What the Search Engines Have Found Out About All of Us
Gasta.com European Search Network
Google has released its map of the national brain and appetites for 2008, and it turns out that many, many people across America have been asking the Internet “what is love?” and “how to kiss.”
And to tighten the focus, Google has also provided a list of search queries made by people sitting at computers in New York City.
It turns out that New Yorkers are looking for something a bit different. On a list of the 10 subjects that posted the greatest increases this year, the country as a whole was looking for Fox News and information about David Cook, the “American Idol” champion.
Neither made the New York list. Then again, the national list did not have 2 of the city’s top 10: Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus architecture school, and the Large Hadron Collider, a 17-mile circular underground tunnel in Switzerland that was built to smash protons into each other at the speed of light.
No doubt someone out in cyberspace can explain the surge of interest this year in Gropius, who has been dead since 1969 and has only one structure of any note in the city, the former Pan Am building.
The collider is easier to understand. There were worries that the crash of protons would instantly create a black hole, but in good news that was widely overlooked at the time, no hole appeared — or is it disappeared? — on Sept. 10, the day the machine was turned on. Search-engine interest in the collider promptly dropped off, as people pointed their anxieties and inquiries toward “Wall Street.” (The collider is currently on the fritz, as is Wall Street.)
On the surface, these kinds of lists are supposed to reveal what Google calls the zeitgeist of 2008, though it’s not much of a surprise that people were interested in Sarah Palin and Barack Obama. But they also provide hints of the level of personal details that people are now turning over to search engines and related businesses without much awareness.
The lists, said Lt. Col. Greg Conti, a professor of computer science at West Point, “are just major tsunami-type activities, big waves in the online searches.”
Professor Conti, the author of “Googling Security: How Much Does Google Know About You?” (Addison-Wesley, 2008), contends that Google’s internal tools make it possible to develop detailed pictures of individual interests, not just of masses of teenagers looking for the very latest about Miley Cyrus.
“A complete picture of us as individuals and as companies emerges — political leanings, medical conditions, business acquisitions signaled by job searches,” he said. “It would be very scary if we could play back every search we made. Those can be tied back very precisely to an individual. You can go all the way from individual molecules of water up to the tsunami.”
INFORMATION on the Web looks free, but it is actually swapped for little bits of data that are useful to businesses. Google records Internet protocol addresses that are generated by each computer, cookies permitted by the users, the kind of browser being used, and the operating system of the computer, said Heather Spain, a spokeswoman for Google.
After nine months, Ms. Spain said, Google “anonymises” the data it has collected.
“At that point we permanently delete the last two digits from both the I.P. address and parts of the cookie numbers,” she said. “This breaks the link between the search query and the computer it was entered from. It’s similar to the way in which credit card companies replace digits with hash marks on receipts to improve their customers’ security.”
Professor Conti said that few people have the slightest idea how much of a trail they leave across the Internet. “People tend to think they’re only leaving footprints on sites that they trust,” he said, but many Web sites contain invisible code, like Google Analytics, that can track users over swaths of the Web.
The lists of popular searches, Ms. Spain said, are the products of inquiries by millions of people and do not threaten anyone’s privacy. The tools Google provides to the public for analyzing searches generally make it possible to look at the inquiries made in a particular state, not by individual cities.
For now, surrendering personal information is the cost for asking questions and getting answers quickly. All of the privacy measures are cumbersome.
“I speak about this at hacker conferences,” Professor Conti said, “and if they say something’s hard to use, believe me, it’s hard. There’s really no solution now — except abstinence. And if you choose not to use online tools, you’re not a member of the 21st century.”
By JIM DWYER
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Gasta News: Search Engines still pull in investors (Kosmix)
Kosmix Adds A Big $20 Million Round; Time Warner Leads; Ed Zander Joins
By Tameka Kee - Mon 08 Dec 2008 08:41 PM PST
Search technology company Kosmix has picked up a big $20 million in a fourth round of funding led by Time Warner Investments. Existing backers Accel Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners and DAG Ventures also participated in the round, and interestingly, former Motorola CEO Ed Zander joining as a private investor. Mountain View, CA-based Kosmix has raised $55 million in funding since its launch in 2006 as a health-centric vertical search firm, and it has since branched out into other areas like travel. It plans to use the funds to help build out its network.
Kosmix’s search tech pulls in various kinds of content, including standard text results from engines like Google, articles and forum posts, images, video and podcasts, and aggregates it in one spot for the user. Of course, it incorporates ads within the results, but also runs its own sites, health portal RightHealth and MeeHive, a personal news aggregator. (Previous offshoots RightTravel and RightAutos have been absorbed back under the main Kosmix.com URL).
