January 11, 2009 - January 17, 2009

January 16, 2009

Stock Price Low Yet New Yahoo CEO Could Make $19 Million Plus?

Apparently the new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz could make well over $19 million dollars this year, according to Reuters. This despite the fact that some of her comments the other day caused a further dip in their stock price, the New York Times reported.

Bartz receives a $1 million dollar base salary, and has bonuses of up to 200% of that. But she will also receive $10 million in cash and restricted stock to cover benefits and stock options she gave up at Autodesk.

The New York Times stated: "After reports that Ms. Bartz wasn't sold on the idea of selling Yahoo's search business to Microsoft, investors sent Yahoo shares plunging 6.5 percent on Thursday."

Seems the Microsoft deal just will not die. Regardless, Bartz joins Yahoo when their stock has fallen from a 52 week high of $30.05 to a under $10 - the stock is now trading at around $11.50.

Disclosure and commentary on her financial package could further impact Yahoo's short term value.

Posted by Frank Watson on 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Realtor Century 21 Moving Its TV Spend To Online Advertising

One of the largest national realty companies, Century 21, has decided to move a large part of their TV advertising budget for 2009 to online marketing, according to Advertising Age.

While Advertising Age see this as part economic and part going where has worked for them over the past two years:

"With the beleaguered real-estate market showing no signs of a turnaround, the realtor has decided to play the numbers and go where the buyers and sellers are: online."

this change in spend could also have a major impact on online advertising perceptions in general.

Century 21 has noticed that they have seen very successful results with their online spends.

As Beverly Thorne, Century 21 senior VP-marketing, told Advertising Age, "the company's research and testing revealed that its online investments in 2008 were substantively more productive and efficient than its offline efforts."

In 2008 online spend was less than 10% of Century 21's advertising budget.

While marketers and writers in our space have been touting the intelligence of increasing spends on paid search, if Century 21 has noticeable success many others in all industries could soon follow.

Posted by Frank Watson on 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

HelloMetro Hiring Journalists to Cover Local News for Their Online Sites

HelloMetro is hiring former print journalists to cover the news for 10 of their local sites. They hope this will bring better local coverage as opposed to local sites they say just resort to blogs.

“We have avoided leaving our local stories to bloggers,” CEO Clark Scott said. “Other websites lean heavily on blogging because the content is free. While blogging is useful, we insist on the traditional standards of reliability and accountability that we could only get with our own staff of professional writers.”

Hey Clark. I'm a blogger. I cover the news. I'm not free. (Oh yeah, and print journalism doesn't always = reliable and accountable.)

I digress.

There's a bunch of journalists out there needing jobs, so hopefully the ones who end up at HelloMetro are able to build a nice career and add value to the communities they write about.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Federal Court Dismisses Online Travel Hotel Tax Suit

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has dismissed a suit brought forth by Pitt County, North Carolina (Greenville, NC is located there for those who are NC-challenged) to charge online travel sites such as Expedia and Travelocity for hotel occupancy taxes.

The ruling used an NC state sales tax statute for support of its decision. G.S. 105-164.4 says that online travel sites are not hotel retailers that could be subject to the tax.

This is good news for consumers, as they would essentially be taxed twice. If the ruling had gone the other way, no doubt the taxes would be passed onto the consumer.

Art Sackler, Executive Director of the Interactive Travel Services Association said, "Online travel companies work hard to bring visitors and tourism dollars to cities and hotels around the country. Since they do not manage or operate hotels, motels or other lodging establishments, the online travel companies are not liable for occupancy taxes on the reservation services they provide to the local tourism industries."

Pitt County's real problem is having enough to attract tourism dollars in the first place. East Carolina University is likely the biggest tourism money maker, but a weak football season could hinder the number of dollars spent there.

Promoting ECU's medical center is a more consistent means of bringing in the dough. Also, offering incentives for companies to operate in the county (i.e. research + university = good) could give an overall boost to the tax revenue. Good companies could also boost travel tax dollars when people travel to make business deals go down in the home of the purple and gold Pirates.

Still, cities around the country seem intent on addressing the problem from the wrong end. And different court districts are bringing different decisions. A judge in Texas granted a motion to file suit by San Antonio. Houston is also going after online travel taxes.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Apps Get an Added Layer of Security

Just a few days after the announcement of the Google Apps reseller program, comes news that an added layer of security has come to Google Apps. The new layer gives administrators the ability to set password length requirements and view indications of password strength.

Apparently, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are already getting in on the action:

Administrators of Premier and Education Edition apps can find the new features in the administrative control panel under 'Advanced Tools' > 'Advanced Password Settings.'

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Offers Free TV Ad Creation with SpotMixer

Google TV Ads is now offering free tv ad creation with a self-serve video ad creation solution implemented inside AdWords. The solution was developed jointly between the two companies. The video creation tool has been available through a private beta since September. Now, it's open to everyone.

Well placed TV ads are a great way to drive traffic directly to your site or to drive people to search for key terms you're ranking or advertising for.

SpotMixer's platform automatically takes text from existing AdWords text ads and inserts them into tailored ads using dynamically changing templates (in order to offer up multiple ads).

