GOOGLE MAY BE THE KING of search, but in one area at least, Yahoo is kicking Google's can around the block. The upstart Yahoo Answers has blown by the venerable Google Answers (venerable at least by Internet time, having been around since May 2002), and seems to be drawing rave reviews from analysts and users alike. The service launched in December of 2005, and had its 10 millionth question posted in May. When it comes to share of the online answer market, it has amassed about 10 times the traffic that Google Answers has in the past 6 months, according to Hitwise.
Everything Old is New Again
Posting questions online is nothing new. Ask Jeeves' AnswerPoint was around long before either Google or Yahoo, starting in early 2000. But it never took off, and was wrapped up in May of 2002 (ironically, the same week Google Answers launched). According to Ask head Jim Lanzone, "AnswerPoint wasn't a failure, nor a smashing success." At the time, Ask Jeeves had to focus on things like the continuing integration of Teoma and the launch of Smart Answers (Ask's version of vertical shortcuts, a la Google's Onebox or Yahoo's Shortcuts), and decided to pull the plug on AnswerPoint. Lanzone remembers that "the user base was actually pretty upset about it; they were a very small, but very loyal group." LookSmart also went down this path with LookSmart Live, born in 1999 but long since faded away.
When it comes to Yahoo Answers, success seems to lie at the convergence of a number of tried and true online concepts. First of all, the answer service depends on community. Unlike Google, there's no cost to the service. It relies on its community to answer posted questions, giving it a viral vitality somewhat like a wiki or forum. Coming from Yahoo, it's of course categorized and searchable, giving users the opportunity to tap into the existing answer base to see if their question has already been answered. And it provides the wisdom of the masses, giving its community the ability to rate posted answers, thereby vouching for the reliability of the information.
Read the full article
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Monday, June 19, 2006
Netscape Relaunches with Blog Focus
Netscape has reinvented itself and aims to merge news reporting and blogs.
The new version of Netscape will be lead by Jason Calacanis, a seasoned dotcom news entrepreneur who sold his blog company Weblogs to AOL last year for $25 million.
"I don't think journalism is broken at all. But some things can come faster," Calacanis told Reuters.
Netscape, which was known as a popular web browser, was bought by AOL in 1999 and is now a unit of Time Warner.
The Netscape relaunch is seen as another attempt for Time Warner to generate more online advertising sales and subscriptions to the declining AOL internet service.
The new Netscape site will feature news stories grouped under categories such as top stories, world, local news, movies, health and sports
The new version of Netscape will be lead by Jason Calacanis, a seasoned dotcom news entrepreneur who sold his blog company Weblogs to AOL last year for $25 million.
"I don't think journalism is broken at all. But some things can come faster," Calacanis told Reuters.
Netscape, which was known as a popular web browser, was bought by AOL in 1999 and is now a unit of Time Warner.
The Netscape relaunch is seen as another attempt for Time Warner to generate more online advertising sales and subscriptions to the declining AOL internet service.
The new Netscape site will feature news stories grouped under categories such as top stories, world, local news, movies, health and sports
Thursday, June 15, 2006
MySpace Looking for Search Partner
News Corp.'s MySpace.com says that it plans to solicit bids for a partner to provide its online social network with search-based advertising.
MySpace plans to solicit bids from the top three internet companies: Microsoft Corp., Google, Inc. and Yahoo! Inc.
Currently MySpace says 80 percent of its sales come from remnant sales or bulk sales of unused ad space. Twenty percent of the total sales come from display ads. MySpace has about 85 million members but the company says they have not fully exploited the advertising sales opportunities.
"We've just scratched the surface of how to monetize it," says News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin.
News Corp. purchased MySpace last year for about $580 million.
MySpace plans to solicit bids from the top three internet companies: Microsoft Corp., Google, Inc. and Yahoo! Inc.
Currently MySpace says 80 percent of its sales come from remnant sales or bulk sales of unused ad space. Twenty percent of the total sales come from display ads. MySpace has about 85 million members but the company says they have not fully exploited the advertising sales opportunities.
"We've just scratched the surface of how to monetize it," says News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin.
News Corp. purchased MySpace last year for about $580 million.
Friday, June 09, 2006
Offline Conversion Tracking and SEM
I recently read a great article on Clickz.com dealing with the latest data on online consumer search and offline buying habits. A company called ComScore recently conducted studies for Yahoo, Google, and Performics/Doubleclick.
ComScore's March 2006 study found that 63 percent of people that were influenced by conducting online research made their respective purchases offline. In another study Shop.org found that 22 percent of all offline purchases were influenced by online research.
This data isn't a new shocking development or anything of that sort, but it does provide online marketers with a current look into the buying habits of consumers that use the online world to become informed on products and/or prices.
Whether you are an internet marketer like myself, or running small business this presents a major problem. How do I track the effectiveness of my online marketing campaign and ad buying if the majority of my results will be produced in the brick and mortar world?
I’m sorry to say there is no one definitive answer to resolve this problem. The type of product or industry you are primarily promoting will have some effect on the percent of offline purchase you will receive from your online promotion. There is no magic number you can multiply to your online sales and determine your offline ones.
Don’t worry I won’t leave you without some possible solutions to this problem. Here are a couple different methods you can use to determine the ROI of your online marketing efforts towards offline sales:
·Customer tagging: Look at purchases, then marry the online cookie with the offline customer number or credit card data.
.Offer codes: Unique offer codes can be provided for searchers to redeem via phone or in stores.
·Unique pricing: Unique online pricing can also become a tracking code of its own, so when a person requests that price, she must have seen the search landing page.
·Trackable phone numbers: Phone sales can be routed through a tracking system similar to the VoiceXML (define) systems used for pay-per-call systems. This is great for expensive or complex purchases.
·In-store surveys: Survey your customers.
