Thursday, December 29, 2005

Opera Browser Chooses Google for Search

According to Reuters, the Norweigan software company Opera will use the Google search engine in its mobile browser applications as well as at its home page.
Got to love the quiet moves Google makes... much less noise than AOL move.

Men are from Google, Women are from Yahoo!

Jason Lee Miller does it again with some insights into the gender usages of our two popular search engines.

Obviously we have to take this figures at face value but they make for interesting reading and gets one thinking about this. There has to be some gender preferences.

"While both sexes equally appreciate the efficiency and convenience of email, women are more likely than men to value the medium for its positive effects on improving relationships, expanding networks, and encouraging teamwork at the office."


He gathered his numbers from a report by PEW Internet and was written by Deborah Fallows, a senior research fellow - sounds impressive.

The 54-page report can be seen here.

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Charlie Rose Discusses Technology

Doing the usual channel surfing tonight I came across an interesting Charlie Rose with the founder of NetFlicks, David McInnis, and the technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal, Walter S. Mossberg.

Forces of Freedom and Forces of Control were the 2 elements McInnis saw the world developing under. The web is part of the Freedom Force - chaotic and rapid innovation - mentioning the changes developing for his business and the internet and the communication companies. Cheap access through lower cost laptops and increased bandwidth is part of Web 2.0 while when access reaches 10 mgs plus there will be Web 3.0 starting in other countries and then coming to the US. He sees his business having a longer shelf life with the addition of High Definition DVDs - which will not roll out across all cable and broadcast television. Though the forces of control such as cable networks and broadcast tel;evision do not move fast and are slow adapting innovation.

MsInnis worked for Public education as California School Board Director from 2001-2003, and has worked since 1997 to date helping with public school reform.

In five years he sees high definition developing to a higher level and DVD releases getting closer to theater releases though going to cable and other television later as this represents a lower part of the income movie companies derive their revenues from.

Mossberg saw the AOL and Google partnership as a possible false step for Google if the introduction of banners associated with the search engine results will change the dynamic and branding Google is known for. He also saw the valuation of AOL as not being accurate from a straight business value. To Google the value was higher as it was a significant portion of Google's ad revenues, thus the 5 percent equals a billion dollars means the whole company is worth $20 billion is not accurate - which I tend to support.

He also saw the adaption of Intel processors in Apple computers to be something worth tracking. Mossberg also saw the wireless industry as needing to lower it rates while improving its reach to help with its growth.
Covering all the search bases, Mossberg praised Yahoo! for its email and search, as he considered the evolution of Microsoft into the search industry as a major move by the most successful innovator of the internet age.

The show was insightful and gave me some new angles to view our industry.

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Yahoo! Makes Keyword Insert Mandatory Sometimes

I started a thread about this at Search Engine Watch. I wanted to make sure this was not just me... and to start a discussion on the impact of this.

So if you are reading this here add some comments at either place.

Basically I submitted a bulk list and had a bunch of my keywords turned down because the keyword was not inserted in the creatives. I know it improves CTR but sometimes you are trying a different approach - guess you no longer have control of that yourself... Yahoo! determines which are allowed to not have the insert.

What is an Ookle?

Jason Lee Miller over at WebProNews got my attention about Ookles.com.

Scott JOhnson's blog shows his talent as a writer. His work has shown his skills with technology. This marketing approach (though used very successfully before for companies like the IT - independent transport - later known as the segue) shows a sense of style.

Hope this is something really fun and interesting. I could use a new plaything next year!!!

Good Luck Scott and Mike... though with an Aussie involved you should be okay!

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Estara Discusses Click To Call Marketing

Joe Siegrist, head of technology at Estara, the online communications specialists, shared his insights into the Click to Call or Pay Per Call market online.

From the time the company started playing with VOIP in 1999, Estara has been pushing the envelop of online telephony and basic online communications. People like Siegrist have become advocates for this next turn in the internet marketing methodology.

Estara was working with computer microsphones when MSN started touting "Talk to Your Computer" and the crosssover to developing a Pay Per Call solution for search or any internet marketing was a natural progression. "We developed the first PC to phone e-commerce application," Siegrist said.

ROI is always part of the equation in online marketing and Estara found that phone contacts converted better. "You don't get the same closure rates with chat that you can with phones," Siegrist noted.

JupiterResearch did a study that found phones converted 73% better than text chat. Siegrist sees the technology being mainstream by 2009. Right now Estara has Verizon SuperPages, A9, the Amazon engine, Yahoo! UK and Ireland and also Sensis - the Australian search engine, are using their technology. Verizon has been using it since 2003.

