GOOG at 377.50 in After Hours Trading
Ouch! Missed earnings sends GOOG sinking in afterhours trading.
According to the AP: "The downturn wiped out roughly $20 billion in shareholder wealth."
Thanks to Geoff Lamm for the catch. Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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Build Buttons for Google Toolbar/IE Users
Google released a new beta version of its toolbar that enables "button" creation and page sharing through email and blogger.com.
I'm not a developer with a twist of marketing (though I'm friends with one or two :). If I was, I'd be all about making mad buttons for Google Toolbar users, especially since Google's seeking button submissions.
If the toolbar user demographic's in your target consider making a button. Who are toolbar users? I haven't seen any data, but my guess there are lots of marketers and developers using them, plus the early adopter types from outside industries.
My suspicion is that lots of toolbar users fall in the FireFox demographic. I'm a toolbar user who does. Is the decision to release the toolbar for IE first a concilatory gesture or something?
Maybe it's just easier to code toolbars for ie? Maybe my understanding of the situation is too narrow?
Google P2P Rumor via Battelle "The URL sharelive.com resolves to Google (www.sharelive.com/forums/ also resolves to Google, though to a non working page.) Odd, in that ShareLive used to be a file sharing site."
Google going P2P? Prolly not, but who knows. Fan the rumor flames by linking to Battelle on the next big Google rumor... Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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Onion on Google Vs. DOJ
What do you think? "The government has no business knowing that I keep forgetting my utility company's Web address."
Retailers, Engines Searching for Product Description Standards
Is there hope for retailers and engines when it comes to standards? Will standards shift according to product type?
Whichever engine + retailer comes up with product description standards first will pave the way for a stronger standards push... if they make some mad cash with it.
"Such a standard would allow retailers, both large and small, to advertise online more easily," he said, "would help the engines by increasing their advertising base, and would help consumers by allowing retailers to communicate a richer set of product information to the engines, which would then facilitate improved product searching and comparing."
More on Google's Chinese Censorship Debacle
It's really getting ugly. It'll get uglier. And it should.
A Picture Says 1000 Words About Google's Censorship In China Plenty are writing and writing about Google's agreement to censor results for China. But pictures perhaps better illustrate the differences that Google now endorses. link
How Google Censors Itself For China & Paid Exclusion As Being Evil China will give the search engines some advice on censoring and guidelines, but it remains up to the search engines to do the actual dirty work. link
Google's Help Center Page About Censorship Back Online With New Text The full text of the page now reads: It is Google's policy not to censor search results. However, in response to local laws, regulations, or policies, we may do so. When we remove search results for these reasons, we display a notice on our search results pages. Please note: For some older removals (before March 2005), we may not show a notice at this time. link Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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Mazda Advertises on Pontiac Searches in Google
Battelle got a screenshot in the wild of Mazda advertising on [Pontiac]. I couldn't reproduce it.
Usability and Conversion Tips from MarketSmart Interactive
Kelly Johnson, our usability and conversion expert here at MarketSmart Interactive, had a guest appearance on the Kowabunga! blog last week delivering some solid, easy to implement usability and conversion advice for their readers.
This is Kelly's first entrance into the blog world, though certainly not the first time she's taken a teaching role: prior to coming on board here she developed and taught classes at UNC Chapel Hill in web design, usability and online research.
Thanks again to Jim Kukral for giving us the opportunity to help his readers.
If you have usability questions for Kelly you can send them in through Jenny. Send SEO questions to Jenny too, if you got 'em. Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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The Industry of Instant Ridicule
I'm a web-only guy. I don't watch television ever. EVER. And so I'm wondering how new this Kevin Federline PopoZao parody is.
While I'm leading you far afield from search news, check out the urban ninja. Thanks to slider for this one.
update: oop, forgot to mention that I stripped all the kfed links from boingboing. Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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January 27, 2006
Bill Gates Defends Google's Censorship "Bill Gates, the billionaire founder of Microsoft, took the rare step of standing up for arch-rival Google today as he argued that state censorship was no reason for technology companies not to do business in China." link
Regarding piracy: ""We are always upset that they aren’t paying us for our products, but we’re not going to pick up and go home," Mr Gates said."