And the VCs have no major worries about the broader environment: Kosmix’s business model “should continue to generate strong revenue growth” despite the economy, according to Rachel Lam, SVP and group managing director of Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) Investments. “[It] could be an important strategic partner to many divisions of Time Warner.”
By Tameka Kee - Mon 08 Dec 2008 08:41 PM PST
Search technology company Kosmix has picked up a big $20 million in a fourth round of funding led by Time Warner Investments. Existing backers Accel Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners and DAG Ventures also participated in the round, and interestingly, former Motorola CEO Ed Zander joining as a private investor. Mountain View, CA-based Kosmix has raised $55 million in funding since its launch in 2006 as a health-centric vertical search firm, and it has since branched out into other areas like travel. It plans to use the funds to help build out its network.
Kosmix’s search tech pulls in various kinds of content, including standard text results from engines like Google, articles and forum posts, images, video and podcasts, and aggregates it in one spot for the user. Of course, it incorporates ads within the results, but also runs its own sites, health portal RightHealth and MeeHive, a personal news aggregator. (Previous offshoots RightTravel and RightAutos have been absorbed back under the main Kosmix.com URL).
And the VCs have no major worries about the broader environment: Kosmix’s business model “should continue to generate strong revenue growth” despite the economy, according to Rachel Lam, SVP and group managing director of Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) Investments. “[It] could be an important strategic partner to many divisions of Time Warner.”
Gasta News: Microsoft still soft on Yahoo Deal
Key issues to watch in Microsoft's next bid for Yahoo's search business
Posted:
It's starting to seem inevitable: Microsoft appears poised to make another run at Yahoo's search business. The point was driven home by the selection of Qi Lu as Microsoft's new online chief last week, giving the company a former Yahoo insider to oversee the integration, if it comes to that.
Discussing Lu's hiring during an interview with the Wall Street Journal last week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer all but scheduled the Yahoo negotiations.
"I think a search deal makes great sense for Microsoft, and Yahoo, and I think I've been very open about that," Ballmer told the paper. "That's as true with Qi joining us as it was before Qi joined us. Obviously the logistics of any such integration … can only be simpler by having somebody who will know both sides."
There have been so many twists and turns since Microsoft's original Yahoo acquisition bid that it's impossible to know what will come next. But assuming Microsoft gives a search deal another try, these will be some of the key issues to watch:
PARTNERSHIP OR SEARCH ACQUISITION? Microsoft hasn't been clear on this point. At the company's shareholders meeting last month, Ballmer used the phrase "search collaboration." Some media reports focus on Microsoft acquiring Yahoo's search assets.
Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Kirkland-based Directions on Microsoft, said this morning that the most logical scenario would be a partnership letting Yahoo keep its portal while redirecting search queries to Microsoft's engine and advertising system.
TIMING: The biggest complication here may be Yahoo's ongoing CEO search. Will the Sunnyvale, Calif., company engage in serious talks with Microsoft without a new chief on board? And once the new CEO is in place, how will he or she approach the possibility of a Microsoft deal? In any event, Ballmer made it clear during the WSJ interview that he wants to do something soon.
SEARCH BRAND: On the surface, at least, this seems the easiest issue to resolve. Microsoft is looking for a better search brand, and it appears ready to go off in a new direction with Kumo.com or some other new name. But were the companies to combine search operations, wouldn't the Yahoo search brand be the one to lead the way, based on market position?
PEOPLE AND LOCATIONS: Much of this will depend on the outcome of the "partnership or acquisition" question above. But depending on the agreement the companies reach, it seems reasonable to expect more of Microsoft's search operations to be based in Silicon Valley, building on the existing presence of both companies there.
ANTITRUST: With a combined total of roughly 30 percent of the U.S. search market, a Yahoo-Microsoft search deal wouldn't face nearly the regulatory hurdles that the Google-Yahoo deal did.
But things could get more complicated if the companies bring their Web portals, Web mail or instant-messaging systems into the mix, even tangentially. Particularly on an international level, the market strength of those properties could attract the attention of regulators.
The additional complication is the transition of power in the United States. Depending on how it's structured, a Microsoft-Yahoo search deal could be the first big test of U.S. antitrust policies under Obama and Eric Holder, his nominee for attorney general.
P.S.: Microsoft is holding an internal employee meeting with Lu and Ballmer this afternoon in Redmond. My request to cover it was turned down, but hopefully some details will emerge. Contact me at toddbishop@bizjournals.com.
