SEO is the number one source of leads for both B2C and B2B marketers, beating out both PPC and social media marketing in a recent survey of online marketers. But more of those surveyed say they plan to increase their social media marketing budgets in 2012, ahead of SEO and PPC.

The numbers come from the 2011 State of Digital Marketing Report, which was compiled by Webmarketing123, a California-based online marketing agency. The company surveyed more than 500 U.S. online marketers in August and September; about two-thirds of all respondents identified themselves as B2B marketers.

Whether B2B or B2C, both groups of marketers agree that SEO has the biggest impact on lead generation. 57 percent of B2B marketers credit SEO as their primary source of generating leads, while 41 percent of B2C marketers said the same thing.

Even though Microsoft has a long way to go in catching up with Apple on the design level. Microsoft’s Future Of Productivity Design is pretty cool. However, the most unbelievable part of Microsoft’s eye-catching Productivity Future Vision video, released last week, isn’t the see-through refrigerator, the software app that discovers a product design breakthrough on its own, or the plants growing on the wall of the ethereally white office. (That last one, actually, is a real office on the Microsoft campus.)

No, the most unbelievable part is how clean every surface is–in the car, in the office, and even in a kitchen where a bake sale project is underway. David Jones, acting director of the video’s creator, Microsoft’s Envisioning Lab, says it’s a common criticism, but then again, nearly every surface can act as a crisp, contextually...

What if a few Apple designers went off to fix other parts of the home? Well, they just did (sort of).

This is the beautiful Nest Learning Thermosat. All the bells, whistles, and slick design you would expect from the founding team.

A thermostat that learns from user behavior to create a custom heating and cooling schedule. Company founders Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers—who spearheaded the design and engineering of the iPod, respectively—found it “unacceptable…...