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Friday, June 30

Blogging Turns on the Red Light with PayPerPost.com

As of today, knowing whether a blog post is unbiased or a blogfomercial, will be a lot trickier with the launch of PayPerPost.com.

As Business Week reports, the new service from MindComet's Ted Murphy, pays bloggers to write about and endorse products in return for payment by advertisers.

Advertisers pay to post details about their "opportunity," specifying, among other things, how they want bloggers to write about, say, a new shoe, if they want photos to be included, and whether they'll pay only for positive mentions. Bloggers who abide by the rules get paid; heavily trafficked blogs may command premium rates.

PayPerPost bloggers will not be required to disclose they are getting paid for the post.

Obviously blog-prostitution has been going on for months, now it has it's very own brothel. ;-)

Disclaimer: Andy Beal was not paid to promote PayPerPost, but if Murphy would like to send him a brown-envelope full of cash, he wouldn't be offended. :-) On a serious note, Marketing Pilgrim is upfront about any cash exchanging hands in return for our endorsement - and so far it has never happended.

China Looking to Strangle Blogs and Search Engines

I really can't imagine what's it like to live in a country that controls what you can and what you can view online. China once again shows its paranoia by launching an initiative to tighten supervision of blogs and search engines.

"As more and more illegal and unhealthy information spreads through the blog and search engine, we will take effective measures to put the BBS, blog and search engine under control," said Cai Wu, director of the Information Office of the State Council, at a meeting held Wednesday.


With search engine users numbers expected to top 100 million this year, surely China will soon face the realization that they fighting a losing battle - how will they cope when that figure gets to 200 million?

Via Steve Rubel.

Thursday, June 29

Realtors Start to Look at Online Advertising

A couple of years back I spoke at two different real estate conferences - Inman and REMAX - and let me tell you, they were some of the toughest people to get to understand search marketing.

Well, according to ClickZ, they're finally starting to get the hang of this internet-thing and will spend more than $3 billion in online advertising by 2010.

It's not surprising that the newer realtors are realizing the benefit of online advertising ahead of the more experienced crowd.

...36 percent of those who have been agents 10 years or longer use online advertising, while 64 percent of those in the business for 10 years or fewer buy online ads. Seventy-one percent of those less-experienced agents will boost their Web ad budgets this year compared to 48 percent of their veteran counterparts.


If you're a real estate agent looking to jump-in to search marketing, give Fortune Interactive a call and mention this post and we'll give you a 15% discount off any of our services. :-)

Google Copying Amazon's Master Plan

I order a lot of stuff via Amazon.com, why? They already have my credit card info and I can shop many merchants all from a single shopping cart. Sound like any new service that may have launched recently?

It sure does to CNET...

Checkout is, however, a huge threat to Amazon. The biggest thing the online superstore has going for it is convenience. Once you buy an item on Amazon, buying the next one is a one-click affair. But go to another store, and you've got to enter your credit card info all over again. Amazon wins for convenience, and over time it's earned buyers' trust.

Could eBay Ban Google Checkout?

MarketingVOX uncovers an interesting theory that eBay may conveniently decide Google Checkout doesn't meet their approval, preventing eBay merchants from using the new service.

According to eBay's policy, approval is in part dependent on "whether the payment service has a substantial historical track record of providing safe and reliable financial and/or banking related services (new services without such a track record generally cannot be promoted on eBay)."

UPDATE:
Jason Miller pings me to let me know that he saw this coming... 9 months ago!!! I'm gonna ask Jason for this weeks lottery numbers and next year's Super Bowl winner. ;-)

Google Yawns in the Face of French Trademark Ruling

CNET reports Google has been ordered to pay damages in a French trademark law suit.

The Paris Court of Appeals ordered Google and its French subsidiary to pay $376,589 (300,000 euros) in damages...Google is barred from using Louis Vuitton's trademarks in its advertising on all of its Web sites accessible from France, and Google was ordered to pay Louis Vuitton $94,139 (75,000 euros) in legal expenses and to publish the ruling in four news magazines and an online site

Nice win for the French, but Google couldn't really care less...

"This is an old Adwords case--and none of the issues apply today," a Google representative said in a prepared statement. "We have a trademark policy, which prevents bids on other people's registered trademarks, and we do not allow people to advertise with AdWords for counterfeit products. Today's case does not raise any new issues whatsoever."

Yahoo's Click Fraud Settlement Makes Google Look Like Suckers

If you thought Google's $90 million click fraud settlement was pathetic, wait until you see what Yahoo just got away with...

Under the terms of the settlement, granted preliminary approval by U.S. District Court Judge Christina Snyder in Los Angeles, Yahoo would pay roughly $5 million in legal fees and extend its period for reviewing advertiser click-fraud complaints to include disputed charges since January 2004. The Sunnyvale, Calif., Internet company normally reviews only those complaints related to disputed charges that occurred within the past 60 days.


Way to go Yahoo, $5 million in legal fees and you only have to extend the "reviewing period" back to January 2004. They don't actually have to commit to refunding the disputed clicks, just to agree to review them. Have you ever dealt with Yahoo on fraudulent clicks? They don't just say, "you're right, here, have your money back."

I'm sure their legal counsel will have a conference room named after him for this sweet deal.

Via WSJ (sub)

Political Bloggers on the Payroll

The Washington Post reveals Hillary Clinton is the latest in a line of politicians hiring their own political blogger.

Looks like the next election could be decided by who has the most Technorati Top 100 on their payroll. ;-)

Microsoft Loses Another Exec to Google

Do you think Google execs do a Dr.Evil "Mooohooowhaha" everytime they steal a Microsoft executive away? If they do, there's more going on at the 'plex today as Business 2.0 reveals a new loss for the Redmond company.

Vic Gundotra, a general manager for platform evangelism at Microsoft and a 15-year employee, has agreed to join Google after first spending a year working on charitable endeavors.

"Mr. Gundotra has resigned from Microsoft (Charts) and entered into an agreement with Google," Google (Charts) spokesman Steve Langdon wrote in an emailed statement. "He will not be a Google employee for one year and intends to spend that time on philanthropic pursuits. We are uncertain what precise role he will play when he begins working for Google, but he has a broad range of skills and experience which we believe will be valuable to Google."


I wouldn't be surprised to hear that his "philanthropic pursuits" are being funded by the new Google Foundation. ;-)

Via Robert Scoble.

GBuy Launches as Google Checkout

Pretty much all of the GBuy beans have already been spilled, but with today's official launch, we do learn some new details.

First, the new service is officially named Google Checkout.

ClickZ
has a good summary of details, including...

...AdWords advertisers will receive free payment processing for sales of up to 10 times their monthly spending. A company spending $1,000 in one month for AdWords would receive $10,000 worth of free payment processing the next month.

...Google has signed some well-known brands to participate at launch. Buy.com, Timberland.com, Jockey.com, Starbucks.com and Levis.com will offer users the option of using Google Checkout.

...Google Checkout is aimed at providing people the convenience of entering in their credit card and personal details once, then using them across a variety of merchants.



CNET adds...

...AdWords customers who use the payment system will have shopping cart icons displayed in their ads so customers will know that they can use their Google Checkout account to pay for purchases.



...Any Web site can add Google Checkout as a payment processing method by either cutting and pasting HTML, or Web code, into the site.

...Google also is partnering with financial services companies. For example, Google and Citibank will offer customers a co-branded Checkout option that will provide users $5 and 1,000 "thank-you" points for signing up

...The service will initially be offered in the United States only, and, unlike most new Google products, it is not a beta test version.

Forrester analyst, Charlene Li, sees this as a great way to reduce shopping-cart abandonment and increase trust with merchants. However, she also warns that Google's brand could be tarnished if it handles consumers cash incorrectly.

But what happens when the inevitable phishing attacks begin, or payment problems ensue? In the pre-briefing of this announcement, Google did not discuss customer service issues, but clearly, it’s one thing to serve several hundred thousand advertisers paying for their search ads, and quite another to serve potentially millions of consumers.

Charlene also raises the often asked question of whether consumers will start getting concerned that Google knows too much about them.

...now we have Google tracking our search history with personalized search, email with Gmail, and online spending with Checkout. At what point do consumers get that squishy feeling in their gut that Google knows too much?

