In a blog post this afternoon, Digg founder Kevin Rose confirmed the hiring of Amazon veteran Matt Williams as the social news site's new CEO. Rose said Williams, most recently general manager for consumer payments at Amazon, brings "seasoned management experience and has a reputation for delivering innovative products and excellent results" to the company. Turning around Digg, which unleashed a user backlash in recent days with its latest overhaul, should test Williams' ability to deliver excellent results.

Based on the five college kids represented on the "Social Generation" panel at the Social Media Insider Summit, today's youth are mainly focused on Facebook, not so much on Twitter, email, blogging and other "social media" platforms. I'm not surprised, but the real question is what will happen with them as they age. Will they become more like the Madison Avenue insiders who are driving the hype surrounding emerging platforms, especially Twitter? Or will they carry their habits forward. If it's the latter, it raises some serious questions for the industry, as well as for the continuing domination of …

Google continues to push out technology to make display advertising easier for publishers. On Tuesday, the company outlined its strategy in a blog. The post explains Google's core display ad products for publishers and highlights key principles guiding Google's future ad products. "We shouldn't be asking how publishers can eke another 5 or 10 percent out of display advertising in the next few years," Google Director of Product Management Jonathan Bellack tells us. "We should be looking at how the industry can double or triple in size."

JAGTAG has slapped its 2D mobile barcodes on shoeboxes, in-store signs, in print and online as part of a mobile campaign promoting Nine West’s Fall 2010 Vintage America Collection. JAGTAG says it’s the first time its barcodes will be featured on product packaging. But aren’t shoeboxes usually in the back? The specially-branded codes feature a tattoo design by singer Joss Stone, who helped design the new Vintage America product line including shoes, clothing, jewelry and other accessories. By sending in a photo of the Nine West JAGTAG, a user is entered into a sweepstakes to win items from …

Looks like Labor Day travel will get a real bounce this year, buoyed by more stable gas prices, some great airfares, and a few special circumstances—including some media-savvy Great White sharks off Cape Cod. AAA projects that the number of Americans traveling this Labor Day weekend—Sept. 2 through Sept. 6-- will increase 9.9% from 2009, with approximately 34.4 million travelers taking a trip at least 50 miles away from home. "We are still not at 2008 levels, but it's really good to see an increase over last year," Heather Hunter, a spokesperson for AAA, tells Marketing Daily. Last year, …

Jack Pitney, 47, BMW's VP marketing for the brand, was killed on Thursday, reportedly when the tractor he was riding overturned on his farm. Pitney, who joined BMW in the mid-1990s, helped launch the Mini brand in the U.S. in 2001 when he was assigned general manager of the nascent division there. He became head of marketing for the BMW brand in 2005, trading places with Jim McDowell.

BMW reports that Jack Pitney, VP of marketing, has died. The Woodcliff Lake, N.J., U.S. arm of the automaker says Pitney, 47, was killed in an accident on his farm on Thursday. No further details are available at the moment.

Luxury auto brand Infiniti has inked a deal that makes it both a partner for a year of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and exclusive sponsor of the 62nd Emmy Awards on NBC. During the broadcast this Sunday, Infiniti will, via a deal with the network, run custom advertising that showcases the all-new 2011 Infiniti QX luxury SUV.

In a morning panel on mobile trends and change agents, Mike Bloxham, who leads Ball State's media lab, expressed guarded optimism about the much-hyped technology of  augmented reality, which he believes marketers or merchants will be able to use to make certain types of offers to elicit certain interactions, though he was admittedly hazy on the details. Anything besides scanning a QR code to see the completed 3D version of a Lego model? But Bloxham pointed out that however mobile marketing technology and use develops, two key issues will be the user context and privacy. For mobile, "battery life …

Yahoo Web, Image and Video search on both desktop and mobile devices are now powered by Microsoft's Bing in U.S. and Canada for English, with more markets to come soon. Yahoo said Tuesday the search team has completed transitioning some back-end functions and in a blog post provides tips on ranking well in organic search results.