May 20, 2008

Microsoft to Launch "Live Search Cashback"

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The major Microsoft Live Search announcement scheduled for tomorrow will be the official launch of a new product: Microsoft Live Search Cash Back.

The program in partnership with eBay and its PayPal unit will offer cash back to consumers who search on Microsoft Live and make a purchase. The announcement will be made in conjunction with a taped message from eBay CEO John Donahoe. The technology is based on the acquisition of Jellyfish by Microsoft in September, 2007.

The announcement is expected to be made by Satya Nadella, SVP Search, portal & Advertising Platform Group, Microsoft, prior to Bill Gates' presentation on "Connecting the Future." The goal is to differentiate Microsoft's vertical search experience for users while leveraging improvements in the core search algorithm.

Microsoft believes the Live Search Cash Back program will align the interests of consumers and the search engine, putting Microsoft "on the same side as the consumer."

The job of Live Search will be to match the most relevant products with the most relevant consumers.

Microsoft will likely offer advertisers a CPA (Cost-Per-Acquisition) model rather than a traditional search engine Cost-Per-Click (CPC) auction.

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, said in a taped interview that the program would help overcome the barriers of first-time buyers of shoes online.

A Barnes & Noble executive stated that clickthrough rates and purchases had increased through the use of the Jellyfish pilot program.

The following message is posted on the Jellyfish.com Web site:

"As part of our pledge to save you money on the products you buy, our Cash Back rewards service is currently offline to perform necessary service upgrades and enhancements. Jellyfish Account holders will receive an e-mail notification when our Cash Back service is up and running again. Thanks for your patience.

Using Jellyfish, consumers could compare prices of products from a number of online stores. Retailers paid Jellyfish fees to feature products. A portion of that fee was refunded to consumers who bought through the Jellyfish site.

Jellyfish also offered "Smack Auctions." During each Smack show, Jellyfish would auction off new products in a unique price dropping format. Every second that ticks off the clock, Jellyfish would drop the price of the product, until the deal sold out.

Jellyfish founder Brian Wiegand is agroup manager at Microsoft. Last year, ye stated, Microsoft is "investing heavily in shopping and e-commerce."

Microsoft closed the deal on Sept. 27, 2007 but didn't announce it until Oct. 2, 2007.

This isn't the first foray of Microsoft into the world of search engine incentives.

Microsoft Live Club is an ongoing experiment with incentivizing searchers but never on the Live Search Cash Back scale. For example, Microsoft Live Search Club lets users play games. A completed gives earns tickets toward prizes, such as Zune accessories, song downloads and ringtones.

Microsoft's official statement on the announcement:

On Wednesday, we will be announcing a major new initiative that our search teams have been driving. We are getting better and better with our core algorithmic search, and at the same time, we are investing to differentiate in vertical experiences and to disrupt the current model. You’ll hear more about our plans Wednesday.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 5:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Dear Lucky Winner: Yahoo-Google Inc. $900,000 Online Scam

Even if you truly believe you've won $900,000 in the nonexistent 2008 Yahoo/Google Award promotion, please do NOT respond to the following inquiry.

Sure it might be a good idea for Yahoo to incentivize searchers with Yahoo share of searches dropping year-over-year. But this is not it.

Thanks to Incisive Media Marketing VP Matt McGowan for sending us the laugh of the day.

Dear Lucky Winner,
This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of Nine Hundred Thou sand Dollars (US$900,000.00 ) in the YEAR 2008 YAHOO/GOOGLE AWARD promotion which is organized by YAHOO/GOOGLE INC. for the introduction and Launching of the new YAHOO ! BETA MAIL which all YAHOO! as well as all other subscribers are required to switch to.

This is to encourage both Yahoo and non Yahoo users to start using Yahoo !

The online Cyber draws was conducted from an exclusive list of five hundred thousand email addresses of individuals and corporate bodies picked by an advanced automated random computer selection from the web.

Your email address is attached to Ref No:

ESE/WIN/008/02/10/MA & Batch No:EULO/1007/444/606/08; Serial No:
6594.

Bear in mind that prizes will strictly be remitted to winners that officially file in for their claims within the given time frame. To begin your claim, you are to forward this message to our accredited claim's agent including your : 1. Name: 2. Address 3. Marital Status: 4. Occupation: 5. Age: 6. Sex: 7. Nationality: 8. Country of Residence:9. Telephone Number: 10:Fax number:

Contact Person: Mr. GEORGE GRANTS

EMAIL : grantsgeorge@XXXXX.com

Your prize award has been insured with your email address and will be transferred to you upon meeting the requirements of the Gaming Board Authority which includes
your statutory obligations.

