You can take it with you -- if the "it" is user generated content on mobile phones. According to Jupiter Research, revenues from UGC on social networking sites will grow 10 fold between 2007 to 2012 to $5.7 billion.

That's incredible growth for the MySpace's and Facebook's of the world, especially considering the content is free. MySpace is the current leader in the space, with 3.7 million users checking in with friends via phone in a month.

So what will be the biggest marketing opportunities to reach the well-connected youth? Music and video are the most likely mediums, but don't underestimate location-based shopping. Two friends are IMing online and can't decide on where to dine or grab a drink -- hello geolocated advertising.

I believe Jupiter's numbers are a bit high, but there's not doubt that the socially inclined will be served with peer-to-peer distractions to prevent them from ever logging off. This will make for great conversation as people out and about will spend more time texting and less time talking to the real people right in front of them.

It's that time of year again, the 2nd annual Search Engine Fantasy Football Challenge. Year 1 was a success and we are looking to have an even bigger better year this year.

Last year we had representatives from SERoundtable (Barry), SEOmoz (Rand), MSN (Thomas), SEObyTheSea (Bill), SEJ (Loren), Marketingshift (Jason and I), so make sure your site / company is represented by joining up today!

The league is filling up fast but we do have some open spots, if you or anyone you know is interested in joining, please send me an email at Evan [at] Labitat.com.

If you don't know anything about fantasy football but want to learn, here are some cheat sheets for you Fantasy Football for Dummies Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black, Microsoft sure has nerve to hire a lobbying firm to get congress to look into the Google-DoubleClick merger. The ink isn't even dry on Microsoft's acquisition of aQuantive!

While Google dominates the online ad buying business, you can argue that Microsoft has more direct control because of the tremendous amount of traffic it "owns" via MSN, Microsoft.com and all of its other properties. Google doesn't own the sites where it places the majority of its ads, and advertisers and publishers are free to leave if something better comes along. If Microsoft had a clearly better product than Google, then more people would be screaming about Redmond's potential to monopolize the web.

For a company that visits with antitrust regulators more often than I go to the dentist to call for government intervention is a joke. The next time Microsoft wants to do some corporate arm-twisting, this incident will be surely brought up.

If it can make sense to lease a car, then renting a textbook can be a fiscally sound move too. Textbookflix allows students to rent new or used textbooks and save by providing a guaranteed buyer to reclaim old books.

Developed by Clegg, the site claims that students can save up to sixty percent. It is a hassle going to the store bookstore and overpaying, so competition from TextbookFlicks orBigwords is welcome. This is a market that needs more choices.

But Textbookflix? Sure, it's easy to rip off the Netflix name, but the flix part with throw off a lot of consumers.

The Fox Network is leveraging its television assets online by creating a platform so that local affiliates can also stream episodes of shows such as "24".

Smart move Fox, spreading TV shows far and wide and sharing the ad revenue is definitely the best way to build audience and keep fans connected. The next step would be to allow mashups of clips from favorite episodes and embed them in MySpace (also a News Corp. property) page.

Shows like "House" or "24" could be given great exposure during the summer rerun period if fans could slice and dice parts of the previous season into their own montages.

Source: MediaPost

To my surprise Facebook continues to grow in size, utility, and as an advertising platform. Videoegg just announced a new service that will insert ads into applications developed for the site, opening up new inventory for companies looking to connect with the Facebook audience.

Facebook is also strong in mobile social networking, and I've heard that companies are starting to use private Facebook groups to communicate. Facebook is better armed to continue to innovate thanks to the acquisition of Parakey, founded by the Firefox guys.

But Facebook is not without its problems. A security study found that Facebook users are willing to share personal info, indicating that the company has to improve its education of customers as well as security features.

And as our man Evan pointed out, the company has a skeleton in its closet that could come back to haunt it.

I may have to eat crow on my prediction that Facebook erred when the companydeclined overtures from Yahoo. Social networking sites still have momentum on their own, although I still believe that the functions will largely be adopted by publishers.

SEO company is trying a unique approach to show its value to customers: a free month's service.

I was called today by a fast-talking representative who told me my local business would be the first result in Google for one month, and if I liked the results, I could continue to pay for the service for $49.95 per month.

What better to prove your worth? If you get significant leads and customers, who wouldn't want to continue with the service?

I'm curious to see what they come up with considering during the call they didn't say I'd be required to change my website. I'll let you know if it works. I'm not so sure considering that they offer a "gauaranteed service."

I was browsing my feeds and as usual an iPhone post caught my eye. Pete at Mashable.com has a post about Facebook's new iPhone friendly format and it reminded me about something I stumbled upon with my new iPhone (Thanks El Jefe!).

When you first fire up the iPhone's safari browser you get a few default bookmarks, two of which are Apple.com and Att's My Account page. Now my question is why are these two site's not iPhone ready? I know the whole point of the iPhone is to use the regular internet, not a mobile version of the internet, but a little formatting for the iPhone user-agent sure wouldn't hurt anyone.

So my questions to anyone who cares to answer are: Why wouldn't Apple or ATT have iPhone ready designs? Should companies use resources to develop iPhone designs for their websites or is that a waste of time?

The other shoe has dropped on pay-for news content. First the Old Gray Lady (NYTimes), and now the Wall Street Journal decided to ad-supported publishing is so great that it makes giving up on subscription services. With behavioral and target marketing technologies spreading like a California wildfire, the per user revenue is about to skyrocket.

Journalism expert Dante Chinni
warns that ad revenue might not grow as quickly as publishers might hope.

Online ad revenues may be growing like weeds, but the growth rate has begun to slow sooner than expected. Even the most optimistic projections suggest if they keep growing at their current rate it will take more than a decade for them to equal the money that comes in from print newspaper ads.

Newspaper publishers have to make up their losses in print circulation and pay-for services by becoming marketing/technology leaders in understanding and leveraging their audience. The NY Times reader is a highly desirable demographic no matter where he/she lives; producing ads that are relevant to both the location and tastes of the individual on the fly are a requirement.

Content should be free, but user registration can be mandatory for select content. Publishers can work with ad networks to track behaviors across sites, or they take the most direct method of periodically asking people about their tastes.

Advertising Age has ranked the top 150 media and marketing blogs in the world, and MarketingShift is humbled to score within the top 50.

The Power 150 is a mostly objective system that takes scores for audience reach and influence from Google; Bloglines and Technorati, and ads a subjective score from marketing blogger, Todd Andrlik.

We came in at 49th globally, and 38th for a U.S.-based blog. Seth Godin came in at number one, followed by Steve Rubel's Micro Persuasion.

Since we are not one to rest on our laurels, we are focused on making it to the top 10, so stay tuned as we become more useful and necessary.

Google is conceding to the reality that people won't pay to watch old TV episodes online and will no longer sell content on its video site, according to MediaPost.

The question for media companies is how much content are they willing to provide for free in order to advance their brand. Mass media success is about developing a relationship with viewers/readers over time so that they perceive the value and differentiation of your offering and want to keep coming back for more.

When there is an unlimited choice of free competition, this means embracing your audience, and as I've said since the networks first put their content online, they should use ads to generate revenue.

A very small percentage of people will pay for content on mobile devices, but watching reruns online must be free.

Cable TV channels are under increasing pressure to find an audience, so they should give up charging the cable providers for carrying their service and go to an ad revenue share. I hear there are lots of great shows on FX and MSNBC, but since they aren't part of my basic cable package, I don't see them.