However, when Yahoo! bought IntoNow, I realized it could play a whole new role in advertising and possibly resurrect Yahoo! with a new ad revenue stream.  I’ve started to notice some Shazam bugs during TV shows but the news today shows that Shazam, and to a lesser extent IntoNow, are going big when it comes to the Superbowl and I’m thrilled.

I’ve spent years lamenting the lack of mobile integration into Superbowl ads, and the social media talking heads have bashed agencies for not going further to integrate social outside of a hashtag or Facebook page.   Now we are finally about to see both.  Shazam and IntoNow will offer a perfect way for viewers to interact with the ad using their mobile device, and get a reward with additional content, coupons, donations on their behalf, and more.

I’m not a huge fan of mobile QR codes because seem more effort than the value they deliver.  However, Shazam or IntoNow becoming what I’ll call the “Audio QR code” for advertising has many interesting implications for broadcast advertisers.  Now to see if people know what the heck to do when they see the little Shazam bug on their big screen.  I’ll be watching.

Today all that has changed.  My old school iPod still works and has completely changed the way I listen to music, especially in the car. In addition to the thousands of songs I burned off of my old CDs, I have purchased nearly 700 (gasp!) songs from iTunes and have created over 50 playlists (harkening back to when I was queen of the mixed tape.) My daughter barely knows anything different and started her Apple consumerism at six with an iPod Nano and my husband’s old PowerBook.

For phones, I now carry an iPhone 4.  I stood in line in July of 2008 to be one of the first to get an iPhone 3G (which my daughter now uses as her “iPod Touch”).  We also bought the iPad for our family on the first day it went on sale.  Across these devices I run over 300 apps (and that doesn’t count the ones I’ve downloaded and deleted).  Yikes, just thinking about how much I’ve spent with Apple over the last few years makes me cringe.

And one of the best decisions ever, I finally ditched that heavy, slow-as-molasses notebook for a super-thin, super-fast, MacBook Air with a long battery life and no more blue screens of death.

Have I had any problems? Yes.  Mobile.me was a complete f’ing disaster that wiped out my contacts entirely after moving to the MacBook Air and caused hours and days of headaches.  My iPhone 3G got so slow after upgrading the software too many times that it could barely send an email or make a phone call.  My new iPhone 4 crashed and I had to reset it, wiping out the hours I spent re-organizing my apps back into folders and re-registering with all of them.  The AppStore subscription policies piss me off.  Ping is completely useless.  But, does that stop me from being happy? No.  Because I don’t have to spend 20 minutes every day starting and turning off my computer.  I don’t need to restart multiple times a day.  I can do what I need to do quickly and move on with my busy life.  I can count on my products to work.  The entertainment and utility I get out of my apps enriches my daily experiences.  And, without Stack the Countries, how else would my seven year old have become so interested in the countries of Southeast Asia?

So Steve, we thank you.

After being an early Foursquare adopter, I somewhat abandoned the app about six months ago in favor of Facebook Places.  It came down to the fact that Facebook Places was easier (faster, didn’t crash, better database) and if I was letting people know where I was, that was usually information I wanted to share only with the friends and family I am connected to on Facebook.  However, some recent news out of Foursquare made me reconsider.

First, was the rumor, now confirmed, that Foursquare will be incorporating Groupon Daily Deals.  Finding local specials and deals gives Foursquare a leg up on Facebook, at least until they expand their Facebook Deals program.  The second news bit that intrigued me was that Klout was going to incorporate Foursquare into its influence ranking.  I like to think I know a thing or two about the area where I live so I would like to get that street cred through Klout and see where their Klout Perks program leads.

So I decided to give Foursquare a second chance and I have to say, I’m impressed.  First of all, the app is much improved (along with upgrading from an iPhone 3 to an iPhone 4), it is faster, with a better UI, more comprehensive database, and much more reliable.  Second, I still like the fact that I can share with other services.  If it is personal but something I want to share with friends, I’ll post to Facebook.  Professional and public, like a networking event or conference, I’ll post to Twitter.  But best of all were the deals.  (Note: as of this writing Groupon Daily Deals are not yet incorporated in my city.)

Perhaps it was because I tried it out on a recent trip to New York City, but I was overwhelmed by the number and accessibility of the specials.  In the past, to unlock the special you had to become the Mayor or some other hard-to-achieve benchmark.  Not now, at least, not what I saw.  From the time we checked into Hotel Roger Williams, we were unlocking a boatload of deals that were compelling and meaningful.

First up, my husband and I both received a free drink in the hotel bar for checking in on Foursquare.  The next day, when checking in at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, we received a free reusable tote bag when spending over $25 at the museum store (that was a given since we were traveling with our seven year old.)  Later, after checking in when we arrived at the Lion King, we received 20 percent off our souvenir purchase of $20 or more (again, of course the kid gets a t-shirt).  The next day we stopped for a quick chocolate soup dumpling at Rickshaw Dumpling Bar but alas, couldn’t take advantage of their special only because we had just eaten a full meal.  Also couldn’t take advantage of the bar special at Eataly because of the timing but it felt like everywhere we went, we were unlocking special deals.  (Ok, the staff at Peter Luger probably never even heard of Foursquare but you don’t go there for a deal, that is for sure.)

Now that I’m back in Providence I’ve gotten back in the habit of checking in using Foursquare vs. Facebook.  I haven’t been surprised by any specials yet but who knows, we’ll be in town tomorrow for dinner and Waterfire.  In the meantime, I’m going to keep my eye out for Groupon Daily Deals.

By the way, little tip for when you unlock a special: Take a screenshot of the special so when you go to redeem it you don’t have to open the app and try to find the screen while waiting in a busy checkout line.