Pontiac Driving Google as a Destination
A week ago, Garrett French had a conversation with Mike Grehan about controlling search behavior. Garrett mentioned to me about an interesting point Mike had on how marketers will start to use search as a destination such as a television, print or even online ad saying “Google us!”.
At the time my response was that it would only work for Fortune 500 companies. I also didn't see the use of driving people to search engines using online media such as email or banner ads. Then I saw GM to Car Shoppers: "Google Pontiac and Discover For Yourself" by Max Kalehoff.
This article brought me to a new conclusion. It’s all about increasing consumer confidence in your brand.
Here are a few ideas I came up with initially. I’m sure there are plenty more out there to use this kind of tactic.
- In addition to a testimonials section, a link to a Google search where people are saying nice things about your company could be stronger and more trusted than the same thing on your own site.
- In addition to a news section, you could use the top results from Google news on a particular search to show that you’re not just making your own news but global news.
- Instead of posting your press releases on your site, you link to the Google news version of the release. For small companies the impact could be beneficial to expand their brand and say to clients, don’t take our word for it, “ask Google!”
- In support of an article, build confidence in your expertise by linking to a search on the subject with results supporting your conclusions.
Wrapping it up So yes, search results can be used as an on site marketing tool and can have a positive impact on a site’s interaction with their users. And yes, you don’t have to be a F500 company or have a huge off-line budget to benefit.
Obviously this would not be an effective tactic unless you have some positive buzz out there on the internet already. This would also require staunch review of the things being said online during the course of the campaign to avoid a PR mishap like driving site traffic to negative press or competitors in case someone decides to link bomb the term, release negative articles or blog posts.
You probably also want to be sure your other online channels are synched up with the campaign to avoid the problem of letting other people buy your buzz. Kalehoff points out that “there were no obvious Pontiac paid search listings at the time, only those of competitors and dealers”. Finally, try to think beyond Google because any engines results could be used for the same purpose. Adam Schultz - MarketSmart Interactive
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No Acquisition Talks With Yahoo Says Digg Owner
A Yahoo Digg acquistion rumor started: "They’ve already got Flickr, Upcoming and Delicious, and from what I hear, one final piece of the puzzle could be added sooner rather than later, as little birdies have informed me that Yahoo has an offer on the table to buy Digg for somewhere in the range of $35 million dollars."
And, in my mind, ended with a statement by Digg's owner: "So, just to set things straight - we are not in talks with Yahoo. We are focused on creating new features and expanding digg into new areas beyond tech. The recent reports about digg and Yahoo! are just rumors, nothing more."
Though Digg certainly fits Yahoo's social web focus. Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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Google Protests Starting in Response to Chinese Censorship
There's a growing backlash now against Google for its decision to launch a censored Chinese search site:
Is censorship evil? DUH. Is there a simple solution given Google's business imperative to be in China? Hell no. Can do search in China now and not be evil?
This may be Google's big brand tumble - no one made much of a stir when Yahoo and MSN censored results. This backlash is all about disappointment in the paragon of virtue. Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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January 26, 2006
Yahoo DOES Wants #1 Search Spot, May Get There Socially Yahoo's CFO said: "It's not our goal to be No. 1 in Internet search. We would be very happy to maintain our market share."
Yahoo's blog said: "This commitment to being the best should be crystal clear from our investments in talented people, research, innovation and new products. Believe it or not, we are still in the early days of search. As all of us at Yahoo! agree, we're in it for the long haul, and we're in it to win."
Om Malik said (after talking with Y!'s new Chief Product Officer): "I sat next to Ash, and got into a spirited discussion about why Yahoo is really all about My.Yahoo.Com. My contention is that forget search, because Yahoo has something better than that."
