In an effort to expand on its data practices this spring, as requested by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner, Facebook last week rolled out some new revisions to its privacy policy. With all the fanfare surrounding the social giant's high-profile initial public offering this week, Facebook chief privacy officer Erin Egan sought to get out in front of any concerns about the revisions by holding a question-and-answer session this week, which was streamed live on the company's website, to talk about the changes. "That's a big driver of our changes," Egan said regarding its data practices during the session. "Our goal here is to be really transparent with you about our practices," she said about the issue, which, along with feedback from users and the introduction of new products and services like Timeline, make up those "big drivers," she said, CNET reports. Meanwhile, in a new poll by the Associated Press and CNBC, half of the 1,000 people surveyed called Facebook a passing fad. A majority of those surveyed (51 percent) have a favorable impression of the company, while 23 percent have an unfavorable opinion. In light of the upcoming IPO, the survey focused more on Facebook's value as an investment — and half of those polled believe the initial asking price is too high, while just a third feel the value is appropriate — and that was before Facebook this week revised its SEC statement to price shares even higher than originally reported. Still, more than half of the people polled said that Facebook would make a good investment, while 17 percent said they're just not sure how the company will fare after it goes public, according to another CNET report.

Rebekah Brooks, the former head of News Corp.'s U.K. newspaper business and protégé to media titan Rupert Murdoch, has been formally charged in the phone-hacking scandal that took the popular UK tabloid News of the World down. The UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) this week announced that it has charged Brooks with three counts of "conspiracy to pervert the course of justice." CPS claims that last July, Brooks "conspired" with her husband, chauffeur and others to "conceal documents, computers and other electronic equipment from officers of the Metropolitan Police Service." CPS also charged Brooks and her assistant with "permanently" removing seven boxes from the News International archive, CNET reports. Aside from Brooks, her husband Charles Brooks, assistant Cheryl Carter, and her chauffeur Paul Edwards have all been charged. In total, six individuals have been cited in the CPS announcement. A seventh individual, who was not named, will not be charged, CPS said. All of those charged were ordered to answer their bail on Tuesday. "May I remind all concerned that these six individuals now will be charged with criminal offenses and that each has a right to a fair trial," Alison Levitt, principal legal advisor to the director of public prosecutions, said Tuesday in a statement. "It is very important that nothing is said, or reported, which could prejudice that trial. For these reasons it would be inappropriate for me to comment further," she added, the CNET post reports.

Security company Kaspersky Lab was reportedly brought in by Apple to advise the gadget giant on the security of its Mac operating system — and this week, the firm's analysts delivered the bad news to its client. "Mac OS is really vulnerable," said Kaspersky chief technology officer Nikolai Grebennikov, Computing reports. "Apple recently invited us to improve its security. We've begun an analysis of its vulnerabilities, and the malware targeting it," said Grebennikov, who added that, in his personal view, Apple does not take security seriously enough. "Our first investigations show Apple doesn't pay enough attention to security. For example, Oracle closed a vulnerability in Java, which was a target for a major botnet several months ago." He was referring to the episode earlier this year, when 600,000 Macs were found to have been infected by the flashback Trojan, which exploited the Java vulnerability. "Apple blocked Oracle from updating Java on Mac OS, and they perform all the updates themselves. They only released the patch a few weeks ago — two or three months after the Oracle patch. That's far too long," he said. Grebennikov pointed to the existence of the malware as evidence that Apple needs help with its security. "This botnet, which the security community identified, is a huge sign that Apple's security model isn't perfect," he said. Kaspersky has often been quoted as criticizing the security of various Apple platforms, and now will have the opportunity to improve at least one of them. This appears to be the successful culmination of a long-term Kaspersky strategy to work with Apple. A year ago, Grebennikov told Computing that Apple could not hope to keep its mobile platform iOS locked down without outside expertise. While he admitted that no iOS-specific malware has yet been identified, Grebennikov stated that he expects to see iPads and iPhones being infected by malware in the next year. "Our experience tells us that in the near future, perhaps in a year or so, we will see the first malware targeting iOS," he said, Computing reports in an article by Stuart Sumner.

