April 22, 2006
Ask.com Chief Steve Berkowitz Jumps Ship To Microsoft's MSN
Steve Berkowitz, head of Ask.com and the man who has helped steered that
service to new successes, has been hired by Microsoft to run its online business
group.
Steve will be senior vice president of MSN's Online Business Group. Microsoft
says:
He will be responsible for running the Online Business group, which
includes include MSN.com, MSNTV and MSN Internet Access programming,
advertising sales, business development, and marketing for Live Platforms, MSN
and Windows Live. This team’s mission is to deliver world-class go to market
leadership, that wins customers to our services and builds a world leading
advertising business. The responsibility for the monetization of our Live
Platform, MSN and Windows Live assets is owned by this team, and includes
end-to-end management of the online P&L.
Steve is
currently CEO of IAC Search & Media, which encompasses Ask. His start date
with MSN is May 8. The New York Times
reports that Steve's job at Ask is now being assumed by IAC Search & Media
president Doug Lebda.
The news of Steve's hire was sent out to MSN employees on Friday with this
announcement from Kevin Johnson, Microsoft's copresident of the platforms &
services division:
I am pleased to announce that Steve Berkowitz will be joining the Platforms
and Services Division (PSD) as Senior Vice President, Online Business Group,
reporting to me. Steve succeeds David Cole, who will begin his leave of
absence in May.
Most recently, Steve was the CEO of Ask.com, a division of
IAC/InterActiveCorp. At Ask, Steve is credited with building the management
team that orchestrated the turnaround of Ask.com, grew their user base,
increased customer satisfaction, and gained share in the search market over
the last year.
Steve is an accomplished senior executive with a rich skill set, including
consumer brand building, media, marketing, operations, people management,
finance, and technology. He also brings a great blend of start-up and high
growth business experiences. Prior to joining Ask, Steve was the President and
COO of IDG Books, where he successfully built a consumer brand by expanding
the "Dummies" series of books to cover topics ranging from C++ to pet care.
Steve’s management experience, deep functional knowledge of the search and
Internet space, and understanding of both the offline and online publishing
worlds make him a great choice to lead the Online Business Group. He is a
proven leader, and is excited by the opportunity to take the assets we’ve
built in MSN and drive our software + services vision forward.
Steve will start this assignment on May 8th. David Cole and I will work
together to ensure a smooth transition to Steve.
Please join me in welcoming Steve to Microsoft, and thanking David for his
contribution to the company and to MSN.
Regards,
Kevin Johnson
Co-President Platforms & Services Division
I won't go into more depth on the move right now as it's the weekend, and I
almost never work weekends. But I had to check my email today, saw the news from
Microsoft and wanted to get something up quickly.
In short, I think it's a great win for Microsoft. Steve knows what it's like
to be an underdog in the search space and fight your way back onto the radar
screen. My main reaction really is why stop at Steve? Microsoft should have
bought Ask long ago.
As I wrote before about the current
search wars,
Microsoft entered the battle against Google and Yahoo from square one. When it
took on Netscape (and other players), it at least
acquired technology rather than try to start from scratch.
Want to comment or discuss? Visit our Search Engine Watch Forums thread,
Ask.com
Chief Berkowitz Heads To MSN.
Posted by Danny Sullivan on Apr. 22, 2006 |
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April 21, 2006
Tapping the Travel Community
 Internet Brands, home to Cars Direct, Autos.com and other sites in the real estate and travel space, is bringing aboard Wikitravel and World66, two collaborative Wiki sites that seek to be comprehensive global travel guides. Terms of the acquisition deals weren't disclosed.
Going forward, Internet Brands plans to introduce (and improve) contextually-targeted text ads, which currently appear on World66.com. It also plans to distinguish the properties from one another by having Wikitravel focus exclusively on encyclopedia-like objective info, and having World66 encompass people's subjective opinions and personal experiences. (Here's the Wiki page dedicated to the acquisition.)
It's interesting to see how user-generated content and collaboration are making an impact on the travel vertical. Kayak.com recently launched a social-networking aspect to its site, Kayak Buzz, and Yahoo! has tried to tap the community with Yahoo! Trip Planner (will it mix this with the new Farechase?).