Garrett thinks: "Yahoo's going to win more search share by increasing usage of their portal properties and if it keeps up the social web push I think it will see that happen." Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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Congress Investigating Google, Microsoft, Yahoo Over Chinese Censorship Google, Microsoft and Yahoo will be the subjects of a US congressional committee over agreements to censor internet services to Chinese citizens.
What Google's Chinese Censorship Looks Like
"This is an incomplete selection of search results which Google.cn self-censors working together with the Chinese government. Google does not censor access to the site itself, it only censors the site within the search result; access to the sites is blocked by the Chinese government."
Search Marketing Print Mag to Launch
I just got off the phone with Boris Mordkovich, co-author of the Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Marketing Handbook and now publisher of the Search Marketing Standard, a print magazine "completely devoted to the world of search marketing."
This quarterly mag will go out to 15-20k marketing folks and subscriptions are free until February 28th.
They've got an inhouse writing team but are open to outside submissions.
The first issue's slated for June. Watch for a piece by an expert from MarketSmart Interactive :)
TV Ad Encourages Viewers to "Google Pontiac" ...this GM spot was significant because it ended with an unusual call to action: "Don't take our word for it. Google Pontiac and discover for yourself." And the ad ended not with a URL or phone number for a local dealer, but an actual Google screenshot with Pontiac typed in. Yes, an actual screenshot!
How Much SEO Can You Get for $1000?
Mike Grehan's gotten involved in an SEO industry discussion surrounding how much SEO you can actually purchase for $1000.
The short answer is, of course, NOT MUCH:
I flew to London last week, in part for a Search Marketing Association UK meeting. I took the opportunity of having a crowd of SEM firm owners around one table to air their thoughts. I asked, "If a potential client came to you with only a grand, what would you say to him?" With such industry veterans as Barry Lloyd and Ammon Johns present, the answers varied from "I'd say let's go to the pub" to "Buy a couple of good books, such as Aaron Wall's and Andrew Goodman's, then take your wife out for a nice dinner."
In answer to a commentator who suggested that "1K would get you a couple hours (give or take) of phone consulting from a leading SEO firm.... Will their site rock the SERPs [search engine results pages] for competitive keywords? Of course not. But it would give them a foothold."
I have experience as a consultant with two of the leading companies in the industry. The first part of my job is getting a tight grip on what my clients' products or services are, their markets and their competition, what their overall marketing strategy is, and the best way to integrate and implement search.
Following this discovery period, I can then usually go back to a client with, literally, the bare bones of a plan for us to work on as a team. All this takes considerably more than a couple of hours.
German Ask Jeeves Launches, Personal Homepage Integrates with Bloglines
Ask pinged me with news of their expansion into Germany. I've mentioned their impending Europeanexpansion before.
The most interesting bit is that MeinAsk, the German version of MyJeeves, contains a "BloglinesTM Notifier, which alerts Bloglines users of unread feeds in their account, direct from the Ask Deutschland homepage."
Paul Loeffler at Ask informed me that "there is no integration between Bloglines and MyJeeves," which got me thinking... Why not? Bloglines is, for me, one of my handful of free web apps that I can't live without (gmail, blogger, bloglines, myspace). If there's a stronger tie between Ask and Bloglines (not sure what that would look like...) I'd probably search more through Ask.
Last March, AJ/Ask launched Ask Jeeves in Spain and in 2004 Ask Jeeves in Japan. Btw, AJ is also testing their own Bloglines blog/feed search engine in Japan.
Finally, the SER post from December points to more European versions of AJ that haven't been officially released including Ask France and Ask Netherlands. Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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FyberSearch in 2006: What Nathan's Doing Next
I had the pleasure of catching up with Nathan Enns of FyberSearch the other day (Remember Nathan? Andy spotted him back in the day). He was just sitting down to a lunch of whole grain cereal and Mountain Dew.
My goal was to learn what's up at FyberSearch. Here are the highlights:
FyberSearch was originally built in PHP - Nathan spent novemeber and december writing the FyberSearch backend in Python.
He's moving the FyberSearch site search tools into more member services, possibly giving members more control over the algorithm on their sites and the ability to set cycles for updating.