Lightspeed Research has found at the use of mobile content switches from news and business during the week to entertainment and shopping as the weekend approaches.  When it comes to shopping, 32 percent use mobile to do research and 27 percent to compare prices.  Google has revealed that 15 percent of mobile searches pertain to consumer electronics, while 29 percent are related to restaurants and 16 percent are related to auto.

But perhaps most important is what happens after the search.  Research from Google and IPSOS OTX MediaCT found that people that are searching from their smartphone are further along in the purchase funnel, with a whopping 68 percent visiting a business after conducting a mobile search, and 53 percent making a purchase.  (To learn more of the insights from this study, I’d highly recommend checking out the Google Mobile Ads blog post.)  Bing has also stated that 70 percent of completion on a mobile site happens within an hour.  For example, if you are searching for a movie on your mobile phone, you are more likely to be going to the movies that day, versus on your desktop you might be researching plans for the weekend.

Honestly if the numbers coming out recently don’t convince you to take your mobile presence and mobile search seriously, then you need to reconsider.  Take a look:

• One in three US mobile phones is a smartphone
• Mobile phones and tablets account for over 8 percent of US web traffic
• 25% of smartphone users prefer to access the Internet using their smartphone vs. their PC
• 60% of mobile users click ads weekly

One of the things that really struck me recently was that there are 1.5 times more typos on mobile than PC searches.  Makes sense right? Between autocorrection and the awkwardness of typing with your thumbs.  Just makes you realize that optimizing and buying keywords with misspellings is even more important for mobile than desktop.

If you want more ideas about driving traffic to your mobile site, check out this white paper from MoFuse (disclaimer: client).  What trends are you seeing in mobile search?

Freshbooks: When juggling between four or five clients, keeping separate spreadsheets to track my time for each client was taking too much time.  Freshbooks has a nice widget for tracking time and allows you to easily invoice clients.  Freshbooks works for freelancers but also small businesses or agencies that have multiple team members working on a project.

EchoSign: There are many competitors in this space but EchoSign allows you to set up contracts, SOWs, NDAs, estimates, etc. for electronic signature and is a great alternative to faxing back and forth.

Box.net & Dropbox:  I use both Box.net and Dropbox for document storage and sharing but I actually prefer Box.net because it offers a higher monthly storage maximum for free and better organization and sharing features.  However, Dropbox can’t be beat for automatic synchronization.

Google Docs:  While I find the formatting features lacking, Google Docs is great for working collaboratively on documents and spreadsheets to avoid version control and email attachments.

Join.me:  Impromptu screen sharing.

Skype: Since switching to a Mac, I’ve moved away from using Digsby as a universal IM client and have found that most people I need to communicate with are on Skype and I don’t really need iChat.  While I don’t like it when people do an unscheduled Skype call, it is great for scheduled and international calls.

Go-to-Webinar: I’ve had some problems recently with WebEx and have moved to running my webinars on Go-to-Webinar with good results, and a good price.

Eventbrite:  For live events, Eventbrite simplifies registration management and makes it easy for people to share the event via social networks.

Tungle.me: I publish my availability via Tungle.me and use the service to schedule meetings with multiple participants to eliminate all the email back and forth it takes to find a time that works for everyone.

YapTime: YapTime facilitates communication for private groups with a nicer interface than Google or Yahoo! Groups and without the personal connection of Facebook Groups.  If you are working with a virtual team, the service offers a good way to collaborate privately and thread conversations, share documents, plan events, etc.

ConstantContact: Many of my clients publish email newsletters.  I’ve used JangoMail and looked at MailChimp but I still like the interface and the price of ConstantContact. I do wish they had better templates but you can get something custom designed fairly easily.

SurveyMonkey: For quick surveys on the cheap, SurveyMonkey is very simple to set up and choose various question types and design styles.  You will need to pay if you want to export the data and reports.

TweetDeck: We’ll see what happens now that Twitter bought Tweetdeck but I use the web app to manage multiple Twitter accounts and post to various other services.  However, when it comes to iPhone or iPad apps, I actually prefer the new Twitter apps.

Yammer: If your client has assigned you a company email, you will be able to create and join a private network using Yammer, which I use to share industry news, company updates, etc, within the company.

Evernote: Evernote gets plenty of press on its own but it is useful for saving and syncing notes, photos, links, and more between devices.

Reeder: I tend to work from a lot of strange places in between appointments and meetings and not all of these locations have wireless coverage.  Before I leave, I sync up Reeder with my Google Reader so that I can at least catch up on all of my feeds when I’m offline.

Xmarks: For a while it looked like it was going away but now it is here to stay.  Xmarks is great for syncing your bookmarks between browsers.  I bounce between Google Chrome (my default), Firefox (some apps don’t fully support Chrome), and Safari (for testing display) so it helps to keep my bookmarks in sync between all my browsers and when moving from machine to machine.

Delicious: Another service that looked like it was going away but thankfully has been saved is Delicious.  I have three years of articles that I’ve bookmarked and tagged using Delicious.  Whenever I see an article with an industry stat or piece of information that I might find useful later, I tag it using the Delicious Chrome Extension and find it so easy later to find the information that I need.

Chrome SEO and SEO Site Tools:  I use both of these Chrome Extensions for quick keyword and competitive research when writing content for clients.  They provide a quick run down of site and page SEO and are also helpful for evaluating your own sites.

Volunteerspot:  This one may not be for consultants but as a mom, I’ve found this to be a helpful service in organizing volunteers by publishing a schedule with timeslots that people can sign up for, or a list of things needed for people to bring/donate.

I’d love to hear what tools you depend on to run your freelance or consulting business.