With Google AdMob, The Economist garners new readers amongst young, on-the-go professionals

How does a 168-year old publication stay young? Continuous innovation.

The weekly newspaper was founded in 1843 by an enterprising Scotsman, the British publication has, right from the start, steadily served up business and political news, analysis, and opinion to both U.K. and U.S. readers.

The publication has embraced the digital zeitgeist with an archival-based website and web-only content that includes blogs, debates, and audio/video programs. It has also made editions available on Android, iPhone, and iPad. Users can download the apps for free access to the editor’s weekly selection of six must-read articles. Full access is available by subscription.

Mobilizing an app strategy

Determined to further broaden its readership and accessibility, The Economist turned to mobile  marketing strategies in order to tap into the burgeoning base of young, on-the-go professionals. Working with ad agency Neo@Ogilvy, the publication chose mobile advertising network Google AdMob to target a desired demographic: 25-to-35 year-olds exhibiting intellectual curiosity, thirst for current news, and a predilection for high-tech content delivery. The initial markets targeted were Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan.

Phase I of The Economist campaign took place over 4.5 months from November 19, 2010 to March 31, 2011. Banner and text ads ran on AdMob’s network and targeted users of both Apple iPhone and iPad.




Reaching new market audiences

The campaign significantly raised awareness of The Economist among mobile consumers both within the overall group and amongst target consumers. Additionally, the campaign was significantly well received amongst those interested in news and current affairs where the campaign had a directional impact on awareness, brand favorability and purchase intention.

In particular, the iPad audience had an increase in intent to purchase a single issue/subscribe to The Economist after exposure, indicating that the campaign was able to positively change perceptions among this group.

Neo@Ogilvy also conducted a corollary study of 105 mobile-device users fitting the targeted 25-35 demographic. Of the group sampled, 47.1% of those exposed to the mobile ads indicated a willingness to purchase a subscription to The Economist on the iPad as opposed to only 32.7% of the control group not exposed to the ads. This difference in intent to purchase exceeded the 80th percentile confidence level, indicating a positive impact on branding, according to BrandMetrics.

Overall, the campaign was effective in reaching new audiences that differ in demographics and media consumption than the traditional core reader of The Economist. By demonstrating directional improvements in brand awareness, brand favourability and purchase intention, the campaign results show that advertising on the mobile web offers a new opportunity for The Economist, including targeting the fast-growing base of Android users in the near future. By enabling discovery, branding, and monetization on the mobile web, AdMob has become a critical media platform for a publication with a venerable past and a bright future.

Posted by: Christian Cadeo, Head of Mobile, Southeast Asia
 

Better together: new insights on display ad effectiveness across screens & multi-screen case study from adidas

Rich Media Display Ads Across Screens = Better Together
We partnered with Nielsen to measure the incremental impact of multi-screen advertising. In a study conducted at CBS’s Television City media lab run by Nielsen, study participants were asked to view related content across TV, PCs, smartphones and tablets. A 15-second video ad promoting Volvo's S60 sedan was shown to different groups of participants, with some people seeing no ads, and others seeing the ad on a different combinations of screens controlling for frequency.

The results clearly demonstrated the impact that multi-screen advertising has on branding. In the group that was exposed to TV ads alone, 50% of people correctly attributed the ad to Volvo. For groups that saw the ad across all screens -- TV, PC, smartphone and tablet -- the brand recall jumps dramatically to 74%.


Similarly, only 22% of the group that was exposed to just the TV ad correctly recalled that the ad was for a 4-door sedan versus 39% of the group that saw the ad across all screens.

 

We share this ad effectiveness research on the heels of our recently released internal data on multi-screen usage patterns revealing how users select the type of screen they are interacting with at different points in their day (New! Search data reveal that when the sun goes down, the tablets come out).  The multi-screen opportunity is looming for advertisers so we wanted to share these new insights and showcase examples of successful integrated digital display campaigns.

Smart advertisers are already running integrated digital campaigns.
We’ve worked with hundreds of advertisers who have translated their desktop search and display goals to mobile and now to tablets.  One example we’ve shared previously is the Animal Planet case study, and today we want to share a new example: adidas.  adidas, in partnership with Carat, worked with Google to extend their video brand message to digital. With Google’s unique cross-channel capabilities, adidas was able to extend its video creative across all digital platforms, adapting them for engagement across PCs, smartphones and tablets.

