Gasta.com is gearing up to offer geographical regions, companies, cities, and industrial sectors the opportunity to launch their own geo-targeted and white label branded hosted search solution. You can launch the branded search engine in a matter of hours and select from a variety of advertising and content partner solutions such as Google adsense, pay per click, you tube,blinx, Mirago, Ikojo, Yahoo mobile, Msn Live, and virtually any other content partner you sign up for. The fine details are not fully finalized as yet but this is a thrilling development.
CTO of Gasta search networks, Stuart Manning said " This is were the SME sector can build their own search brand, we will provide them with the platform and they can take in content from whatever source to build and develop revenue streams, there is no search boxes involved, everything is white label to meet the needs of the sites owners, and they controll the content, this is another innovation in the fast paced web 2.0 search development sector from Gasta.com"
Gasta will also build in the contextual advertising platforms of SearchMatch and InstantAds so site owners and operators can sell their own advertising inventory to their own clients and customers., track statistics and offer reports. More To follow.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Monday, March 10, 2008
Google Index of Gasta Search Network By popularity
Google index of gasta search network shows how effectively Gasta has maximised its global reach. Surprisingly on Google rankings Gasta Ireland lags behind some of the newer domains, while Gasta China, and Gasta India outperform even the UK Engine.
Google Index of Gasta Search Network By popularity
14,300 Gasta China
4,590 Gasta International
2,990 Gasta Japan
1,330 Gasta Europe
1,420 Gotagshare
1,420 Gotagspot
1,220 Gasta India
736 Gasta UK
397 Europasearch
395 Gasta Austria
363 Gasta TV
275 Gasta France
272 Baroneracing
263 Surfni
241 Gasta Germany
171 Gasta USA
232 Gasta Money
156 Gasta Spain
112 Gasta Ireland
101 Gasta Travel
Yahoo
(4,330) | Inlinks (426) Gasta International
1,764) | Inlinks (258) Gasta UK
1,458) | Inlinks (116) Gasta Ireland
(868) | Inlinks (51) Gasta USA
(806) | Inlinks Baroneracing
(530) | Inlinks (55) Gasta Europe
(410) | Inlinks (51) Gasta Austria
(359) | Inlinks (50) Gasta India
(312) | Inlinks (51) Gasta China
(261) | Inlinks (49) Gasta France
(247) | Inlinks (51) Europasearch
(243) | Inlinks (52) Surfni
(240) | Inlinks (51) Gasta Japan
(225) | Inlinks (49) Gasta Spain
(208) | Inlinks (49) Gasta Travel
(101) | Inlinks (49) Gasta Money
3) | Inlinks (41) Gotagshare
(5) | Inlinks (45) Gotagspot
(2) | Inlinks (9) Gasta Italy
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Gasta SEM Basics
Some consider SEO (search engine optimization) and SEM (search engine marketing) synonymous, interchangeable terms. This is not the case. In fact, SEO is a subset of SEM. Although most SEM's perform traditional SEO services (organic site optimization), SEM is generally part of a broader gamut of internet marketing.
The marketing side of SEM involves advertising and target marketing in order to draw traffic to websites. This includes, but does not only pertain to:
Pay-for-inclusion - the SEM firm manually submits your site to applicable search engines and directories. Submission fees are required for submissions to search engines and directories. Many SEM companies guarantee your site will be indexed by the search engines within a short period of time.
Trusted Feeds - when there is no page to crawl, or a site is working off of dynamic pages drawn from a database, they are impossible for spiders to see and index. Trusted feeds send out this dynamic content via XML format so that it can be indexed by the search engines.
ROI tracking - the SEM firm tracks statistics gathered from marketing channels to show ROI trends.
Email Marketing - the SEM company sends out email adverts typically targeting customers related to the SEM's client.
Traditional Ads - Ads are displayed on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Ads are based on keywords entered in the search and fees are triggered by impressions (you pay for the ad even if it's not clicked through).
PPC- generally these are text based ads, where the copy is written by the advertiser. The advertiser places a bid amount, choosing the fee they are willing to pay when the ad is clicked through.Typically, the higher the bid, the better ranked the ad will be in the SERP.
