Washington Post's ReadExpress: Map-Based Hyper-Local Online Community News
Last week I interviewed Liddy Manson, the vice president and general manager of Jobs, Cars and Real Estate at Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive.
At Manson's suggestion I also interviewed, Chris Ma, VP of Washington Post Company who's been a key force behind the WaPo's Express print tabloid (and it's 250k readers) and now its online version, ReadExpress.
Chris Ma calls ReadExpress, "neighborhood oriented and hyper-local" and hopes it will, "provide some of that sense of what is going on in the neighborhoods, around which our communities revolve."
Over the weekend, as I've been orchestrating a conversation between Google Maps Mania and the Google Map mash up developer at the Washington Post, I've been working at this piece, mostly wondering how to boil my 2,600 words of notes into the core ideas that I find the most meaningful for the newspaper industry as well as my primary audience - online marketers.
ReadExpress: Map-Based and Hyper-Local My key takeaway concept from the site, as I mention in Navigate Content by Metro Stop is that it enables content navigation - and increased local activity - through the use of a Google Maps/metro stops mash up.
Each metro stop's corresponding map page enables users to find food/entertainment/shopping. In addition each stop's page includes stories and blog posts that are about that specific geographic area.
And that's what I'm talking about when I say map-based and hyper-local. Watch for individual metro stops to become focal points for users - I expect they will eventually be able to tag the areas around their metro stops for each other and non-residents.
Ma says, "for people whose lives revolve around the transit system we hope this [metro map] is a useful entry into a lot of deep data."
Commuters as Community: a Highly Mobile Readership Ma's vision of the metro riders themselves as a community connected through their shared experience of the commute is the definition of a well-defined target audience. "They share a certain routine," Ma said. "They share neighborhood affinities because they share stops, they're all going to work or school in the morning, leading an urban life style."
He launched the print tab to target this group, but it's the site that will really begin enabling the kinds of networking and sharing that we've come to love in the Web 2.0 era.
The ReadExpress poll - a daily opinion poll on the site - exhibits one aspect of this commuter-community concept. The poll enables voters to see how commuters from their own point of embarkment voted that day, thereby getting a sense of how they do - or don't - fit into their hyper-local community.
Ma described that aspect of the poll when I asked about social networking. He believes that through encouraging exploration of what other embarkment points think ReadExpress is laying the groundwork for what could possibly evolve into something along the lines of a social network.
The beauty of course is that the network already exists - its the metro riders themselves and they participate in this network every morning on their way to work and school. For ReadExpress I think it will be a matter of encouraging more interactions, even if those happen only on the site itself for now.
Classifieds as Entertainment Ma described one aspect of the site that he considers to be an interesting experiment, the Window Shopper section. This blog's author features interesting and quirky classified listings and wraps them in commentary.
Such as when the writer chides a "missed connections" commuter: "Since this resulted in a missed-connection post, let's see if we get this straight: You won't flirt on the Metro, but will consider it when he's running by you in the middle of a sweaty jog?"
Ma explained they sought to look to the classifieds as a source of entertainment, as well as a sort of anthropological and sociological study of sorts. I see a strong love connection opportunity for the metro riders too in that Ma noted, "you'll find that quite a large number of those personals tell a story of someone seeing someone else on the metro reading Express."
The classifieds-as-entertainment comes somewhat pre-envisioned in the Woot Inc. sales model. It's also smacks of, but has no real relationship to, Mark Cuban's live TV-ad concept.
What ReadExpress Borrowed from New Media: Blogs, obviously, were big influencers. The layout of the front page includes the well known hierarchy of recency, and you'll see titles and blurbs much as you do here in Search Engine Lowdown.
Because they're "neighborhood oriented and hyper-local," Ma said that, "a blog format was very appropriate, and "a way, given the conventions of blogging, to invite our users into the conversation, providing additional interesting content." That way, he said, "we can much more quickly and extensively build up the very local content of the site."
Local DC blogs were also major influencers, and Ma cited Mike Grass, cofounder of the DCist, as "our principle driving force." Grass is now the lead blogger for the ReadExpress, writing the Free Ride blog column.
Lean Staff, Focused On Serving Users, Soft Launch Phase One note - I peppered Manson and Ma throughout our conversations with ideas, questions about SMS, mobile devices, social networking, and other possible map mash ups.
They had to keep reminding me that a) they had only had the site live for a day (at the time of our interviews), b) they're operating with a lean, albeit highly experimental staff, and c) all changes will come down to what the users want and use.
This focus on building out according to user need and demand reminded me of how Ask CEO Jim Lanzone described their work on the Ask search engine.
At the time of the interview, 4-26-06, they hadn't yet announced the site to their readers. They were in soft launch phase, doing load testing, getting people used to the site and seeking initial feedback. When they do announce the site (likely sometime this week) they're going to print a very clear users guide and explain to people how they can get involved with the existing functions.
ReadExpress: "a down payment on how we hope to iterate the site" Ma describes ReadExpress, as it now exists, as "a down payment on how we hope to iterate the site."
So what are they looking at next? Ma stated that "there are a number of tools we can bring to using this kind of information for planning and rendezvous." I asked if they were looking at using the Google Calendar API.
Ma said, "we're still evaluating for sure... but it seems to be excellent product."
Yahoo, of course, has a calendar API of its own, and a Map API for that matter.
When I asked him about plans for mobile devices he said: "We're the perfect brand for the mobile product - it's a quick read product for people on the go... a person in motion... mobile products that build on the kind of information that we deliver in print, very carefully packaged - we know people are busy and in motion..."
Watch for ReadExpress to develop in "ways that will really serve day to day interactions for people who live an urban, highly mobile style."