Posted:
It's starting to seem inevitable: Microsoft appears poised to make another run at Yahoo's search business. The point was driven home by the selection of Qi Lu as Microsoft's new online chief last week, giving the company a former Yahoo insider to oversee the integration, if it comes to that.
Discussing Lu's hiring during an interview with the Wall Street Journal last week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer all but scheduled the Yahoo negotiations.
"I think a search deal makes great sense for Microsoft, and Yahoo, and I think I've been very open about that," Ballmer told the paper. "That's as true with Qi joining us as it was before Qi joined us. Obviously the logistics of any such integration … can only be simpler by having somebody who will know both sides."
There have been so many twists and turns since Microsoft's original Yahoo acquisition bid that it's impossible to know what will come next. But assuming Microsoft gives a search deal another try, these will be some of the key issues to watch:
PARTNERSHIP OR SEARCH ACQUISITION? Microsoft hasn't been clear on this point. At the company's shareholders meeting last month, Ballmer used the phrase "search collaboration." Some media reports focus on Microsoft acquiring Yahoo's search assets.
Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Kirkland-based Directions on Microsoft, said this morning that the most logical scenario would be a partnership letting Yahoo keep its portal while redirecting search queries to Microsoft's engine and advertising system.
TIMING: The biggest complication here may be Yahoo's ongoing CEO search. Will the Sunnyvale, Calif., company engage in serious talks with Microsoft without a new chief on board? And once the new CEO is in place, how will he or she approach the possibility of a Microsoft deal? In any event, Ballmer made it clear during the WSJ interview that he wants to do something soon.
SEARCH BRAND: On the surface, at least, this seems the easiest issue to resolve. Microsoft is looking for a better search brand, and it appears ready to go off in a new direction with Kumo.com or some other new name. But were the companies to combine search operations, wouldn't the Yahoo search brand be the one to lead the way, based on market position?
PEOPLE AND LOCATIONS: Much of this will depend on the outcome of the "partnership or acquisition" question above. But depending on the agreement the companies reach, it seems reasonable to expect more of Microsoft's search operations to be based in Silicon Valley, building on the existing presence of both companies there.
ANTITRUST: With a combined total of roughly 30 percent of the U.S. search market, a Yahoo-Microsoft search deal wouldn't face nearly the regulatory hurdles that the Google-Yahoo deal did.
But things could get more complicated if the companies bring their Web portals, Web mail or instant-messaging systems into the mix, even tangentially. Particularly on an international level, the market strength of those properties could attract the attention of regulators.
The additional complication is the transition of power in the United States. Depending on how it's structured, a Microsoft-Yahoo search deal could be the first big test of U.S. antitrust policies under Obama and Eric Holder, his nominee for attorney general.
P.S.: Microsoft is holding an internal employee meeting with Lu and Ballmer this afternoon in Redmond. My request to cover it was turned down, but hopefully some details will emerge. Contact me at toddbishop@bizjournals.com.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Gasta Marketing News:UK searches for online discount vouchers grows 133%
UK internet searches for discount vouchers have increased by 133% over the past year, according to Hitwise UK.
Visits to voucher websites have also increased by 45% over the same period, and UK internet users searched for over 20,000 variations on the term voucher, during the 12 weeks ending 15 November.
Hitwise said UK consumers are more likely to visit retailers offering discounts and sales in the run up to Christmas.
Marks & Spencer's recent 20% off sale generated one in every 33 UK internet visits to an online retailer and ranked third behind Ebay and Amazon in Hitwise's Shopping and Classifieds category.
The retailer almost doubled its share of visits to the Department Stores category to 15.72% (from 8.32% the previous day).
During November online retailers received 5.47% of their UK internet traffic from social networks, up from 4.3% the previous year, while 3.87% came from online email services, this was lower than the previous year when 4.9% of online retailers traffic came from Email Services.
Robin Goad, director of research for Hitwise, said, "Fashion is currently the fastest growing retail sector online, and it now accounts for over 10% of all UK ecommerce traffic. One of the key factors in this success has been the way that online fashion retailers have built user communities on social networks."
Visits to voucher websites have also increased by 45% over the same period, and UK internet users searched for over 20,000 variations on the term voucher, during the 12 weeks ending 15 November.
Hitwise said UK consumers are more likely to visit retailers offering discounts and sales in the run up to Christmas.
Marks & Spencer's recent 20% off sale generated one in every 33 UK internet visits to an online retailer and ranked third behind Ebay and Amazon in Hitwise's Shopping and Classifieds category.