Another plus, especially in this economy, is the ability of companies and agencies to resuse previously developed creative. Photographs, video, and audio can be repurposed in the SpotMixer tool to create ads that are coordinated with search marketing efforts.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Truveo Video Search to be Added to SFGate.com

AOL's Truveo video search has been added to SFGate.com, the online site of the San Francisco Chronicle. The search is currently implemented on the cars section with additional pages in the pipeline. SFGate.com sees 12 million unique visitors per month.

“We're delighted that SFGate.com has taken advantage of our technologies to give their readers a great video search experience,” said Pete Kocks, President of Truveo and Vice President of AOL. “With users expecting a far richer experience on every site they visit, video has become a critical part of the news experience and is a great way to keep users engaged.”

AOL acquired Truveo in 2006. This past September, they released the beta version of their video search.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

January 15, 2009

Yahoo Adds Wikipedia SearchMonkey App as Default

Beginning today, searchers on Yahoo! will find Wikipedia results displayed in their new SearchMonkey app form.

If you remember, Yahoo! launched SearchMonkey last year to allow customization of search results. Yahoo! has already set Yelp, LinkedIn, and Yahoo! Local SearchMonkey apps as default, as well as Citysearch and Zagat.

Users can also check out the Yahoo! SearchMonkey Gallery to select other apps they'd like to see in their searches.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Curious Case of Music Disappearing from YouTube Videos

Lately, many have noticed that copyrighted music has mysteriously been removed from user-submitted videos on YouTube. Now, YouTube is addressing the occurrences with a simple explanation.

Previously, when a video was faced with copyright issues, users could dispute the claim or select from a library of approved tunes. Now, users have a third option: simply removing the music.

Maybe silent films will make a comeback, because sometimes these copyright issues feel so archaic. The good news is that ditzy blond girls with bad voices can be stars again! Oh wait, we have Britney, Heidi and Paris. That trend never did go away, did it?

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Google Website Optimizer Announces Website Workout Winners (Plus, Visualize Testing!)

Last June, Google Website Optimizer launched the Website Workout contest, where companies could submit their websites for analysis. Four winners were chosen and they are:

Colonial Candle
Extra Space Storage
Outrigger Hotels & Resorts
Team In Training

Google posted a video of Colonial Candle's experience in website testing and landing page optimization, which helped boost their sales by 20% (yes, even in this economy). I know when reading a blog, things like landing page testing can seem very cerebral if you've never done it before. So, check out this video to get a visual sense for what testing can do for your site:

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Obama Aide: Broadband Portion of Stimulus Package for Timely Needs, Not Overall Goals

An aide of President-elect Barack Obama is clarifying what can be expected from the broadband portion of the stimulus bill currently being constructed in Congress, according to Reuters. Blair Levin, a former FCC employee under Clinton, is insisting that the bill will address timely broadband needs that can create jobs, instead of being used to implement the overall goals of the incoming administration.

That doesn't mean the Obama technology agenda is out the window. It simply means the stimulus bill is not what is going to make it happen.

Many groups are vying for a piece of the stimulus pie. A public interest group known as Free Press is calling for $44 billion of the $800 billion bill to be used to expand high-speed internet.

Consumer groups want more competition, which they feel will help the United States catch up with European and Asian countries that are currently leading in Internet speed and widespread adaptation.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Nielsen Online December 2008 Search Engine Share Rankings

Nielsen Online has released its search engine share rankings for December 2008. Google had a big year-over-year gain with Yahoo, AOL and Ask seeing modest increases as well. Live Search didn't fare so well:

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Google Lets Go 100 Recruiters, Reorganizes Engineering Team

Google has reduced their recruiting efforts and, as such, layoffs have come to their recruiting team. About 100 contract recruiters will be getting the pink slips.

Meanwhile, the engineering team is also being affected, albeit in a different way. Engineers in Austin, Texas; Trondheim, Norway; and Lulea, Sweden are required to relocate or say goodbye to the search engine. About 70 employees will be affected. A similar requirement was made recently of engineers in Phoenix, Arizona.

Over the summer, Google closed its Dallas, TX office.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Bribing People To Send You Emails With $50 Gift Cards

Search Engine Watch Expert - Sage Lewis Whenever you're doing a promotion of any kind, the key to success is to measure it. Set out goals, costs, and end results. In today's online promotion & link building column, "Bribing People To Send You Emails With $50 Gift Cards," Sage Lewis shares the results of his own promotion, highlighting some ways to measure success.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 14, 2009

Online Display Ad Pricing Drops in Q4 2008

Pubmatic has released online ad pricing data for the fourth quarter 2008. They found that ad pricing dropped in Q4, likely due to an all too unstable economy. Here's what they found:

All sizes of websites (small, medium, and large) were down dramatically from Q4 2007; small, medium, and large sites dropped 52%, 23%, and 54%, respectively, from the previous year.
All sizes of websites were down from Q3 2008 to Q4 2008, but the drops leveled-off, bucking the trend of larger drops from quarter to quarter throughout 2008; this may be an indicator that the online ad sector received enough of a boost from holiday advertising to keep ad rates steady.
All vertical categories experienced significant drops in their ad pricing from Q4 2007; the biggest drop by a vertical was Business & Finance, which fell from an average price of $2.13 in Q4 2007 to $0.83 in Q4 2008 – a 61% drop.
No vertical categories dropped by a significant amount from Q3 2008 to Q4 2008, with some verticals even improving from the previous quarter -- the Technology, Sports, Entertainment, Gaming, and Music verticals all had higher ad price averages in Q4 of 2008 than in Q3 of 2008.