Should Your Company Get Map-Based and Hyper-Local? Definitely! ...if it truly serves your customers. I saw that for Ma it was his passion for serving the commuting readership and his understanding of their needs that lay behind every decision.
In Client as Audience, I wrote that "the companies that come to think of their clients as an audience and provide them with the media/information they're looking for will come to capture wider and wider audience/client share, and they will learn more quickly what it is their customers are looking for because of increased interaction."
If nothing else I hope you got from this article an idea of what coming to understand your client as audience really looks like. In the case of ReadExpress it's a beautiful thing. Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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Google Dumped by Amazon's Alexa for MSN Live: Google Dump #1
From Aaron Wall at Thread Watch comes word that MSN Live is now powering Alexa's (update: AND A9's) search results instead of Google, the previous partner: Alexa Powered by Microsoft.
Alexa results were previously Google results informed by user data from the Alexa toolbar + a number of post-search refinement buttons.
The Alexa toolbar's gotten Alexa a bad rap from privacy advocates, though in function it's effect on search results is similar to click stream data that Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask may or may not be using in their determinations of relevance.
Wall points out that "A9 is still powered by Google..." A9 is Amazon's primary search project. Wall wonders, however, if the change in Alexa indicates a larger coming change in Amazon's relationship to Google.
Craig Donato of Oodle, a classifieds search engine, steers studiously clear of *selling* classified ads. His partners - his suppliers of his index of classified ads - would not appreciate the competition. Google opened the content floodgates with GoogleBase, creating competition for the companies in its organic results.
Google dumpings are the industry's way of saying, "you can serve our cake but you can't bake your own."
Could Amazon's nod to MSN Live be a sampling of the (flaked) goods rather than a true Google dumping prompted by Amazon's new vision of Google as a threat? I can imagine the more cool-headed pundits among us (Danny Sullivan) reading the situation that way.
But when Google Base book search enables publishers to circumvent Amazon and sell directly to Google searchers you'll see Amazon finding new search partners in a hot damn minute.
GData and Base indicate that Google's uber-portal direction is set. Amazon's shift from Google indicates what will be the first of many high profile shifts away from Google that we'll see in the coming months.
I see Ask being a big winner in the search industry as Google dumpers seek new partners. Lanzone's always been focused on Pure Search and doesn't have portal ambitions (though IAC may push Ask that way...). Ask is likely to emerge as the search partner of choice as Google increasingly alienates its former partners by competing with them directly.
Want to chat about the coming Google dumping trend? Call 919-433-3139.
Update 2: Loren Baker said something about Slash Daughters? I looked all over Slash's site but didn't see anything that would account for all the site traffic we've been getting.
Here's a picture of me trying to listen to a hyper local 4INFO SMS search before my girlfriend told me it comes up in text on the screen. I'm a little behind the tech curve sometimes. Note the outline of the KY tattoo on my right bicep... Kentucky LOVE!!!
Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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Hyper-Local SMS Search from 4INFO + Mission Movers
Carol Chi of 4INFO recently braved an hour long SEL grilling while suffering from a major spring cold... and she did great! This article delivers the lowdown on the new local SMS search offering enabled through 4INFO's partnership with Mission Movers (warning - scrolling text + talking head :P).
4INFO, in conjunction with Mission Movers, has put together something with far greater POTENTIAL for true, local-community SMS search, and the vestiges of a model that could really take root as mobile phones become key internet entry points (and before they're all smart enough to NOT be limited to SMS... ;).
Roles in the Partnership The partnership is simple. 4INFO provides the framework for the search - algo + delivery, and Mission Movers provides the index via an RSS feed with data from the Ranier Valley chamber of commerce.
A Community-Built SMS Index The area that was the most compelling to me, and the area where it sounded like they need to do quite a bit more work, was in how exactly the community could interface with the index that Mission Movers is building. Right now (in their first week :) it's my understanding from talking with Chi that it requires a letter or phone call to the Ranier Valley chamber of commerce.
The idea of an index or database to which a small community could SMS relevant, useful information is compelling given the phone as web gateway phenomenon, and I think it's going to be through smaller organizations that we see this happen rather than through the too-distant Googles and Yahoos of the world (though if it were applicable and scalable I think Yahoo would be the first to jump on it given their social media bent...).
So that was the piece that got me most excited in talking with Chi. Now here are my questions and Chi's responses:
How many people at 4INFO? 20-22 people (Chi wasn't sure - they've just recently hired 2 new engineers)
What is 4INFO's exact involvement in this community SMS network (what piece are you responsible for in this partnership)? - the groups create RSS feed (they are responsible for the content) we provide the framework to get it mobile - we assign the group a keyword, which directs searches to the feed - mission movers determing the index (they have guidelines for what will be in the index that are not yet public)
Who's making money and how? - this is a beta test, rolling it out with Mission Movers so we haven't figured out monetization - there's exchange of promotion (4INFO marketing to Ranier Valley) - won't be the case with every partnership - Mission Movers are a non-profit organization - contract agreements will later determine whether we put ads within results or we won't - either the partner will pay for ad free queries or we will have the right to put in advertising
What local area is next? - we don't know, mission movers is talking to some, but haven't said what the communities are - they have not fully launched it to the community yet
maps? (duh Garrett... it's SMS :P) - working on driving directions - no way to display maps - on wap service that will be possible
Can community members themselves comment on the information provided by the businesses? - Mission Movers is working with the Ranier Chamber of commerce, which collects info from the community - there's no current online method to get info into the index - MM wants to get contributions from the community, but we're just getting started so they want to see how successful it is before rolling out more involved system
Types of index information will include: - midnight basketball, townhall meetings, local business info
How much longer will SMS be around, given that phones are getting smarter and smarter? - SMS traffic has grown significantly, and SMS is still the easiest form of (digital query) communication on the cell phone. Loading mobile browsers takes a long time. - but WAP has grown by leaps and bounds, with faster networks, new phones available. 4INFO has a "client" in beta - a small browser, very user friendly, icons to scroll through, connects through your data feed faster than some mobile browsers.