Posted by:  Johanna Werther & Ben Chung, Google Mobile Ads Marketing

Webinar Recap: "From Why to How?"

Last week, we presented a webinar,“Going Mobile: From Why to How?” on the five fundamental components to a mobile advertising strategy to help you get started. Google Product Marketing Manager, Sonja Lee and Mobile Specialist, Angela Sherman presented key statistics surrounding the current state of the mobile landscape, particularly looking ahead into the holiday season, and presented a deep dive on the five things that every mobile advertiser should do:

1. Mobilizing your web presence
2. Set up separate mobile-only campaigns
3. Think Local with Mobile
4. Utilize mobile-unique ad formats
5. Track and optimize your mobile performance

To learn more, download the Mobile Site Optimization webinar slides or watch the recording of the event on the Google Mobile Ads YouTube Channel or below.





Posted by: Sonja Lee, Product Marketing Manager, Mobile Ads

New! Search data reveal that when the sun goes down, the tablets come out

Are you reading this post from your PC at work, from your mobile phone as you wait in line at a cafe or from your tablet at home before bed?  The screen a user chooses to engage with is largely driven by context and users are matching their device type to their situation.  At Google Mobile Ads, we’re interested in the way the proliferation of these screens is impacting user behavior, especially search behavior.  We looked separately at searches from tablets, PCs and mobile devices.  The data show that during the workday users are searching from their computers and they use smartphones steadily throughout the day with a lift during commute time and in the evening.  Tablet usage spikes dramatically in the evening.  While both tablets and mobile are portable devices that can be used in a variety of places, this data points to the fact that tablets are used primarily at home as “lean back” devices while sitting on the couch, whereas smartphone devices may be used in a similar way but are also used in the office and on-the-go throughout the day. 

Google Internal Data 2011. % of each platform's traffic shown hourly for one day. Does not indicate absolute or relative traffic volumes.

If you’re an advertiser, you might be wondering which is the best screen to reach your customers on. The answer is: all of them. These screens are better together. Each screen fills a specific need state consumers have for information at different, complementary points in the day.  Failing to invest in any of these three digital screens not only leaves the door open for competitors to engage with your customers, but also could mean a missed opportunity for brand awareness and sales either on the device itself or through driving potential customers into your place of business.  

Posted by Johanna Werther, Product Marketing Manager, Mobile Ads

Box drives awareness and acquires new users with Google Mobile Ads

Box, a Silicon Valley based start-up focused on providing solutions in online content management, has been growing exponentially since it launched in 2005. Box has seen success with their online advertising campaigns but wanted to ensure they were in front of all prospective clients, so they tested mobile as another way to acquire new users.  With Google Mobile Ads, Box was able to setup a mobile-targeted search campaign in just minutes. In the first month of running mobile search ads, more than 30% of Box’s overall conversions from Google came from their mobile campaigns, demonstrating the great potential for B2B businesses on mobile.

Hear more from Box below in the video case study about their experience on mobile and advertising with Google.



You can download the entire case study PDF here.

Posted by: Mike Schipper, Google Mobile Ads Marketing

Mobile website optimization now factors into mobile search ads quality

The best consumer experiences on mobile devices happen on websites that are designed for mobile. We all know the difference that sites designed for mobile make in pure usability - they are designed for the smaller touchscreen, making it easy to find what you are looking for and interact with. We believe that giving consumers the best possible experience on their mobile device is critically important. A poor mobile web experience can negatively shape a consumer’s opinion of a brand or company and make it hard for them to engage or make a purchase. A recent study which asked users about the performance of mobile websites found that 61% of users# are unlikely to return to a website that they had trouble accessing from their phone.  

Last year, we began to limit ad serving on high-end mobile devices if they pointed to landing pages with Flash-heavy content. This was an initial step taken to improve the experience for mobile users. In the coming weeks, we will be introducing the mobile optimization of a website as a new factor of ads quality for AdWords campaigns that are driving mobile search traffic. As a result of this change, ads that have mobile optimized landing pages will perform better in AdWords -- they will generally drive more mobile traffic at a lower cost.

We encourage you to visit the website for your business on a mobile phone, and experience your site as your customers do. If your site is not mobile optimized, we are committed to helping you get started. We recently launched a free Google Sites tool to help you create simple mobile pages. Here is a webinar that has useful best practices for mobile sites. There are case studies from businesses who created successful mobile sites, and a series of blog posts (1, 2, 3) with tips on how to build a mobile friendly site. These are some resources that can help businesses get started.  

