NewSunNetworks

(Cross-posted with the YouTube Biz Blog ) Mobile phones are rapidly becoming essential tools for surfing the web, connecting with friends, and sharing and watching video online, and we’re seeing these effects at YouTube. The YouTube mobile site is more popular than ever: site traffic grew by over 160% in 2009, and now millions of people all over the world are streaming tens of millions of videos every day on their mobile phones. The mobile space moves fast, so we’ve been working hard to roll out new features and functionality quickly, especially as more and more people adopt YouTube-capable phones. The increased usage of high-end devices like the iPhone and Android is also making mobile advertising easier and more effective for advertisers. So today, we’re launching ads on the home, search and browse pages of the American and Japanese YouTube mobile websites (m.youtube.com from your mobile browser). This is a great way for advertisers to reach YouTube viewers across multiple platforms. In fact, at launch YouTube will immediately provide one of the largest audiences for a mobile ad campaign anywhere on the mobile web. And because YouTube mobile attracts early adopters, the site can deliver to advertisers a coveted demographic of tech savvy trendsetters. We’ve already seen some early campaigns run on YouTube’s mobile site by advertisers like Sony (for the DVD release of “District 9″) and Kia, both of whom were able to easily reach their target audience, no matter where they were looking for video. Our first tests of YouTube mobile ads — with brands ranging from L’Oreal to Land Rover — showed strong results related to click-throughs, user experience and brand awareness, and we’ve learned a lot in the months since then.

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YouTube calling: Now serving ads on the YouTube mobile site

Slash Lane / AppleInsider : Steve Ballmer praises Apple for creation of iPhone App Store

Fred von Lohmann / Electronic Frontier Foundation : All Your Apps Are Belong to Apple: The iPhone Developer Program License Agreement

The Oscars®: glitz, glamor, gossip, gold statuettes, much fanfare — and for many fans, Google search is increasingly a part of watching this live TV experience. Before and during the Academy Awards® broadcast in the U.S., we saw related queries on Google dominating the hot searches list on Google Trends. People searched for the TV schedule, printable ballots for voting on favorites, streaming video sites, nominee and film information, celebrity chatter and whatever else caught your attention. Here’s a snapshot: Fashion Everyone knows the red carpet is all about the gowns. So which actresses made the best (or worst!) dressed list in search? Zoe Saldana ’s purple Givenchy haute couture gown won the day in searches, with just a few more queries than runner up Miley Cyrus , who walked down the carpet in one of Jenny Packham’s finest. Both beat searches for Sandra Bullock ’s dress (Marchesa) by large margins. Sarah Jessica Parker , always the fashionista, ranked a distant fourth in Chanel. Certain designers were also popular in search, thanks to the stars who wore (and name-dropped) them. Elie Saab (worn by Anna Kendrick), Armani Prive (Amanda Seyfried, Jennifer Lopez) and Marchesa (Sandra Bullock, Vera Farmiga) were all rising trends. Winners Throughout the night Oscar®-related searches rose and fell as nominations were introduced and winners announced. Avatar had the most searches before the ceremony, but as The Hurt Locker received more awards, searches for that film exceeded all others and peaked when it won Best Picture. Precious also had a good run throughout the night. Its peak matched that of “Avatar” during the ceremony: The awards for best actor, best actress and best director are some of the most-anticipated in the program. There was a considerable amount of buzz about Jeff Bridges, Sandra Bullock and Kathryn Bigelow before last night, and considerable spikes in search volume when they each won.

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And the searches go to…

Brian X. Chen / Gadget Lab : Will the iPad Be Missing a Few iPhone Apps?

Seth Weintraub / 9 to 5 Mac : Steve Jobs emails Swede that the iPad won’t tether to the iPhone

I have two unlimited service plans from Sprint for myself and my wife. We pay in excess of $200 per month and we’ve been Sprint customers for a decade. We are the high-value post-paid customers that Sprint has been bleeding for the past couple of years. I opted to stay with Sprint and bought the crap Palm Pre — sell your Palm shares now — instead of churning to AT&T to get the iPhone. Recently I discovered that T-Mobile offers the same service plan I currently have for two lines at $50 less per month. It’s not the iPhone but I would be happy with the Nexus One, which is compatible with T-Mobile’s network. I’ve now talked to several Sprint reps and they’ve got nothing to offer me to retain my business. If T-Mobile pushed this plan aggressively on TV it would capture some new business. Indeed, it’s likely to capture mine. Observing Sprint’s behavior is interesting from a customer service and retention standpoint. We’ll see how hard they work to keep me. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse should be matching T-Mobile’s pricing because Sprint is a “ value carrier ” and not really competing with AT&T or Verizon, which are positioned as the premium US carriers. Sprint hopes that WiMax will enable the company to boast about speed and compete with its network. However the advantage if it materializes will likely be short-lived.

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Q: Will Sprint Retain My Business?

It’s a little ironic that I’m writing this post about iPhone apps using WordPress on a Motorola Droid (Devour actually), but it allows me a chance to experience how hard it is to blog, using a tiny tiny tactile keyboard and also finally get this post started. Ah, back to a full sized Logitech keyboard and mouse. Much better. Popularized by iPhones, there are apps for just about everything, including tools to help social media marketers on the go. In fact, there are over 100,000 iPhone applications to choose from. Many of those apps are extensions of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Others serve as productivity tools for more efficient social web participation or for content creation. As a content marketer that is also a big fan of social networking and sharing, here are a few of my favorites: Echofon – Twitter usage on iPhones must be out of this world and while there are many great apps for Twitter including Seesmic, Hootsuite, Tweetie and Tweetdeck, I like EchoFon the best. It’s amazingly easy to switch between multiple accounts, its fast and there’s an auto-complete feature when typing in Twitter handles that saves a lot of time. It works with lists very nicely but does not offer scheduled tweeting, which I don’t personally use much anyway. Facebook – I probably use Facebook more on the iPhone than through the web site. Personal social networking or networking as an individual on Facebook is pretty easy to do with the app. What I’ve pictured below is where I also get a lot of productivity, which is being able to manage our blog’s fan page. We’ve gone from about 80 to over 1,400 fans in about 3 months and the convenience of adding to discussions via the iPhone has a lot to do with that growth. Foursquare – You know those social media shiny objects that you’ve come to avoid but then they gain so much momentum and buzz that you have to try it out and then you end up liking them? That’s my Foursquare experience

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My Top iPhone Apps for Social Media Marketing

Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch : The Complaint: Apple’s Patent Lawsuit Against HTC Is All About Android

Nilay Patel / Engadget : Apple sues HTC for infringing 20 iPhone patents