Visual Knowledge

John Battelle's Searchblog: Thinking About Google and The Turning Point:
"Has the worm turned? That's the question a lot of folks are asking about Google these days, not the least of which is John Heilemann, whose piece has opened up a great discussion in the comments area of my post about it. As we often do, John and I beat this question around a bit this morning, and an interesting comparison came about. John, who wrote an excellent book on Microsoft called Pride Before the Fall, reminded me that while most peg Microsoft's fall from its glory days to the attenuating DOJ trial of the late 1990s, the company's true fall from grace came before that trial, when first the digerati, then the company's potential partners started losing trust in Microsoft.

Why? John pegs it to a seminal 1997 Wall Street Journal article about the company in which Nathan Myhrvold (former MSFT CTO) speaks of his company taking a "vig" on nearly every transaction across the Internet. A year or so before that article, while managing editor of Wired, I met with Nathan. He pitched me his vision of Microsoft enabling - and profiting from - all commerce on the web (I wrote the meeting up for HotWired, but can't find the damn link...). In any case, I recall Nathan taking out his wallet and slapping it on the table, and confidently predicting that anything you did with a wallet, Microsoft would own online. I was struck by the arrogance of such a claim, and the confidence with which he made it....I really believed that Microsoft was going to own ecommerce, and it both scared and fascinated me. Turns out, I was not alone.

As we discussed the finer points of the AAP lawsuit, John noted that Google is coming close to a "worm turning" moment - a moment when the world realizes that the company is *too powerful* and its ambitions are *too great.* When such a genie arrives, it is very, very hard to put back in the bottle. The one all encompassing difference, of course, is that Google has real competition - Microsoft in 1997 did not - but regardless, the cultural vibe is striking in its similarity. Remember in 1995, when Microsoft was literally at the top of its game, lauded on the covers of national magazines for saving the US economy via its launch of Windows 95? When Gates and Co. were heralded as ushering in a new era of digitized possibility?

I sure do. In seven short years, Google has gone from a geeky startup with one good idea into an agenda-shaping player responsible for navigating complex relationships with world governments, the personal privacy of millions, major trade organizations, and hundreds of thousands of businesses small and large. It's an extraordinary weight to bear, it seems to me. It's the kind of position that requires a balanced mixture of leadership, will, and diplomacy. There's very little room for the go-it-alone mentality which got the company to where it stands today. Can the company shift its culture and avoid the fate which ultimately hobbled Microsoft? That, more than anything else, will define the next chapter in the company's fascinating story."

Firefox plans mass marketing drive | CNET News.com:
"...As well as the video campaigns, Mozilla plans to launch a consumer-oriented Web site next week. Mozilla.com, which currently hosts a placeholder page, will in future be the main entry point for the Mozilla organization, rather than Mozilla.org, Beard explained.

"Part of our marketing strategy is to target more of a general consumer audience, who don't necessarily have a technical understanding, so we are looking to make our Web sites more approachable," said Beard.

Mozilla is also hoping to improve its consumer focus by offering a major release every six to nine months, rather than every two years--as was the case when it was part of Netscape. In keeping with this new strategy, Firefox 2.0 is scheduled for release in the middle of 2006 and Firefox 3 is planned for the first quarter of 2007.

There has been more subtle change in Mozilla's marketing strategy over the last year. In 2004, before the release of Firefox 1.0, the Mozilla marketing contact predicted that Firefox would obtain 10 percent market share by the end of 2005. This week, Beard refused to provide any new targets, merely saying that Mozilla is "looking forward to continuing growth"..."

File under; "how to shift from early adopter to general public".

B2B Marketers Shifting Budgets to Online:
" Published: November 28, 2005
(After December 28, 2005, this article will only be available to eStat Database subscribers.)

It's not a niche anymore. Nearly half of B2B respondents report that they have used online marketing tactics this year.

"The B2B Digital Marketing Shift" study, conducted for American Business Media (ABM) by Forrester Research, interviewed 867 B2B marketers from a number of industries to gauge their views, and current practices, on brand building, lead generation and market spending. The findings indicate that the online channel is continuing to grow.

First and foremost, B2B marketers feel that industry-specific marketing ? including trade shows, magazines and websites ? are more effective than general magazines or websites. No surprise there, perhaps, but when probed further, the marketers revealed a shift toward digital media, with 49% of them currently using that format.

The B2B marketers who are spending at least some of their budgets on the Internet report spending 24% of those budgets online. When it comes to the future of B2B marketing, respondents reported that the Web will soon surpass direct mail and general business magazines.

As for which channels were most effective for branding, in-person events, PR and trade magazines lead the way, and respondents felt the Internet was roughly equivalent to TV, general business magazines and newspapers.

When asked which vehicles were most effective for lead generation, in-person events, PR and trade magazines still lead, but the marketers rated online marketing equal to direct marketing and more effective than TV, general business magazines and newspapers.

The B2B marketing spending pie is cut into many pieces, with events, direct mail and trade magazine ? three of the most effective marketing tools as reported by respondents ? only getting 15%, 9% and 7%, respectively. Online and Web accounted for 21%.

Looking at online ad spending specifically, general sites, at 40%, get a higher percentage of ad dollars than would be expected.

For more information on this subject, read eMarketer's B2B Marketing: Making the Internet Integral in a Cross-Channel World report."

A Big Quarter For Online Ads:
" Published: November 28, 2005
(After December 28, 2005, this article will only be available to eStat Database subscribers.)

Another strong quarter puts 2005 on track to be the best year for online advertising on record.

This week the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) released Internet advertising revenue figures for the third quarter. Online ad revenues totaled $3.1 billion, a 33.9% increase over same period 2004, and an increase of 4.7% over already record levels of Q2 2005.

"The continued strength in Internet advertising reflects the medium's unique ability to collapse the business cycle for advertising, marketing and branding, making it more attractive for traditional advertisers," said Pete Petrusky of PwC.

He added: "The high percentage growth in revenues is more significant given the larger revenue base."

Although search and display ads account for about 60% of Internet advertising, rich media is slowly becoming more common, approaching 10% of online ad revenues based on IAB/PwC data from Q2 2005.

These figures now include online video advertising ? which will account for 1.8% of total Internet ad spending by the end of 2005, rising to 2.5% by 2006 and 6.8% by 2009, according to the latest estimates by eMarketer. As a percentage of rich media advertising, video ads will comprise over 20% of spending.

For more information on online advertising, see eMarketer's new report on Online Video Advertising, available Tuesday. Click here to be notified as soon as it is released."

Taking Small Biz Online:
" Published: November 23, 2005
(After December 23, 2005, this article will only be available to eStat Database subscribers.)

Online marketing is popular among small businesses, a new survey finds, but some obstacles remain.

Affinity Internet surveyed 2,725 of its small business customers in September 2005 (organizations polled had 1 to 25 employees). The respondents varied in the degree to which they used online marketing. While many businesses conduct 75% to 100% of their marketing online, almost an equal number conduct less than 10%.

Although small businesses rely most on word of mouth marketing, online marketing was rated the second highest marketing medium in Affinity's survey. The key seems to be cost. As opposed to radio, TV and print, which were rated much lower by respondents, word of mouth and the Internet offer relatively inexpensive ways to advertise.

Even with online advertising, cost is a factor. The cost of purchasing ads was cited by 31% of respondents as the biggest barrier to online marketing, more so than insufficient knowledge (18%) and a lack of time (16%).

Although online marketing is popular among small businesses, most say they are only somewhat or fairly knowledgeable on the subject, and only 13% of respondents say they are "very knowledgeable."

What online marketing methods are small businesses using? A recent survey by Interland, which covered both small and medium-sized businesses, suggests that e-mail marketing and search engine optimization top the list. Newer Internet technologies like podcasting and RSS were used by only some 10% of respondents.

eMarketer's Ad Spending Trends: The Internet and Other Media report explores the changing landscape of media spending, and looks at the implications of increased online spending."

