October 13, 2009
A Busy Week Already For Twitter - Fighting the Good Fight
Ok, Twitter has been busy the first two days of this week - two actions by the company itself and one serious use of Twitter that stopped a news story from being buried. It is interesting that the platform has such impact when people use it as an aid to the Fourth Estate (slang for journalism).
This week a story about the tabling of a UK Parliament question about a company dumping toxic waste was banned by an injunction.. "The (UK) Guardian was banned from reporting the contents of a parliamentary question relating to the toxic dumping scandal yesterday," the newspaper later reported, when the company's lawyers did not contest the High Court challenge by the newspaper and the injunction was lifted.
The ban became a hotly trended topic on Twitter and since the news was out and getting even more bad publicity for the company it became useless to contest the challenge.
Guardian editor, Alan Rusbridger, via Twitter wrote: "Thanks to Twitter/all tweeters for fantastic support over past 16 hours!" A good example of Twitter's impact on free speech.
In other action, Twitter added a spam reporting link, as reported here.
Twitter has also discontinued recurring Tweets, a violation of their terms and conditions - so APIs used to launch repeated tweets will be shut down. This is great if you follow people who use this to blast repeat messages of various sales pitches etc.
I do see it as a detriment to notices of important information - though I am sure Twitter will have some work around for various people who can show a justifiable reason for repeats - emergency announcements etc should be given the ability since many people do not see messages if they are not logged in at the exact time of the publishing. Could be worked around by using DMs to subscribed followers I suppose but then spam issues arise.
Keep at the solid work guys.
Posted by Frank Watson on October 13, 2009, 11:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Comcast, Black Arrow Join To Test Dynamic Ad Insertion in VoD
Comcast and Black Arrow have combined to start testing dynamic ad insertion into Video on Demand, it was announced today. This test of new technology from Black Arrow will help improve the sale of ads for VoD content, as well as give the opportunity to better pair the advertising with the content and audience, Cable Digital News reported.
"BlackArrow's Advanced Advertising System gives programmers and cable operators a real-time, multiplatform campaign management and decision system for offering more timely and relevant ads in their On Demand sessions," the Black Arrow site explained.
Previous ad insertions had been static, where the ads had to be placed into the content before hand, the new technology allows the ads to be inserted on the fly.
"BlackArrow's system acts as a decision engine that communicates with the underlying VoD system to insert the appropriate advert into the video stream based on predetermined rules. Meanwhile, a complementary Web-based element from BlackArrow distributes and sells the ad space based on available inventory," Contentinople explains.
This new technology will help improve the appropriateness of advertising and thus help conversion and attention to the ads. It will also help bring this type of advertising up to the level of existing online advertising such as search and banner ads.
"Comcast has led the industry in creating new opportunities to reach consumers in the on-demand marketplace, and we're excited to be working with them," said Dean Denhart, chief executive officer, BlackArrow. "By combining BlackArrow's expertise in advanced VOD advertising platforms with Comcast's VOD leadership, we hope to expand the business model significantly for on-demand advertising."
Posted by Frank Watson on October 13, 2009, 9:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Social Media Counter: Not Actual But Gives You Thought
Dary P. Hayes, Director of LAMP (Laboratory for Advanced Media Production), has created an interesting social media counter to give people a simulated idea of the speed with which social media is growing. He also includes monetary indicators and Google search numbers to give perspective.
The numbers have been taken from a number of sites and are documented in the blog entry - comScore, Technoratti, Twitter and Facebook to name a few.
The clock starts when you first load the program - but if you let it run for five minutes you really start to get an idea of how the numbers stack up against each other. Well worth having a look at.
Posted by Frank Watson on October 13, 2009, 7:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Are Search Engine Optimizers Spammers, Evildoers, and Opportunists?
First of all, a shout out to Joanna Hogan‏ (surfwrite), who asked for my thoughts on the post by Derek Powazek entitled, entitled, "Spammers, Evildoers, and Opportunists."
It must have been a no good, very bad Columbus Day for Powazek. He decided to call search engine optimizers, "goat sacrificers and snake oil salesmen."
Strong stuff.
Now, Powazek was called one of the top 40 "Industry Influencers" in 2007 by Folio Magazine. He once worked at pioneering sites like HotWired, Blogger, and Technorati. He now splits his time between working as "Chief of Awesome" for HP's MagCloud and Creative Director of Collecta, advising a handful of startup companies on community design. And you've got to admire a guy who "lives in San Francisco with his wife, two nutty Chihuahuas, a grumpy cat, and a house full of plants named Fred."
So, I read his rant -- twice. And I think it requires a response.
(By the way, I'd provide the same kind of response if he'd called public relations people flacks and spin doctors. There are some groups that need defending.)
So, what proof does Powazek offer that search engine optimizers can't "dance the magic dance that will please the Google Gods and make eyeballs rain down upon you" the way they claim they can?
He claims, "the good advice is obvious, the rest doesn't work."
Well, if the good advice were obvious, then "SEO training" wouldn't be such a popular search term. Go to Google Insights for Search and compare search volume patterns for the terms "SEO training" and "SEM training." As you will see, SEO training is hot, but SEM training is not.
And the people conducting these searches aren't looking for a new breed of con man. They are are looking for good advice about search engine optimization that isn't obvious.
And reputable organizations like Search Engine Strategies, Market Motive, and the SEMPO Institute all offer SEO courses for SEO specialists.
And there are books on the topic from reputable authors like Rebecca Lieb's The Truth About Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin, and The Art of SEO by Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer, Rand Fishkin, and Jessie Stricchiola.
None of these SEO courses or SEO books would be necessary if the good advice was obvious.
Powazek also claims, "SEO is poisoning the web."