Temkin Group recently announced findings from its new report, The State of Customer Experience Management, 2012, using research that is based on a survey of 255 companies with annual revenues of at least $500 million. As part of the research, companies completed Temkin Group's Customer Experience Competency Assessment —which revealed that only 7% of large companies have reached the highest level of customer experience maturity, a stage that Temkin Group calls "Customer-Centric Organization." Comparing results from the previous year, the research found that the number of "Customer-Centric Organizations" more than doubled — but a full third of companies, on the other hand, ended up in the lowest stage of customer experience maturity. The research also showed that companies have strong ambitions for improvement. Despite only 7% being very strong at customer experience today, 59% of respondents state that their company's goal is to be the industry leader in customer experience within three years. "We're still in the early stages of evolution for the entire field of customer experience management. Companies are ambitious to improve and we are seeing some companies build up the professional discipline to succeed," said Bruce Temkin, author of the research and managing partner of Temkin Group, in a news release.

Curata (formerly HiveFire), a provider of content curation technology solution for marketers, recently announced the results of its 2012 Content Curation Adoption Survey. Given the increased attention that content curation — the process of finding, organizing and sharing content — has received in the media over the past year with the success of companies like Pinterest, it should come as no surprise that content curation has become a mainstream tactic for the majority of marketers. In fact, the 2012 survey found that 95 percent of marketers had curated content in the past six months. Of those respondents that indicated they had not knowingly curated in the past six months, 100 percent of them had, by sharing an article, blog post or other content with a prospect or customer. Survey respondents, who include marketers from a variety of industries including technology, financial services and healthcare, indicated that content curation continues to be an important part of their overall marketing strategies, and many are beginning to refine the tactic by implementing best practices such as sharing and curating content on a daily basis. "We're excited to see that content curation has continued to gain traction amongst marketers, and more importantly, that they are increasingly improving their strategies by adhering to best practices that generate measurable results," said Pawan Deshpande, CEO of Curata, in a news release.

PulsePoint, a global digital technology company, recently announced the results of Bridging the Digital Divide, a landmark report examining the digital marketing capabilities, top challenges and priorities of nearly 400 senior marketers, agency executives and publishers. Developed in partnership with The CMO Club and Digiday, PulsePoint fielded this study to help clients and the industry at large gain a wider view of the effectiveness of digital marketing practices being employed to reach consumers. The initial hypothesis for the research centered on assumed gaps in the capabilities and perspectives amongst marketers, agencies and publishers. Contrary to this assumption, the research uncovered the gap is in fact between fluid, channel-agnostic digital consumers and the current practices the industry as a whole uses to reach and engage them. The study cites "overwhelming complexity" and a "lack of unified measurement" as key challenges preventing the industry from being properly aligned with the consumer. The impact of these two forces spreads across a number of fundamental marketing areas, hampering the tracking of consumer journeys and connected customer experiences. Other factors driving the divide include a misalignment of priorities the industry sees as important to improving their digital marketing practices. "Consumers are moving freely across channels and devices, interacting with brands and content in real time. The digital industry is not flowing as easily with this liquid audience. Channel-centric technologies and processes are causing a divide between our marketing capabilities and our ability to truly engage the consumer in a real-time interactive manner," said PulsePoint CMO Rose Ann Haran in a news release. "There is a recognized need to stay connected to the digital consumer and evolve to more unified practices and processes, but the majority of the industry is not focused on this in the near term," said Karl Lendenmann, Ph.D., SVP of research for PulsePoint, in the release. "Marketers, agencies and publishers are looking to single-point solutions for measuring campaign performance and optimizing within channels versus seeking end-to-end solutions that apply cross-channel lessons and enable seamless execution across programs."

Customer solutions provider Sword Ciboodle and customer experience advisory thinkJar recently released the results of a research survey targeting U.S. and UK companies with medium- to large-sized contact centers on their use of social media specifically for customer service. With nearly 400 responses from around the globe, and representation from more than 10 industry verticals, the research helped to reveal insights into how organizations are leveraging social channels for customer service. Survey results indicated that social channels have been strongly embraced, with 59% of organizations having adopted Twitter and 60% adopting Facebook, and almost 85% of those who have adopted one, have adopted both together. However, while social channels are widely used, participants showed that justification and validation of social customer service is proving to be a challenge. There are a variety of differences in how social channels are used, and factors such as an organization's size, industry and geography also play an important role. Integration of data, as well as finding the right balance between social customer service and more "traditional" channels, is an important part of what companies are wrestling with. "The direction social channels is headed when it comes to customer service is fascinating and a true 'game-changer' for businesses. The trick is to truly understand how to navigate this hyped-up, yet semi-mysterious 'customer service frontier.' This research report is a must-have for all organizations who want to really know where to go with social in customer service," said Esteban Kolsky, principal and founder of thinkJar, in a news release. "What's important for every organization to realize is, while social channels are constantly evolving, they are not new anymore," said Mitch Lieberman, vice president of market strategy at Sword Ciboodle, in the release. "The most successful customer service program will happen for businesses who incorporate social into their overall customer engagement practices, and really keep pace with the way their customers are communicating with them in all areas."

