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Live Blogging SXSW: Ev Williams Keynote

Written on March 15, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Object, book

Live blogging from SXSW continues, with Twitter cofounder Ev Williams to take the stage shortly. Will he announce Twitter’s rumored ad plans, as expected? Stay tuned for the news.
Umair Haque of Havas Media Lab is doing the interview with Ev. Ev says he wanted to announce his new @anywhere platform, to integrate Twitter into web [...]



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Live Blogging SXSW: Ev Williams Keynote

Facebook Readying To Allow Users To Say Where Their Face Is

Written on March 10, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Advertising, book, marketing

Facebook is going to be joining the frenzy to help everyone not only know what people are thinking but also where they are thinking it. As we move more toward a world of this total view of another’s life you can be sure that Facebook wants to be involved. With the rising popularity of Foursquare, Gowalla and other location based “services” it makes sense that Facebook be here. In the bigger picture, however, this is likely to be more about taking on Google for local advertising dollars. After all, money has to be made correct?

The New York Times Bits section reports

Starting next month, the more than 400 million Facebook users could begin seeing a new kind of status update flow through their news feed: the current locations of their friends.

Facebook plans to take the wraps off a new location-based feature in late April at f8, the company’s yearly developer conference, according to several people briefed on the project, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss unannounced services.

In preparation for the introduction, Facebook updated its privacy policy last November. The new policy states: “When you share your location with others or add a location to something you post, we treat that like any other content you post.”

On reports like this where there is the “unauthorized” source that is talking about unannounced services I always have the picture of a clandestine meeting under a gas lamp picture. Two shadowy figures exchange a note and keep walking on a lonely street in the fog kinda thing. Then I wonder who these “sources” are, if they are really unauthorized or are they part of the new age of PR which is more about leaking information than announcing it. Officially Facebook is staying mum.

Meredith Chin, a Facebook spokeswoman, said Tuesday that the company wasn’t ready to discuss any possible location-based features. “We’re constantly experimenting with new things around here, but we don’t have any details to share right now,” she said in an e-mail message.

It appears as if Facebook will remain friendly to the developer community on this one as well according to these “sources”. With estimates that 100 million users access Facebook daily via a mobile device (which represents 1 in 4 total Facebook users) this service is primed for quick adoption for those who like this kind of thing. As a result there is money to be made and allowing a business as usual attitude with the Facebook development community only makes sense.

Of course there will be plenty of concern about security and privacy because Facebook has turned itself into the poster child for how not to do new things and thus open the door to criticism. Maybe this information “leak” is designed to let the air out of any arguments that this new offering will face. I admit, my inner ‘conspiracy theorist’ is strong today.

So what do you think about this new, soon to be (we think), offering by Facebook? Of course, the details are sketchy but you must have an opinion on the general idea, right? Chime in. We’re listening but we’re not telling you from where .

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Facebook Readying To Allow Users To Say Where Their Face Is

Most of Google AdWords Case Dismissed

Written on March 5, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Advertising, marketing

I think that based on the legal angle of much of the news around Google lately, we could see a service called Google Legal. I have no idea what that might look like but since the Internet behemoth spends so much time in court battles they should be able to find a way to monetize that right? They make money on everything else they do so why not?

The latest case was brought against Google by Daniel Jurin. MediaPost gives some of the details

Jurin, who sells StyroTrim building material, brought suit last year for trademark infringement, false advertising, interference with contractual relations, and other counts. The allegations all stemmed from Google’s AdWords program, which allows trademarked terms to trigger pay-per-click ads.

If you want to get a lesson in whether this kind of thing is a good idea to do, take into consideration these two results from the case. Jurin has to pay $6,000 for Google’s legal fees and most of the case was dismissed. Not exactly a winner other than getting some press that won’t likely help his business any.