SEM has its advantages in that your site can obtain instant traffic increases if the campaign strategy is successful. But relying solely on the marketing side SEM has its disadvantages. It can be expensive as costs will accumulate from ads and PPC. Furthermore, these marketing tactics do not necessarily guarantee stickiness of your site. Search engine marketing may drive initial traffic to your web pages, but this traffic increase will be short term if your pages are poorly laid out and contain weak or irrelevant content. Websites need to be well written, from both a programming and aesthetic perspective.
The intricacies of search engine marketing combined with search engine optimization can also be an overwhelming task for any firm. While a large SEM company may be able to handle the workload of both the marketing and SEO side of the business, specialization will most likely provide better results.
SEO is a more technical process than SEM and involves a deeper understanding of search engine algorithms. An SEO firm also sets out to optimize your site for peak performance organically, so that it is seen and listed in the search engines on an ongoing basis. The organic search engine optimization process of SEO is one of the main factors that separates SEO from SEM. Organic search engine optimization provides free search engine positioning, instead of pay for results.
An SEO company tends to have more understanding of website design, programming, and how search engines work. SEO company staff is typically made up of programmers and website designers.
If you were to separate the marketing side of SEM from SEO and compare the two, SEO maintains a better overall ROI than SEM. Sixty percent of top search engine listings are devoted to organic listings. In most cases, a good SEO service is all your site needs to drive traffic to it.
Search Engine Optimization is by no means a simple practice. It is made up of a number of complicated in-depth processes and requires an ample amount of time to comprehend its core facets. Moreover, because SEO is an ever changing industry, keeping up with the latest SEO trends can be difficult. For these reasons we have compiled a list of some of the most important SEO practices to be aware of. This is by no means complete, but should serve as a general guideline.
Change is necessary
One of the misconceptions about SEO is that it will automatically improve a site's ranking within the search engines without necessitating changes to that site. Unfortunately this is not the case. An SEO firm that claims it can mysteriously make a site perform better in the search engines without modifications is not practicing ethical standards.
In order to index websites, search engines send out spiders, or bots, to visit a site's pages. The spider learns what the site is about by 'reading' the site's content, so it can place the site into the appropriate context. Spiders analyze the main body content, as well as content located within the
At the basic level, a true SEO service needs to analyze then apply changes to a site's content, optimizing
Contact your SEO service before you update
It's very important to communicate with your SEO service before implementing changes to your website, unless you are 100 percent certain you know what you're doing. Even the slightest alterations can affect your site's rankings in the search engines; when spiders revisit your web property and discover things have changed, it can be for the better or for the worse.
There are numerous instances where clients accidentally overwrite previously optimized work without realizing it. This is a simple mistake, but it can be a costly one. For instance, you may accidentally replace optimized elements in the
Site redesign is an even more crucial matter. Redesigning your website can be a scary undertaking since it will no doubt affect your site's position within the search engines. Even if you're comfortable making small changes to your website, contact with your SEO practitioner before you implement the new site is imperative because you are typically overhauling the whole thing. Your SEO will be able to offer vital information and the technical assistance required to make this complex process a success.
Monday, March 03, 2008
Gasta.TV up for aquisition?
Gasta.TV up for aquisition? You might think so after reading this from Greg Sandoval
The plight of the music industry has played out like a 1970s disaster film, the kind where the principal characters declare that nothing on earth could threaten their state-of-the-art luxury liner or superstructure.
Crash! Cut to people gasping for air or scrambling for a seat on the lifeboat. That's where the record labels are now; scrounging for technologies and business models that can keep them afloat.
To their credit, the four largest music labels have experimented with a range of ideas. They have finally opened up to the idea of selling MP3s--compressed audio files of songs that can be downloaded from an online source and then stored and played back on a digital music player. They also are dabbling in ad-supported music and have talked about launching a jointly owned subscription service.
Meanwhile, piracy continues to flourish. CD sales continue to tumble. Some top artists, including Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails, began distributing their own music last year, Paul McCartney quit EMI, and Madonna jumped to a concert promotion firm, Live Nation, and an alternative business model.