Well, it did once, when AltaVista was king of the hill back in 2000. And SEO could poison the web again -- if Google wasn't doing a better job than AltaVista did in fighting the darkside SEO masters that Powazek remembers from the old days.
Apparently, Powazek missed the 2005 post by Gord Hotchkiss, who retold the story of my dinner with a black hat SEO. In between the courses, a confession came out that stopped me in my tracks: "Black hat stuff is getting too hard. I'm actually thinking about turning legit."
And, apparently Powazek didn't read the 2007 post on the Official Google Webmaster Central Blog that Google has begun minimizing the impact of many Googlebombs. He thinks "Google bombing" still works.
Now, it turns out that I do agree with Powazek on "the One True Way to get a lot of traffic on the web." He says, "Make something great. Tell people about it. Do it again."
Or, as Google says about link schemes, "The best way to get other sites to create relevant links to yours is to create unique, relevant content that can quickly gain popularity in the Internet community. The more useful content you have, the greater the chances someone else will find that content valuable to their readers and link to it."
Now, apparently Powazek has decided that calling search engine optimizers "spammers, evildoers, and opportunists" can quickly gain popularity in the Internet community. Saying something controversial to generate discussion is a classic linkbaiting technique.
As Matt Cutts said in a 2006 post entitled, "SEO Advice: linkbait and linkbaiting," on his Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO blog, "On a meta-level, I think of 'linkbait' as something interesting enough to catch people's attention, and that doesn't have to be a bad thing. There are a lot of ways to do that, including putting in sweat-of-the-brow work to generate data or insights, or it can be as simple as being creative. You can also say something controversial to generate discussion (this last one gets tired if you overuse it, though)."
The only thing easier than picking on search engine optimizers is to call public relations people flacks and spin doctors. That's like shooting fish in a barrel.
But that's another topic for another day.
Posted by Greg Jarboe on October 13, 2009, 6:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Not So Fast: Efficient Frontier's Search Ad Data Paints a Different Picture than SearchIgnite's
Yesterday, we reported on Search Ignite's Q3 2009 search ad spend data. The report offered much optimism for the future since they saw a 10% increase over the second quarter of 2009, with the year-over-year data staying pretty flat.
However, Efficient Frontier has released their data, and while there is still optimism, it's not quite as pronounced. Their Q3 2009 data was down 5% year-over-year with just a 5% bump over Q2.
The biggest difference in their data came in search engine market share. Specifically, Microsoft saw a gain thanks to Bing, with their spend share increasing from 4.3% in Q2 to 5.3% in Q3. Their click share also rose from 4.1% to 4.8% quarter-to-quarter.
Who lost share? Google. However, Google has been actively trying to make their search ad service more efficient, which may account for decreased dollars and clicks. In essence, they've been bloated. Their new diet looks to be working, since conversions are up a whopping 47% year-over-year.
Efficient Frontier's data for Yahoo! mimicked Search Ignite's with a slight increase quarterly, after a big drop annually.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 13, 2009, 5:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Twitter Fights Spam with New Reporting Feature
Twitter is making it easier to fight profiles which users feel are spam. When you're on the profile that seems very spammy, just look for the "Report as Spam" option, which is now under the "Block" option on the right-hand sidebar. Previously, Tweeple could report spam by contacting the @spam account set up by Twitter.
When you report a profile as spam, it doesn't automatically suspend an account. That would make the system to game-able. However, if you do report a profile as spam, that account will be blocked from following you or appearing in your Twitter stream.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 13, 2009, 4:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Building on iPhone App Success, Dictionary.com Launches Blackberry App
Dictionary.com launched their iPhone app six months ago and over 3 million people have downloaded the app. Now, they're branching out with a mobile app for Blackberry phones.
The app provides 500,000 words and includes a thesaurus. There are also audio pronunciations and the popular word of the day feature, which is available in English and Spanish.
Blackberry users are getting a couple of unique features, however. They'll be able to lookup definitions and synonyms while drafting emails. They'll also be able to email or text a word and its definition directly from the app.
The app can be accessed at the Blackberry App World.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 13, 2009, 3:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Google Building Maker: An Easy Way to Submit 3D Models to Google Earth
Google has just launched a new program called Building Maker. Think of it as Google Sketchup Lite. It's an easy way to create 3D images for Google Earth.
Building Maker is launching for 50 cities on Google Earth, but plans to add more. It's browser-based and can be used in Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari. Building Maker is free and available in 14 languages.
Models submitted will be examined by Google before appearing on Google Earth. Google says it will choose the best model for each building.
The best way to learn about Building Maker is the video below. It really shows you just how easy Google has made it to create 3D models.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 13, 2009, 2:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Yahoo! Launches Yodeling Contest for Charity (and Advertising)
Yahoo! is holding a global Yodeling contest. Yes, that's right, now you have the chance to enter your musical interpretation of the famous Yahoo! Yodel.
You have until November 8th to show off your pipes. Head on over to the Yodel Studio to record your Yodel via webcam. You can also record a video with a camcorder and upload it. Yahoo! will donate to charity up to $130,000 for every Yodel submitted. Winning Yodels will appear in Yahoo!'s new global advertising campaign.
To kick off the event, Yahoo! is hosting events in New York, London, and Mumbai over the next two days. Celebrities will be on hand to coach your inner Yodel.
In New York, Jewel, Lee Ann Rimes, Pete Wentz and Randy Jackson will assist Yodelers with their recordings. Now, I know Jewel can Yodel, but Pete Wentz and Randy Jackson? I'm guessing Yahoo! really is looking for a new, um, interpretation of yodeling.
In London, Pixie Lott and Sinnitta will appear, and in Mumbai, Shankar Mahadevan, VJ Nikhil Chinappa and Shaa'ir + Func will advise yodelers.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 13, 2009, 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