Wednesday, June 28

Yahoo Pleased With Click Fraud Settlement

Yahoo's Click Fraud Suit has finally come to an end. Unlike Google's settlement where they would give you adwords credit, Yahoo may be dishing out cash to their advertisers.

Yahoo's response to the suit: "We're very pleased with this important settlement because it not only validates the strength of the search marketing industry and the effectiveness of our system, but also it allows us to move forward to work more closely with our advertisers and others across the industry to fight click fraud. "

Not sure why they are so "pleased?" I am sure they are happy the actual suit is over, but I am not convinced this is the last we will see of click fraud issues with Yahoo, Google, and other engines.

Seventy Percent of Large Companies Will Have a Blog by Year End

Not sure why I didn't blog this earlier, but JupiterResearch released details of a study suggesting 35% of large companies will launch a corporate blog by the end of 2006, bringing the total to nearly 70%.

According to a new report, "Corporate Weblogs: Deployment, Promotion, and Measurement," currently 64 percent of executives spend less than $500,000 to deploy and manage corporate Weblogs.

I should think so too! Fortune Interactive will design, launch and manage your corporate blog for less than $5k per month - that's a whole lot less than $500,000. :-)

Fortune Interactive Hiring Again

If you know of any "rainmaker" sales professionals, send them over to our web site as we're once again looking to hire proven inside sales execs.

No Matter What Google Says, GBuy Will Compete With PayPal

It's still a mystery why Google is intent on distancing GBuy from PayPal - maybe it's to protect their PPS if PayPal whips their butt - but Business Week looks at all the reasons why GBuy will indeed be a PayPal rival.

Yahoo's David Beach Leaving for Wink

Remember Wink? The search engine that uses tagging to find the most relevant results?

They must be doing something right as SEW reports the senior product manager of Yahoo Shopping Search, David Beach, has decided to leave Yahoo after five years, and join Wink.

Dell Using Google Earth for Technical Support

News that Dell is leveraging its partnership with Google to offer premium customers a new service utilizing Google Earth's mapping technology.

Dubbed ``Platinum Plus,'' the new service lets Dell customers use the 3D mapping program Google Earth Pro to see in real-time how the Round Rock company is responding to technical support issues around the globe.

The idea is to make it simpler and easier for medium to large businesses using Dell to maintain their systems, said Steve Meyer, vice president of Dell Services.


I especially love the "zoom" feature, that lets you really see the technical issue, as shown below. ;-)

Tuesday, June 27

Google Analytics Adds Integration with AdWords

Google just added two new reports to Google Analytics - AdWords Analysis report and the AdWords Keyword Positions report. The new reports expand on previous GA reporting and provide automatic tracking of AdWords campaigns by importing the data directly to Google Analytics.

What do the new reports provide? Here's what Google's telling us...

AdWords Analysis report

The AdWords Analysis report displays the return on investment for every Campaign, Ad Group, and keyword in an AdWords account. The report is useful for advertisers as they monitor and optimize their Ad Groups and keywords. ROI is calculated using AdWords keyword costs and goal or e-commerce values specified by the advertiser within Analytics.

AdWords Keyword Positions report

For each keyword that an advertiser has purchased, the AdWords Keyword Positions report displays conversion information correlated by paid search result position. The report can be useful for advertisers in determining the value of keywords and their bid amounts in relation to their actual position on Google search results pages. It can be used in conjunction with the Position Preference feature within AdWords to actually optimize around ad position: the AdWords Keyword Positions report in Google Analytics shows which position works best for a keyword and then, with Position Preference in AdWords, that position can actually be selected as a target.


With Google also improving the wait time for requested GA invites (now just a few days), it looks as though Google's looking to beef up its analytics arm. We'll test out the reporting and let you know what we think.

Google Earth Revealing Military Secrets Blah Blah Blah

Yet another story about how Google Earth could help terrorists and unfriendly military learn valuable information about bases, nuclear reactors etc.

I'm pretty sure that if someone wanted to figure out the location of a military leader's favorite vacation home, they could do so even without the help of Google.

India's scared, Thailand's concerned; and the French? The French are building their own Google Earth.

Be warned, the article is six pages long. I stopped at page four, so if you read anything good on 5 or 6, please come back and let me know. ;-)

NBC Finally Gets YouTube

At one point NBC sent a nasty request to YouTube, asking them to remove uploaded content from Saturday Night Live. It seems they now see the huge viral benefits of YouTube and have made a deal, according to ClickZ.

Under terms of the new agreement, YouTube will promote NBC's Fall programs and other shows for one year. The video aggregator will host an official NBC Channel with exclusive clips and long-form promos for "The Office," SNL and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," among others.

DM News Essential Search Engine Marketing Guide

The latest edition of DM News comes with a 64-page guide to search engine marketing. There are so many good articles in the publication, you really need to download it.

There's a particularly good piece on using blogs to research keywords, written by the talented (and modest) Andy Beal. ;-)

Google's GBuy Coming This Week

Google's new payment system, GBuy, really needs to deliver, if it's to live-up to the hype it's received over the past several weeks.

According to the WSJ, the service will launch this week and will come out fighting. Rebates to consumers, fee discounts to AdWords advertisers and a system that integrates with existing ecommerce sites, are all expected when GBuy launches.

Just remember, this is not a competitor of PayPal - even if GBuy does end-up kicking PayPal's tired butt, it's not a competitor. Everyone got that? ;-)

Miller Brewing Launches Beer Blog

I've been looking for stories that tap into the 18-35 year-old male demographic and I hit the jackpot today with news that Miller Brewing Co. has launched Brew Blog; providing daily news and reporting on the brewing industry.

It's interesting to note there's no "drink responsibly" or "must be over 21" anywhere to be seen. ;-)

WebSourced's Chadd Lomoglio Joins Zunch

Congratulations to my good friend, and co-worker for 5 years, Chadd Lomoglio, as he departs MarketSmart/WebSourced/KeywordRanking/Worldmall (etc etc) and joins Zunch as executive vice president.

Chadd's sales management expertise will certainly serve the company very well and I'm confident that Chadd will make a big impact.

Best of luck Chaddly! ;-)

Monday, June 26

Adwords = AdCenter = Sponsored Search

I received an email (below) from Yahoo about the up and coming changes to Yahoo Sponsored Search Platform. Is Yahoo going to be just like Google, or is it just me?
Since Yahoo, MSN, and Google are all going to be the same now, can someone please create an interface that I will be able to add and pause keywords and make text or url changes that will apply to all 3 engines at a touch of a button?

Email:
Better Ways to Connect with Customers Will Make Your Advertising More EffectiveYou've told us your needs and we've listened. A completely redesigned search marketing platform is on its way, full of advanced, easy-to-use features that will help you better connect with Yahoo!'s vast and valuable audience.

As part of creating these enhancements, we met with advertisers of all sizes to hear first-hand the things they liked and didn't like about Sponsored Search. We extensively reviewed all parts of our service, including the design, features and tools. The result of these efforts is the new Sponsored Search, which will make its debut later this year.

Powerful New Features.
The new features that will make advertising with Yahoo! better and more effective include:

Easy-to-Use Control Panel
A completely redesigned, easy-to-navigate control panel will help you see what's working and what's not--at the level of detail you choose--so you can take action and get even better results.

Fast Ad Activation
Most new ads will go online within minutes, allowing you to connect with customers quickly, and easily make changes to your ads whenever you need to.

Geo-Targeting
Display your ads broadly or narrow your geographic distribution to better target your customers, customize your ads and control your costs.

Campaign Budgeting, Forecasting and Scheduling
Create, budget and schedule individual advertising campaigns for greater control over your advertising strategy and spending. Review forecasts of your potential clicks based on your bids and budget and see how many clicks you're leaving to your competitors.

Visibility
Understand how well your ads are performing relative to your competitors with the new Quality Index displayed for each ad. You'll also see the bid range necessary for premium placement at the top of the search results page.

Thoroughly Tested and Reviewed by Your Peers
These new features have been rigorously tested by your fellow advertisers and refined over time to ensure that we delivered a service that successfully addresses the obstacles you currently face. Judging by the overwhelmingly positive feedback we've received, we are confident that the new Sponsored Search not only clears away those obstacles, but offers new and better ways to manage your account.