Best Regards,

Mr. Gabriel Christopher

(Lottery Coordinator).
London,
England

Note: All Won Prizes must Be claimed/Cleared not later than Two Weeks of receipt of this email notification. After this time, all other winnings will be considered as
UNCLAIMED and returned to National Treasury.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 2:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

James Cameron Live on "Avatar" - His New 3-D Film

The theme of Microsoft Advance '08 is "Connected Entertainment" -- mobile, music, TV/video, gaming. The big Live Search announcement will be covered live tomorrow.

Today, filmmaker James Cameron's producing partner at Lightstorm Entertainment, Jon Landau, said the abundance of digital information and the ability to use technologies opened up a whole new window that Cameron didn't know existed.

James Cameron started making films when they were photochemical emulsions. Now, films are digital.

"The essence of storytelling stays the same," said Cameron. "Intense CG (computer-generated) scenes with multiple shots doesn't change that. My greatest horror was the best thing we created would end up like the Ark of the Covenant and be put in a warehouse somewhere. I will make all my films in 3-D. I've been banging on the door at Microsoft since I introduced Windows Media 9 with LL Cool J and Bill Gates in 2002. Now I tell them, this is what you guys need to be doing. I'm going to continue to surf that wave."

His new film, Avatar, features a man who tries to become a miner by combining his being with an alien during an interplanetary war in which aliens can manifest themselves through human bodies — avatars.

"'Avatar' will make people truly experience something," said Cameron."One more layer of the suspension of disbelief will be removed. All the syn-thespians are photo-realistic. Now that we've achieved it, we discovered CG characters in 3D look more real than in 2D. Your brain is cued it's a real thing not a picture and discounting part of image that makes it look fake."

Part of the movie is subtitled because it takes place on an alien planet.

Avatar will have a human heart beating at its narrative center. It's an emotional journey of redemption and revolution; the story of a wounded ex-marine, who's thrust into an effort to settle and exploit an exotic planet rich in bio-diversity. He eventually crosses over to lead the indigenous race in a battle for survival.

Cameron has created an entire world, a complete ecosystem of phantasmagorical plants and creatures, and a native people with a rich culture and language. The film has a December 2009 release date.

"I don't know whether it will be a great film from a narrative and critical standpoint," said Cameron. "The experience of Avatar will be an experience unlike any other movie."

He started with Microsoft Research looking at the way people see. The project soon moved out of the realm of speculation.

"'Avatar' is the single most complex piece of filmmaking ever made," said Cameron. "We have 1,600 shots for a 2.5 hour movie. It's not with a single CGI character, like King Kong or Gollum. We have hundreds of photo-realistic CG characters. We were Microsoft's sandbox for filmmaking beyond the cutting edge."

During the film, he would grab chairs, gather his team, and talk about what they were doing wrong, how to do it better. That just isn't done on a film set.

The heart of the film technology is a digital asset management system created by Microsoft, which was praised by Cameron and Landau for understanding the arts and filmmaking. The system can track every cloud and every blade of CGI grass in the film.

Cameron noted that Titanic was about how technology let us down. He has always tried to be on cutting edge of what's going on. The Abyss featured the first photo-realistic CG character. Then "The Terminator" combined CG and human actors. "True Lies" pushed the bar even higher with composite technology.

In "Titanic" as a filmmaker, I struck the perfect balance of technology and the human heart," said Cameron. "I haven't forgotten that lesson with Avatar. It's the best lesson for any filmmaker."

Cameron also noted the radical changes in film distribution and made a prediction for the future:

"I'm on the fourth screen. The giant screen. Then it scatters down to other screens. It gets more interesting as more means of digital distribution become available to us. The interesting thing is the actual movie business is going strong. If you valued up revenues of what's lost to piracy, movies are doing better now than they ever have. You can have an HD screen in your home.

He noted, "Windows organized things spatially. That gave it its power. But we're not displaying things spatially. What could happen is now that the digital cinema revolution has taken place is the killer app is 3D. Dreamworks has announced all its animated films will be made and projected in 3D. Gaming will be changed by 3D. Consumer electronics people will need to make players for stereo-enabled monitors. Future versions of Windows should be fully stereoscopic. Smaller devices already are 3D-enabled without glasses. If you play "Avatar" on a 50-inch monitor, you're in the game."

Cameron said, "This is the ultimate immersive media. It's my fundamental belief that when you're viewing media in stereo, more neurons are firing, learning rates are higher. Engagement levels are higher. As advertisers, you need to think about how you're going to use this new dimension. How will you use the deeper levels of engagement?"

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 2:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

WhiteFence.com: First Vertical Search Engine for Phone, Internet, TV, Utilities

WhiteFence.com is the first vertical search engine that enables people to search for the best values in 40 home service categories, including home phone, Internet, TV services and utilities. The target audience is people who are moving but it's a one-stop shop for anyone searching for the best bargains in communications technologies.

