Monday, June 26, 2006
MediaPost Publications - Keyword Prices Fall In Q1 - 06/26/2006:
"by Wendy Davis, Monday, Jun 26, 2006 6:00 AM ET
AFTER SURGING DURING THE HOLIDAYS, the price of purchasing keywords ebbed dramatically last quarter, according to DoubleClick's most recent quarterly report about search pricing.
The "cost-per-keyword" fell to around $30 in the first quarter--from around the yearly high of $59 last December, according to the report. Year-over-year, cost-per-keyword was relatively flat. To arrive at a cost-per-keyword, Performics combines cost-per-click with the volume of clicks; the figure represents the average cost to a marketer of purchasing a keyword for the entire month.
The report confirms an earlier study, released last February, which found that keyword prices were trending down by the beginning of the year.
In its most recent report, Performics proposed that the lower prices of keywords likely stem from marketers curtailing their bids due to a drop in spending by consumers after the holidays. "Some advertisers lead the market by dropping their own bids shortly after the holidays when lower returns make those high bids unsustainable. Other advertisers follow that trend, and have their bids drop automatically when other competitors pull back first," stated the report.
Although the cost-per-keyword was nearly unchanged from the first three months of 2005 to this year's first quarter, the number of keywords in play grew, as did the total number of clicks. Performics reported that the average number of keywords per campaign receiving at least one click per month increased by 36 percent; the total number of clicks soared 24 percent.
Performics also found that consumers didn't click on the highest-priced keywords--often generic terms--as often in the first quarter as during the holidays. While between 5 and 7 percent of all keywords were priced at more than $1, the percentage of clicks on such keywords dropped from the fourth quarter to the first..."
"by Wendy Davis, Monday, Jun 26, 2006 6:00 AM ET
AFTER SURGING DURING THE HOLIDAYS, the price of purchasing keywords ebbed dramatically last quarter, according to DoubleClick's most recent quarterly report about search pricing.
The "cost-per-keyword" fell to around $30 in the first quarter--from around the yearly high of $59 last December, according to the report. Year-over-year, cost-per-keyword was relatively flat. To arrive at a cost-per-keyword, Performics combines cost-per-click with the volume of clicks; the figure represents the average cost to a marketer of purchasing a keyword for the entire month.
The report confirms an earlier study, released last February, which found that keyword prices were trending down by the beginning of the year.
In its most recent report, Performics proposed that the lower prices of keywords likely stem from marketers curtailing their bids due to a drop in spending by consumers after the holidays. "Some advertisers lead the market by dropping their own bids shortly after the holidays when lower returns make those high bids unsustainable. Other advertisers follow that trend, and have their bids drop automatically when other competitors pull back first," stated the report.
Although the cost-per-keyword was nearly unchanged from the first three months of 2005 to this year's first quarter, the number of keywords in play grew, as did the total number of clicks. Performics reported that the average number of keywords per campaign receiving at least one click per month increased by 36 percent; the total number of clicks soared 24 percent.
Performics also found that consumers didn't click on the highest-priced keywords--often generic terms--as often in the first quarter as during the holidays. While between 5 and 7 percent of all keywords were priced at more than $1, the percentage of clicks on such keywords dropped from the fourth quarter to the first..."
John Battelle's Searchblog: Mpire:
"The newly launched search site, Mpire, combines product comparisons across multiple sites with product analytics to aid consumer decisions.
Shoppers gain a more accurate picture of market prices with consumer analytics such as bid/price histories on products, and recommendations on optimal days and times to bid. In partnership with eBay, Craigslist, Yahoo, and Overstock, Mpire serves as a convenient access point for users to "search by price, seller, type of payment, location [or] how many bids there are on any given item."
Former Expedia president Matt Hulett joins as CEO: “Think of it as the start of ‘Shopping 2.0’ ― search and analytics to help buyers make smarter and more informed decisions.” Mpire's step toward transparency parallels Farecast, which Battelle wrote about earlier..."
"The newly launched search site, Mpire, combines product comparisons across multiple sites with product analytics to aid consumer decisions.
Shoppers gain a more accurate picture of market prices with consumer analytics such as bid/price histories on products, and recommendations on optimal days and times to bid. In partnership with eBay, Craigslist, Yahoo, and Overstock, Mpire serves as a convenient access point for users to "search by price, seller, type of payment, location [or] how many bids there are on any given item."
Former Expedia president Matt Hulett joins as CEO: “Think of it as the start of ‘Shopping 2.0’ ― search and analytics to help buyers make smarter and more informed decisions.” Mpire's step toward transparency parallels Farecast, which Battelle wrote about earlier..."
Search Drives Ecommerce Online and Offline:
"Posted by Jennifer June 23, 2006
According to industry research, most ecommerce sites are not optimized to rank well in the organic search results. Over 80 percent of the Internet Retailer Magazine's top 100 websites were found to lack the basic search engine optimization (SEO) techniques that would give them high rankings. (skip to 'Search Drives Ecommerce Online and Offline' by Bruce Clay)..."
"Posted by Jennifer June 23, 2006
According to industry research, most ecommerce sites are not optimized to rank well in the organic search results. Over 80 percent of the Internet Retailer Magazine's top 100 websites were found to lack the basic search engine optimization (SEO) techniques that would give them high rankings. (skip to 'Search Drives Ecommerce Online and Offline' by Bruce Clay)..."
Eye Tracking Studies Are Good for More Than Just Search:
"One of the most useful studies to come out in the last few years is the eye tracking study released by the team over at Enquiro. Gord Hotchkiss has done an outstanding job of helping educate search marketers about how searchers interact with search results and what we need to do in order to get better performance from our campaigns. Today, Gord makes an outstanding blog post about eye tracking studies and web site design. While it may not seem like this post has anything to do with search...I'd ask that you think a little outside the box.
You see, one of the primary objections that search engine marketers hear when giving advice is that search engine friendly design is "ugly" and that "design rules" dictate that a good site simply can't be search friendly. That's always been a tough line for some search marketers to argue against because good designers are well trained in what attracts the eyes and what will draw a visitor through the content. The problem is, that these designers are almost always trained on these things in regards to PRINT advertising, not web advertising. Gord's post does an excellent job of proving that what many designers think they know about the web simply isn't true.
In fact, the area of a web site that draws the most eyeballs is the text navigation, showing that searches are now savvy enough to ignore the pretty pictures and focus on the task at hand...finding information..."
"One of the most useful studies to come out in the last few years is the eye tracking study released by the team over at Enquiro. Gord Hotchkiss has done an outstanding job of helping educate search marketers about how searchers interact with search results and what we need to do in order to get better performance from our campaigns. Today, Gord makes an outstanding blog post about eye tracking studies and web site design. While it may not seem like this post has anything to do with search...I'd ask that you think a little outside the box.
You see, one of the primary objections that search engine marketers hear when giving advice is that search engine friendly design is "ugly" and that "design rules" dictate that a good site simply can't be search friendly. That's always been a tough line for some search marketers to argue against because good designers are well trained in what attracts the eyes and what will draw a visitor through the content. The problem is, that these designers are almost always trained on these things in regards to PRINT advertising, not web advertising. Gord's post does an excellent job of proving that what many designers think they know about the web simply isn't true.
In fact, the area of a web site that draws the most eyeballs is the text navigation, showing that searches are now savvy enough to ignore the pretty pictures and focus on the task at hand...finding information..."
TechCrunch - Blog Archive - Zoho announces an online power-point type tool:
"The online office suite Zoho launched a new presentation tool this week called Zoho Show, for use in creating and displaying remote presentations on the web. Zoho parent company Adventnet is a TechCrunch sponsor.
Thumbstacks appears to be the primary rival faced by Zoho Show, and both have certain advantages and disadvantages.
This newest offering is the 12th Zoho web based application, including a word processor, spreadsheet, chat, CRM, an app creator and more..."
"The online office suite Zoho launched a new presentation tool this week called Zoho Show, for use in creating and displaying remote presentations on the web. Zoho parent company Adventnet is a TechCrunch sponsor.
Thumbstacks appears to be the primary rival faced by Zoho Show, and both have certain advantages and disadvantages.
This newest offering is the 12th Zoho web based application, including a word processor, spreadsheet, chat, CRM, an app creator and more..."
TechCrunch - Blog Archive - GoodStorm to offer e-commerce widget with 50% revenue split for bloggers:
"San Francisco based GoodStorm will soon launch a new program called MeCommerce that will allow bloggers to insert product listings in a javascript and iframe box on their sites and keep 50% of the retail mark-up for themselves. Blog readers will be able to purchase books and CDs inside the box without leaving the blog page they are on. Blog publishers can populate their boxes by tag or with specific items of their selection. I think this is going to be big..."
"San Francisco based GoodStorm will soon launch a new program called MeCommerce that will allow bloggers to insert product listings in a javascript and iframe box on their sites and keep 50% of the retail mark-up for themselves. Blog readers will be able to purchase books and CDs inside the box without leaving the blog page they are on. Blog publishers can populate their boxes by tag or with specific items of their selection. I think this is going to be big..."
CNN.com - Safety experts critical of MySpace changes - Jun 23, 2006:
"AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- New security measures for young users of MySpace.com won't be enough to stop online child predators, safety experts warned.
Starting next week, the popular online social network will restrict adult access to the information teenagers post about themselves. (Full story)
MySpace users who are 18 or over could no longer request to be on a 14- or 15-year-old's friends' list unless they already know either the youth's e-mail address or full name. That means they won't have access to personal information on their profiles. (Watch how easy it is for underage kids to meet adults on social networking sites -- 2:59)
'They're going to lie about their ages,' said Monique Nelson, executive vice president of online safety advocate Web Wise Kids. 'There's no way to check age verification. In that respect, I don't think that's going to be very effective.'..."
"AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- New security measures for young users of MySpace.com won't be enough to stop online child predators, safety experts warned.
Starting next week, the popular online social network will restrict adult access to the information teenagers post about themselves. (Full story)
MySpace users who are 18 or over could no longer request to be on a 14- or 15-year-old's friends' list unless they already know either the youth's e-mail address or full name. That means they won't have access to personal information on their profiles. (Watch how easy it is for underage kids to meet adults on social networking sites -- 2:59)
'They're going to lie about their ages,' said Monique Nelson, executive vice president of online safety advocate Web Wise Kids. 'There's no way to check age verification. In that respect, I don't think that's going to be very effective.'..."
Search Engine Journal - YouTube Breaking Into MySpace Territory?:
"Garrett French has the Lowdown on YouTube creeping into MySpace’s backyard with the targeting of musicians and the usage of more personalized profiles. MySpace initially made it big as a central location for music fans to gather and meet on another based upon their musical and pop culture tastes.
Mr. French sees YouTube targeting the active groups of young music fans and perhaps becoming a location where they can share video footage of bands shot with cell phones or camcorders..."