John Battelle's Searchblog: Economist: Egalitarian Engines, and Thoughts on Transparency:
"Interesting article (thanks Cyril) in the Economist about the effect of search engines on traffic distribution.

...there is a widespread belief among computer, social and political scientists that search engines create a vicious circle that amplifies the dominance of established and already popular websites. Pages returned by search engines are more likely to be discovered and consequently linked to by others.

Not so, according to a controversial new paper that has recently appeared on

arXiv, an online collection of physics and related papers.

It took some searching (arXiv has a terrible search engine) but I found the referred piece here.

What I find intersting and important are the Economist's final conclusions. From the article:

The paper, which was posted on arXiv for comment, has now come under attack. Matthew Hindman, a political scientist at Arizona State University, says that the data used in the research are pretty shoddy. Moreover, he says, the discrepancy between the model and the real world does not necessarily come from the role of the search engine.

Whether Dr Fortunato's thesis stands the test of time remains to be seen. That it is tested must be a good thing.

I can't agree more. One of the things which is most frustrating about search, to me and to many, is the lack of transparency, and the lack of knowledge about how an increasingly convoluted ranking scheme actually works. Of course, Yahoo and Google can't publish their entire ranking scheme. But some kind of guideposting should be done.

This is even more true in the AdWords/Overture world, where real money is at stake, every minute of every day. I think this will come to a head sooner rather than later. For now it's all well and good to let Google determine its own profit margins by optimizing AdWords and AdSense behind the curtains of darkness. But that can't stand forever. There is too much opportunity to use that lack of transparency to ill ends - ie to bury competitors which are surfacing now by paying more than market prices to ensure that publishers stay with Google, for example. I am not suggesting that is happening, just that we have no way of knowing if it ever were to happen.

Toward that end, Seth's Root Markets is written up by ClickZ here... "

MediaPost Publications - Ad Revenues Surge To $3.1 Billion - 11/22/2005:
"ONLINE AD REVENUES FOR THE third quarter climbed to a record-setting $3.1 billion--marking a 33.9 percent increase over last year's $2.3 billion, according to a report released Monday by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Ad revenues also were up by 4.7 percent from the second quarter's $2.9 billion. The IAB is projecting that revenues will surpass $12 billion for the year--a jump of more than 25 percent from 2004's $9.6 billion.

The IAB's estimates appear to be consistent with other reports showing continued strength in online advertising. At Yahoo!, for instance, third-quarter marketing services revenue grew 46 percent to $1.16 billion, from $797 million in third-quarter 2004. Ad revenues at America Online increased to about $324 million in the third quarter, marking a 28 percent leap from last year. And Google saw third-quarter revenues surge to $1.578 billion--a 96 percent leap from the third quarter of 2004.

The price of display ads at premium sites also has risen. MSN recently told The Wall Street Journal that premium 24-hour ad spots on the home page now command as much as $1 million."

MediaPost Publications - Search Engine Use Continues To Surge - 11/21/2005:
"SEARCH ENGINE USE HAS CONTINUED to surge in the last year, according to a new report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project and comScore Networks. Forty-one percent of 1,577 Internet users surveyed by Pew in September and October reported that they had visited a search engine the previous day. When Pew conducted a similar survey in June of 2004, just 30 percent of Web users said the same. In fact, the only Web activity more popular than searching was using e-mail; about 52 percent of U.S. Web users told Pew researchers they had sent or received e-mail on the day before being surveyed this fall.

Heavy use of search engines correlated with broadband connections, according to the report. Seventy percent of survey respondents who had broadband at home and work reported that they used a search engine the day before the survey, compared to just 33 percent of those with dial-up connections.

Fifty-one percent of Web-using Gen-Xers bewteen the ages of 29 and 40 used a search engine on a typical day, compared to 42 percent of those between the ages of 18 and 28, 39 percent of Internet users between the ages of 51 and 59, and 37 percent of those between 41 and 49.

Search use also seems to correspond with affluence. On a typical day, 52 percent of Web users in households earning at least $75,000 used search engines, compared to just 29 percent of those with household incomes of less than $30,000.

Google Web Search had 75 million unique visitors last month, followed by Yahoo! Search (68 million), MSN Search (49.7 million), Ask Jeeves (43.7 million), and AOL Search (36.1 million), according to comScore. "

John Battelle's Searchblog: Google Adds "Advertise On This Site" Links for AdSense:
"A new way of bringing in endemic advertising, which is naturally site specific. This marks a new approach for Google, and an extension of its site targeting feature. I am trying to get some details on what Google believes is competitive, as this is clearly not something professional publishers with their own sales forces are going to react to well. The idea of a link 'Advertise on this site' going to anyone other than the publisher is, well, controversial. But for smaller authors, it's outsourced ad sales, and they will love it. Folks like BlogAds, FM, and others will have to prove their merit even more now.

More when I have it."

Update: Google Analytics subscriptions suspended | InfoWorld | News | 2005-11-21 | By Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service:
" Company unable to keep up with demand for free service

By Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service
November 21, 2005

Google Inc. has temporarily shut the door of its Google (Profile, Products, Articles) Analytics hosted service to new users because the company has been unable to keep up with demand after it began offering the service for free last week.

Visitors to the Google Analytics sign-up page (http://www.google.com/analytics/sign_up.html) are met with the following message: "Thank you for your interest in Google Analytics! Google Analytics has experienced extremely strong demand, and as a result, we have temporarily limited the number of new signups as we increase capacity." The company had previously charged $199 per month for the service.

Users are asked to submit their name and e-mail address so that the Mountain View, California, company can notify them once it begins accepting new accounts again.

Google didn't immediately respond to a call seeking comment.

This is the latest snafu to hit Google Analytics since its debut as a free service last Monday, when it began to experience serious performance problems as new and existing users alike struggled to access it.

The availability problems lasted through Tuesday, but things seemed to stabilize on Wednesday, according to several users contacted at the time by IDG News Service. "The demand for Google Analytics was much higher than we expected. The service is now completely restored and full service is available to everyone," a Google spokesman wrote via e-mail when asked for comment on Wednesday.

However, demand continued to surge so strongly that on Friday, Google decided to temporarily stop accepting new subscribers. It hopes to resume signups "very shortly," a Google spokesman said Monday. He declined to say how many users had signed up last week. Existing users should be having no problems with Google Analytics, the spokesman said.

That is the case with Jeff Saville, consumer direct marketing manager at Deckers Outdoor Corp., a Goleta, California, footwear company that has been using Google Analytics for about two years. Saville found the service a bit slow on Monday of last week, but then it stabilized and it was functioning properly today. "It's working quite well," said Saville.

Formerly known as Urchin on Demand, Google Analytics lets users monitor visits to their Web sites to track, for example, the effectiveness of online marketing campaigns and to determine how to modify Web pages to improve sales conversions. "

Which Way Is the Travel Industry Headed?:
" Travel planning and booking are among the most popular online activities and online travel sales are booming.

"Without question, the Internet has shaken up the status quo in the travel industry," says Jeffrey Grau, Senior Analyst at eMarketer and author of the Online Travel Worldwide report. "Traditional travel agencies are struggling to stay relevant, online travel agencies are trying to instill loyalty among their customers, travel search engines are the new upstarts, travel suppliers are flexing their muscles and global distribution systems are looking for ways to reverse their waning influence."

Only two things are certain in the travel industry today: the stakes are high and the competition is intense.

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), a London-based business leaders' forum that promotes the travel and tourism industry, estimates that worldwide spending for personal travel will reach $2.8 trillion in 2005.

The online portion of those sales is growing at an explosive rate in the US, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. According to PhoCusWright, combined online travel sales in the three regions will be over $115 billion this year.

But where is the business going?

"As they effortlessly shop across multiple sites in search of bargains," says Mr. Grau, "online traveler shoppers show little loyalty to travel providers."

The main online competition is between online travel agencies (also referred to as portals or aggregators), which currently draw the highest volume of visitor traffic, and direct suppliers, such as airlines and hotels, that draw customers to their Web sites with aggressive lowest-price guarantees and loyalty promotions. The latest entry into the competition: travel search engines that are ideal for comparing prices in a commodity market.