The retailer almost doubled its share of visits to the Department Stores category to 15.72% (from 8.32% the previous day).
During November online retailers received 5.47% of their UK internet traffic from social networks, up from 4.3% the previous year, while 3.87% came from online email services, this was lower than the previous year when 4.9% of online retailers traffic came from Email Services.
Robin Goad, director of research for Hitwise, said, "Fashion is currently the fastest growing retail sector online, and it now accounts for over 10% of all UK ecommerce traffic. One of the key factors in this success has been the way that online fashion retailers have built user communities on social networks."
Gasta Marketing: Use localised content to build a global audience
Consumers will seek out brand content, but only if it appeals to them on a local and personal level. That's why your content strategy needs to factor in context as well.
Despite the challenging economic times, organizations everywhere are still taking their business global. While there's no question that going global opens doors for many companies, who ever heard of a global consumer? Today's interactive marketing efforts need to be local, personal and focus on everything from consumption patterns to the weather.
Meaningful starts with "me"
Maybe it's because digital content is delivered to me on devices that I consider to be extremely personal: my iPod, my laptop, my smart phone. Unless I think that a marketer is truly speaking to me, the content they offer will not gain access to my wired world.
Montrealers and Parisians both speak French, n'est-ce pas? But as I have witnessed firsthand, while Quebecers "understand" brand communications aimed at their overseas brethren, they don't necessarily respond to them on an emotional level. In digital media, where the goal is to interact with your audience, a marketer needs to speak like a local.
Digital media is local -- and personal
Local terms and language are also key to a successful search strategy. Think about it: The keywords and expressions people type into search engines reflect the natural language of their region or community, not what a bilingual dictionary (or heaven forbid, Babel Fish) suggests. The takeaway? It's probably not a good idea to tap an American writer to adapt content meant for a U.K. audience.
Consider this example: A tourist board that communicates worldwide wanted to create a Spanish-language emarketing campaign. The writers in Madrid came up with teaser copy in letter-perfect Castilian. But during tests, the target consumers -- Mexicans -- said the words for "nightclubber" and "shopping" didn't correspond to local usage. The vocabulary was adjusted so it would resonate with the target audience.
You may have heard that Italians equate translation with treason in a pithy aphorism ("Traduttore, traditore"). When rolling out online marketing campaigns in multiple markets, global brands need to pay attention to the content adaptation -- or else their audiences won't pay attention at all. It's not just the words that require translation; nuances and "flavor" require adjustment as well.
Paco Rabanne just launched 1Million, a new fragrance for men, with a slick online buzz campaign in three countries: France, the U.K. and Spain. The campaign content included scores of tongue-in-cheek buzzwords and allusions to celebrity lifestyles, which demanded painstaking transposition for each local market. A straight translation simply won't do justice for a word-of-mouth campaign.
Content strategy is context strategy
Brand content that speaks to your target like a local is just the first step toward relevance. Working in markets all over the world, we've learned that an effective digital content strategy is a context strategy that factors in not only language and cultural references, but also bandwidth, technology, media consumption patterns and even climate.
Case in point: Recently, tire manufacturer BFGoodrich sought a way to connect its brand with young-adult Canadian males. How does this segment spend time online? Gaming and socializing. Given the audience and the context, it made sense to create an interactive racing game and place the application on Facebook, where players could invite their friends to compete. To make the game feel even more authentic, it was designed to reflect the harsh winter driving conditions that Canadians know so well. Successful content marketing entails approaching consumers in their contexts with content that both satisfies them and engages them with the brand.
Marketers need to meet the challenge of developing digital content for a broadening range of contexts because connected consumers now expect to interact with brands on demand: "on my terms," "in my timeframe," "on my preferred device." Ever-smarter devices and clever, specialized apps further stimulate those rising expectations.
Technology, tastes and regional behaviors also determine a user's context. If you were to map out a mobile content strategy, for example, you wouldn't take the same approach in Tokyo, where it's not uncommon for people to watch sitcoms on their phones; Paris, where passengers in the Métro can talk on their cell phones; or New York City, where people can do neither, but instead download podcasts to while away their commutes.
Once you have a handle on how, when and where your audience chooses to experience digital media, you can start creating content that your customers desire and is in line with what your brand can credibly provide. (Honestly: Do I need Lexus to teach me how to pack a picnic?)
Why serve ads? Serve content
We know from experience that consumers all over the world will welcome -- and seek out -- brand content that is valuable, targeted and offered at the point of need.
