketing exec's opinions to conclude that advertising on social networks doesn't work. "Ad Age drew what I must say is an extremely lazy conclusion," Battelle says. "Look, a senior guy from Procter says so!" That senior guy is Ted McConnell, P&G's Manager of Digital Marketing Innovation, who opens the article with the following statement: "Social networks may never find the ad dollars they're hunting for because they don't really have a right to them." …

The financial crisis has proven to be a good thing for sites like LinkedIn and Xing, Reuters says, as laid off and/or worried workers turn to their professional networks for possible job opportunities. LinkedIn, in particular, has seen staggering growth this year, from 18 million to 31 million members since the start of the year. Not surprisingly, new registrations were heaviest in sectors like financial, technology, and media. In spite of solid membership growth, the company recently decided to lay off 10 percent of its workforce in order to focus more on revenue generation. Strategy Analytics, a research firm, says …

A new test reveals that the vast majority of Hulu users prefer the option of watching a two-minute ad the beginning of a 22-minute program to having four 30-second commercials evenly-spaced throughout the viewing experience. According to the internal study, a whopping 88% of Hulu users prefer the two-minute option. The long-form ads are opt-in; the high opt-in rate suggests that viewers like being able to control which ads they see. They are also more likely to be engaged with the ads they choose. "The opt-in rate is proving this is something people want," said Christina Lee, a Hulu spokeswoman. …

Twitter is still the belle of the Web 2.0 ball, according to GigaOm and folks are still speculating on its business model. Founder and CEO Ev Williams has said the company will come out with more details in the new year, which has only increased the frenzy of speculation. That frenzy got another boost this week when Twitter announced that it had acquired Values of n, a company founded by well-known programmer Rael Dornfest, the former chief technology officer at O'Reilly Media and one of the developers responsible for creating the RSS standard. The fit between this company and its …

Mobile internet use in the United Kingdom is growing while the number of people going online via a PC is slowing, analyst firm Nielsen Online has found. Some 7.3 million people accessed the net via their mobile phones, during the second and third quarters of 2008. This is an increase of 25% compared to a growth of just 3% for the PC-based net audience -- now more than 35 million. The survey also found that the mobile net audience was younger and searched for different things. While Google remains the most popular site for those logging on via the desktop …

Following a long search and weeks of speculation, MySpace on Tuesday finally confirmed that former MTV exec Courtney Holt would take the reigns of MySpace Music, the new music venture from News Corp. and the four major record labels. According to Reuters, the new CEO inherits "the delicate balancing act of managing expectations for MySpace executive team and the management teams at Vivendi's Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music, Warner Music Group and EMI Music." Holt, who was previously EVP of digital music for MTV Networks Music, will assume the new post on January 5. MySpace formally launched MySpace Music …

After weeks of getting pummeled, Google's share price rose the most in a month after Barclays Capital said spending on search ads was increasing. Analyst Doug Anmuth said Google shares, which have fallen 63% this year, were undervalued, and that "early signs" from search marketing firms indicate that spending has risen significantly in the past couple of weeks. "Google's business model is fundamentally intact, and the company is well positioned to continue taking share of advertising dollars," said Anmuth, who expects Google to outperform other Internet stocks. Following his report, Google shares bounced $24.61, or 9.6%, to $282.05. That …

Ray Ozzie, Bill Gates' successor as Microsoft's chief software architect, was more than a little nervous as he got on stage to address 6,000 or so Microsoft engineers from around the world at the TechReady conference this past summer. "I have high anxiety -- massive, huge, tremendous anxiety," Ozzie tells Wired magazine. "It's not a natural act for me." Ozzie may not enjoy speaking on stage, or the limelight in general for that matter, but the time is right for the brains behind Microsoft's software strategy to reveal what the heck he's been working on for the last two years. …

Microsoft's Online Services Business includes the portals MSN and Live.com, Live Search, and the aQuantive advertising agency (which the software giant acquired last year for $6 billion). Revenues grew just 15% in the third quarter to $770 million, but overall, the unit lost $480 billion, a loss that was 80% greater than the third quarter in 2007. So why has Microsoft been so ineffective? The short answer is that like Yahoo, Microsoft has been myopically focused on catching Google, the undisputed king of online advertising. The company has thrown a ton of money at data centers, personnel, and marketing, but …

Google's Chrome browser might not exactly be mainstream, but it's more widely used than you might think and is catching on as a default browser. Among those working at Cnet News, 3.6% of those visiting the site in October used Chrome, up from 1% in September, when Google launched Chrome. It lagged Microsoft Internet Explorer, with 40.7%, Firefox with 37.4%, and Safari with 18.2%, but beat out Opera, with 1.2% in October. (Other browsers bring the total to 100 percent.) Of course, these results are somewhat skewed since Cnet News has a more adventurous and techno-savvy audience than the average …