He's in the process of creating a website for search engine owners/builders, including a forum with members-only sections for algorithm development. He's noticed an increase in search engine owners/developers seeking a community as well as folks looking to sell to search engine owners.
The Numbers: 2005 500k queries per month 40-60k uniques a month
2004 uniques 80k queries per month 8,000 uniques a month
Sales of his CMCA have been good and he's still hiring for a sales position.
Offers He's Received: He's had one offer to buy and several investment offers, allowing him to keep 51%. He's had many, many companies and individuals offer to hire and relocate him. The most offers he's had though are people wanting him to include their ppc feed into fybersearch.
Watch this guy - he's wicked smart. His search engine owner and builder community site will fill an interesting niche in the industry and will probably open up some new revenue/development ops for Mr. Enns. Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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January 24, 2006
Forbes: Google Protecting its Porn Search Revenues, Not Users
Because Google FAR more than Yahoo, MSN and AOL relies on search ads for revenue, Forbes writers surmise that its primary interest in saying no to the Feds is to protect the search traffic and ad click throughs on pornographic material.
"A public disclosure of exactly how much pornography is on the Internet and how often people look for it--the two data points that will result from fulfilling the government's subpoena--could serve to make the Internet look bad. And Google, as its leading search engine, could look the worst."
"But Nielsen/NetRatings says that porn sites attracted 38 million unique viewers in December--or a quarter of all Internet surfers."
"Restricting porn and porn advertising--the likely aim of COPA's sponsors--could hurt Google disproportionately."
I think their story lacks the balance and completeness of what Search Engine Watch is putting together, but it's a point I had overlooked in my thrill at Google protecting privacy. Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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Three-out-of-Five Marketing Executives Working With Bigger Budgets in 2006 The BtoB online survey "2006 Marketing Priorities and Plans" of 366 senior marketing executives, conducted during the last week of November and the first week of December, found that 60.7% will be working with bigger budgets in 2006, reported Kate Maddox of BtoBOnline. 31.6% said their budgets would be flat. And only 7.7% said their budgets would decrease. The optimism is eleven points over last year.
Yahoo Happy to Maintain Search Marketshare Cause They're Going Social
This quote lit the blogs up: "We don't think it's reasonable to assume we're going to gain a lot of share from Google," Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker said in an interview. "It's not our goal to be No. 1 in Internet search. We would be very happy to maintain our market share." from Seattle PI
I think chasing search share is important, and from a PR perspective, it's probably not a great idea to admit that you're going to strive to tread water.
Yahoo's going to win more search share by increasing usage of their portal properties and if it keeps up the social web push I think it will see that happen.
Sterling says, "We sometimes forget that there’s a great deal more going on on the Internet than search, even though search has become the driver or starting point for so much commercial and non-commercial activity."
Ask Jeeves Launches Proprietary Image Search
Ask pinged SEL to drop news of their new proprietary image search. Ask Image Search includes:
-Internally created index of Web images -Further improvements to image search ranking algorithms -Zoom related search suggestions designed specifically for image search -Expanded Image Smart Answers
Google Analytics Partners with Zaaz for Forecasting, Site Optimization
Zaaz and Google are expected to announce today that Zaaz will be providing "a range of additional features--including accuracy audits, metrics scorecard creation, ROI monetization and forecasting, behavioral and competitive analysis, and site optimization."
"Before we launched Google Analytics, you could spend a lot for a high-end analytics package, and there would be some pre-defined professional services wrapped with that. The model that we've put together with Zaaz for the high end of the market is that the data is free, and you pay for what you need with Zaaz."
Even at the "high end" of the market can Zaaz scale?