Why 4INFO over Yahoo or Google? - what sets us apart from other mobile search companies - we DO have personalization. we remember your previous searches, we remember your zipcode so you won't have to type it in in the future. this makes user experience much easier.
4INFO Partnerships Crucial 4INFO - put them in your "watch" category. If they can keep forming relationships with organizations tat can help them generate hyper-local, community-influenced SMS indices then they may be on to something as the phone increasingly becomes a major web-access device.
They should be looking for partnerships with companies with demographics that access the web from desktop/laptops AND phones - these are the companies most likely to be extending brand value to the phone.
Also... considering Google's Cell Phone Sex Problem, I wonder if 4INFO has any thoughts on some hott hott ascii p-roni (nsfw... if anyone can actually figure out what it is ;) Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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GenieKnows: the Emerging Errand Efficiency Engine
As I mentioned in GenieKnows Builds an Index, my biggest initial take away from my conversation with Barbara Manning, President and CEO of GenieKnows and Mausam Prince Kalra, GK's Chief Technical Officer was the fact of the index itself and how GenieKnows, which has essentially been an ad-network, is now thrusting itself into the search/vertical destination space.
Also - early next week Manning says to watch for news of a significant GenieKnows Local partnership.
First, some basic GenieKnows info: GK employees: 25 Total search engines in Canada: 2 Around since: 1999 Used ppc to stay afloat. Main focus is research. currently getting 1 billion GK "searches" a month through its network new features - spell check/proper suggestions (google, yahoo have this, MSN is not there)
Stats about the GenieKnows Local product: Targeting top 100 cities in the US (for now). Have around 1 billion pages w/local data and STILL CRAWLING. Use ESRI for map data, but the layout and usability (how the map appears on the page) is all GenieKnows. They organize index by hub and authority. Will be using Ajax in later iterations.
The hidden value: Errand Efficiency As we spoke it became evident that the piece Kalra and Manning were most excited about - the "neighbourhood" link on local results pages, was also the least-obviously useful.
The function enables users to see other local businesses in the vicinity of their initial search so that they can plan for greater errand efficiency.
In my mind, errand efficiency is HUGE. I'm an impatient errand runner, because, well, errands are a pain in the ass. If I can get local results that enable me to plan my route according to the greatest efficiency, well, NOW we're talking about local search that's really useful (not to mention profitable...).
The only problem with GenieKnows is that it's not evident, from a teensy link entitled "neighbourhood," that I can plan a whole afternoon's errands based on the location of a key destination.
(note tiny "Neighbourhood" link)
They have a LONG WAY TO GO when it comes to actually increasing my errand efficiency. For one thing, drilling down into categories is counter intuitive, and as a user I'd prefer to simply type in the keywords of the errands I have to do and let the planner go to work making things more efficient for me.
Still, I think this is an excellent first step towards errand efficiency, a local search function that would be VERY USEFUL to the local searcher. This is also the area I see them having the most potential synergy with PreFound.
GenieKnows on Mobile Devices 3 years ago Kalra and his cohorts at GenieKnows put forth a proposal for local search on mobile devices. GenieKnows is looking at ways so that folks can complete mobile transactions in 1 1/2 the time frame that it takes now.
Kalra feels particularly excited about the future of mobile: "it will definitely change how people shop - it allows people to shop from where ever they are - to make the determination to buy right at that point. This will change things in that people can do research and buy right away.
"In countries like China and India - mobile devices responsible for growth of the internet."
His focus is on keeping GenieKnows mobile device agnostic.
I didn't get a strong sense that there were local-to-mobile efforts.
GenieKnows Verticals Coming: Continuing the push into the destination space, GenieKnows is working away at developing three key verticals. That you will have to wait and find out about because I can't remember if they said I could talk about them or not.
Unintelligible Notes that Seem Important: I forget what question I asked, but here are notes that I believe indicate a strategy for enabling geo-specific contextual ads:
"we have our own network and receive backfill from other large networks GenieKnows tech developed in house (intl w/yahoo (not NA) able to monetize intl traffic w/ one single xml feed - allow publishers to monetize intl traffic - geotargeting based on country level - puts italian ads on italian blogs for example. currently working to open relationship in china. Shang Hai Ad:Tech - sponsors at SES Shanghai)"
Note to self: put more notes in notes!
GenieKnows: Watch Closely! At the end of a very engaging hour with Manning and Kalra, I came to see GenieKnows as a strong up and comer in the second/third tier search engine space. My concern for my new search friends is that with only 25 employees their seemingly wide array of projects will water down their overall value to the end user. Also, the errand efficiency concept would be quite simple to copy...
They've been sitting on search destination sidelines watching closely for 7 years though - I'm excited to see what new search tech they bring to the table! Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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SEM Project Pricing + Transparency in Market Conversations
I just became an even greater Fishkin fan because of this recent post: Project Pricing. (HE got started on the topic because of a post from Blue Favor, so really props should go to them, but I'm more familiar with Fishkin so that's who I'm going to write about here...)
A company's pricing model is, essentially, that company's DNA. It's at the very core of what makes them a company in the first place.
Pricing model transparency is, in my currently coffee/adderall-popped mind (I medicate for my ADHD), the ultimate marketing conversation.