"As of now, online travel agencies are losing ground to direct suppliers," says Mr. Grau. "Merrill Lynch estimates that direct travel suppliers will have a 54% share and online travel agencies a 46% share of the $62 billion US online travel market in 2005."

Over the last year, Merrill Lynch reported that direct travel supplier sales increased 27% compared to 19% for online travel agencies. The Merrill Lynch report also noted that travel search engines were driving direct supplier sales, and accounted for $600 million in direct bookings last year.

PhoCusWright also observed the rise of direct suppliers; however, from its point of view the race is much tighter. According to PhoCusWright, direct suppliers increased their market share from 46% in 2002 to 48% by 2004.

"With so much in flux, so much competition and so much crossover," says Mr. Grau, "It is still too early to tell what the new order will look like."

Keep up with the changes in this fast-moving industry. Read eMarketer's new Online Travel Worldwide report today."

Are Internet Ad Prices Slipping?:
" Published: November 09, 2005
(After December 09, 2005, this article will only be available to eStat Database subscribers.)

Two new reports indicate that certain Internet advertising prices have declined. Is it a blip, or the start of a trend?

According to new data from Fathom Online, an SEM services and technology provider, the average keyword price in October was $1.45, a 6% drop from the preceding month. The Mortgage category saw the largest fall, at 15%, while Travel/Hospitality actually saw a 14% increase. Most categories experienced declines.

Of course, the drop might simply be a monthly aberration. Fathom inaugurated its keyword price index in September 2004, and over the first full year prices increased on average from $1.37 to $1.44, a weighted average increase of 19%.

Meanwhile, the Worldata "Fall 2005 List Price Index" shows e-mail list rental prices dropping. The list covers a year of activity, from October 2004 to October 2005, and is grouped into list categories and compares costs per thousand names for the 12-month period.

Permission-based business-to-business e-mail was the highest priced category, with an October 2005 average price of $281 per thousand. That is down $6 per thousand from a year ago. Permission-based business-to-consumer e-mail lists had an average price of $167 per thousand, a decline of $3 per thousand from October 2004. Traditional newsletter lists saw prices increase modestly, rising $5 per thousand to an average price of $175 per thousand.

Worldata analysts predict that e-mail CPMs will continue to fall due to increasing e-mail delivery challenges, including e-mail authentication, image blocking, content filtering, phishing and other standards soon to be introduced by ISPs and ESPs, which are attempting to control the flow of spam.

While the Fathom and Worldata reports suggest easing prices, other data paint a different picture. A Deutsche Bank and MediaPost survey of online ad buyers found that 40% of respondents said that prices for paid search cost-per-click ads rose up to 10% in the third quarter, while 18% saw increases of 11% or more. Only 11% said they paid less.

Prices for premium display ads were up as well, while more than half of respondents said prices for run-of-network ads were flat. Two-thirds of the executives said they paid more for impressions on home pages, vertical channels and rich media. Over one-half of respondents saw higher costs for premium inventory, with a weighted, average price increase of 7%. For run-of-network ads, the overall average cost increase was about 3%.

The majority of respondents reported increased spending on online advertising in the latest quarter, and about three-fifths said they expected to spend still more in the fourth quarter.

For more information on this subject, consult eMarketer's recently published Ad Spending Trends: The Internet And Other Media report."

RED HERRING | Google Expands Search All Over:
"New platform invites everyone to make their musings, recipes, poetry, or innovations available for search.
November 16, 2005

In its ongoing effort to make unstructured data available for search, Google unveiled a service on Wednesday called Google Base through which individuals can add all types of information that Google will post for search.

With the tagline “Help the world find your content,” the beta test version of Google Base is open for business. The Mountain View, California, search king invites individuals or organizations to submit anything from poetry and recipes to movie reviews and travel itineraries—anything that individuals want to share.

The individual submitting an item does not need to have a web site.

Shares of Google were up $1.60 to $394.40 in recent trading.

The new service will host all types of structured and unstructured content, tag it, and make it available for search through Google Base. Some content could be made available on Google’s other search platforms such as Google, Froogle, and Google Local. Whether it’s made available on other platforms will be based on the relevance of the submitted item..."

RED HERRING | Web Community Site Gets $8M:
"Judy’s Book plans to use the VC money to boost development and expand marketing.
November 17, 2005

Online community site Judy’s Book said Thursday it received $8 million in a second round of financing to boost product development and expand sales and marketing.

The financing was led by Mobius Venture Capital and included additional funds from Ignition Partners and Ackerley Partners.

Seattle-based Judy’s Book lets users review local businesses and products. Founded in 2004 by Andy Sack and Chris DeVore, the service first launched its beta version in February 2005.

After nine months of operation, it now boasts hundreds of thousands of reviews from tens of thousands of people scattered across the United States. Mr. Sack said the firm was not yet disclosing firm user numbers.

“Judy’s Book is at the forefront of three major trends: consumer-generated content, local search, and word-of-mouth marketing,” said Brad Feld, managing director of Mobius Venture Capital. “We believe the company is ideally positioned to capitalize on consumers’ growing interest in real-life, first-person content to help them make purchase decisions.”..."

More on the End of Yahoo/AOL Talks:
"We blogged late last week that Yahoo had dropped out of the running for a piece of AOL. More details about what caused the discussions to end this WSJ article (sub required) by Julia Angwin and Kevin J. Delaney.

Talks between Time Warner Inc. and Yahoo Inc. over Yahoo's possible purchase of a stake in the America Online Internet division foundered on a series of issues, including Time Warner's desire not to give up majority control of AOL and its unwillingness to accept an Internet stock as payment for a stake, according to people close to the discussions.

While Yahoo disputes whether there ever was a serious discussion of terms, a person close to the Time Warner side who was briefed on the discussions says Yahoo had proposed swapping 20% of Yahoo for 80% of AOL's content business. A Yahoo spokeswoman contests that, saying Yahoo never made an offer to Time Warner."

Yahoo To Have Podcast Creation & Hosting Service:
"Via Scripting News, Podcasts Help Drive Demand for High-Volume Hosting has Yahoo saying it wants to go beyond podcast search with a service to allow people to create and host podcasts at Yahoo. Google is rumored to have a similar plan in the works. Goodness knows it's overdue to have anything on the podcast front."

More on Yahoo! Strategy

Can Yahoo Sign On to Hollywood? - Los Angeles Times:
"...But as Yahoo strives to enter the league of Walt Disney Co., Viacom Inc. and other media giants, success hinges on its ability to merge two inherently different cultures: the brash, flashy ethos of entertainment executives and the rumpled, brainiac realm of computer nerds..."
File this under "Yahoo! Strategy"

Search Engine Journal » Google Analytics Launches to Enhance Conversions:
"Google has finally spun Urchin into a new Google branded analytics tool which Google is offering for free to site publishers; Google Analytics. Well, its free up to 5 million pageviews per month, so if you have a fairly high traffic site in need of analytics, Google requests that such sites do have an active AdWords account.

Google is offering AdWords Integration of Google Analyitics into the advertising interface. The service will be available to all site publishers, even if they are not Google AdWords advertisers (see above); “Google Analytics is the only product that can automatically provide AdWords ROI metrics, without you having to import cost data or add tracking information to keywords. Of course, Google Analytics tracks all of your non-AdWords initiatives as well.”

In an effort to educate more publishers and advertisers on the importance of ROI and conversions, Google Analytics has also launched Conversion University. At Conversion University, advertisers can learn about marketing and conversion optimization and practice ways to better understand their web analytics.

Just how far will Google go to enhance the conversions of their AdWords advertisers? I’ll go out on a limb to predict that Google will expand their Analytics platform in the future to dynamically enhance sites, cross selling, shopping carts, and conversion pages to lead to higher sales conversions. Heck, they already have some patents which point to such developments.