Frequent and Detailed Communication with You
Beginning next month, we'll begin to provide you with much more detailed information about all of the upcoming enhancements. To make your transition as smooth and easy as possible, we will provide:
A series of emails with tips on how best to prepare your account
In-depth articles on our new features in the advertiser newsletter
A new Yahoo! Search Marketing blog--a community forum for tips, news and your comments, as well as the inside scoop from our own staff, to help you be more successful
A dedicated toll-free phone number for any questions or concerns related to this transition (Coming soon!)

This is just the first step. After all advertisers have successfully upgraded to the new Sponsored Search, we plan to quickly introduce many more innovative products, features and tools that will give you even more ways to connect with customers.
As always, thank you for doing business with us. We look forward to delivering the new Sponsored Search to you later this year.

Google Indexing Private Data

By now you should know that, anything you post online, to the public, is fair-game for Google's crawler. But a recent incident involving the indexing of social security numbers and test scores for 619 students at public schools in Catawba County, N.C., shows there is still a grey area when it comes to password protected info.

While Google eventually took down the information - and claims it can't crawl secure data - it once again raises the issue of where the burden should lie.

Should a webmaster be held responsible for knowing all of the procedures necessary to prevent Google from spidering, or should the burden be on Google.

It's a tough call, but I can't help thinking that the Internet existed before Google, therefore the onus should be on Google to NOT crawl secure content - even if it finds a loophole. Of course, for Google to accept responsibility would mean a huge drain on the company's resources, so it would rather we all appease it, rather than the other way round.

Optimizing Your Web Site? Don't Forget Internal Site Search

Avinash doesn't post to his blog every day, but when he does post, he usually has something interesting to say. In his latest post, he reminds web site marketers to not neglect their internal site search.

Keywords that bring visitors to your web site, are not always the same words they use to navigate, once they're there.

"The key insight is that most searchers are looking for generic things (think for example “category terms”) in google or yahoo or msn to locate a relevant site. But once they are on the website they are looking for something specific."

The importance of good site structure and analyzing the intent of your visitors are also covered.

Gada.be Becomes TagJag

Chris Pirillo's tag search engine, Gada.be, is changing its name to TagJag.com and getting a redesign as well, according to Arrington.

The new site will go live next week. More screenshots at TechCrunch.

Did eBay Miss the Yahoo Boat?

Full-time friend, part-time competitor, Scot Wingo, knows eBay better than most, and, having been acquired at one time by Overture/Yahoo, knows the search engine space too.

He combines his experience and comes up with an interesting theory that eBay is about to repeat the bad mistake made by Overture some years ago when negotiating with Yahoo.

Y! basically said - we're interested, but you need us more than we need you and we're not paying a premium. We'll buy you for more in the mid $20's (1.2b) as thats what makes sense to us. If you're not interested, let's keep/sweeten our commercial deal. Behind the scenes, i'm sure the Y! guys realized that OVER really didn't have any options and Google was going to pound the heck out of them.

Fast forward to present day, and eBay finds itself in a similar situation. It's stock is at $40 but Yahoo doesn't want to pay the premium.

Y! said: We're interested, but at $22. If that's not interesting, let's do a commercial deal...Then Y! sits back and patiently waits as [eBay goes] from $44 to $30. then $22 isn't great, but it's getting painfully close. Finally, you head into the seasonally weak Q2, and the buzz is there are some big things coming out that could get that $30 heading south. Now $22 doesn't seem to far away...

A very compelling theory. It will be interesting to see if eBay has missed the boat.

Banner Ads Still Ignored By Most Web Users

ClickZ looks at a new study from the Nielsen/Norman Group which finds internet users still suffer from "banner blindness"; the condition that rich media advertisers find most annoying.

"People are not looking at the typical blinding, graphical ads," said Nielsen Norman Group Director of Research Kara Pernice Coyne. "They are not [looking] enough time to absorb a complex ad or branding message."

The study doesn't really reveal anything new. Marketers have seen the decline of banner-ad click-thrus for years, and we all know that it takes a particularly eye-catching banner ad to see any success these days.

Ironically, the study reveals that banners that look more like simple text, end-up doing well.

There's still hope for online ads. Pernice Coyne said graphical ads with text and contrasting colors, like white text on red, is less likely to be disregarded. "They're looking at them if they're text," she said. "I hate to sound boring, but [it is best] if you can make sure your ad is something simple, text or a recognized logo, and it needs to be relevant to the page."

The article concludes with suggestions that sponsored search still attracts the "eye" but warns that too many irrelevant text ads, could cause internet users to start filtering these out as well.

Google CPA Concerns Small B2B Advertisers

Over at B2Blog, Dave J has concerns about Google's trial of a cost-per-action model for AdSense.

The obvious technicality is that for a lot of smaller & B2B businesses, the most common 'action' coming from their website is a phone call. And these are the people who also are paying much more per-click in their current PPC campaigns. Which means they have a lot more at risk for click-fraud yet cannot rely on CPA to help due to the untraceable phone call.

He also doubts whether AdSense CPA will be able to get enough volume in order to spread its reach to small B2B firms.

Friday, June 23

Microsoft's New AdLabs May Blow Your Socks Off!

Going over the AdLab's site and viewing the demo's is a must.

What can AdLab's do for you? According to Microsoft:
  • Search Funnels: Customers tend to search by entering related keywords in certain sequences. You can use the adCenter Search Funnels tool to help you visualize and analyze these search behaviors through incoming and outgoing queries.
  • Search Clustering: Microsoft adCenter's Search Result Clustering (SRC) technology can cluster search results into semantically related groups in real time and then help your customers browse through the long list of search results. SRC can:
  1. Disambiguate queries that may produce contradictory results
  2. Display subtopics for search queries
  3. Display facts about people
  4. Show relationships among people
  5. Return answers when the query is a question
  • Forecasting Search Volume Seasonality: Some keywords are searched more frequently at certain times of the year. Use this tool to help forecast the seasonal patterns of customers' search queries.
  • Content-Based Acronym Resolution: When a query contains an acronym or abbreviation, Microsoft adCenter technology can predict and display the most likely result based on the keyword's context.
  • Keyword Group Detection: This essential tool helps you find groups of words that are related or similar to your input keywords. Expand your keyword lists to maximize exposure to searchers.
  • Keyword Mutation Detection: Based on Keyword Group Detection technology, this tool displays common misspellings or alternative representations of keywords that are frequently found in search query logs. This technology can help you broaden your keyword lists and then reach more customers.

Digg Updating On Monday

Michael Arrington has screenshots and details of the latest version of Digg, launching Monday.

Building an Mpire for Shopping Search

JB points to one of the more interesting new search engines launched this year. I like Mpire's clean interface but it also adds some cool tools for both buyers and sellers.

Buyers get research tools that allow them to see price trends for the product they are looking to buy, allowig them to compare against what sellers are currently asking.

Sellers can research how much to sell an item for, the best day or time to sell and the keywords to use.

It's a little slow, but man, the layout is fantastic and if Mpire can grow the number of advertisers (currently most content comes from eBay, Yahoo and Overstock), this could become very popular.

Click to enlarge

Lawmaker Drops Suit Claiming Google Profits from Child Porn

Jeffrey Toback, a member of the Nassau County Legislature, has dropped a federal lawsuit that had claimed the search engine company Google Inc. profits from child pornography.

Via SEW.

Google Testing Ad Supported Free Videos

We knew it was coming, and today Google announces they are running a pilot to test ad supported videos for premium content on Google Video.

Interestingly, Google serves-up the ads at the end of the videos and the service will allow viewers to watch premium content for free.

How it works:

1. Advertisers select and bid to sponsor individual videos.

2. The winning bidders for each video are promoted in three ways:

- The ability to run a 15-30 second post-roll video ad

- Persistent branding while the video is playing through a text and icon above the video player

- A listing on the sponsored videos page

3. If a user navigates to one of the sponsored videos, we only show the in-stream video ad once the video has finished playing. If the user clicks the text, logo or visible URL above the video window, they will be taken to the advertiser's site.

4. At the conclusion of the campaign, the advertiser will receive stats on the performance of his/her campaign.


It will be interesting to see how many people actually watch the ads. While it's great that Google is not ramming the ads down viewers throats before watching the content, click-thrus will surely be lower by placing the ad after the video.

