Mobile Marketing Around the Web

• Mediabistro.com has launched three new blogs: MobileMarketingToday.Com, MobileDevicesToday.com and MobileAppsToday.com, which join Media Bisto's MobileContentToday.com blog. Mobile Marketing Today looks like it will be a great place to keep up with the good, the bad and the just plain odd in the mobile marketing world.

• We're wondering why Ralph Lauren is making its customers download software and scan barcodes to "quickly" access the brand's new mobile shopping site -- Lauren figures that people will happily "use their phone to scan barcodes on ads in magazines, and even in store windows," according to an article in Pocket Lint. SnapTell's Snap.Send.Get could have effortlessly whisked customers to the Lauren site, all they'd need to do is snap pictures of the products in question. Our solution works on any phone, and requires no software download, no scanning of barcodes, no adding ugly barcodes to ads and window displays.

• AT&T wants mobile app developers in New England to create the Next Great Mobile Application, in what the company is describing as "a high-tech version of 'American Idol. The grand prize winner gets $10,000 in cash and a slot on the AT&T devCentral Web site, plus the application will be promoted in all AT&T-owned stores in New England. National versions of the Fast-Pitch program have resulted in such apps as Ascendo Fitness, My Local TV News Over Wireless and Mobile Comic Books by uclick, this is AT&T's first regional challenge. Better move fast, the contest ends September 30th -- see the entry information here.