Statsaholic (formerly Alexaholic) truly believes that the data is useful. Since I have access to 3rd party research and a company to pay for it, I have zero use for Alexa data. The only “endorsement” that I will give is that if you can’t afford a 3^rd party research tool, Alexa is better than nothing.

This isn’t about whether Alexa’s data is any good or not. It’s about why a company with an adoring fan would choose to slap them right in the face: Here’s the glowing endorsement that Ron Hornbaker provides for them:

1. Alexa is currently the best source for free and public comparative Web user traffic data.
2. Newbies with the Alexa Toolbar are not the only source of data. Firefox users with Craig Raw's cool SearchStatus extension should note that their browsing behavior is similarly being phoned-home to Alexa, and included in the statistics you see here.
3. Statistical significance is attainable with only a small subset of the population – ask a pollster or a high school math teacher.
4. Alexa's blazing-fast graph rendering engine absolutely rocks. Think about the mountains of data Alexa is working with on the backend, and all the possible permutations of graph content and size that prevent widespread caching, and I think you'll agree that their engineers brought their A-game to this one.
5. The key is "comparative" traffic data. If you want to know exactly how many page views and visitors your site is getting, get a good webserver log analysis tool. But if you want to quickly compare your site's traffic to your competitors' sites' traffic, Alexa is your friend.

So why did Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon) choose to bite his friend? The only way Statsaholic’s backing could be any stronger is if they included a link to download the Alexa toolbar. Both companies seemed to have a good, symbiotic relationship.

Statsaholic is not affiliated with Alexa.com, but depends on them exclusively for the traffic chart images. Fortunately for me, Alexa is a cool company that has historically been supportive of 3rd-party development like the excellent Alexadex.com. According to this Alexa blog article calling Statsaholic "cool", they apparently approve of my efforts. I hope you like it, too.

Could Statsaholic have been ANY clearer???? And that "cool company" Alexa (according to their blog) didn’t seem to have a problem with it.

Hornbaker admits to changing the name of the site (and the URL—which appears to be wasted at this point) in March to avoid the trademark issue. And that absolutely makes sense from a brand protection standpoint (if these two were competitors). But the site provides other tools than just the Alexa aggregated data…so that seems pretty convenient.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, but in my mind, this should have been dealt with more diplomatically. Considering the strong relationship these companies had, how does Bezos treat his enemies?

Labels: Alexa, lawsuit, Statsaholic

Ever since the Scrubs sitcom made its way to Comedy Central, I’ve taken a renewed interest in the new episodes on NBC. Last week, I finally caved to the relentless after-show marketing of the Scrubs Podcast. I downloaded it to my iPod and went for a run over the weekend.

Now, to NBC’s credit, they clearly point out the best way to enjoy the Scrubs Podcast:

Two ways to listen! Download the entire commentary as a podcast. Pause during commercial breaks and play when the episode resumes.

Or, listen while you watch. Click "Part 1" when the episode begins. When the show goes to the first commercial break, that ends Part 1. Click "Part 2" when the show resumes, etc. You can also click "Listen Now" to listen to the full stream uninterrupted.

Check back soon for commentaries from other cast members' favorite episodes!

So essentially, this is Mystery Science Theater 3000 for Scrubs. You get to watch it; and instead of coming up with smart-ass remarks yourself, you get to hear them from one of the writers and stars of the show.

This is a completely missed opportunity for a couple of reasons:

1. IMO, podcasts are best absorbed while on the go (which essentially makes it an out-of-home media). And this creates a formatting problem.

2. The podcast doesn’t add value if you’re not watching the show.

So what’s missing?

1. Why not make it a video podcast? Show it after the program has aired and include the commentary? They could include advertisements in it as well if they wanted. That way, the viewer get’s the full picture.
2. Interviews with the stars (and guest stars) of the show. It could be show or episode-related, but it certainly doesn’t have to be. They could discuss other projects or maybe funny stories about what happened while filming the episode.
3. Why not do a live call-in show to make the experience more interactive? Producers could gain more information about what the audience wants to see in a more real-time format.

Kudos to NBC for recognizing that the target market is willing to dive deeper into the show and answering with a podcast. However, IMO, it’s a sloppy execution to the needs of fans who want to go interactive.

"Tensions are running high as the Internet becomes the center of all marketing."—Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of IAB

This has been coming for a while. According to Media Post, despite the fact that the International Advertising Bureau has supported both comScore Inc. and Nielsen, they sent an open letter requested an audit of measurement processes.

Now, personally, I don’t think it’s a good idea to lean on any reporting tool as the bible for measuring media of any kind. Both of these company measure on samples; which are good for trending, but not if you’re really looking for specifics. Don’t believe me? Watch any smart media planner’s eyes glaze over when a newspaper ad rep starts talking about “readership” and “pass-along rate.”