Question is however, do businesses really want Google knowing all about their sales and conversion process, and to what extent? "

Search Engine Journal » Blocking Google Analytics Tracking:
"The free launch of Google Analytics is a great thing for many smaller web publishers and bloggers, who could not afford services such as Webtrends or Urchin, and is sure to lead to widespread adoption around the site publishing industry, as well as privacy concerns. Google Analytics is also probably part of a grandscale attempt to profile the web, tracking user behavior from site to site along with giving site owners an indepth view on where their traffic comes from - and what those users do once they reach a web site.

However, not all web users like having their unique user details made available to publishers, bloggers, and even Google. If you are one of these ultra privacy concerned users, then Amit Agarwal of Digital Inspiration has some info which may be of use to you.

By placing the following line of text into a computer’s Windows Hosts file, users can block Google Analytics from referral and behavior tracking:

# [Google Inc]
127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com

Amit notes : “Google Analytics downloads a small javascript urchin.js (Google Analytics Urchin Module) on the client’s computer which reports the all the tracking and analyzing data about the visitor back to Google. By adding the above line, we have effectively blocked our browser from downloading the urchin.js file.”"

Google Tweaks Robots.txt File:
"For those of you who track such things, Google made a tweak to its Robots.txt file in the past day or so. They are now disallowing the indexing of the /chart directory. As noted on this blog, it likely has something to do with the release of Google Analytics. Then again? We will be watching."

ResearchBuzz: Woophy Gathers Photography from Around the World:
"From their site: 'Woophy stands for WOrld Of PHotographY, a website founded by a Dutch collective of photo aficionados and internet designers who believe navigation on internet can be more visual, logical and associative.'

Break that down into practical terms and that means: a site, with a world map, marking over 4,000 cities with over 24,000 photos, with over 2,000 users registered. And did I mention it's a huge timesink? Find out for yourself at http://www.woophy.com..."

Yahoo! Search blog: So, what’s new with Internet Librarians?:
"1,100 librarians recently swarmed on the seaside town of Monterey, California for a deep dive in search technology, and I was among them. Topics included desktop search, visual and clustering search, podcasting, taxonomies and metadata, RSS, blogs, wikis, online education, intranets, spyware, digitization, wireless access, and more. In today’s world of search engines, librarians are reaching way beyond the physical walls of the library.

To make library services more compelling, some librarians have begun experimenting with new virtual reference techniques like instant messenger and text-messaging to interact with patrons. Although some adults may be slow to adopt these techniques in the library, just imagine the usefulness to all the teenagers who already use instant messenger and text-messaging as their main methods of communication.

Elsewhere, librarians discussed creating online library catalogs that allow patrons to tag, comment, review, share, recommend, and otherwise create a virtual community around records in the catalog. Imagine browsing through a library catalog and seeing other people’s reviews or recommendations for similar items. Sounds like what happens on many Web sites now, places like Yahoo! Local, My Web 2.0, Flickr, Furl, Amazon.com, etc..."

Review Roundup from PC Magazine: Share and Play Tag on the New Web Playground:
"Somewhere between Web and desktop search engines lies a new breed of 'community' search engines—sites where users share among themselves the bookmarks they've created and content they've encountered. Such sites can cut through the clutter that a typical Google search might return by adding the human element. After all, communities of knowledgeable, interested people can identify relevant sites with greater accuracy than a search engine. Plus, you can leverage the work already done by others and build on that base rather than repeat it.

There is no set formula for this emerging type of site, and it's too soon to know which sites (if any) will gain the traction needed to make them widely useful. Because these are community-dependent, survivors will be the few that build significant communities the fastest. Still, the concept is intriguing, so we tried out five, each with a dramatically different spin—and mixed results..."

John Battelle's Searchblog: Paid Search Numbers:
"So I've been watching revenue estimates for the paid search marketplace lately, and I'm confused. The target for 2006 was $6 billion, set a few years ago by Piper. We're clearly past that - and a year early. But the numbers are all over the place lately. Here's a quote from the Kelsey Group, for example:

'Paid search advertising may well reach $7 billion in 2005,” said Neal Polachek, senior vice president, research and consulting, The Kelsey Group.

OK, so...Google is going to do about $6 billion in revenues this year. Toss out AOL and Ask, as they are in that gross number. But Yahoo is not. They do at least a billion and a half more in search revenues. Then there are the second tier players, who have to throw in a few more hundred million bucks here and there. And what about the Yellow Pages folks?

Anyway, with just Google and Yahoo's results to date, we're way past $7 billion. Right? Or maybe Kelsey is not counting AdSense as paid search? Whose numbers do you believe?"

John Battelle's Searchblog: Comscore: Search Drove $6 Billion in Travel:
"And you wonder why Google changed its interface to incorporate travel information? Comscore's study (jointly sponsored by Yahoo, never shy about its ambitions in the travel segment):

In April, 35 million U.S. consumers used a search engine to initiate travel planning, and those who bought travel online ultimately spent an estimated $6.6 billion in the category during the eight week analysis period. "

Yahoo! Search blog: Social Commerce via the Shoposphere & Pick Lists:
"Today we released the Shoposphere and Pick Lists beta, plus enhancements to our core shopping search capabilities, which we hope you’ll try out during your holiday gift-giving spree.

The Shoposphere and Pick Lists are examples of social commerce. We believe the community of shoppers is one of the best sources for product information and advice. The Shoposphere is a place to discover interesting and cool products thematically arranged into Pick Lists by other shoppers. It’s always changing. It includes new lists in a “product stream” and highest rated lists which are a fun way to explore new products and trends. The Shoposphere will continue to evolve as a hub for other types of user-generated content..."

TechCrunch » Amazon Tags:
"Amazon is integrating user tagging into product pages (see image below).

Tags are public by default and can be managed under a “your tags” area that I am failing to find. You must first select a “Real Name” (odd choice of names given the old company called RealNames). Once you’ve signed up and started adding tags, you can delete them or make them private in the management area.

Amazon tags will make it easier for you and others to find relevant content. I wonder how they are going to handle spam tagging and other bad content, though?. Another, possibly more interesting feature would be to allow publisher tagging. The tags would likely be more relevant (and spam easier to track)..."

Search Engine Journal - Enter the Yahoo Shoposphere:
"Building on its “social search” template, Yahoo! has revamped shopping and added in a range of new personalization and community features.

There’s a heavy emphasis here on community reviews as a way to “filter” information. There are also degrees of trust built into the system (i.e., my community, friends of friends). What Yahoo! has done with Shopping is similar to what it did with travel in its TripPlanner product.

There are some nice additional features, such as the ability to see deals and rebates on the product pages. There’s also a multi-platform push (as well as an affiliate push). The site offers integration with 360—as with local, product reviews from 360 will show up, in this case on Shopping. And the community features offer intriguing possibilities to take the site way beyond traditional comparison engines (i.e., the “Pick Lists“).

At a “meta” level, there’s’ an effort here to “rationalize” or structure the entire purchase cycle and provide resources at each step of the way (Yahoo! has tried something similar with Mindset). There are a lot of interesting elements in this upgrade. But the personalization and social/community components are the primary differentiators from the many other comparison engines.

It will take time, however, for consumers to discover and adopt all the functionality that is being offered. The phase that Yahoo! is using is “from e-commerce to me-commerce.” This is consistent with the larger theme the company has been stressing: “from mass media to my media.”..."

MercuryNews.com | 11/13/2005 | Google is watching you:
"AS WE SEARCH AWAY, WEB FIRMS GATHER DATA ON OUR HABITS
By John Battelle

Google. Google. Google. It's all we can talk about these days in Silicon Valley, where the 7-year-old company has once again validated our collective belief in the power of technology to change our culture (and make a lot of people rich in the process).

But what are we creating each time we head to Google (or Yahoo, or Ask, or any other search-driven site) and tap our intentions, fears and hopes into their blank boxes and blinking cursors? After all, this is where we first worry about ``cancer symptoms,'' it's where we ``compare prices Chrysler minivan'' and it's how we ``find lost lovers.'' And when you type your own name into Google, are you pleased with the results?

