Shopping on the internet always seems like the environmentally sound choice for eco-aware consumers, especially to get rid of those regular trips to the supermarket by car. For some time now online retailers claim that it is more efficient for one van to deliver to several addresses than for each household to travel by car to the shops.

However, according to a recent article published in The Times shows that this may not be the case, and that though such lifestyle changes as purchasing online maybe cutting down the number of cars on the road, it is in fact increasing the number of vans and lorries on UK roads.

The article reveals that "British households spend more than £3billion a month on internet goods and in April online spending rose by 55 per cent compared with the same month last year." Which may have had a large effect on the news that "The number of vans on the road has increased by almost a third, or more than 730,000, in the past decade."

Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2039853.ece

The rumours are finally turning into reality with many industry experts predicting that Myspace will be replaced as the king of the social networking kingdom as soon as September 07. Facebook's growing popularity has pulled away a large chunk of MySpace's audience, with the number of British visitors to MySpace dipping to 6.5 million in May of this year - down from 6.8 million in April. Myspace, which has reigned supreme for the last couple of years, suffered the same trend in the US (it's biggest market) with traffic falling to 56.6 million in May, from 57 million a month earlier.

According to Nielsen//Netratings, the market researchers, Facebook's audience in the UK has grown at 19 times the rate of MySpace's over the past six months, surging 523 per cent. The new statistics illustrate the opening of the online social networking market as well as the lack of user loyalty amongst such sites.

Read more: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article2000500.ece

The continual spread of the internet's power and influence was again seen at the launch of the MediaGuardian 100 Power List where the head of Google (chief executive Eric Schmidt) overtook the BBC Director General as being the most powerful name in the media sector.

As well as this, almost half of those people named in the 2007 list were new entries as the internet's power and influence picks up pace in replacing many of the media industry's 'old guard'. You Tube founders Chad Hurley and Steven Chen, MySpace chief executive Chris DeWolfe and Bebo founder Michael Birch were all included for the first time.

read more: http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2122067,00.html

When Feed Company released a new viral video for Ray Bans, they posted on http://www.beyondmadisonavenue.com/2007/05/new-ray-ban-viral/ that this clip was going to be the latest in a short list of viral video sensations. The video was released at the start of May has already been viewed more than a million times, favourite over six-thousand times and commented-on over six-thousand times (including dozens of video responses and user generated spoofs.) Here is the original campaign:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-prfAENSh2k&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fgregverdino%2Etypepad%2Ecom%2Fgreg%5Fverdinos%5Fblog%2F2007%2F05%2Ffail%5Fyour%5Fway%5Ft%2Ehtml

This example will invariably persuade a number of brands to have a go at the viral marketing game - with mixed results. Unfortunately many viral campaigns don't reach the heady heights of the videos that have inspired them. In such cases, many marketing agencies simply tick the 'viral' box and then move onto the next marketing fad that they are yet to try. However, what the should do is go back to the drawing board and create another, and then another until they hit a cord with the desired consumer.

The 'trial and error' philosophy of viral marketing means that there is often errors, making this format very different to traditional marketing. In traditional advertising, you launch a campaign and expect immediate, measurable results. In viral marketing, you need to put something out there, expect nothing and keep fine tuning until you catch the consumer wave.

Myspace is clearly the leader in social networking websites, with an 80.74% market share according to http://www.hitwise.com/. However, new kid on the digital block, Facebook, may be positioning itself like Apple, with it's Apple-esque approach to clean-lines and innovation with high user-ratings, market appeal and it's innovative F8 Platform.

The smoothness of Facebook vs the messy corporate feel to Myspace is a battle proving increasingly entertaining, with many over 21's moving across to FB after the buyout at Murdockspace. Read more:

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/archives/2007/05/29/why_facebook_is_the_new_apple.html