Google's News Adds Most Popular + Recommended Sections Google News has two new sections to the left; Recommended, and Most Popular. It’s interesting to see Google work on improving their news homepage, even though its lack of ads make it a site with no direct revenues. link
How will Google monetize its news section? I imagine there will be some behavioral targeting, but serving ads based on context won't work well. Will Google offer a CPM product? Does it have a CPM now that I've not seen/forgot about? Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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Search and Privacy: The Biggest Search Story of '06
I think this will shape up to be one of the biggest search stories of '06. At the least this event will be the story that brought the issue of search and privacy into the mainstream. (check out Danny Sullivan on ABC)
This statement nutshells the situation: "The expressed purpose of the government's request was to estimate how much pornography shows up in the searches that children might do." Don Dodge in comments on Battelle's blog
And Battelle digs in with a bit more info regarding the subpoena (including the request for all URLs available through a query! Talk about a mountain of data.)
"The subpoena asks Google to produce an electronic file containing '[a]ll URL's that rea available to be located through a query on your company's search engine as of July 31 2005."
and
"all queries that have been entered on your company' search engine between June 1, 2005 and July 31, 2005." The DOJ then narrowed its request to a random sample of one million URLs and agreed to not ask for personally identifying info on the search queries, but it still wants all search queries for a one week period.
And finally the following posts from SEW do a good job of digging deeper into the search and privacy story. I pulled out the most telling quotes from each:
Google pushed back in this case, but it may have complied with other governmental requests. Indeed, one of the best points in John Battelle's book "The Search" was the section focusing on the US Patriot Act and how Google (or other search engines) might not even be able to say if it has given out information.
Had Microsoft said no, it would have scored major points for trust. But to say yes -- then not even admit to saying yes -- just makes Google seem better and better to many people. The Day After: Points In The Search Trust Sweepstakes
More Internet-Related Humor on SNL (SNL Goes 1337 ;)
Ever since Lazy Sunday I've been loving YouTube. Thanks to SNL's new leaning towards internet-based humor I'm loving it even more.
(Chuck Norris Facts are a popular internet joke that I'm assuming spawned the recent young Chuck Norris clip) Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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January 20, 2006
PreFound Tag Search Engine (very) Early Adopters Are Educators, Researchers
I just got off the phone with Steve Mansfield, co-founder of PreFound.com, a newly-launched community search engine that enables its users to tag and organize sites for others to search.
Steve's from my neck of the woods, over there in Silicon Holler (his term), Lexington, Kentucky. Check out the PreFound blog here (official url coming soon... they're new dang it).
Why tag search?
"We're making the tagging and community effort more accessible to the everyday user."
I think this is accurate - their front page features the most recent "PFfinders," some with pics, and you don't see a single mention of the word "tag" on their site at all. Instead it's "Share what you've found with others. We'll show you how."
There are also pictures of the community scrolling beneath the search box.
Who's using this?
"Our strongest early adopters include educators - college professors, high school teachers and hardcore researchers."
Steve noted that these folks have become PreFind users only in the last few days and so are a bit statistically insignificant. He has a scrolling ticker on his desktop telling him who the most recent community members are. I found it quite interesting though, and wondered if there's a stronger demand in the academic and research community for social search?
How are you fighting spam?
"The only way you can upload tags is through our pffinder tagging tool, plus we have human editors. Plus you can't rank your own stuff - we have software to make sure you're not coming at it obliquely."
In addition to a crew of human editors analyzing filtered submissions they have user ratings, so that searchers can rate individuals' tags.
My big question for tags always comes back to spam. I think tags are useful in this online world of unstructured data. I'm not 100% certain that what they have in place would scale to protect against a concerted spamming effort, but that's not a problem they have right now. For now what they have in place will keep the pests out.
Why go so broad instead of picking a vertical?
"We wanted to make tagging universal to anyone who wanted to be a part. We think algorithmic search will become overwhelming and that non-algorithmic search should be a major part of information retrieval on the web."
Can human editors scale if PreFinder blows up?
"We're going to continue to enhance filtering software so editors do less and less, plus bring in active community members to make them editors."
I noted that a natural fit for PreFind is MySpace, where there's a built in community and asked if they're building to be an acquisition target.
"Once we've shown what we can do we will be looking at strategic partnerships with community sites."