Half of all music sold in the U.S. is expected to be digital in 2011 and sales of downloaded music will surpass CD sales in 2012, according to a recent Forrester Research report titled "The End of the Music Industry as We Know It." Digital music sales will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 23 percent over the next five years, reaching $4.8 billion in revenue by 2012, Forrester says. However, digital music sales will fail to make up for an ongoing decline in CD sales, which, by 2012, will be reduced to $3.8 billion, according to the report.
So the music industry has its work cut out for it. This is how we see the next year shaping up in the digital music scene.
Gasta News: EU to make net safer for Children
The European Commission is spending 55m euros (£42m) on making the net a safer place for children.
The money will be spent over four years on educational efforts and ways to protect children from inappropriate content and cyber bullying.
It will also research the ways that children use the net on computers and other devices such as mobile phones.
The broad-based project will build on the Safer Internet Programme the EU began in 2000.
Action plan
"As more and more European children and adolescents use online technologies at home or at school, they, their parents and their teachers need to be informed about the opportunities and risks they face," said Jose Barroso, EC president in a statement.
Gasta SearchMatch hits the Spot for SBO's
Gasta Views: SearchMatch hits the Spot for SBO's
Enabling small business owners to launch campaigns on large publishers' sites could be the next million dollar idea.
From automotive and restaurants to carpet cleaning and hotels, a large percentage of us are involved in a business where the local owner/operator is vital to our success. But stepping out from the argument of corporate-knows-all vs. all-business-is-done-locally for a moment, we can all agree that there would be a tremendous benefit to getting these local operators online in a local, customizable fashion that drives real ROI. Sadly, the largest and most advanced portals and networks have neglected this market -- and millions of dollars have been lost as a result.
Currently as small business owners (SBOs) get out their wallets and try to "finally launch an ad campaign online," they find that getting someone to take their money can actually be a challenge. For an SBO who turns to a major portal with his entire quarter's ad budget, $5,000, the money is turned away because of minimums. The result is no different when soliciting the help of most major ad networks. My goodness! We have someone here willing to spend $5,000 and no one will take it. Are times that good?
Microsoft buying Yahoo shows that times aren't that great for everyone. It could be said, "Jay, it takes us the same amount of effort to write an order for $2,500 as it does $25,000, and we just can't be profitable running hundreds of small campaigns." But think about it: Google has built its business on $2,500 campaigns, and they're eating competitors' lunches so badly that Yahoo has to be bought to compete, and you "can't afford" to take that business? Large publishers need to look now for profitable ways to take SBO campaigns. Here are a few steps that could push large publishers in the right direction.
Partner with a flash ad generator
Search any form of "flash ad creation" and you'll find dozens of folks who have created software that takes flash templates and allows laymen to instantly create customized variations. Some portals already offer this, but they should leave pride and effort-spent-to-date behind if better solutions exist. Most SBOs are used to stepping out of their comfort zone and doing things themselves. Building an ad from a template builder will be easy for them, and can be done in a controlled environment for you.
Open up your API, or build one
Buying, placing and loading campaigns can all be automated, and this is the key to profitability on the publisher end. Sure there will need to be some manual oversight for delivery purposes, but one person should easily be able to handle hundreds of campaigns. From there, educate the SBO on campaign optimization and put it on them; but, provide an 800 number in large print at all times. This is one mistake Google has made, and I believe it is a key source of the frustration users feel toward the company.
Be fully transparent with targeting and placement disclosure
The No. 1 targeting desire for most SBOs is geographic; usually involving one or multiple specific ZIP codes. Anyone who has done the research knows this is simply not possible by IP and must be done with registration data or user input. SBOs are surprisingly understanding when it comes to limitations like these -- if those limitations are clearly explained to them up front. It's when expectations aren't properly set to begin with that frustrations brew and animosity sets in.
Because the user would be responsible for placement and creative optimization, an aggregate data library of best practices for vertical and placement would go a long way toward ensuring repeat business by giving SBOs useful data and information to improve their own results.
Work with resellers
The eBay model works. Embrace those that will be power users and help them make you more money. We work with dozens of companies in multiple verticals whose franchisees are 100 percent ready to make the leap into online as long as someone is able to liaison between them and the publisher. In fact, we could have easily brought over 1,000 campaigns of between $2,500 and $5,000 to a publisher by now -- and that is just our company! When $2,500 turns into $2,500,000, might publishers think and act differently?