It's no wonder that search has about it the whiff of the holy. But while search is an extraordinary service, we're almost laughably early in its development -- and even earlier in understanding the many ways that search is changing our lives. Using the Web opens worlds of information to us, and in many ways makes it easier to make decisions, forge contacts and transact business. But as more and more information about us moves into the digital realm, we might want to ask whether there are downsides riding along with all those conveniences.

Turn search inside out and you'll get a taste of some far-reaching implications. In other words, don't think about search as a set of your queries and your results, but rather from the point of view of the companies that are providing search to us. Search companies are increasingly capable of tracking our every move online, in effect monitoring our ``clickstream.''

From the platforms that Google, Yahoo and others already have built, we see the outlines of an entirely new digital environment. We already have e-mail with unlimited storage, for example. And maps that include razor-sharp satellite imagery, driving directions and local information all mashed together. Instant messaging with built-in voice telephony, desktop tools that search your desktop and your history of what you've searched for, social networking, news reports, blogging -- you name it, and search companies are now offering it.

Soon, we may see even more search-driven services, for free: free classifieds, free wireless connectivity, and free word processing and office productivity software. (No wonder Microsoft is worried.)..."

Google Personalized Search Leaves Google Labs:
"By Chris Sherman, Associate Editor
November 10, 2005

Google's personalized search has left Google Labs and is now available to users on 38 Google domains in addition to Google.com.

Google's personalized search reorders search results based on your history of past searches, giving more weight to topics that interest you.

This means that if you search for 'fly fishing' your future results for a search on 'bass' will be more heavily weighted toward fishing than the musical instrument, according to

Personalized search also maintains a history of your searches on Google, allowing you to revisit pages you previously viewed by scanning through your history.

Personalized search is now offered as an option whenever you sign up for a Google account, which you need to use AdWords, Gmail or other Google services. You can also add personalization using your manage account page..."

Ask Jeeves To Rebrand Tech As ExpertRank Inside?:
"Gary Price -- awesome sleuth that is he -- was doing some searching of the US Patent Office & Trademark Office database yesterday and noticed that Ask Jeeves filed for a trademark, a service mark to be accurate, for the term 'ExpertRank' about a week ago. Perhaps the sign of a new branding campaign to come?..."

Search Engine Journal ? Amazon Patents Consumer Reviews? Absurd!:
"I was never a patent attorney, but I think that the USPTO is going too far in granting certain ?business method? patents. Case-in-point: According to this InternetNews article, Amazon was recently awarded a patent covering the collection of user reviews.

Huh? Come again? Apparently, yes. Here?s how the article describes the patent:

The third patent is the real kicker. It covers methods for encouraging consumers to write reviews of items they?ve purchased by determining the optimal times to send them e-mails or reminders.

In one embodiment of the patent, the system sends consumers a message inviting them to write a review in a predetermined amount of time after the purchase. It?s a method widely used by online retailers, including Yahoo (Quote, Chart) Shopping. The patent also covers the method of tracking who returns to rate products by asking them to click on a unique link in an e-mail.

But the patent even covers collecting reviews by letting visitors to a Web site fill out a form.

This patent is both absurd and a sure-fire recipe for litigation. It?s also just wrong, wrong, wrong! It rises to the level of being morally wrong. And this aspect of the patent should never have been granted. It comes very close to granting a patent on an idea, which is legally impossible under US law.

Amazon should not be permitted to prevent others from collecting the opinions of their users and the community (or be allowed to profit from that). The implications are significant for a range of companies, including (as the article mentions) Google, Yahoo!, eBay and a host of others..."

Pew Internet & American Life Project Presentation: The Future of the Internet:

"We have found that internet users facing an education choice benefit from having access to the information available online. What would happen to the education sector if there was universal high-speed access in the U.S.? What would happen if internet penetration stagnated or declined? We have also found that internet users are changing their behavior out of fear of software intrusions like viruses and spyware. What would happen if, in the future, it was truly ?every man for himself? when it comes to network security? What would happen if there was greater enforcement of security protocols? The scenarios presented are meant to be thought-provoking; they are not predictions or projections by the Pew Internet Project."
View PowerPoint Presentation
View PDF of Presentation

Gates memo warns of 'disruptive' changes | CNET News.com:
"Aiming to stir up the same kind of momentum as his Internet Tidal Wave memo of a decade earlier, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has penned a memo outlining the challenges Microsoft faces from a host of online competitors.

'This coming 'services wave' will be very disruptive,' Gates said in an Oct. 30 e-mail to top Microsoft employees, which was seen by CNET News.com. 'We have competitors who will seize on these approaches and challenge us.'

In the memo, Gates cites an earlier missive from Ray Ozzie, outlining the importance of tapping online advertising and services as new revenue sources.

"It's clear that if we fail to do so, our business as we know it is at risk," Ozzie wrote. "We must respond quickly and decisively."

Ozzie's memo, which was also seen by CNET News.com, includes a laundry list of missed opportunities for the software maker, citing competitive threats from rivals such as Google, Skype, Research In Motion and Adobe..."

John Battelle's Searchblog: Gates, Microsoft Ponder the Future of ... Microsoft:
"If you've been meaning to get caught up on the whole Microsoft/Web services/Web2 threat meme, then read this Cnet piece on Gates' recent memo to employees (Winer has full text there of it and Ozzie's as well), which I very much doubt was intended solely as an internal rumination, on the threats tendered by web based services. (By the way, the plasma like Cnet interface to related stories - I've used part of it as the art at left - is cool, if only we had blog plasma...)

Microsoft truly does face the second coming of the Web, and this time it's not conveniently packaged as one killable company a la Netscape (Google notwithstanding)..."

RED HERRING | Amazon Wins Patents:
"Amazon, holder of the infamous ?one-click? patent, was awarded three U.S. patents this week, covering systems for finding products on its online marketplace.

The patents, two of which the company applied for over five years ago, cover ?purchase circles,? which are community recommendation systems, a method for encouraging purchasers to post reviews and ranking search results across multiple categories...

The third patent covers displaying search results across a query that spans multiple categories. The results would be ordered by category, with the most relevant rising to the top..."

Forrester Research: Autonomy Acquires Verity And Enterprise Search Market Leadership:
"Autonomy's acquisition of Verity creates a formidable force in enterprise search and information retrieval, and will dwarf competitors such as Convera, Endeca, and FAST. But the enterprise search market has failed to reach more than a billion dollars because competitors like Google, IBM, and Microsoft continue to commoditize basic search. If Autonomy can overcome key challenges integrating the two companies, it will be well-positioned in the high-end market for unstructured information retrieval and analysis. However, this market will be contested by the likes of IBM, which hopes to capitalize on core search technology for solutions such as root-cause analysis, eDiscovery, fraud detection, compliance, market intelligence, and others. This acquisition also makes Autonomy an attractive acquisition target for companies like EMC, Oracle, SAP, and Sun that need to bolster their capabilities around unstructured information."

ACM Queue - Managing Semi-Structured Data :
"Most of the world's data does not fit into a traditional database structure. Fortunately, work is being done on various fronts to harness this vast information pool.
Data

I vividly remember during my first college class my fascination with the relational database—an information oasis that guaranteed a constant flow of correct, complete, and consistent information at our disposal. In that class I learned how to build a schema for my information, and I learned that to obtain an accurate schema there must be a priori knowledge of the structure and properties of the information to be modeled. I also learned the ER (entity-relationship) model as a basic tool for all further data modeling, as well as the need for an a priori agreement on both the general structure of the information and the vocabularies used by all communities producing, processing, or consuming this information.

Several years later I was working with an organization whose goal was to create a large repository of food recipes. The intent was to include recipes from around the world and their nutritional information, as well as the historical and cultural aspects of food creation.