Thursday, June 22

Jakob Nielson Needs Help With RSS

I've just been reading Jakob Nielsen's thoughts on RSS over at the WSJ. I know Jeremiah has already weighed-in with his thoughts, but I wanted to add mine too.

I'm not going to rip into Nielsen, he knows more about web design than most, but he does seem somewhat confused about RSS.

Exhibit A - "So one of the real strong recommendations is to stop calling it 'RSS' and start calling it 'news feeds,' because that explains what it does."

Beal says - "News feeds" really doesn't do RSS justice. You can use RSS for many reasons beyond "news" - for example REI uses RSS for it's Outlet deal of the day. Maybe "web feed" would be a better alternative.

Exhibit B - "The email newsletter comes to you; it arrives in your in box, and becomes part of the one place you go to get information. That's the great strength...The best newsletters really drive customer relationships."

Beal says - Newsletters are boring. They come in one long email and are nearly always a "one-way" conversation. RSS delivers info in small bites, on-demand, targeted and encourages "two-way" communication.

Exhibit C - "[Blogs] work only for the people who are most fanatic, who are engaged so much that they will go and check out these blogs all the time."

Beal says - Actually, the whole point of RSS is that you don't have to "check out these blogs all of the time".

CNET Accepting Google Misinformation, Apply Now

CNET always treads on dangerous ground when it invites biased writers to contribute articles. Hey, I'm not naive, bias exists everywhere, but Steve Johnson does a particularly great job of showing the world just how biaised he is, with his article criticizing Google for lack of personalization - personalization happens to be the focus of Steve's company (shock, horror!).

So, with that in mind, Steve offers up his thoughts on what Google needs to do, in order to offer greater personalization in its search results. Some good ideas are there, but they've been on people's wish-list for years.

Lastly, maybe CNET should do a better job in screening its contributors. If Steve can make this wildly inaccurate statement...

Google processes each search query and limits the relevance of the results based solely on the user's personal search history.

...I've got a great article for them on how to turn coal into diamonds. ;-)

Wednesday, June 21

New Bloggers Join Marketing Pilgrim

You'll notice some new faces around here over the next few weeks as Marketing Pilgrim adds new blog posters. You'll have already seen some posts from Fortune Interactive's Ben Wills and today we add Al Scillitani to the list.

Al's an expert in too many search marketing fields to list, but he'll likely focus on paid search.

Look for more new contributors soon. ;-)

Google Answers Not The Way to Get Google Secrets

Looking for some inside info on how Google works? Don't try using Google Answers to get the inside scoop. Google Blogoscoped reports Google recently removed one question that asked “What percentage of Google searches are contextual?" Why?

According to an official response from Google...

Questions about Google, Google Search, and search engine optimization are not allowed because Google Answers researchers are not employees of Google. Researchers don’t have access to any “inside” information. The information they do have access to is available for free on the Google help pages or by writing to Google support.

So what if I posted a question about Yahoo's algorithm? Would they remove that for the same reason? I very much doubt it. Let's try posting the same question at Yahoo Answers and see if Yahoo allows the question.

Man, I'm such a trouble-maker. ;-)

Set Your Time Zone in Adwords by July 30

You have until July 30 to set your time zone in your Google AdWords account. You should definitely take advantage of this option if you are using their new Day Parting tool.

When you created your Google AdWords account, the account automatically defaulted to Pacific Standard Time. According to Google, "Your time zone determines the official "working day" for your AdWords account." In otherwords, if you are in the Eastern Time Zone and set your account to be off from 6pm to 9am, your account will actually turn off 9pm est and will turn back on 12pm est.

Adobe Offers Google Toolbar

You can now download the Google Toolbar via Adobe, according to the Google Blog.

As a part of the agreement, Adobe and Google today will launch availability of the Google Toolbar with downloads of Adobe's Macromedia Shockwave® Player. The Google Toolbar will now be offered as part of the Shockwave Player installation process for Internet Explorer on Windows. Under the terms of the agreement, the Google Toolbar will also be offered as part of other Adobe product installations in the future.

Google Launches Cost Per Action Model for AdSense

Reports are surfacing that Google is offering a new CPA model for AdSense publishers.

I'm not an AdSense user, so perhaps someone else can answer the following question. Will Google share the CPA value for each advertiser? They don't currently share the CPC with AdSense publishers, but surely, if you intend to select ads to show on your web site, you'll need to know how much per action an advertiser is willing to pay.

And, where are the advertisers coming from? Which advertisers are testing this CPA network?

Google Still Dominates But Yahoo Ready to Battle

While Nielsen NetRatings shows Google continues to dominate search share, Yahoo and MSN both grew their share by a greater percentage than Google.

...Yahoo handled 23 percent of searches in May, answering 34 percent more queries than it did last year. Microsoft's MSN Search was third, handling 11 percent of internet searches in May. MSN gained the most ground, however, increasing the number of queries it processed by 42 percent.

Google still handles 49% of searches and grew its share by 32%, so it's still dominating the market. However, Yahoo execs believe the search engine race has only just begun.

"We're three steps into a marathon," said Bradley Horowitz, Yahoo's vice president of product strategy.

Buying Google Stock Not A Sure Bet

Fund manager Fred Kobrick believes too many people are buying Google's stock simply because they have a warm-fuzzy feeling about the company.

"People with a lot of money in Google aren't sure, other than that it's a household word, why they own it," he said. But that's not a good reason to own a stock, he says. After all, many other tech leaders who were thought to have an insurmountable market lead eventually fell by the wayside.

Kobrick suggests Google is a risky stock-buy simply because the company has yet to expand its income stream beyond paid search.

"Google's throwing a lot of mud against the wall to see what sticks. That's pretty scary," Kobrick said.

He also suggests that Google is far from being invincible and that Microsoft and Yahoo could still find a way to topple Google.

Tuesday, June 20

Even Microsoft Employees Still Prefer Google

RealTechNews reports an (very) unofficial study concludes 80% of Microsoft employees use Google as their search engine, with just 20% using MSN. Hardly surprising, they're just like the rest of us - and we all think MSN's search results are poop too! ;-)

It does actually get worse for Microsoft. Back in January of 2005, only 66% of Microsoft employees where using Google.

Search Marketing from a Web Analysts View

Web analytics must be the theme for the day as Avinash posts some useful advice for managing a PPC campaign from a web analysts view.

Some of the great advice includes measuring bounce rates and determining whether you are matching the best keyword buy with the most relevant landing page. He also recommends adding tracking parameters to your PPC URL strings, allowing you much more granular tracking.

I'd definitely add that companies working with agencies should share as much analytical data as possible. Too many clients guard their web data as if it's the secret recipe to KFC. For us search marketers, it's like navigating a plane through a thunderstorm without instruments.

Avinash also suggests that companies could be cannibalizing their organic traffic by bidding on keywords they rank well for organically. He suggests that you try turning off your PPC bids for a week and measure the impact. I'd certainly caution against this, especially if you are a relatively unknown brand. While "big brands" can often maintain their traffic levels from organic alone, most smaller brands need the positive reinforcement, projected to potential visitors, that comes from having both an organic and paid listing. If you decide to take Avinash's test, be sure you are acurately measuring all metrics, not just "did we lose a lot of click-thrus".

Overall, some excellent advice from Avinash (once again)!

Paid Search Needs Analytics for Best Results

The following is a guest article written by Fortune Interactive's very talented, Al Scillitani.

Online marketing may increase traffic to your site dramatically; this may not be a good thing.

Mylene Mangalindan’s article in today’s Wall Street Journal brings up a great point in the uses of analytics in your online paid search campaigns. Simply adding keywords to your paid search accounts is not enough and not only do you need to track your campaigns, but you need to track them down to a keyword level. Why to the keyword level?

Let’s say you have 500 keywords in your paid search account and your return on adspend (revenue/adcost) is 400%. Some companies would be very happy with this return, however you could be missing out on a huge opportunity. Out of those 500 keywords, you may have 15 high volume keywords bringing in 90% of your traffic and revenue. Fourteen of these keywords may have a great return on adspend, over 600%, yet one high volume term may be dragging your results down due to the high costs and low conversions. Testing different ways to increase conversions to this one keyword, or possibly removing it, could bring the account up to the 600%. A good way to increase conversions is to make sure you are using well targeted keywords, have proper negative keywords to block traffic you do not want, and to accurately describe what product or service the customer is getting in your ads. The ad and website needs to have well written calls to action to entice the customer to buy. The other issue online retailers run into is usability.

