April 30, 2008
April 30, 2008
Future of Search Marketing? Behavior-AOL
Search retargeting and post-click behavioral targeting is the future of search. The future's here - now - with the launch of Platform A's integrated search marketing platform using Tacoda technology.
Call it Platform A.O.L.
ClickZ's reporting that the use of Tacoda technology will begin in June across the whole Platform A network. That means marketers will have a single software platform for tracking, reporting and delivering, and running behavioral marketing campaigns.
For anyone following innovations in search marketing campaigns, that's exciting news.
We're sure some savvy marketer will be the first to design an award-winning search campaign on Platform AOL.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 3:04 PM | Permalink
iGoogle: O Pop, Where Art Thou? Jeff Koons, Wiggles, La Cicciolina
Google commissioned Jeff Koons, the controversial modern artist, to create graphic images for iGoogle backgrounds. Koons' Google Doodle today features his interpretation of (chrome) tulips. "Where art thou?" asks Marissa Mayer, VP of search products & user experience, in her official blog post this morning:
"Did you notice the chrome tulips on Google's homepage today? They are part of a special Google doodle done by renowned artist Jeff Koons. And that isn't the only art appearing anew on Google today. As part of our iGoogle Artists project, we have collaborated with almost 70 artists in 17 countries on 6 continents to create special iGoogle themes -- works of art that appeal to all ages and interests."
Our response: "O Brother, Google, where art thousands of dollars going?"
Or perhaps, "O Pop, Where Art Thou?"
Most of the time, the controversy about Koons -- at 53-years old modern art's aging bad boy -- centers on whether he's a brilliant artist or the emperor's new clothes.
Jeff Koons isn't the only Google artist designing for iGoogle: non-artist artists like UK rockers Coldplay and U.S. kiddieboppers The Wiggles (shown below); fashion designers Mark Ecko (rhino logo) and Diane von Furstenburg (wife of Ask.com owner Barry Diller of IAC); architects Phillipe Starck (W Hotels) and Michael Graves; and New Yorker cartoonist Robert Mankoff.
Why in the world would a world-famous artist like Jeff Koons hire himself out for graphic design work?
It seems the multimillionaire artist and ex-husband of an ex-porn star may need the moolah.
Jeff Koons famously married a European porn star, La Cicciolina ("fleshy one"), after hiring her as his muse for photos, paintings and sculptures.
The artwork Koons spawned from their union was graphic but not graphic in a Googley design way. Think NSFW: sexually explicit in a flashy, fleshy Paris Hilton - Britney Spears - Lindsay Lohan kind of way. The only difference? Koons' sculptures starred Jeff and (as Brit wits might say) his naughty bits.
A few weeks ago, La Cicciolina, AKA Ilona Staller, sued her ex-husband, Jeffrey Koons, for $2.4 million dollars (1.5 million euros) in child support for their 15-year old son, Ludwig Maximilian Koons, according to papers filed in Manhattan State Supreme Court.
Child support payments of 15,000 euros a month were ordered by an Italian court in June 2007. Koons has only paid 191,426 euros for child support during the roughly nine year period (Oct 1998 - Dec 2007), leaving a balance owed of about 1.5 million euros.
Staller starred in X-rated films in Italy as La Cicciolina before she was elected to serve as a member of Italy’s parliament for five years.
After the jump we have a two-minute clip from the Sundance Channel: fashion designer "Tom Ford on Jeff Koons" from the Iconoclast series. You can see what Jeff Koons Safe-For-Work art is all about in a SFW video.
AP reported that after their divorce in New York in 1994, Koons was given custody of their infant son. A judge ordered that the child remain in New York. In June of 1994, Staller slipped away from Koons’ security guards and escaped to Italy with the boy.
When the divorce and custody issues were litigated again in Italy, Staller, an Italian citizen, was granted a divorce. After appealing, she received custody of the boy.
Koons piled up legal bills of almost $4 million trying to bring his son back from Italy. So maybe we can call this Google's "No Child Left Behind" Pop Art campaign.
Here's Tom Ford explaining the art of Jeff Koons, whose work has been displayed at London’s Royal Academy, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney and at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain:
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:47 PM | Permalink
Jerry Yang's Anything-But-Silent Life
While many are saying how Jerry Yang seems to be silent on last weekend's come-and-gone Microsoft ultimatum, his life is anything but silent. Kara Swisher reports that his wife had a baby!
But I'm not sure why people expect Yang to pull himself away from his new bundle of joy to simply repeat what he's said all along: Yahoo is undervalued by Microsoft's bid and the answer to the offer as it stands is No.
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:31 AM | Permalink
Marchex's Local Advertising Branches Out into Mobile Market
Marchex today announced the expansion of its local advertising services into the mobile market. The new offering will include call-based advertising, which is a result of its acquisition of VoiceStar. The call-based services will be part of agreements with three mobile advertising providers: AdMob, Ringleader Digital, and 4INFO.