The reality is there are hundreds of agencies, consultants, and leading speakers who are well-known and trusted within their verticals. Providing a higher, private level of support to these influencers and connectors creates value at the reseller level, minimizes time spent re-explaining the same thing to 100 different SBOs and motivates everyone in the same direction. Of course, accepting SBO credit cards for campaign pre-payment and paying the resellers immediately would seal the deal toward partnership and profitability.
Let this be an open call to agencies and corporate marketers with a horse in the local retail race. This is an initiative you can't afford to ignore. The first major portal or ad network to create a cleanly-branded content solution with the acceptance of third-party ad serving from its resellers will have trouble finding bags big enough to cart away the money. Our network of franchisees and dealers in multiple verticals alone would make this effort worthwhile, and I would imagine there are another 50-100 companies just like us. At a time when two goliaths are having to join forces to stay competitive, is there anyone who can afford to ignore one thousand payments of $2,500?
Jay Friedman president of Goodway 2.0Friday, February 29, 2008
Gasta News, Adconion Media group receives investment of $80m
Gasta News Venture Capital: Good News for European Online Ad advertsiser Adconion
Adconion obtains record venture round in Europe
The investment was led by Index Ventures, who were joined by existing investor Wellington Partners, and represents the first investment made from Index’s recently announced growth fund. The capital will be used to continue expansion into Europe, US and Asia, strengthening the company’s position as an independent player. In addition, capital will be invested in Adconion’s behavioral targeting technology and also to fund selected acquisitions. Index partners’ Dominique Vidal, former CEO of Yahoo! Europe, and Giuseppe Zocco, the firm’s co-founder, will join Adconion’s board of directors.
“Adconion has the relationships, the expertise and the best in class technology becoming of a future market-leader in technology’s hottest growth sector,” says Dom Vidal of Index Ventures. “Our experience as investors in the advertising space enables us to support Adconion in continuing its rapid expansion throughout Europe and North America and to further build its global presence. As online media becomes more fragmented and as agencies look for more independent partners for solutions, we believe ad networks like Adconion are perfectly positioned to capture more advertising spend.”
“At the risk of sounding clichéd, the modern business landscape is irrefutably global in scale and that is due primarily to the opportunities created by the Internet,” says Adconion founder and CEO Tyler Moebius. “Agencies choose to partner with Adconion because their clients are likely in a position where doing business internationally is either ‘business as usual’ or a strategic opportunity for growth. This substantial investment from Index and Wellington will position Adconion alongside the portals on marketer’s short-lists for global distribution partners.”
“Tyler and his team have done an outstanding job building a truly global online advertising network,” says Frank Boehnke of Wellington Partners. 'We are very excited to continue to work with Tyler and Adconion on one of the most exciting growth stories in the global marketplace.”
Gasta News On Venture Funds Europe
Gasta News On Venture Funds Europe
http://www.tornado-insider.com
Similar to previous years, European venture capital activity has started off with a bang this year. Already over 170 technology investments have been recorded, raising approximately €920 million. And there is more to come, judging by a series of successful fundraisings by Europe’s investors. This past week alone, 4 successful closings of new funds were announced.
German early-stage venture capitalist Target Partners announced the first closing of its new fund, Target Partners Fund II, at €61.5 million. The firm received commitments from private individuals, family offices and institutional investors, including Morgan Stanley, LGT Capital Partners, Bayerische Beamten Lebensversicherung, RWB RenditeWertBeteiligungen and CS Strategic Partners. The new fund has a target size of €120 million. It will mainly invest in start-up and early-stage companies from the German speaking countries, with sectors including IT, communications, Internet, media and clean-tech.
UK venture capital firm TLcom Capital also held a first closing of its second fund, TLcom II. Funding commitments were in excess of €50 million. The target size of the fund is €150 million. The new fund will focus primarily on revenue-stage technology companies across Europe. Returning investors, European Investment Fund and Access Capital Partners, have been joined by Italy-based Finlombarda Gestioni SGR - the investment arm of the development agency of Lombardy - and a group of limited partners associated with IDeA Alternative Investments. IDeA AI is an investment initiative recently launched by private equity group Investitori Associati, Wise and DeAgostini. TLcom II expects to invest in 12 to 15 companies over the next few years. A second closing is planned later in the year as the fund is now also talking to other institutional investors.