I was involved in creating the database schema to hold this information. Suddenly the axioms I had learned in school collapsed. There was no way we could know in advance what kind of schema was necessary to describe French, Chinese, Indian, and Ethiopian recipes. The information that we had to model was practically unbound and unknown. There was no common vocabulary. The available information was contained mostly in natural language descriptions; even with significant effort, modeling it using entities and relationships would have been impossible. Asking a cook to enter the data in tables, rows, objects, or XML elements was unthinkable, and building an entry form for such flexible and unpredictable information structures was difficult, if not impossible. The project stopped. Years later I believe we still do not have such information available to us in the way we envisioned it..."

This article goes on to provide a very good overview of the unstructured and semi-structured information problem.

Library Stuff:
"PubSub Community Lists
Many colleagues ask what I do at PubSub and most of the time I can't answer, because most of the work I do has to stay private until it's...well...public. Today is one of my favorite and most stressful days, because we're releasing a new service.

Introducing Community Lists, human collected lists of blogs with PubSub's linkranking system used to rank them. The concept is actually a simple one. We've recieved calls and e-mails from all over asking about blogosphere influencers in many fields of study and profession and didn't have a decent place to point them to. So, being the forward thinking company that we try to be, we created that place. The lists change daily and shows a view of the blogosphere that you haven't seen before: A daily ranking of 'influencers' for the previous day (linkranks runs once a day) for specific community. You will also be able to see the highest gainers for that day.

We've enlisted editors for two of the 4 lists that are currently live on the site. The third list (librarians) is edited by me, and the fashion list needs an editor (so, if you know of any fashion bloggers who might be interested, send them a note to contact me). These editors know their blog field very well, and will be able to keep up with the lists (adding and deleting as needed) better than anyone at the PubSub office could. Also, since the lists are community oriented, we looked outside of the company for editors.

Take a look around and let us know what you think (send e-mail to feedback@pubsub.com) or contact us if you have any ideas for more lists. For now, I'd like to introduce the four inaugural lists..."

EETimes.com - 'Next big thing' may be process, not a product:
"...'If you want to know what the next big thing is in the IT industry, it's not a device ? which may have a $100 million impact,' Horn said. 'It's really the ability of IT technology to take inefficiencies out of the global GDP. Without any doubt, in my mind, that is the next big thing.' IBM, he said, sees 'a huge emerging opportunity in what we call BPTS ? business process transformational services.'

The current worldwide IT market represents about $1.2 trillion, and Horn sees that growing by at least another trillion dollars in the next few years..."

High-tech industry in high spirits:
"High-tech companies could be a big winner in the budget battle, depending on how House and Senate members reconcile their different deficit-reduction plans, according to industry lobbyists..."

Frontiers of Search:
"As the gatekeepers to information, search engines are of paramount importance to any Web user. Today's search engines must wrangle not only with the question of pairing results of optimal relevance with a user's query, but also of combating the manipulative search engine optimization tools that seek to unfairly improve the ranking of certain sites. Some have argued that the type of search where a user is trying to "re-find" a site they have seen before should be treated distinctly from original "finding" searches. The conventional approach to search solicits a brief query from the user and returns a list of results ranked by an algorithm, but there is an emerging school of thought that views that method as incomplete, and at best as an imperfect representation of the user's intentions. Instead, they argue, search should draw out the user's needs by engaging him in a dialogue. It is also important to view the Web as an organized structure of related, hierarchical information in order to refine the traditional search algorithms. Bharath Kumar Mohan has defined the concept of nurturers, which correlate to sites that have precipitated the association networks that are becoming more important as social networking occupies a more prominent position on the Web. The Semantic Web also offers opportunities for more precise searching, as it introduces logical reasoning into the equation, where searches can factor in a user's preferences in a more nuanced fashion than traditional ranking algorithms..."
Summary from http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2005-7/1107m.html#item16

RED HERRING | Firefox Share Rises Again:
"...?But the good news here is that the browser market is anything but stable and we have more people entering the segment now. The time of having just Internet Explorer is over.?..."

Yahoo! Branded Phone In the Works - Gizmodo:
"The rumors have been circulating for awhile, but there are firm details: Yahoo! will be partnering with Cingular to create a Yahoo! branded cellphone. No, they?re not going to manufacture a handset from the ground up ? it?s just going to be a re-branded version of a Nokia. It will have a 1.3 megapixel camera, memory card, and MP3 playback ? the specific model number was not released. There will, no doubt, be all kinds of familiar Yahoo! services available on the handset (weather, travel, IM). Release date is unknown at present. Anyone got some screengrabs of Yahoo! mobile to share?

Given the earlier announcement of a partnership with TiVo, it looks as though Yahoo! is trying to fortify its sky-high stock price with some big ideas."

RED HERRING | Vlog: Meet Your Next Buzzword:
"Startups are moving into the young space of videoblogging, the 2D version of blogs and podcasts.
November 4, 2005

Watch out for a deluge of camcorder dads, amateur newscasters, and fuzzy webcam shots of kids dancing to “the Numa Numa song.”

Tools that make it easy to create, distribute, and monetize homemade content have quickly spread from text to audio to video. Videoblogs—also called vlogs, video podcasts, or vidcasts—are the newest kind of subscription-ready personal content online. And a growing set of startups promises to figure out the problems of vlogs to make them as easy as blogs and podcasts.

“It’s right before the explosion,” said vlogging guru Jay Dedman, who estimates there are currently “a couple thousand” videoblogs..."

Forrester Research: Microsoft Embraces Ad-Supported Software Services:
"Microsoft has embraced a new way to do business — a mindset that is based on software-as-a service, open platforms, and continuous innovation; a model previously mastered by Google. Ad-supported software for consumers and very small businesses is only the beginning. Microsoft's real aim is to build and host a service platform that will attract the investment of developers looking for a way to reach these market sectors. It is also a foray into offering its traditional client/server software to customers on a hosted or on-demand basis. Forrester believes that these 'Live' services won't cannibalize Microsoft's existing software revenues and instead will drive significant upside as Microsoft develops new advertising and subscription revenues. However, it has tried this before and failed. The strategy will be successful only if Microsoft offers its partners a ready market, a fair revenue sharing scheme, and a strong support system that develops trust..."

Forrester Research - FirstLook Archive:
"Consolidation In, Around, And Throughout The Information Management Market(s)
...And if that isn't enough to think about, some companies have lifted their sights to information management -- being able to manage both structured and unstructured information at an enterprise level. As Barry Murphy tells us, IBM is thinking about the same thing, which is propelling its stunning number of acquisitions during the past 12 months and its recently articulated Information OnDemand vision.

And on the collaboration side, which is already a consolidated market dominated by IBM and Microsoft, Erica Rugullies examines whether there is a role for Novell as an aggregator for open source collaboration software. As for implementing collaboration by stitching together various open source offerings, Erica recommends waiting a few years..."

Forrester Research - FirstLook Archive:
"Social Marketing Comes In Four Flavors
Consumers' trust in traditional forms of advertising is waning. In 2004, less than 50% of consumers trusted TV and radio ads, and only slightly more trusted print ads. What's more, consumers increasingly say they're bombarded with too many irrelevant ads. These negative attitudes toward traditional marketing have led consumers to take measures to block direct mailers, telemarketers, and TV advertisers from their homes in an accelerating consumer ad backlash.

Social or viral marketing -- with its minimal obtrusiveness and trustworthy sources (often other consumers) -- avoids most of the anti-ad reactions that fuel the backlash. By engaging consumers in a dialogue about their products or encouraging consumer-to-consumer dialogue, marketers inevitably lose some control over the message of their campaigns. But what marketers may lose in control, they gain in audience attention, velocity of communication, and much-needed trust from loyal consumers.

