Google is quickly becoming a household world across the globe as the company's brand strength grew by 44 percent over last year, according to a report by BusinessWeek/Interbrand.

Google was ranked as the 20th most valuable and the only company that does not manufacture/sell consumer products, which is amazing considering that the company name is only spread online, whereas every other company has products available at retail and advertisers in print or through outdoor ads. The only other online companies to make the top 100 were eBay (48) and Amazon (62).

Of the top 10 brands, only 2 were from non U.S. companies -- Toyota and Mercedes-Benz, and 3 were tech companies (Microsoft, IBM and Intel).

Also of note -- Apple and Nintendo were also among the biggest gainers in brand value.

Marketing to mobile devices has fast become the best method of reaching Blackberry/iPhone addicts. The cross-platform initiatives are delivered by radio, television, and outdoor signage and provide easy-to-remember text numbers to respond to an offer.

For example, Vibes.com recently processed its 200 millionth text marketing message, while NAS Recruitment Communications has scored clients including Fidelity Investments, Toyota, and Verizon Wireless, for its interactive job listing services.

Linking a phone's text message response with an e-mail account can start the chain of communications more quickly than having to log on to reply to a marketing message. This takes advantage of the ease of mobile devices without having to require typing on miniature keyboards. RSS could also be an effective marketing method for the increasing number of people who are using feed readers on their mobile phones.

While free wireless services have increased the use of laptops as "always on" communications devices, direct access the mobile phone crowd has the broadest reach.

First comes ads,
Than comes acquisition
Next comes MSNigg in the top position.

By now you've all read the news that Digg and MSN have agreed to an ad deal, probably worth a gazillion dollars if I had to guess. If you've kept on top of things and I like to think our readers to, you've also heard the rumors of a possible acquisition of Digg by MSN. But what you haven't heard is a good reason why Digg needs MSN.

No one is doubting Digg's rep in the neighborhood, we all know its the big dog when it comes to social media, but even the big dog has a soft spot. When it comes to tech news, Digg is king, but all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn't pick up the rest of the Digg sections. No more bad analogies I promise. There has always been a market for someone to capitalize on Digg's inability to succeed in other niches, but many have tried and even more have failed. There are so many options, its hard to gain traction. Take the Digg sports section for example. Its terrible. Horribly out dated and always slow with the news. I tried to do my part and submit breaking stories that would interest other sports fans but not once did they succeed, instead the top stories are "Top 5 Most Ridiculous WWF Gimmicks" and "Why are cyclists at the Tour de France still doping?". Two stories most sports fans could care less about. Now add MSN to the mix.

Now let's take a look at the data

According to Alexa 24% of the world's internet users visit MSN.com (or a MSN property), compared to a measly 0.56% for Digg.com.

There are 780 pages of MSN related URLs (~14,000) in Digg.com. Compared to 229 pages for Apple.com, 619 pages for Google.com, 1954 pages for Yahoo, 614 pages for Engadget.com and 174 pages for TechCrunch.com.

Those are pretty compelling data points that show us: MSN is popular with Digg.com users, but MSN users don't really know about Digg.com. That's a huge opportunity for both Digg and MSN.

If MSN were to acquire Digg.com it would introduce a whole new plethora of users to Digg.com, pump much needed life into all the dead Digg sections, and continue bringing down servers worldwide (although being MSNugg doesn't have the same ring to it). I'd also assume that there would be a mini-revolt from all the Apple fanboys and Kevin Rose loving Digg purists who want the site to remain 'homegrown' but in the end we'd all win.

Hey Bill, Kimi wanted me to pass you this note from her friend.

Don't get me wrong. The default search in my firefox is still Google but Yahoo just forced me to take a second look at making the switch back to Yahoo. The Yahoo Search blog announced a new feature enhancement that has gone relatively un-talked about in the search community but I think it deserves some acknowledgment.

Go to Yahoo and search for that place you've been yearning to go, for me its Phuket and see if you get a similar result. Yahoo has mixed up their travel search results in hope to help people research their next vacation a little easier (or day dream at your desk some more).

What this little box is bringing to you is results from various Yahoo properties around the web Flickr images, Yahoo Travel community, Yahoo Farechase, and Yahoo Maps. I am all for anything that can make my online life more efficient and this is one of them. Rather than scouring all over the web for pictures of Phuket or things to do in Phuket, I have them all in one little place at the top of my page.

There is more to this search result enhancement than just making searching easier, Yahoo is changing your search marketing plan. We all know about the "traditional" search marketing tactics, SEO and PPC, well now there is even more reason to work on that social marketing you've been putting off. By now, everyone should have see the "Web 2.0 Machine is Us/ing Us" video, if not watch it here. As the video says, we are teaching the machine. Everyday we go online and tag our pictures, links, web pages, and videos and what we are doing is helping organize the world's data. I know these guys wanted that job, but everyone is helping. Yahoo is taking that data , combining it with the data from their properties and producing a very satisfying result.

This is how they are changing the online marketing game. If you are in the travel industry, you need to get yourself out there. Get your pictures on Flickr. Get your links on del.icio.us. Get involved in travel communities. Put your data out there, tag it, get involved and watch it grow.

We are people powered search, Now you just need people powered online marketing to go along with it.