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Disney Movies Are Coming to YouTube in Canada

Google announced today that is has licensed movies from Walt Disney Studios. The company's YouTube Movies feature will allow users to rent Disney moves.

With just a handful of Disney titles available immediately, YouTube will soon have dozens more, including classics like Winnie the Pooh and Alice in Wonderland. It also plans to expand its overall library by hundreds of titles over the next couple of months.

YouTube's movies service is nearing one year of age but has never been actively marketed. Perhaps with the recent struggles of Netflix and the addition of Disney movies, Google will push this feature to consumers more aggressively.

Canada Lacks Transparency and Access to Information, But Government and Business Are Taking Steps Forward

At Tuesday’s Freedom of Information (Or Not) event hosted by the Canadian Journalism Foundation the Information Commissioner of Canada Suzanne Legault said:  “Transparency is an idea whose time has come because transparency generates trust”.

It’s not just towards the government has there been calls for transparency where full information was released just 16% of the time in 2010 down from 41% in 2000 when asked for access to information. I’ve seen these calls across a wide swath of industries as people struggle to keep up with a rapidly changing world that has become increasingly divided between the big corporations and the smaller to medium sized businesses.

Simply put, access to information is critical to driving innovation in Canada from both business and government.

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Google's Earth Outreach is now in Canada

Google has officially launched its Earth Outreach program in Canada.

Google Earth Outreach helps nonprofit organizations using Google Earth and Maps. The program has highlighted climate change with Al Gore and brought Street View to the Amazon, among other projects.

The Canadian program has plans to work with aboriginal communities in BC, as well as projects involving the Boreal Forest, Arctic regions, and the David Suziuki Foundation.

Social Media Tips For B2B Technology Marketers

B2B Social WorldThis morning, Environics Communications hosted a panel discussion at MaRS in Toronto entitled “The B2B Social World.” Digital B2B marketing experts from Backup Heros, Wave Accounting, Sequentia Environics, and MaRS sat on a panel to discuss the successes and failures that they’ve faced when using social media to promote their businesses.

The conversation started by identifying the best channels to use for B2B social media marketing. The panellists agreed that Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, and online communities are some of the most effective tools for reaching potential customers and building relationships.

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Samsung Galaxy Nexus available for pre-ordering, launching in Bell stores early December

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is going to be widely available across Canada from the big three carriers, Rogers, Telus, and Bell. The phone will include the new Android Ice Cream Sandwich operating system and is expected to hit Bell stores in early December, so you can start pre-ordering just in time for Christmas. If you're with Rogers or Telus, you might just have to wait until 2012. 

Samsung in Canada now represents 24-26% of the overall mobile market and 21% of the smartphone market according to the IDC and other sources.

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Google+ Joins Twitter In Saying That It's Not a Social Network. But Isn't It?

This article was originally published on Smedio.

There’s no doubt that Google+ started on the right note – it came, saw and conquered the hearts of people all over the world. It had the wow factor and it hit other social media networks where it hurts the most.

And then Facebook hit back in style, launching one innovative feature after the other. Google+ responded back by opening itself to the enterprise with the launch of Google+ Pages and critics were back to their usual best – pitting Facebook Pages against Google+ Pages.

But now it seems Google’s had enough of Facebook vs. Google+ comparisons. Google, the world’s leading online search giant, has now changed its standard pitch and is saying that Google+ is not a social network that competes directly with Facebook.

As expected, people have interpreted this announcement in their own ways. Some believe Google is afraid of pitting Google+ against Facebook while others say the online search giant is now planning to market the broader Google+ ecosystem rather than just the social networking aspect.

In my opinion, it’s fair to say that Google+ is much more than being just a social network and here’s why.

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Google+ Pages vs. Facebook Pages – Let The Battle Begin!

This article was originally published on Smedio.

When Google+ launched, it was widely projected as the next big Facebook Killer. While that didn’t happen, Google did a remarkable job of exploiting Facebook’s weaknesses with innovative features such as Circles and Hangouts. The world’s leading social network eventually hit back in style and as time passed, the initial euphoria over Google+ begin to fade away.

All this while, I maintained that the true litmus test for Google+ would be in the business segment when it takes on the world’s leading social network head-to-head. To that effect, I questioned whether Google+ can stand the test of time and the intense competition from Facebook or will it die in its own course.

Yesterday, Google formally launched Pages for Google+, thereby setting the stage for a titanic clash with Facebook Pages. The idea is to let people interact with a business much as they would with people over the network. While Facebook Pages eventually proved to be a game changer, the fate of Google+ Pages remains to be seen.

None the less, Google and Facebook competing hand-on to grab a lion’s share of the enterprise segment promises to be a mouthwatering prospect.

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Mobify’s mobile web platform showcased in Google’s GoMo initiative

Vancouver's Mobify announced last week that they’ve been selected by Google for their new GoMo program.

Google’s GoMo initiative is designed to help businesses embrace mobile by providing them with the tools and resources they need to make their websites more mobile-friendly.

Mobify is among 11 solutions recommended by Google in their Get Started section and the only Canadian one.

“We’re honored to be recognized by Google as a leading solution for creating mobile websites,” said Mobify CEO, Igor Faletski. “Our vision for One Web with full search, social, and email marketing integrity for websites whether they’re accessed from desktops or mobile devices aligns perfectly with the GoMo program.”

The Mobify platform powers some of the largest sites on the mobile web and now with Google's GoMo endorsement they'll be adding to that customer base significantly.

Optimized: Canada's 10 Best SEO Companies Revealed

Top SEOs logoSearch engine optimization (SEO) is an integral part of digital marketing. Canada.topseos.com, the independent authority on search vendors in Canada, just released the list of the ten best enterprise search engine optimization companies in their rankings for the month of November 2011.

Mediative, part of the Yellow Pages Group, was ranked first overall. “Mediative is unique in the SEO industry, because we are able to integrate our understanding of search engine user behaviour, as well as website user behaviour into our SEO projects. Our research capabilities have helped medium sized clients all the way to Fortune 500 clients, understand their customer search behaviour,” says Mohamed Kahlain, VP Products and Marketing, Mediative.

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The World's 5 Most Powerful People in Tech

With the 2011 edition of the World's Most Powerful People now released, it's interesting to observe how potent the technology industry is. While the majority of the listees are leaders of big countries like Russia and major cities like New York, tech leaders remain affluent even on global scale. Aside from perhaps financial industry, no space stands out in the list quite like tech. So the question must be asked then—who, among the techies, are the most powerful of all?

1. Bill Gates (#5 overall)

Mr. Gates is much more about philanthropy than technology these days. In fact, Forbes lists his organization as the Bill & Melina Gates Foundation, not Microsoft, the highly impacting software giant he founded decades ago. Still, it's hard to ignore his historical significance in the tech space—and his tremendous wealth is not lost on Forbes.

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