Stay tuned to the Google Mobile Ads blog for news of upcoming events and initiatives related to mobile site optimization.

Posted by David Nachum, Product Manager, Mobile Ads

France, Germany, United Kingdom, it’s time to Get Mobilized!

However you say it, Get Mobilized, Jouez La Carte Mobile, Mobil Werben or Get Mobilised, the time for mobile is now! With our Get Mobilized website now available in 3 new languages there has never been a better time for your business to join the mobile revolution. Don’t feel left out Japanese readers, you can モバイル最適化のおすすめ too! Your version is due to drop soon, keep your eyes on this blog for more information.

You just have to look around you to see how smartphones are radically changing the way consumers connect the real world with the online world. They are out and about, their smartphones are with them 24/7, they need your services and 82% of US smartphone users notice mobile ads. Is your business ready for them? They are searching more and more, in fact, at Google, we are seeing mobile search grow at an exponential rate, increasing five-fold worldwide in just the past two years - a rate comparable to the early days of desktop Google Search. No matter what your business size, you can get started with a few some simple steps to connect with your customers and grow your business with mobile advertising.

From tips on optimizing your mobile campaign performance to how to drive more calls to your business, there’s lots of getting started resources with short videos explaining the benefits of each key mobile ad solution. Want more clicks? Want more calls? Want more customers in your store? We’ll show you how.

Begin on the path to mobile advertising success by watching this introduction to mobile advertising video and don’t forget to Get Mobilized!

Posted by Jon Garwood, Google Mobile Ads Marketing Team

United Kingdom

Germany

France

+1 coming to mobile display ads

Incorporating social recommendations into display advertising will make ads more relevant for users and impactful for advertisers. Today the Google+ project is expanding to the Google Display Network.  

The +1 button will start to roll out on AdSense for Mobile Content publishers for both text and image ads by early October.

The +1 button will appear on the left side of the ad and recommendations will appear for several seconds, then  

fade out.

Advertisers interested in learning more about the +1 button can view today’s announcement or the AdWords help center for more details.

In the next several weeks, we will share the details of how developers can incorporate +1 ads into their mobile applications.  Mobile web publishers who prefer not to show the +1 button can opt out starting today by signing in to your account at google.com/adsense.

We’re excited with the broad consumer engagement with the +1 button throughout the web.  Find out more about the latest developments to the Google+ project here.

Posted by Neha Pattan, Software Engineer, Mobile Ads

Reminder: Sign up for “Going Mobile: From Why to How?”

We know that many of you have spent the better half of this year learning about how big the opportunity is to reach your customers on mobile. This Wednesday (9/21/11), we’re taking on a deeper dive of the five things every advertiser needs to have to get their business mobilized in a webinar, “Going Mobile: From Why to How?".

Are you ready to take your business and your clients forward with mobile? Sign up for our webinar today. To register, please visit this link: goo.gl/KFpeb

We look forward to seeing you on September 21st!

Posted by Sonja Lee, Product Marketing Manager, Google Mobile Ads

Gayle remains in limbo as uncertainty continues

Bridgetown (Barbados), Sep 18

Beleaguered opener Chris Gayle has admitted he is unsure about his future in West Indies cricket.

The former Windies captain, who has been ignored by selectors ever since his return from the Indian Premier League in April, says he has heard nothing from selectors with the Test and one-day squad set to be announced shortly for the imminent tour of Bangladesh.

A West Indies Cricket Board release this week said players selected for the Bangladesh tour had been invited to the training camp held here at the High Performance Centre to prepare alongside the Twenty20 squad which head to England next week for a two-match series.

Gayle said he had not been informed about the camp.

"I am available whenever I am needed. I have pointed out to them (WICB) that I am available for West Indies cricket. There is a camp (going on) but nothing has been said to me," Gayle said during a television interview in Jamaica this week.

No team has been announced yet for the tour of Bangladesh which includes one Twenty20, three One-Day Internationals and two Tests from Oct 7 to Nov 2.

Gayle is currently in India, where he will turn out for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Champions League Twenty20, set to start Monday and end Oct 9.

The giant left-hander has been involved in an impasse with the WICB over comments he made in a highly charged interview with a Jamaica radio station back in April.