“Online ad pricing is a reflection of what is happening in the overall economy, and as a result, pricing has dropped significantly in almost all categories in the past year,” said Rajeev Goel, Co-founder and CEO of PubMatic. “However, with overall advertising budgets shrinking, the need for marketers to have more accountable advertising could bring more advertising dollars online in 2009 and start an upward trend as some vertical categories have already experienced.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Google Releases New Sitemap Generator

Google Webmaster Central has created a new sitemap generator and released it to the general public. The new generator is open source and uses your webserver's traffic, its log files, or the files found on the server to quickly find the URLs on your site.

It ping Google blog search and creates the following sitemap files for you:

XML Sitemaps for Web Search according to the sitemaps.org standard
Mobile Sitemaps for mobile-friendly websites
Code Search Sitemaps for source code that you make available to users

The generator is a server plugin that can be installed on Linux/Apache and Microsoft IIS Windows-based servers. For more information, check out the Google Sitemap Generator documentation.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Matt Cutts: Hate Review Sites With No Reviews? Tell Me About It

Google's spam guru Matt Cutts is asking for people to help his team address the issue of review site pages with no reviews.

In other words, have you ever been researching a product and included "review" in the search phrase - only to click on sites with no reviews? Annoying to say the least. (Especially on a mobile browser!)

Cutts says this is a major concern among his blog readers. So, his team has set up a way for you to help them find out about URLs with this problem. Per Cutts' blog:

Go to our authenticated spam report form. You'll need a Google account to sign into our webmaster console. This form is available in dozens of languages, not just English.
In the “Additional details” section, make sure you include the word “noresults” (all one word, all lowercase). Feel free to fill in the other fields with info if you want.
Provide an actual “no results found” or “empty review” example url.

Cutts rightfully points out that these sites/pages are not intended as spam per se, but, of course, they do affect the quality of search.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Maps Adds Features to Local Business Ads

Google Maps has updated features for local business ads. First up, the pop up box for a local business listing will now include interactive links for features on Google Maps. These links include "Get Directions," "Street View," and "Save to My Maps."

Secondly, there's a new reporting feature. Available through your account's Report Center, the report offers details on the number of users opening the info window for your business listing as well as how many clicked on the interactive link.

Writing on the Inside AdWords blog, Amanda Kelly said, "Often, Maps users are looking for different information than Search users. The new interactive links and the interaction reports should not only help customers connect with you faster but should also help you understand how to better target Maps users versus Search users. We'll post again on this blog when the new changes to the reporting capabilities take effect."

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Reciprocal Links And Yahoo: Some Interesting Reading

Okay I would not have bothered to read Yahoo's latest patent on reciprocal links if it were not for two blog posts by Bill Slawski and David Harry. These guys thankfully can interpret patent details in a way that does not make my head spin and explode.

I mean look at the abstract of Timothy Converse et al application:

"A method for identifying reciprocal links is provided. At a particular host, the set of hosts which link to the particular host and the set of hosts to which the particular host links are determined. The intersection and union of the two sets of hosts are also determined, and the sizes of the intersection and union are calculated. The concentration of reciprocal links at the particular host is calculated based on the sizes of the intersection and union. A ratio of the intersection size to the union size is used to determine the concentration of reciprocal links. The particular host's rank in a list of ranked search results may be changed as a result of identification of a high concentration of reciprocal links. "

David gets the nod for the most entertaining read - he even includes a cartoon - while detailing how the excess reciprocal links are spotted and flagged. Explaining three way link schemes and "suspicious clusters".

Bill, on the other hand, gets the tip of the hat for his detail in simplifying various link related patents; taking the jargon and explaining it in terms even I can understand.

He notes - as does David - that:

"If the links between pages (or domains or hosts) is a small percentage of the links on each page or domain or host, the process described in this patent filing may not kick off. I say “kick off” because this is an automated process rather than a manual review at this point.
If the percentage of links is larger than than, a number of steps might be taken by the search engine.

The sites might be reviewed manually by “human investigators” or they might be examined by a program from the search engine that has been trained to look for signals of suspicious activity."

Both articles should be read, despite the fact that they address much similar ground. With their different ways of explaining by the time you are done you will have a firm grasp of the state of reciprocal links as seen by the major search engines, Yahoo in particular.

Thanks guys!

Posted by Frank Watson on 5:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Google Apps Reseller Program Could Become Biggest Affiliate Program

Google is building a reseller program for its apps and training future affiliates to build up their market share of email, calendaring, project management and team site creation, as well as documents, video sharing and collaboration.

The program will give resellers 20% of each $50/user/year they sign up, as well as any other service fees they may charge for implementing them to a company's specifications or continued maintenance or service. This could mean a large amount of money for people able to convert companies with large user bases.

After completing a test - not unlike the one for AdWords Professional - the resellers/affiliates will be able to use the Google Apps badge.

As the video below states: "You bill the customers and Google bills you... you, not Google, has the relationship with the customers. You keep the margins and the service and maintenance fees."

This is a clever way for Google to build out their cloud technologies, as well as challenge many of Microsoft's core products. They are building a sales force they will train and help implement their products.