Fishkin's pushing the SEM industry - and the B2B world - towards the kind of transparency that will ultimately make business stronger and more conversational with their marketspace.
I love this level of openness: "many projects, tasks and clients are not enjoyable to spend time on, while others are a true pleasure - this heavily impacts pricing..."
(**Imagine a company where each employee sets his own rates for charging other employees for doing work for them. Then everyone gets paid out of what the overall profits are from the customer. Employees know what the company itself has to make, and they can vote - to some extent - on whether or not what their fellow employees are charging is reasonable. You earn work from other people in your company by doing work for them and the company itself sets up its own internal economy, with an exchange rate with actual dollars. Would any work ever get done? ;)**)
Also notice in Fishkin's post the value of having your CEO/President as your company's chief blogger (assuming he/she can write and is highly involved in your industry's community...).
As MSI's marketing communications manager I don't feel comfortable digging into our pricing model and putting it onto this blog or in comments on Fishkin's post. I don't feel like I have the authority, and I suspect that I would have significant push back from my boss when it comes to the permission.
Fishkin can just jump in and talk as openly as he wants about whatever he wants and his tendency towards transparency makes his blog very very valuable to the industry. Please write that down in your blog tip book along with making your blog useful to you ;)
Do you think publicly traded companies could benefit from this level of transparency? How about B2B companies with, say, 500 or more employees?
I do. I think this level of transparency should spread into larger companies - even publicly traded companies like my MarketSmart Interactive.
A higher level of transparency could have helped us in our market from the get go, as we've been transitioning from an egregiously ill-managed, ill-run top-down organization into the stronger, more grass-roots empowered organization of today. Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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B2B Blog Model Thoughts: is your blog useful to YOU?
I'm a big fan of Natasha Robinson's blog, that girl from marketing. Why? Because it's rich in links to new marketing and Web 2.0ish information.
She revealed the truth about her blog last night, and showed why, in my mind, it's a must read (even though I can't find the RSS feed for it and end up visiting when I notice her links to SEL in bloglines ;).
Her blog for her is a way of storing the information she thinks she may need at a later date: "It's actually my reading list/cheat sheet."
I do something similar, but it's on a txt file on my machine at work... and it's not as well written ;)
Her blog is a prime example of a search marketing industry resource, and that's because she's a) smart and b) timely. Also, I don't have to scroll for days to get a day's worth of news. It's all in one post, and I typically find links that I haven't seen yet.
Anyways, if you're thinking of starting a blog for your industry, whether that's the SEM industry or not, you should take a long look at what Natasha's doing:
"For those who don't know (or don't get it), I don't consider this site a blog. It's actually my reading list/cheat sheet. In that, I read the articles, blog posts, forums links, etc. from the day that I find interesting from my Email / RSS Reader and add links I think I will need to reference and/or come back to at a later date (as well as interesting and/or funny reads).
"But mostly, it serves to keep my Inbox, RSS Reader and my bookmark toolbar clear - which is a job in itself."
What I like is that this is essentially work she's doing for herself, organizing the industry thought that she finds interesting, relevant and important. There's no noticeable get-links pretext - no "visions of the future" as you're likely to see here (we LOVE visions of the future at SEL :) and key quotes from articles instead of commentary. Just linked article/post titles. Well, there is a slight dash of Natasha flavor there ;)
The beauty of this model is that she serves us - her reading community, by creating a resource for herself. I think this is a key focus that blog marketers typically miss out on - first and foremost, how can we make sure that the writing we're doing is actually a resource for ourselves?
If you're in PR and wanting your influential employees to get out and start blogging then Natasha's is an excellent model to follow. Also read Harnessing Employee Generated Content To Target B2B Decision Influencers. It wraps up what's at the core of the Web 2.0 movement and how you can encourage your employees to engage it.
Nice work Al! Now make 'em click and get 'em slick! (Al wandered off from MSI many moon s ago to work at a local adult toy seller...) Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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Yahoo Local Listings: Yahoo Continues Small Biz Play (no ads on maps?!)
Yahoo now competing (more) directly with local newspapers and the yellow pages. Does Yahoo have any significant partnerships in place to be resellers for this new local product? Google has Verizon...
They are clearly aiming for the local, small business marketplace: "We created a product called Local Featured Listings, which introduces small businesses to online local advertising."
Yahoo has a good, preestablished history with small online businesses.
- Just six listings on the first two pages of search results, inventory is limited
- You choose the categories and regions associated with your listing. And unlike standard search results, you can adjust your listing messaging any time."
- Ads do NOT appear on the maps themselves... WHY?? (new product coming there?)
For local marketers: Get started testing this NOW before big brands snap up the inventory. I have no way of knowing if these prices are good, but I do know that Yahoo maps were recently ranked tops by Tech Crunch, which to me indicates a slowly gathering swell in Yahoo map usage.
Net Neutrality Loophole Remains: Telecoms Could Still Add Charges for Online Content Providers
I pieced the "what" portion of this post together from CNET's article, Democrats lose House vote on Net neutrality.
Reason for the Net Neutrality ammendment: "the Federal Communications Commission must be given power to prevent broadband providers from doing things like charging content providers extra for the privilege of faster delivery or other preferential treatment."
Telecoms say: "major broadband providers have repeatedly pledged not to block traffic or censor Web sites. Instead, they say, it will only be economically feasible to invest in higher-speed links if some bandwidth can be reserved for paid content."
To reiterate, why the ammendment was added to the bill: "...it does not do what Amazon, Google, Barry Diller's InterActiveCorp, Yahoo and their allies want: to forcibly prevent by law a two-tier business model from ever being adopted on the Internet."