At the time, the Board indicated that Gayle would have to explain his comments before he could be considered for selection for the series against India in June/July, but a June meeting in Jamaica involving Gayle, WICB and West Indies Players Association officials, failed to resolve the matter.

Gayle said he had since met privately with WICB chief executive Ernest Hilaire last month in Antigua and ironed out the issue.

"It was a good productive meeting. Myself and the CEO actually together sat down and had a fair and frank discussion with each other," Gayle said.

"He pointed out?the problems he had with me which we actually sorted out."

Gayle claims he was told by Hilaire following the meeting that he would be contacted by coach Ottis Gibson and chairman of selectors Clyde Butts.

In a subsequent telephone call, Gayle said Gibson had asked him to publicly retract comments he had made during the radio interview, but he reiterated to the Windies coach that he was standing by what he had said.

"Then he (Gibson) said basically he would actually write a report on what our conversation was, send it to the CEO and eventually they will get back to me after that," Gayle explained.

"That?s the last time I had a conversation with any particular one from the Board and that is how things have played out at this point in time.?

Despite the cloud of uncertainty surrounding Gayle?s career, the hard-hitting batsman said he had no immediate plans on quitting the sport, and becoming a Twenty20 specialist.

?I don?t reach the stage of retiring yet. I still have a lot of cricket to play, internationally as well,? he stressed.

Source: http://www.prokerala.com/news/articles/a247759.html

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MTV Roadies connects with youth using AdMob mobile display

India’s wildly popular MTV “Hero Honda” Roadies emulates the tried-and-true reality genre that has existed in some form almost from the get-go in television programming. Now in its eighth season on MTV, the youth-based show—with multi-lingual participants conversing in a mélange of Hindi and English—has expanded beyond the borders of India to encompass seasons in Thailand, Malaysia, Australia, Africa, and, most recently, South America. When MTV wants to pique interest and engender buzz about the latest series, they now turn confidently to Google AdMob—one of the world’s largest mobile-advertising networks—to reach their core show audience of 18 to 24 year olds.

AdMob reaches the roadie
Roadies’ Gen Y version features a mismatched group of guys and gals and their adventures as they dash around a country—on eye-catching Honda motorbikes no less—completing myriad tasks and challenges. These consist of “Money tasks,” “Advantage tasks,” or “Immunity tasks,” the third of which grants immunity from the dreaded “vote-out” at the hands of their team members. Tasks can be either individual- or team-based and the final surviving “roadie” happily pockets the cumulative cash.  
 

MTV Roadies ad opens to an interactive experience

 
Reaching a young, mobile-savvy customer
In debuting MTV Roadies 8—set in exotic Brazil—the producers based their marketing campaign on Google AdMob to generate online excitement in the imminent launch. Targeting their core demographic of young smartphone-wielding males and females with a predilection for reality TV, the marketers created compelling banner ads that appeared across screens of a variety of downloadable apps. Users who clicked through to the mobile-optimized Roadies website could either view show previews, download special content, or participate in a relevant contest with goodies and vouchers.
 
Because the targeted audience comprises the heaviest users of mobile handsets in India, MTV’s marketing team confidently expected healthy return-on-investment (ROI) for their advertising efforts. The data gleaned from Google Analytics exceeded their predictions. One quarter-million cellular users clicked through to the Roadies site and 80% of those, almost 200,000, then took the time to download show content or play different contests.

"We’re thrilled that we were able to capture so much attention during ourlatest mobile campaign and know that our Google mobile-ads strategy was instrumental in these results,” says Aditya Swamy, Senior Vice President MTV India.  “From the tremendous online interest garnered before the first episode, we’re now predicting that our eighth season could well be our strongest.

Based on these results, there will be no “vote-out” for Google AdMob as MTV plans its next mobile ad campaign for the popular show’s 9th season.

Post by Mahesh Narayanan, Google India

Vinny Guadagnino to Guest Star on 90210

Jersey Shore‘s Vinny Guadagnino has signed on to guest star in an episode of the CW's 90210, and incredibly, the reality star will not be playing himself!

Yes, this is like a real acting role.

Tells you a lot about 90210, but hey, good for him. Guadagnino will reportedly play a "celebrity" involved in a high-stakes poker game with Liam (Matt Lanter).

Vinny shows off his serious side.

Look for Vinny to appear during November sweeps. You know, when shows bring out the really big guns in an attempt to pull in ratings and big ad money.

