Google has hit an all-time high in market share, commanding 67.25% of all U.S. searches in March, according to Hitwise, an online competitive intelligence company. That was up from 64.13% in March 2007.

Yahoo Search, MSN Search and Ask.com last month had shares Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

Blogs, RSS, podcasting, social networks. As the Web has evolved, the time it has taken new technologies—even grass-roots, beneath-the-radar developments—to move from concept to mainstream has become shockingly brief.

And while we've moved beyond the idea that Web 2.0 technologies will replace wholesale what's come before them, marketers more than ever before must remain vigilant about keeping up to date with what's cutting-edge.

Even in the b-to-b world, where the hype bar is set rather high, marketers can't afford to miss the next big thing in online marketing.

So here are the big five Web/tech trends worth watching right now—and what they mean for b-to-b marketing: Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

B-to-b marketing budgets appear to be in good shape this year, with more than half of marketers expecting the purse strings to loosen up. While interactive tactics will gain from that increase and see the most growth, traditional media will still command the bulk of the budget. Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

Search marketing continues to grow and morph, and by all accounts 2008 will bring more of the same.
A major player in the search world is Jeffrey Pruitt, exec VP-search at search agency iCrossing and president of the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO). BtoB recently asked Pruitt to talk about current and future trends in search marketing and the biggest challenges marketers will face in 2008. Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

Permission-based b-to-b e-mail lists are the highest-priced list category for the third straight year, according to the Fall 2007 List Price Index released by Worldata, a list management company.
The average price of permission-based b-to-b e-mail lists is $275 per thousand in the current quarter, down $2 from the fourth quarter of 2006. Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

B-to-b magazine ad revenue declined 2% through August compared with the same period last year, according to a report from American Business Media’s Business Information Network. Ad pages fell 3.3% through the first eight months of this year. Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

CMP Channel 's exclusive research identifies a shift in the Channel marketplace. According to this research, for the first time Vendor/Solution Provider loyalty has moved from the vendor to the customer. It also highlights the characteristics of the Channel's partners and how each is responsible for growth. The research notes that vendors prioritizing their efforts around the top 20-30 percent of partners will not necessarily help them achieve their growth objectives.

Key research findings include:

• Fifty percent of Solution Providers rate current level of vendor relationships as 'less than positive'
• Solution Providers have been proactively changing their vendors at an accelerated pace over the past two years. Fifty percent are targeting new markets and 50 percent are expanding new product lines.
• The top three most important program elements Solution Providers evaluate when considering a vendor for a strategic partnership include: product quality/reliability; technology relevance to customer base; and relative profit potential.
• The top three reasons Solution Providers add products and vendors include: technology offering/customer requirements; aligns with business goals; and offers a clear business opportunity.
• The top three reasons Solution Providers drop or de-emphasize products and vendors include: non competitive pricing; bad service; and adding other vendors.

This document presents only a summary of the available research. Please email Kate Spellman for complete details. Download this document...

it with the slowing economy and pressure to cut costs, technology companies are decreasing their rate of marketing spending this year, according to IDC's annual tech marketing benchmark study.

According to the report, which was based on an online survey and telephone interviews with 99 senior IT marketing executives, tech marketing spending will be up 6.1% this year over last, a drop from the growth rate projected by IDC in March of 8.0%.

Last year, tech marketing spending grew by 7.5% over 2005.

Also, for the first time since 2004, tech marketing spending will lag global IT spending, which is projected to increase 6.7% this year. Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

Tech marketing spending will be up 6.1% this year over last, revised down from an earlier estimated 8.0% growth rate projected in March, according to IDC’s 2007 CMO Tech Benchmarks study. Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

New York—Direct navigation—typing a generic category plus “.com” directly into a Web browser—is growing, according to an Opinion Research Corp. survey for LeaseThis.com, a company that leases domain names at a flat rate. Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

Global IT and telecommunication spending is projected to reach $3.3 trillion annually by 2010, growing at a compound annual rate of 4.5% from the $2.7 trillion spent in 2005, according to Gartner Research. IT purchases in the U.S. are expected to grow to $1.0 trillion by 2010—including $871... Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

There's a motto every software and tech vendor should follow, according to Ilan Paretsky, VP-marketing at Ericom Software: "Know thy IT crowd; they're tough, but always fair." Paretsky and his company do, indeed, know their audience well. Ericom has served more than 30,000 customers and... Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

The technology solution provider channel and its related ecosystemais growing in reach, influence, and total revenue. Historical comparisons to the growth of previous manufacturing channels reveal that the technology solution provider channel should eventually achieve a even greater mass-market appeal. Overall channel growth is strong. New growth strategies aimed at developing and increasing the spending of customers with comparatively smaller technology procurement budgets are being harnessed by a wider swath of solution providers to lay the groundwork for future revenue. Download this document…

CMP executives share highlights of the 2007 Technology Marketing Study and the 2006 Purchase Process Study. Viewers will learn about: indelible trends in technology marketing, and the dynamics that shape them, integration -- how online, print, and events work together to accomplish marketing goals, the importance of managing, not just generating, qualified leads, and the influence of new media types including video, in the marketing mix of the future. Moderated by BtoB’s Senior Reporter, Kate Maddox, this webinar gives the viewer research-based insights on how to successfully market to B2B technology customers. View the webcast archive...