"Garrett French has the Lowdown on YouTube creeping into MySpace’s backyard with the targeting of musicians and the usage of more personalized profiles. MySpace initially made it big as a central location for music fans to gather and meet on another based upon their musical and pop culture tastes.
Mr. French sees YouTube targeting the active groups of young music fans and perhaps becoming a location where they can share video footage of bands shot with cell phones or camcorders..."
Thursday, June 22, 2006
business2blog: B2Day : Social Status:
"The latest numbers are in from comScore on select social networking and media sites. Traffic in May, 2006 broke down like this (in unique visitors, rounded to the nearest million):
1. MySpace—51 million
2. Classmates.com sites—15 million
3. Facebook—14 million
4. YouTube—13 million
5. MSN Spaces—10 million
6. Xanga—7 million
7. Flickr—5 million
8. Yahoo 360—5 million
Just last February, comScore reported only 37 million visitors for MySpace. And YouTube grew 92 percent in the month of May alone (It's traffic in April was 6.6 million).
So the party is still going strong. But when will the beer run out?"
"The latest numbers are in from comScore on select social networking and media sites. Traffic in May, 2006 broke down like this (in unique visitors, rounded to the nearest million):
1. MySpace—51 million
2. Classmates.com sites—15 million
3. Facebook—14 million
4. YouTube—13 million
5. MSN Spaces—10 million
6. Xanga—7 million
7. Flickr—5 million
8. Yahoo 360—5 million
Just last February, comScore reported only 37 million visitors for MySpace. And YouTube grew 92 percent in the month of May alone (It's traffic in April was 6.6 million).
So the party is still going strong. But when will the beer run out?"
MediaPost Publications - Fox Exec: User Info Most Valuable MySpace Asset - 06/09/2006:
"by Shankar Gupta, Friday, Jun 9, 2006 6:00 AM ET
ALTHOUGH MYSPACE HAS BROUGHT SIGNIFICANT traffic to the Fox Interactive family of sites, the biggest asset the network has received from the $580-million-dollar purchase is the information that the sites' millions upon millions of users provide, said Ross Levinsohn, President of Fox Interactive, at a conference in New York City Thursday.
"The digital gold inside of MySpace wasn't the number of users, but the information they're providing, structured and unstructured data," Levinsohn said--both demographic and psychographic data that Fox Interactive can use to suss out the brand preferences of young people on the Web.
Levinsohn said that the site isn't intended to be like a portal, and that "it's more about [users] presenting themselves to the world" by creatively expressing themselves through their MySpace profiles. "It's important for us not to suppress that--not to push content," he said.
More mainstream marketing on MySpace will be kept to the "well-lit" areas of the site, like the Books, Comedy, Film, and Games sections rather than on individual profile pages, which have less strict content controls--something many advertisers have expressed concerns about. ""We want to make it easier for marketers to work with us," Levinsohn said. "We have a lot of work to do."..."
"by Shankar Gupta, Friday, Jun 9, 2006 6:00 AM ET
ALTHOUGH MYSPACE HAS BROUGHT SIGNIFICANT traffic to the Fox Interactive family of sites, the biggest asset the network has received from the $580-million-dollar purchase is the information that the sites' millions upon millions of users provide, said Ross Levinsohn, President of Fox Interactive, at a conference in New York City Thursday.
"The digital gold inside of MySpace wasn't the number of users, but the information they're providing, structured and unstructured data," Levinsohn said--both demographic and psychographic data that Fox Interactive can use to suss out the brand preferences of young people on the Web.
Levinsohn said that the site isn't intended to be like a portal, and that "it's more about [users] presenting themselves to the world" by creatively expressing themselves through their MySpace profiles. "It's important for us not to suppress that--not to push content," he said.
More mainstream marketing on MySpace will be kept to the "well-lit" areas of the site, like the Books, Comedy, Film, and Games sections rather than on individual profile pages, which have less strict content controls--something many advertisers have expressed concerns about. ""We want to make it easier for marketers to work with us," Levinsohn said. "We have a lot of work to do."..."
GigaOM : » Of Social Nets & Business Models:
"Last week at a conference in New York City, the head of Fox Interactive Media, Ross Levinsohn, told the audience:
“More mainstream marketing on MySpace will be kept to the “well-lit” areas of the site, like the Books, Comedy, Film, and Games sections rather than on individual profile pages, which have less strict content controls–something many advertisers have expressed concerns about.” “We want to make it easier for marketers to work with us,” Levinsohn said..."
"Last week at a conference in New York City, the head of Fox Interactive Media, Ross Levinsohn, told the audience:
“More mainstream marketing on MySpace will be kept to the “well-lit” areas of the site, like the Books, Comedy, Film, and Games sections rather than on individual profile pages, which have less strict content controls–something many advertisers have expressed concerns about.” “We want to make it easier for marketers to work with us,” Levinsohn said..."
Top Microsoft exec heading Google challenge leaves company - Jun. 21, 2006:
"...SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft said Tuesday the executive leading the world's largest software maker's marketing strategy to challenge rival Google has left the company, at a time when Microsoft struggles to solidify new sources of revenue growth.
Microsoft did not detail why Martin Taylor left the world's biggest software maker after the 13-year company veteran was appointed in March to lead marketing efforts for Windows Live.
Microsoft's suite of Windows Live services, which includes e-mail, search, mapping and social networking, aims to unite the company's various Web programs under a unified brand and look so it can better compete against Yahoo (Charts) and Google (Charts) in the fast-growing online advertising market.
The move by Taylor also comes as Microsoft, whose Windows operating system runs an estimated 90 percent of the world's personal computers, struggles to find new sources of growth in a software market that is rapidly evolving.
"Advertising is a key component that didn't exist before," said Tim Bajarin, analyst at market research firm Creative Strategies. "Subscriptions are a key component that didn't exist before."
Taylor's departure follows the decision announced last week by Microsoft's co-founder and the world's richest man Bill Gates that over the next two years he would ease out of a day-to-day role at the company to focus more on philanthropy.
Gates, who also stepped down last week as chief software architect for Microsoft, passed the technical mantle to Ray Ozzie. Ozzie joined the software maker last year and is at the heart of its push to maintain its dominance by transforming software into services that generate an ongoing stream of revenue instead of just a one-time sale.
"The fact is that with Ray Ozzie as chief software architect he probably wants to have his own team of people around him," Bajarin said. "In a lot of cases, people from the past don't fit in."..."
"...SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft said Tuesday the executive leading the world's largest software maker's marketing strategy to challenge rival Google has left the company, at a time when Microsoft struggles to solidify new sources of revenue growth.
Microsoft did not detail why Martin Taylor left the world's biggest software maker after the 13-year company veteran was appointed in March to lead marketing efforts for Windows Live.
Microsoft's suite of Windows Live services, which includes e-mail, search, mapping and social networking, aims to unite the company's various Web programs under a unified brand and look so it can better compete against Yahoo (Charts) and Google (Charts) in the fast-growing online advertising market.
The move by Taylor also comes as Microsoft, whose Windows operating system runs an estimated 90 percent of the world's personal computers, struggles to find new sources of growth in a software market that is rapidly evolving.
"Advertising is a key component that didn't exist before," said Tim Bajarin, analyst at market research firm Creative Strategies. "Subscriptions are a key component that didn't exist before."
Taylor's departure follows the decision announced last week by Microsoft's co-founder and the world's richest man Bill Gates that over the next two years he would ease out of a day-to-day role at the company to focus more on philanthropy.
Gates, who also stepped down last week as chief software architect for Microsoft, passed the technical mantle to Ray Ozzie. Ozzie joined the software maker last year and is at the heart of its push to maintain its dominance by transforming software into services that generate an ongoing stream of revenue instead of just a one-time sale.
"The fact is that with Ray Ozzie as chief software architect he probably wants to have his own team of people around him," Bajarin said. "In a lot of cases, people from the past don't fit in."..."
"Unlisted" Picasa Albums Listed on Google:
"So, the first “unlisted” albums of Picasa Web are listed – where else – on a Google web search. (Remember, Google allows you to switch between “public” or “unlisted,” but unlisted doesn’t mean “private.”) Even though Picasa Web disallows indexing of its albums via the robots.txt file, Google still lists the URLs, presumably because it found them linked in public places (which would make the listing more harmless) or saw them transmitted via the Google Toolbar (which would be a bit worse). While I only found two “unlisted” albums* so far in Google’s roughly 200 results – not entering random album titles, but simply following Google’s links – this might foreshadow what’s to come unless Google clarifies their interface.
Larry Page, in the meantime, removed the photo we found in his “unlisted” album.
*Note that when you hit on an “unlisted” album, the title may still read “Public Gallery.” To check if the album is really saved under a “Public” setting, truncate the URL so you’re landing on this user’s overview page, and check if the album you saw is listed there.
Update: Google reworded some parts of the public vs unlisted interface (see the comments for more)..."
"So, the first “unlisted” albums of Picasa Web are listed – where else – on a Google web search. (Remember, Google allows you to switch between “public” or “unlisted,” but unlisted doesn’t mean “private.”) Even though Picasa Web disallows indexing of its albums via the robots.txt file, Google still lists the URLs, presumably because it found them linked in public places (which would make the listing more harmless) or saw them transmitted via the Google Toolbar (which would be a bit worse). While I only found two “unlisted” albums* so far in Google’s roughly 200 results – not entering random album titles, but simply following Google’s links – this might foreshadow what’s to come unless Google clarifies their interface.
Larry Page, in the meantime, removed the photo we found in his “unlisted” album.
*Note that when you hit on an “unlisted” album, the title may still read “Public Gallery.” To check if the album is really saved under a “Public” setting, truncate the URL so you’re landing on this user’s overview page, and check if the album you saw is listed there.
Update: Google reworded some parts of the public vs unlisted interface (see the comments for more)..."
How Billions of Bogus Pages Undermine Search Engines, Advertisers and The Web:
"Over the weekend, Monetize, a blog dedicated to tricking search engines, described how a blackhat got Google to index over 5 billion webpages within three weeks. Yahoo and MSN were fooled, too, though nowhere near as badly. (MSN, for example, indexed just 62 pages before cutting him off.)
Searchers who landed on the pages were treated to copy scraped from legitimate websites, along with Pay-Per-Click ads from Google or Yahoo.
The effort seems to have met some success. Third-party traffic monitor Alexa noticed enough activity to rank at least one of the rogue sites among the 2,000 highest traffic sites on the web. That's a phenomenal ranking for any site, especially a three week old site based in Romania....
...Back in April, spyware hunter Ben Edelman charged that some adware automatically clicks on pay-per-click advertisements presented by Yahoo on the websites of Yahoo syndication partners. And Edelman named names.
He has since joined the legal teams are pursuing Yahoo for enabling Pay-Per-Click fraud...