Online marketing may increase traffic to your site dramatically, this may not be a good thing. Your site is beautiful, you have your analytics up and running, and you just started your paid search bidding in Yahoo, Google, and MSN, everything looks great. Your reports show a dramatic increase in traffic, but no increase in sales? Most likely, this is a usability issue.

Online marketing will bring customers to your site, but it will not help them buy. Once the customer is on your site, you have to make it as easy as possible for that customer to buy. Some common mistakes: having a hard to find “buy” button, not using a consistent navigation system through out your site increasing the chances of a customer getting lost in your site, and the most common problems occur in the shopping cart. Having too many steps in your shopping cart is a killer.

Online marketing is a great tool to bring highly targeted traffic to your site. This combined with an analytics tool, reporting analysis and implementation, and resolving usability issues, you can be on your way to a very prosperous year.

Article written by
Al Scillitani
Search Marketing Manager
Fortune Interactive

Congratulations Carolina Hurricanes, 2006 Stanley Cup Champions



'Nuff said.

Monday, June 19

Google Using London to Expand Mobile Search

Did you know that, on average, there is one mobile phone for every UK resident? When I left England in 2000, the cell phone industry was about 3 years ahead of the U.S. market, so it's no wonder that The Times is reporting Google is using London as a base for expansion of its mobile search division.

Google Builds Oregon Googleplex

Via the N&O comes details of Google's new 'plex on the banks of the Columbia River in Oregon.

My guess is that all the employees take a bus to work. ;-)

Ask.com Sponsors Treasure Hunters

My wife knew that I'd be hooked on the new reality TV show, Treasure Hunters, the moment they announced Ask.com would be the official search engine of the show - team "Miss USA" was not an influence in any way, honey :-).

It was cool to see some of the contestants wearing the Ask "96" t-shirts especially as it's one of my favorite t-shirts. What does "96" mean? Not wanting to steal Ask's thunder, but this might help. ;-)

Yahoo Sued for Trademark Infringement on Google AdWords

CNET reports Yahoo and three others companies are being sued by dating site LoveCity.com. LoveCity is accusing Yahoo of trademark infringement by purchasing the keyword "lovecity" on Google.

Friday, June 16

Interesting Word of Mouth Stats

eMarketer has a recap of recent studies on word-of-mouth marketing.

It's interesting to see what marketers believe are the most important factors that get consumers talking about their products or services.

82.2% believe it's the type of service received
70.3% believe how a product or service works

I wonder how these perceptions match-up to what the consumers themselves believe important.

We also learn that 66% of small companies monitor word-of-mouth on a regular basis, with large companies only doing so 33% of the time. Any surprise that it's more likely to be a larger company that suffers at the hands of negative consumer media?

Google Testing Payment System, Avoids PayPal Comparison

I'm really curious as to why Google is so touchy when it comes to questions about whether their new payment processing system will challenge PayPal.

"It's not like PayPal at all," Schmidt said when asked about "GBuy"..."It makes no sense for us to go into businesses that are occupied by existing leaders," he said. "We want to solve new problems in the payments space."

Google contends the new service is designed to help marketers collect money and is not aimed at the consumer-to-consumer market occupied by PayPal.

Why not? Why is Google so afraid to compete with PayPal? Anyone have an idea?

Google's Eric Schmidt Interview Video

Joanne Lipman, Condé Nast Portfolio editor-in-chief recently interviewed Google CEO, Eric Schmidt. View the video here.

Get Your Name Noticed on Google

Do you have more online profiles than you can remember? Would you like have a central profile that appears at the top of the search engines? Naymz maybe your new friend.

Naymz allows you to aggregate links to all of your personal online content (blogs, photos, social networking profiles, news articles, resumes, etc) onto one page and then have that page appear at or near the top of the paid results when someone searches for your first and last name.

According to Naymz co-founder Tom Drugan, "We are utilizing the AdWords API to automate the postings and we also display the ads on Yahoo, MSN and their respective distribution partners. We feel the time couldn’t be better for a product like this given the explosion of user generated content."

Drugan hopes the service will appeal to anyone who's name is their brand, such as attorneys, doctors, dentists and real estate agents...Search marketers, bloggers... :-)

Drugan and four other co-founders originally worked for Orbitz.

Want to see my profile? Here it is: Andy Beal

Google Adds Dayparting to AdWords

Google has today officially launched dayparting for AdWords, or as they call it "ad scheduling".

The new feature allows advertisers to automatically adjust their bids, pause and resume campaigns, all based on the time of day or the day of the week.

It's certainly a feature that advertisers have been requesting for a long time and it's great to see Google rolling out such a valuable update.

Watch for AdWords advertisers realizing how much they can fine-tune their campaigns. If they know they reach a greater audience during lunch breaks, they can ramp up bids between 12-1 eastern, then again, when the west-coast takes lunch. If they know their TV commercials will run during the evening news, they can set their ads to capture anyone heading to the net. The possibilities are endless!

Official Google Analytics Blog

Our friends over at Google Analytics have decided it's time to jump-in to the blogosphere and start having their voice heard. So now, you'll be able to go there for the official word, here for the unofficial word, and I'll be here to add my normal unsolicited 2 cents. ;-)

SunRocket Takes Responsibility for Everyday Hogwash

Just got off the phone with SunRocket's Director of Public Relations, Brian Lustig. It was an interesting conversation, with Lustig telling me that while SunRocket accepts they are ultimately responsible for the "Everyday Hogwash" campaign failure, they feel GMD Studios (who organized the contest) didn't exactly run the campaign how they had hoped.

Lustig tells me that GMD Studios claimed that they had experienced issues with their voicemail, incoming and outgoing email and that's why the SunRocket contest apparently collapsed with neither the judges of entrants getting paid. He called GMD Studios "very unprofessional".

Anyway, good news for Everyday Hogwash judges and entrants. Lustig tells me that all judges will get paid in the next few days and, if they are willing, will be asked to select a grand prize winner for the contest. The winner will get the $5,000 prize money, and the other 11 finalists will also receive something to help get rid of what Lustig calls the "bad taste".

Wednesday, June 14

MySpace Looking for a Search Partner

MySpace has realized it needs a better search engine function and is out looking for a potential partner.

PubSub Explains Why Bankruptcy Is Likely

You have to feel for Bob Wyman, founder of PubSub. He uses his blog to explain how some minor shareholders are using blocking tactics to prevent the company from merging or raising money.

What has prevented us moving forward is a battle with a group of minority shareholders, some of whom claim to be lead by our ex-CEO Salim Ismail and are, in any case, primarily his "friends and family." This group is using very unusual clauses in our Shareholder's agreements to block mergers or financings. We've found it difficult to determine their motives, however, some have said that they believe that it is in their interest to drive the company into bankruptcy so that they can buy our software and start a new company.

Online Advertising Spend to Reach $20 Billion This Year

MVox has some interesting data from TNS Media Intelligence:

...Online ad spending will make-up 125 of all U.S. measured media in 2006.

...total online ad spend, including search marketing, will reach $20 billion by end of year.

Google Launches Picasa Web Albums

Just as predicted, Google has announced the launch of Picasa Web Albums. It's one of those limited launches, so it's first come, first served if you are interested.

At first glance, it looks very slick. Not only can you upload photos and share them for free (up to 250mb's worth) but other Picasa users can download the images you share. What is really nice is that the web albums pre-fetch the images, so they load amazingly fast.

This is a great new feature for Picasa, and will likely increase my use of it immensely.

Tuesday, June 13

Taking Bets on Google's Gbuy Turning Evil

Motley Fool is betting Google may become just a little evil, should it decide to allow internet gambling sites to use Gbuy (payment processing), when the service launches, as suspected, on June 28th.

PayPal doesn't allow gambling sites, but Neteller does and it processed more than $7 billion in transactions in 2005.

Is that a high enough figure to tempt Google?

Baynote Improving Site Search

Rob Hof points to interesting new site search technology from Baynote. It uses the collective wisdom of others visiting your web site to improve site search and reduce the number of customer clicks.

