3 Digital Marketing Channels That Work for Every Advertiser

As an advertiser, your core objective is to prioritize investment in relevant communication channels that deliver maximum returns for your business. With plenty of studies proving digital marketing ROI, it makes perfect sense to leverage digital channels for promoting your brand and its products and services.

But with so many online advertising channels available, how do you go about picking the best channel for your business? You must do a fine balancing act between your advertising budget and the costs of using a particular channel. Here are three digital channels that will allow you to make the most of your advertising budget:

1. Google AdWords.

With a lion’s share of PPC market (roughly 67%), the use of Google AdWords is a no brainer. There are plenty of businesses that have driven traffic to their site, marketed their products/services and ultimately increased sales by leveraging Google AdWords.

I know there are some business owners who stay away from PPC because they believe it eats into a large portion of their marketing spend. Unfortunately, they are making a big mistake. AdWords delivers measurable results and is worth the investment. Your ads get viewed right when your target audience is searching for the products/services you are selling. The results are faster than SEO, and you can also set a budget for your campaign, which allows you to control your advertising costs.

Add to that a collection of features like Ad Customizers, Call Out Extensions, Google AdWords Editor, HTML 5 Ads and you have a channel that helps deliver a marketing message the way your audience wants to hear it. What’s more, you can even identify if and when an ad leads to an offline sale. That’s a huge advantage.

The great thing is there are plenty of tools you can use to optimize your returns from Google AdWords. These range from Bidable, which offers quick automation and real-time bidding with no minimum spend for small businesses to Kenshoo, an enterprise-level tool that automates your AdWords workflow and allows you to make bulk changes to your campaigns.

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Chinese hackers target Southeast Asia, India, researchers say

REUTERS - Hackers, most likely from China, have been spying on governments and businesses in Southeast Asia and India uninterrupted for a decade, researchers at internet security company FireEye Inc said.

In a report released on Monday, FireEye said the cyber espionage operations dated back to at least 2005 and "focused on targets - government and commercial - who hold key political, economic and military information about the region."

"Such a sustained, planned development effort coupled with the (hacking) group's regional targets and mission, lead us to believe that this activity is state-sponsored - most likely the Chinese government," the report's authors said.

Bryce Boland, Chief Technology Officer for Asia Pacific at FireEye and co-author of the report, said the attack was still ongoing, noting that the servers the attackers used were still operational, and that FireEye continued to see attacks against its customers, who number among the targets.

Reuters couldn't independently confirm any of the assertions made in the report.

China has always denied accusations that it uses the Internet to spy on governments, organisations and companies.

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Amazing iPhone 6 hack brings the Android Lollipop experience to iOS

Have you ever wanted to try Android without actually ditching your iPhone in favor of a brand new Android device? There might be a way to do that, as long as you still have access to an iOS version that can be jailbroken, as the app that’ll get you an Android experience on your iPhone 6 can’t be found in the App Store.

As posted on Reddit and imgur, Andrios is “an Android experience for iOS,” which aims to bring some familiar Android Lollipop UI elements to the iPhone, offering users a fake but gorgeous Android environment.

The Andrios app isn’t available for download just yet, and it’ll cost you somewhere between $3 and $4 once it’s ready. But its developers have been working on it for two months straight, coming up with an amazing interface that makes the iPhone look like an Android-powered handset. Interestingly, switching between Lollipop and KitKat modes is also an available option.

As the screenshots reveal, Andrios brings over various Android elements you’ll recognize immediately, including the Google Search bar, the Action Bar buttons, and the Material Design palette. Other elements such as the Notification Center, lock screen notifications, notification functionality, power menu, music playback widget, volume sliders and buttons are also shown off in the screenshot gallery.

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Google Close to Finishing Android Wear App for iOS

Earlier this year, news leaked that Google was working on an Android Wear app for the iOS App Store, and it appears that the company's progress on engineering Android Wear devices to work with iPhones is nearing completion. 

According to a source that spoke to The Verge, Android Wear on the iPhone works similarly to the Apple Watch, connecting through a companion app and providing functions like Notifications. Google is said to be "close to finishing" the final technical details behind the project.

     In its current state of development, Android Wear works along with a companion app on the      iPhone and supports basic functions like notifications -- as you can see in the photo below. As      it does on Android, on the iPhone Android Wear also supports Google Now's ambient                    information cards, voice search, and other voice actions. It should also support some more        advanced features with Google's own iOS apps, like replying to Gmail messages.