Meanwhile, Finnish venture capitalist Inventure completed the first closing of Inventure Fund Ky. The fund focuses on early-stage high-tech investments in the Nordic countries, primarily Finland. Investors investing in Inventure are European Investment Fund and Finnish Industry Investment, in addition to several undisclosed institutions and private investors. The current closing is completed at €35 million and has a final target of €50 million. Inventure aims to invest in 15 high-growth companies with significant value creation and return potential. The firm targets innovation clusters such as software, electronics, semiconductors as well as industrial production and material technologies.
Concluding, 360° Capital Partners announced its final closing with more than €100 million under management. The European Investment Fund, AGF of Allianz Group, Banca Sella Group and Natixis are the main new investors in the venture capital fund. It will invest in European companies, mainly in France and Italy. The new shareholders are joining CDC Enterprises, Credit Suisse – Alpha Associates, Partners Group, Gruppo Banca Intesa San Paolo, Wilshire Associates, Paul Capital and Coller Capital, who had already committed in the first closing which took place last year. 360° Capital Partners invests between €2 and €5 million in first or second rounds of financing of high-growth innovative companies operating in segments including ICT, Web 2.0, diagnostics/medical devices, and clean tech. 5% of the fund is dedicated to seed-stage companies.
Google Automatic Matching no Match For Gasta SearchMatch
Google Automatic Matching no Match For Gasta SearchMatch,
Gasta SearchMatch is offering real value to advertisers in this poor economic climate.
Michael Estrin of Imedia Connection writes:
On the heels of reports that Google has seen a drop in its paid click business, news has broken that the search giant has quietly unveiled a new program designed to use up unspent search marketing dollars.
According to a New York Post story, Google is testing a new feature called Automatic Matching.
News of the test program first broke on SEO Fast Start when the blog posted an email from Google to one of its AdWords customers.
"Automatic Matching automatically extends your campaign's reach by using surplus budget to serve your ads on relevant search queries that are not already triggered by your keyword lists," the email read. "By analyzing the structure and content of your website and AdWords campaigns, we deliver more impressions and clicks while maintaining your current CTRs and CPCs."
While Silicon Valley Insider points out that some SEO experts like SEO Fast Start are being overly harsh with respect to Google's test program, the timing of the news appears to be the big problem, with some marketers accusing the search giant of grasping for every last cent of their ad budgets at a time when overall business may be slumping.
"Whether Google's intention is to expand the advertisers' untapped opportunities or not, timing is everything and at this time on the surface it appears that Google's only motive is to monetize additional clicks," said Mark Simon, VP of industry relations for Didit, a search-marketing firm. "My suggestion to Google is to communicate the expanded opportunities to search advertisers and let them decide whether they are willing to invest in them at the risk of potentially reducing their ROI metric."
According to Chris Winfield, president of search marketing firm 10e20, ROI, not total budget, is the only real issue.
"I would have no problems spending more money if I'm getting more return on my investment," Winfield told the New York Post. "If I'm just spending more money and it's not high-quality traffic, then that's a problem."
In its email to AdWords customers, Google cited an example for the search term "adidas." According to Google, the new program would match customers with keywords on its traditional list, which includes terms like "shoes" and "athletic," but it also would match with terms like "slippers."
Whether searches for "slippers" will mean anything to those marketing adidas remains to be seen.
A quick Google search for "slippers" yielded no natural results for adidas on the first page. However, the search did return one ad for adidas sandals on sale at Shoes.com.Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Gasta Big Snap Campaign News
The ‘Big Snap’ campaign is a partnership with Virgin that offers prizes including Virgin Atlantic flights whenever people use Live Search.
Based on the card game Snap, search results will also display cards that, when turned over and matched with another, win a prize.
The campaign’s digital agency, Thin Martian, has also developed bigsnapsearch.com to support the promotion.
Paul Davies, MSN and Windows Live marketing director, said, “Searching is the second-most popular online activity after email and this campaign is designed to enliven people’s everyday search experiences. We wanted to create a compelling mechanic that would motivate and excite users while driving traffic and increasing query volume on Live Search.”