Om Malik brings perspective onto the situation: "These companies are fighting a battle against highly organized phone companies, who use their immense knowledge of legislative procedure as a competitive strategy. The real innovation, for oligopolies is lobbying. The big web companies it seems are busy fighting the petty battles, when they stand to lose the war."
Also he points out the US-centricity of the net neutrality movement: "I admire the work being done by the activists, but I have some what will be unpopular observations. For instance, the campaign has a very US centric view of the Internet, especially at a time when the global Internet is becoming bigger and bigger."
And he closes with a comment from the FCC's Michael Powell (who sounds, from this quote at least, as if he wouldn't mind charging content providers...): "It is too facile to say the Internet belongs to the public. People are married to the metaphor of the public space, but they run into trouble when it comes to who should pay for this stuff. They think it should be the government. That’s not going to happen. The government is broke, It’s going to stay broke."
Keep your eye on this one... It's looking to me like the free party may be coming to a close? Also see: Google Going after Dark Fiber Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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Google Webmaster Notification and SEO's Evolution
By Jon Revill
Matt Cutts made my day. In his recent post he covers communication between Google and webmasters.
In recent months Google has been testing communication with webmasters via email to notify them that they caught the eye of the Google spam team and could potentially harm their Google presence.
Matt says that the program has been successful but there are certain limitations to email when attempting to contact the webmaster. As an alternate method the Google Webspam team and the Sitemaps team have put their heads together and have provided and alternate solution.
Google Sitemaps have been updated to include notifications in the webmaster console for sites that have drawn penalties and offer a reinclusion request.
These notifications are geared towards helping legitimate businesses, not for notifying Black Hats employing negative SEO techniques.
This is HUGE!
Google has always been active in the webmaster community, but this is going a step above in my book.
In this industry there have always been those unscrupulous SEOs who intentionally spam a site to attempt to achieve rankings. A certain ex-SEO and their now famous doorway pages come to mind.
Site owners, particularly smaller sites, often never knew what hit them. Google can now let them know what has been done to their site.
But Jon...isn't that what SEO's are for?
Well, yes and no.
Matt alludes to the perfect search engine, one that not only provides value to their user, but also works with the website to identify potential indexing and ranking issues.
This has been the job of SEO's for the last several years. An entire industry sprung up around providing content and META tags to boost rankings.
The dark side of this industry discovered doorway pages, hidden text, and cloaking to achieve their goals. What Google is working towards here is completely removing the Black Hat element.
With these tactics effectively gone SEOs will be able to focus on what is truly important, providing value to a site's users and helping their clients build a viable, sustainable business. Thus ending the era of hard SEO and bringing in the age of true Interactive Marketing.
Interactive marketing moves well beyond the old staples of META tags, content, and base level linking.
Traditional SEO started with the site and optimizing for rankings on specific keywords, pushing outward trying to gain as much visibility as possible through rankings.
This strategy has one major flaw, it is often blind to the user. That's not to say there isn't any value in these practices, but they are only a part of a far bigger picture.
Interactive marketing starts with the user and looks inward at the site to provide value. It answers questions like:
- Who is my audience? - What are their needs? - What are they doing once they are on the site? - What are they doing afterwards?
Value for a user begins with what they need, not what a site wants them to need.
User data and activity are endless sources of strong information to help websites grow and improve. The new world of interactive marketing is driven by identifying, providing value to, and converting users. Building a business rather than building traffic. Interactive marketing should be just that, marketing! Interactive simply refers to the mediums to which you apply your marketing strategy.
As Google moves toward the ideal search engine, SEO firms should look to the users, open up their traffic analytics accounts and move towards interactive marketing.
Website success was once based on whether or not your site was listed in the top ten. Success as a business, however, must be based on how much value you provide to the user.
Jon Revill is MarketSmart Interactive's Manager of Interactive Technology and Garrett hasn't given him a login and password for SEL yet. Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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Yahoo vs. MSN, Google and Ask (and ABC, NBC, FOX, CNN, TIVO, Netflix, etc…)
In my opinion, here are the things Yahoo is doing that MSN and Google can’t touch on quality or maturity: Messenger, APIs, Music, Photo Sharing, Search Feeds, Answers, Shopping, Yahoo Stores, Video Search, Games and now Social Networking.
Did you know that I can listen to Yahoo Music from inside Yahoo messenger and play a friend in chess through IM while we chat all at the same time?
Add to that the fact that my friend can see what I’m hearing choose to listen to the same thing right along with me? Now I can also blast my friends, post to my blog or share a photo all from within messenger. That all goes without mentioning my ability to check my yahoo mail, calendar or weather from Messenger too.
I know what you’re thinking “Ok, ok, so that’s all fine and dandy, Yahoo is doing great things with social media and finally connecting the dots between their disparate services, so what.” I’ll tell you so what.
Yahoo is poised to be the first online media megalith. What happens when Yahoo music, integration into 360 and messenger and the ability to share tastes and create music channels for friends to watch becomes Yahoo TV?
What happens when millions of viewers are watching Idol through the Yahoo network and voting via Messenger, broadcasting messages to their friends through 360 to vote for Paris and receiving personalized advertisements based on their interests all on their living room television?
What happens when Yahoo is competing with ABC, NBC, FOX, CNN, TIVO and NET FLICKS?
If this is the direction Yahoo is headed, and I strongly contend that it is, do you really think that Yahoo cares a lick about their current share of the search marketplace? Of course not. They are already so far beyond search now.
So maybe you still don’t see it. Maybe you still think that Google will somehow beat them to the punch because like everyone else, there is just something about Google.
Some pundits bring MSN’s "DVR on my PC" foray into the conversation. I see no meaningful interaction occurring there in how we share information and interact online like Yahoo is doing with 360. You also have to pay for it and change your whole OS in the form of Media Center XP.