If Google finishes the project and submits its Android Wear app to the iOS App Store, it is not clear how Apple will react, given that the app would allow Android Wear devices to compete directly with the Apple Watch. Apple allows Pebble and other competing fitness bands to have apps in the App Store, so it may also permit Google to release an Android Wear app, but at the same time, Apple has aggressively cut down on products similar to the Apple Watch in its retail stores. 

It no longer sells fitness devices like the Fitbit, the Jawbone UP, and the Nike Fuelband, and over the years, Apple has also had some altercations with Google. Apple used to feature Google Maps on its iOS devices, but moved on to its own proprietary mapping solution several years ago. 

Android Wear watches are built on Google's platform but are available from a number of Apple's competitors, including Samsung and LG. Popular smartwatches like the LG G, the Moto 360, and Samsung's Gear lineup are all Android Wear devices. 

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Facebook Facing Class Action Privacy Lawsuit In Europe

Court hears arguments about whether an Austrian law student has standing to represent 25,000 people in civil suit alleging Facebook violated EU privacy laws.

Another front on Facebook’s battle with privacy watchdogs opened today, as a court in Vienna, Austria, started proceedings on a class action suit accusing the company of violating user privacy.

Austrian law student Max Schrems is pursuing the suit on behalf of 25,000 people, claiming damages of 500 euros ($538) each for a series of alleged violations of European Union laws, including aiding the U.S. National Security Agency’s data mining PRISM program, illegal introduction of Graph Search and illegal data sharing with external apps.

Today’s court session lasted four hours and focused primarily on whether Schrems, 27, has standing to file the suit on behalf of the 25,000 plaintiffs.

“The lawsuit is inadmissible on the procedural level – the court is not responsible,” Facebook’s lawyer Nikolaus Pitkowitz told the judge, according to Reuters. “It is unjustified in terms of content.”

Facebook’s lawyers didn’t address the details of the privacy issues in court and declined to comment to Reuters after the hearing. Schrems said Facebook’s strategy is a delaying tactic. A written decision on whether the court will handle the suit is expected before summer.

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Google Launches Streamlined Lite Version Of Mobile Search Interface For Slower Connections

Have a slow connection on your mobile device? No worries, Google will give you a lite version of the search interface to speed things up for you.

Google announced last night that they've launched a new interface that is optimized for slower mobile connections. This way if you are trying to search Google on your mobile device and for some reason you are in an area that has unusually slow connection speeds, Google will tone down the search interface to make the search results load faster.

Google said:

You can use Google to search for just about anything and get answers in a flash. But, when you’re searching on your phone, a slow connection can really hold things up.

To make sure you’re not waiting on Google when you need it most, we've rolled out a streamlined Search results page that loads fast, even on those slow connections. You’ll get all the info you need in a simpler format that’s beautiful and easy to use. Best of all: there’s nothing new to download or update — the lighter version will kick in automatically when needed!

Here is a picture of the slower results on a mobile device:

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Bing Places Adds Several Agency-Friendly Local Business Listing Tools

Agency dashboard offers local listing management, sharing with clients, features for chain businesses and more.

Local SEO consultants and agencies that manage business listings for clients have a number of new, agency-friendly tools at their disposal in Bing Places for Business.

According to Bing’s announcement, the first step is for consultants to register as an agency at BingPlaces.com.

Once registered, agencies will have access to a new dashboard with a summary of all current listings and links to add new client locations — up to 10,000 businesses at once. The dashboard shows both the total number of business listings submitted, how many have been published and how many are in review or were suspended.

Agencies will be able to share access to individual listings with clients.

Another new option is the ability to register chain business locations. Bing says these don’t have to be verified individually, but consultants will need to provide a signed authorization from their client (the chain business).

In fact, Bing is trying to build in a level of security throughout the agency tools:

After you submit your clients’ business listing to Bing Places, your client must verify the listing, which helps us ensure that you are authorized to manage their information. During client verification, a verification PIN is sent by postcard to each of your clients. Either you or your client then must enter that PIN on Bing Places to complete verification.

We’ve reached out to Bing’s communications teams to find out if this is available only in the U.S., or also for Bing Places users in Canada and the U.K.

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Link Risk Management: Are You Using This Critical SEO Tactic?

Columnist Stephan Spencer warns that if you don't regularly monitor your backlinks and proactively get rid of spammy ones, you could be risking it all.