Live Search has 3.5% of the global search share, according to COM Score, behind Yahoo! (13.1%) and Google (66%).
Gasta Blended Search
COOPER on Search New Media NMA Daily Alert 21/02/2008 05:05
... The prevailing wisdom is that brands should produce multimedia content in order to provide compelling user experiences online. But will it soon be the case that they have to do so to remain visible in search results?
Engines, as with Google’s Universal Search and Ask’s 3D, are increasingly displaying multimedia results in their natural listings. Is this putting more pressure on brands to develop extra content like blogs and videos?
This was one of the subjects brought up regularly during conversations at Search Engine Strategies (SES)
I’ve always liked the concept of blended search, as its being increasingly termed, but the conversation has moved from understanding what it is to how to make the most out of every bit of content - video, audio, images - a brand has.
There’s now a feeling that blended search is posing tough questions for some brands, a point raised in today’s NMA Podcast.
If you’re promoting a
Is this creating a division between those advertisers that have the resources and those that don’t? Does every advertiser need to have a blog, a video, multiple images, in order to remain visible?
I think once Universal Search results become more common, a lot of brands will suddenly realise SEO just got that little bit harder.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Gasta to Attend Scottish Technology Showcase 08.
Don't miss this chance to do business with some of Scotland's leading technology companies at the Scottish Technology Showcase 08.
Being held on 27 February at the SECC in Glasgow, the 2008 showcase will comprise of 3 distinct zones:
- Technology Zone - 72 innovative technology organisations will demonstrate their products and services to representatives from a range of industry sectors, all looking to do business.
- Opportunity Zone - Hear 5-minute presentations from exhibitors outlining a specific business need with the objective of identifying individuals/organisations that can help meet this requirement. If you think you can help meet a need then follow up with exhibitors at their stand.
- Meeting Zone - pre-book a number of 20-minute meeting slots with exhibitors ahead of the Showcase, encouraging interaction on the day. The online meeting request system, powered by Kanyo, is now available, enabling exhibitors and delegates to arrange meetings.
All aspects of the Scottish Technology Showcase 08 have been designed to make it easier for both exhibitors and delegates to make new contacts and do business. In addition to the 3 Zones will be the popular Marketplace cafe, providing further networking opportunities.
Attendance is free but registration in advance is required.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Gasta Launches:Gaelic and multi-language Search
Gasta is proud to add a new multi-language implementation across it network. The new platform has extended multi-language support for a vast number of languages.
Currently we will provide Gaelic, French, Spanish, German, Japanese and Simplified Chinese support. Other languages deployments take less than one hour to incorporate and we will roll out new language support as our partners demand.
Gasta launches new search platform
Gasta launches new search platform
Gasta has rolled it’s new search platform. Stuart Manning said “We are redefining how users search on the internet by breaking the traditional paged based search mould. Instead we are providing a new rich interactive application approach, allowing the user to search unlimited web, video, images and news on one page. Added to the search are bookmarking and history tools to help make those searches easier to find again.”
We have enriched the user experience with social bookmarking, recent search history and all-in-one page search. We believe that more and more search engines will follow this route and users understand the new language of web 2.0 and break away from traditional paper-based hyperlinking and move to application based search.
Our new engine also provides potential search partners like ASK or Google better information as to the nature of our site and already we are seeing increased page indexing for each site using our test site www.mysearchmachine.com.
Gasta Platform is now a rich web application that utilises the best of the web 2.0 technologies. We have rebuilt Gasta from the ground up to be an extensible white label product that can be quickly deployed over our partner network.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Gasta Tech News: Mobile TV
Mobile TV is not that far away, Gasta.com has been looking at the leading companies that are ready to offer the middlepath software to enable mobile devices to become Mini television recievers.
Mobile TV services are based on two different technologies: the incumbent 3G-based services and the now emerging DVB-H-based services. Axel Technologies' solutions enable mobile TV services based on both technologies. The company's flagship product, Salmonstream Mobile, enables the implementation of full digital mobile TV service based on DVB-H. In addition to comprehensive middleware products, the company develops user interface software that supports several digital television standards.