Posted by Pamela Parker on Apr. 21, 2006 |
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See related stories in these categories! (available to
SEW members)
CGM
Daily SearchCast, April 21, 2006: Google's Making Money; Will eBayHooSoft Stop Google; Google Local Becomes Google Maps Again; Free Web Analytics; Google's Logo Trouble & More!
Today's search podcast covers Google's latest earnings pleasing Wall Street;
eBay looking to partner with Yahoo or Microsoft to counter Google as a threat;
the settlement over click fraud at Google takes another step toward approval;
Google Local goes back to being Google Maps; new places for free web analytics;
Google gets into hot water over a Google logo doodle and more!
Tune-in by listening to this
MP3
file, listening via WebmasterRadio
at 11:30am Eastern and repeated at 2pm Eastern Tuesday through Friday, via our
Odeo channel or through
iTunes via this
link (or use alternative iTunes instructions explained
here) or
though our Yahoo Podcasts
channel. Need more help tuning in live or finding the chat room? See the
Daily
SearchCast FAQ.
Posted by Danny Sullivan on Apr. 21, 2006 |
Permalink
Yahoo Updates Search Index
Yahoo has just announced that they updated the Yahoo Web Search index. Last time they did this was on March 28th of last month. Yahoo Product manager wrote that the updates have been "occurring more frequently; this is the result of improvements to the indexing system."
Local Online Marketing
Spotted this in the Mediterranean food place next to where the EFF debate was held last night. It's a small place and this was posted prominently enough that I saw it from outside the door. Now that's a local merchant who "gets" online.
Posted by Pamela Parker on Apr. 21, 2006 |
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Duelling E-Mail Visions in SF
A rollicking debate ensued when the Electronic Frontier Foundation put Esther Dyson (she of the pro-sender-pays editorial), Danny O'Brien and Mitch Kapor on stage at the Roxie Theater last night. Folks like Goodmail CEO Richard Gingras and e-mail pioneer Dave Crocker were in attendance, along with a pretty engaged crowd.
While the topic was almost certainly prompted by the AOL/Goodmail controversy, the debate was more theoretical, about whether a system in which the sender pays makes sense for e-mail. To make it brief, Dyson's point (which I tend to agree with) is that we should try anything and everything that seems to hold the promise of stopping the spam problem, and market forces will correct the system should things go wrong. O'Brien's main argument revolved around a few ideas: making people pay contributes to the digital divide; an "artificial market" creates perverse incentives (ISPs would have no incentive to develop their own anti-spam systems if they're making money from the likes of Goodmail); and that market forces can't necessarily work their magic in an environment where people have a high cost of switching ISPs (giving up their e-mail addresses). I'm sure I'm leaving something out here, but you get the gist.
All in all, a very satisfying and interesting debate. Considering the lengths to which anti-AOL/Goodmail activists have gone (accusing AOL of lying and deliberately blocking legitimate e-mail), I was surprised, but pleased, that it was so cordial and thought-provoking.
Posted by Pamela Parker on Apr. 21, 2006 |
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This Internet Thing Isn't Just a Fad
New research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project confirms that the internet has become a crucial source of information at major moments and milestones in our lives:
Our surveys show that 45% of internet users, or about 60 million Americans, say that the internet helped them make big decisions or negotiate their way through major episodes in their lives in the previous two years.
While this new research doesn't even use the phrase "search engine," the implication is pretty clear that people are searching to find this critical information. And remarkably, just 5% said the information found was misleading, which in the inimitable words of Good Morning Silicon Valley blogger John Paczkowski, "is either an encouraging sign of search effectiveness or a worrisome warning about credulity."
More on the Internet’s Growing Role in Life’s Major Moments is available as a summary or full pdf report.
Posted by Chris Sherman on Apr. 21, 2006 |
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ClickTracks & Performancing Offering Up Free Stats
One of the nicest things about
Google Analytics going free was that it helped give plenty of search
marketers, especially smaller ones, the chance to try out powerful web analytics
if they weren't already doing so. Want an alternative, especially with Google
Analytics still on an invite-only basis? Long-time web analytics player
ClickTracks is now offering a free version of their excellent product. Called
ClickTracks Appetizer,
it gives you a variety of key reports. Jennifer Laycock has a nice write-up
about it at Search Engine Guide:
ClickTracks
Appetizer Serves Up Free Site Analytics. Need yet another alternative? OK,
Performancing Metrics
launched not too long ago. It's especially meant for bloggers, though I suspect
it will work fine for any web site.