A little GTL and PFC can only help.

[Photo: WENN.com]

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/09/vinny-guadagnino-to-guest-star-on-90210/

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Smartphones at the dinner table? Smartphone trend-spotting "down under"

Here’s a question for all of you smartphone owners out there: If someone asked you whether you’d rather give up your phone or your TV, what would you say?

Earlier this year, Google teamed up with IPSOS Research to learn the answer to this exact question (and many others) by asking 30,000 people in 30 countries about how they use their smartphones, and where (on the bus? at the office?). It’s the first time anyone has asked this many people the same questions, for free: that means we can compare and contrast behaviour and trends across different age groups, different cities, and even countries.

So what did we learn about Australia? To start with, those of us at Google Australia were particularly proud to discover that Australia has the second highest smartphone penetration in the world -- ahead of the US, UK, and Japan. This is a recent achievement for the land down under. The majority of smartphone owners we surveyed had bought their device in the preceeding 12 months, which means that Australia went from lagging to leading the worldwide smartphone revolution in just one year. We estimate that each month, 1-2% of the entire population of Australia buys a smartphone.

Here are a few other fun facts we found when we took a look at the numbers:

• Not just on the go: You may think that your smartphoneis an “on the go” device, something you can use to kill time in line at thegrocery store or check email on the train. But our survey found that 81% of Australians used their smartphones at home during the past 7 days--compared to just 66% on the go. Nearly 1 in 2 use their smartphone while watching TV, while 1 in 3 use smartphones and another Internet-enabled device at the same time.
• Smartphones are good for business: 49% use their smartphone to research and then call businesses--while 45% visit a business they’ve found using their smartphone.
• We can now indulge our obsession with real estate 24x7: 1 in 5 Australians we surveyed had looked for an apartment or house with their smartphone--a figure 33% higher than the US or UK.
• Search is big on smartphones: 2 in 5 of Australian smartphone owners use mobile search daily--more than the UK or Germany, and almost as high as the number who use desktop search daily.
• Apps, apps, apps: our Australian survey respondents had 25 apps on average per smartphone--that’s versus 23 in the US & UK. They’re not just free apps, either; Australians averaged 8 paid apps per phone.
• And now, the answer we’ve all been waiting for... 1 in 5 Aussie smartphone owners would rather give up their TV than their smartphone.

So what does this mean (aside from smartphones at the dinner table)? First, Australians are buying more smartphones, faster, than the rest of the world--and they’re using them more, too. Second, as more and more of us embrace the smartphone revolution, we’ll be watching more videos, searching for more businesses, buying more apps, and sharing more via mobile. In other words, there are a host of new opportunities for developers, web publishers, video creators, retailers, and advertisers to build and grow their businesses on mobile.

Expand image

If you want to learn more, stay tuned: we’ll be making our global survey results public, in their entirety, for everyone who wants a closer look at the global mobile revolution.

Posted by Jason Pellegrino, Head of Mobile Ads, Google Australia and New Zealand

Indoor Gardening Supplies Necessary To Grow Healthy Plants ...

Researchers have long developed a method of planting and growing plants indoors, without having to use soil. This procedure known as hydroponics only make use of water solutions that carry all the necessary nutrients for plants. To make it work effectively, some indoor gardening supplies would have to be used in congruence with one?s existing system.

Farmers must provide the right environment for the plants they are growing. Carbon dioxide is the most useful gas for these plants; thus, stored CO2 is one thing that should be purchased. Temperature must also be controlled using programmed meters attached to chillers and heaters. And these can be bought over online and retail stores.

Another thing that keeps plants growing normally is the amount of light they are receiving. Thus, farmers also need to know what bulbs, fluorescents, reflectors and other lighting equipment they need to simulate real sunlight. This is quite remarkable in the process of photosynthesis which allows plants to respirate and produce their own energy for growth.

Just like what happens in conventional farming, the plants also have to be protected from harmful substances in the environment. Thus, hydroponic farmers also need to buy debugging medicines for controlling pests and diseases as well as purifiers, fans and filters.

Not only medicines for pests but also for the overall well being of the plants must be purchased. There are many formulas invented by experts that are being sold online which can enhance the nutritional uptake of plants. Propagation equipment like Neoprene inserts, heating mats and rooting gels are also available.

Accessories would allow farmers to do their job more efficiently. They can find nets, pruners, sprayers, grow tents and other hydroponic supplies to complete their set up online and in some retail stores too. Users need to know how these materials are used to accurately do their farming.