Gasta Tech News: Mobile Email for the Masses
Until recently, mobile email use has been limited to business users who can afford to buy an expensive smartphone and are willing to accept a costly data plan. But there have been strong signs over the course of 2007 that the age of mobile email for the masses is upon us. The combination of the adoption of industry standards enabling push email on mass market feature phones and affordable service plans is set to make mobile email for the mass market a reality. Evidence of this shift is seen in particular in emerging markets, where fixed-line infrastructure is limited and PC penetration is low, whilst mobile phone penetration is soaring.
The mobile operators in emerging markets now have the opportunity to make the mobile phone the primary method of accessing the internet, with mobile email probably being the most popular application for both business users and consumers. As a result, I can see mobile email consumption in the emerging markets of Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, Africa, and Eastern Europe leapfrogging the 'developed world' in Western Europe and the U.S., which will mostly remain limited to high-end business user email.
However, to make this happen, it is important to use middleware that can support the majority of the mobile phones that are already out there in those markets. Communication only works if it can be sent and received; so, by using standards such as IMAP (LEMONADE), SyncML, and email-to-SMS conversion, we will see email and synchronization services extended to every single mobile phone on the planet.
While we are all drawn to sexy new devices such as the Apple iPhone, the fact is that smartphones represent only a tiny portion of the addressable market. The vast majority of phones in use today (and in the foreseeable future) are mass market feature phones. Therefore, it is essential for service providers to offer push email and synchronization solutions that work well on the phones that are already in users' hands today. In 2008, the time is right for mobile data pricing plans to fall and, as customer numbers increase, we will start to see mobile email becoming the next generation SMS.
*Source: Visiongain Mobile Email Market Report
Monday, February 04, 2008
Gasta News: Google to Aquire AOL?
Imedia has a story about a rumour, Gasta News picked up this rumour before but the latest development by yahoo/microsoft makes it even more interesting now.
News of Microsoft's unsolicited bid to buy Yahoo may have far-reaching implications for the mergers and acquisitions frenzy that has come to dominate interactive industry headlines. According to a report in The New York Times, a redrawing of the industry landscape could put AOL in play.
News of Microsoft's unsolicited bid to buy Yahoo may have far-reaching implications for the mergers and acquisitions frenzy that has come to dominate interactive industry headlines. According to a report in The New York Times, a redrawing of the industry landscape could put AOL in play.
While rumors have long circulated about AOL's parent Time Warner looking to spin-off the internet giant, a united Yahoo and Microsoft -- still a big if -- could prompt Google to reconsider its position with respect to AOL.
Google, which handles search for AOL, already owns a 5 percent stake in the company.
Gasta Advertising: CPA model
Gasta CPA Model is proving more and more popular.
Mason Wiley: Writing on Imedia Connection
Advertising on social networks can be very expensive -- with little payoff. Here's an easy solution to this cost problem.
Social networks are commanding attention -- for good reason. Millions and millions of people visit them daily (and to many an employer's chagrin, hourly). Given the sheer number of users and their length of stay, the big social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook and others should be an advertiser's paradise. But they're not -- yet.
Ironically, the huge number of impressions generated by social networks poses challenges for advertisers. For example, buying all those eyeballs on a cost-per-thousand (CPM) ad model can be prohibitively expensive for many. And unlike sites centered around a specific interest, social networks attract so many different types of people that targeting is difficult. Behavioral targeting offers promise, but hasn't yet evolved to the point at which it can guarantee a positive ROI.
A new ad model has emerged that can. The cost-per-acquisition model (CPA) provides advertisers with a guaranteed way to ensure ad efficiency, while also opening the door for social networks to monetize more of their traffic.
The benefit of CPA for advertisers
The CPA model is ideal for social networking sites because it eliminates virtually all the risk for advertisers of buying on a CPM basis. As a performance-based model, advertisers pay a fee only for the results their CPA campaign generates. That result can be any transaction specified by the advertiser. For example, an advertiser places a CPA campaign on ESPN.com. Rather than paying for all the people who see that ad, the advertiser only pays the publisher for each user that not only clicks on the ad but also follows through and completes the desired action as defined by the advertiser -- anything from an email submit or qualified lead to a sale or paid membership.