Over the past five years, Penguin is arguably the Google algorithm update that’s had the greatest impact on webmasters. Since Google launched the first Penguin update in April 2012, hundreds of thousands of sites around the world have been penalized and have virtually vanished from the Internet (or at least their traffic has).

Webmasters the world over scrambled to clean up dubious links pointing to their sites. Even after going through this stressful, time consuming, and oftentimes frustrating experience, webmasters continue to search for more efficient and effective ways to keep their websites from getting caught in Penguin’s crosshairs as Google continually re-defines what constitutes a “good” link.

One vital concept in keeping your sites or your clients’ sites safe from the dreaded Penguin is that of managing the levels of risk within your backlink “portfolio.”

Introducing Link Risk Management

Link risk management is a natural outgrowth of the changes that have affected SEO in the last few years.

SEO is not just an investment in better visibility and higher rankings. SEO is the primary way to protect your Internet “assets.” Unfortunately, just like in most other spheres of life, people tend to wait for something bad to happen before they do something to protect themselves.

Do you really want to go through all the stress, time, and cost of recovering your site from a Google penalty? My advice would be, “better safe than sorry.”

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Bing Ads Adding Support For Upgraded URLs

The roll out will occur in two stages: one for AdWords imports and a second for full availability within Bing Ads.

In response to Google AdWords’ roll out of Upgraded URLs, Bing Ads will soon be adding support for the new tracking parameter feature to ensure a smooth process when migrating campaigns from AdWords.

In a blog post Tuesday, Jamie Chung, program manager at Bing Ads, said support for importing Upgraded URLs from AdWords will be available by early May.

The feature will then be available within the Bing Ads platform by the end of summer 2015.

When advertisers import their campaigns, Bing Ads will use any existing AdWords tracking templates to create a destination URL for Bing Ads. Note that Bing Ads cannot import URLS with custom parameters such as {_creative}=1234, for example. Any custom parameters will be skipped over during the import. (See below for additional ValueTrack support.)

Here’s a handy chart showing which type of URL Bing Ads will use on a text ad, keyword or sitelink extension during an import from AdWords:

Expanded Value Track Support

Bing Ads will be adding some support for the expanded use of Value Tack parameters now available in Upgraded URLs. Bing Ads will support three additional dynamic text parameters, with support for additional parameters coming at a later date. The full list of supported substitution parameters in Bing Ads is available here.

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Google Shares AdWords “Store Visits” Metric Conversion Lift Data

US retailers saw, on average, 10 times more conversions from mobile search ads when accounting for store visits estimated conversions.

In December, Google launched the “store visits” metric as part of Estimated Total Conversions to help multi-location businesses tie the influence of  their AdWords ads to in-store visits. Wednesday, the company released data on what businesses are seeing from this new metric.

In a blog post, Surojit Chatterjee, Google’s Director of Product Management for Mobile Search Ads, says that US retailers measured 4 times more conversions overall and 10 times more conversions on mobile, on average, when including store visits data. Advertisers in the US travel and auto verticals saw 2 times higher conversions when including the store visits data — driving consumers to a dealer lot or hotel.

Businesses are then using the data to inform their mobile bidding strategies. Cosmetics retailer Sephora found that mobile Adwords clicks drive an 18 percent higher store visit rate than desktop clicks. The company says it improved return on ad spend by 25 percent after optimizing mobile bids accounting for the store visits lift from those ads. Similarly, restaurant chain Buffalo Wild Wings saw an 84 percent lift in conversion after optimizing bids incorporating store visits data.

Google is not alone in offering solutions to tie the connection between mobile advertising and in-store activity — quantifying what we intuitively know is happening. But, the search giant has a lot riding on being able to make the case that mobile search ads are worth investing in as more networks and apps compete for advertisers’ share of wallet on mobile.

Store visits is an estimated metric based on sampled and anonymized data from smartphone users that have Location History enabled on their devices. As with all of the measurements under the Estimated Total Conversions umbrella, Google says the estimate thresholds are held to a “strict, highly conservative confidence level”.

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Microsoft & Getty Images Announce Partnership & Drop Infringement Lawsuit Over Bing Images

On Monday, Getty Images dropped their lawsuit against Bing Images and on Tuesday they signed a new partnership deal with Microsoft.

In September 2014, Getty Images sued Microsoft over alleged massive copyright infringement through the Bing Image Widget. Shortly after, Microsoft pulled the Bing Image Widget offline.