Posted by Danny Sullivan on Apr. 21, 2006 |
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Judge Approves Class Action Lawsuit Settlement of $90 Million
News.com reports that a judge from Arkansas has approved the $90 million settlement issued between Google and Google AdWords advertisers. Of the $90 million, $60 million will go to the advertisers and $30 million will go to the lawyers. Google said, "We are pleased that we were able to reach an agreement and are pleased the judge has granted preliminary approval." Of course they are pleased, this is a great outcome for Google.
MoveOn.org's "Save the Internet Petition"
Advocacy group MoveOn.org has taken an interesting approach in the petition they're circulating today to encourage Americans to support Net neutrality.
This isn't the usual just-sign-you-name petition. Rather, MoveOn is encouraging signatories to really tell their congressional reps just what it is they do online. There's an extensive menu ranging from "I use an iPod" to specifying just what kind of tickets you purchase online (movies, shows, events) if you're an online ticket buyer. They even ask you to specify what OS you use to access the Web.
Nice approach to illustrate to Congress the depth to which the Web has penetrated voters' lives.
Hershey Auctions, Powered by eBay
 Get It with WrapperCash is the name of Hershey's latest promotion/loyalty program. It's an online-driven rewards program in which customers can bid for items and pay with "WrapperCash codes" from the packages of Hershey candy, cookies and snacks.
eBay will power the auctions on the Hershey Web site.
Participants can "bank" their coupons at Hersheys.com by entering the codes found on the promotions, online or via a mobile device. The online currency can then be used in auctions or at Hershey's "Redeem Now" online store.
Marketing to Hispanics Part II Released
Nacho Hernandez from iHispanic released part II of his Marketing to Hispanics report, the first part we discussed here. I have pulled out some of the highlights of part two, with Nacho's help. * Search engine optimization is the most popular marketing tactic to reach US Hispanics; more importantly, however, it's likely the most important internet marketing effort because it relies on a pull strategy, based on users' needs, rather than a push strategy that's focused on brand awareness and potential reach.
* Shows a cool chart with a visual presentation of how pull marketing attracts a more targeted market like with the Hispanic audience and is based on persuasion, whereas permission marketing is more about communities, occupying a middle ground in consumer's intent, and push marketing is used more for reach and awareness.
* When it comes to reaching Hispanics, search engine marketing is highly underdeveloped, with Hispanic advertising agencies having ignored search due to a lack of knowledge about the tools and techniques of SEM.
* In part 1, it referred to the language barrier as an important challenge. He mentions that the second-highest hurdle is the lack of tracking marketing results within the Hispanic market. Hispanic businesses and advertising agencies need only make use of web analytics software; and if they were to do so, their survey would not find that 30% of respondents don't target Hispanics because "senior management is not convinced on the ROI."
* Nacho mentions that when it comes to search engines, some believe that there is only one option for targeting Hispanics: Spanish-language search. Instead, marketers should be looking at the bigger picture: Hispanics doing search in any language. He points to "the database of intentions" from John Battelle's book The Search to stress the point that he advertiser doesn't control what the user wants; only the user controls what he or she wants, and that can be done in any language. It's common for the thought process of US Hispanics to take place in English and so they speak in English, or other times to think in Spanish and so speak in Spanish. The same is true of search: The Hispanic user will search in both languages, based on their "desires, needs, wants, and likes that can be discovered, subpoenaed, archived, tracked, and exploited to all sorts of ends."
* Nacho says that what keeps him up at night worrying about the US Hispanic and the Latin American markets is: If Latino-focused ad agencies merely add SEM or any other Internet-based programs to their list of services as if it were just an SKU and pretend to know how to implement them-but don't deliver results-clients will rightly be frustrated. As a result, such agencies are damaging the entire industry. SEM requires a full commitment to learn; and it doesn't take a couple of days to pick up, either. To drive results, as with all media, it takes practice and skill. Ad agencies must invest the time and human resources to be able to deliver results. Imagine what happens when a client who allocated $20 million from the marketing budget finds out that an intern is handing its SEM campaign.... A viable option for Hispanic ad agencies is to partner with market leaders, which was the most likely case among those we tracked that were offering search marketing solutions in a professional manner.