Walmart has its hands full protecting its reputation among regulators and international business organizations on the heels of alleged bribery and cover-up in Mexico — and now, company employees have taken their calls for change to the Internet. Venanzi Luna, a department manager at a Walmart store in Pico Rivera, Calif., has created an online petition for fellow employees and customers at Change.org, a website that seeks to promote social change. The petition urges Walmart to undertake "a thorough and independent investigation" into allegations of widespread bribery by company officials to gain approval for new stores in Mexico — and also calls for the resignation of chief exec Mike Duke and chairman S. Robson Walton. "Just because they are rich doesn't mean they don't have to follow the same rules and laws as everyone else," said Luna, the LA Times reports. "I love my job, and I want Walmart to succeed. And the way they succeed is by doing the right thing." The petition has gathered more than 13,000 signatures so far, and Luna estimates that about 80% of the petition signers are former or current Walmart employees who are fed up with the company's culture of expansion at all costs. "I am not trying to close [Walmart] down. I am trying to put it how [founder] Sam Walton had it before," said Luna, who has worked at the company for seven years. "It used to be a family environment. Now it's all about money," he added, the Times reports. Allegations that bribery was used routinely to smooth the way for Walmart's expansion in Mexico were first reported in April by the NY Times — and since the report, the company has been wrangling with a number of legal and financial aftershocks. Walmart said it was in the midst of a "worldwide review of our anti-corruption program," had increased efforts to prevent corruption in Mexico and was looking into the allegations of bribery, the LA Times reports.

Microsoft's Bing search engine is heading in a new direction as it drills deeper into Facebook's social network and Twitter's messaging service to showcase information unlikely to be found on Google. The changes, unveiled this week, will reshape how Bing displays its search results. It represents Microsoft's most dramatic shift in Internet search since the software maker introduced Bing as a "decision engine" nearly three years ago. Microsoft is counting on the new format to loosen Google's stranglehold on the lucrative Internet search market. In the process, Microsoft hopes to turn a profit in its online division, which has lost more than $6.3 billion since Bing's June 2009 debut. For the past two years, Bing has been taking advantage of Microsoft's close relationship with Facebook to tap into the personal data on the world's largest network. But it hasn't come up with an approach compelling enough to lure away most Web surfers from Google. Although Bing has been far more successful than Live Search, virtually all of its gains have come at the expense of Yahoo, which began relying on Microsoft's search technology in 2010 as part of a 10-year partnership between the companies. Most of the personal data that Bing is pulling from Facebook and Twitter is unavailable to Google because its search engine doesn't have the same access to those information-sharing hubs as Microsoft does. "This is a big, bold bet that we think is going to surprise a lot of people," said Lisa Gurry, Bing's senior director, in an AP news release. "It's a fundamentally different way of looking at search." It's also an admission by Bing that its previous attempts to incorporate Facebook data into its search results haven't worked out. Bing's experience underscores the difficulty that all search engines have had figuring out how to blend the influence of social networking into their results, said Altimeter Group analyst Rebecca Lieb in the release. "Different parts of the social graph are good for different reasons," she said. "When I am looking for advice about a movie, I probably don't want to see a recommendation from one of my 'foodie' friends. What Bing is doing looks like a very elegant approach, but it remains to be seen if people are going to like it."