Sure it has more features and you can adjust the look and feel of it but Yahoo! Go is free. It's amazing what a little "free" can do for early adoption rates regardless of competition.
They are doing everything they can to catch up. They are launching calendar, buying video and photo sharing sites, building Google page creators, launching Google finance. Whatever it is, in most cases Yahoo did it first and still does it better.
It’s beginning to look like Yahoo is in the best place to serve up for each of us on an individual basis to share and interact with in the shape, format and location we want it. After all, this thing was never about search - it was always, and remains, about content.
We need to understand that the days of SEO as a single marketing channel are over and that they never should have occurred in the first place. That people want great content that caters to their interests and in order to bring your message to the forefront you need to be ready to go where ever they go, be interested in the things that they’re interested in and build messages that are compelling enough not to be skipped through.
What this all means is that you will need to build real integrated marketing strategies based around an understanding of who your users are, what they need and how they choose to consume media. It also means that you had better start paying more attention to next.yahoo.com.
Attendees include: Steve Mansfield - PreFound Mena Trott - Six Apart (Live Journal) Ben Trott - Six Apart (Live Journal) Garrett French - Search Engine Lowdown Bambi Francisco - Search and Social Network Media Jessica E. Vascellaro - Wall Street Journal Olga Kharif - Business Week
Steve (check out the PreFound blog) frames it as "a discussion about harnessing the power of these millions of online social community users into developing Search related content that is provided, organized and presented by the members of the community."
I will try very hard to keep us focused on just search... I've been getting pretty excited about the blog/map/news/local/(maybe soon to be) networking site ReadExpress lately ;)
This weekend I'll be digging down deeper into social networking and social search so that I can help to answer the question Steve asks: "is it inevitable that these huge networks of online communities evolve into controlling search on significant levels?"
The first place I'll start is how networks of online communities ALREADY control search on significant levels through linkage data. (Steve would argue - I think - that SEM link-building efforts render this data useless. I would argue that they could eventually.)
That said, I am VERY excited about digging down - with Live Journal and PreFound data - into social networks and their potential for driving search relevance. Because I think the possibilities are huge, and money follows relevance.
I recently moderated a social blogging presentation here in Raleigh and a mentor gave me some great advice yesterday for moderating Extending On-line Social Communities into Pure Search :) Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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Yahoo Relaunches Babelfish With Scarface Reference
Yahoo's relaunching Babel fish. Awesome! They also tied it in more closely with Yahoo search and their toolbar. Neat! The blog post announcing the relaunch is entitled: "Say "Hello" to my little friend", which got me thinking of another famous "little friend" :)
They were talking about the little gold fish of course, but I couldn't resist ;)
I also noticed, while copying the headline text for this post, that there's a little floaty thing that enables me to search specific text from the Yahoo blog page. This is probably very old. But it's neat! And I hadn't seen it before.
I'm Seeing Ask SERPs Freshness... Are You? Is Ask getting that oh-so fresh feeling via feeds or through quick crawls?
I guess I should read the Martinbuster thread in WebMasterWorld because I don't track that kind of data for SEL (bad marketing manager! bad!): Has ASK Jeeves Updated its Index?
What have you seen or noticed in Ask SERPs lately? (Full disclosure - Ask pays MSI to sponsor SEL. They don't pay me though, beyond the pleasure of interviews with Jim Lanzone.) Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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New Google Spam Busting Algo
(Photo via Anthony "round house kick" Pirrozi Pirozzi, MSI marketing consultant.)
MySpace Search with IceRocket
I just heard about IceRocket's MySpace search when MarketSmart Interactive alumni Allan Slider (new projects coming soon from Slider... we'll be linking to his articles before long ;) IM'ed it to me.
Maybe I hadn't heard about it since I was distracted about all the talk of my parent company, Think Partnership, which has a letter of intent out on Ice Rocket.
Cuban positions MySpace search as a tool for parents: Searching Myspace.com - A parents tool because [site:myspace.com your search terms] works well on any major search engine.
Still, it's a very interesting tab, though not one that's likely to remain MySpace, especially if I have any say ;) (what other social networks are crawlable? Isn't livejournal crawlable?)
Google Click Fraud Settlement Revisited
Over on MarketingShift Jason Dowdell's digging back in to Google's click fraud settlement. Through his research he's rounded up five key facts regarding how Google's handling the click fraud settlement and what this could mean to Google advertisers.
Most unsettling fact based on his reading of Google's position? "...if Google agrees that an advertiser has lost $10,000 to click fraud, that advertiser will only be entitled to receive 5 DOLLARS."
(That's cash of course - there's account credit awarded as well.)
His post is strong on the side of entitlement towards advertisers - I'd be interested to see Google's response.
Still... now that my AdSense publisher SERPs advantage controversy is disproved maybe I should start digging down on another Google controversy story... I'M KIDDING!! (I'll let Jason chase this one down ;) Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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Google's "Crawl Caching Proxy" Ends My AdSense Advantage in SERPs Obsession
by Garrett French and Jon Revill
And then Matt Cutts publishes Crawl caching proxy, causing me to extinguish my torches and put the pitch forks back in the barn. As Jon says below: "[based on Cutt's post] participating in AdSense or any other Google program will not increase your ability to be cached, indexed, or ranked."
Of particular side note interest, Jon says, "from a logging perspective, the total number of requests from Google related bots to a site’s server should decrease significantly, but the amount of utilization of a site’s pages by different Google services should remain the same."
In other words, you may see Google-related bots decrease visit frequency overall as they begin to balance the load.