Posted by Frank Watson on 5:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEO Training Workshop on Blogs at SES London 2009

One of the four SEM and SEO training workshops that will be held at SES London on Friday, Feb. 20, 2009, will be focused on “Reaching Your Audience through Blogs.” The instructor is Jennifer Evans Laycock, the Editor-in-Chief of Search Engine Guide, an online publication aimed at educating Small Business owners about search engine marketing, viral marketing, social media marketing and blogging.

Jennifer%20Laycock%20at%20SES%20New%20York%202008.jpg There have been a number of studies aimed at understanding the size of the Blogosphere, yielding widely disparate estimates of both the number of blogs and blog readership. All studies agree, however, that blogs are a global phenomenon that has hit the mainstream.

This means the opportunities for businesses to speak with their customers is nearly unlimited. That's why more and more companies are turning to the blogosphere to connect with consumers. Businesses have never had such effective access to the frustrations and desires of their target audience.

After attending this half-day workshop, you will have a solid understanding of concepts that are vital to reaching out to consumers via blogs including:
• Why blogs are the fastest growing form of consumer generated media.
• How blogs can change the way you interact with your customers.
• How to engage your target audience in conversation and how to put what you learn into action.
• Why blogging works for both B2B and B2C companies.
• How to avoid the most common corporate blogging mistakes.
• Crisis control tactics in case you encounter negative blogging.

In this workshop, you will learn why so many companies are launching corporate blogs and how they are creatively using them to advance their brand and marketing campaigns. You'll also learn how to leverage other people's blogs to build your company's reputation, address criticism and introduce new products.

The workshop will give real life examples of both good and bad blog campaigns as well are sharing insight on how your business can build their own blog style based on consumer feedback.

During this workshop, you will learn:
• How to find your corporate blogging voice.
• What resources are needed to launch an effective corporate blog.
• How to balance sales and information to build a more loyal readership.
• Why pitching bloggers is different than pitching traditional media.
• Why companies ignore blog comments at their own peril.

In addition to being the Editor-in-Chief of Search Engine Guide, Jennifer also operates as an independent online marketing consultant specializing in organic search marketing and viral marketing. Her clients have included companies like Verizon, American Greetings, Highlights for Children, and Option-Line, a national crisis-pregnancy hotline. She is also the author of the popular e-books "The Small Business Guide to Search Engine Marketing" and "Zero Dollars, a Little Talent and Thirty Days."

During SES London 2009, Jennifer will also be speaking at the “SEO Through Blogs & Feeds” session on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009. In 2005, she delivered the keynote presentation at the MIVA Small Business Conference.

Jennifer has been interviewed and quoted by a variety of publications including The Financial Times, USA Today, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and Entrepreneur magazine. At SES San Jose 2008, Andrew Goodman of Page Zero Media interviewed her about using social media sites like Linkedin and Twitter to communicate one's marketing message to a dedicated and enthusiastic audience.

Small Business Viral Marketing Tips, SES San Jose 2008

And check out the other three SEM and SEO training workshops at SES London 2007. Participants may register for training in addition to the SES London conference or independently, since the workshops take place on the Friday after the event.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on 2:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

SEW Experts: Training Your Content Developers on SEO Copywriting

Search Engine Watch Expert - Eric Enge SEO copywriting can be a misleading term. Too often, writers will get stuck on the SEO part and lose sight of the other, more important goal: creating a good user experience. In today's Web analytics and ROI column, "Training Your Content Developers on SEO Copywriting," Eric Enge offers advice on how to teach your copywriters to create quality content, which will also rank in search engines.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 1:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Tibet's Revenge

Search Engine Watch Expert - Kevin Ryan There's quite a bit of controversy over things like censoring search results. Judging by the majority of the responses I received on last week's column, most of you got the humor in it. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Tibet's Revenge," Kevin Ryan asks those who didn't, or only read the headline and first three sentences, to please continue on to the punch line at the end.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 1:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 13, 2009

Did Yahoo President Sue Decker See New CEO As Snub?

Despite the suggestion by ValleyWag, that incoming Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz's first job would be to fire President Sue Decker, seems Decker beat her to the punch by announcing her resignation.

Decker has overseen many of the few innovations and major changes at Yahoo during the past few years - as Terry Semel stood down to give Jerry Yang the CEO spot and their stock fell from the 30s to below 10. But, ValleyWag reports Decker was ambitious and "engineered a reorganization that drove out her chief rival, COO Dan Rosensweig, and then led a palace coup to drive out Hollywood movie mogul Terry Semel as CEO."

People had thought Decker was a major contender for the CEO spot and when another female from outside the company was named Decker had to leave.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Board Roy Bostock stated "“The Board thanks Sue for her service as President, the important contributions she has made to Yahoo!'s development in a variety of roles over the past 8-1/2 years, and her willingness to work with Carol Bartz to ensure a smooth transition. We respect her decision to move on to other challenges and wish her only the best.”

The news of the new CEO and Decker leaving did little to impact the Yahoo stock price today.

Posted by Frank Watson on 5:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

AdGooroo Releases Q4 2008 Search Advertising Data

AdGooroo has released data for search engine advertising in the fourth quarter of 2008. Google's first page advertisers grew by 58%, and Live Search grew by 42.3%. Yahoo only grew by 8.8%.