Adding to its reputation as a profitable 30-year newswire history, Marketwire has debuted a new brand identity and streamlined product portfolio to more accurately represent what it has become — a social communications company. The past six years have seen a period of dramatic growth as the company expanded its service offerings, operations and number of employees to meet the needs of a rapidly growing client base and shifting media landscape. The most significant driver of Marketwire's evolution was its acquisition of leading social media analytics company Sysomos in July 2010, allowing the company to integrate news distribution with insight gathered from the social sphere. "Marketwire's vision is to inspire and empower the world's communicators to achieve greatness. We don't just want our clients to distribute press releases -- we want them to connect with bloggers, journalists, influencers, investors and their customers to make an impact," said Michael Nowlan, president and chief executive officer, in a news release. "We don't just want to sell software that monitors social networks — we want our clients to discover who is talking about their brands and why, and we want to provide them with the tools to extract real business intelligence from the social Web. And most important, we want to join the business intelligence extracted from the social Web with the ability for our customers to connect with all their audiences," he added. "It was a natural progression to combine innovation and service with product integration. The coming together of communication (the "wire") and conversation (social media) drove our graphic symbolism," added Tim Lambertus, senior vice president of marketing and product strategy, in the release. "The blue and red triangles in our logo represent that integration while the merged shape in the center represents our brand promise, 'Beyond Words,' consisting of personal service, performance and growth."

President Barack Obama this week became the first sitting president ever to speak out in support of same-sex marriage — and that embrace is a political gamble that seeks to fire up young and liberal voters at the possible expense of alienating undecided voters in swing states such as North Carolina and Florida, an AP news release reports. Polls show the country is evenly divided on the issue. Some advisers, pointing to rapidly changing public views of gay rights, say Obama has more to gain than lose by the move. Strong opponents of same-sex marriage were unlikely to support him anyway, they say, and young voters who flocked to his barrier-breaking 2008 campaign are hungry for new reasons to get excited about his re-election bid. These advisers note that many liberals are angry about some of the president's environmental stances and deeply disappointed by setbacks to his health care initiative. These voters and potential campaign volunteers need a new cause championed by a courageous, forward-moving leader, the thinking goes. But there are potential downsides. Obama's decision on same-sex marriage might inspire social conservatives to give more money and campaign time to Mitt Romney. In 2008, Obama narrowly won North Carolina, where voters on Tuesday approved a constitutional ban on gay marriage. "Obama's decision will hurt him in Indiana, Virginia, North Carolina, rural Pennsylvania, northern Florida, rural Missouri — lots of places that he needs," said GOP strategist Matt Mackowiak, reports the news release by AP writer Charles Babington. Mackowiak said he thinks Obama chiefly made the move to gain more campaign donations from liberal activists.

The organization overseeing a major expansion of Internet address suffixes hopes to resume taking proposals on May 22 following a technical glitch that shut down its computer system for weeks, an AP news release reports. If it can accept proposals again as planned, the application window will run until May 30. Last month, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers abruptly shut down a system for letting companies and organizations propose new suffixes, after it discovered a software glitch that exposed some private data. The data in some cases offered clues about which companies were proposing what suffixes — details that were supposed to be confidential. ICANN said it had no evidence that anyone intentionally viewed the data. The original deadline was April 12, but ICANN shut down the system just hours before it was to close. At the time, ICANN planned to reopen the system within four business days. Instead, it found it needed more time to figure out why the software had failed and how to fix it. It also had to notify affected applicants who had already made big investments — each application costs $185,000. Applicants had been allowed to withdraw bids for a partial refund, but ICANN said this week that they could get all their money back because of the glitch if desired. The delay shouldn't have a major effect on the availability of new suffixes, as the new names won't appear in general use until at least next spring anyway — in many cases, much later. Before ICANN suspended applications, it had received 2,091 submissions — fully completed or in progress — and another 214 for which it was still awaiting or processing application fees. That means applications will be divided into at least four batches of about 500 each, potentially stretching the review process over a few years. ICANN has received $350 million in applications fees so far, the AP release reports. The money will pay for ICANN's costs setting up the system, reviewing applications and making sure parties do what they have promised once the suffix is operational. Some of the money will be set aside for potential lawsuits from unsuccessful applicants and others.