Through its 1:1 ratio of pay-per-action, CPA changes the rules for advertisers. The need for narrow targeting to eliminate ad waste becomes irrelevant since there is no waste. Similarly, there's almost no possibility for click fraud since advertisers only pay for results. And unlike CPM, the results of a CPA campaign are directly verifiable through tracking technology, which enables advertisers to determine which ads convert and which do not. For example, an A/B test of landing pages can be measured against the actions completed via any number of creatives or landing pages as well as the conversion processes. The path to purchase is easily tracked back to the source, including the placement of the original creative.
But the single greatest appeal of CPA for advertisers is that it is performance-based. With advertising costs directly tied to results, it provides them a way to advertise with full accountability and control. Advertisers simply establish the actions -- signups, sales, leads, etc. -- they want to reward, and establish how much they're willing to pay. If online publishers think the campaign will generate sufficient response with their audience base to meet revenue goals, they can choose to run the campaign.
Certainly, by running campaigns based on the promise of a potential future reward, publishers are taking a risk. But given that CPA campaigns are more aggressively focused on generating response than the many revenue-sharing campaigns available, it's a gamble that has been paying off for them. Now, social network publishers are finding that CPA can pay off for them, too.
The benefit for social networks
Like any publisher site, social networks want to maximize advertising revenue. Cost-per-thousand is the most prevalent model they use to do it, and it seems to make sense because CPM focuses on the number of impressions generated -- and these sites generate a lot of them. The problem is that these impressions come from an incredibly broad cross-section of the population, many of which can be irrelevant to a given advertiser. As mentioned above, although these sites generate billions of impressions, targeting the right ones is challenging. While targeting users based on where they have clicked (behavioral targeting) can help improve the odds, it is by no means an exact science or a guarantee that a sufficient number of users will perform the desired action.
These inherent challenges under the CPM model have limited the appeal of social networks for advertisers. The result has been a tremendous surplus of excess inventory that despite all best efforts just can't be sold. And a lot of those billions of impressions have gone un-monetized. But now that's changing thanks to CPA.
With CPM, the advertiser assumes the risk by paying the publisher for uncertain potential results. In CPA the publisher assumes the risk by running ads for uncertain potential payments. But when its remnant inventory at issue, the publisher runs no risk; it is inventory that would otherwise go unsold. So it only stands to reason that a social networking site will make more money running CPA ads on remnant inventory than it can just selling space based on CPM alone.
Conclusion
The CPA model is not new, but it has evolved to be a highly cost effective way for advertisers to use social network sites, and an effective way for social networks to generate increased revenue. And new widgets and applications are emerging for social networks that can make CPA even more powerful in the future.
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TOP Keywords
UK engine only.
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Friday, February 01, 2008
Gasta News: Microsoft to buy Yahoo for $44.6bn (£22.4bn)
The offer, contained in a letter to Yahoo's board, is 62% above Yahoo's closing share price on Thursday.
Yahoo cut its revenue forecasts earlier this week and said it would have to spend an additional $300m this year trying to revive the company.
It has been struggling in recent years to compete with Google, which has also been a competitor to
"We have great respect for Yahoo, and together we can offer an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market,"
Chairman quit
There has not yet been any comment from Yahoo.
Its chief executive, Jerry Yang, announced on Tuesday that he intended to lay off 1,000 staff as part of a restructuring plan.
Terry Semel, who stepped down as chief executive last June, also quit as non-executive chairman on Thursday.
Yahoo shares have fallen 46% since reaching a year-high of $34.08 in October. They rose 54% in pre-market trading.
"Ultimately this corporate marriage was forced by the rise of Google, which has grown into a serious competitor for both
"It is a shotgun marriage, but the person holding the shotgun is Google."
'Exorbitant premium'
According to its letter to Yahoo,
"A year has gone by, and the competitive situation has not improved,"
But there has been some concern about the price that
"To me, the premium seems exorbitant, for what is a dwindling business," said Tim Smalls from the brokerage firm Execution LLC.
"I personally don't see how the synergies of
Other analysts were more enthusiastic about the offer.
"It is a fantastic offer. It is game on," said Colin Gillis from Canaccord Adams.
"This consolidates the marketplace down to Google versus
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