·Anecdotal data: Ask your sales associates if people show up with printouts from the Web site.
These methods are not perfect, but they will definitely help obtain a reasonable idea how your online campaign is going in respect towards offline conversions. There will be improved data tracking solutions in the future as the internet continues its trend toward eventually being the most influential form of marketing.
ComScore's March 2006 study found that 63 percent of people that were influenced by conducting online research made their respective purchases offline. In another study Shop.org found that 22 percent of all offline purchases were influenced by online research.
This data isn't a new shocking development or anything of that sort, but it does provide online marketers with a current look into the buying habits of consumers that use the online world to become informed on products and/or prices.
Whether you are an internet marketer like myself, or running small business this presents a major problem. How do I track the effectiveness of my online marketing campaign and ad buying if the majority of my results will be produced in the brick and mortar world?
I’m sorry to say there is no one definitive answer to resolve this problem. The type of product or industry you are primarily promoting will have some effect on the percent of offline purchase you will receive from your online promotion. There is no magic number you can multiply to your online sales and determine your offline ones.
Don’t worry I won’t leave you without some possible solutions to this problem. Here are a couple different methods you can use to determine the ROI of your online marketing efforts towards offline sales:
·Customer tagging: Look at purchases, then marry the online cookie with the offline customer number or credit card data.
.Offer codes: Unique offer codes can be provided for searchers to redeem via phone or in stores.
·Unique pricing: Unique online pricing can also become a tracking code of its own, so when a person requests that price, she must have seen the search landing page.
·Trackable phone numbers: Phone sales can be routed through a tracking system similar to the VoiceXML (define) systems used for pay-per-call systems. This is great for expensive or complex purchases.
·In-store surveys: Survey your customers.
·Anecdotal data: Ask your sales associates if people show up with printouts from the Web site.
These methods are not perfect, but they will definitely help obtain a reasonable idea how your online campaign is going in respect towards offline conversions. There will be improved data tracking solutions in the future as the internet continues its trend toward eventually being the most influential form of marketing.
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Google Displays Love for Branded Ads
Google has reportedly, and quite quietly been testing out different media types through its AdWords system, until recently.
Google's CEO Eric Schmidt dropped the news that they were indeed testing alternative advertising display methods. This includes video ads.
There is a large market in the internet advertising arena, and a lot of the players are hungry to stand out. They will spend the money necessary to do so. Google knows this, and has been testing the effectiveness of these type of display ads across their network of publishers.
Its only a matter of time before these ad systems will be released into the marketplace, turning over a new leaf of innovative Google money making mechanics.
Read the full article: http://www.marketingshift.com/2006/06/google-displays-love-for-branded-ads.cfm
Google's CEO Eric Schmidt dropped the news that they were indeed testing alternative advertising display methods. This includes video ads.
There is a large market in the internet advertising arena, and a lot of the players are hungry to stand out. They will spend the money necessary to do so. Google knows this, and has been testing the effectiveness of these type of display ads across their network of publishers.
Its only a matter of time before these ad systems will be released into the marketplace, turning over a new leaf of innovative Google money making mechanics.
Read the full article: http://www.marketingshift.com/2006/06/google-displays-love-for-branded-ads.cfm
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Who is Better Off with One Dominant Player? (Google)
Does the idea that your online business relies so much on Google for its traffic let you sleep easy at night? It wasn't always this way, and it doesn't have to stay this way. Keep reading to see what one veteran online business owner thinks.
This is a very interesting time we live in right now, from a technology standpoint. It is truly a unique and enriching experience to watch a brand new industry rise from nowhere and see it evolve and change its shape right before your very eyes. Something close in terms of scope and impact might have been the revolution Henry Ford started with the creation of the assembly line, which permitted the mass production of automobiles. This led to a corresponding reduction in price, which made them available to far more people than just the very rich -- and the world was never the same. This is also true of the Internet which has changed not only all businesses on a global scale, but how we think and communicate; even how we evolve as human beings will most likely be impacted by the advent of the Internet. This is heady stuff.
One of the many reasons for the breadth and scope of the impact the Internet has had on society is its ability to place even the most obscure information at everyone's fingertips. Notice I said everyone's fingertips. I think that’s a very important point. It used to be that knowledge was in the hands of the few and privileged, and in most instances that factor by itself allowed them to maintain that status, until now. So it stands to reason that the cog behind this grand scale machine that is literally moving society toward a more enlightened path is the power of search. Literally, how we find stuff.
Read the full article here:
http://www.seochat.com/c/a/Search-Engine-Optimization-Help/Who-is-Better-Off-with-One-Dominant-Player/
This is a very interesting time we live in right now, from a technology standpoint. It is truly a unique and enriching experience to watch a brand new industry rise from nowhere and see it evolve and change its shape right before your very eyes. Something close in terms of scope and impact might have been the revolution Henry Ford started with the creation of the assembly line, which permitted the mass production of automobiles. This led to a corresponding reduction in price, which made them available to far more people than just the very rich -- and the world was never the same. This is also true of the Internet which has changed not only all businesses on a global scale, but how we think and communicate; even how we evolve as human beings will most likely be impacted by the advent of the Internet. This is heady stuff.
One of the many reasons for the breadth and scope of the impact the Internet has had on society is its ability to place even the most obscure information at everyone's fingertips. Notice I said everyone's fingertips. I think that’s a very important point. It used to be that knowledge was in the hands of the few and privileged, and in most instances that factor by itself allowed them to maintain that status, until now. So it stands to reason that the cog behind this grand scale machine that is literally moving society toward a more enlightened path is the power of search. Literally, how we find stuff.
Read the full article here:
http://www.seochat.com/c/a/Search-Engine-Optimization-Help/Who-is-Better-Off-with-One-Dominant-Player/
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