They integrate the technology seamlessly. "We add a few steps into the initial sign up (for advertisers) and we use category pricing, listings via geolocation. Estara takes over and assigns the numbers and sets up the contact," Siegrist explained.

Costs start at $2 per call.

Estara sees their "Click to Call" marketing being a great tool for local advertisers on the web. The technology allows for much more sophisicated modeling and techniques, Siegrist said. "You will start seeing it come into focus (as a more used method) when local businesses are more active online," he said. It is being forecast as a $4 billion market in 2009.

Estara combines the technology with leading ROI technology with easy proof of value. Right now they can assign local numbers in the United States, UK, France and Australia, Siegrist said.

Apart from pizza makers and taxis, Siegrist sees Click to Call as being a central feature that will promote local marketing for many small businesses.

The local plumber will be able to have the calls directed straight to his cellphone with contact information being backed up at Estara. Estara is looking to make sure all paths to the potential customer are covered, Siegrist stated.

"It scales great for small local businesses that don't have people sitting by the computer." As more and more people use the web over Yellow Pages this technology will become more popular as well.

Google Talk and AIM Connect

Seems Google is getting serious about AOL. They are now set up to have AIM and Google Talk interoperable according to a report from BigBlueBall.com.

Let the marriage be consumated.

SERPs Show News Sites Perspective on What is News

I was looking at the Google search results for the NYC transit strike in comparison to the SERPs for the Saddam Hussein trial.

The comparison shows what the news sites consider more important as well as how the engines change how they list an event the older it gets.

For the strike you have MSNBC, Yahoo! news, the governemnt, CNN, CBS, the MTA and USA Today - high end sites for an event that is all of two days old... five if you start from Friday when the first risk of strike started.

Now Saddam Hussein is old news.... he was hunted, caught and now is on trial - but it has been running for quite some time and the immediacy of the news sites coverage has been replaced by more broadbased sites... Human Rights Watch tops the list.... a couple of edu blogs and CNN is there, along with the Washington Post and the BBC.

When a story first breaks it seems the news portals grab the front of the SERPs, but as the story is pushed into the archives other sites take the front.
This would suggest that the engines read news sites a little differently. Timely gets to the top but once archived the spot is dropped.

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Yahoo! Rolling Out New Look Jan. 18th

I received this email as I am sure many others did today:

A new look is coming to the Yahoo! search results pages that will translate into more clicks for your listings. On January 18th, 2006 Yahoo! will debut a streamlined design that will make the search results displayed on Yahoo! even easier for consumers to read. Our research has shown that by improving the search experience in this way, advertisers can generally expect to see an increase in clicks, while maintaining their conversion rates.



How this change impacts your listings:



• Yahoo! will display shorter descriptions for Sponsored Search listings
• You don’t have to make any changes to your listings; they’ll be automatically shortened for you when displayed on Yahoo!
• If you’d like to optimize your listings for Yahoo!, begin your description with one short sentence that includes your keyword and focuses on your most important information in the first 70 characters
• Over time, we will fine tune the exact character count that we believe works best for advertisers and search users
• Most of our partners, including MSN, CNN, ESPN and Infospace, will still display longer descriptions for your Sponsored Search listings, though the exact length may vary from partner to partner



Yahoo! is taking this step to improve the search experience for its users. By continuously focusing on delivering highly relevant search results in a user-friendly format, Yahoo! also gives you the best possible platform for reaching customers interested in what your business provides.


Should create some interesting results in the New Year. New things to test are always fun.... thanks for the Christmas present Yahoo!

Monday, December 19, 2005

John Battelle's Interesting AOL-Google Insights

John Battelle's SearchBlog, Battellemedia.com, captures many of the interesting elements of the AOL, Google and newly pushed aside MSN situation.

He discxusses the actual worth of the transaction at current numbers, as well as some of the implications of various statements being made in the past couple of weeks.

If you need to catch up on this media event it is a must read.

Though I did notice you do not have ThreadWatch or for that matter my blog in your Search Resources.....

Friday, December 16, 2005

EZanga Buying Searches For Yahoo!

I came across this interesting method for getting searchers over at EZanga.
This publishing partner of Yahoo!'s has to be very close to breaking the T&Cs for publisher partners. Guess Yahoo! is too busy to find these - they are becoming more prevalent every day. Some are boldly advertising on Google and passing you to their search listings for a more expensive term.... Yahoo! better get them in line before the advertisers start cutting back.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Yahoo! PPC Changing Look

A new look is coming to the Yahoo! search results pages that
will translate into more clicks for your listings. On January
18th, Yahoo! will debut a streamlined design that will make
the search results displayed on Yahoo! even easier for
consumers to read. Our research has shown that by improving
the search experience in this way, advertisers can generally
expect to see an increase in clicks, while maintaining their
conversion rates.