Today we learn via The Seattle Times that Getty Images dropped the lawsuit against Microsoft on Monday and yesterday announced a new partnership deal with Microsoft to “develop next-generation image rich experiences.”

The deal reads:

Getty Images, the global digital media company, and Microsoft today announced a new partnership to develop image-rich, compelling products and services for Microsoft products like Bing and Cortana using Getty Images’ world class imagery. In the coming years, the two companies’ technology teams will partner to provide real-time access to Getty Images imagery and associated metadata to enhance the Microsoft user experience.

“With our new partnership, Microsoft will use Getty Images’ latest API innovations and our award-winning visual content to take search experiences to a new level,” Getty Images Senior Vice President of Business Development Craig Peters said. “Our technology teams will work together to create beautiful, engaging applications and services for Microsoft users with licensed content and attribution for photographers and other content creators.”

“This collaboration enables Microsoft users to take full advantage of Getty Images’ speed to market, structured metadata and unrivaled content,” Microsoft Executive Vice President of Business Development Peggy Johnson said. “We look forward to working with Getty Images to provide the next generation of image depth and breadth for our users.”

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iPhone 7 in 2015: Apple 'may abandon iPhone 6S'

Analyst says Apple may tear up its regular product launch schedule and go straight to the iPhone 7 this autumn

Apple is drawing up plans to skip a generation, launching the iPhone 7 a year ahead of its expected arrival, according to an industry analyst.

Under the company's usual launch schedule, last year's iPhone 6 would have been followed by an iPhone 6S this year. But Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst at KGI Securities, says the new phone will introduce significant new features – prompting Apple to break with convention and call it the iPhone 7. 

According to Kuo, whom MacRumors says "has a respectable track record at reporting on Apple's upcoming plans", Apple will introduce Force Touch – a technology it developed for the Apple Watch – on this year's new iPhone, and then update it in 2016.

Force Touch can differentiate between light taps on a touchscreen and longer, harder pressure. That would allow Apple and independent app developers to add new software features, in theory making the iPhone 7 more efficient to use.

It was introduced for the Apple Watch, whose small display puts a premium on efficient controls, but the system will apparently be adapted for use on the larger iPhone screen.

"We believe that iPhone’s Force Touch sensor doesn't directly detect the pressure applied by fingers," Kuo wrote in a note to investors. "Instead, it monitors the contact area on which the finger touches the screen to decide how big the pressure is." 

AppleInsider reported last month that Apple had planned to build Force Touch into the iPhone 6, but removed it after technical difficulties. It too predicted that the next model, which it called the 6S, would make use of the technology. 

Now, however, Kuo suggests that the introduction of Force Touch "may be significant enough for Apple to call its next iPhone the iPhone 7", MacRumors reports – a move that would consign the iPhone 6S to history before it was even unveiled.

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10 Things to Know About the iOS 8.3 Release

The iOS 8.2 update still reigns as Apple’s most current version of iOS 8 but the company has a confirmed successor on the way. We continue to get questions about the iOS 8.3 release and today, we want to take a look at a few things we think you need to know, right now, about the iOS 8.3 update and its release for iOS 8 users.

In early February, Apple seeded the first iOS 8.3 beta to developers. Apple, per usual, failed to announce any specific iOS 8.3 release details, leaving those for another day.

Since that day in February, the iOS 8.3 update has made significant progress towards a public release. Apple’s released four betas to those in its paid developer program and it has released two versions of an iOS 8.3 public beta. The public iOS 8.3 beta is the first iOS beta open to the public and it shows Apple’s commitment to weeding out problems and issues ahead of a mass release later this year.

With iOS 8.2 problems swirling, an Apple Watch release date coming into focus, and the iOS 8.3 beta making progress, many iPhone and iPad users have shifted their attention to Apple’s next major iOS 8 update. And while we haven’t seen a ton of movement in the past two weeks, this roundup will catch you up to speed on everything we think you need to know about the iOS 8.3 release, the iOS 8.3 update, and the iOS 8.3 beta.

Now Is a Good Time to Try the iOS 8.3 Beta

If you’re excited about the iOS 8.3 update and you want to try it out right now, it’s important to remember that you can do so ahead of its official release date. Apple is hosting a public iOS 8.3 beta and anyone with an Apple ID can join to try out the software ahead of time. If this is something that interests you, right now is a good time to give it a go. It should be far more stable than it was two months ago in early February.

