Interesting figures from some Google commissioned research which I found thanks to a quick post on the Online Journalism Blog.

It shows that offline advertising leads to online further research of a product in 67% of cases.

I posted about the relationship of online advertising to offline sales a while ago and it shows the crossover between online and offline Worlds should not be underestimated.

Of course a lot of companies still think the two are pretty much unrelated and therefore don’t follow through all the possible tracking opportunities available. How simple is it to create a campaign specific URL for each offline campaign that can then be linked into a websites stats? Extremely simple and should really be second nature by now.

I’m impressed with the new Facebook feature that allows instant chat with friends that are online. They’ve kept it simple which I hope stays as I’m a bit of a Facebook minimalist!

Although I do think “the wall” is the best feature, as it allows other friends to see the conversations taking place, I’m hoping the new chat system doesn’t affect this hugely as the new feature doesn’t allow conversations when either users is offline. Therefore the wall still has a purpose and it’s ability to show friends updates stays.

I’ve read a fair bit about how social networking is going to replace search but I’ve been pretty sceptical about this so far. You have to meet my friends to understand this - we’d have trouble at a pub quiz (I’m joking guys honestly)!

Of course in actual fact it’s not the more closed social systems that this is referring to and therefore it wouldn’t just be a small group that would be suggesting how to perform open heart surgery if that’s what takes your fancy.

I can see that social networking could benefit search side by side almost acting as a checking algorithm against adverse manipulation. This already happens to a certain extent and I can only see this spread increasing. It’s is all well and good for apps like digg and del.icio.us but this has more far reaching consequences when it comes to Facebook, MySpace and Bebo. Privacy issues have been highlighted a lot in the media at the moment so the data within these walls should remain private and therefore unavailable to tap into.

However imagine the power of all this hidden information if a way of anonymizing the data could take place.

I’m still interested to see the next Google and social media might well spawn it so keeps those eyes pealed maybe it might be The Mechanical Zoo which when it launches claims to be a “social search”?

In any case there are still issues here with fact, fiction and opinion. Rumours spread like wildfire on the Internet so theoretically relying on the even less formal conversations within social media sites might actually end with less accurate information returned?

Phorm are still putting their fingers in their and singing “la la la la la” when anyone mentions that their advertising shouldn’t be based on an opt out even when it’s the information commissioner.

Security companies have now jumped into the fray saying that the infamous Phorm cookie will be seen as Adware and blocked by default which means Phorm’s initial user base will be cut somewhat.

The main issue for me now is still the interception of data but as the ICO has passed the buck to the Home Office I can’t see a quick resolution. This one could run for some time yet!