In a ruling issued this week, U.S. District Court Judge Morrison England in the eastern district of California dismissed a host of Jurin’s claims, including allegations that Google confused consumers about who produced StyroTrim by returning links to a variety of companies in response to a search on the term. “Even if one accepts as true the allegation that a ‘Sponsored link’ might confuse a consumer, it is hardly likely that with several different sponsored links appearing on a page that a consumer might believe each one is the true ‘producer’ or ‘origin’ of the Styrotrim product,” he wrote.

What is probably the most interesting outcome of this whole thing is the assertion by the court that essentially says that Google sells ad space and not keywords. If you are Google that’s a nice thing to hear a court say because it could potentially take away a lot of the responsibility that many place on Google to police trademarks and more. As of now, the trademark infringement piece of the suit has not been dismissed but it is believed that the likelihood of anything coming of it is slim.

So Google continues to fight the AdWords fight in court and why wouldn’t they? It accounts for the overwhelming majority of the company’s revenues so it is worth fighting for. Of course their legal woes aren’t even close to being over.

Google is currently facing 10 trademark infringement cases stemming from AdWords. No court has yet definitively ruled on whether using a brand name to trigger a search ads infringes trademark. The one case to go to trial, a lawsuit by insurance company Geico against Google, resulted in a victory for Google in 2004. In that case, a judge in Alexandria, Va. ruled that Geico had not proven that consumers were confused when they typed “Geico” into a search box and were served with ads for other insurance companies.

There will always be legal battles for Google and any other successful company to fight especially in this day and age where unscrupulous folks look at the legal system as the the lottery system. As long as the impression is that Google is playing on the right side of the law in most instances then this whole process can just be chalked up to the cost of doing business. Hey, it is America after all.

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Most of Google AdWords Case Dismissed

Yahoo’s Bartz Sounds Off on the Advertising Industry, AOL and More

Written on March 5, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Advertising, marketing

Leave it to Yahoo’s CEO Carol Bartz to stir up a little controversy from time to time. It seems like that’s the best way for Yahoo to get in the news these days. In recent months most stories are more about what Yahoo used to be and people trying to figure out what it will be. For any business, especially in the Internet advertising space, news of progress and innovation is a better message wouldn’t you say?

So when AdAge sat down with Bartz she had boat loads to say and the most interesting came at the end of the interview when she called out the advertising industry.

For an industry that’s based on creativity and inspiring people, I don’t know why it’s so afraid. I don’t think it should be afraid to just try some crazy new stuff. But when I talk to people about online marketing, they just seem to freeze. … I thought this was going to be a much racier industry that wore black and got out there and rock and rolled and I see it being a little shier. I mean, I’m the crazy lady.

Well, she may not get arguments on certain parts of that statement for sure but she certainly isn’t afraid to speak her mind.

The interview had some other moments not the least of which was her offering the standard line as to why Yahoo has struggled as of late and what will pull them out in the future. Notice the first point of the answer is not about innovation but circumstances.

Growth will come from multiple areas. One is the economy coming back. We’ve all been victims of the world economy for the past two years. So that’s No. 1. Two is we really believe we’ve made advancements in the world of display advertising — how to measure, how to get better ROI. So we think we can help online branders come online. The third issue is there’s immense growth internationally to bring new-to-net users online and then downstream to monetize them.

Hasn’t Google and other profitable online players been experiencing the exact same economic conditions? Personally, I believe this line of thinking needs to be struck from corporate speak. Yes, things have been bad but we need to hear about companies that are not waiting for things to change but rather innovating to make things change. Enough excuses already. Sure the economy sucks. Get over it.

As for Yahoo moving forward? It appears that she pushes back on the concept of Yahoo being a content company.

It’s a bit too simplistic to say we’re only a content company. The amount of science and technology that we have behind our sites and our ability to target and the insights we give with precision to the client, it’s much, much more than content. The content is to draw the user in, the technology is for the advertiser to find an audience at scale. It has both sides and always will have.