Why PreFind over, say, Del.cio.us? (Steve noted that he's an avid Del.cio.us user)
"Delicious is not search centric - you have to commit time to figure out how to use it and what it's good for. For your everyday average users there's not much good to it. We're making tags more accessible to the average user."
What do you think? Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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Google Sales Process Investigated in BW Article
Business week has an interesting story on Google's sales process and includes some interesting bits from Tim Armstrong, Google's National Sales Chief:
National sales chief Tim Armstrong says planning sessions can last a few hours, and some clients are asking for a "summit," a half-day deep-dive into all things Google.
"One of our challenges is just figuring out the right way to sell and even who and how many should be in the room when we go see a client."
Other interesting bits from the article:
That performance beats the response rate from a typical direct-mail effort, for example, of about 2%. And it's why Vanguard upped its Net ad spending by 33% since 2003, to $12 million last year, while it cut every other media category, according to TNS Media Intelligence. Vanguard spent $40 million total on ads last year, says TNS.
...ad sales manager for financial services Jerry Canning lets it be known that Google is working on an algorithmic lever that advertisers might pull in the future to keep their ads from running next to blue or just pinheaded consumer-generated postings.
This is Sullivan at his reporting best - I've always been impressed by his ability to get to the root of situations, and how fair he is to all involved and how transparent he makes his coverage of controversial issues.
Reporting accolades aside, I think Google's "no" could be its biggest PR win yet against increasing competition.
The public may not recognize the distinction between companies giving away search data and search data with no identifying personal information. What will be remembered is that when the feds came knocking Google stood up to them while the other engines acquiesced.
That said, here's a link for the feds for digging up some search data, in case they didn't know it was available: Google AdWords Keyword Tool. Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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January 19, 2006
MarketerToday Gets 2 New Voices MarketerToday's rocking again folks. Brent Brandow and Scott Vogelsberg, two of MarketSmart Interactive's talented content developers, have taken the reins and post regularly on interactive marketing happenings. And they're hilarious.
I post to MT every morning with must-read interactive advertising news roundup in my "Interactive Today" column. Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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Google Fighting Federal Data Request In court papers filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Justice Department lawyers revealed that Google has refused to comply with a subpoena issued last year for the records, which include a request for 1 million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches from any one-week period.
Nicole Wong, an associate general counsel for Google, said the company will fight the government's effort ``vigorously.''
``Google is not a party to this lawsuit, and the demand for the information is overreaching,'' Wong said.
``This is exactly the kind of case that privacy advocates have long feared,'' said Ray Everett-Church, a South Bay privacy consultant. ``The idea that these massive databases are being thrown open to anyone with a court document is the worst-case scenario. If they lose this fight, consumers will think twice about letting Google deep into their lives.''
So... how often DO search results turn up online porn? How effective are those anti-porn filters?
Google Downgraded to Sell Because of Yahoo's Performance
MediaPost snipped this bit from the for-pay MarketWatch:
"Following a disappointing '06 outlook from Yahoo!, investment firms Stifel Nicolaus & Co. and Standard & Poors downgraded Google to a "sell" from a "hold." The fear is that, following lower than expected earnings from Yahoo! and a lower guidance on margins for the year, Google could also disappoint."
"In overnight trading, Google's shares fell $18.60, or 4 percent, to $448.51."
Also check out today's Business Week article Is Google Out of Steam? (thanks to MSi Client Team Manager Diane Pease!) Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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Screen Captures of Google Maps Ads
Gary Price caught some examples of hotels advertising on Google maps, and squeezed this statement from a Google rep: "As part of our continuing effort to provide a positive advertising experience for users and advertisers, we are always exploring ways to improve the way we display ads. We are currently conducting a limited test of ads in Google Earth. We do not have any other specifics to share at this time."
Mobile Searchers Typing Loooooong Queries With Numeric Keypads
I'm SMS impaired. I'd rather just call someone. SMS/mobile search is heating up now though (Google/Yahoo and Motorola, etc...) and a new-to-me hosted, white-label mobile search player, JumpTap, has done a bit of research to get the word out about mobile search.