The full report can be viewed at http://www.marketingprofs.com/6/hernandez2.asp.
Google Scholar Adds Recent Articles Sort Option
The Google Blog announced that Google Scholar has added the ability to sort the results by most recent articles. The Google blog explains that this is just not a normal date sort filter, the sort takes into account "prominence of the author's and journal's previous papers, how many citations it already has, when it was written and so on." Gary Price digs deeper into this new feature here showing how this feature is useful and then exploring other tools available to do similar searches outside of Google Scholar.
eBay Wants To Team Up With Yahoo And/Or Microsoft To Compete Against Google?
A Wall Street Journal article reports that eBay is in talks with both Yahoo and Microsoft to see which one (or possibly both) is a "worthy ally" to compete against the all-mighty Google. Currently eBay spends a ton on Google AdWords, pretty much any search you do on Google, you get an ad for eBay in the sponsored results. Google also is a heavy indexer of eBay content in the organic results. This all leads to tons of referrals to eBay's content from Google. The issue is, Google is now competing with eBay on several fronts, including a PayPal alternative, online auction service and Google's other services such as Froogle and Base together lead to a huge competing e-commerce portal. Hence the need for eBay to make some changes in the future. The article at the WSJ has a nice write up with the details here.
Google Revenues Up
Google's first quarter revenues are in, $2.25 billion, up 79 percent compared
to the same time last year and 17 percent over last quarter. Net income was 62
percent higher than last quarter, various sources calculate.
The Rundown
- Revenue from Google-owned sites was 58 percent; Google network sites made
up 41 percent; the remaining 1 percent is either a rounding issue or non-ad
income.
- Non-US revenue was 42 percent.
- Traffic Acquisition Costs were 32 percent, down from 33 percent last
quarter.
- Net income was $592 million, compared to $372 million last quarter.
- Cash in the bank: $8.43 billion.
- Employees: 6,790, up from 5,680 at the end of last quarter.
- Animals Harmed During The Production Of Google: None. (Just seeing if you
all are paying attention!)
Official Resources
Coverage
- Google Grows Q1 Revenue
62 Percent, Expands More Globally: The numbers from ClickZ, with news that
international growth was lead by Scandinavia and Europe generally; that CPM-based
contextual ads aren't reaching the price keyword-targeted ads get (no surprise
there); that Google
may do more branded/display ads on Google sites, though perhaps not within
search.
- Current AdSense Publisher
Cut from Google Figures: Threadwatch highlights that publishers got a tiny
bit less of the Google cash.
-
Google's Ad-Grabbing Pushes Profit Up 60%: Puts Google's revenues in
perspective with the overall ad market and how Google expect to continue
growing as more money moves online.
-
Google Lost A $Billion In Unspent Ads:
Via Inside Google, BuyGoogle highlights that advertisers want to spend
even more with Google but can't. They can't, of course, because the search
inventory really isn't there. Two things will solve this problem for Google,
FYI. First, prices will continue to rise. Second, Google will continue going
offline to try and help those advertisers spend their money.
- Earnings: GOOG Q1
Call: No Plans To Monetize Google Base: PaidContent covers how Google
doesn't plan to turn Google Base into a new paid inclusion system.
Posted by Danny Sullivan on Apr. 21, 2006 |
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Google Local Goes Back To Being Google Maps
Google gave us the heads-up about this earlier this week, that Google Local
was going to be renamed Google Maps. Now it's happened. Either URL you use,
http://local.google.com/ or
http://maps.google.com/ comes back with
the Google Maps name. But wait a minute! Wasn't Google Maps just renamed Google Local a few months
ago? Yep, back in
October. Google
explains briefly to News.com how they flip-flopped because people kept
calling Google Local "Google Maps."
Hate to say it, but perhaps they should go back to two different sites. Local
results can still be in Google Maps and vice-versa, but separately, they might
be easier to maintain with more targeted front pages for what people probably
expect. For example, compare Yahoo Local
to Yahoo Maps.
Postscript: Google has more on the change on its blog.
Posted by Danny Sullivan on Apr. 21, 2006 |
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And Now, Google Takes Flak Over Google Logo Doodle
Those crazy kids at Google, always whacking together some twist on the Google
logo to honor someone or something. Now it's gotten them into trouble. Yesterday, the logo took on the look of surrealist painter Joan Miro. It
certainly caught my wife's attention. "What's with that," she asked me last
night, not particularly thrilled with the current change.