In Beijing during the Summer Olympics, wine and style enthusiasts consulted dining and nightlife recommendations offered by Australian winemaker Jacob's Creek. Celebrity bloggers recruited for the occasion wrote reviews of Jacob's Creek partner restaurants, and users were invited to post comments as well. Thousands of visitors took advantage of this useful, entertaining service provided on both web and mobile platforms.
In France, to coincide with the release of the iPhone late last year, L'Oréal Paris debuted a custom iPhone site that makes the brand's expert beauty content -- from skin analysis to product recommendations, from customer support to how-to videos -- available to consumers at their point of need, whether in the store, in a car or in front of their mirror. This is the way forward for brand communications: providing desirable digital content in a personal context, on demand.
In North America, interactive content can be a key differentiator for ecommerce sites. In a move away from a strictly utilitarian approach, successful online merchants are building relationships with online shoppers before, during and after purchase with user-generated online reviews, interactive buyers' guides, auctions, clubs, video demos and project how-to demos. Initially developed to boost SEO rankings, branded content -- particularly the bloggable, shareable kind -- is proving to be a traffic driver as well.
Get creative with content services
Think about it: Doesn't it make sense for marketers to offer consumers content rather than ads? It's a win-win situation. Consumers benefit -- for free -- from the expertise and brand-relevant services that companies can provide around their products. On their side, brands can free up the advertising dollars devoted to hiring models or filming TV spots and devote those funds instead to creating digital content services that consumers actually want and willingly connect with.
The next time you sit down to brainstorm with your interactive agency, focus on coming up with fresh ideas for content services aligned with your brand. The process is just as "creative" as coming up with a catchy tagline, but the result is far more satisfying to your audience.
Sheila Mooney is director of content development at Nurun.
Despite the challenging economic times, organizations everywhere are still taking their business global. While there's no question that going global opens doors for many companies, who ever heard of a global consumer? Today's interactive marketing efforts need to be local, personal and focus on everything from consumption patterns to the weather.
Meaningful starts with "me"
Maybe it's because digital content is delivered to me on devices that I consider to be extremely personal: my iPod, my laptop, my smart phone. Unless I think that a marketer is truly speaking to me, the content they offer will not gain access to my wired world.
Montrealers and Parisians both speak French, n'est-ce pas? But as I have witnessed firsthand, while Quebecers "understand" brand communications aimed at their overseas brethren, they don't necessarily respond to them on an emotional level. In digital media, where the goal is to interact with your audience, a marketer needs to speak like a local.
Digital media is local -- and personal
Local terms and language are also key to a successful search strategy. Think about it: The keywords and expressions people type into search engines reflect the natural language of their region or community, not what a bilingual dictionary (or heaven forbid, Babel Fish) suggests. The takeaway? It's probably not a good idea to tap an American writer to adapt content meant for a U.K. audience.
Consider this example: A tourist board that communicates worldwide wanted to create a Spanish-language emarketing campaign. The writers in Madrid came up with teaser copy in letter-perfect Castilian. But during tests, the target consumers -- Mexicans -- said the words for "nightclubber" and "shopping" didn't correspond to local usage. The vocabulary was adjusted so it would resonate with the target audience.
You may have heard that Italians equate translation with treason in a pithy aphorism ("Traduttore, traditore"). When rolling out online marketing campaigns in multiple markets, global brands need to pay attention to the content adaptation -- or else their audiences won't pay attention at all. It's not just the words that require translation; nuances and "flavor" require adjustment as well.
Paco Rabanne just launched 1Million, a new fragrance for men, with a slick online buzz campaign in three countries: France, the U.K. and Spain. The campaign content included scores of tongue-in-cheek buzzwords and allusions to celebrity lifestyles, which demanded painstaking transposition for each local market. A straight translation simply won't do justice for a word-of-mouth campaign.
Content strategy is context strategy
Brand content that speaks to your target like a local is just the first step toward relevance. Working in markets all over the world, we've learned that an effective digital content strategy is a context strategy that factors in not only language and cultural references, but also bandwidth, technology, media consumption patterns and even climate.
Case in point: Recently, tire manufacturer BFGoodrich sought a way to connect its brand with young-adult Canadian males. How does this segment spend time online? Gaming and socializing. Given the audience and the context, it made sense to create an interactive racing game and place the application on Facebook, where players could invite their friends to compete. To make the game feel even more authentic, it was designed to reflect the harsh winter driving conditions that Canadians know so well. Successful content marketing entails approaching consumers in their contexts with content that both satisfies them and engages them with the brand.