...As searchers and advertisers grow more restive, the Search-and-PPC biz looks increasingly dicey... especially for those who depend on it for over 90% of their revenue, like Google, whose SEC filing reminds:
The Company's revenues are principally derived from online advertising, the market for which is highly competitive and rapidly changing. Significant changes in this industry or changes in customer buying behavior could adversely affect the Company's operating results...
...What the world needs now is someone with global reach, clean search results, and thoroughly authenticated ad servers.
Could be just what the doctor ordered... for Microsoft?"
"Over the weekend, Monetize, a blog dedicated to tricking search engines, described how a blackhat got Google to index over 5 billion webpages within three weeks. Yahoo and MSN were fooled, too, though nowhere near as badly. (MSN, for example, indexed just 62 pages before cutting him off.)
Searchers who landed on the pages were treated to copy scraped from legitimate websites, along with Pay-Per-Click ads from Google or Yahoo.
The effort seems to have met some success. Third-party traffic monitor Alexa noticed enough activity to rank at least one of the rogue sites among the 2,000 highest traffic sites on the web. That's a phenomenal ranking for any site, especially a three week old site based in Romania....
...Back in April, spyware hunter Ben Edelman charged that some adware automatically clicks on pay-per-click advertisements presented by Yahoo on the websites of Yahoo syndication partners. And Edelman named names.
He has since joined the legal teams are pursuing Yahoo for enabling Pay-Per-Click fraud...
...As searchers and advertisers grow more restive, the Search-and-PPC biz looks increasingly dicey... especially for those who depend on it for over 90% of their revenue, like Google, whose SEC filing reminds:
The Company's revenues are principally derived from online advertising, the market for which is highly competitive and rapidly changing. Significant changes in this industry or changes in customer buying behavior could adversely affect the Company's operating results...
...What the world needs now is someone with global reach, clean search results, and thoroughly authenticated ad servers.
Could be just what the doctor ordered... for Microsoft?"
John Battelle's Searchblog: News: Google Pay Per Action Network Test
"According to the SeekingAlpha site, Google is testing a CPA (cost per action) network - the kind of approach Bill Gross is trying at Snap, and many others, like Valueclick, have employed, with limited success so far. Why? Is Google hedging against click fraud and spam? Is this just spaghetti against the wall? I am asking now....so far, this is still officially unconfirmed.
The detail they have over at SeekingAlpha - from a note to one of the members inviting him into the test - is interesting in itself. Google is clearly changing the rules with CPA. For instance:..."
"According to the SeekingAlpha site, Google is testing a CPA (cost per action) network - the kind of approach Bill Gross is trying at Snap, and many others, like Valueclick, have employed, with limited success so far. Why? Is Google hedging against click fraud and spam? Is this just spaghetti against the wall? I am asking now....so far, this is still officially unconfirmed.
The detail they have over at SeekingAlpha - from a note to one of the members inviting him into the test - is interesting in itself. Google is clearly changing the rules with CPA. For instance:..."
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
eMarketer.com - The Internet: Where the Money Is:
"...According to the new eMarketer report, Financial Services Online Marketing, the US financial services industy's online ad spending will increase by 33.3% this year and it will reach $3.52 billion in 2010.
"Last year, financial services accounted for 12% of all online advertising, about $1.5 billion of the total $12.5 billion spent online last year," says Lisa Phillips, eMarketer Senior Analyst and author of the report. "In fact, the category's total in 2005 represented a decline of 8.1% from 2004 spending levels, when financial services accounted for 17% of all online spending."
This year, however, got off to a fast start, with a huge increase (139%) in the number of financial service display ads served between December 2005 and April 2006, according to report from Nielsen//NetRatings.
The pace will probably remain torrid through the summer, and slacken in the final quarter of the year around the holidays and the Congressional mid-term elections.
"Search advertising, an area not tracked by some researchers, is a major expense in some financial segments, such as mortgages, loans and investments, and a necessary one in all others," says Ms. Phillips. "Cost for pertinent keywords could go higher across the board as more and more debt-strapped US consumers turn to the Internet for help."
In addition, the rich media format, currently the least-used by financial marketers, could gain favor as a way to introduce new products, benefits and financial tools to consumers.
"Financial service marketers are testing more interactive channels to reach consumers," says Ms. Phillips.
Behavioral targeting is one of them: 72% of financial services marketers polled by Forrester Research late in 2005 said they were either using, piloting or planning to try the tactic in 2006. Rich media display ads and contextual targeting were also high on the list.
Emerging tactics, such as blogs, social networks, mobile marketing, podcasts and RSS and advergaming, were less popular, but on the radar of about one-third to one-quarter of the financial services marketers surveyed.
Keep up with the changes — and the competition — read the new eMarketer report, Financial Services Online Marketing, today..."
"...According to the new eMarketer report, Financial Services Online Marketing, the US financial services industy's online ad spending will increase by 33.3% this year and it will reach $3.52 billion in 2010.
"Last year, financial services accounted for 12% of all online advertising, about $1.5 billion of the total $12.5 billion spent online last year," says Lisa Phillips, eMarketer Senior Analyst and author of the report. "In fact, the category's total in 2005 represented a decline of 8.1% from 2004 spending levels, when financial services accounted for 17% of all online spending."
This year, however, got off to a fast start, with a huge increase (139%) in the number of financial service display ads served between December 2005 and April 2006, according to report from Nielsen//NetRatings.
The pace will probably remain torrid through the summer, and slacken in the final quarter of the year around the holidays and the Congressional mid-term elections.
"Search advertising, an area not tracked by some researchers, is a major expense in some financial segments, such as mortgages, loans and investments, and a necessary one in all others," says Ms. Phillips. "Cost for pertinent keywords could go higher across the board as more and more debt-strapped US consumers turn to the Internet for help."
In addition, the rich media format, currently the least-used by financial marketers, could gain favor as a way to introduce new products, benefits and financial tools to consumers.
"Financial service marketers are testing more interactive channels to reach consumers," says Ms. Phillips.
Behavioral targeting is one of them: 72% of financial services marketers polled by Forrester Research late in 2005 said they were either using, piloting or planning to try the tactic in 2006. Rich media display ads and contextual targeting were also high on the list.
Emerging tactics, such as blogs, social networks, mobile marketing, podcasts and RSS and advergaming, were less popular, but on the radar of about one-third to one-quarter of the financial services marketers surveyed.
Keep up with the changes — and the competition — read the new eMarketer report, Financial Services Online Marketing, today..."
Monday, June 19, 2006
Video sites grapple with specter of smut | CNET News.com:
"...Unlike New York's consumer protection board, the federal government does have the power to force change. A bill proposed this month in the U.S. Senate would require any Web site that offers sexually explicit content to post warning labels on each offending page or face imprisonment.
The authors of the bill, called the Stop Adults' Facilitation of the Exploitation of Youth Act, or the Safety Act, want to decrease the chances that children can inadvertently be exposed to pornography by Web sites that mislabel their materials either deliberately or through negligence.
And video-sharing sites are likely to face enormous pressure to clean up their sites from big advertisers. Some companies are eager to partner with the sector's powerhouses but will steer clear if it means that one of their ads sits next to unsuitable content, said Greg Sterling, who operates Web research company Sterling Market Intelligence.
"There's absolutely a big opportunity for these sites to sell advertising, provided that they guarantee (what kind of) content...goes next to the ads," Sterling said. "Advertisers are going to want control of where their brands are placed."
That's not going to be easy for some sites. Take, for example, YouTube, the largest video-sharing site, with nearly 13 million users per month. Guaranteeing the quality of content on the site would mean hiring employees to eyeball each frame of the more than 50,000 videos that get posted daily. YouTube allows videos to last up to 10 minutes, but most are much shorter. If the average video is 3 minutes, then YouTube would be monitoring 2,500 hours worth of video a day.
"It's going to be hard to guarantee absolute protection," said Mike McGuire, a research analyst at Gartner. "You have to wonder if (these sites) foresaw the kind of expense and effort that they are going to have to put into monitoring their sites."...
...YouTube users can flag content they think violates the user agreement. If a video collects enough flags (the company declines to publish the number), YouTube will review the clip, and pull it if executives agree the material is objectionable, Supan said.
But not all flagged material gets pulled. If executives think a clip doesn't violate the agreement, it remains on the site but is accessible only to registered users 18 and older. YouTube encourages visitors to register, a process that requires entering a birth date. People who say they're younger than 13 are barred from registering.
This restriction process, however, can be circumvented. In one instance, News.com encountered a clip that had been flagged and restricted, but an identical, unrestricted clip was available under a slightly different title.
And there's no guarantee that a potentially objectionable clip will come to light to begin with. An unrestricted clip of a female television host in Europe, who spoke to a live audience while wearing only a bikini bottom, was available on the site for at least three days.
Over at Google Video, which also said it relies on user feedback to monitor content, material uploaded in recent weeks includes a parody of a car commercial that features an announcer using numerous expletives during a mock sales pitch.
"Self-policing flat out doesn't work," said Peter Pham, director of business development at Photobucket, a fast-growing photo-sharing site that has recently jumped into video. "The problem is that most of the people finding this material are the people who are looking for this material. And they aren't going to complain."
By eyeballing each frame of every clip submitted, companies such as Photobucket and San Diego-based start-up vMix want to avoid angering advertisers or family advocates. All videos on Photobucket's site get reviewed, Pham said. The company has developed software that creates a frame-by-frame "map" of a video, allowing workers to evaluate content at a glance, Pham said, adding that Photobucket recently hired 50 people to monitor incoming video and photos.
In other news:
* A bill of rights for Net users?
* Online shifts for Windows
* Road Trip 2006: At the helm of the 'Spruce Goose'
* News.com Extra: The vacancy fit for a king
* Video: Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose
A family-friendly site doesn't come cheap. The projected cost of all of this is $2 million per year, Pham said. VMix is doing something similar on a smaller scale...."
"...Unlike New York's consumer protection board, the federal government does have the power to force change. A bill proposed this month in the U.S. Senate would require any Web site that offers sexually explicit content to post warning labels on each offending page or face imprisonment.
The authors of the bill, called the Stop Adults' Facilitation of the Exploitation of Youth Act, or the Safety Act, want to decrease the chances that children can inadvertently be exposed to pornography by Web sites that mislabel their materials either deliberately or through negligence.
And video-sharing sites are likely to face enormous pressure to clean up their sites from big advertisers. Some companies are eager to partner with the sector's powerhouses but will steer clear if it means that one of their ads sits next to unsuitable content, said Greg Sterling, who operates Web research company Sterling Market Intelligence.
"There's absolutely a big opportunity for these sites to sell advertising, provided that they guarantee (what kind of) content...goes next to the ads," Sterling said. "Advertisers are going to want control of where their brands are placed."