I explained Google's long history of doing these type of logos, which
prompted her to ask if they were going to do anything for The Queen's
80th
birthday (that's today; answer, a big no).
Probably best they didn't. They wouldn't want Her Majesty getting
ticked perhaps in the way the family of Joan Miro did.
Artist's family asks Google to take down today's 'painted' logo from the San
Jose Mercury News covers how Google was asked to remove the logo, with copyright
issues cited as the reason for the takedown request.
Google immediately declared the Google Artwork Scanning Program (GASP) as a
response, where it will be heading into museums around the world to scan images
of art regardless of copyright concerns.
Nah. They took the logo down, even though they thought they were fine on the
copyright front.
SiliconBeat has a post and some
discussion on the issue, if you feel the need to defend or decry.
Can't get enough Google logos?
Google Logo-Snubs
England (& The US, California, ...) has some background on who and what gets
doodled, as the logos are called. Here's the
archive of holiday
doodles. And hey kids in the UK! You can get your own doodle featured in this
new contest
from Google.
Off now -- gotta get my boys doodling so we can get that "week-long trip of a
lifetime for them and their family to the Googleplex office in California."
Posted by Danny Sullivan on Apr. 21, 2006 |
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Search Forums Roundup: Apr. 21, 2006
Today's SearchDay, Search Engine Forums Spotlight, features our weekly links to this week's hot topics from search engine forums across the web: Is Textbook SEO Dead? - What Percentage of Brand Name Traffic Should Brand Names Get? - ClickTracks Appetizer Serves Up Free Site Analytics - What Factors Please The MSN Search Algorithm? - Yahoo Testing Pay Per Call, and more.
Posted by Chris Sherman on Apr. 21, 2006 |
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April 20, 2006
Daily SearchCast, April 20, 2006: Google's GData API Format; Revisiting AdSense's Bot Helping GoogleBot; Looking At Google, China And Censorship & More!
Today's search podcast covers Google's new GData format; a revisit to
AdSense's bot helping Googlebot; a deep look at Google in China and more!
Tune-in by listening to this
MP3
file, listening via WebmasterRadio
at 11:30am Eastern and repeated at 2pm Eastern Tuesday through Friday, via our
Odeo channel or through
iTunes via this
link (or use alternative iTunes instructions explained
here) or
though our Yahoo Podcasts
channel. Need more help tuning in live or finding the chat room? See the
Daily
SearchCast FAQ.
Posted by Danny Sullivan on Apr. 20, 2006 |
Permalink
One Step Closer to the Ringtones Top 40
 Pepsi signed a deal with Mariah Carey under which the singer will record original ringtones for a "Pepsi Cool Tones & Motorola Phones" promotion this summer. Carey will write and produce 20 music and voice ringtones.
Posted by Zachary Rodgers on Apr. 20, 2006 |
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New York Times Magazine's Deep Look At Google, Censorship & China
China White
points to an excellent New York Times Magazine piece,
Google in China: The Big Disconnect, looking at how Google's entry into the
country from 2000 onward, touching along the way on Yahoo and Microsoft as well.
The story covers suggested accusations that Baidu got China to block Google
in 2002 (which Baidu denies) and how the Chinese government cowers companies
into doing more self-censorship than they probably need to.
Google's Sergey Brin again repeats that going into China wasn't so much a
business decision as getting better information about many topics to people,
making the compromise worthwhile.
As for the censoring, more details already
hinted at before
on how Google itself has to do the Chinese government's dirty work. They don't
get told what to censor. They have to guess -- and so they guess by seeing what
web sites are blocked by the Chinese government's own firewall.
There's nice detail on how Google put out its own disclosure on search
results pages without asking for permission (so why not make it stronger, then,
as I suggested
before?). In February, we saw some
pressure
develop on whether that disclosure should be removed.
The Chinese blogger Zhao Jing, who had his Microsoft-hosted blog removed,
puts Google at the top of the list of search companies he thinks are working
ethically there, followed by Microsoft and then Yahoo, which he calls a "sell
out." Yahoo just took another pummeling this week over
accusations email it handed over helped jail a third activist.