Marketers need to meet the challenge of developing digital content for a broadening range of contexts because connected consumers now expect to interact with brands on demand: "on my terms," "in my timeframe," "on my preferred device." Ever-smarter devices and clever, specialized apps further stimulate those rising expectations.
Technology, tastes and regional behaviors also determine a user's context. If you were to map out a mobile content strategy, for example, you wouldn't take the same approach in Tokyo, where it's not uncommon for people to watch sitcoms on their phones; Paris, where passengers in the Métro can talk on their cell phones; or New York City, where people can do neither, but instead download podcasts to while away their commutes.
Once you have a handle on how, when and where your audience chooses to experience digital media, you can start creating content that your customers desire and is in line with what your brand can credibly provide. (Honestly: Do I need Lexus to teach me how to pack a picnic?)
Why serve ads? Serve content
We know from experience that consumers all over the world will welcome -- and seek out -- brand content that is valuable, targeted and offered at the point of need.
In Beijing during the Summer Olympics, wine and style enthusiasts consulted dining and nightlife recommendations offered by Australian winemaker Jacob's Creek. Celebrity bloggers recruited for the occasion wrote reviews of Jacob's Creek partner restaurants, and users were invited to post comments as well. Thousands of visitors took advantage of this useful, entertaining service provided on both web and mobile platforms.
In France, to coincide with the release of the iPhone late last year, L'Oréal Paris debuted a custom iPhone site that makes the brand's expert beauty content -- from skin analysis to product recommendations, from customer support to how-to videos -- available to consumers at their point of need, whether in the store, in a car or in front of their mirror. This is the way forward for brand communications: providing desirable digital content in a personal context, on demand.
In North America, interactive content can be a key differentiator for ecommerce sites. In a move away from a strictly utilitarian approach, successful online merchants are building relationships with online shoppers before, during and after purchase with user-generated online reviews, interactive buyers' guides, auctions, clubs, video demos and project how-to demos. Initially developed to boost SEO rankings, branded content -- particularly the bloggable, shareable kind -- is proving to be a traffic driver as well.
Get creative with content services
Think about it: Doesn't it make sense for marketers to offer consumers content rather than ads? It's a win-win situation. Consumers benefit -- for free -- from the expertise and brand-relevant services that companies can provide around their products. On their side, brands can free up the advertising dollars devoted to hiring models or filming TV spots and devote those funds instead to creating digital content services that consumers actually want and willingly connect with.
The next time you sit down to brainstorm with your interactive agency, focus on coming up with fresh ideas for content services aligned with your brand. The process is just as "creative" as coming up with a catchy tagline, but the result is far more satisfying to your audience.
Sheila Mooney is director of content development at Nurun.
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Gasta News:New domain to be web's phone book
source: BBC
The .tel addresses will be reachable via mobiles too
From 3 December companies will be able to buy addresses associated with a new web domain.
Called .tel, the domain is intended to act as a universal contact point rather than as a hook on which to hang websites.
Owners of .tel domains will be encouraged to populate it with details about how they can be contacted.
The domain is designed to work on the web and with mobile phones such as the Apple iPhone and Blackberry.
"All other top level domains like .com use the net's domain name system in the same way," said Kash Mahdavi, head of Telnic which runs the .tel registry. "They all store IP address and they are all about websites."
By contrast, he said, .tel had been designed to act as a repository for all a company's or individual's contact details. A .tel domain, said Mr Mahdavi, could feature phone numbers, e-mail addresses, GPS data or buttons that kick off a Skype call.
Mr Mahdavi said it had some similarities to the Enum projects that aim to bind phone numbers and e-mail addresses into a unified contact system.
The flaw, he said, with Enum was that it demanded people be on the web. By contrast, .tel will work with many different devices such as smart phones.
Phase one
Owners of .tel domains will be able to manage their contact details via a simple dashboard and surrender as much or as little information as they desire, said Mr Mahdavi.
He added that .tel domains have a "friending mechanism" that will grant close friends access to private areas that give more ways for a person to be contacted.
"It will become their place on the cloud," said Mr Mahdavi.
Access to the domain is being granted in three phases. The first begins on 3 December and is the "sunrise" phase for trademark owners to get domains related to their brands.
The second phase begins on 3 February 2009 and is a "landrush" phase open to anyone though domains will be on sale at a premium.
The final general availability phase starts on 24 March 2009 when the domain will be open to all comers.
Phil Kingsland, director of communications for Nominet, the firm that manages the .uk domain, notes that a number of new domains will go online when a new process for allocating them rolls out next year.