More interesting tidbits from Q4:

A combined Microsoft/Yahoo! entity would increase large advertiser counts on the Live Search network by 157 percent, making a strong case for Microsoft acquiring Yahoo!
Microsoft continued to close the gap in advertiser share with Yahoo: In Q3, Yahoo! led by 17.6 percent, but this lead has narrowed to 3.0 percent at the end of Q4

“Ad coverage on the search engines continues to provide a reliable indicator of advertising activity and is the focus of increased industry chatter,” said AdGooroo Founder and Chief Gooroo Rich Stokes in the new report. “The Q4 report shows that we measured large increases in ad coverage on Google. Microsoft ad coverage fell, on the other hand, likely indicative of their continuing focus on ad quality control and holistic search. Yahoo! showed little change in ad coverage from other 2008 reports.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 1:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Report: Carol Bartz Accepted Yahoo Offer to Become CEO

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Carol Bartz has accepted Yahoo's offer to become their next CEO. I have no link at the moment. Just a breaking news headline:

Bartz is currently executive chairman of Autodesk, a design software company. She formerly was CEO of Autodesk and was an executive as Sun Microsystems. She currently serves on the boards of Cisco (with Jerry Yang) and Intel (with Sue Decker).

Yahoo! stock was on the rise in reaction to the news. At the time of this post, Yahoo was at $12.38.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Online Video Spend Up 36% in 2008 Topping $2.12 Billion, Expected to Grow in 2009

Online video gross media spend was $2.12 billion in 2008, up 36% from 2007, according to AccuStream. Here's a breakdown on the details:

In-banner video impressions grew by 65% in 2008, and accounted for $1.5 billion in gross media spend
Inventory for pre-roll ads expanded by 12.6% in 2008, reaching 18.75 billion total avails, following a 16.8% increase in 2007.
Video buys made through rep firms totaled $90 million in 2008.
Overlay executions associated with video added $37.6 million.
insertion frequency for onsite experiences was capped at 1.5 (content views per avail) on average in 2008, reduced 13.7% from 2007

The forecast for 2009:

27% growth in pre-roll inventory
22.5% growth in gross media spend

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 12:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Four Advertising Groups to Develop Online Behavioral Advertising Privacy Standards

Four advertising groups have announced plans to collaborate on privacy standards for online behavioral advertising data. The four groups are:

The American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA)
The Association of National Advertisers (ANA)
The Direct Marketing Association (DMA)
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)

The Council of Better Business Bureaus (BBB) is also participating in the effort.

Online advertising data collection has been a concern of politicians and consumer groups. Election years typically see a flurry of activity over the matter and 2008 was no different. From state government efforts in New York and Connecticut to hearings in Congress, online advertising was in the hot seat last year.

It's nice to see advertising associations take the initiative to create standards, which can hopefully allay some of the fears out there over data collection.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Delicious Founder Joshua Schachter Now Employed by Google

Delicious founder Joshua Schachter was among several Yahoo! executives who fled the Sunnyvale search engine last summer. Yahoo! acquired Delicious, a social bookmarking site, in 2005.

Now, Schachter is calling Google home when it comes to his career. Details on the new gig are thus far being kept private.

Will he aid Google in social efforts? Or will he pursue new interests? We'll have to wait and see.

Let us know your hopes for Schachter at Google in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Obama to Nominate Former IAC Executive as FCC Chairman

President-elect Barack Obama is planning to nominate former IAC executive Julius Genachowski as FCC Chairman, according to the Wall Street Journal. IAC is the parent company of Ask.com.

Before his stint at IAC, Genachowski was Chief Counsel to Chairman Reed Hundt of the Federal Communications Commission under the Clinton administration. He is a former classmate of Mr. Obama's at the Harvard Law School and most recently co-founded DC-based venture capital firm, LaunchBox Digital.

Genachowski has sat on the boards of Expedia, Hotels.com and Ticketmaster. He currently serves on the boards of Beliefnet, The Motley Fool and Website Pros.

If approved by Congress, Genachowski will face a number of challenges including national broadband, white space spectrum issues, and the changeover to digital television.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rent.com Tops Top Ten Most Popular Apartment Search Sites for Q4 2008

Rent.com topped the list of top ten most popular apartment search sites for the fourth quarter of 2008, according to Realty DataTrust. The rankings are compiled by quantifying the number of times renters checked availability online per property.

The list is as follows:

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Google to Announce Q4 2008 Results on January 22, 2009 (Same Day as Microsoft)

Google has announced that its earnings call for the fourth quarter of 2008 will occur on Thursday, January 22, 2009 at 1:30pm PST (4:30pm for East Coasters). The call can be accessed live at http://investor.google.com/webcast.html.

Guess who else is holding their earnings call that day? Microsoft. Their call will begin one hour later and can be accessed at http://www.microsoft.com/msft.

We've already seen indications that the fourth quarter was a rollercoaster for search advertising. This is likely to have much more of an effect on Google than Microsoft, who will benefit from strong Xbox 360 sales during the holidays and be affected by the larger software and enterprise offerings of their overall business.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Mobile Search Training Workshop at SES London 2009

In addition to more than 40 conference sessions at Search Engine Strategies London on Feb. 17-19, 2009, there will also be four SEM and SEO training workshops at SES London on Friday, Feb. 20, 2009.

Cindy%20Krum.jpg These four-hour workshops provide the in-depth training you need to become (and remain!) a top performer in your field. The small class setting also ensures that your instructor is accessible for informal one-on-one or small group discussions.

