Well, user backlash may finally be catching up — an admittedly small Harris Interactive and EffectiveUI online survey of 781 appin’ adults found that 38% disliked branded apps and 70% said a lousy app experience shifts to a negative view of a brand.

And worse, 32% of those respondents talked about their crap app experience with friends and 13% said they wouldn’t download another app from that brand. On the positive side, 57% said they had recommended an app they liked. There’s some comfort there I guess.

Most interesting, 73% of the respondents said they judged an app based on whether it was easier to use than the company’s website. This seems to be another sign the age of the app is coming to a close; Cute little branded apps have worn out their novelty value and mobile users are ready to get back to browsing.

Onet, the largest Polish social network, launched, an exclusive version of social web browser Flock that includes Onet’s social network Ludzie and includes webmail, blog and photo-sharing services

According to an SEC filing Scout Labs, which manages a web-based platform that companies use to monitor online chatter about their products, has raised $4 million in a round of funding.

One day after the finalization of the Razorfish acquisition from Microsoft, digital media guru and chief of venture capital Tim Hanlon will leave Publicis Groupe at the end of the month.

Less than half, or 46%, of 13-18 year olds in the U.S. express an interest in the upcoming Olympics, including only 27% who say they are extremely or very interested. Older teen boys (ages 16-18) show the greatest interest and represent the only age group where over half of youth are interested in the sporting event. Teens overall are a larger audience for the Olympics than tweens (ages 8-12) who report only a 28% interest.

“The results of this survey indicate that teens have not yet caught Olympics-fever. Marketers and advertisers may think that teens are a natural constituency for the Games, since many of the Olympic competitors are the same age. Our findings, however, indicate that the Olympics have not yet captured the majority of hearts and minds of today’s teens in the U.S.,” commented Dana Markow, Ph.D, VP senior consultant, Harris Interactive Youth Center of Excellence.

The results are even more grim for online advertising. TV will be the primary medium for teens to follow the Olympics this summer. Six in ten, or 59%, say that they plan to watch Olympics sporting events on TV. A far smaller number of teens are interested in reading about, 22%, or watching, 14%, Olympic sporting events online. Similar to an overall interest in the Olympics, plans to follow the Games online increase significantly with age. This is consistent with the trend for youth to spend an increasing amount of time online as they get older.

Harris Interactive is a global leader in custom market research.

A few key findings:
•    A six in 10 majority (59%) are not comfortable when websites like Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft (MSN) use information about a person’s online activity to tailor advertisements or content based on a person’s hobbies or interests. A quarter (25%) is not at all comfortable and 34% are not very comfortable;
•    The remaining 41% who say that are comfortable with Web sites tailoring content is split between 7% who are very comfortable and 34% who are somewhat comfortable.

“Web sites pursuing customized or behavioral marketing maintain that the benefits to online users that advertising revenues make possible — such as free emails or free searches and potential lessening of irrelevant ads — should persuade most online users that this is a good tradeoff,” said Dr. Alan F. Westin, professor of public law and government emeritus at Columbia University, principal of the Privacy Consulting Group, in a release. “Though our question flagged this position, 59% of current online users clearly do not accept it.”

After four privacy/security policies were introduced, U.S. adults did change their opinions, Harris found:
•    By 55% to 45%, a majority of U.S. adults indicates that they would be more comfortable with companies using information about a person’s online activities to provide customized advertising or content;
•    Interestingly, once the privacy/security policies were presented the percentages of those who are very comfortable increases only very slightly to 9% from 7%. The percentage who are somewhat comfortable given the privacy/security policies increases more significantly to 46% from 34%;
•    Similarly, those who are not at all comfortable decline to 19% from 25%, and those who are not very comfortable decline to 26% from 34%.

“The failure of a larger percentage of respondents to express comfort after four privacy policies were specified may have two bases – concerns that web companies would actually follow voluntary guidelines, even if they espoused them, and the absence of any regulatory or enforcement mechanism in the privacy policy steps outlined in the question,” Westin said.

Video search engine giant blinkx today released the results of a television and online video survey that studied consumers’ viewing habits. Harris Interactive conducted the survey, which was designed to find the interplay between television and Internet habits.

About 78% of consumers are defined as media multitaskers – people who go online while watching TV, and more than a third of that segment say they do so always or often.

So-called double dippers are defined as adults who surf the Web while watching television. About 40% of double dippers look for products or services online that appeared in or were advertised during the program they’re watching.

One generational consistency revealed in the survey is the difference between a “talker” and a “typer.” In general, the older the individual, the more likely that person is to discuss TV content with other individuals in person. Sixty percent of people who routinely respond to TV content via face-to-face conversations were in the 35-44 age group. Correspondingly, individuals aged 16-24 are most likely to interact with others online (17%) or read coverage or reviews of TV content online (24%).

“Similar to double-dipper behavior,” said Suranga Chandratillake, founder and CEO of blinkx, “it’s not necessarily a question of either/or. Some individuals enjoy the act of face-to-face conversation about television content; others interact heavily online and value the sounding board provided by the Web community. The fact that ‘typers’ skew younger is an indicator to the advertising community as to how and when to allocate online spend as an adjunct to TV viewership.”

4,123 adults responded to the survey and 26% replied positively to the concept of search-based mobile marketing. 21% of those surveyed showed a positive response to audio ads, which plays while the customer is waiting for the other caller to answer. While text messages advertising was deemed the least popular, about 20% of customers surveyed categorized this method “at least somewhat acceptable.”

The study was conducted by Harris Interactive and supported Ingenio’s previous data that said the majority of mobile searches are attempting to find local businesses with 411 being the most used form of information retrieval.

With only 30% of the customers surveyed claiming they recall receiving mobile advertising throughout the past year, Ingenio sees this as an indicator of a huge opportunity. The first step will be to revamp informational services. Where 411 charges a fee, Ingenio chief marketing officer Marc Barach believe that will give way to free searches that serve up advertising. “You listen to an ad that is relevant to your query,” he said. “Then you have a choice of following that advertiser path or staying on the phone and getting the listing you asked for.”

Barach continued to say that accurate targeting is what will make search-based mobile advertising a success. To compare it to a web browser, “the tolerance for error is that much smaller on the small screen,” he said.

There is a prediction that if others follow the lead of the iPhone, mobile advertising will become commonplace due to the regularity of mobile phones having better browsing abilities. He believes that fees for plans will go down as soon as the space becomes monetized by advertising.

“That’s really the silver lining to bringing more advertising to mobile [from a consumer point of view],” he said. “It will make the cost come down and ultimately be free,” which would probably make generate 100% customer approval.