Maneesh runs a digital advertising agency and dabbles in writing and designing otherwise. He has authored over 300 posts at WATBlog and shares his opinion on online advertising, social media, branding, industry analysis and occasional bits on entrepreneurship. You can follow him on Twitter at @maneeshm or mail him at m[at]smursh.com

Understand that it is meant for collaboration. Also it would be handy to keep in mind that too many cooks spoil the broth. Knowing these two things in my mind are the most effective ways to make use of Google wave.

Evolving sustainable business models in the digital space is a point that pricks a lot of media companies, especially news and content driven web publishers. News websites have been in the news for all the wrong reasons, and it has been said enough that print publishers unless they adopt to new media will soon be [...]

It is with pity that I see the state of a banner ad on the web today, totally ignored and completely pointless. Add this to some of the other aspects that I have been observing and it is only evident (like to many others like me) that display campaigns seem on a suicidal run as a community. Although, I wouldn’t say something as drastic as display advertising on the web is dead, the day wouldn’t be very far that I did.

The past 10 years might have truly belonged to China but somewhere along India too has caught up to be a close second in staking claim if not more. Of course our country has to attempt bigger strides to gain any credible momentum in many areas, we certainly seem to be doing well in one – the digital arena

Twitter trends apart, Twitter itself was sort of trending in our news feeds here today, with as many as four or five news stories on it. The following three provided an interesting mix of news on Twitter being used in third party marketing moves. They also in a way shed light on how Twitter (and perhaps similar social media products) might begin to get integrated in advertising and marketing efforts in future.

MapmyIndia has announced the launch ‘MapmyIndia Sygic Mobile Maps’ to convert GPS-enabled mobile phones into GPS navigators. An app made in association with Europe based Sygic, it will help users access information on the go through their mobile phones and MapmyIndia’s data. The good part is that the app won’t require GPRS or a network to operate in, so no phone bills for usage nor do you run the risk of losing out because of no network.

Essentially Jason’s idea of web design is to put it to use as a craft like how traditional page makers do. Designing page layout in a print magazine is a specialized job and is very much a creative abode. Jason believes that this can be replicated on the web (and his website is a wonderful example of the same). That every piece of content that goes on a website can be crafted and displayed in its own unique layout and thus give the visitor a complete experience.

Google has announced that it will limit a user’s access to content on a paid news site. According to BBC, Newspaper publishers will now be able to set a limit on the number of free news articles people can read through Google. Under the First Click Free programme, publishers can now prevent unrestricted access to subscription websites. Users who click on more than five articles in a day may be routed to payment or registration pages.

IAMAI’s 4th Indian digital summit will happen on December 3rd and 4th at the Hotel Intercontinental The Lalit, Sahar Mumbai. We had earlier announced the event and gist of the agenda and speaker list. Now along with the entire agenda, we also have some interesting news for Startups to take note of. You can get a 50% off on Registration for the event if you’re a startup firm.

The video that I saw has around nearly 300000 views, and it is being advertised with large banner ad by Google on YouTube. So I am presuming this is new and that not many have seen it already, pardon my ignorance if that isn’t the case. However, not much has been spoken about how brands and advertisers can leverage the YouTube the same way, so I think it is an interesting case study nevertheless to see.

Digital media and social media in particular by powering people’s need for self expression is creating momentous changes in the way both brands as well as entire businesses function. And in the process it a business and its brands cease to seem separate. Which then suggests that the partners of a brand (usually consumers) and partners of a business (usually employees) cease to seem separate.

This post, based on my small understanding and on what I have read and learned through the past 3 years on the social media circle, goes out to the brand, its agency and many other brands perhaps who want to build buzz or the cooler word of mouth through social media.

Interactive agency Quasar has launched a new digital agency, fittingly called Blazar (a Blazar is a compact Quasar). According to Manish Vij (Co founder of Quasar) “Blazar will have creative, media planning and buying capabilities. It will offer all kinds of digital marketing solutions, ranging from display advertising, social media, search and mobile marketing to online reputation management,” (Source: afaqs)

If you read this like right now and head to Twitter and search for “Chrome OS”, you’ll find over a 100 tweets getting updated by the second that Google has released a Beta Version of its Chrome OS.

I landed up on a blog post about advertising and communications, about how they are different from one another and their overall impact on brand positioning. In essence the post revolved around the idea that advertising is brand positioning and not communicating product details.