One of the training workshops should be of particular interest to UK and European marketers - because it is in a field of search that is more advanced in Great Britain and on the Continent than its is back on my side of the pond. It's the field of mobile search and the training workshop is entitled, "Mobile Marketing 101."

The session will focus on mobile SEO, but will also touch on driving traffic and conversions with mobile applications, text messaging and mobile email. You will learn what you need to know to develop, launch and track a mobile marketing strategy.

After attending this workshop, you will be able to:
• Understand how mobile marketing fits into the traditional and online marketing mix
• Determine what mobile marketing strategy is most appropriate for your target market
• Update your existing site to be found and used on a variety of mobile devices
• Choose a mobile site architecture that will work for your site and your customers
• Direct mobile meta crawlers and mobile users to mobile content
• Author meta data that ranks well in mobile search and is compelling for mobile searchers
• Leverage local and universal search results in mobile search engines
• Provide a good mobile user experience for all mobile devices
• Test mobile websites to ensure they render correctly across different devices
• Track and evaluate your mobile success
• Anticipate future opportunities in mobile marketing.

The instructor is Cindy Krum, the Founder and CEO of Rank-Mobile, LLC. She will also be speaking at SES London 2009 during the "Mobile Search Update - The Next Generation," which will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009.

Cindy writes for industry publications, and has been published in Website Magazine, Advertising & Marketing Review, Search Engine Land, and ODG Intelligence. She also currently serves as the co-chair of the SEMPO Emerging Technologies Mobile Web Task Force.

Byron Gordon of SEO-PR interviewed her at SES Chicago 2008 about both the Mobile Search Update - The Next Generation conference session as well as her Mobile Marketing 101 training workshop at SES London 2009.

Cindy Krum, Rank-Mobile, previews SES London 2009!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG-eOWzSmNE

If you watch the video interview, Cindy says the training workshop is being held on her birthday and she'll be bringing a cake. Let's see if the instructors for the other three SEM and SEO training workshops try to top that.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on 2:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

January 12, 2009

Women Aged 30-39 Spend Most Time Viewing Internet and TV Simultaneously

A new report from Integrated Media Measurement Inc. (IMMI) shows that the group that women aged 30-39 are the group that spends the most time viewing the internet and television simultaneously. In second place are teenage boys aged 15-18.

Here's the breakdown:

"Considering the amount of sports-related programming that connects the Web to television, it was surprising to see the highest simultaneous usage was among adult women," said Amanda Welsh, head of research for IMMI. "Our interpretation of this is that women are more inclined to multi-task than men, particularly when in the home balancing their personal and professional lives. This is entirely consistent with studies of online television consumption previously conducted by IMMI."

Maybe, but considering teenage men were almost the same as the women, I'm not sure such generalizations are true. Plus, as those men grow older, will they carry their habits with them?

And are those teenage women texting on their phones instead of viewing the internet, while watching tv? Will that translate into mobile internet viewing while tv watching as they grow older, possibly obtaining more sophisticated phones?

What do you think about this data? Let us know in the comments section!

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

adCenter Rolls Out New Custom Date Range & Filter Options for Performance Data

Microsoft's adCenter has rolled out a couple of new options to sort and filter your data. First up is custom date ranges. Now, you can access data for up to 31 consecutive days from the last two years without running a report.

Secondly, adCenter has brought custom filters, similar to what you might find in Microsoft Excel. For example, you can display keywords with a high spend but low click-through rate (CTR) in order to optimize them for better performance.

Writing on the adCenter blog, Mel Carson says, "Finding the information that is most important to you by applying column filters to your campaign performance grids can help you hide low-performing keywords and let you focus on the high-performing ones."

What do you think of adCenter's updates? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Rounding Up the Usual Click Fraud Suspects

In a new report by entitled "Anatomy of a Fraudster," Anchor Intelligence has identified the top four types of click fraud perpetrators. Their research is based on a year of studying traffic patterns and gathering intelligence across their client base.

The four types are:

Click fraud farmers – members of click farms, which are outsourced by an organization and paid to generate clicks on behalf of a third party.
Pyramid schemers – individuals who are caught up in illegal schemes, in which they are “paid” to click on ads, visit Web sites and recruit other users.
Money launderers – fraudsters who recruit consumers to use their personal information to register various websites with ad networks with intent to generate false clicks on ads hosted by their Web sites.
Kit sophisticates – fraudsters who purchase kits online to commit fraud. These kits often serve as a one-stop shop for click fraud perpetrators and provide tools to create hundreds of Web sites, mass register accounts and generate thousands of fraudulent ad clicks.

“Pinpointing the bad guys can be extremely difficult,” said Ken Miller, CEO of Anchor Intelligence. “Much like spammers, click fraud perpetrators have their methods for staying under the radar. Understanding the ‘how' and ‘why' behind their actions is essential to preventing their fraudulent activity.”

What do you think about the four types of click fraud perpetrators? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Internet TV: What Do Users Want?

Last week at CES, several TVs that were internet-capable were rolled out for the world to see. So what do consumers plan on using their TV internet browsers for?

Strategy Analytics set out to find out in a recent survey.

The number one answer? Video on-demand. This should come as surprise to absolutely no one as online video has been growing by leaps and bounds.