A new report from All Things Digital this week says a Yahoo director who didn't challenge an inaccuracy in CEO Scott Thompson's academic record will step down from the troubled Internet company's board. Patti Hart, the head of the Yahoo search committee that hired Thompson in January, won't seek re-election at the company's annual meeting later this year. Hart's resignation would make her the first casualty of a dust-up caused by the recent exposure of a bogus college degree that has periodically appeared in Thompson's official biography, which included a computer science degree that Thompson never received, an AP news release reports. Meanwhile, Thompson told company employees on Monday that he is sorry for the distraction his résumé-padding scandal has caused — without commenting on what role his own actions might have played in creating the drama. "I want you to know how deeply I regret how this issue has affected the company and all of you," Thompson said in a memo, CNNMoney reports. "We have all been working very hard to move the company forward, and this has had the opposite effect. For that, I take full responsibility, and I want to apologize to you." Thompson's memo to Yahoo's staff included no explanation for how the mistake happened. His apology was solely for the impact the scandal has had on the company, not for the act itself — and that didn't impress the troops. "Thompson has quickly lost the confidence of many employees, who think he has to go," said a senior Yahoo exec, who spoke to CNN on the condition that his name not be used. References to a "computer science" degree also appeared in Thompson's online biographical information on PayPal's website when he was president of the eBay subsidiary. His degree information is actually correct in eBay's regulatory filings to the SEC and in the bio featured in filings for F5 (FFIV), where he serves as a director. In both cases, the companies state: "Mr. Thompson holds a B.S. in Accounting from Stonehill College," with no reference to a computer science degree. But the false statement about his degree appeared in Yahoo's latest annual report filed to the SEC: "Mr. Thompson holds a Bachelor's degree in accounting and computer science from Stonehill College." Critics such as Third Point seized on that line and are demanding answers about how it made its way into Yahoo's regulatory filings. CEOs are required to personally certify that their company's statements are accurate, CNN reports.

Social customer experience firm Lithium Technologies this week unveiled new research showing that while consumers and marketers both say that interacting through social media has strong benefits, there is still more engagement and interaction required by both groups. Consumers are influenced by social media — and they expect a two-way dialogue with brands across the social Web, but rarely get it. A survey of consumer attitudes, conducted by Lithium in April and released during the Lithium Network Conference (LiNC) 2012, about social media reveals that while 25% of respondents expect to hear back from a company when they tweet about a brand or product, only 9% have actually received a response, and 35% say that, after "liking" a brand on Facebook, they expect to hear from the company — yet 58% say that they have never received a response from company after "liking" it. A companion survey conducted by Lithium and MarketingProfs in April revealed that marketers need to demonstrate social media marketing ROI to the C-suite, but aren't able to. According to results, 74% of marketers say creating a community around their brand is a social media business objective — but only 18% of marketers say their company has an online community. In addition, 86% say they actively use Facebook in their marketing efforts — but only 2.8% report that when fans "like" their brand on Facebook, it results in better quality interactions. "Consumers are increasingly expecting — even demanding — that brands interact with them through social media," said Katy Keim, Lithium CMO, in a news release. "It's not enough to just show up on social channels. Smart brands are taking control of social customer engagement by figuring out how to tackle meaningful activities with their social customers — things like collecting feedback and new product ideas."

In today's data-driven world, companies strive to use all the information available to them to make the right decisions in improving sales, productivity and efficiency — but new independent research challenges whether this is true in the creation and management of digital experiences, such as a company's websites and mobile applications. Digital design agency Extractable commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a study on how companies across America use data to build better Web experiences for their customers. The study, Data-Driven Design, looked at how companies use data, what tools they use, what hurdles they face, and what outcomes they are seeing for their websites and digital experiences. The data-driven design process combines many quantitative and qualitative data inputs to understand users' online behavior and hence craft more effective Web and digital experiences. The study showed that 60% of firms surveyed had seen improvements in their website due to use of data. And, if the company also reported they had a repeatable design process, the numbers reporting improvement grew to 71%. Despite validating that firms using data-driven design had better website outcomes, the study reported that only half (52%) of companies used a repeatable design process and that 57% used multiple data sources in their design process. "Extractable has long been an advocate of using a data-driven design approach to create richer digital experiences for both businesses and website users," said Simon Mathews, chief strategy officer at Extractable, in a news release. "We commissioned this study to understand how companies across America were using data in their design process. The results are fascinating, both validating that using data to drive design improves a website's experience for its users, but also uncovering that so many firms are missing out on opportunities by measuring the wrong data or not using the data they have."

