Here are 5 Marketing Technology stories you might have missed. A startup is out to kill captcha (yay!), iOS 5 can mung your iDevice and 3 other hot Marketing Technology stories.

1. Startup Replaces Captchas With Brand Messages for Better Web Advertising

[link] Solve Media is working to turn captcha (what is captcha?) into advertising opportunities. Solve Media is a start up so it may take time to work into the mainstream, but this is perfect innovation. Taking a necessary evil and turning it into an unique opportunity to make a positive brand impression.

My Take: DIE CAPTCHA DIE

2. iOS 5 features

[link] Here’s the feature list direct from the install

[link] Mashable does a nice job demonstrating the new features

My Take: After the install, 85 apps that I had purchased and/or downloaded had to be reinstalled. What a P.I.T.A. This website outlines what I’m seeing too. It looks like my data is still intact – thankfully.

[notice]WAIT A FEW DAYS TO UPGRADE!!![/notice]

3. Social Media Presence More Important Than Social Media Ads

[link] Social media marketers feel that having a presence on social sites is more important than advertising , but there are still challenges related to keeping a community running online.

Social media marketers reported that 48% of their budgets are used to attract new members to their pages, with 28% focused on social sites such as Facebook or Twitter, and 20% from off of these sites. On the other hand, 19% of budgets are used to keep current Facebook or Twitter communities engaged, and an additional 20% of budgets are spent on paid media to maintain existing fan bases.

My Take: Good for Marketers that recognize the value of engagement over push marketing (not that advertising is bad).

[important]Listen –> Evaluate –> Engage[/important]

4. 7 in 10 CMOs Feel Unprepared for Data

Top Data Challenges Facing CMOs

[link] Marketing Charts provides some nice information from a IBM study of CMOs.

My Take: Digital Marketing is changing how brands interact with consumers. CMOs that who have not been super-vigilant need to play catch up. As I’ve said before (along with a great many others) Marketing needs to invest in serious data architects, analysts and statisticians if they want to make sense from all the data being created digitally.

5. Google debuts Dart, a new programming language for the web

[link] Dart is intended to be a replacement for JavaScript. Both faster and more dynamic.

My Take: Ummm…don’t have one, what do the programmers think? Hit me back in the comments.