Overall, it's a great article and definitely helps you understand more about
what those in China expect and know about the censorship. But I'm afraid it
still doesn't leave me feeling any better about Google caving in the way they
did. I still read it as more a business move and will always wonder if China
really would have changed more on the censorship front if they'd stood up to the
demands. After all, if "Don't Be Evil" Google won't, who will?
We've had Google China head Kai-Fu Lee
say how
important insisting on and following principles should be. In the public
speaking training video of Google CEO Eric Schmidt that's making the rounds, we
have him
saying how important conflict and tolerance to other opinions are. Yet still
caved in on both principles and tolerance when it came to doing business in
China.
Posted by Danny Sullivan on Apr. 20, 2006 |
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Paid Classifieds: So Passé?
Will people pay to post ads for garage sales and dog walking services on their local TV station Web site when they can do so on Craigslist, Google Base, other listings sites -- and in the future possibly their own local newspaper sites -- for free? That's what Maps.com's new media division Classified Concepts is betting on as it launches its Broadcast Edition for Television system. It enables TV station site visitors to create classifieds and pay by credit card (they're suggesting a $10-$15 fee).
Of course, there's a mapping component here. The system automatically posts the ads and incorporates them into an interactive map display.
Considering the growing number of free listings services for individuals on local-centric sites, and the drive for locally-relevant sites (like TV Station sites) towards enabling CGM to build community and, yes, more ad pages, this pay-to-play system seems a bit behind the times.
But, maybe I'm wrong. We'll see….
Posted by Kate Kaye on Apr. 20, 2006 |
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Conference Coverage: PubCon 2006 & SES Japan 2006
PubCon has been happening out in Boston,
while Search Engine Strategies is
going in Japan. Here's
a round-up to some coverage on search-related sessions:
Want to comment or discuss? Visit our SEW Forums thread,
PubCon
Boston 2006.
Posted by Danny Sullivan on Apr. 20, 2006 |
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Google's New GData API Format
Niall Kennedy
points to what looks to be a new Google API format, the Google Data API or
GData for short,
which it says is based on existing formats of
Atom and
RSS 2.0 (and
here). It's designed to
let you send requests for data and get back results as an Atom or RSS feed.
Posted by Danny Sullivan on Apr. 20, 2006 |
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Digital Impact to become Acxiom Digital
 In a move that's likely to surprise few, e-mail marketing player Digital Impact is finally taking its acquirer's name, after it joined Acxiom last year. As of today, the division will now be called Acxiom Digital.
In addition, Acxiom Digital has a new president, Kevin H. Johnson, who was formerly VP of products and marketing for Digital Impact. The former CEO, William Park, now heads up Acxiom's InfoBase data business, Acxiom Direct, and Acxiom Digital.
On the product side, Acxiom Digital will continue to offer e-mail, search, RSS and landing page development. It's also branching out into lead generation, having recently launched HealthCareers.net. Johnson insists the company's sites will provide valuable content and utility for Web visitors, instead of being solely vehicles for lead gathering. The HealthCareers site, which lists only Sanford-Brown institutions currently, is the first in Acxiom Digital's first target segment, education. More sites and verticals are on the way, said Johnson, though he declined to elaborate.
Posted by Pamela Parker on Apr. 20, 2006 |
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April 19, 2006
Rovion Puts a Tiny Man in My Computer
 There's a tiny talking man on my computer monitor! If you've visited TVGuide.com or FoodNetwork.com lately, you've seen him, too. The network is running a campaign on its own site and TVGuide.com using Rovion's InPerson video technology. The spot automatically streams an image of perpetually chipper Food TV host Marc Summers as he petitions viewers to click on him and vote for their favorite contestant in "The Next Food Network Star" battle.
The 10-day campaign began on April 12, launching with a more introductory branding-style creative and culminating now with a call-to-action to vote online. Viewers can also vote via their mobile phones for the big winner, who will be announced April 20 during the final episode of the season.
According to my chat with Rovion CEO Len Ostroff today, the first creative running on TVGuide.com garnered about a 40 percent full-video watch rate and about a 4 percent CTR, while the call-to-action spot is getting about a 45 percent watch rate and about a 4 percent CTR. Not surprising, the FoodNetwork.com numbers are a lot higher: about 53 percent view rate and 8 percent CTR.
