Last month, IAB asked a group of mobile shoppers to keep a diary of their activity in a two week period. Here are some of the things they found out:

Here we see that almost half of all e-commerce interactions happened at home. They found that purchasing peaked in the late afternoon, early evening. 49% said they shopped while watching TV.

The dollar amounts aren’t too impressive, only 38% reported spending more than $21 a month. Most of the purchases were digital downloads with clothing and entertainment items coming in second.

Only 29% used their mobile phone to shop while they were out, but 73% used their phones while they were shopping in a brick and mortar store. 34% used their phone to look up a price and 53% abandoned their purchase because of what they found. A few abandoned the purchase because they saw a bad review but most were lured away by a lower price – the downside of mobile commerce.

The good news is that 70% said they saw mobile as as more of an “invitation” than an “invasion.” They do not want ads to take them straight to check-out. They want to be taken to a page with additional options. 30% said they’d like to pay with mobile then pick the item up at the store.

Overall, the IAB Mobile Phone Shopping Diaries shows that consumers see mobile shopping as a way of getting the best price with the least amount of effort. They want information and options and in return they’ll allow you to use their geo-location to target them and their phone to contact them. Sounds like a good deal to me.

He figured someone could do this in ten hours a week. I told him he was in over his head. I told him he needed to focus on a few keys areas to start — Facebook and Pinterest since he was selling a very visual and colorful product. I also told him to forget article marketing, it not only wouldn’t help his business but it might actually hurt. I don’t think he liked my advice.

Now, let’s all open our Wall Street Journal to the Small Business section: “As Google Tweaks Searches, Some Get Lost in the Web.”

The story focuses on two small online business who have suffered devastating losses since the latest Google search update known as Penguin. The owner of Oh My Dog Supplies says his sales went from $68,000 in March (pre-Penguin) to $25,000 this month (expected based on current sales). He blames the loss in traffic on Google search and thinks it’s the result of two actions. He once paid for a large number of inbound links and he posts marketing articles to EzineArticles and Squidoo.

Under the new Penguin reign, these kinds of marketing ploys are considered spam. Google sees them as ways of artificially inflating the relevance of a website. As such, they are not helpful to searchers and so Google penalizes the sites for being deceptive.

The author of the article admits that some companies have gained from the Penguin update but those that took a hit are suffering, to the point of possibly losing their business.

The people the Wall Street Journal profiled in the article are all legitimate, small business owners who were only doing what they thought was best. They followed advice (Did they know that buying links has always been a questionable tactic? Not likely.) and did all the things some marketers say you should do to get noticed. Marketing, however, is not their field. They’re people who simply wanted to share their passion for pets and sports and art and found they could turn that passion into profit. Now, though, you can bet that passion is waning as they scramble to regain what they lost through no fault of their own.

I’m not saying Google is wrong. They’re right to want to clean out the spammers and the snake oil salesmen. I’m saying that it’s time to stop marketing based on the way it’s always been. The rules have changed and they’re going to keep changing. What business owners have to do is follow the path that makes the most sense for their company and forget the rest.

You know what Google likes? Relevant, accurate, informative content that is better than what the competitor has to offer. That’s how you rise in the rankings and that’s how you stay on top the next time Google makes another update.

What are your thoughts on Google’s Penguin update? Good news, bad news, or just another twist in the path?

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Geek & Sundry has a weekly line-up that includes both scripted and reality programming. With names like Wil Wheaton and Veronica Belmont on the masthead, you know it's going to be a geek paradise.

The "Geek & Sundry" programming line-up

Monday: Felicia's vblog "The Flog"
Tuesday: "The Guild"
Wednesday: "Dark Horse" Motion Comics
Thursday: Behind the scenes & extras
Friday: (alternating) "Table Top" with Wil Wheaton and "Sword & Laser" with Tom Merritt and Veronica Belmont

Geek & Sundry launched in May and already has 6.7 million views. iMedia's Bethany Simpson spent time with Felicia at the Digitas NewFront in New York City.

Conversation highlights

0:00 - Why do viewers connect with Felicia?
0:40 - Geek & Sundry
1:00 - "The Flog," "Table Top" with Wil Wheaton, and "Sword and Laser" with Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt
1:30 - Felicia's unflappable moment
2:00 - What comes next?
2:20 - Felicia's current favorite console game

Run time is 2:43.

Felicia Day is a professional actress who has appeared in numerous mainstream television shows and films, most recently completing a two-season arc on the SyFy show "Eureka."

However, Felicia is best known for her work in the web video world, both behind and in front of the camera. She co-starred in Joss Whedon's Internet musical "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," which was ranked in the "Top 10 Best TV of 2008" by Time magazine, Entertainment Weekly, and People magazine and won an Emmy in 2009. She also created and stars in the hit web series "The Guild," which just finished its fifth season partnered with Microsoft and Xbox Live. The Guild has won several awards for web video excellence, most recently garnering a PGA nomination for best web series in 2011. She retained all intellectual property for her series, and has since expanded the brand into numerous merchandizing opportunities, including a hit comic book series with Dark Horse Comics.

Her production company Knights of Good produced the innovative web series "Dragon Age" in conjunction with EA/Bioware in 2011, and is currently producing a slate of shows for a new channel called "Geek and Sundry" under YouTube's new premium content initiative.

You can follow Felicia and Bethany on Twitter.

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