I'll see if I can get my hands on a trial account and let you know what I think.

Building a Blogging Business

StartupJournal takes a look at how one person started a part-time blog network, which grew into a mini media empire.

...his stable of blogs has grown to 14 with almost 750,000 visitors each month and more than 30 direct advertisers. The heaviest trafficked blogs can generate upward of $10,000 a month in revenue, while the less trafficked ones generate between $1,000 and $2,000 before expenses


It's no wonder Om Malik has announced he is quiting Business 2.0 to start his own blog empire.

Monday, June 12

Google Earth Celebrates Birthday, Increases Resolution

Google Earth celebrates its first anniversary and announces increased resolution and global coverage.

...we increased our global coverage by about 4X. Google Earth now covers more than 20 percent of the landmass of the entire globe with high-resolution satellite imagery...When we say "high resolution," we mean the good stuff: you can see cars, houses, buildings in more than 200 countries and territories.

MySpace Partners with Amazon?

I'm not a big follower of MySpace, but Mike M is and he just emailed me to let readers know that MySpace has added a new "MySpace Books" section, complete with lots of links back to Amazon.com.

Further research suggests these links may have been active for a while, but I'm still curious as to whether this is a formal partnership or if MySpace simply signed-up as an affiliate.

Ask Jeeves Co-Founder Joins Answerbag

I'd never heard of Answerbag before today's news that Ask Jeeves co-founder, David Warthen, has joined the company.

A high-profile hire for the company, which has obviously helped put them on my - and other's - radar. Answerbags appears to be betting on the "Yahoo Answers" model that has helped Yahoo increase it's search traffic.

Big question; can Answerbag ever make it on its own? My guess is the company will make itself an attractive acquisition for some search engine.

Microsoft's Robert Scoble Leaves to Join Start-up

Just in case you've not already heard the news rippling through the blogosphere, famed blogger, Robert Scoble, has announced he is leaving Microsoft, to become VP of Content for PodTech.net, a company providing video interviews of technology leaders.

Congratulations to Robert, especially as reports suggest he'll be making a lot more money and getting a good stock plan.

Two interesting questions, that I am sure will be asked over the coming days.

1. Scoble was a huge asset to Microsoft and gave the company a more personal voice. How will Scoble's departure impact the company?

2. Working for Microsoft, no doubt gave Scoble a huge platform from which to have his voice heard. Now that he has left the company for a start-up, will he carry the same clout?

My own thoughts? I think Scoble gave Microsoft a better understanding of blogging, which the company will continue to benefit from. I also think Scoble has established himself as a rock star of the blogging community, and any start-up paying his salary, just saved themselves triple the amount in advertising. Scoble's voice will carry them a long way.

Friday, June 9

BT Sees Google as Threat; Google Doesn't Even See BT

Interesting comments from an exec at BT claiming Google is a threat that they must tackle.

"We see Google as our biggest threat," said Ramji. "They don't mean to, it's almost incidental."

He acknowledged that Google comes from a "different world" but is expanding fast to meet consumers' needs.


Interestingly, analysts don't know what the heck BT is talking about as they don't see Google as a threat, and don't even think Google sees BT as a competitor. Maybe BT just want's some of the Google limelight.

BTW - does BT ever refer to itself as British Telecom anymore?

Searches Increase for Top 5 Search Engines

Forbes has details of market share for paid search. Lots of interesting data including...

Sponsored clicks were up 75%, year-over-year at Google, while MSN also showed impressive gains, up 66% quarter-over-quarter.

Google's click-through rate fell to 11.4% from 11.8%, while Yahoo!'s rate fell to 11.2% from 11.4%.

The Perfect Web Anaylst?

Want to know what makes-up the perfect web analyst? Avinash has put together a list of key traits to look for in a web analytics specialist.

Google Confirms Committment to China

Reuters reviews comments by Google co-founder Sergey Brin which suggest Google is committed to making Google.cn work.

Chinese Internet service providers take steps to ensure that the uncensored google.com site does not work as intended, Brin said. The google.cn censored site would presumably not be slowed by Chinese blocking tactics.

"We sort of committed to try out this path and we are still actually trying to get it to work," Brin said.

Google Names Most Popular Videos

David Krane reports Google has introduced Google Video "Movers & Shakers", a look at the most popular videos.

Google Listening to Your Every Move

TechCrunch reports on a research product at Google which allows the company to use your computer microphone to "listen" to the TV shows you are watching and then serve targeted internet ads.

Ok, how many of you are creeped out about Google listening-in on your lives and how the heck are they gonna convince us that we'd be better off if we let them snoop?

I know it's just a research project, but why?

Thursday, June 8

Think Partnership Deal with IceRocket is Off

Scott Mitchell, interim CEO for Think Partnership (THK) just announced that the letter of intent to acquire IceRocket has expired and the company will not be moving forward with the deal.

No details were given as to why the deal collapsed.

UPDATE: IceRocket's Blake Rhodes emailed me to let me know that, while the LOI is dead, the two companies are still working together.

"We are currently working with some of the THK companies and will continue to. We are also exploring other things. Scott and I talk often. The LOI has expired but we continue our discussions and think we can do a lot together," said Rhodes in his email.

Net Neutrality Backed by Google, Amazon, eBay and Many Others

The issue of "Net Neutrality" comes to a boil over the next week as phone and cable companies push Congress to allow them to set up preferred internet networks, while big internet businesses, including Google, are fighting back.

Yahoo Takes Best of Flickr, Launches Yahoo Photos

Lots of buzz this morning surrounding the launch of Yahoo Photos. While Yahoo already has the excellent Flickr, Yahoo Photos is expected to be a little more consumer-friendly.

Yahoo Photos offers a more visually appealing user welcome page, with a list of the user's albums and albums of friends on the left, as well as larger images of recent photos. Users can drag and drop multiple photos at a time to rearrange them and easily rename them by pointing and clicking on the old name and typing in a new one.

I guess Yahoo beat Google to the punch. ;-)

Wednesday, June 7

OutSourced Search Marketing to Grow

Search marketers of the world can rejoice, companies are increasing their budgets and outsourcing more, according to a new JupiterResearch study.

Snippets include:

...the share of search marketers with annual revenues of $15 million or more has risen from 25 percent in 2005 to 37 percent in 2006.

...the number of marketers using bid management and Web analytics tools has risen from 19 percent last year to 26 percent this year.

...More than fifty percent of large marketers outsource at least one of their search marketing services.

...24 percent of search marketers spent more than $500,000 on SEM campaigns in 2005, compared with 12 percent in 2004.

...66 percent of marketers plan to increase search spending.

Thanks to MarketingVOX.

Searching for the Perfect Real Estate Resource

Greg Sterling has an in-depth summary of the growing real estate search vertical.

PubSub Facing Closure?

Looks like blog search engine PubSub is about to close, according to Michael Arrington.

Blog search engine PubSub had massive layoffs today after last minute merger discussions with knownow fell apart. It looks like a shutdown is imminent.

I would normally consider this pure speculation, but co-founder Bob Wyman commented on the post and didn't actually deny the company is shutting down.

It's a shame. Bob is a nice guy and was fantastic at promoting the company. Unfortunately, it never had the usability that other blog search engines offered.

Hat-tip to RMG.

Google Readying Launch of Picasa Web Album?

I take a lot of photos while on vacation and I've yet to find my dream application - a mixture of Picasa's image viewer and Flickr's web albums.

Google Blogoscoped reports sightings of what could be a Flickr-like service coming from Picasa. I've been griping about the poor non-search offerings from Google recently, but if they can create something like Flickr for Picasa, that could be very cool.

Google Admits Compromising Principles

AP reports Google co-founder Sergey Brin has acknowledged the company compromised its principles by complying with Chinese censors. Hardly a revelation - we all could see they had - but more of a confession.

"We felt that perhaps we could compromise our principles but provide ultimately more information for the Chinese and be a more effective service and perhaps make more of a difference," Brin said.

It would be quick to judge Google and make a mockery of their "do no evil" mantra, but business is hard. Companies don't always make the best decisions - the lure of the almighty dollar is very strong indeed - but at least Google has its moral compass set due north. Let's hope this is more of a blip in their navigation than a new change in direction.