They found that, despite the tedium of tiny keypads, "searchers still entered unusually long queries, including "don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me", "the killers all the things that i've done", and "what are you doing the rest of your life". The first example query, referring to a ringtone by the Pussycat Dolls, is 45 characters long."
And here are their stats regarding the most mobile-searched terms:
For the month of December 2005, the type of search for the top 100 queries included:
27% Categories. Top 3 terms searched: Christmas, Hockey, WWE (Worldwide Wresting Entertainment). 22% Adult. Top 3 terms searched: Sex, Porn, Girls. 20% Artist Name. Top 3 terms searched: Eminem, 50 Cent, Madonna. 14% Game. Top 3 terms searched: Tetris, Poker, Snake. 9% Music Genre. Top 3 terms searched: Country, Themes, Reggae. 5% Music Title. Top 3 terms searched: My Humps, Jingle Bell, Gold Digger. 3% Website Names. Top 3 terms searched: Google, MSN, Yahoo.
Yahoo Releases Earnings: Good, but not Great Says Dow Jones Yahoo Inc. fourth-quarter profit surged 83% as advertisers continued to shift spending to the Internet, but it wasn't enough to produce a profit that lived up to lofty expectations for the Web's most heavily trafficked destination. Dow Jones
Semel has been promising to introduce improved advertising algorithms later this year, a pledge he reiterated Tuesday. But he stressed it will be a gradual process that's unlikely to have a significant impact on Yahoo's earnings until 2007. AP
When we ask people what they think of our Instant Answers, a common response is “they are great, but I want MORE”. We hear you and recently added about 1 million facts for your querying pleasure. Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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January 17, 2006
Google to Acquire Radio Ad Sales Platform the news: Google's agreed to acquire dMarc Broadcasting for up to $1 billion over 3 years. what dMarc does: dMarc connects advertisers directly to radio stations through its automated advertising platform. From Price: dMarc has more than 4600 radio stations using it's "digital trafficking" (ad scheduling) and "studio automation" software.
Sullivan suggests, again, that Google change its philosophy:
I wrote earlier that Google's philosophy page needed some changes to keep up with the times. In particular, that famous mission that currently reads:
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.
Really ought to say:
Google's mission is to fund and organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.
Mike Grehan told me about the news this morning and sums the news up nicely:
"With press ads, radio and no doubt TV on the way... all I can say is: Integrated Marketing Communications." Cheers! Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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Video Search Marketing from SES
Online video, and video search, continues to heat up. Greg Jarboe attended and reported on the video search session at Search Engine Strategies in Chicago.
What's the opportunity for marketers? I see two:
Create branded/viral video. Advertise on video (either through in-video ads or on a video search engine).
Jarboe reports that we need "video analytics" to really monetize video.
Jon closed with some observations about the future for video search engines, saying "Content drives demand." And, he said only thing preventing video owners and creators from submitting even more content to video search engines was finding a way to monetize video search results.
During Q&A, it also became clear that monetization of video depends on developing new "video analytics." If advertisers can't measure the quantity and quality of this emerging audience, then they will be reluctant to do much more than test video search.
And in utterly unrelated news check out 80 cent, a 50 cent + 80s music mashups. (via Zawodny) Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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January 13, 2006
Google Personalized Mobile vs Yahoo! Go (according to Google)
Google personalized is now available on mobile devices with XHTML-capable web browsers. (Here's Google's Personalized Mobile page.)
you can quickly see how many emails are in Gmail, what the weather is, and your top RSS feeds. Deep positioned this as vastly different from Yahoo! Go Mobile, where information is still a click (and wait) away. Also, Yahoo! Go requires a download while the new Google service is available with just the browser
Charlene, enthusiastic, closes with: "finally, an easy way to get my RSS feeds on my Blackberry! I'll be setting up my Google personalized page primarily for mobile reading."
In a more recent post on the announcement a reader commented that "After about 5 minutes of toying with my home page and neutering it to the degree necessary for my mobile experience -- it is not really a fun desktop experience any longer..."