How this change impacts your listings:

* Yahoo! will display shorter descriptions for Sponsored
Search listings
* You don't have to make any changes to your listings; they'll
be automatically shortened for you when displayed on Yahoo!
* If you'd like to optimize your listings for Yahoo!, begin
your description with one short sentence that includes your
keyword and focuses on your most important information in
the first 70 characters
* Over time, we will fine tune the exact character count that
we believe works best for advertisers and search users
* Most of our partners, including MSN, CNN, ESPN and Infospace,
will still display longer descriptions for your Sponsored
Search listings, though the exact length may vary from
partner to partner

Yahoo! is taking this step to improve the search experience
for its users. By continuously focusing on delivering highly
relevant search results in a user-friendly format, Yahoo!
also gives you the best possible platform for reaching customers
interested in what your business provides.

Monday, December 12, 2005

Google Content Ads Change Font Sizes

Interesting that Google is playing with font sizes to improve conversions and CTRs.

As mentioned on the Google site: "the biggest influence on CTR was the similarity between the AdSense type (size and font), and the main body text of the page. The more similar the type, the higher the CTR."

Seems a lot of play is going on right now between PPC and AdSense. Google is constantly testing to see where they can improve their bottomline.... and in most cases it also benefits the advertisers too.....

Friday, December 9, 2005

Google Using Landing Pages to Determine CPC

You have got to be kidding me right!

Google is going beyond the realm of reason here. Why not just say "hey we are going to charge you whatever we want and you will never have the ability to work out how much you pay."

Who is the arbitrator of High Quality or Low Quality... what happens if my page is seen by someone having a bad day?

Come on Larry and Sergey if you need more money just let us know and we will pass the hat. That would be far better than the robbery you are performing with this roll out!

Thursday, December 8, 2005

MSN Paid Search Beta Seeking Grades

MSN has sent out a survey to its beta testers to see how they are doing.

I really enjoy the quality of the traffic but hate the interface.

Hope that helps.

MSN Trying to Get AOL Away From Google

It's funny how you hear there are 4 major search engines and exactly who they are differs depending on who writes about this. The four are either Google, Yahoo!, MSN and Ask Jeeves (this one I question) and the other is Google, Yahoo!, MSN and AOL (which I agree with except AOL now serves Google results).

Obviously the first four are unique search engines and the second is the top four for traffic to those sites.

Now it seems MSN is looking to create a major shift beyond the drop it will eventually create for Yahoo! paid listings when it breaks away completely by Spring 2006. They are courting AOL according to the Wall Street Journal.

New Media Report quotes WSJ in today's article about this.

You have to give it to Bill and crew, they are definitely being aggressive. Google has been taking them seriously for quite some time and are not about to let this go without a fight.

Funny how AOL has become the Queen of search - with suitors lining up to court her. The people at AOL have met the challenge of lost subscribers by providing an open platform to most of their content and generating income from the new revenue model - search. Their bottomline is going to be numbers and I look forward to the battle that will continue through the next few months. Maybe by SES NYC something will have been worked out and it will be a big topic of conversation.

Tuesday, December 6, 2005

Madison Ave Fears Google?

A recent BizReport article suggests that the advertising industry is eyeing Google as a danger following their venture into print media.
I have also heard whispers about TV and radio but the knock was Google was having a hard time working a way to tie that to search.
Well print is independent and the push for pay-per-call may add up to a legitimate concern.
Afetrall Google maybe a search engine but it is fast becoming a global media company.

Everyone is Dashboard Crazy

You would think dashboards are the new IPods or something.

It is amazing the announcements, like the recent one by Zedo Ad Hosting, that tout the addition of new dashboards.

Hey guys, these things are not new. Hell I was getting paid in the early 90s to install Quick Menus for novice users - and I would have thought with the better informed and educated user of today the mesmerizing effect of shiny glass would have worn off.

Guess I give too much credit to the average user - and for that matter the average PR guy!!!

Monday, December 5, 2005

Yahoo! Sharing Too Much Info

I remember talking with Tom Hachstatter, another senior Yahoo! executive, about this maybe 8-9 months ago and thinking that advertisers would be giving away a lot about their sites if they allowed this. Now it seems they are reverse engineering it.... but it still has to be tied to the publishers and advertisers as well as the viewers... and that is where the sharing of the information gets touchy. I spend a lot of money developing the right mix and then Yahoo plans on sharing it with my competitors (who are part of anyone who can get access to this stuff).

Guess everyone will be letting other people do the research and spending and just wait around for Yahoo! to point them where to profit from it.