Tuesday, June 6

PPC Zombies Ramp-up Click Fraud

Back in February, guest poster Mike O'Krongli predicted Google could suffer at the hands of click fraud zombies.

Picture thousands of PC's infected with some malicious virus that does nothing but click on PPC ads. The ads these zombies are clicking are found on the virus's authors site. For each 1000 clicks, the author receives $2.00 (2004-2005) at the lowest rate. If the virus's author had 10,000 infected PC's clicking on 1 ad every 5 minutes for 8 random hours a day, they would steal $3200.00 per day from AdWords customers. That rate of traffic would be undetectable to Google and make it almost impossible for the AdWord customer to charge back.

Well, Mike was right on the money, as reports surface on a new zombie network at work.

According to the data collected so far, the scam is exploiting a global network comprising more than 34,000 zombie computers (those infected by the bot).

Microsoft's Scoble Ready to Rumble with Google

Microsoft's Robert Scoble is excited to see Google Spreadsheet launch today. Excited? Yup, Scoble firmly believes that Google's new found rivalry with Microsoft is just what the Redmond company needed to ensure it doesn't become complacent.

It's a good thing because of my philosophy. I want better software. Competition brings better software. It gets product managers to worry about customers. It causes discussions of features that were long-ago decided on.


Scoble also suggests that despite recent improvements, bandwidth is not sufficient enough for most people to switch to online applications.

It's interesting to see the Google-hype at work here. Google recently launched Calendar and now Spreadsheet, neither of which offer the depth provided by Microsoft products, yet the whole world jumps for joy, simply because, well, because it's created by Google. They revolutionized search didn't they, so anything the "midas" company touches must surely be pure gold? I've talked before about the power of Google's brand, and that its only weakness is that same day they'll stretch it too far and launch some really crappy product. I'm not sure we're there yet, but it certainly feels like they're taking small steps towards releasing something that makes us all puke.

In the meantime, all you can do is sit back and admire the brand equity they have, and just how far it gets them. Open Office has been challenging Microsoft Office for years, and some would say it's a more credible challenger than Google, yet we hardly hear anything about it these days.

I tend to agree with Scoble when it comes to office apps. A robust desktop solution that offers online access and collaboration will do far better than a purely web-based app that offers some desktop options. With Office 2007 just around the corner, I feel Microsoft can win by offering a desktop application with online options. Google's coming from the other direction, and I don't think they realize how far they are from meeting users needs.

PS. Robert, I'd be more than happy to compare Office 2007 with Google, send it on over brother!

Bloglines Founder Leaving Ask.com

The founder of RSS reader Bloglines, Mark Fletcher, has announced that he is leaving the company to explore new opportunities. Mark sold Bloglines to Ask.com back in February 2005.

So what's next? At some point I'll start another company; that's a difficult habit to break. But I'm also going to focus more of my time helping other startups and newbie entrepreneurs, something I'm finding increasingly rewarding.

Good luck Mark!

Via SEW.

Yahoo Updates MyWeb

Over at the Yahoo Search blog, you'll find details of new upgrades to MyWeb.

Focus on Top 4 Percent of Site Searches

ClickZ takes a look at a new WebSideStory study that concludes the top 4% of site search keywords account for more than half of all site search queries.

By making changes to their site to improve results for those top few hundred search terms, marketers will be closing the loop on more leads driven to the site with other marketing efforts, Kusmer said. At the other end of the spectrum, nearly 12 percent of all site searches return zero results, which also represents a missed opportunity for marketers, he said.

Great advice. How does your site search stack-up? The study shows that visitors who utilize a site search feature are 2.7 times more likely to convert than other visitors. That is, if you have a decent site search engine.

Google Calendar Trumps Yahoo Offering

I played a little with both Yahoo Calendar and Google Calendar. While each of them have some neat features, neither have enough to convince me to give-up Outlook.

CNet has a head-to-head battle royale between Google's and Yahoo's calendar offerings.

Spoiler - Google wins! ;-)

Google Spreadsheets Sounds Cool, But Why?

CNet (and a host of others) reports Google will today launch Google Spreadsheets, an online spreadsheet program that will compete with Microsoft's Excel. The question is, why?

Google is getting so far outside its comfort zone, it risks tarnishing its brand by launching a crappy product because it reached too far. For example, have you tried using Writely (Google's online word processor)? It's a piece of junk. We've tried using it in-house to collaborate on documents and it never correctly saves and notes edits made.

I see two reasons for launching Google Spreadsheets, one of them legitimate.

1. Stickiness - The more products you use, that are owned by Google, the more likely you are to use Google's search engine. Verdict: Legit.
2. Microsoft - Google is determined to "get up in Microsoft's grill" and is launching products simply to take shots at the software company. Verdict: You can't "out-Microsoft" Microsoft.

Lastly, how boring is the name "Google Spreadsheets"? It's so unlike Google. It's clear they are trying to position themselves as a serious alternative to Excel, otherwise they would have gone with some cool name like GSheets or something.

Admittedly, I've not yet used Google Spreadsheets. When I do, I'll let you know what I think. In the meantime, Google continues to puzzle me. Just when you think they've re-aligned their focus to "core search", they go and throw another curve-ball product launch.

Monday, June 5

Yahoo Answers What Google Can't

I would never have thought Yahoo Answers would turn out to be such a big hit for the company, especially as Google Answers has pretty much been stagnant since its launch. However, Forbes reports Lehman Brothers took a look at Yahoo Answers and said it could have a positive long-term positive impact on Yahoo's position.

One of the main differences between Google and Yahoo? Yahoo chose to tap into the community and have users post questions for free, relying on the community's desire to help a fellow netizen out, without being compensated. Meanwhile, Google chose to monetize Google Answers right away, with a fee for the question and a revenue share with the person answering.

Looks like Google chose the wrong model.

SunRocket Scraps Everyday Hogwash, Stiffs Judges

Remember back in January, I voiced my concerns about SunRocket's "Everyday Hogwash" contest and how it was giving bloggers a bad name by paying them to gripe? At first, I thought I was a lone voice, but then many others voiced their concerns.

Well, it all went quiet until today, when the Consumerist reported that SunRocket had not only scrapped the contest, but had stiffed the judges out of the $500 they were promised.

Oh the irony. :-)

Worker Bees Running the Google Hive?

Forbes looks at just who exactly is running things at Google. While CEO Eric Schmidt may be the corporate "face", Google flourishes by hiring talented engineers and relying on them to come-up with new ideas and direction.

While that's helped Google to innovate, it does have a downside.

...Schmidt has conceded that the balance between gotta-do's and wanna-do's has gotten a bit out of whack. Google managers recently surveyed their workers and discovered that they weren't quite spending 70% of their time on the company's "core" areas--namely, search and advertising. "So, we're taking steps to encourage people to shift their energy back to that 70%," Schmidt assured reporters.

Retailers Turning to Comparison Shopping Engines

Tech News World looks at the continued growth of comparison shopping engines such as Smarter (our client), Pricegrabber and Shopping.com.

While the retailers had their reservations, they're now seeing shopping search engines as a valuable advertising channel.

"Retailers had been leery of using these services because they felt that they competed with their own online stores," noted Patti Freeman Evans, a senior analyst with market research firm JupiterResearch. "That thinking has been changing as large retailers realized that comparison sites can drive significant traffic to their own online stores while sparing consumers the task of jumping from site to site in search of the best deal."

Google Analytics Adds AdWords Analysis Report

The Unofficial Google Analytics Blog shares news that GA has added a new report to the "Marketing Optimization" menu.

Behold the brand new, immensely useful AdWords Analysis report.

Impressions, Cost, Clicks, CTR... everything available from within the AdWords Campaign Summary is here, but you also get the great Revenue and Cost-Per-Conversion stats that Google Analytics offers, all in an intuitive, easy-to-use interface.

Yahoo's Terry Semel Getting $1 Salary

CNET reports that Yahoo CEO, Terry Semel will follow the path of the Google-guys and reduce his salary to just $1.

I don't understand why these people are making this move. On the surface, it looks all "warm and fuzzy" but they're still getting millions in stock compensation, so why bother?

Friday, June 2

Google Earth Invading Privacy?

One last funny video before the weekend...