Call tracking will accompany the new agreements and offer up the following features:
1. Track the calls generated by advertisements on their network
2. Determine exactly which advertisements delivered the calls
3. Track and report key information including the duration, time of day and geographic location of callers
4. Record the calls.
“Marchex is focused on partnerships with leading aggregators of local advertisers across all channels: online, offline, and mobile,” said John Keister, Marchex President and COO. “We believe that the mobile advertising opportunity is significant and is poised to realize tremendous growth over the next five years. Our call tracking and pay-per-phone-call capabilities provide a significant advantage for Marchex in the mobile search advertising market.”
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:14 AM | Permalink
Microsoft's $1.5 Billion Plan to Retain Yahoo Employees
While we await the news of Microsoft's next move in its pursuit of the unsolicited Yahoo acquisition, the Wall Street Journal has learned that the software giant plans to spend $1.5 billion to retain Yahoo employees should a merger - or takeover - occur.
The plan was revealed in court transcripts regarding a suit by shareholders against Yahoo's directors. The shareholders who filed the suit feel that Yahoo hasn't responded in good faith to Microsoft's bid. The suit was brought forth by two Detroit pension funds. The lawyers for the funds argued that a recent expansion of Yahoo employee benefits make it difficult for shareholders to get maximum value should an acquisition take place.
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:28 AM | Permalink
Google Analytics for Bloggers - Google Relaunches Measure Map
As Twitter microblogging captures the mainstream media's imagination, Google Analytics has quietly relaunched Measure Map analytics for bloggers. Email invitations went out this week to alpha users of the blog tracking software.
The bad news for Measure Map bloggers: historical analytics data from the original Measure Map can't be imported into the Google Analytics / Measure Map platform.
We reported on the acquisition of Adaptive Path's Measure Map by Google back in February, 2006. Since then Jeffrey Veen and his team have redesigned Google Analytics and integrated new features such as Website Optimizer with great success.
Sitepoint's Technical Editor Andrew Tetlaw posted a question on April 11, 2008 in a dormant Google Groups forum for Measure Map:
Is it just me or does anyone else get the feeling MM has been abandoned?Performance is terrible, the browser report still doesn't even
recognize Firefox 2.0....
That post seems to have spurred the Google Analytics team to email all the original users of Measure Map to test the newly rebuilt analytics software for bloggers. You can ask the MM team questions in the resuscitated Measure Maps Google Group.
Andrew also told me that to convert to the new and improved Measure Map you need to sign up for a Google Analytics account and add GA tracking code to your site. For an update, check out Andrew's excellent post today in Sitepoint: Measure Map Redux.
We're not sure whether the original MM "Date Slider" will be reinvented but it was one of the original cool tools for Analytics that had wide appeal (even if it seems clunky by today's Web 2.0 standards).
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:01 AM | Permalink
Fredrick Marckini to Give Opening Keynote at SES Toronto
Fredrick Marckini, chief global search officer of Isobar, will be giving the opening keynote speech at SES Toronto on Tuesday, June 17, 2008. Fredrick also gave the opening keynote at SES London back in February.
While he was in London, I interviewed him about his keynote speech on search engine marketing trends and his duties at Isobar. You can get a pretty good idea of Fredrick's perspective by watching the YouTube video below -- which has just been posted in its entirety. (A portion of Fredrick's interview was included in our Day 1 roundup.)
And, as you'll see, YouTube's recent site updates now enable you view the high quality video by just clicking on the television icon below and to the right instead of using the format 18 code.
Fredrick Marckini at SES London on Search Engine Marketing
You can also get a sense of Fredrick's point of view by reading: Fredrick Marckini iProspect Exclusive SEO Interview with Dan Horton.
Fredrick Marckini founded iProspect in 1996 and is recognized as a leading expert in the field of search engine marketing. He has authored three of the SEM industry's earliest books, including Secrets To Achieving Top-10 Positions (1997), Achieving Top-10 Rankings in Internet Search Engines (1998), and Search Engine Positioning (2001). He is considered one of the pioneers of search engine marketing and was named to BtoB Magazine's Top 100 Marketers 2005 and 2006 lists.
Fredrick is a frequent speaker at industry conferences around the country including: Search Engine Strategies, ad:tech, the iMedia Summit, Search Insider Summit and the eMarketing Association Conference. He has written bylined articles for Search Engine Watch, CMO Magazine, BtoB Magazine, iMedia Connection, ClickZ and numerous other publications. He has been interviewed and profiled in a variety of media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times of London, Inc., Investors and Business Daily, Internet Retailer, National Public Radio, and others.
Fredrick serves on the Board for the Ad Club of Boston, and was a founding Board Member of the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO). He earned a bachelors degree from Franciscan University in Ohio.
Posted by Greg Jarboe at 7:00 AM | Permalink
SEW Experts: What Are You Converting?
Many people view conversions as large-scale events, such as product sales or sign-ups for a service. But a conversion can mean many things, depending on the site. In today's Web Analytics and ROI column, "What Are You Converting?," Tim Ash defines conversions as events that move a visitor toward the mission critical activities that you've identified. Measure those smaller events, and you'll know much more about what your visitors are doing than if you only focus on the end results.
Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink
SEW Experts: Visually Impaired Search
Like search ads, PageRank, and blended search, Google's newly launched VisualRank image search technology has the potential to change the way SEO is done. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Visually Impaired Search," Kevin Ryan explains that while the game hasn't changed yet, it will very soon.
Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink
