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"This is a story about devices: NPD figures that 10 percent of homes now have at least one Internet-enabled TV (though I bet that only a minority of them are actually plugged into the Web), and we're seeing a steady increase in the use of Web-video peripherals, like Blu-ray players, Apple TVs, Microsoft Xbox 360s. And it's also about content: NPD says the most popular service for Web on TV viewers is Netflix, with 40 percent of connected TV watchers using the service."

ZipList (Igrocery list and recipe service) not only had to face off against a growing number of recipe aggregation and shopping services, like Paprika, Yummly and Grocery IQ, but also found it couldn't compete for attention against entrenched cooking brands on the Web, such as the Food Network and Epicurious. So ZipList changed tack. Last summer it began partnering with big food brands MarthaStewart.com and the Daily Meal, as well as small food blogs that began integrating the ZipList recipe box directly into their sites. The results were impressive: In nine months it signed up 120 big-name food sites and 6,500 small blogs, which in turn generated 1 million customer accounts for its digital recipe and shopping list service.

In terms of what activities internet users are engaging in on mobile vs. desktop, in Q1 2013 Experian Marketing Services found that US mobile internet users spent the greatest percentage of their mobile web time using email, a 23% share of time spent vs. only 5% of time spent on desktop. Social networking came in second on mobile, garnering 15% of time spent. Travel also occupied a greater share of time on the mobile internet (9%) compared with the desktop (1%).

To show just how prevalent brand images are across the web, Stipple built an image calculator for Ad Age readers at stipple.com/imageaudience. Just input a brand's URL to see how widespread its images are. for BMW, for example, 405 million hits come up (at this writing) in just the past seven days. Stipple falls into the same space as ThingLink and Luminate, which both attach a commerce element to images. The idea of image-based commerce has marketers excited about services like Pinterest and The Fancy. But in order to capitalize on this opportunity, sellers need a system to assert some degree of control - a way to keep the information associated with their products consistent across the web.

Zappix aims to replace voice menus with a web-based visual option that determines the best department to connect them to before initiating the call.

Amazon is hoping to extend its reach and integration beyond its own properties with yesterday's launch of Login with Amazon. The new service lets Amazon's 200+ million users to sign into websites, games and apps with their Amazon logins. Third-party developers can implement Login with Amazon on their web and mobile properties in the same way they integrate social logins like Facebook, Twitter and Google.

Some new social shopping startups/services.

A threat to the telecom industry. Web apps like Facebook and WhatsApp erode the need for "wireless data plans" which are the primary source of revenue for wireless carriers.

"While at least Life-magazine-killer TV has served as a platform for the creation of some great artworks (HBO's "The Wire," created by newspaperman-turned-TV-auteur David Simon, comes to mind) and inspired the creation of new art forms (see the upcoming Smithsonian retrospective of the work of "father of video art" Nam June Paik), it's hard to imagine what of lasting value hot web-native media brands like Gawker and BuzzFeed are contributing to visual culture and art history. Which brings me to an email I got last Wednesday from Gawker promoting its "top story" of Dec. 5., titled "The 13 Most Powerful Images of Naked Celebrities of 2012," which quickly racked up more than a million page views. It was a sequel to a Gawker post from the previous day titled "The 19 Most Powerful Images of 2012," which was mostly a shameless, edited-down rip-off of a BuzzFeed post titled "The 45 Most Powerful Images Of 2012," consisting of intense wire-service photojournalism from Reuters, the AP, Getty and others, which derive most of their support from old-school print-centric publications around the world. Gawker's excuse for its act of, uh, curation: "Who has time to scroll through 45 pictures?""

Much like the early days of the Web, multiple legacy media constituencies are battling over who commands local mobile mindshare when it comes to news and services. Most local newspapers have their own mobile sites and app, and many local affiliate news stations were among the first major media companies to see the potential for mobile long before smartphones emerged. Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/175473/abc-local-apps-stick-to-basics-news-weather-tra.html?edition=47269#ixzz1voJJYy9z

Now, with the help of a web app called Radio.SC, SoundCloud can even as a radio service that lets you listen to the taste of any SoundCloud user -assuming they have uploaded songs, favorited tracks, and generally used SoundCloud in more than a fleeting way. It's easy - just enter in the exact SoundCloud username you're looking for, or something close to it, and you're up and running. Or, you can try a random SoundCloud user.

Macy's joins the band wagon

services to watch?: Trendspottr, OneRiot, Roundtable, Percolate, Evri, InfiniGraph, The Shared Web, Seesmic, Scoopit, Kosmix, Summify

Mr. Withiam added that travelers were expecting trip-related services to be available on the new platforms. PhoCusWright, a travel research firm, has found that 13 percent of social-network users now shop for travel on those Web sites and 35 percent of mobile-phone users expect to book travel on their phones in the next year.