Online media is no different. If you’re relying on one of these companies to dictate what your media buy should be without really evaluating the Web site, you should reevaluate your career. Regardless, IAB claims that its 332 members account for 86 percent of the nation's interactive advertising spend. So it’s obvious that IAB’s opinion weighs heavily.

However, it is in comScore’s and Nielson’s best interest to agree to these audits immediately, and then complete them in a timely fashion. Both the IAB and Media Rating Council have been requesting an audit since 1999. So at this point, it becomes an issue related to the measurement firms’ transparency and honesty.

I’m sure there’s a significant expense to be recognized with this type of undertaking, but validating their data is worth the price.

*4/23 Update:

http://www.nielsennetratings.com/pr/pr_070423_2.pdf

http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1400

I’m a huge fan of convincing bloggers to become your brand evangelists. We’re all aware of the wrong way to do it, involving Microsoft Vista and expensive Acer laptops.

Nikon, however, is doing it the right way. Here’s the letter sent to a select group of bloggers:

YES! You made it!

Nikon's "Picture This" program is designed to give you, the blogger, the ability to use the Nikon D80 D-SLR camera in any way you see fit, and we expect that you will work wonders with it. After you complete the following short registration process you'll be all signed up and we'll ship the D80 to the address you've provided. The camera is yours to use as you continue through the program. The only request we have of you is that you please make sure that, if you choose to write about the camera, you make it clear how you got it. We would never ask you to cross any ethical lines, so openness and honesty on all our parts is in everyone's best interest.

The camera is essentially being loaned to you for six months at which point you have three options:

1. Return it to us
2. Re-up for another six month loan period, or
3. Buy the camera at a significantly reduced editorial discount.

Should you opt for #1 or #3, the camera or the purchase price will then be donated to a photography education program that Nikon supports. That's it.

What I really appreciate here is the transparency that Nikon uses in their message. They WANT consumers to understand the arrangement between their company and the blogosphere. Kudos.

The million dollar question is, had there not been a Vista incident, would the tactic be different. I’d like to hope so.

Hat tip Jennifer.

Now, I’ve taken some flack from some of our media folks because of my recent comments about print being dead. This is actually an excellent example of how the New York Times is able to improve readership of their product (notice I didn’t say, “newspaper”). They recognize the fact that people are searching for this information and their print product is being left out of the equation.

So what do they do? Currently, NYT is #13 for “Virginia Tech shooting” on Google. They obviously provide relevant content and want to be considered a competitor for some of the other media (i.e. CNN, Yahoo News, Fox News, etc.). And they are willing to pay for it.

IMO, this is a very smart SEM branding tactic.

With your permission, I'd like to explain how I could get more people to your site each month.

Let me know if you're interested.

You have got to be kidding me. THIS is what you send me???? You're in the business of marketing and you send this crap???

Imagine my joy in seeing all the great things that await me upon signing up with these assholes.

There’s more???? Oh goodie.

A trained professional, eh? Wow! And he/she will do all the submissions for me? Outstanding. Sign me up.

I wasn’t particularly pleased when Threadwatch went medieval on MSI for spamming. However, after this garbage, I can understand what Barry was going through.

If anyone happens to receive an email from Tom Abrams (tom@placementreview.com), please send him my warm regards.

P.S. Based on some recent information that I received from SEOmoz I hope that Tom can one day live up to the standards that the Greatest Living American has set forth.

This is practically old news already, but last week Matt Cutts discussed a way to report Web sites who buy text link ads in order to increase popularity.

Most of the comment debate is related to how Google can physically tell which links are paid and which are not. And IMO this is the biggest problem. The evil marketer in me immediately thought of all the ways that I could find legitimate links of my clients’ competitors and submit them for discounting.

So it makes me feel like Google is basically saying that they admit that they can’t police the paid linking issues themselves, so bring in the lynch mob to support it. Let the witch hunt begin.

And the debate didn’t end on Matt’s site. Jon Revill and I had a heated discussion on how well Text Link Ads work in the first place. He contends that if you’re spending $1,000/month for text link ads, your money would be better spent on major improvements to your Web site to improve the user experience.

What we do agree on is that text link ads might get you to the game, but it won’t get you on the field. When you start talking about extremely competitive keyword terms, text link ads have never been the deciding factor.

If you live in the Raleigh/Durham DMA, you may have seen television ads for WorkTriangle.com. This is the most recent attempt for a local employment site gain market share.

Normally, I don’t pay these any mind, but I noticed a similarity that was uncanny.

I don’t condone plagiarism, but I probably would have less of a problem with this if WorkTriangle was run by a small business with someone who doesn’t know any better. Not the case. They are owned by WorkMetro...not to mention a relationship with Time Warner Cable.

It’s certainly not blatant. In fact, Archive shows that 2005 version of WorkMetro's logo is similar to today’s. Since YouTube really didn’t go mainstream until last year, it’s safe to say that this is probably not intentional. Still, it would make sense for someone to rebrand a logo.