After exposing an inaccuracy about Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson's academic credentials last week, activist hedge fund Third Point set a noon ET deadline Monday for Yahoo to fire Thompson for unethical conduct. That deadline passed without any change in Thompson's status, so the group, led by Yahoo shareholder Daniel Loeb, has made a legal demand for internal records about the embattled Internet company's recruitment and hiring of Thompson. Third Point wants to review Yahoo documents that may explain how much research the company's board did about Thompson before hiring him in January. The fund contends it's entitled to the records under the laws of Delaware, where Yahoo is incorporated. Thompson graduated from Stonehill College and was said by Yahoo to hold a degree in accounting and computer science — although the college did not offer the latter subject at the time. Yahoo has acknowledged the "inadvertent error" and has said it will conduct a review, but after the Monday deadline passed without incident, Third Point decided to amp up the pressure. "Third Point believes that Yahoo shareholders and employees will be best served if the board accepts responsibility quickly for this latest debacle," the group said, according to a BBC News report. It wants to "investigate wrongdoing or possible mismanagement" by Thompson and the board over the issue. The main issue appears to be the way Thompson has handled the situation as opposed to questions about whether a computer science degree is required for his position — degrees don't always carry much weight, particularly in technology, where college dropouts are some of the most prominent members of the community. The firm's handling of the situation has raised questions about how investors and Yahoo employees will react if Thompson doesn't explain how the incorrect degree ended up in his biography in the first place, the Washington Post reports. Nevertheless, many Yahoo investors are now betting the battle will help Loeb to shake up the company's embattled board in his proxy fight to win four seats, MarketWatch reports.

CRMsearch.com, an information rich portal and online community focused on CRM research, current events, software reviews and community engagement, has released the 2012 Best Practices of the Best Marketers Research Report. Vantive Media performed the research study to answer the question: What are the best performance B2B marketers doing to acquire, grow and retain more customers? The report identifies the best marketers in lead acquisition and lead management and then identifies the strategy, process and technology factors they do uniquely well or better than their peers. This research report is unique in that it is not just a compilation of survey results, or the numerical breakdown of how a total survey population responded to a given question, but instead examines how practitioners with different levels of performance success responded and differed to each question. For example, best in class marketers source a significantly higher volume of the sales pipeline leads than do their peer groups. "Leaders" generate 45 percent more of the sales pipeline leads from marketing programs than "Medians" and a whopping 133 percent more than "Laggards." "Learning from or replicating average performance scores can only produce average results," said Chuck Schaeffer, CEO of Vantive Media and editor of CRMsearch.com, in a news release. "Better to learn from and replicate top performers in order to outperform peer groups and achieve exceptional performance results. This report breaks down performance results by different levels of performers."

America's beef industry has been battered by a string of crises this spring, resulting in the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars and hundreds of jobs — all within the span of a few weeks. Luckily the most potentially damaging of the disasters turned out to be, so far, extremely limited in scope — and there are signs that the industry, despite stumbling in some of its public response, has learned to better handle such matters. In March, a Harvard study was released which determined that eating beef could contribute to premature death. But it was the scandal over "pink slime" that was much more damaging — although the treated ground beef known as lean, finely textured beef, or LFTB, has been around for decades, the industry was caught off guard when worries about the product suddenly erupted on social media. And before companies could mount a strong defense, graphic images of pulverized meat and stories focusing on the ammonium hydroxide treatment spread around the world on social media. Then there was the Mad Cow episode in April that, although quickly diffused, brought back disturbing memories of more widespread recent outbreaks for consumers. There are strategies the industry could have taken to offset the damage — beef historian and author Maureen Ogle believes the industry should have responded by running polished advertisements featuring ranchers touting their American heritage, as well as billboards proclaiming the safety of products and executives should have been sent to major talk shows, she said, the LA Times reports. Instead, because "the beef industry is a collection of not-very-well-connected sub-industries," Ogle said, there were some news releases and some promises of better labeling but not much of a united front. "They did exactly what they always do, which is really not much of anything," she said. "Frankly, they're going to get killed from now on because of social media. It can do more damage in a day than old media used to be able to do in a month," she added, the Times reports.