Be careful, Google-brother is watching! ;-)

Garrett French, Hyper-Disco Marketing Geek

If you've ever met Garrett French, you'll know that he was the perfect person to ask dance in a new Subway commercial. The geeky looks are all his, as for the 'fro? A wig, but he's had one before. ;-)

Attorney General Wants Internet Companies to Keep Your Data

The San Francisco Chronicle reports the Justice Department is meeting with internet companies such as Google, AOL, Microsoft and Verizon and asking them to keep up to two years of your personal data.

"...the department is interested in records that would allow them to identify which individuals visited certain Web sites and possibly conducted searches using certain terms...It also wants the Internet companies to retain records about whom their users exchange e-mail with, but not the contents of e-mail messages, the executives said."

Official reasons for the request include child pornography and terrorism investigations, but the door is open for the data to be used for any criminal investigation.

Listen to a Weird Anglo-American Accent

If there is a common list of people to interview for a podcast, the whole world must just be getting to my name. :-)

Gio Gallucci of Kinetic Results has an interview with me for his KinetiCast series. It's the first of two-installments.

Be sure to listen-in, as it's the first time I've opened-up about what happened when I left MarketSmart Interactive (WebSourced/KeywordRanking) and why I left behind Search Engine Lowdown. ;-)

Listen to the MP3

Trellian Updates Keyword Discovery

News from Trellian, they've made some upgrades to Keyword Discovery.

New Search & Replace Feature:

A new Search & Replace feature now enables you manipulate keyword results.

New Domain Research Feature:

Keyword Discovery now provides a new service for domain name research. All keyword discovery keyword data can now be converted to domain name format and cross-referenced against a DNS .com and .net registry database of to check for availability.

Translate Feature:

The Translation feature can instantly translate search results or project lists to and from various languages including, English, Dutch, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

New MarketingMonger Podcasts

Eric's continuing his quest to interview 1,000 marketers and has added podcasts with three friends.

Garrett French, Avinash Kaushik and Jeremiah Owyang.

Thursday, June 1

Google Deking the Press on Browser Plans?

eWeek is among many that have published articles today based on Google CEO Eric Schmidt's statement about a possible Google browser.

"It looks like people have some good browsers choices already," Schmidt said. "We would not build a browser for the fun of building a browser," he said.


Pretty much everyone took the comment to mean, "no Google browser", but I've been listening to Google long enough to know that they always leave the door open. While Google wouldn't build a browser for the "fun of building a browser", building it to make some cold, hard cash, is a pretty good reason.

The Carolina Hurricanes are in game 7 tonight - and with that much hockey, you quickly learn that deking is an important part of any strategy. ;-)

Google Struggling to Expand Ad Audience

Two different stories point to Google's struggle to expand into new forms for advertising.

FT.com looks at the company's hopes of reaching brand marketers, something Yahoo does a whole lot better. According to CEO Eric Schmidt...

"There's demand for branded advertising product in every country and in every market and from every kind of customer," Mr Schmidt said. "It's a question of whether our system, which is so highly measurable, can really handle that . . . We have not yet come up with an approach that meets the kind of measurable . . . based advertising that we'd really like to put our brand and our name behind."

Meanwhile, MarketWatch focuses on Google's inability to tap into print ads.

Are You a Googlehead?

What happens when cheese meets Google? You get the Googlehead song.



Via Valleywag.

Ask Combines Bloglines Index to Launch New Blog Search Engine


Whenever two great ideas come together, it's now common to see some kind of trite reference to the classic "your peanut butter is in my chocolate", made famous by Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Often the comparison is weak and the new product fails to live-up to the expectation created by the use of such a comparison. Not so with Ask.com which today announces the launch of "Blog & Feed Search" - the integration of its search expertise with the blogging technology of Bloglines. And what a sweet treat the company is serving up.

Harnessing the search power of Ask's ExpertRank and utilizing Bloglines index that dates back to 2001, Ask's Blog & Feed Search delivers superior relevance and richer tools than can be found elsewhere. While blog indexes such as Technorati, Feedster and IceRocket have a head-start on gathering blog data and search engines such as Google and Yahoo have already applied their search algorithm to blog feeds; Ask.com offers a tool that utilizes both a proven search algorithm and a solid index of blog feeds. It's this combination of technology that Ask hopes will help it to tap into and organize the more than 4 million new blog posts published each day.

Understanding that Ask serves a different type of audience at Ask.com than it does at Bloglines, the company chose not to try and force the same interface on both parties, instead, the company spent the extra time and effort to cater its blog search offering to match each audience.

Ask.com, Light but Powerful

Using Blog & Feed Search via the Ask.com interface offers users a familiar feel and filtering options that are designed to help the user find the content they are looking for, without overwhelming them. Users can choose to search more than 1.5 billion indexed "Posts", over 2.5 million themed "Feeds" or narrow their search to around 7,000 mainstream "News" sites. If the standard "Relevance" sort option is not for you, Ask offers the opportunity to sort by "Date" or "Popularity"; the latter relies more heavily on Bloglines data to determine how many people are linking-to or citing a particular blog post. "The popularity sort is actually weighting the Bloglines’ subscriber information more heavily. The articles may be a little bit older, but it is probably more relevant," explains Ryan Massie, Senior Product Manager for Ask.com.

You'll also find quick access to drop-down menus for adding the blog feed to your favorite news reader (currently supporting Bloglines, Google, Yahoo, Newsgator, as well as standard RSS output) or posting to an online clipping service (such as Digg or del.icio.is). You can also save the link to Ask's MyStuff service and future options will include the ability to post to your own blog via services such as Blogger or Wordpress. "We’re going to take feedback after the launch and see what features are requested," said Massie.


Subscribe to your favorite RSS reader

Other cool features exclusive to the Ask.com interface include the familiar "Binoculars" icon which, with Blog & Feed Search, is used to provide a quick preview of the blog post, complete with any embedded content that happens to be included in the post. "Binoculars gives you the top 5 results from that feed," explains Massie, who also noted, "If there is video in there, we can even show the video."


Preview each post with "Binoculars"

Ask also offers up a unique flavor of Smart Answers for those using the regular web search tool. Using a combination of editorial review and algorithms, searches for popular blogs or bloggers generate a version of Smart Answers that include the most recent blog entries, making it a cinch to find your favorite blog content.


Smart Answers integrates blog search with main search tool

Bloglines, Advanced Features

As a simultaneous reward to existing users and as an incentive for others to try the service, Ask.com saves some of the most interesting filters and options for Bloglines. Here, you’ll find cool features such as the ability to search only within you own subscribed feeds or only those outside your existing subscriptions. You can also search for citations, and see who is linking to a blog post and what they are saying, a useful tool for anyone tracking their online reputation.

Bloglines users also get their own version of the feed preview, a mobile-friendly alternative and the ability to search for posts only about a particular person or posted by a particular person.


Feed preview with Bloglines

As with the Ask.com version, Bloglines offers the ability to subscribe to any search query, ensuring you're always up to date on the latest blog posts.

The Closest Thing to Perfection?

I’ve been using Technorati, Feedster, IceRocket and many other blog search engines for a few years now. They each have their own advantages and disadvantages, and I've often wished for one tool that could combine the best features of each. In my opinion, Ask's Blog & Feed Search is the answer to those wishes, offering a truly fresh index, great filters that really help you find what you are looking for, and an apparent lack of spam. Yes, unlike the aforementioned, Ask is able to filter out much of the spam that plagues other blog search engines, by utilizing the inherent human filtering offered by Bloglines.

"This ‘collective human intelligence’ provides a natural defense against spam, as people typically do not subscribe to low-quality content,” said Apostolos Gerasoulis, executive vice president of search technology, in a statement.

It's Ask's ability to clean spam from its search results, that it believes sets it apart from existing offerings. "You can’t completely eliminate spam, but we are doing a good job and that is what is separates us," added Massie. "Our results are extremely clean and more clean than the other engines right now."

If the blogosphere is going to continue to double every 6 months, blog readers are going to need a lot of help in finding the most interesting and useful content. The combination of some of the most robust search algorithms around and a database of blog feeds compiled by passionate humans, positions Ask’s Blog & Feed Search to emerge as the tool of choice for those looking to keep track of all this information. It may have taken Ask and Bloglines close to 18 months to join together in a blissful union, but it was worth the wait.

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