Here are the top 8 answers from the survey:

Access Video on Demand without a PC
Searching the home network for video content
Access user-generated content such as Youtube
Play media from a USB drive
Share television experience using messaging services
Make video conference or voice calls via the TV
Download widgets
Give the TV different colour schemes or skins (Note: Selected applications only)

David Mercer, VP, Digital Consumer Practice, comments: "It's perhaps not surprising that TV viewers want to be able to watch video and TV on the big screen. But many of today's early web TV services are focusing too heavily on what they perceive as hot internet technologies such as widgets. Our research suggests these are a low priority for many consumers; instead developers should focus on bringing TV viewers the wealth of video content that is available on the web."

Mercer is right. The only concurrent news with the devices was about the Yahoo! Widget Channel.

Marketers, however, can take note from these survey results. Pursuing video is increasingly becoming a must, with creative that goes beyond traditional advertising. Including user-generated content is a great way to engage that pursuit, something that brands have already been trying with great success. Doritos annual Superbowl campaign is a great example.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

FCC Takes White Spaces Initiative Global

Now that the FCC has unanimously agreed to use white spaces for unlicensed use in the United States, they're expanding the campaign to an international initiative. Dubbed the "White Spaces Fellowship and Training Initiative," the FCC can now share insights with international regulators.

Google has been one of the most vocal supporters of opening up as much spectrum as possible. Their motivation is an obvious one: They want it to be open for their mobile initiatives with the Android operating system.

Google has not been extremely effective in promoting some of their other efforts in Washington, such as a search advertising deal with Yahoo.

But their support of the open spectrum is one area where they've seen some headway. It will be interesting to see how future efforts fare with a new administration in the White House and during a tough economy.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Unveils New Favicon

Google has a new Favicon, which it unveiled over the weekend. If you're not familiar with the term, a Favicon is a small image that appears in a browser bar or tab, next to the title tag and/or URL, depending on the browser you use.

Here's Google's new Favicon:

It's based on a submission by a computer science undergraduate student at the University of Campinas in Brazil named AndrÃ© Resende. Here's Resende's original design:

Here are some honorable mentions, which also incorporate the letter G and Google's famous use of primary colors:

by Hadi Onur Demirsoy

by Lucian E. Marin

by Yusuf Sevgen

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Doing A Google Search Impacts The Environment!

Seems you can boil water for a cup of tea with the amount of energy it takes to do two Google searches, according to a Harvard professor. Though, in response to the TimesOnline article posted yesterday, Google took time to reply stating it is many times less than that.

This may be more than a tempest in a tea cup (I know bad pun), given Google's appointment of Bill Weihl as their Green Energy Czar in February 2006 and their claims to be carbon neutral by 2008.

No doubt, the information by Harvard physicist Alex Wissner-Gross has heated things up at Google, for a number of reasons and their response may have been motivated more than by the carbon footprint they are leaving, but the suggested access to operating information of the company.

As Weihl told the Climate Group last year, "We aren't disclosing the absolute numbers of our footprint because it's closely coupled to the details of our operations, but the bulk of our emissions are from our data centre operations. Employee commuting and business travel also contribute, as do emissions associated with manufacturing of the servers that we use."

As the TimesOnline noted however,"Google is secretive about its energy consumption and carbon footprint. It also refuses to divulge the locations of its data centres. However, with more than 200m internet searches estimated globally daily, the electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions caused by computers and the internet is provoking concern."

Google has long had an almost counter culture, support the environment image. And their efforts to contribute to environmental issues can be praised, but their endless supply of widgets and services most obviously impacts on energy use and one wonders if they had foreseen this type of publicity arriving eventually. After all, as any brand management conscious person can tell you, these articles do not go away - even storing them takes up energy.

But Google is not the only ones at fault, as Wissner-Gross told TimesOnline in a (energy consuming) companion article "every website owner contributes as well. As websites have real-world environmental footprints. Their files are stored on servers, viewed by personal computers, and connected via networks. To operate these components, all of which are necessary to create a complete website experience, electricity must be consumed. And to generate much of that electricity, fossil fuels like coal and natural gas are usually being burned."

Seems we are all using a lot of energy - hey reading (and writing) this article just took away from the world's energy supplies.

And we can't forget Yahoo and Microsoft - hell the press about the take over bid last year must have used enough energy to power a small country.

Posted by Frank Watson on 6:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's “Horses for Courses” at SES London 2009

A year ago, I wrote an article for Search Engine Watch entitled, “It's ‘Horses for Courses' at SES London.” In the article, I said business professionals may want to bring a team to Search Engine Strategies London – because there will be three concurrent conference tracks and no business professional will be able to attend all of the sessions.

SES%20London%20conference%20agenda.jpg Well, it's a year later and I'd make the same case – even in a recession. In fact, if you need to grow your business online now more than ever, then the smart move will be to bring a team of three people to SES London 2009.

To some extent, this is a case of “In for a penny, in for a pound.” If something is worth doing, then you might as well go the whole nine yards.

But it also turns out that it has economic benefits. If you read the rates and registration details closely, you'll see that there are Special Group Discounts. (First two conference registrants pay full price, the third person from the same organization, registering at the same time qualifies for 50% off their registration fee.)

And sending a team of three people will enable you to take advantage of the fact that the SEM conference includes advanced sessions, intermediate sessions, and beginner sessions. And this will enable your organization to put different "horses" on different "courses."