(Still, I checked out the ad on both sites and it goes by so quickly, there's not really enough time to register the fact that Marc Summers has invaded your computer before he's done.)
Rovion also ran a campaign on TVGuide.com promoting the 2006 Miss America Pageant on CMT. The 5 day campaign got over 7 percent click-through according to Ostroff.
"After now producing and running a number of campaigns with TV star personalities, we continue to believe that the InPerson technology creates that bridge between broadcast and broadband," Ostroff told me.
Rovion serves the ads and takes care of the ad production using raw video from its advertiser clients. The company has run its streaming spots on ABC owned and operated station Web sites, CBS Radio station sites, McClatchy newspaper sites, and others.
(By the way, if you know what song I referenced in my headline, you remember when Eddie Murphy was actually funny.)
Posted by Kate Kaye on Apr. 19, 2006 |
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Mid-April 2006 Search News Recap Posted
If you're a Search Engine Watch
member, the
latest edition of Search Engine Update newsletter has been posted. It recaps
top stories in search from the first part of this month.
Posted by Danny Sullivan on Apr. 19, 2006 |
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Daily SearchCast, April 19, 2006: A Tricorder Patent; Googlebot Gets Indexing Help From AdSense's Bot; New Site Measures Click Fraud Rates; Yahoo's Earnings Please Wall Street; Google Australia Needs Women & More!
Today's search podcast covers new search patents including a tricorder-like
device; AdSense's bot confirmed to be helping Googlebot; a new index aims to
help quantify click fraud rates; Yahoo pleases Wall Street with earnings; how
about a poster of Google search commands?; Google Australia is looking for a few
good women -- actually, a lot of them -- and more!
Tune-in by listening to this
MP3
file, listening via WebmasterRadio
at 11:30am Eastern and repeated at 2pm Eastern Tuesday through Friday, via our
Odeo channel or through
iTunes via this
link (or use alternative iTunes instructions explained
here) or
though our Yahoo Podcasts
channel. Need more help tuning in live or finding the chat room? See the
Daily
SearchCast FAQ.
Posted by Danny Sullivan on Apr. 19, 2006 |
Permalink
The International Spam Battle
 The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is getting behind new Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recommendations for international anti-spam efforts. It goes without saying that spam is a problem that has no borders, affecting consumers and marketers regardless of their physical locations. Here are a few of the recommended steps for governments outlined in a new "toolkit," as summarized by the FTC:
- Government enforcement agencies should have the necessary authority to take action against spammers located in their territory or against foreign spammers who target consumers in their territory.
- Government enforcement agencies should have the ability to share information with foreign law enforcement officials in appropriate cases.
- Government enforcement agencies should have the ability to provide investigative assistance to foreign authorities in appropriate cases, particularly in obtaining information or locating or identifying people.
- Government enforcement agencies should partner with industry and consumer groups to educate users and promote information sharing.
- Government enforcement agencies should cooperate with the private sector to facilitate the location and identification of spammers.
- Countries should cooperate in international enforcement efforts; efforts to reduce the incidence of inaccurate information about holders of domain names; and efforts to make the Internet more secure.
The toolkit Web site is really a fantastic resource -- sort of a jump-start for governments that haven't really thought about, or implemented, anti-spam regulations or enforcement efforts. International spam enforcement is a huge, complex endeavor, but efforts like these can certainly help governments make strides forward.
Posted by Pamela Parker on Apr. 19, 2006 |
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Fox Interactive Media Invests In SimplyHired, Levinsohn To Join Board
The vertical search space continues to attract interest from major media companies. This morning, SimplyHired announced it raised $13.5m from Fox Interactive Media (FIM) and Foundation Capital.
FIM represents the interactive assets of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which made a splash last year by purchasing MySpace. In total, FIM properties reach aproximately 70 million unique visitors a month.
Ross Levinsohn, FIM’s president, will join the SimplyHired board of directors.
If you're looking for a primer on the job search market and SimplyHired, read my recent Q&A with SimplyHired's Phil Carpenter.
Posted by Brian Smith on Apr. 19, 2006 |
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Authentication Adoption by the Numbers
E-mail infrastructure player IronPort, which monitors over 1/4 of global e-mail traffic through its SenderBase network, has some new statistics on the adoption of e-mail authentication technologies.