There is no doubt that farming has truly evolved in the recent years. With the use of indoor gardening supplies, they can already grow plants like they could in the outdoors. It is even more efficient since everybody can do the technique if they know the basics. Read more about: Indoor Gardening Supplies

Looking to find the most comprehensive information on Indoor Gardening Supplies?

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Source: http://smartselfimprovement.com/personal-growth/indoor-gardening-supplies-necessary-to-grow-healthy-plants

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Industry standards coming to mobile rich media

Mobile advertising is seeing rapid growth and today’s campaigns are richer and more advanced than ever.  However, a lack of industry standards has made it difficult to build and run rich media campaigns across different ad networks and mobile platforms at scale.

To address this challenge, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) brought together a broad group of industry participants and created the MRAID (Mobile Rich-Media Ads Interface Definitions) project. Google fully supports IAB’s effort to create mobile advertising standards and is actively engaged as a member of the MRAID working group.

Last week, IAB released the first public draft of MRAID v1.0  for comments and feedback. The document provides definitions to help standardize the interaction between mobile ads and mobile platform SDKs.  We invite the industry to review this draft and look forward to finalizing this important mobile standard.

The effort to develop standards on mobile is reminiscent of a similar process on desktop years ago.  On desktop, Flash emerged as a standard which enabled advertisers to create ads that would seamlessly run across different ad networks and websites.

Today, the mobile industry has rallied around HTML5 as the preferred language to create mobile ads, yet several challenges remain before this can be instituted.  A wide variety of mobile SDKs have forced advertisers to develop platform or network-specific ads as opposed to a single ad that works across multiple networks and devices.  Having to customize campaigns for each ad network increases cost and pain of ad creation and hinders the growth of the ecosystem.  Imagine if a marketer’s TV ads worked on one channel and one type of television, but not others - that’s where we stand with some mobile ads today.

The first public draft of MRAID v1.0  is a significant step in the rapid evolution of mobile and mobile advertising.  We thank the IAB for organizing the initiative and other working group members for passionately participating in this important project.

Wook Chung
Product Management, Mobile Ads

Infecting viruses go back 300 million years

Viruses were already infecting organisms some 300 million years ago, suggests a new study on what may be the oldest date yet for the emergence of an insect-infecting virus.

"This is the oldest date ever proposed for a virus," said study researcher Elisabeth Herniou of the University of Tours in France.

"Knowing about ancient viruses can help us distinguish evolutionary processes resulting from historical interaction as opposed to adaptive processes happening in the present day," Herniou added in an email to LiveScience.

Waspy viruses
Viruses, which are packets of DNA in a protein shell, can't reproduce on their own and so must take over DNA and protein making machinery of a host in order to survive. To find out how old insect viruses are, researchers studied a virus that parasitic wasps use for their own good.

The wasps use their onboard viruses, called bracoviruses, to control the development and immunity of the caterpillars they parasitize. The wasps use the viral genes to make virus-like particles containing genes for a toxin, which they insert into their caterpillar prey when they lay their eggs.

The infected caterpillar then acts as an incubator for the wasp eggs. Meanwhile, the toxin is made by the caterpillar and poisons its immune system, causes paralysis and stops the caterpillar from pupating.

Viral family tree
To find out when viruses first infected insects, the researchers compared the genes of this wasp bracovirus with genes of related free-living insect viruses (those that haven't inserted their genes into a host genome) called nudiviruses. They found 19 genes in both the wasp bracovirus and the nudivirus, about 10-15 percent of the nudivirus genome.

Next, they looked at the different strains of bracoviruses in different wasps, finding that the bracoviruses and their free-living cousins have been evolving separately for at least 100 million years.

By figuring out how different the ancestral bracovirus was from its parental nudivirus when it entered the wasp, the researchers can calculate backwards and determine when the two viruses had a common ancestor. According to the researchers' data, nudiviruses started appearing around 222 million years ago, then spun off the bracoviruses about 190 million years ago.

By comparing the nudiviruses to their cousins, the baculoviruses, another free-living insect virus, the researchers determined that the two groups split about 310 million years ago.

Ancestral viruses
These ancient viruses would have been similar to modern viruses, with similar genes. "The genes that were used in our study would have been there already in this 300-million-year ancestor," Herniou said.