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Microsoft to show Office 2016, Office for Windows 10 apps next week

Windows 10 and Office are two of Microsoft's most popular products, and next week Microsoft says the company will show off how future versions of each will work together.

Microsoft plans to hold an event on April 16 "to experience modern Office on Windows and see how Microsoft is rethinking the modern workplace – both in the office and on the go," according to an invitation Microsoft sent out Monday.

The event is expected to show off Office "experiences" for Windows 10: both "universal apps" that transcend the desktop, tablet, and phone, as well as specific features of Office 2016. The new apps should be touch-optimized, based on what Microsoft has said previously, and free to use on smaller tablets and phones.

That likely means the new Office apps will be debuting soon as part of an upcoming Windows 10 preview build, as Microsoft said in January. "“They are designed from the ground up to run on Windows 10, built for touch and offer the unmistakable Office experience you know and love,” Julia White, the general manager of Office, said then. “As ‘universal’ Office apps, they truly are the same app across device size, providing a consistent way for independent software vendors and developers to extend and integrate with Office apps.”

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Microsoft launches a pilot program for hiring autistic workers

Microsoft is looking to recruit yet another type of diverse employee. The Redmond, Wash.-based technology giant said Friday that it is piloting a program focused on hiring people with autism for full-time positions in the company's headquarters.
The program was announced in a blog post by Mary Ellen Smith, Microsoft's corporate vice president for worldwide operations. Smith wrote that in addition to the general advantages of a more diverse workforce, Microsoft is getting behind the effort because "people with autism bring strengths that we need at Microsoft ... some have amazing ability to retain information, think at a level of detail and depth or excel in math or code."
Microsoft plans to first launch the program with about 10 candidates, a Microsoft spokeswoman told The Post. It will be working with Specialisterne, a training and consulting firm based in Denmark that helps match autistic workers with jobs. The Danish company began doing that for another big software company, SAP, in 2013, finding employees particularly suited for jobs that require great attention to detail, such as software testing or debugging. Specialisterne has also worked with the tech company Computer Aid, Inc. on similar hiring efforts.
While Microsoft's move appears to show a willingness to hire diverse talent, they also may find highly entrepreneurial talent in the process. As billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel recently said, according to The Post's Matt McFarland, "many of the more successful entrepreneurs seem to be suffering from a mild form of Asperger's where it's like you're missing the imitation, socialization gene." Asperger's Syndrome, which Thiel was referencing, is a high-functioning autism spectrum disorder.
What's more, Microsoft's move appears to demonstrate the real need that the tech industry has for certain kinds of talent. In a 2012 story titled "The Autism Advantage," the New York Times Magazine featured Specialisterne (which is Danish for "the specialists") and profiled the firm's founder, Thorkil Sonne. Sonne saw a potential fit between tech companies — who he'd seen struggle to find workers who can perform specific, intense and sometimes tedious tasks — and autistic workers, many of whom lack traditional social skills but have extraordinary abilities for memorizing and concentrating.
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Facebook Post Search Is Finally Coming To Android Devices

Facebook's updated search product was launched for iOS, web and mobile web in December. It's still only available for users of the U.S. English language setting.

Android users, left out when Facebook launched its revamped search product in December, are finally being included. Late last night, we received a notification on an Android phone that it is now possible to find posts that have been shared in the social network.

Today, a Facebook spokesperson confirmed that the rollout on Android has begun, and that it would continue in the coming weeks.

In December, Facebook rebranded Graph Search as Facebook Search on the web, mobile Facebook site and iOS devices. It’s only available for users using the U.S. English language setting.
Facebook Search gives users the ability to search within posts shared with them, by friends and pages that they follow. Facebook said in December that the search-within-posts functionality was users’ top feature request during nearly two years of testing of Graph Search. They were less interested in being able to search within all public posts, which had been the original plan.

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iOS 9: Possible New Features

What should Apple choose to include in its forthcoming iOS 9 mobile operating system?

Before the release of the new iPhone model later this year, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) will first release a new iOS 9 operating system. This is always an important aspect of any calendar year for Apple, as iOS is very much the foundation on which its mobile devices are built. This is, of course, as well an acclaimed piece of software, delivering a slick packages for the iPhone series which has led to it being a market-leading smartphone.

But what improvements can Apple make in iOS 9? Here are some suggestions for features that Apple fans would like to see included in the software.

iOS 9 Features:

Homescreen

The Android operating system certainly has its fans, and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has worked hard to close the gap on iOS in recent years. One area that it has dealt with extremely well is that of the homescreen, which can appear a little cluttered on an iPhone. So Apple should look to improve the layout of the homescreen when iOS 9 is released.