"Businesses will need to be aware of the potential uses of .tel and how it can work for them," said Mr Kingsland.
"They should have a clear and robust domain name strategy in place, so that when new top-level domains such as these come onto the market, they are ready for them."
Mr Mahdavi would not be drawn on the final price for a .tel domain but said it would be in line with that charged for other domains.
The .tel addresses will be reachable via mobiles too
From 3 December companies will be able to buy addresses associated with a new web domain.
Called .tel, the domain is intended to act as a universal contact point rather than as a hook on which to hang websites.
Owners of .tel domains will be encouraged to populate it with details about how they can be contacted.
The domain is designed to work on the web and with mobile phones such as the Apple iPhone and Blackberry.
"All other top level domains like .com use the net's domain name system in the same way," said Kash Mahdavi, head of Telnic which runs the .tel registry. "They all store IP address and they are all about websites."
By contrast, he said, .tel had been designed to act as a repository for all a company's or individual's contact details. A .tel domain, said Mr Mahdavi, could feature phone numbers, e-mail addresses, GPS data or buttons that kick off a Skype call.
Mr Mahdavi said it had some similarities to the Enum projects that aim to bind phone numbers and e-mail addresses into a unified contact system.
The flaw, he said, with Enum was that it demanded people be on the web. By contrast, .tel will work with many different devices such as smart phones.
Phase one
Owners of .tel domains will be able to manage their contact details via a simple dashboard and surrender as much or as little information as they desire, said Mr Mahdavi.
He added that .tel domains have a "friending mechanism" that will grant close friends access to private areas that give more ways for a person to be contacted.
"It will become their place on the cloud," said Mr Mahdavi.
Access to the domain is being granted in three phases. The first begins on 3 December and is the "sunrise" phase for trademark owners to get domains related to their brands.
The second phase begins on 3 February 2009 and is a "landrush" phase open to anyone though domains will be on sale at a premium.
The final general availability phase starts on 24 March 2009 when the domain will be open to all comers.
Phil Kingsland, director of communications for Nominet, the firm that manages the .uk domain, notes that a number of new domains will go online when a new process for allocating them rolls out next year.
"Businesses will need to be aware of the potential uses of .tel and how it can work for them," said Mr Kingsland.
"They should have a clear and robust domain name strategy in place, so that when new top-level domains such as these come onto the market, they are ready for them."
Mr Mahdavi would not be drawn on the final price for a .tel domain but said it would be in line with that charged for other domains.
Gasta News:Get Drunk on Google ads this Christmas
NMA Reports
Google lifts prohibition
Google is to allow spirit brands to run search campaigns for the first time as the search engine company looks to drive slowing AdWords click rates.
The search giant will lift restrictions in the New Year, letting spirit brands run branded search campaigns tied in with overall marketing activity. However, advertisers will not be allowed to promote or incentivise actual sales.
Google is understood to want to encourage spirit brands to run search campaigns as part of a wider media buy across its portfolio of channels, including AdSense and YouTube.
Google is set to make a formal announcement in the next few days, and while the actual date of UK restrictions being lifted has not been finalised it is expected to be in the first two weeks of January.
The move is the latest by the company to boost click rates on AdWords, which former Google chief financial officer George Reyes acknowledged had slowed when revealing its Q2 results back in July.
It follows October's lifting of gambling and gaming restrictions on AdWords. Back in May, Google allowed brands to bid on rival trademark terms. The company hoped both these moves would drive up click rates.
Brands and agencies have said they will increase search spend as a result of the latest decision.
Tom Jefferies, digital marketing manager at Bacardi Global Brands, said, "To be allowed to run AdWords advertising on Google.com is a big opportunity for us, so we will be looking to put money behind it."
Charlie McGee, MD of Carat Digital, which buys media for Diageo brands including Gordon's Gin, said: "[Using search] we can amplify all of the on and offline work that's done to promote these brands."
A Google spokesman said: "We're constantly evaluating our ad policies to ensure they are up-to-date and as consistent as possible with local business practises."
Google lifts prohibition
Google is to allow spirit brands to run search campaigns for the first time as the search engine company looks to drive slowing AdWords click rates.
The search giant will lift restrictions in the New Year, letting spirit brands run branded search campaigns tied in with overall marketing activity. However, advertisers will not be allowed to promote or incentivise actual sales.
Google is understood to want to encourage spirit brands to run search campaigns as part of a wider media buy across its portfolio of channels, including AdSense and YouTube.