Isn't there an RSS reader for mobile devices that doesn't require such heart-rending sacrifice? Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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Video Hyperlinks from Microsoft adLabs The technology "can detect product items displayed on a television screen during a show or commercial," Microsoft said. Consumer can then "zoom into products featured on the television screen and click through to detailed product descriptions and information on where the products can be bought," according to the announcement.
The item comes from the announcement of Microsoft's new adLabs in China, where "adLab's top-notch group of more than 50 researchers will develop advertising solutions that connect marketers with consumers in more relevant, innovative ways unseen in the industry before now."
Google VOD Ads on Home Page
"Searchblog reader Brad Twohig, based in the midwest, is seeing a promotion for Google Video Store and Pack on the home page."
Brad wrote that "It would be one thing if they were using the NBA and CSI as a promo to get people to just use Google Video, but it is paid content they are promoting and thus I view it as their first Homepage advertisement. It has no images like Yahoo's but it is still a promotion for a VOD product."
I'm seeing it, but blogger won't upload the pic DOH :) Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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January 12, 2006
Where's My Video Search Blog At?
Somebody has to have a video search blog out there, huh? Where?
This post at mVox: Consumers: For VOD, We'd Rather See Ads than Pay gets me thinking about eventual ad based video "rental" from NetFlix. New releases for free, just watch ads?
Also the growing likelihood of a market for folks like the lonely island boys who post killer content and want to monetize it.
Since Robin William's portion was edited out because of William's incredible copyright mojo here's the funny bits written up news.com:
the highlight of the event was Williams' improvisation and jokes. He came onstage wearing a Google-colored wire helmet, a possible allusion to his robot role in the movie "Bicentennial Man," and proceeded to riff and free associate in response to technical terms Page presented. He sped up his speech in response to the word "download" and described "firewall" as a "condom for your computer."
Review of Pronto, IAC's New Comparison Engine
Brian Smith, a leading voice in comparison shopping engines, offered some thoughts on IAC's new shopping search engine.
"I’ve run a number of searches and so far I’m impressed with the comprehensiveness of Pronto’s database, but the actual price comparison experience has not been that great."
"The first merchant listed on Pronto is SonyStyle.com with a price of $70. Ha! The price on SonyStyle.com is $349.95. The second merchant listed is Accessoriesland.com which showed up as selling the camera for $135. I could not find ‘$135? anywhere on the Accessoriesland.com page, which lists a price of $295."
"Pronto is only available for IE 6.0 at the moment."
Web-based Cable Ad Buying = $500 TV Commercials for SMEs
WOW! TV ads you can build for yourself online. I agree with Greg Sterling that "it’s potentially revolutionary." Spot Runner, the company behind the offering, will be acquired in a hot little minute. Watch for TV commercials available in an ad console near you.
"Local businesses have been amazed to discover that they can create a comprehensive advertising campaign - including commercial production, media planning and ad time - in less than a week and for as little as $500." (air time is extra) from interview with founder: Interview with Nick Grouf, Co-Founder, Spot Runner
Waxman says the ads can show up anywhere that a regular ad agency can place them, such as reputable cable networks Discovery Channel and ESPN. "It's definitely not second-tier stuff,'' he says. "There's no media that is inaccessible.''
Google Seeking Patent on Mobile Click-to-Call Technology
Mobile click-to-call. Just a matter of time on this one. This technology will drive local search, especially when I get maps + ads on my cell phone, or hell, when my car can place calls for me ;)
This "call-on-select" functionality is described in U.S. patent application 20060004627, filed last week by Shumeet Baluja, a senior research scientist at Google. The application describes a process that takes into consideration a device's screen size, connection speed, and input capabilities to determine if it would be better to serve an ad with a link to a Web page or one that causes the phone or other mobile device to place a phone call to the advertiser.
Modeling the PPC Paradigm to lower Cost per Action
Alexandre Douzet of TheLadders.com wrote the first ever academic-styled paid search article I've seen. Join him as he digs into "ideas on how to apply the learning from the model, to optimize a PPC campaign and lower Cost per Action."