Key findings from the study include:
* 35% of all Internet email is now authenticated using the Sender ID Framework (SIDF)
* 9% of all Internet email is now using DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)
* 75% of all Fortune 100 companies use SIDF for marketing related email, 45% use DKIM
* 9 of the top 10 most phished domains use SIDF, 5 out of 10 use DKIM
IronPort points to the results as evidence of critical mass, which it says signals that it's time for reputation services to emerge as the next step.
"Email authentication is a 'chicken or egg problem', with senders dependent on receivers and receivers on senders to get value from e-mail authentication. This study proves we have achieved critical mass and the benefits are accruing today," Patrick Peterson, IronPort's CTO, said in a statement.
Former DoubleClick Execs Launch ShopWiki, New Shopping Search Engine
Another shopping comparison engine!?! Yes, I understand your lack of
enthusiasm, but more than a decade after the industry was born, there's
still a lot of room for improvement.
ShopWiki, a new shopping search engine founded by former DoubleClick
executives, takes a different approach than the current breed of
comparison engines to address some issues. What issues? When I discuss the challenges shopping comparison engines
face, these surface again and again:
- Comprehensiveness - If only 10,000 merchants are
submitting data feeds, the shopping comparison engines are missing out
on at least 90,000 merchants.
- Price floors - This also plays into the
comprehensiveness issue. By implementing artificial price floors, the
shopping comparison engines restrict the number of products listed as
low margin goods will not be listed.
- Lack of loyalty/Poor user experience - Because many
shopping comparison engines depend on paid traffic, they are set up to
optimize revenue per user. Get 'em in. Get 'em out through a paid link.
ShopWiki is far from perfect and the service has a long long way to go,
but it’s on the right path and is a long term threat to the established
players who are not thinking seriously about crawling. More about this is
covered in
my Q&A with the founders of ShopWiki. See also ShopWiki Aims to Redefine Shopping Search from ClickZ.
Posted by Brian Smith on Apr. 19, 2006 |
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Yahoo Pondering Free & Low-Cost WiFi
OK, Google, we'll see your
free WiFi plans
and sort of match you maybe, says Yahoo.
Yahoo Testing Free Wifi Product from TechCrunch covers Yahoo running a
survey about giving people free WiFi access to reach Yahoo Messenger and a $7.95
per month plan to hit the internet overall. Hey, I'm ready to sign-up! Sounds
like a nice, cheap backup for when my EVDO isn't working. Postscript: Gary Price reminds me that Yahoo has already been offering
free wi-fi in some hotels. More in
Yahoo Sponsoring
Free Internet Access in Two Sheraton Hotels.
Posted by Danny Sullivan on Apr. 19, 2006 |
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Chris Pirillo Search Podcasts From SES NY & Googlefasting
I'm belated in getting a link up to Chris Pirillo's many podcasts he did out of
the Search Engine Strategies show last month. He talked with a ton of people on
a huge number of topics, which you'll find listed
here. I
really enjoyed
talking with him about his
Googlefasting project, where he found
he could
live without Google, but he
didn't
want to. We discussed how people can get into a habit of using any service,
and they don't necessarily want to "kick" that habit if the service works well
and they trust it. That's the big challenge for any search engine to win users
away from another service. As I've long said, it's not that you have to be
better. You also have to hope the other search engine is doing noticeably worse
or bad by its users.
Posted by Danny Sullivan on Apr. 19, 2006 |
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Interview With Ask's Jim Lanzone
John Battelle continues rolling along with his new interview series, this
time talking with Jim
Lanzone, senior vice president and general manager of Ask. Jim delivers up usual
good comments on moving past "10 blue links," improving relevance and freshness,
coopetition with Google and more.
Posted by Danny Sullivan on Apr. 19, 2006 |
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See related stories in these categories! (available to
SEW members)
Ask
Innovations In Media
 No wonder newpaper Web sites are raking in the dough, even as their print counterparts go begging for ad dollars. Online, there's just so much more to sell -- if you're creative about it.
Spotted today on NYTimes.com: Fox Searchlight's film, Water, is sponsoring "Article Tools," that usually ignorable little box that allows you to print, save or e-mail an article.
The placement is so novel it got me to click...
Revenues Up, Profits Down But Yahoo Meets Earnings Expectations
Yahoo reported a 22 percent drop in first quarter profits but met the
expected earnings forecast.
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