October 30, 2009
Business Wire Conducts Video Interview of Warren Buffet
Last month, after watching HostingYourParty, which told people how to host a Microsoft Windows 7 House, I asked: If you create something so bad that it goes viral, is it a public relations disaster?
Today, after watching "Warren Buffett is Bullish on America's Future, but Says That a Full Economic Recovery Will Take a While," I'll ask a different question: If you create something so good, is it a video marketing triumph even if it doesn't go viral?
In the video, Cathy Baron Tamraz, President and Chief Executive Officer of Business Wire, a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, interviews Warren Buffett, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Okay, so not every company has the "Oracle of Omaha" as its chairman. But every company has a chairman, CEO or president who their customers, stockholders and the media want to hear from.
Yes, yes, you can always insert a quote from Le Grand Fromage in your next press release. But, imagine inserting a video interview as well.
You'll find the Business Wire press release was posted yesterday. It is entitled, "Warren Buffett is Bullish on America's Future, but Says That a Full Economic Recovery Will Take a While."
And attached to the press release is the video below.
So, even if 590,000 people don't view it in the next three days, I still found it compelling.
Oh, speaking of 590,000 views, that is what a demonstration of Google Maps Navigation (Beta) has received in the past three days. You can see it below.
Okay, okay, so most companies don't have brand names that are verbs as well as nouns. But every company has products that its customers, shareholders and other stakeholders want to hear about.
So, do these videos have anything else in common? They aren't funny, which also makes me think: Why isn't your company using video marketing?
Posted by Greg Jarboe on October 30, 2009, 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Google Flu Trends Intense in Canada, High in United States
Okay, so Google Flu Trends has been around since November of 2008. But Google has found that certain search terms are good indicators of flu activity.
Check out the world map below to see how Google Flu Trends uses aggregated Google search data to estimate flu activity. It is intense in Canada and Norway. It is high in Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, Sweden, Russia, Ukraine, and the United States.
Each week, millions of users around the world search for health information online. As you might expect, there are more flu-related searches during flu season, more allergy-related searches during allergy season, and more sunburn-related searches during the summer.
You can explore all of these phenomena using Google Insights for Search. But can search query trends provide the basis for an accurate, reliable model of real-world phenomena?
Google has found a close relationship between how many people search for flu-related topics and how many people actually have flu symptoms. Of course, not every person who searches for "flu" is actually sick, but a pattern emerges when all the flu-related search queries are added together.
Google compared its query counts with traditional flu surveillance systems and found that many search queries tend to be popular exactly when flu season is happening. By counting how often Google sees these search queries, it can estimate how much flu is circulating in different countries and regions around the world. Their results have been published in the journal Nature.
So, according to the world map, now would be a great time to visit Australia, where flu activity is minimal. Throw another shrimp on the barbie.
Posted by Greg Jarboe on October 30, 2009, 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Anchor Intelligence Reports Decline in Click Fraud, Identifies New Hotspots
Anchor Intelligence has released its click fraud report for the third quarter of 2009. It paints a different picture than the Click Forensics report that was recently released. Where Click Forensics saw an increase, Anchor Intelligence saw a decline.
Overall, click fraud was 23.2% in Q3, down 14.3% from 27.1% in the second quarter. Anchor Intelligence breaks its click fraud rates into two categories: attempted click fraud, the kind with evil intentions, and innocuous click fraud, like an accidental click. Attempted click fraud was 18.6% in Q3 down from 22.9% in Q2. Innocuous rates increased from 4.2% in Q2 to 4.6% in Q3.
Anchor Intelligence's data reports attempted click fraud, not billed click fraud. Their ClearMark for Traffic system integrates with ad networks and search engines and identifies fraudulent clicks before the advertiser is affected.
Egypt and Indonesia have emerged as leaders in click fraud rates - percentage-wise. Volume is still highest in the United States:
Anchor Intelligence says it did observe more sophisticated click fraud schemes in the third quarter, such as browser hijacking. They also saw an increase in the threats of malicious advertisements in paid search and ads on publisher websites.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 30, 2009, 9:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Google Crawls RSS Feeds to Discover New Web Pages; AdSense for Feeds Now Available in Blogger
Google recently launched a new feature that uses RSS and Atom feeds to discover new web pages. This helps Google index new webpages faster than traditional methods.
As a result, you'll want to make sure that your robots.txt file allows Googlebot to crawl your feeds. To learn more about robots.txt from Google's standpoint, click here.
In other feed news related to Google, AdSense for Feeds is now available directly in Blogger. You can find the integration under the "Monetize" tab in the Blogger dashboard.
AdSense for Feeds allows bloggers to make money from advertisements that are included in RSS feeds. This is important because not all RSS readers click through to visit a site, where bloggers can make money off of display ads.
Blogger is a blogging platform that was acquired by Google in 2003.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 30, 2009, 2:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Google Tests Mortgage Comparison Ads, Updates Real Estate Search in Maps
Google is vamping up its real estate search offerings with two new announcements. First up, AdWords is testing comparison ads in the mortgage/refinance vertical. The idea behind comparison ads is to help searchers filter what they're really searching for when they type in something like "mortgage." Check out this screen shot of a comparison ad, per the Inside AdWords blog (click for a larger view):
When you click the ad, you get taken to a chart that lists various rates and lenders.
The second real estate announcement is for Google Maps. There are new ways to help searchers find real estate using the mapping service.
The first one involves the "More" menu that's directly on the map (not the one in the sidebar results). When you click on that, you'll see a real estate option. The second one is the ability to search rentals.
What do you think of Google's pursuit of real estate? Let us know by leaving a comment.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 30, 2009, 1:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Google Homepage Test Now Instructs Searchers to Press Enter
Google has added an element to their latest homepage test that instructs people what to do after they've entered a keyword. The sentence "Press enter to search," now appears under the box where you type in your keywords - where the old submit buttons used to be.
Here's a screenshot. (Click image for a larger view.)
The "Press enter" phrase was not seen in earlier screenshots of the homepage test. I've apparently gotten the test version lately, as I've seen the fade-in and the lack of buttons, but this is the first I've seen the "Press enter to search."
Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 30, 2009, 1:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