Another bit of wisdom that should bring a smile to anyone’s face is her impression of what AOL is doing in its push to be the content machine of the Internet. Asked about what makes the two companies different she responds:

Generally it’s not different, we’re just a lot bigger. The fact of the matter is, what they’re trying to do at AOL — and I shouldn’t speak for AOL, they’re very capable of speaking for themselves — but I think it’s like a mini Yahoo.

Mini-Yahoo. Good one!

Lastly, you can look for Yahoo to be spending some money for acqusitions. When asked about whether or not the purse strings will be loosened she responded:

Absolutely. We’ve been very forward about this. Last year was looking internally — I hired a new team, restructured the company. This year it’s about what technologies: Do we need to fill in the blanks, what analytics, what tools?

…..whether it’s acquiring an audience — a group of female bloggers, or whether it’s acquiring some better analytics tools that help us guide campaigns with our partners, or whether it’s technology. Last year we bought at company called Zoobut, which is better photo technology, so it let us do very modern photos in our mail. It’s that sort of thing — audience, technology and tools.

So look for more than just updates about how the whole Microsoft – Yahoo thing is going this year. At the very least we should have some great quotes from Yahoo’s c-suite to keep us wondering where it will land eventually.

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Yahoo’s Bartz Sounds Off on the Advertising Industry, AOL and More

Getting Started Publishing on Google News

Written on February 3, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Object, seo

Posted by Sam Niccolls

The New York Times, CNN, and Yahoo News each get more traffic than Google News, but in a given month Google News sends almost a billion clicks to publishers worldwide, which makes it an incredibly compelling syndication platform for sites with newsworthy content.

But how do you get articles indexed and ranking in Google News? And how can you get your article snippets to appear in the SERPs for Google web search, embedded within the organic listings?

In an attempt to answer some of the basic questions around getting started, this post builds off the information provided in the Google News publisher help center and in Maile Ohye’s Awesome Video on Google News to provide publishers with a basic primer of factors to consider before submitting to Google News.

Google Wants to Suck Your Blood!

Written on February 2, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Advertising, marketing

It looks like more people want to join the anti-Google chorus because it is the cool thing to do. Of course, if you want to be unique you can’t just use regular old curse words because Steve Jobs took that one. Rupert Murdoch doesn’t really call Google names but he does think that their business is taking advantage of his hard work. So what to do?

Enter Mark Cuban and if history is any indicator he’s good for a quote or two right? Well as MediaPost reports he didn’t disappoint at a new York OnMedia event.

Outspoken billionaire cum provocateur Mark Cuban charged Google and other content aggregators Tuesday of being freeloaders — or worse. “The word that comes to mind is vampires,” he said. “When you think about vampires, they just suck on your blood.”

Cuban, who some might call a futurist and heads HDNet, said aggregators are effectively making money off others’ expensive news-gathering.

He urged newspapers and others to block Google News from linking to their sites. “Show some balls,” he said.

So how do you really feel, Mr. Cuban? Bashing Google is a favorite pastime of many business people these days so maybe he couldn’t resist. It’s hard to tell if Google is really evil or if others are fed up or just jealous. Either way it makes for interesting reading when the news is slow. Of course, not everyone thinks that Google has them over a barrel.

After Cuban delivered a keynote address Tuesday, he sat on a panel along with Huffington Post Chief Revenue Officer Greg Coleman, who said his company will be the anti-Murdoch. It has no intention to do anything but remain a fully ad-supported operation. “One hundred percent advertising,” Coleman said.

Coleman said the company is not daunted by a free-content world, and has “a huge wonderful business with Google right now.” Huffington Post has some cost advantages in a lean staff and no legacy distribution expenses.

Since this whole conversation has been going on long enough maybe Mr. Cuban’s call for publishers to “show some balls”, while not exactly common business terminology, is on point. If paywalls and Google blocking are the wave of the future maybe it’s just time to give it a shot and see if the idea has legs.

Have you had enough of this already?