Themes

Another criticism of iOS, and indeed Apple in general, is that it is not customizable enough. One example of this is the fact that the iOS operating system gives users very little choice in terms of themes. Apple could make a step forward with iOS 9 by offering users the opportunity to effectively wind back iOS 9 to an earlier layout of the operating system, as well as offering skins and themes with the software.
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Microsoft continues fulfilling their promise to complete layoffs before June 30th

More employees are let go this past week, mostly from Redmond.

Continuing with their plan to cut 18,000 positions, Microsoft has let hundreds of employees go last week. This most recent job cut is a part of the entire restructuring process which Microsoft has been undergoing for the last year and ends June 30th. The intent of the change revolves around fewer levels of management to ease the flow of information and to help Microsoft be more agile. The technology industry is famous for changing fast, and Microsoft needs to be able to react quickly and decisively if they are to remain competitive.
Microsoft has a reputation for being slow to change and for suffering from internal turmoil. Employees loosing jobs is never easy but hopefully these cuts will enable Microsoft to continue employing the roughly 127,000 people into the distant future. These most recent cuts were smaller and mostly focused on employees who work at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond Washington. Employee layoffs are never pleasant, but Microsoft continues full steam ahead on their plans to deliver Windows 10 to consumers this summer.
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Flipkart, Snapdeal Sell These Items The Most

Mobile phones and related accessories are the highest selling items on e-tailing websites like Flipkart, Snapdeal etc., according to the Internet and Mobile Association of India or IAMAI.
The category contributes Rs 9,936 crore or 41 per cent to the e-tailing industry, according a research report by IAMAI.
The next most sold category is - apparels, footwear and personal items - which contributes 20 per cent or Rs 4,699 crore to the industry.
Consumer durables along with kitchen appliances contribute another 14 per cent or Rs 3,404 crore.
"Out of the remaining 25 per cent, laptops/net books/tablets, home furnishings and books contribute another Rs 2,780 crore, Rs1,059 crore and Rs 648 crore respectively," IAMAI said.
E-Tailing in 2014 grew by around 1.4 times from 2013 and constitutes nearly 29 per cent of the overall e-commerce market.
The total e-commerce market including e-tailing was valued at Rs 81,525 crore by the end of December 2014, according to IAMAI. The lion's share of the e-commerce pie lies with online travel at 61 per cent.
It is estimated to grow further at a rate of 33 per cent and cross Rs 1 lakh crore by the end of 2015.
Nearly a half of online shoppers prefer the cash on delivery mode of payment, the study showed.
"45 per cent of the online shoppers prefer cash on delivery as a mode of payment. 21 per cent prefer payment through debit card and 16 per cent via credit card.
"The other modes of payment include internet banking (10 per cent) and other payment modes viz. prepaid cash cards, mobile wallets etc. (8 per cent)," it said.
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Microsoft at 40: Read Bill Gates' anniversary email to employees

The world's largest software maker hits a milestone Saturday. Read its co-founder and former CEO's letter to employees asking them to remember the transformative properties of technology.

Forty years ago, the world's largest maker of software was nothing more than a startup, founded by two college dropouts named Bill Gates and Paul Allen.
Today, that company, Microsoft, has more than 125,000 employees, a sprawling 8-million-square-foot campus outside Seattle and its principal products running on nearly 90 percent of the world's computers. It's the third-most valuable company in the world, behind only oil giant Exxon Mobil and longtime competitor Apple.
On Saturday, Microsoft celebrates its 40th anniversary and Gates -- who served as chief executive officer for 25 years before stepping down in 2000 -- has advice for its employees to utilize in the years ahead: "Make the power of technology accessible to everyone, connect people to each other and make personal computing available everywhere."
In an email to employees Friday, Gates reiterated his commitment to the vision he laid out four decades ago that software could empower the world, and asked Microsoft never to forget what it can do to change lives. "What matters most is what we do next," he wrote.
 Gates, who has since pulled away from Microsoft yet remains an adviser to CEO Satya Nadella, focuses now on philanthropic efforts as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. His personal fortune has kept him at the top of the list of the world's wealthiest people 16 out of the last 21 years, but he's pledged to give away 95 percent of it to charity by his death. So far, Gates has poured $28 billion into his foundation.
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