That's not going to be easy for some sites. Take, for example, YouTube, the largest video-sharing site, with nearly 13 million users per month. Guaranteeing the quality of content on the site would mean hiring employees to eyeball each frame of the more than 50,000 videos that get posted daily. YouTube allows videos to last up to 10 minutes, but most are much shorter. If the average video is 3 minutes, then YouTube would be monitoring 2,500 hours worth of video a day.
"It's going to be hard to guarantee absolute protection," said Mike McGuire, a research analyst at Gartner. "You have to wonder if (these sites) foresaw the kind of expense and effort that they are going to have to put into monitoring their sites."...
...YouTube users can flag content they think violates the user agreement. If a video collects enough flags (the company declines to publish the number), YouTube will review the clip, and pull it if executives agree the material is objectionable, Supan said.
But not all flagged material gets pulled. If executives think a clip doesn't violate the agreement, it remains on the site but is accessible only to registered users 18 and older. YouTube encourages visitors to register, a process that requires entering a birth date. People who say they're younger than 13 are barred from registering.
This restriction process, however, can be circumvented. In one instance, News.com encountered a clip that had been flagged and restricted, but an identical, unrestricted clip was available under a slightly different title.
And there's no guarantee that a potentially objectionable clip will come to light to begin with. An unrestricted clip of a female television host in Europe, who spoke to a live audience while wearing only a bikini bottom, was available on the site for at least three days.
Over at Google Video, which also said it relies on user feedback to monitor content, material uploaded in recent weeks includes a parody of a car commercial that features an announcer using numerous expletives during a mock sales pitch.
"Self-policing flat out doesn't work," said Peter Pham, director of business development at Photobucket, a fast-growing photo-sharing site that has recently jumped into video. "The problem is that most of the people finding this material are the people who are looking for this material. And they aren't going to complain."
By eyeballing each frame of every clip submitted, companies such as Photobucket and San Diego-based start-up vMix want to avoid angering advertisers or family advocates. All videos on Photobucket's site get reviewed, Pham said. The company has developed software that creates a frame-by-frame "map" of a video, allowing workers to evaluate content at a glance, Pham said, adding that Photobucket recently hired 50 people to monitor incoming video and photos.
In other news:
* A bill of rights for Net users?
* Online shifts for Windows
* Road Trip 2006: At the helm of the 'Spruce Goose'
* News.com Extra: The vacancy fit for a king
* Video: Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose
A family-friendly site doesn't come cheap. The projected cost of all of this is $2 million per year, Pham said. VMix is doing something similar on a smaller scale...."
Right Media launches online ad auction | CNET News.com:
" New York-based Right Media was set to launch an automated online ad exchange Monday that would allow Web sites to auction off display ad space to the highest bidder, rather than having to go through ad networks or agencies that set prices and take a cut.
Right Media offers advertisers the option to bid on non-premium, or commodity ad space, for display or banner ads, said Michael Walrath, chief executive of Right Media.
It serves as an alternative to ad networks in which prices are set, like Yahoo Publisher Network and ValueClick, he said. Right Media Exchange will take, on average, 7.5 percent of each transaction, he added.
After 15 months of building up the platform, Right Media Exchange has 11,000 advertisers and $12.5 million in total revenue changes hands on the exchange monthly, according to Walrath..."
" New York-based Right Media was set to launch an automated online ad exchange Monday that would allow Web sites to auction off display ad space to the highest bidder, rather than having to go through ad networks or agencies that set prices and take a cut.
Right Media offers advertisers the option to bid on non-premium, or commodity ad space, for display or banner ads, said Michael Walrath, chief executive of Right Media.
It serves as an alternative to ad networks in which prices are set, like Yahoo Publisher Network and ValueClick, he said. Right Media Exchange will take, on average, 7.5 percent of each transaction, he added.
After 15 months of building up the platform, Right Media Exchange has 11,000 advertisers and $12.5 million in total revenue changes hands on the exchange monthly, according to Walrath..."
Search Engine Journal » New York Times Happy About (.com) Online Results:
"...* May 2006 advertising revenues for the Company’s business units increased 4.4% and total Company revenues increased 4.0% compared with May 2005.
* The Internet ad revenues included in the three media groups above increased 26.9% due to continued robust growth in both display and classified advertising.
* At the end of May, TimesSelect, the fee-based product on NYTimes.com that includes The Times’s distinctive columnists and extensive access to its archives, had approximately 490,000 subscribers, with about 63% receiving TimesSelect as a benefit of their home-delivery subscriptions and 37% receiving it from online-only subscriptions.
* Advertising revenues for About.com rose 59.0%. May’s growth was principally due to a significant increase in cost-per-click advertising. In addition, strength in display advertising continued with increased revenues from the retail, telecommunications, technology and consumer package goods categories. About also showed strong gains in revenue from pharmaceutical, financial, travel, entertainment and auto advertisers. (emphasis mine)..."
"...* May 2006 advertising revenues for the Company’s business units increased 4.4% and total Company revenues increased 4.0% compared with May 2005.
* The Internet ad revenues included in the three media groups above increased 26.9% due to continued robust growth in both display and classified advertising.
* At the end of May, TimesSelect, the fee-based product on NYTimes.com that includes The Times’s distinctive columnists and extensive access to its archives, had approximately 490,000 subscribers, with about 63% receiving TimesSelect as a benefit of their home-delivery subscriptions and 37% receiving it from online-only subscriptions.
* Advertising revenues for About.com rose 59.0%. May’s growth was principally due to a significant increase in cost-per-click advertising. In addition, strength in display advertising continued with increased revenues from the retail, telecommunications, technology and consumer package goods categories. About also showed strong gains in revenue from pharmaceutical, financial, travel, entertainment and auto advertisers. (emphasis mine)..."
Mining for Gold on MySpace:
"...Yet for an operation of its size, MySpace still generates only a small amount of revenue. Its nearest rivals on the Web are multibillion-dollar companies. News Corp. won't say how much revenue MySpace generates, but one person familiar with the company says it makes about $100 million in banner ads. That's not bad for a startup, especially since industry insiders say it was generating several million dollars a year in profit before News Corp. bought it. However, it's not nearly enough to move the needle at giant News Corp., where money is measured in billions...
...Given MySpace's power, Google (GOOG ), Yahoo! (YHOO ), and MSN (MSFT ) are expected to compete fiercely for the right to be the search engine of choice for MySpace and the rest of Fox Interactive. News Corp. won't say how much money it expects to derive from a deal, but industry experts say it could conceivably boost MySpace's annual revenue several times over. "The deal will probably be worth hundreds of millions of dollars," says Chris Sherman, executive editor of Searchenginewatch.com.
FIM has been reevaluating its search strategy for some time. It currently has a deal with Revenue Science, a company that sells a souped-up version of Yahoo Search. Revenue Science specializes in targeting search ads based on users' behavior. That's a natural for MySpace, which gleans lots of valuable demographic data from its users' profiles. But Sherman suspects MySpace gets very little, if any, revenue from that deal. By dealing directly with a powerful search engine, MySpace could move search from the expense to the revenue column, he speculates...
...MySpace already drives a huge amount of traffic to search engines. It generates 100 million searches a month. In fact, 5% of all searches on the Web and 8% of all searches on Google are originated by people who come directly from MySpace. Given its power, MySpace may be able to bargain for 25% to 35% of all the advertising revenue on pages that it generates for a search partner, according to Ali Diab, a former Yahoo search executive.
A good search deal could have several economic benefits for MySpace. It would boost traffic, because users would be less inclined to leave the site to conduct their searches. And that added traffic would raise the value of advertising on MySpace. FIM won't say how much it charges advertisers now, but it's believed to be less than $1 per million impressions. There are parts of Yahoo and MSN that charge many times that rate.
MODEL IN THE MAKING? There are several reasons why MySpace rates are lower. Some advertisers are reluctant to be associated with the freewheeling site, which has concerned some as a potential hunting ground for sexual predators (see Businessweek.com, 5/12/06, "No Space for MySpace?"). And Diab notes that other sites, such as Yahoo, generate searches that are directly related to commerce. That's more lucrative than MySpace searches, which tend to be more about finding individuals or groups of people, he says (see BusinessWeek.com, 5/8/06, "Guide to MySpace").
Search will become an increasingly important tool within MySpace. Sherman says that until now users have navigated by clicking on profiles found on long lists of "friends." But with 51.4 million users last month, "a more efficient way of finding people will become necessary," he says.
One way or another, MySpace and FIM will need a search engine with strong video and audio capability. MySpace is a popular site among musicians and their fans, and videos are popular as well. It isn't out of the question that FIM could still develop a relationship with a cutting-edge search engine such as Blinx, a leader in video search, Sherman says.
WORK IN PROGRESS. For the moment, it appears that MySpace has proven itself to be more than just a passing fad. But it remains to be seen whether a business model which is effective for a startup can have a major impact on the multibillion-dollar bottom line at News Corp.
Creating an effective search strategy could be a crucial element in FIM's emerging business model... "
"...Yet for an operation of its size, MySpace still generates only a small amount of revenue. Its nearest rivals on the Web are multibillion-dollar companies. News Corp. won't say how much revenue MySpace generates, but one person familiar with the company says it makes about $100 million in banner ads. That's not bad for a startup, especially since industry insiders say it was generating several million dollars a year in profit before News Corp. bought it. However, it's not nearly enough to move the needle at giant News Corp., where money is measured in billions...
...Given MySpace's power, Google (GOOG ), Yahoo! (YHOO ), and MSN (MSFT ) are expected to compete fiercely for the right to be the search engine of choice for MySpace and the rest of Fox Interactive. News Corp. won't say how much money it expects to derive from a deal, but industry experts say it could conceivably boost MySpace's annual revenue several times over. "The deal will probably be worth hundreds of millions of dollars," says Chris Sherman, executive editor of Searchenginewatch.com.
FIM has been reevaluating its search strategy for some time. It currently has a deal with Revenue Science, a company that sells a souped-up version of Yahoo Search. Revenue Science specializes in targeting search ads based on users' behavior. That's a natural for MySpace, which gleans lots of valuable demographic data from its users' profiles. But Sherman suspects MySpace gets very little, if any, revenue from that deal. By dealing directly with a powerful search engine, MySpace could move search from the expense to the revenue column, he speculates...
...MySpace already drives a huge amount of traffic to search engines. It generates 100 million searches a month. In fact, 5% of all searches on the Web and 8% of all searches on Google are originated by people who come directly from MySpace. Given its power, MySpace may be able to bargain for 25% to 35% of all the advertising revenue on pages that it generates for a search partner, according to Ali Diab, a former Yahoo search executive.
A good search deal could have several economic benefits for MySpace. It would boost traffic, because users would be less inclined to leave the site to conduct their searches. And that added traffic would raise the value of advertising on MySpace. FIM won't say how much it charges advertisers now, but it's believed to be less than $1 per million impressions. There are parts of Yahoo and MSN that charge many times that rate.