All but four of the 27 current or former New Orleans Saints that the NFL linked to New Orleans' cash-for-hits bounty system can now look forward to next season free of worry that they'll be forced to miss games, or game checks — but for those who've been suspended, they were sanctioned as severely as the coaches and general manager punished before them, and now must determine what measures they're willing to take to show NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell that he got it wrong. "I intend to fight this injustice, to defend my reputation, to stand up for my team and my profession, and to send a clear signal to the commissioner that the process has failed," said Saints linebacker and defensive captain Jonathan Vilma, who received the harshest punishment of any player — like Saints head coach Sean Payton, Vilma has been suspended for the entire 2012 season, an AP news release reports. Defensive lineman Anthony Hargrove, now with the Green Bay Packers, was suspended for the first half of the 16-game season; Saints defensive end Will Smith was barred for the opening four games; and linebacker Scott Fujita, now with the Cleveland Browns, will miss the first three games of 2012. They were all suspended without pay, costing each hundreds of thousands of dollars. "The accusations made against me are completely and 100 percent false, and I plan to appeal," Smith said in a statement issued by his publicist. The league said its investigation showed "a significant number of players participated" in a bounty program — either by paying into a pool or collecting from it — that ran from 2009-11 under former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, who has been suspended indefinitely. Goodell stressed, however, that "the players disciplined participated at a different and more significant level." But some players are asserting complete misunderstanding — and complete innocence. "I never set out to intentionally hurt any player and never enticed any teammate to intentionally hurt another player," Vilma said. "I also never put any money into a bounty pool or helped to create a bounty pool intended to pay out money for injuring other players," he added, the release reports.

Baynote, a provider of personalized customer experience solutions, today revealed new findings in a white paper by the e-tailing group. The report, which includes data from the e-tailing group's 2012 Merchant Survey, examines how merchants are thinking about and approaching metrics to improve business performance. The paper also features "A Merchant's Metrics Playbook" to help retailers determine a forward-thinking strategy that takes into account the right metrics and methodologies for running their business. Baynote collaborated with the e-tailing group to better understand the current state of e-commerce analytics and identify the key metrics that will drive the industry forward. Overall, the report findings revealed that 93 percent of retailers view analytics evaluation as their number one merchandising/navigational priority from a customer retention point-of-view. However, retailers on average have failed to reach optimum data analysis capabilities, citing information silos, limited data access across organizations, and lack of education about which metrics are the most valuable as the top hurdles. "Data will be the driving force behind growing businesses where gaining a clear picture of one's customer will suggest ideal marketing and personalization strategies," said Lauren Freedman, president of the e-tailing group, in a news release. "While retailers are making analytics evaluation their number one priority, the vast majority are still struggling to measure and optimize the customer experience across multiple devices and channels," said Dan Darnell, vice president of marketing at Baynote, in the release. "For retailers, measurement is still a work in progress — our Merchant's Metrics Playbook is a great resource for e-commerce teams that are serious about taking their analytics capabilities to the next level."

Pepsi is going on a reunion tour with the King of Pop — the beverage giant has announced its deal with the estate of Michael Jackson to use the late pop star's image for its new global marketing push. The nature of the promotion will vary by country, but will include a TV ad, special edition cans bearing Jackson's image and chances to download remixes of some of Jackson's most famous songs. The promotion is part of a global marketing blitz planned for the year ahead by Pepsi, which is looking to revive its brand and win back market share from Coca-Cola. In the U.S., the company is rolling out collectible 16-ounce blue cans that bear an image of Jackson striking one of his iconic poses. Consumers will be able to scan codes on the cans with their phones to download remixed tracks from "Bad," the singer's multiplatinum album. In the Chinese market, consumers will also see a TV ad featuring Jackson. Contests will also let consumers win tickets to a Michael Jackson-inspired show by Cirque du Soleil and leather jackets inspired by the singer's style. The global campaign builds on Pepsi's deal with the singer's estate last year to use his image in a commercial that premiered during the "The X Factor" TV show last year, an AP news release reports. Pepsi has a lot riding on its new push — although the company has a diverse portfolio of brands including Frito-Lay, Quaker Oats and Tropicana, it's often judged by the performance of its namesake cola. And in 2010, Pepsi was knocked out of the No. 2 spot among sodas in the U.S. by Diet Coke, with Coke remaining in the No. 1 position, according to the industry tracker Beverage Digest. The Jackson promotion is one aspect of Pepsi's strategy to reverse that slide. Consumers in the U.S. and China will be the first to get a taste of the campaign in coming weeks, which is timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary of "Bad." The campaign will spread to about two dozen countries by fall.