In response to Cutts' post, Jon Revill wrote the following to explain what's happening, and to help me sleep better at night:
Matt’s article makes a lot of sense and is brilliantly simple in terms of load balancing (I thought that IF we could have shown that Googlebot visits did NOT decrease for AdSense publishers we could catch Google in favoring its business partners in the SERPs... -G).
Essentially Google is using a system very similar to Temporary Internet Files for web browsers in that it stores a copy of the page for future crawling.
Any bot that initially accesses a page stores it in a central location that is independent of the actual search index or any other service. This location is known as the “Crawl Caching Proxy”.
If another bot attempts to access that page for a different Google service it will attempt to pull it from the proxy before requesting it from the server.
To work off of Matt’s example, we have http://www.domain.com/page.htm which publishes AdSense ads.
It is also regularly crawled by both Googlebot and Mediabot.
Given the new crawl process Mediabot will access page.htm to look over the content for publishing AdSense. As a part of this crawl, Mediabot adds the page to the Crawl Caching Proxy.
The file is not added or updated in the search index at this time.
When Googlebot prepares to crawl page.htm for the natural search index it will first check the Crawl Caching Proxy to see if the file has been recently crawled by a different Google service.
If it has, Googlebot will access the page from the proxy rather than requesting it from domain.com’s server.
From the sound of it any Google service that utilizes a spider can contribute to the proxy and any of these services can access it. This means that for however long the page is stored in the proxy, Google will only need a single crawl for all Google services.
From a logging perspective, the total number of requests from Google related bots to a site’s server should decrease significantly, but the amount of utilization of a site’s pages by different Google services should remain the same.
Matt also notes that any robots.txt exclusions will still apply. If Googlebot is blocked in the robots.txt from crawling a particular file or directory, it will not attempt to access the file from the proxy. Overall, this should make Google services a lot more efficient for both site owners and Google as a whole.
To make it very clear from Matt’s article, participating in AdSense or any other Google program will not increase your ability to be cached, indexed, or ranked.
All restrictions, exclusions and best practices still apply.
This spidering methodology still operates essentially in the same manner as previous practices. Google’s bots are simply accessing your page from a cached/stored version of the page rather than accessing them directly from the server.
Matt has provided very clear diagrams in his article, http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/crawl-caching-proxy/.
This article written by MarketSmart Interactive's Jon Revill and padded with contextually relevant information by MSI's Garrett French. Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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Navigate Content by Metro Stop (Google Map Mashup by Washington Post)
I'm surprised that I haven't seen more coverage of the WashingtonPost's new online version of it's Express publication, ReadExpress... (I haven't checked bloglines yet this morning so maybe Rafat Ali got excited about it too... - I've been on the phone with Liddy Manson, VP general manager of jobs, cars and real estate for Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive.)
To me, one of the most significant developments is the Google maps mash-up by which readers can organize editorial, blogposts, opinion and advertising according to THEIR METRO STOPS.
Today I want you to check out the MAP NAVIGATION that Washington Post's using to help people find information that's geographically relevant to them. (note the related story on the tab for that stop...) How's that for local?
I've got one more conversation to schedule with ReadExpress' Chris Ma, publisher of Express and Washington Post Company VP. Then I'm going to write a big-ole article on the WaPo's most recent experiments in online publishing.
Google Ctemplate Project: What is it?
The Google Code blog says it's a: "a library implementing a simple but powerful template language for C++ that emphasizes separating logic from presentation. You've already used Ctemplate: this is the same code that formats all of the pages for Google's web search."
That doesn't mean much to me.
Download the Google Ctemplate from SourceForge and let me know what folks are likely to do with it. Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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Toyota + Mobile TV, Grey Games, Phones as Wallets, Marketing
This is going to be a rambly, where-things-are-going kind of post based on several stories I've seen recently and some writing I've done in the past.
Also, I just got off the phone with 4Info's Carol Chi talking about their new partnership with Mission Movers to create a local SMS index for Ranier Valley in Washington. Which ties in because I had just finished the part above when 2 oclock rolled around and 4info is mobile search.
Toyota's targeting a younger crowd with the Yaris, and reaching out to them with TV for mobile and mobile games (neat!).
The thing is that there's an increasing number of older folks who are avid video game players. My girlfriend's mother is... older... and she plays LOTS of video games on her game cube, and games that are targeted at men younger than me, not that sudoku stuff.
Nintendo's entry into the "Grey Market" indicates that there IS a larger market there, though they're framing their offering as a brain enhancer. It's my understanding that most video games do this already, so I wonder if they haven't over-abstracted the product? Also I suspect we will see upcoming adult-oriented offerings evolve in more of a Second Life direction.
Here's the personal rant part of this post - I hate television. Because I feel like crud after watching it. Here Kathy Sierra quotes Scientific American: "...University of British Columbia studied a mountain community that had no television until cable finally arrived. Over time, both adults and children in the town became less creative in problem solving, less able to persevere at tasks, and less tolerant of unstructured time."
And so I'm excited to see Nintendo striving to make people smarter with puzzles. And wonder when big advertisers will start reaching out to the so called "Grey Market" with games too. Will this happen on phones?
Probably, because we're going to be using our phones so much more when our phones become our wallets. Paypal's getting up on this with SMS purchasing. PSFK interviewed PayPal: "It's still early, but we think consumers are ready for anytime, anywhere payments. Already, consumers are using their mobile phones for much more than just talking - they're sending e-mails, listening to music, taking pictures and making videos. Providing a safe, easy, convenient payment method provides even more utility to the mobile phone. We think the opportunity ahead is very exciting."