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Google Wants to Suck Your Blood!

The Latest On Google News Sitemaps

Written on February 1, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Object

Back in November 2009, Google News announced they were “in the midst of an exciting transition period” that included a change to the News Sitemap Protocol. News publishers have through April 2010 to modify their News Sitemap to accommodate the new format. What’s so exciting and transitional? I asked Google, thinking that they were changing [...]



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The Latest On Google News Sitemaps

The Algorithm Chasers

Written on January 29, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Object

When the Fort Worth, Texas shooting rampage hit the news, a small staff of news folks were trying to determine which words to use for their online news stories on the topic. The goal was to get Google News to find and rank their article higher than their competition.
They struggled with the difference of the [...]



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The Algorithm Chasers

44% of Google News Visitors Don’t Click Through

Written on January 19, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: marketing

The third annual News Users report from research firm Outsell has some interesting findings. While more and more people are going online for their news, and fewer people are getting their information from newspapers, it seems that many online news consumers are more like . . . well, “grazers.” And this might actually be good news for Germany’s Federation of Newspaper Publishers.

TechCrunch reports that 44% of US visitors to Google News do not click on any headlines, preferring instead to skim article snippets. Unsurprisingly, the Internet is becoming an ever more popular source for news, especially what Outsell calls “news right now,” with 56% of consumers turning to online news sources (up from 33% a few years ago).

Google News and other aggregators are a more likely destination than a single paper’s website, as well, with 31% going for the aggregator and only 8% picking a news site. (18% chose other. I guess, with rounding errors, that adds up to the 56ish% turning to online news sources?)

Of course, the numbers on the Internet eroding newspapers’ subscriber base aren’t surprising. Two months ago, we saw that American consumers were will to pay as much as $3 a month for their news (which I thought was kind of crappy, though many disagreed). Turns out it’s even crappier than I thought—according to Outsell, 75% would turn to a different source if their local newspaper sites put up a pay wall, and only 10% are willing to pay for a newspaper subscription to get online access. (Cough, NY Times, cough.)

The more interesting concept here, however, is that Outsell sees Google News becoming a destination for news instead of a starting point, like Google Search is. That might actually bode well for at least one competitor—Germany’s Federation of Newspaper Publishers. As we saw yesterday, the publishers are suing Google News as a monopoly for displaying snippets from their stories. (Robots.txt. Srsly.) If it turns out that many consumers are only reading the snippets and German newspapers aren’t seeing the downstream traffic, their case may have a little more merit.

And then they could just block Google News.

What do you think? Is Google News (along with other aggregators) becoming a destination for online news? Will this US data help out the German newspaper publishers’ case?

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44% of Google News Visitors Don’t Click Through

Study Confirms: Women Talk a Lot!

Written on January 19, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Object, book, marketing

…and that’s a good thing! At least for marketers.

Forrester Research has updated its two year-old Social Technographics Ladder–adding a new rung for Conversationalists:

These Conversationalists are certainly on Twitter, but, perhaps no surprise, they’re spending even more time updating their Facebook status. Watching my wife, sister (in-law), cousins, etc, I can certainly see why Forrester is reporting that women make up 56% of the Conversationlist group–and it’s just like in real life. While men tend to have short updates, factual posts, and brief interactions, my observations suggest that women tend to be more engaged, have longer conversations, and prefer the (debatable) privacy of Facebook over Twitter.

With the Conversationlists being just one rung of the ladder below the Creators–those that publish blogs, upload videos, etc–marketers need to pay particular attention to this group. As Forrester suggests…

With conversationalists making up 53% of this group, it’s clear that generating and spreading conversations about [your company] could be effective. If your objective is to spread awareness, it would certainly be worthwhile to create a Twitter identity and reach out to others speaking about [you company] (you can find them through searches) or point them to a site where they can get rewards, encouragement, connections with other customers, or just interesting content worth talking about.

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Study Confirms: Women Talk a Lot!