Privacy and security issues continue to mount for social media sites, and a new survey released this week reveals that a large majority of computer users are wary of the security of these sites. Germany-based IT security expert Avira conducted a survey of computer users worldwide in January and February which showed that more than four out of five users worry about their personal information being stolen or misused on social media sites such as Facebook, Google+ and, to a lesser extent, Twitter. The survey revealed that 44 percent of respondents worried most about Facebook and Google+, while another 40 percent worried about all social media sites equally. "This survey was very interesting because it demonstrated that even though social media sites are very popular among the general population, computer users from all over the world have the same concerns," said Sorin Mustaca, data security expert of Avira GmbH, in a news release. "They are wary of the safety of their personal information when it's disseminated across social media sites. In order to use social media sites without being afraid of having your data misused, I strongly advise not storing private data on these websites. Never forget that as soon as any information is published on a public website, it doesn't actually belong to you anymore."

In a surprising development, Target announced this week that it will soon stop selling the Amazon Kindle line of e-readers and tablets. The element of surprise lies in the fact that the Kindle has been a huge success for Target, by all accounts — the company said last year that the just-launched Kindle Fire was Target's bestselling tablet on Black Friday. Target representative Molly Snyder said the company, which began carrying the Kindle in its physical stores nearly two years ago, is "phasing out Kindles and Amazon- and Kindle-branded products in the spring of 2012," CNNMoney reports. The news was broken by tech blog The Verge, citing a leaked internal Target memo. Target declined to comment on the specific date that Kindles will disappear from its shelves — The Verge's memo pegged May 13 as the last day for Kindle shipments to Target stores. Target also would not comment on the reason for the Kindle's elimination, saying only "we typically don't discuss our relationships with vendor partners." Meanwhile, Target will still sell other e-readers, including the Barnes and Noble Nook, Snyder said. The surprising announcement, however, does dovetail with another development that tends to eradicate the surprise a bit, since Target recently signed on to sell the Apple iPad, Amazon's chief tablet rival. In fact, Target plans to roll out Apple "mini-stores" in 25 of its store locations to sell iPads and iPhones, CNNMoney reports. But that doesn't fully explain the decision to ixnay the Kindle — after all, plenty of other retailers, including Best Buy and Walmart, sell both Kindles and iPads. Is there indeed a connection? Does Apple have this kind of monopoly-oriented clout? Only time will tell.

Brand strategy and communications firm CoreBrand released this week its fifth annual Brand Power Top 100 Rankings Report, which ranks 100 corporate brands in terms of market reputation and awareness. "Our Brand Power rankings demonstrate that even in this difficult economic climate, corporate brands continue to positively impact companies that know how to capitalize on their value," said James R. Gregory, founder and CEO of CoreBrand, in a news release. "Some companies benefit from being perceived as lower-cost alternatives within their market as others utilize their brands to be more appealing to customers. Companies can utilize this valuable insight to pinpoint trends in their brand's strength and make more informed branding decisions to help drive positive business outcomes." Among the key findings: The retail industry has seen lots of movement over the past three years, as consumers shift to a more value-based purchasing mindset — the growth in brand strength of Walmart (+15), Lowe's (+5), Home Depot (+10), The Gap (+7), Kohl's (+25), and J.C. Penney (+22), shows that consumers are still spending money but looking for cost-effective purchases to make their dollars go further; Apple (+20) leads the technology sector, growing from the 53rd to 33rd position, Microsoft (+14) and Dell (+14) each grew equally over the past year, while IBM (-18) has declined since 2010; in the Internet industry, Yahoo (+46) continues to see brand growth, rising over three years, almost half of which was in the past year alone — despite the company's recent struggles to identify itself and mark its territory more clearly amongst its peers, while Google (+79) and eBay (+59) have also risen dramatically since 2008; Nestlé has improved the most in the food industry, rising 32 ranks. Sara Lee (+27) and Kraft (+21) have also shown strong growth since 2008. Overall, food companies represent three of the top five ranked brands with Hershey, Campbell Soup and Kellogg's ranked second, fourth and fifth respectively.