And how does all of this relate to Washington Post's new Read Express site that targets the new reader? Well, I've got a conversation with them tomorrow and I'll be asking them questions about information on cell phones, SMS, gaming, social media and search. And how it all ties in to marketing :)
Jim Lanzone is Ask's New CEO: Opening Ask Minds to Possibilities
As reported this weekend, Steve Berkowitz left his post as Ask's CEO for new challenges at MSN, creating quite a vacuum at IAC.
Changes: "The biggest change will be opening our minds to the possibilities of what we can do and who we can be, as IAC invests in our product development and marketing, as well as growing our employee base to accelerate our curve."
I wonder, as they open their minds to the possibilities of what they can do and who they can be, if there will be any social search in Ask's future?
Also interesting: How Lanzone associates Ask with Firefox in BOTH Battelle interviews. Firefox won grassroots approval partly because of its flexibility due to its open-sourceness. Google's API (open-API) direction has done great things for its grassroots approval... I'd LOVE to see Ask move in this direction.
Like... could Ask give SEL (ok... ALL bloggers) an API for conceptually zooming in and out on searches within the site? That'd be one way to help with navigating...
CNet's Popular Story Navigation System
I was just reading the CNet's McNealy zinger roundup (McNealy is Sun's newly stepped-down CEO. He bashed Microsoft passionately, with keen, pithy quips.) and caught a wiff of a navigation format I hadn't seen before.
It's got a tag-cloud kind of hierarchy of size but it's measuring the popularity of the story instead of the number of times the tag's mentioned.
This format makes me excited because in the blog-age of information under the yoke of a most-recently-posted hierarchy, new navigations are required. I like tag clouds pretty good too.
Hey CNet - how about an API or something for us publishers? Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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April 24, 2006
GenieKnows Builds an Index
I just got off the phone with Barbara Manning, President and CEO of GenieKnows and Mausam Prince Kalra, GK's Chief Technical Officer.
We talked for almost an hour about GK's recently launched GenieKnows Local, among other things.
The significance of the local launch didn't hit me until they were demoing their new vertical search. I asked what was the difference between their vertical search results and standard results in GenieKnows. What I learned (had forgotten or just never realized) was that GK only shows paid ads in its results.
I had no idea they didn't have an index and I'm excited - after our conversation - to see where they're going next (already with a billion indexed pages...).
That's all I wanted to say for now - except that there's a longer GenieKnows Local article coming later this week... and news of a BIG PLAYER partnership - to be announced next week - that started at the recent Kelsey Group Local Search event.
Apparently a big player got VERY INTERESTED in GenieKnows Local...
More soon.
Also, if you have usability comments - any at all - about GenieKnows Local send them to local@genieknows.com. They're eager for feedback! Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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Google's GData: Moving Beyond Mashups
Let me get this straight: Google Calendar is bigger than the second coming and GData flies under the radar? Hello? Is this thing on?!
Not that I don’t think Google Calendar is cool, but can we keep our priorities in order please? Let’s compare: Google Calendar: Yet another free calendar GData: 1) A new way to exchange data (which is partially like RSS, partially like Atom, and completely certain to piss off both camps). (Wikipedia: RSS, Wikipedia: Atom, GData vs RSS vs Atom) 2) An API to integrate any Google service into an application. (Wikipedia: API)
I know: on the surface, the concepts of an API and of "a new protocol for data transfer" sound just about as sexy as Gilbert Gottfried in a Speedo, but let’s look at what it really means for us.
Mashups (especially popular with Maps API) (Wikipedia: mashup)
Application integration (GData)
Google’s Future:
Platform
Moving Beyond Mashups
Many people have made fun tools using the Google Maps API for mashups. While this is a great start, it is only the beginning. With more ways to plug Google services into other applications, we move closer and closer to a new remote platform. Again, "remote platform": very dull language. Imagine this: start by imagining all the computerized data that you use: email, files, calendar dates, etc. Put all of that data somewhere you can access from anywhere. Finally, imagine:
Programs that allow you to access all of your data from anywhere
New desktop programs that that allow you to use your data better
Ways to integrate your data
Tie maps to scheduled events in your calendar. Get emailed maps based on hotel reservations. Do other cool stuff I’m not creative enough to think of... The point is, the possibilities are so open, only time will be able to show us what is possible.
The Google Calendar Prom Queen vs. The GData Chess Club President
So why the blogger feeding-frenzy over Google Calendar, while GData has received so little love? First, Calendar has months of speculation and rumor-mill fodder prior to release. This kind of gossip is like crack to bloggers (who in this regard are largely like high-schoolers in older bodies).
Beyond the gossip factor though, there’s ease of comprehension. The mainstream press hasn’t picked up on GData like it has for Google Calendar because the concept and usefulness of a calendar are universal, while the concepts embodied in GData are abstract and techie, if not a bit obtuse.
Succeeding Where Microsoft Failed or The Past Repeating Itself?
It seems to me that I’ve seen most of this before in some incarnation from Microsoft. I’m not at all sure how GData is any different than when Microsoft tried to do the exact same thing with SSE. And at least Microsoft tried to nail down the concept of a single login with Passport, something Google is very guilty of.
Why is it that when Microsoft creates their own way to do something, they’re "not complying with standards", but when Google does it, they’re "innovative"?
This isn’t just me crying foul. Really, what is the difference? Google is doing something that consumers (and Wall Street) like. It used to be a David and Goliath thing but Google’s far too big for that analogy now. They are doing something right on the PR front that I can’t put my finger on. But whatever it is, marketers everywhere need to take note of this degree of success and try to emulate it.
I THOUGHT that name sounded familiar. Also thought that Jim Lanzone was the "main decision making dude." (Observe as search blogger gets his doof-bag on ;)
via most honorable SEL founder and my long-lost boss Andy Beal, burning the Saturday blogging oil too I see ;)