For example, someone entering the SEM steeplechase for the first time will race through the the Fundamentals Track on Wednesday, Feb. 18, as well as the Beyond Fundamentals Track on Thursday, Feb. 19.

Meanwhile, someone who's been around the SEO racecourse a few times will gallop through the Organic Track on Tuesday, and the Issues and Tactics Track on Thursday.

To extend the metaphor, someone who already knows how to harness PPC will be trotting through the Advertising Track on Wednesday, as well as the Improve Me Track on Thursday.

How can I be so sure? Well, I've been speaking at Search Engine Strategies London each and every year since 2005. And when I wasn't speaking, I was sitting in on sessions to report on the conference for Search Engine Watch.

If you've never been to SES London before and want to get an idea of what you'll see and hear, you can take a look at the descriptions below of half a dozen out of more than 40 sessions -- as well as some video interviews with six the more than 60 conference speakers.

Let's start with a couple of the advanced sessions first.

Search Advertising Tools: In order to get a leg up on the competition, successful Search Engine Marketers need to be armed with the latest tools of the trade. This session will explore a range of popular search engine advertising tools along with some important features you should be aware of. One of the speakers on the panel of experts will be Thomas Bindl, Founder & CEO, Refined Labs GmbH.

Byron Gordon of SEO-PR interviewed Thomas about the evolution of search ad tools during SES Chicago 2008. Thomas mentioned the best paid and free search ad tools on the net and provided a preview of SES London 2009.

Thomas Bindl, Refined Labs, on search ad tools and SES London 2009

Ads in a Quality Score World: More and more, ranking well in paid search listings is less about how much you pay and more about the "quality" of your ad campaign. But what goes into making up your quality score? One of the speakers on this panel will be Andrew Goodman, Principal, Page Zero Media.

As SES Chicago 2008, I interviewed Andrew about the updates he made to his book, “Winning Results with Google Adwords.” His book take a closer look at quality factors and gives tips on increasing the perceived relevancy of your campaign.

Andrew Goodman, Page Zero Media, on Google Adwords at SES Chicago 2008

Next, let's take a look at a couple of the intermediate sessions:

Search Resources: Building a Better Economic Model: In today's uncertain economic times, businesses need certainty around their marketing and sales initiatives. Measurable, quantifiable strategies which have a defined ROI will win, as managers will only invest in activities they can measure. One of the speakers on this panel will be Bryan Eisenberg, Co-Founder, Future Now, Inc.

Mitch Joel of Twist Image and Six Pixels of Separation interviewed Bryan at SES Toronto 2008. Bryan was the talked about his keynote presentation as well as his new book, “Always Be Testing: The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer.”

Bryan Eisenberg on Site Metrics and Optimization

SEO Through Blogs & Feeds: Not yet running a blog? Not syndicating your content through web feeds? Then you're missing out on an important area that can help your overall SEO efforts. One of the speakers on this panel is Jennifer Evans Laycock, Editor-in-Chief, Search Engine Guide.

At SES San Jose, 2008, Andrew Goodman interviewed Jennifer about the best tips on viral campaigns and social media marketing, especially for small business who want to make the most of their business online without spending too much money.

Small Business Viral Marketing Tips, SES San Jose 2008

Finally, let's take a look at a couple of the beginner sessions:

Search Engine Friendly Design: How can you build a website from the ground up that pleases both crawler-based search engines and your visitors? Discover how “search engine-friendly” design can tap into free traffic from search engines. One of the speakers at this session is Matt Bailey, President, SiteLogic.

As SES Chicago, Chris Boggs of Rosetta interviewed Matt about difference between Analytics 1.0 and Analytics 2.0. Matt said Analytics 1.0 is the endless reporting of numbers with no analysis of the data, while Analytics 2.0 digs into the "why and how" to better understand what the data means.

Matthew Bailey, SiteLogic on 1.0 and 2.0 Analytics at SES Chicago

Search Advertising 101: Paid placement is a form of search advertising that provides a top ranking in return for payment. Every major search engine offers a paid placement program. The moderator of this session, which is especially geared toward beginners, will be Andy Atkins-KrÃŒger, Managing Director, WebCertain Europe Ltd.

Byron Gordon interviewed Andyat SES Chicago 2008 about that show as well as his expectations for SES London 2009. Andy also talked about the state of search in Europe for 2009.

Andy Atkins-Kruger, WebCertain, discusses SES Chicago and SES London 2009

In other words, there are courses for horses at SES London 2009. That's what makes it the definitive event for UK and European marketers, corporate decision makers, webmasters and search engine marketing (SEM) specialists, including pay per click (PPC) advertisers and search engine optimization (SEO) consultants.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on 2:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: 7 Social Media Predictions for 2009

Search Engine Watch Expert - Erik Qualman It's a new year, which means it's time to raise a virtual glass within your social network and toast your collective social graphs for a great 2009. In today's building brand equity column, "7 Social Media Predictions for 2009," Erik Qualman shares seven things to look for this year.

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Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Search Ad Quality Score 101, Part 2

Search Engine Watch Expert - Ron Jones Getting a good quality score requires that you create relevance and continuity from beginning to end of the search experience. Then you need to test, test, test. In today's SEM 101 column, "Search Ad Quality Score 101, Part 2," Ron Jones shows you how to create landing pages that will lead to conversions, which is the ultimate goal.

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Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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