MODEL IN THE MAKING? There are several reasons why MySpace rates are lower. Some advertisers are reluctant to be associated with the freewheeling site, which has concerned some as a potential hunting ground for sexual predators (see Businessweek.com, 5/12/06, "No Space for MySpace?"). And Diab notes that other sites, such as Yahoo, generate searches that are directly related to commerce. That's more lucrative than MySpace searches, which tend to be more about finding individuals or groups of people, he says (see BusinessWeek.com, 5/8/06, "Guide to MySpace").
Search will become an increasingly important tool within MySpace. Sherman says that until now users have navigated by clicking on profiles found on long lists of "friends." But with 51.4 million users last month, "a more efficient way of finding people will become necessary," he says.
One way or another, MySpace and FIM will need a search engine with strong video and audio capability. MySpace is a popular site among musicians and their fans, and videos are popular as well. It isn't out of the question that FIM could still develop a relationship with a cutting-edge search engine such as Blinx, a leader in video search, Sherman says.
WORK IN PROGRESS. For the moment, it appears that MySpace has proven itself to be more than just a passing fad. But it remains to be seen whether a business model which is effective for a startup can have a major impact on the multibillion-dollar bottom line at News Corp.
Creating an effective search strategy could be a crucial element in FIM's emerging business model... "
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Hiding in Plain Sight, Google Seeks More Power - New York Times:
"...Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are spending vast sums of capital to build out their computing capabilities to run both search engines and a variety of Web services that encompass e-mail, video and music downloads and online commerce.
Microsoft stunned analysts last quarter when it announced that it would spend an unanticipated $2 billion next year, much of it in an effort to catch up with Google. Google said its own capital expenditures would run to at least $1.5 billion. Its center here, whose cost is undisclosed, shows what that money is meant to buy...
..."Google wants to raise the barriers to entry by competitors by making the baseline service very expensive," said Brian Reid, a former Google executive who is now director of engineering at the Internet Systems Consortium in Redwood City, Calif.
The rate at which the Google computing system has grown is as remarkable as its size. In March 2001, when the company was serving about 70 million Web pages daily, it had 8,000 computers, according to a Microsoft researcher granted anonymity to talk about a detailed tour he was given at one of Google's Silicon Valley computing centers. By 2003 the number had grown to 100,000.
Today even the closest Google watchers have lost precise count of how big the system is. The best guess is that Google now has more than 450,000 servers spread over at least 25 locations around the world. The company has major operations in Ireland, and a big computing center has recently been completed in Atlanta. Connecting these centers is a high-capacity fiber optic network that the company has assembled over the last few years..."
"...Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are spending vast sums of capital to build out their computing capabilities to run both search engines and a variety of Web services that encompass e-mail, video and music downloads and online commerce.
Microsoft stunned analysts last quarter when it announced that it would spend an unanticipated $2 billion next year, much of it in an effort to catch up with Google. Google said its own capital expenditures would run to at least $1.5 billion. Its center here, whose cost is undisclosed, shows what that money is meant to buy...
..."Google wants to raise the barriers to entry by competitors by making the baseline service very expensive," said Brian Reid, a former Google executive who is now director of engineering at the Internet Systems Consortium in Redwood City, Calif.
The rate at which the Google computing system has grown is as remarkable as its size. In March 2001, when the company was serving about 70 million Web pages daily, it had 8,000 computers, according to a Microsoft researcher granted anonymity to talk about a detailed tour he was given at one of Google's Silicon Valley computing centers. By 2003 the number had grown to 100,000.
Today even the closest Google watchers have lost precise count of how big the system is. The best guess is that Google now has more than 450,000 servers spread over at least 25 locations around the world. The company has major operations in Ireland, and a big computing center has recently been completed in Atlanta. Connecting these centers is a high-capacity fiber optic network that the company has assembled over the last few years..."
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
eMarketer.com - Web Now a Mass Medium?:
"JUNE 14, 2006
Click! A big channel change in the world of media.
According to a new research study, "A Day in the Life: An Ethnographic Study of Media Consumption," from the Online Publishers Association (OPA), conducted by Ball State University's Center for Media Design, when it comes to at-work media use, the Internet dominates television, the next closest medium, and is the only medium that ranks among the top two at both work and home.
The study found that the Internet had 54.6% reach at work, compared to television's 21.1%, a sizable gap.
While television still leads at home, the Internet led radio, newspapers and magazines.
"The evidence of the web's rise to mass media status is now clear and incontrovertible," said Pam Horan, OPA president. "Industry data shows that the web takes up between 20 and 25% of consumers' overall media time, but attracts about 8% of advertising dollars. While advertisers have been steadily moving to the web in recent years, this research indicates the shift should be on a much faster pace."
The research also revealed that the Internet is a powerful tool for extending the reach of other media. The web increased the reach of television by 51% in the morning, 39% in the middle of the day, and 42% in the afternoon.
With magazine advertising, the impact was even greater — the Internet more than doubled the reach of magazines.
"It is clear that consumers are consistently online even while they're watching TV or listening to the radio," said Ms. Horan. "This unique attribute of web usage means that advertising messages receive a dramatic boost when online is part of the buy."
Not only are Internet users online more, the study found they spend more. Internet-dominant versus television-dominant consumers spend an average of $5,000 a year more on retail purchases.
The study also found that they rank higher in entertainment, home food, health and travel spending..."
"JUNE 14, 2006
Click! A big channel change in the world of media.
According to a new research study, "A Day in the Life: An Ethnographic Study of Media Consumption," from the Online Publishers Association (OPA), conducted by Ball State University's Center for Media Design, when it comes to at-work media use, the Internet dominates television, the next closest medium, and is the only medium that ranks among the top two at both work and home.
The study found that the Internet had 54.6% reach at work, compared to television's 21.1%, a sizable gap.
While television still leads at home, the Internet led radio, newspapers and magazines.
"The evidence of the web's rise to mass media status is now clear and incontrovertible," said Pam Horan, OPA president. "Industry data shows that the web takes up between 20 and 25% of consumers' overall media time, but attracts about 8% of advertising dollars. While advertisers have been steadily moving to the web in recent years, this research indicates the shift should be on a much faster pace."
The research also revealed that the Internet is a powerful tool for extending the reach of other media. The web increased the reach of television by 51% in the morning, 39% in the middle of the day, and 42% in the afternoon.
With magazine advertising, the impact was even greater — the Internet more than doubled the reach of magazines.
"It is clear that consumers are consistently online even while they're watching TV or listening to the radio," said Ms. Horan. "This unique attribute of web usage means that advertising messages receive a dramatic boost when online is part of the buy."
Not only are Internet users online more, the study found they spend more. Internet-dominant versus television-dominant consumers spend an average of $5,000 a year more on retail purchases.
The study also found that they rank higher in entertainment, home food, health and travel spending..."
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Google's Gbuy nears launch | CNET News.com:
"Google's online payment system, Gbuy, is expected to launch June 28, further pitting the Internet giant against industry titan and rival eBay, according to a research note released Friday by a Wall Street analyst.
Gbuy is expected to be free during the initial phase, but merchants may eventually be charged a 1.5 percent to 2 percent per-transaction fee, Jordan Rohan, an RBC Capital Markets analyst, said in his research note. A fee of that size would be slightly less than that charged by eBay's online payment system, PayPal.
Google was not immediately available to comment.
'The brilliance of Google's Gbuy merchant-to-consumer payment platform lies in what Google may do with the transactional data it captures from the thousands of merchants that may ultimately offer Gbuy,' Rohan said.
Google is able to gather the data when users click on a merchant's Gbuy feature. Consumers are then transferred to Google's Gbuy site, where they complete the transaction.
Google's payment system, as a result, holds the potential to monitor which paid-search results users click on and of that group, which ones turn into actual sales. With that information, Google may find itself in the enviable position of being able to identify which categories bring in the highest return on investment for advertisers, Rohan stated..."
"Google's online payment system, Gbuy, is expected to launch June 28, further pitting the Internet giant against industry titan and rival eBay, according to a research note released Friday by a Wall Street analyst.
Gbuy is expected to be free during the initial phase, but merchants may eventually be charged a 1.5 percent to 2 percent per-transaction fee, Jordan Rohan, an RBC Capital Markets analyst, said in his research note. A fee of that size would be slightly less than that charged by eBay's online payment system, PayPal.
Google was not immediately available to comment.
'The brilliance of Google's Gbuy merchant-to-consumer payment platform lies in what Google may do with the transactional data it captures from the thousands of merchants that may ultimately offer Gbuy,' Rohan said.
Google is able to gather the data when users click on a merchant's Gbuy feature. Consumers are then transferred to Google's Gbuy site, where they complete the transaction.
Google's payment system, as a result, holds the potential to monitor which paid-search results users click on and of that group, which ones turn into actual sales. With that information, Google may find itself in the enviable position of being able to identify which categories bring in the highest return on investment for advertisers, Rohan stated..."
A grand unified theory of YouTube and MySpace. By Paul Boutin:
"...YouTube and MySpace are runaway hits because they combine two attributes rarely found together in tech products. They're easy to use, and they don't tell you what to do.
There are two design requirements for technology meant for the masses. First, you need to automate all the techie parts so people can just press Play. To watch television online, I shouldn't have to install extra video software, figure out my bandwidth setting (100K? 300K?), and sign up for an account with the player's maker. Second, Web moguls shouldn't presume to foresee what 100 million people will want to do with their site. I'm one of many who stopped using Google's Orkut social network because its hardwired page designs made everyone look like they were there to find a date and/or a job.
The guys behind YouTube hit the sweet spot. Most important, they made it head-slappingly easy to publish and play video clips by handling the tricky parts automatically. Given up on BitTorrent because it feels like launching a mission to Mars? If you've sent an e-mail attachment, you've got the tech skills to publish on YouTube.
To post your own video, sign up for a free account and go to the Upload page. Select your file, click the Upload Video button, and you're done! YouTube's servers convert your vid to a standardized format, but you don't need to know what that format is. If you send the URL to your aunt, it'll play in her browser without spraying the screen with pop-ups and errors.
You don't have to upload video to use YouTube. If you just like to watch, it's even easier. There's no software to install, no settings to muck with. The video auto-plays as soon as you load the page, without launching more windows—why can't CNN do that?
Three months ago, I predicted Google Video would become the hottest thing on the Net. I was wrong, and I think Google has failed to take off for the simple reason that it's more annoying to use than YouTube. To begin with, you have to install Google's special uploading application. When I tried to upload the same clips I'd posted to YouTube, Google's app wouldn't let me. I combed through the FAQ and found this: "While we also support other digital formats such as QuickTime, Windows Media, and RealVideo … submitting your files in these formats may significantly delay us from using them on Google Video." Come on, guys. Whatever happened to "I'm Feeling Lucky?"..."
"...YouTube and MySpace are runaway hits because they combine two attributes rarely found together in tech products. They're easy to use, and they don't tell you what to do.