Tools For Social Marketing
How can marketers connect with jaded consumers who avoid traditional campaigns with spam-blockers, DVRs, and Do-Not-Call lists? Four flavors of social marketing can help:


RSS Users Are Info Junkies 1: Word-of-mouth (WOM) Marketing
Disillusioned consumers -- those who've lost trust in marketers -- now turn to each other for trustworthy product information. This consumer-to-consumer "buzz" naturally occurs without the intervention of marketers -- 46% of North American consumers often tell friends and family about products that interest them. When marketers get involved to stimulate WOM activity -- like P&G did when it offered to donate money to an energy-saving charity if Tide Coldwater users sent along product samples -- they must relinquish the control they would have had over a traditional campaign. But this is a small price to pay for the increase in consumer trust created by WOM marketing. While Tide created a buzz around Coldwater based on environmental awareness, Burger King's successful "Subservient Chicken" Webcast created a humorous buzz for its BK Tender Crisp.

2: Blogs
Blogs (think: online journal) provide a venue for marketers and consumers to open a dialogue and facilitate WOM marketing among consumers. Blogs can be a space where corporate executives post their musings and consumers respond, marketers solicit consumers to post reviews of products, or consumers connect and recommend products to each other. Blogs about kids' issues help Stonyfield Farm create a dialogue with parents. Vespa's blogs give its consumers the opportunity to share Vespa scooter experiences.

3: RSS
Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is an XML standard that gives consumers the opportunity to aggregate all of their information into one location. RSS provides marketers with many options to reach consumers: Feed sponsorships, ad placements within feeds, and ad headlines are only a few. Though current adoption of RSS is relatively low (only 2% of North American online adults use RSS today), those who use this technology now are the valuable, information-hungry consumers of tomorrow (see figure above). Marketers like Purina and Apple use RSS to inform consumers about new products, send updates about product support, and disseminate consumer-generated content from their Web sites.

4: Podcasting
Like RSS, podcasting separates media from a single channel, delivering audio content in a new way. For marketers, podcasts provide opportunities for sponsorships, on-air ads, and original product-specific content. The upside? A captive audience. The downside? A small audience (only 10% of online adults are familiar with podcasting) but a growing one, especially with the addition of a podcasting library in iTunes, which lists more than 600 podcasts about technology and 100 about travel. Marketers looking to repeatedly reach a valuable, younger, tech-savvy crowd should actively explore this new medium.

So while traditional one-way marketing campaigns are losing their audience to consumers' ad fatigue, multitasking, and distrust of marketing messages, marketing itself is not dead. It's just gone to the masses. Get involved in the dialogue.

If you're interested in learning more about why social marketing works and how to do it, come to our upcoming Boot Camp. Social Marketing: Tapping Into The Power Of Connected Customers with Charlene Li and Jim Nail will take place October 13, 2005, in San Francisco. For details, contact Jennifer Joseph at jjoseph@forrester.com.

In the upcoming weeks, look for research on Internet video, mature consumers (55+), advergames, young bloggers, local search, consumer security and phishing, social computing, the CE retail purchase process, mobile music, youth and music, and database marketing trends."

Forrester Research - FirstLook Archive:
"Content Is The New Must-Have: Why Video Is Hot Right Now

Now that two-thirds of North American households are online, and broadband has reached 72.5 million US households, value has begun to shift from the business of connecting pipelines and selling products to the market for content. Home networks and cheap devices free media content from the shackles of space and time, opening up distribution, and creating the opportunity for new business models. Fasten your seat belts: The content explosion is only beginning.

New audio and video outlets are turning up everywhere. Audio content is reaching a connected audience, as evidenced by Apple's iTunes music store's more than half a billion downloads and the launch of Napster To Go.

The old-fashioned 30-minute grids of the TV networks and release structure used by movie studios are weakening as video makes the jump to the Internet, mobile phones, hand-held video games, and recently to Apple's newest iPod. In 2004, more online consumers -- 58% -- viewed Internet video than listened to streaming or downloaded audio (see figure below).

With media content flowing freely thanks to the Internet, device-makers, Internet portals, and service providers are scrambling to increase their value by acquiring original content and/or getting a piece of the distribution pie. Google and Comcast's recent interest in AOL, and rumors of Yahoo!'s competing desire for Time Warner's portal property, demonstrates the growing appeal of Internet content distribution. AOL's original content has always been a strength for the ISP veteran, helping the provider survive as many of its customers made the leap from dial-up to broadband. With a wealth of content from Time Warner library, AOL could provide Comcast, Google, or Yahoo! with a strong beachhead for Internet distribution. Despite growing content offerings, Comcast.net and other ISP-proprietary portals fail to attract more than 11% of their subscribers to their sites..."

Word-of-Mouth Marketing Picks Up Speed:
"Published: November 03, 2005
(After December 03, 2005, this article will only be available to eStat Database subscribers.)

There are dozens of metrics defining online advertising, but no one has locked down the defining numbers for word-of-mouth marketing. A new eMarketer report uncovers the "hidden statistics" of word of mouth.

Despite a long history, word of mouth as a marketing discipline is only just coming into its own, and the data indicate its best years are yet to come. eMarketer estimates that about half of all online marketers are engaging in some form of word of mouth or viral campaign, and that number will grow.

"While online advertising and all of its many subcategories such as search have dozens of metrics defining their size, shape and growth rates, no one has locked down defining numbers for word-of-mouth marketing," says Geoff Ramsey, eMarketer CEO and author of the Word of Mouth Marketing report. "It has been the 'hidden statistic.'"

Based on aggregated data from dozens of sources, as well as interviews with various word of mouth marketing experts, for the first time, eMarketer — in partnership with the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), uncovers the numbers behind the rumors, the facts behind the myths.

"Word of mouth has always been there, and it's always been the thing that gets us to buy," says Andy Sernovitz, CEO of WOMMA. "What's exciting is that marketers can finally do something to harness this power—and measure the results. Word of Mouth has moved from anecdotal to actionable."

Today, according to consulting giant McKinsey, approximately two-thirds of all economic activity in the US is influenced by shared opinions about a product, brand or service.

A wide variety of surveys indicate that Americans are far more likely to turn to family, friends and other personal "experts" than to use traditional media for ideas and information about products and services. In fact, RoperASW, part of GfK Group, finds that over 90% of Americans cite word of mouth as one of the best sources of ideas and information. Further, they rate "word of mouth twice as important as advertising or editorial content and put one-and-a-half times more value on it today than they did 25 years ago."

A recent UK survey conducted by Mediaedge:cia asked consumers which factors made them most comfortable when purchasing a product. More than three-quarters cited the recommendation of a friend.

Word of mouth is often referred to as "friends and family marketing," and with good reason. According to NOP (like Roper, a GfK unit), people are more likely to pass along messages via word of mouth to their friends and family members.

"The Internet has created a vast new social network of people," says Mr. Ramsey. "These online connections may be as profound as any offline relationship, such as members of health support groups, or they may be only fleeting, such as one consumer reading another's recommendation of a hotel on a travel site. But whether the connection is long or short, the person-to-person information exchanged online carries a weight that traditional corporate messaging simply can't match."

Advertising messages can be amplified by the new electronic social network. According to the Online Publishers Association (OPA), 10% of consumers who report seeing online video advertisements say they forward them on to a friend or family member — that means they were more often influencers than purchasers.

"The aggregation of the numbers gives us a powerful new lens through which we can more clearly see the entire story," says Mr. Sernovitz. "But now that word of mouth marketing is rapidly becoming part of the marketing mainstream, it faces the same big question being asked of all types of marketing: How do you measure it?"

Committed to answering that question, eMarketer and WOMMA have published the new Word of Mouth Marketing report. Take it from us, you should read it today.


"

Blogs and Business:
"Published: November 04, 2005
(After December 04, 2005, this article will only be available to eStat Database subscribers.)

A new survey looks at the interaction of blogs and businesses, and how the two groups view each other's work.

How do the interests of bloggers intersect with the interest of corporations? Should corporate communications professionals reach out directly to bloggers? Are bloggers different from other communications channels?

In an attempt to better understand the interplay of the blogosphere and corpoate communications, blog-search engine Technorati and public relations firm Edelman surveyed subscribers of Technorati's e-mail newsletter to study their interaction with each other.

A key finding of the survey is that the blogger respondents are, to a large degree, seeking to position themselves as authorities in their field. That was the number one reason they gave for blogging.