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This date, 300 million years ago, is as ancient as insects themselves. "Our insect viruses are already present right from the beginning from the evolution of insects," Herniou said. Viruses were still around during the age of dinosaurs, and survived the mass extinction that killed them. They survive to this day and have been found to infect every type of life; there are even viruses that infect viruses.

"Because insects were already infected by some viruses, you can probably extend that to other kinds of multicellular hosts," Herniou said. Viruses could have been infecting other forms of life on the Earth at that time, and in later eras.

The study was published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences.

You can follow LiveScience staff writer Jennifer Welsh on Twitter @microbelover. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.

? 2011 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44491649/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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Going Mobile: From Why to How? Sign up today for our webinar on Sept. 21st.

We all know that consumers and businesses are going mobile. In fact, this was the first year that shipments of smartphone and tablets outpaced computers. This holiday season, we predict that mobile will become an even bigger part of consumer activity, with a predicted 44% of total searches in the US for last minute gifts and store locator terms coming a mobile device.

You’ve probably started to tailor your advertising efforts for mobile, and engage your users on these devices. But what’s next? How can you delve deeper in the mobile space? We want to give you the tools to get your business from the “Why?” to the "How?"

On Wednesday, September 21 at 11:00 am PT/2:00 pm ET, Sonja Lee, Product Marketing Manager and Angela Sherman, Mobile Specialist, will be presenting 5 key mobile advertising strategies for various marketing goals, including how to drive local traffic and mobile conversion volume, and how best to reach tablet users. They will also be showcasing the latest launches in Google mobile ads and discussing how to best incorporate them into your mobile strategy.

Are you ready to take your business and your clients forward with mobile? Sign up for our webinar today. To register, please visit this link: goo.gl/KFpeb

We look forward to seeing you on September 21st!

Posted by Sonja Lee, Product Marketing Manager, Google Mobile Ads

Obama: Republicans Perry, Romney 'credible' candidates (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? President Barack Obama says he considers Texas Governor Rick Perry and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the two top Republican presidential hopefuls, "credible" candidates to challenge him for the White House in 2012.

Obama made the comments in an interview with NBC News to be broadcast on Monday.

In excerpts of the interview released by the network, Obama said he was not worried about his low job approval ratings in opinion polls. He also said he thinks that anti-government elements of the conservative Tea Party movement are a permanent part of American politics.

With unemployment still above 9 percent some 14 months before the 2012 election, Republicans see Obama, a Democrat, as increasingly vulnerable.

"The truth of the matter is, the American people have gone through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. And they are understandably impatient," Obama said, according to a transcript provided by NBC.

"And I can say to them, 'Look, all the actions we've taken have been the right actions. If we hadn't taken those actions, things would be much worse.' But the bottom line is, unemployment is still at 9 percent."

Asked about Perry, who has moved into front-runner status for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, Obama said: "He's been the governor of a big state. And you know, there's no doubt he's a credible candidate, as is Mr. Romney and a whole bunch of other folks."

Obama declined to respond to specific jabs made about him by potential opponents and said he was not concerned about his own position in the polls.

"One of the things that I learned very early on is not to worry about polls, because if I was worrying about polls, I wouldn't be sitting here," he said. "I was down about 30 (percentage) points around this time in my first run for (the) presidency."

(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Will Dunham)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110912/pl_nm/us_usa_campaign_obama

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Marshall Electronics outs glasses-free Orchid 3D monitor for pro filmmakers

If you're trying to turn your next film into a three dimensional cinematic masterpiece, having a quality camera to record things is a necessity. But, prudence demands that would-be James Camerons film with a first-rate monitor to view all that video as well. Good thing Marshall Electronics has made the Orchid OR-70-3D monitor to meet all your moviemaking needs. It's got a 7.2-inch, 1600 x 600 glasses-free 3D display that works using parallax barrier and lenticular hybrid technology -- all in a package that weighs just under three pounds. In order to let you fine tune things in all three dimensions, there's real-time waveform and color vectorscope monitoring along with a suite of other 3D tuning tools. The cost for such prodigious production value? $7,899, which sounds like a lot, but if it helps you make the next Avatar you'll have no problems recouping your investment. PR's after the break.

Continue reading Marshall Electronics outs glasses-free Orchid 3D monitor for pro filmmakers

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/12/marshall-electronics-outs-glasses-free-orchid-3d-monitor-for-pro/

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