There are two design requirements for technology meant for the masses. First, you need to automate all the techie parts so people can just press Play. To watch television online, I shouldn't have to install extra video software, figure out my bandwidth setting (100K? 300K?), and sign up for an account with the player's maker. Second, Web moguls shouldn't presume to foresee what 100 million people will want to do with their site. I'm one of many who stopped using Google's Orkut social network because its hardwired page designs made everyone look like they were there to find a date and/or a job.
The guys behind YouTube hit the sweet spot. Most important, they made it head-slappingly easy to publish and play video clips by handling the tricky parts automatically. Given up on BitTorrent because it feels like launching a mission to Mars? If you've sent an e-mail attachment, you've got the tech skills to publish on YouTube.
To post your own video, sign up for a free account and go to the Upload page. Select your file, click the Upload Video button, and you're done! YouTube's servers convert your vid to a standardized format, but you don't need to know what that format is. If you send the URL to your aunt, it'll play in her browser without spraying the screen with pop-ups and errors.
You don't have to upload video to use YouTube. If you just like to watch, it's even easier. There's no software to install, no settings to muck with. The video auto-plays as soon as you load the page, without launching more windows—why can't CNN do that?
Three months ago, I predicted Google Video would become the hottest thing on the Net. I was wrong, and I think Google has failed to take off for the simple reason that it's more annoying to use than YouTube. To begin with, you have to install Google's special uploading application. When I tried to upload the same clips I'd posted to YouTube, Google's app wouldn't let me. I combed through the FAQ and found this: "While we also support other digital formats such as QuickTime, Windows Media, and RealVideo … submitting your files in these formats may significantly delay us from using them on Google Video." Come on, guys. Whatever happened to "I'm Feeling Lucky?"..."
InformationWeek | Social Networking | Social Networks Attract Nearly Half Of All Web Users | May 12, 2006:
"...The number of visitors to the top 10 social-networking sites soared in April, attracting nearly half of all Web users, a market research firm says.
The top 10 sites collectively grew 47 percent in the United States from the same month a year ago to 68.8 million unique visitors, Nielsen/NetRatings said. The sites reached 45 percent of active Web users.
MySpace, owned by News Corp. and a favorite among teens and young adults, topped the list with a year-over-year growth rate of 367 percent to 38.4 million unique users. Blogger, owned by Google Inc., was second with 18.5 million visitors and an 80 percent growth rate.
Classmates Online grew 10 percent to 12.9 million visitors, and YouTube and Microsoft's MSN Groups, which saw a 14 percent drop in visitors, rounded out the top five with 12.5 million and 10.6 million, respectively.
Jon Gibs, senior director of Nielsen/NetRatings, said social-networking sites are the 'reality television of the Internet.'
“The content is relatively inexpensive for publishers to produce, and social networking is not a fad that will disappear,' ..."
"...The number of visitors to the top 10 social-networking sites soared in April, attracting nearly half of all Web users, a market research firm says.
The top 10 sites collectively grew 47 percent in the United States from the same month a year ago to 68.8 million unique visitors, Nielsen/NetRatings said. The sites reached 45 percent of active Web users.
MySpace, owned by News Corp. and a favorite among teens and young adults, topped the list with a year-over-year growth rate of 367 percent to 38.4 million unique users. Blogger, owned by Google Inc., was second with 18.5 million visitors and an 80 percent growth rate.
Classmates Online grew 10 percent to 12.9 million visitors, and YouTube and Microsoft's MSN Groups, which saw a 14 percent drop in visitors, rounded out the top five with 12.5 million and 10.6 million, respectively.
Jon Gibs, senior director of Nielsen/NetRatings, said social-networking sites are the 'reality television of the Internet.'
“The content is relatively inexpensive for publishers to produce, and social networking is not a fad that will disappear,' ..."
InformationWeek | Open Source | Startup Replacing Linux Desktop With The Web | May 12, 2006:
"Startup Ajax13 Inc. is looking to do to Linux what Microsoft Corp. is doing to Windows -- dissolve the operating system into the Web.
Under the shadow of Microsoft's enormous task of making all of its desktop products available as Web services, the small San Diego company is getting ready to launch in a few weeks what it calls AjaxOS, a desktop application that would link a Linux-based computer to Web applications that mimic some of the most popular desktop software used today..."
"Startup Ajax13 Inc. is looking to do to Linux what Microsoft Corp. is doing to Windows -- dissolve the operating system into the Web.
Under the shadow of Microsoft's enormous task of making all of its desktop products available as Web services, the small San Diego company is getting ready to launch in a few weeks what it calls AjaxOS, a desktop application that would link a Linux-based computer to Web applications that mimic some of the most popular desktop software used today..."
TechCrunch » Blog Archive » PhotoBucket Closes $10.5M From Trinity Ventures:
"...This company is just exploding with growth. PhotoBucket is not a destination site. They’ve capitalized on the photo and video limitations of Myspace and other sites (restrictions on number of photos that may be uploaded, and/or poor tools for doing so) by allowing users to upload photos and videos very easily and display them on these third party sites. And those photos and videos are viewed over 50 billion times per month.
Photobucket is a consumer visual media hosting and publishing service with over 15 million members and 10 million unique monthly visitors, according to Media Metrix. 65,000 new members sign up daily. Members upload personal visual content including videos, images and graphic art and link it to over 50,000 social media, ecommerce, blogging and discussion Web sites like eBay, MySpace, Blogger, and Neopets. Photobucket serves over 50 billion image and video requests per month. Since the launch of its video services in April 2006, Photobucket members have uploaded nearly 1 million video clips at a rate of over 30,000 new videos per day..."
"...This company is just exploding with growth. PhotoBucket is not a destination site. They’ve capitalized on the photo and video limitations of Myspace and other sites (restrictions on number of photos that may be uploaded, and/or poor tools for doing so) by allowing users to upload photos and videos very easily and display them on these third party sites. And those photos and videos are viewed over 50 billion times per month.
Photobucket is a consumer visual media hosting and publishing service with over 15 million members and 10 million unique monthly visitors, according to Media Metrix. 65,000 new members sign up daily. Members upload personal visual content including videos, images and graphic art and link it to over 50,000 social media, ecommerce, blogging and discussion Web sites like eBay, MySpace, Blogger, and Neopets. Photobucket serves over 50 billion image and video requests per month. Since the launch of its video services in April 2006, Photobucket members have uploaded nearly 1 million video clips at a rate of over 30,000 new videos per day..."
TechCrunch » Blog Archive » Moola’s Interesting Business Model:
"Moola is a new website, in private beta, that puts two visitors up against each other in a simple Flash game. The interesting thing about the site is that people are playing for real money.
Moola gives each new user $0.01 to start. You play against another player at your level, and the winner takes all of the money from the other person. So each time you win, you double your money. Win 30 times in a row and win $10.7 million. A user can “cash out” at any time and have a check delivered to them with their current balance. If you lose, you start over at $0.01.
The service is advertising supported. You have to watch a short video ad (every time I played it was for yellowpages.com) and then answer a question correctly about the ad. Once you’ve done that, you can play the next round..."
"Moola is a new website, in private beta, that puts two visitors up against each other in a simple Flash game. The interesting thing about the site is that people are playing for real money.
Moola gives each new user $0.01 to start. You play against another player at your level, and the winner takes all of the money from the other person. So each time you win, you double your money. Win 30 times in a row and win $10.7 million. A user can “cash out” at any time and have a check delivered to them with their current balance. If you lose, you start over at $0.01.
The service is advertising supported. You have to watch a short video ad (every time I played it was for yellowpages.com) and then answer a question correctly about the ad. Once you’ve done that, you can play the next round..."
Yahoo! Search blog: Livesearch on AlltheWeb:
"Today we are introducing a new search technology called Livesearch on AlltheWeb. It helps you find what you want faster, by showing search results instantaneously as you type. Livesearch also shows related queries, spelling suggestions, and enables you to use keyboard shortcuts to help you find the right query faster to get to the results that you want. As some of you might be thinking, this is an evolution of Instant Search and other search technologies we’ve been working on.
Personally, I hope this will level the playing field between my wife and I. You see, even though I work for Yahoo! Search, she has a PhD in communications research, and is clearly the better searcher. When we look for the same topic, she always finds the right answer before I do.
But now, the tables will be turned! Livesearch has that uncanny knack of figuring out exactly what is on my mind. As soon as I start to type a query, Livesearch suggests the right query and shows me the results page before I even press a search button. For example, I wanted to look for “mission impossible 3”. Just as I finished typing “mission”, Livesearch is already recommending “mission impossible 3” as the search, and then instantaneously shows me the results page. I am looking forward to surprising my wife with my new found speed next..."
"Today we are introducing a new search technology called Livesearch on AlltheWeb. It helps you find what you want faster, by showing search results instantaneously as you type. Livesearch also shows related queries, spelling suggestions, and enables you to use keyboard shortcuts to help you find the right query faster to get to the results that you want. As some of you might be thinking, this is an evolution of Instant Search and other search technologies we’ve been working on.
Personally, I hope this will level the playing field between my wife and I. You see, even though I work for Yahoo! Search, she has a PhD in communications research, and is clearly the better searcher. When we look for the same topic, she always finds the right answer before I do.
But now, the tables will be turned! Livesearch has that uncanny knack of figuring out exactly what is on my mind. As soon as I start to type a query, Livesearch suggests the right query and shows me the results page before I even press a search button. For example, I wanted to look for “mission impossible 3”. Just as I finished typing “mission”, Livesearch is already recommending “mission impossible 3” as the search, and then instantaneously shows me the results page. I am looking forward to surprising my wife with my new found speed next..."
Search Engine Lowdown: Search Vortal's MySpace Agreement to Pay MySpace Users For Searches:
"The newly launched 'Search Vortals' offering enables site owners to monetize searches from their sites. The term 'vortal' is an unfortunate conflation of vertical and portal; despite the name I suspect we will be hearing a great deal about the company in the days to come as they conflate MySpace users (and web publishers at large) with the possibility for earning a little beer money...
...It has a "social search" function by which users can vote on the relevance of a given site within the SERPs which I found disorienting because it caused the page to reload. Also I was not "rewarded" by any indication that there had been a change made.
The results are a mashup of crawled data, the specific site's pages and backfill from Yahoo, AltaVista (isn't that Yahoo too?) and Google. They "auto rake and optimize" so that if I'm on a chocolate site and I search for books then SERPs appear with books about chocolate.
The search vortal algo was built initially by a team of 7 guys (in the early phase of the vortal push).
The motivation behind the Mainstream Advertising decision to develop a search engine lies in this statement by Daniel Kay: "it's easy to manipulate Google, Yahoo and MSN's results..." I can imagine how this brash assertion formed given the power of links in rank and the fact that Mainstream Advertising has more than 4 million domains in their portfolio (I should say 4 million VORTALS in their portfolio).
