This showed that as of December 2008, search was still the most common Internet activity (used by 85.9% Netpop Research reinforces this point in Media Shifts to Social , which found that as of September and October 2008, communications (including email, instant messaging, blogs and photo sharing) had risen to 32% of online time from 27% in 2006. By contrast, the Pew Internet & American Life Project Survey in December 2008 found only 35% of adult online Americans had a social media profile. Zenith Optimedia pretty much agrees: its October 2008 report shows U.S. MORE >>

The table below throws in a reasonable guess for 2008 as well. My records suggest the company had about 25 average employees in 2008, for $5 million in expenses. The company started selling in late February 2008 and my records show it ended that year with 120 clients. Assume the equivalent of 50 annual clients at $15,000 and you get 2008 revenue of $750,000, for $18.75 at the end of 2008 and dropped to 5.7 Summary: Public data gives some insights into Marketo's financial history and prospects. million for 2009 and "triple that" ($13.5 million) for 2010. MORE >>

The new system features a cleaner interface and revised capabilities that reflect what LeadLife has learned about the needs of small to mid-size companies since its original product launch in 2008. LeadLife released a completely rebuild version of its marketing automation system last month. This involves a careful balance between complexity and power. The best example of this balance, and the most notable change in the system, is campaign design. LeadLife originally used a linear sequence of steps, while the new system uses a branching flow chart. Back to LeadLife. MORE >>

Previous acquisitions include Web content management (MediaSurface, 2008), contact optimisation (Campaign Calculus 2.0, Summary: Alterian's purchase of Techrigy marks the first integration of serious social media management with marketing automation. Others are sure to follow. Marketing automation vendor Alterian yesterday announced its acquisition of social media monitoring company Techrigy. Even though the Techgrity deal is the first direct acquisition I recall of a social media monitoring system by a marketing automation vendor, it strikes me as an obvious step. Sparingly. MORE >>

Summary: Based on Web traffic rankings, new demand generation vendors with low prices are gaining market presence. Pardot and (perhaps) Genius.com look particularly strong. But Eloqua , Silverpop and Marketo remain industry leaders. Last November, after much consideration of alternatives , I settled on Alexa three-month Web traffic rankings as a reasonable way to measure the relative market presence of demand generation vendors. You can see that post here. revisited that data today, adding a few new vendors and dropping some of the very minor ones. Results are in the following table. Ready yet?) MORE >>