This is in stark contrast to a consumer survey conducted by AOL earlier this year, which found that many bloggers are not using their blogs for gain, either professional or financial, but simply as an outlet. Nearly half said that blogging was a form of therapy for them.

The Technorati survey was mailed to 30,000 subscribers of its newsletter, and promoted on the Technorati web site. There were 821 respondents. AOL surveyed 600 Internet users over the age of 18 who maintain at least one blog.

The Technorati survey found a high number of bloggers had been contacted by companies or PR representatives.

The survey also found a certain level of skepticism about corporate blogs. About half found them at least somewhat trustworthy. But the other half called them only occasionally trustworthy or not at all trustworthy.

The bloggers were far more likely to trust a blog created by an individual employee.

When looking for information about a company, bloggers said they were most likely to trust other bloggers to steer them right.

For an in-depth look at the ramifications of blogs on business, read eMarketer's The Business of Blogging report."

Search Engine Journal » Google Patent : Organic Results Ranked by User Profiling:
"Google has filed for an organic search patent, termed Personalization of placed content ordering in search results, to serve organic search results based on user profiles. Google has also applied for a similar behavioral targeting patent for its advertising network, but this seems to be a first from Google with plans to integrate user profiling into natural search ranking.

Such profiles are created by Google and gathered from previous queries, web navigation behavior via tracked links and possibly sites visited which serve Google ads, computers with Google Applications installed such as Desktop Search, Google Wi-fi Connection or Sidebar, and personal information which Google identifies which may be “implicitly or explicitly provided by the user.”

This new ranking system, which is a spin off of PageRank and the current Google ranking algorithm, could be referred to as Profile Rank. What is the difference between this new ranking system and Google Personalized Search? Personalized Search was beta tested by Google users who have opted in to Google profile building while the new Profile Rank is based upon user profiles built by tracking a users web habits in and outside of Google Search, even if the user has not opted in to be served personalized results or is a registered Google Account member : Wide Spread Personalization to all users..."

REVIEW: Flock Browser Promotes Creation - Yahoo! News:
"NEW YORK - Web browsing used to be mostly about just that: Surfing site after site for information and goods. But lately, more people are using the Internet as much to produce and share things as to consume them. A new browser called Flock seeks to address the new reality of enhanced online creativity and community.

It's a souped-up version of the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox browser, with features added to help users create Web journal entries and share favorite Web sites.

Although Flock is still in an early preview mode, meaning it is crash-prone among other problems, it offers a good sense of what to expect.

I find Flock does succeed in taking Web browsing to a whole new level.

With Flock, traditional bookmarks, also known as favorites, are out the window. Instead, you "star" a page, and by doing so, you can automatically send the link to an online account you create at shared-bookmarking service Del.icio.us.

That means, in theory, you can easily access your favorite sites from any computer, not just the one where all your bookmarks are stored. (In practice, because it's still in preview, the synchronization is far from perfect).

Plus, you can discover new sites and help others do so. Del.icio.us lets you see which other members have the same sites listed in their collections. From there, you can see what other sites they frequent..."

Gates: We're entering live era of software: ZDNet Australia: News: Software:
"Kicking off what he called the 'live era' of software, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said on Tuesday in the United States that the company plans to launch new Internet-based complements to its core products.

Gates said Microsoft is working on two products, 'Windows Live' and 'Office Live,' that create opportunities for the company to sell online subscriptions and advertising. Both are targeted at smaller businesses and consumers....

Gates said that Windows Live is a set of Internet-based personal services, such as e-mail, blogging and instant messaging. It will be primarily supported by advertising and be separate from the operating system itself. Office Live will come in both ad-based and subscription versions that augment the popular desktop productivity suite.

"This advertising model has emerged as a very important thing," Gates said.

But free products won't replace paid software. Many of the Live releases will have payment tiers, Gates said, with the lowest levels free and ad-supported, and higher-end versions paid for by the user.

"We'll have licenses and subscriptions as well," Gates said. In many cases, companies will have a choice between running software on their own servers or as a Live service.

Acknowledging potential antitrust concerns, Gates said that Windows Live is built off published APIs (application programming interfaces) that its rivals will also have access to.

"It's a dramatic sea change," Gates said of the overall shift to online services.

"The live phenomenon is not just about Microsoft. It's partners, it's competitors...the whole space is being transformed."...

The Office Live service is mostly targeted at small businesses, said Rajesh Jha, a general manager at Microsoft who presented the demo of the service. He noted that 28 million of the world's 42 million businesses are companies with fewer than 10 employees.

Jha showed how small businesses like these can use Office online to set up Web sites with custom domain names and multiple e-mail addresses--all free. Initially, these sites will not carry ads, but Microsoft sees the feature as a revenue opportunity and expects it to eventually be ad-supported.

Another tool, called "Mojo," will enable a small group of users to work collaboratively on the same document--in the case of the demonstration, an Excel spreadsheet.

"We're always on the same page," Jha said. "This real-time service is going to be free."

He also showed some of the 22 applications that are part of the subscription service, including customer management tools and secure collaboration.

Office Live will be in invitation-only beta testing in the first quarter of next year, Jha said. That beta will also be limited to the U.S., he added.

More to come
Tuesday's announcement is more of a placeholder for other initiatives to come, Smith said. "I think part of why people look at this and say it looks sketchy is because it is. But it's a step in direction that they have to go in," he said.

Smith likened the announcement to Gates' Web call to action of a decade ago. "It's the beginning of a big change at the company that will take a long a time to see manifested in mainstream products," he said.

In the meantime, the new products help Microsoft better compete with online rivals. Although the traditional software industry is very profitable and well understood, online advertising is an important opportunity, Ozzie said. He praised Google for demonstrating some of the possibilities.

"Google is doing an amazing job of making that ad engine click on all eight cylinders." Ozzie said.

But he said that the industry has barely scratched the surface, pointing out that the market for online advertising could grow from US$15 billion now to US$150 billion by 2015."

Search Engine Journal » Vertical Search B2B Search Engine : VerticalSearch.com:
"Search is becoming more vertical by the day, as user demanded expectations of relevancy and time saving capabilities have grown, especially in the business world. The drive for vertical search has resulted in blog search engines (Technorati), shopping search (Shopzilla), real estate and classifeds search (Oodle) and even business releated search (Business.com). Be sure to add one more name to your list today, and its an easy name to remember, as the new B2B vertical search engine, Verticalsearch.com, has launched.

VerticalSearch, powered by PlanetDiscover Search Technologies, has over one million B2B related pages in its index along with real-time B2B news feeds based on search input, to provide users with access to breaking news and commentary relevant to their search query..."

Where Tagging Works: Searching for a Good Game:
"By Chris Sherman, Associate Editor
November 2, 2005
A new site jumps on the tagging bandwagon and actually ends up with useful search results. Why? Because it's narrowly focused on a specific topic and has a large degree of agreement among its user community.

Search Engine Watch regulars know that we're highly skeptical about tagging as a search savior.

For those of you who aren't familiar with tagging, it's simply the ability to annotate pages, images or other web content with descriptive keywords—you "tag" them with terms that supposedly help more precisely describe the page, in theory making it more "understandable" by search engines.

Tagging is a craze, but it's far from new. Meta tag standards for web pages were introduced way back in 1996, and other metadata standards for information retrieval date back to the 1970s. Considered alone, metadata can be a terrific thing, especially if it's created by a trained information professional using well-defined, standard terms (a "controlled vocabulary" in librarian parlance)...

Search Engine Journal - Yahoo Marketing Yahoo Search in its Google Results:
"Yahoo is testing a clever marketing tactic in its search results outside of the United States. If you search for “google” on Yahoo Australia & NZ, then Yahoo will serve a “Try the new Yahoo! Search” search box in the Inside Yahoo section above the organic listings for Google..."

Note: To better understand what's going on, click on the "google" link above. While it's not clear to me why someone would use Yahoo to search for "google" but, this is a clever example of search related ads and what can be done when the user's query is known.