Clearly Mainstream Advertising saw the value in syndicating their 10,000 advertisers' paid search ads across the web - and as an ad network they serve more than 5 billion paid search results a month.
What I see happening is an early widespread adoption by online entrepreneurs and MySpace users. If it works we'll see companies like Eurekster and Rollyo adding a payout to those who run put their search boxes on their sites (if they can get the ad network behind them). This could possibly be a Google or Yahoo too (and would enable folks to monetize their meta-web portals).
Ultimately I think it will be user interface and relevance issues that will relegate Search Vortals to a second-tier on-site search API position though their high payouts will keep them popular with publishers. In short, the company itself will kick ass monetarily but is not likely to advance search or relevance theory very much (this opinion based tenuously on my single conversation with Kay. I'm open to having my opinion changed)..."
"The newly launched 'Search Vortals' offering enables site owners to monetize searches from their sites. The term 'vortal' is an unfortunate conflation of vertical and portal; despite the name I suspect we will be hearing a great deal about the company in the days to come as they conflate MySpace users (and web publishers at large) with the possibility for earning a little beer money...
...It has a "social search" function by which users can vote on the relevance of a given site within the SERPs which I found disorienting because it caused the page to reload. Also I was not "rewarded" by any indication that there had been a change made.
The results are a mashup of crawled data, the specific site's pages and backfill from Yahoo, AltaVista (isn't that Yahoo too?) and Google. They "auto rake and optimize" so that if I'm on a chocolate site and I search for books then SERPs appear with books about chocolate.
The search vortal algo was built initially by a team of 7 guys (in the early phase of the vortal push).
The motivation behind the Mainstream Advertising decision to develop a search engine lies in this statement by Daniel Kay: "it's easy to manipulate Google, Yahoo and MSN's results..." I can imagine how this brash assertion formed given the power of links in rank and the fact that Mainstream Advertising has more than 4 million domains in their portfolio (I should say 4 million VORTALS in their portfolio).
Clearly Mainstream Advertising saw the value in syndicating their 10,000 advertisers' paid search ads across the web - and as an ad network they serve more than 5 billion paid search results a month.
What I see happening is an early widespread adoption by online entrepreneurs and MySpace users. If it works we'll see companies like Eurekster and Rollyo adding a payout to those who run put their search boxes on their sites (if they can get the ad network behind them). This could possibly be a Google or Yahoo too (and would enable folks to monetize their meta-web portals).
Ultimately I think it will be user interface and relevance issues that will relegate Search Vortals to a second-tier on-site search API position though their high payouts will keep them popular with publishers. In short, the company itself will kick ass monetarily but is not likely to advance search or relevance theory very much (this opinion based tenuously on my single conversation with Kay. I'm open to having my opinion changed)..."
Scobleizer - Microsoft Geek Blogger » Blogs having dramatic effect on server market share:
"...'The Internet experienced its strongest site growth ever last month, powered by a surge in blogs and free Web sites.'..."
"...'The Internet experienced its strongest site growth ever last month, powered by a surge in blogs and free Web sites.'..."
John Battelle's Searchblog: Another Hitwise: MySpace Sends 8.2% of Traffic to Google, Implications:
"Another Hitwise: MySpace Sends 8.2% of Traffic to Google, Implications
Wow. I love infoporn. I have a hunch that Mr. Murdoch is thinking hard about this graph:
Myspace Google
From the Hitwise blog: The chart (above) illustrates the percentage upstream from myspace.com to Google.
Going back to the beginning of last year myspace provided less than 1% of all Google traffic.
While myspace.com still doesn't have its own search offering, the shear volume of traffic sent to external search engines could be directed internally with the right acquisition and promotion of its own search offering.
There are a lot of other insights in the piece. I've had MySpace again on my mind after talking Weds with Jon Miller, CEO of AOL. My full interview with him will be up on B2.0 in about a month, but the thing that struck me was how Miller mentioned MySpace in the same breath as Google, AOL, Yahoo, eBay, and Amazon. It had made it into the majors as far as he was concerned, because it owned the social networking space. And why, again, might Google launch Co-op, and AOL AIM Pages? Indeed...."
"Another Hitwise: MySpace Sends 8.2% of Traffic to Google, Implications
Wow. I love infoporn. I have a hunch that Mr. Murdoch is thinking hard about this graph:
Myspace Google
From the Hitwise blog: The chart (above) illustrates the percentage upstream from myspace.com to Google.
Going back to the beginning of last year myspace provided less than 1% of all Google traffic.
While myspace.com still doesn't have its own search offering, the shear volume of traffic sent to external search engines could be directed internally with the right acquisition and promotion of its own search offering.
There are a lot of other insights in the piece. I've had MySpace again on my mind after talking Weds with Jon Miller, CEO of AOL. My full interview with him will be up on B2.0 in about a month, but the thing that struck me was how Miller mentioned MySpace in the same breath as Google, AOL, Yahoo, eBay, and Amazon. It had made it into the majors as far as he was concerned, because it owned the social networking space. And why, again, might Google launch Co-op, and AOL AIM Pages? Indeed...."
Scobleizer - Microsoft Geek Blogger » Blogs having dramatic effect on server market share:
"...'The Internet experienced its strongest site growth ever last month, powered by a surge in blogs and free Web sites.'..."
"...'The Internet experienced its strongest site growth ever last month, powered by a surge in blogs and free Web sites.'..."
Scobleizer - Microsoft Geek Blogger » eBay Buys Into Blogging:
"Alan Lewis, developer evangelist who works at eBay, sent me this one. EBay just opened customer blogs and converted their corporate newsletter to a blog format. Alan's blog is here and it is having its big developer conference this weekend too.
Oh, Christopher Coulter, please ignore. This is just more blog hype..."
"Alan Lewis, developer evangelist who works at eBay, sent me this one. EBay just opened customer blogs and converted their corporate newsletter to a blog format. Alan's blog is here and it is having its big developer conference this weekend too.
Oh, Christopher Coulter, please ignore. This is just more blog hype..."
Friday, June 09, 2006
Yahoo revamps its photo site | InfoWorld | News | 2006-06-09 | By Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service:
"Yahoo retools the photo sharing site's UI to make it behave more like a desktop app
By Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service
June 09, 2006 E-mail Printer Friendly Version
Yahoo has begun testing what it calls the most significant upgrade to Yahoo Photos since its launch in 2000, but only a "limited" group of U.S. users has access to this revamped photo sharing site, the company said Thursday.
Yahoo has retooled the user interface to make it behave more like a desktop PC application with drag-and-drop functionality to simplify photo management and organization.
Another new feature is the ability for users to tag photos with descriptive labels and comments, and thus make it easier to find and share pictures. The site's new Smart Albums functionality detects tags and files photos accordingly in their corresponding albums.
Yahoo is also making available APIs (application programming interfaces) to allow external developers to add to and extend the site's functionality.
Some of these sharing and tagging features have existed for years on other photo sharing sites, including Flickr, which Yahoo acquired last year and which is maintained as a separate site.
Yahoo, of Sunnyvale, California, will open the beta program to users worldwide in the coming months.
The practice of releasing unfinished online services in beta, or test, form to the public has become popular among companies like Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft's MSN unit, which say that user feedback helps them refine the products.
This practice is common among IT vendors, which for decades have enlisted customers to test drive their products before they are finished.
However, a big difference is that IT professionals, who understand they need to conduct the trials in controlled environments, test IT vendors' beta products.
Some have questioned whether mainstream users of Google, Yahoo, and MSN services truly understand the implications of trying out online services that may malfunction, leading to data loss or PC problems..."
"Yahoo retools the photo sharing site's UI to make it behave more like a desktop app
By Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service
June 09, 2006 E-mail Printer Friendly Version
Yahoo has begun testing what it calls the most significant upgrade to Yahoo Photos since its launch in 2000, but only a "limited" group of U.S. users has access to this revamped photo sharing site, the company said Thursday.
Yahoo has retooled the user interface to make it behave more like a desktop PC application with drag-and-drop functionality to simplify photo management and organization.
Another new feature is the ability for users to tag photos with descriptive labels and comments, and thus make it easier to find and share pictures. The site's new Smart Albums functionality detects tags and files photos accordingly in their corresponding albums.
Yahoo is also making available APIs (application programming interfaces) to allow external developers to add to and extend the site's functionality.
Some of these sharing and tagging features have existed for years on other photo sharing sites, including Flickr, which Yahoo acquired last year and which is maintained as a separate site.
Yahoo, of Sunnyvale, California, will open the beta program to users worldwide in the coming months.
The practice of releasing unfinished online services in beta, or test, form to the public has become popular among companies like Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft's MSN unit, which say that user feedback helps them refine the products.
This practice is common among IT vendors, which for decades have enlisted customers to test drive their products before they are finished.
However, a big difference is that IT professionals, who understand they need to conduct the trials in controlled environments, test IT vendors' beta products.
Some have questioned whether mainstream users of Google, Yahoo, and MSN services truly understand the implications of trying out online services that may malfunction, leading to data loss or PC problems..."
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Search Engine Journal - Yahoo MyWeb Redesigns & Adds New Tagging Features:
"Feeling the heat from YouTube, MySpace and even Google; Yahoo has recently been updating and expanding its Social Media offerings into more user friendly and integrated services within the Yahoo network. Last week we saw the launch of the new Yahoo Video with YouTube style video uploading, tagging and sharing. Yahoo also has the foundation of tagging & sharing under its belt in del.icio.us and Flickr.
Yahoo has now redesigned Yahoo MyWeb with a new design and features which add more user friendliness to the social bookmarking experience and hopefully will become a centerpiece of Yahoo social search.
New features include :
* “Top tags” and “interesting today” sections which work a bit like the del.icio.us Popular & Hotlist features
* Search across all public pages in the system
* Ability to export MyWeb bookmarks and pages to any browser format
Tom Chi notes on the Yahoo Search Blog that the most ’significant shift’ in the new Yahoo MyWeb is not the new features but the adaptation of social bookmarking beyond the opinion leaders and techies of the web;
Perhaps the most significant shift in this release has less to do with any one feature, but is simply the realization that social bookmarking is catching on with people with very diverse passions and interests. While the list of popular tags still has entries like “CSS” and “XML”, the more Joshua, Stephen and I look through the data, the more it’s clear that these bookmarks are for Buddhists, and ambient music fans, and breakdancers.
What would I like to see more of in Yahoo MyWeb? Yahoo seems to be lacking a central start page to its social media offerings… sure, it can be argued that search is essentially their social core, but in my opinion since MyWeb is the base of Yahoo search tagging and sharing, making it a central location for the keeping up of tagging by friends and family in other Yahoo Social offerings like Yahoo Video and Flickr would bring MyWeb around full circle. Perhaps this is the plan for 360 or MyYahoo, once Yahoo tagging & bookmarking expands even further beyond the Liberal Arts university crowd (Buddhists, ambient music fans, and breakdancers) and into the Yahoo Answers ‘real world‘ 2.0 users..."