The search engine is built around solving basic problems. For example, users can decide whether they want to:

* lower my bills
* bundle my services
* find a better deal on my services
* shop for service on my new home
* find the best price in my area on residential service
* get reliable service from trusted national companies
* order home essential services today

Search by Category:

Bundle your services and save.

Home Phone
Get local phone and long distance.

High-Speed Internet
Find fast Internet service.

Television Service
Compare satellite and cable TV.

Electricity Service
Find your local electricity provider.

Natural Gas
Warm up with your local natural gas company.

Change of Address
Let everyone know you're moving.

Green Energy Offset
Buy RECs to offset your energy usage.

Moving Services
Mover quotes, tips, checklists & more!

Financial Services

If you're not moving, it's still an excellent search engine to compare your current deals with what's available. For home energy conservation tips, check out the WhiteFence blog.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nielsen Online Releases April 2008 U.S. Search Rankings

Nielsen Online has announced its April 2008 search share data for the U.S. Let's dive right into the numbers:

Google - 62% market share, up 35.4% year-over-year
Yahoo - 17.5% market share, down 3.4% year-over-year
MSN/Live Search - 9.7% market share, up 30% year-over-year
AOL - 4.3% market share, down 5.1% year-over-year
Ask - 2.1 % market share, up 35.8% year-over-year

Google saw an estimated 5.1 billion searches, while Yahoo saw 1.4 billion and MSN saw nearly 800 million.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Google's Mayer Reveals Search Advances Unveiled During "Factory Tour"

Yesterday, Google hosted a "factory tour" of their new search advances. Marissa Mayer, VP Search Products & User Experience, blogged about the tour on the Official Google Blog. There were three main search areas that she touched on.

1. Image search. Google now offers an "early form of face recognition" in their advanced search. Also, Google is looking at including ads with image search.

2. Geo search. User-generated content (UGC) is critical when it comes to geo search, and Google is working on how to make all of it searchable.

3. User intent. Google hopes to read the minds of searchers by figuring out what they meant to search instead of the actual keywords typed. Wrote Mayer, "You'll get pictures or maps when that's what you meant. Understanding user intent also helps us break down language barriers and find the best possible answer regardless of what language it's in or where it lives on the web."

Do you think Google is psychic? Let us know if you think Google can pull off "user intent" by leaving a comment!

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yahoo Makes Minor Updates to Sponsored Search

In the midst of a proxy board fight, new negotiations with Microsoft, and a possible deal with Google, Yahoo has made updates to its sponsored search listings. In an announcement on the Yahoo! Search Marketing blog, Jeff Hecox said the changes wouldn't make "worldwide headlines" but they designed the changes to be more intuitive to users.

Here's what to expect:

• Names of objects (campaign, ad group, keyword, etc.) that are offline will be displayed with red text for easy recognition.
• "Top Campaigns” and “Watched Campaigns” tables on the Dashboard page now include a “Status” column to help you identify if and why any campaigns are offline.
• On the “Campaigns” page, there's a new “Status” column, the ability to filter by “Status” when using the Advanced Search function, and the “Campaign On/Off” button have been replaced with individual “Pause” and “Unpause” buttons.
• On the Ads table On Ad Group pages, a “Status” column has been added and “Pause” and “Unpause” buttons have replaced “Campaign On/Off” button on the Ads table.
• New status settings have been added on the Search page, under the Campaigns tab.
• The ability to export (using the “Download” button) account information has been added to account-level Ad Group and Keyword pages, under the Campaigns tab.

What do you think about the updates to Yahoo's Sponsored Search? Leave a comment!

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

SEW Experts: Don't Hire a Butcher to do a Baker's Job - Part 2

Search Engine Watch Expert - Mark Jackson If SEOs are bakers, then Web site designers are the butchers of the search engine world. In today's Organic Search Engine Optimization column, "Don't Hire a Butcher to do a Baker's Job - Part 2," Mark Jackson offers 13 questions customers need to ask their butchers.

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

SEW Experts: WebMD CEO Fights Off Google Health Virus with SEO

Search Engine Watch Expert - Kevin Heisler CEOs need to invest in search engine optimization. Perhaps no company knows that better than WebMD. In today's Search Engine WarGames column, "WebMD CEO Fights Off Google Health Virus with SEO," Kevin Heisler looks at ways WebMD is using SEO to drive traffic to their site, and to lessen the additional pressure from the launch of Google Health.

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

SEW Experts: Social Media Marketing in an Enterprise Environment

Search Engine Watch Expert - Aaron Shear Social media sites like MySpace or Facebook, and even long-standing social media tools like blogs remain a mystery to many large organizations. In today's Enterprise Search Marketing column, "Social Media Marketing in an Enterprise Environment," Aaron Shear explains how that's all beginning to change, as more big businesses find ways to incorporate these elements into their overall marketing strategy.

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

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