J.K. Rowling is launching Pottermore, a new website that will include new material and illustrations from the Harry Potter franchise.

The Lego Group has announced the creation of a “free-to-play” zone inside Lego Universe coming in August, giving players a taste of what the Lego Universe massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) has to offer.

Shoppers avoid talking to brands about their products and even dodge the websites of the retailers they will eventually buy from until their decision to purchase has already been made. Instead, on a scale previously unimagined, they do their pre-purchase research by tapping into a variety of social sources including friends and family, consumer reviews … [Read more…]

Mobile music discovery firm Shazam has raised $32m in new funding led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) and Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), with existing investor DN Capital participating.

Almost one in three online consumers find inaccurate pricing in search ads displayed by retailers, according to a new survey conducted by YouGov.

Digital marketing consultancy Stream:20 has opened a new office in Munich, Germany, which will operate alongside their London headquarters in the City.

Over three quarters (84%) of Irish marketers believe email is either “important” or “very important” to their overall marketing strategy, with a renewed focus on driving sales as well as building brand awareness, according to a new survey.

The majority of UK businesses are planning to move their finance, ecommerce or security applications to the cloud, but only 30 per cent of businesses currently have cloud governing policies in place, according to a new poll.

Google attracted more than one billion people worldwide to its web sites in May, marking the first time that an Internet firm has drawn in that many visitors in one month, according to research from ComScore.

Google owns three out of the five top ranked apps, with mapping, the weather and Facebook proving the most popular mobile tools for Brits on the go, according to new research from comScore and GSMA. The study also showed that Apple’s iOS accounted for 65% of apps being used, more than double its closest rival … [Read more…]