"Feeling the heat from YouTube, MySpace and even Google; Yahoo has recently been updating and expanding its Social Media offerings into more user friendly and integrated services within the Yahoo network. Last week we saw the launch of the new Yahoo Video with YouTube style video uploading, tagging and sharing. Yahoo also has the foundation of tagging & sharing under its belt in del.icio.us and Flickr.
Yahoo has now redesigned Yahoo MyWeb with a new design and features which add more user friendliness to the social bookmarking experience and hopefully will become a centerpiece of Yahoo social search.
New features include :
* “Top tags” and “interesting today” sections which work a bit like the del.icio.us Popular & Hotlist features
* Search across all public pages in the system
* Ability to export MyWeb bookmarks and pages to any browser format
Tom Chi notes on the Yahoo Search Blog that the most ’significant shift’ in the new Yahoo MyWeb is not the new features but the adaptation of social bookmarking beyond the opinion leaders and techies of the web;
Perhaps the most significant shift in this release has less to do with any one feature, but is simply the realization that social bookmarking is catching on with people with very diverse passions and interests. While the list of popular tags still has entries like “CSS” and “XML”, the more Joshua, Stephen and I look through the data, the more it’s clear that these bookmarks are for Buddhists, and ambient music fans, and breakdancers.
What would I like to see more of in Yahoo MyWeb? Yahoo seems to be lacking a central start page to its social media offerings… sure, it can be argued that search is essentially their social core, but in my opinion since MyWeb is the base of Yahoo search tagging and sharing, making it a central location for the keeping up of tagging by friends and family in other Yahoo Social offerings like Yahoo Video and Flickr would bring MyWeb around full circle. Perhaps this is the plan for 360 or MyYahoo, once Yahoo tagging & bookmarking expands even further beyond the Liberal Arts university crowd (Buddhists, ambient music fans, and breakdancers) and into the Yahoo Answers ‘real world‘ 2.0 users..."
Monday, June 05, 2006
Where the wired kids are | CNET News.com:
"Where do the wired kids go?
It's no secret that MySpace.com's popularity with teenage Web surfers has meant a loss to sites like Yahoo and AOL. But a closer look at Web traffic patterns shows that teenagers can be a fickle bunch, and the list of top teen sites can change like the weekly Billboard charts. There's a fresh crop of popular sites this year, while only a handful of last year's favorites are still hot.
Sure, Wikipedia, Google and Apple Computer's site are recognizable names. But others like Bebo, Memegen and Tagged.com aren't so well known to anyone older than 21.
There's little doubt that MySpace has a heavy reputation with the teen set. In fact, many of the new teen hot spots are designed to take advantage of MySpace's "ecosphere" rather than compete with it head on.
With good reason: From April 2005 to April 2006, the overall number of teen visitors (between the ages of 12 and 17) to MySpace grew from roughly 3 million to 7.8 million. That was up 162 percent, according to ComScore Media Metrix. (That doesn't account for MySpace's 14-year-old age minimum.)
In contrast, the number of teen visitors to Yahoo, still tops for the age group, dropped 1 percent over the year to 11.6 million, according to ComScore. AOL, whose Instant Messenger is the most popular among teens, lost 10 percent of its teen visitors, falling behind Yahoo this year for the first time, at 10.9 million visitors.
Of the major Web sites, only Google got a bump from teens in the last year; the number of teen visitors to Google jumped 24 percent to 10.7 million from April to April, according to ComScore.
CNET Networks, publisher of News.com, lost 19 percent of its teen audience year-over-year. It attracted just more than 3 million teens in April.
So who saw an increase? Wikipedia, the controversial and fast-growing open-source encyclopedia, drew 2.9 million teens in April 2006, up 221 percent from the same period a year earlier. (All figures compare unique visitors over a period from April 2005 to April 2006.)...
...The ecosphere of MySpace
Like Google, MySpace has spawned a cottage industry of sites that provide support and services to teen subscribers. Sites with the biggest population of teens, including MyGen.co.uk, Coshed.com and Poqbum.com, help kids create profiles, layouts, graphics, games, icons and quizzes for MySpace blogs, and some other social networking sites, such as Xanga.com. And according to figures from Nielsen/NetRatings, these sites didn't register among the top 20 teen sites in April 2005.
Remember when passing notes in class was the best way to quiz friends on "What kind of vegetable are you?" and "Who will you marry?" Now sites like Memegen.net let teens post quizzes like "How Gangsta are you?" and "Are you hott?" (sic) on their personal blogs at Livejournal or MySpace.
Memegen.net claimed a spot as one of the top 20 sites among teens in April 2006 but didn't make the grade last year. More than 675,000 teens, or more than half its total visitors, visited the site in April, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.
Still, other teens are looking to newer, edgier social networks, now that MySpace has drawn the ire of parents and teachers.
Tagged.com, Bebo.com and MyYearbook.com are just a few of the social networking sites growing like weeds. Tagged.com, a virtual nobody last year, grew to half a million teen visitors in April, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Also a newcomer, MyYearbook mushroomed to 1 million visitors in the last year.
"MySpace has broader appeal. Now some teens want to be hipper," said Brian Fitzgerald, president of Gorilla Nation, one of the top teen properties, according to ComScore. Gorilla owns the Web site Quizilla, which lets kids create poems and fiction for their personal Web pages.
As he puts it, Quizilla builds "a community around creativity."..."
"Where do the wired kids go?
It's no secret that MySpace.com's popularity with teenage Web surfers has meant a loss to sites like Yahoo and AOL. But a closer look at Web traffic patterns shows that teenagers can be a fickle bunch, and the list of top teen sites can change like the weekly Billboard charts. There's a fresh crop of popular sites this year, while only a handful of last year's favorites are still hot.
Sure, Wikipedia, Google and Apple Computer's site are recognizable names. But others like Bebo, Memegen and Tagged.com aren't so well known to anyone older than 21.
There's little doubt that MySpace has a heavy reputation with the teen set. In fact, many of the new teen hot spots are designed to take advantage of MySpace's "ecosphere" rather than compete with it head on.
With good reason: From April 2005 to April 2006, the overall number of teen visitors (between the ages of 12 and 17) to MySpace grew from roughly 3 million to 7.8 million. That was up 162 percent, according to ComScore Media Metrix. (That doesn't account for MySpace's 14-year-old age minimum.)
In contrast, the number of teen visitors to Yahoo, still tops for the age group, dropped 1 percent over the year to 11.6 million, according to ComScore. AOL, whose Instant Messenger is the most popular among teens, lost 10 percent of its teen visitors, falling behind Yahoo this year for the first time, at 10.9 million visitors.
Of the major Web sites, only Google got a bump from teens in the last year; the number of teen visitors to Google jumped 24 percent to 10.7 million from April to April, according to ComScore.
CNET Networks, publisher of News.com, lost 19 percent of its teen audience year-over-year. It attracted just more than 3 million teens in April.
So who saw an increase? Wikipedia, the controversial and fast-growing open-source encyclopedia, drew 2.9 million teens in April 2006, up 221 percent from the same period a year earlier. (All figures compare unique visitors over a period from April 2005 to April 2006.)...
...The ecosphere of MySpace
Like Google, MySpace has spawned a cottage industry of sites that provide support and services to teen subscribers. Sites with the biggest population of teens, including MyGen.co.uk, Coshed.com and Poqbum.com, help kids create profiles, layouts, graphics, games, icons and quizzes for MySpace blogs, and some other social networking sites, such as Xanga.com. And according to figures from Nielsen/NetRatings, these sites didn't register among the top 20 teen sites in April 2005.
Remember when passing notes in class was the best way to quiz friends on "What kind of vegetable are you?" and "Who will you marry?" Now sites like Memegen.net let teens post quizzes like "How Gangsta are you?" and "Are you hott?" (sic) on their personal blogs at Livejournal or MySpace.
Memegen.net claimed a spot as one of the top 20 sites among teens in April 2006 but didn't make the grade last year. More than 675,000 teens, or more than half its total visitors, visited the site in April, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.
Still, other teens are looking to newer, edgier social networks, now that MySpace has drawn the ire of parents and teachers.
Tagged.com, Bebo.com and MyYearbook.com are just a few of the social networking sites growing like weeds. Tagged.com, a virtual nobody last year, grew to half a million teen visitors in April, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Also a newcomer, MyYearbook mushroomed to 1 million visitors in the last year.
"MySpace has broader appeal. Now some teens want to be hipper," said Brian Fitzgerald, president of Gorilla Nation, one of the top teen properties, according to ComScore. Gorilla owns the Web site Quizilla, which lets kids create poems and fiction for their personal Web pages.
As he puts it, Quizilla builds "a community around creativity."..."
Friday, June 02, 2006
Search Engine Lowdown: Google AJAX Search API: a Community-Site Social Search Offering:
"The Google Code Blog announced today the launch of the Google AJAX Search API, and suggested that you 'think of it as the Maps API, but for Search -- you just add a single < script > tag to your web page, a few lines of JavaScript, and you have an interactive search box that mixes results from Web Search, Local Search, Video, and Blog Search.'
The Put Google Search on Your Web Site page says it 'lets you integrate a dynamic Google search module into your web pages so your users can mash up Google search results with other content on your site or add search results clippings to their own content.'
That line made me think that this is a Eurekster sort of offering, though it's vague in terms of where users would be mashing this particular data, and what content they'd be adding search results onto.
In all, it makes me think the intended application is targeted towards social sites that allow users to contribute content, which is in line with the recent AdSense API offering.
...well, after checking out the Google AJAX Search API Samples it makes a little more sense to me, and yes it appears to essentially be a method to enable users to better share and apply web/video/map/etc search results to content they create on a given site.
This is a good move for Google - they've apparently learned their lesson from the Google Maps API. Let the development community figure out what you're good for :)..."
"The Google Code Blog announced today the launch of the Google AJAX Search API, and suggested that you 'think of it as the Maps API, but for Search -- you just add a single < script > tag to your web page, a few lines of JavaScript, and you have an interactive search box that mixes results from Web Search, Local Search, Video, and Blog Search.'
The Put Google Search on Your Web Site page says it 'lets you integrate a dynamic Google search module into your web pages so your users can mash up Google search results with other content on your site or add search results clippings to their own content.'
That line made me think that this is a Eurekster sort of offering, though it's vague in terms of where users would be mashing this particular data, and what content they'd be adding search results onto.
In all, it makes me think the intended application is targeted towards social sites that allow users to contribute content, which is in line with the recent AdSense API offering.
...well, after checking out the Google AJAX Search API Samples it makes a little more sense to me, and yes it appears to essentially be a method to enable users to better share and apply web/video/map/etc search results to content they create on a given site.
This is a good move for Google - they've apparently learned their lesson from the Google Maps API. Let the development community figure out what you're good for :)..."