Google is set to make a formal announcement in the next few days, and while the actual date of UK restrictions being lifted has not been finalised it is expected to be in the first two weeks of January.
The move is the latest by the company to boost click rates on AdWords, which former Google chief financial officer George Reyes acknowledged had slowed when revealing its Q2 results back in July.
It follows October's lifting of gambling and gaming restrictions on AdWords. Back in May, Google allowed brands to bid on rival trademark terms. The company hoped both these moves would drive up click rates.
Brands and agencies have said they will increase search spend as a result of the latest decision.
Tom Jefferies, digital marketing manager at Bacardi Global Brands, said, "To be allowed to run AdWords advertising on Google.com is a big opportunity for us, so we will be looking to put money behind it."
Charlie McGee, MD of Carat Digital, which buys media for Diageo brands including Gordon's Gin, said: "[Using search] we can amplify all of the on and offline work that's done to promote these brands."
A Google spokesman said: "We're constantly evaluating our ad policies to ensure they are up-to-date and as consistent as possible with local business practises."
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Gasta News: Report from NMA Editor Justin Pearse
The Phorm saga rolled on this week, with the announcement of the departure of four members of the behavioural targeting company's board. It could be argued that the appointment of ex-Ofcom executive board member Kip Meek as one of the replacements was more significant than the departures for a company fighting regulatory and PR battles on all fronts, Meek's experience in the regulatory arena at Ofcom, on a European as much as domestic level, will be invaluable. Behavioural targeting itself got a welcome boost in support with BBC Worldwide's plan to launch it across its international website BBC.com. As large publishers board the behavioural targeting bandwagon, it should help to build a level of confidence to help address the reactionary hysteria it so often generates.
Targeted advertising has always been one of the promises of mobile, of course, although the operators' reluctance to release deep customer data has stymied this somewhat. Content providers, although happy with the traffic operator portals generate, are desperate for more control. So it was a heartening sign to see Sky start selling advertising around its content on the T-Mobile and Vodafone portals
Bauer is the only other content owner to do this. The resulting control should help encourage publishers to commit further to mobile advertising but few will have the market muscle to force such deals through to operators. Especially as mobile advertising is failing to meet the lofty heights its hype promised. One of the reasons behind O2 launching global media sales division O2 Media Group. The move is designed to let O2 sell integrated ad opportunities across its entire real estate, from mobile and online to in-store and DM. Rival Vodafone is also planning a similar offering. As all operators look to bolster their online operations, such holistic views of themselves could be powerful in convincing media agencies and advertisers to view them as media companies rather than telecoms suppliers.
Towards the end of the month came news of the government's tacit admission of its lack of understand of the new media industry. The IAB began a programme to educate civil servants in government departments from the DCMS to Berr. The move generated mixed emotions. On the one hand, anything to increase government understanding of the fast moving digital industry is to be applauded. On the other, it could be seen as worrying this education was needed following a year of increased regulatory attention to the internet by government, from Andy Burnham’s speech on the readiness of the internet for governance, to the Byron Report and the Council for Child Safety.
The evolution of online video and internet TV is clearly one area where regulatory confusion will see increasing government attention over the coming year. The sector is moving so fast that multi-platform commissions are becoming commonplace. However, the complexity of getting such projects to market was highlighted this month with Virgin Media's delay of launching Prom Queen due to the lack of a sponsor. Sony Pictures Television is the latest to be searching for distribution partners for its multi-platform series Gemini. The three minutes series was broadcast in the US by Amazon Unbox, NBC Online, NBC Mobile, Xbox Live and Zune. Just the type of fascinating broadcast model we'll be seeing more of in the UK in the coming year.
Targeted advertising has always been one of the promises of mobile, of course, although the operators' reluctance to release deep customer data has stymied this somewhat. Content providers, although happy with the traffic operator portals generate, are desperate for more control. So it was a heartening sign to see Sky start selling advertising around its content on the T-Mobile and Vodafone portals
Bauer is the only other content owner to do this. The resulting control should help encourage publishers to commit further to mobile advertising but few will have the market muscle to force such deals through to operators. Especially as mobile advertising is failing to meet the lofty heights its hype promised. One of the reasons behind O2 launching global media sales division O2 Media Group. The move is designed to let O2 sell integrated ad opportunities across its entire real estate, from mobile and online to in-store and DM. Rival Vodafone is also planning a similar offering. As all operators look to bolster their online operations, such holistic views of themselves could be powerful in convincing media agencies and advertisers to view them as media companies rather than telecoms suppliers.
Towards the end of the month came news of the government's tacit admission of its lack of understand of the new media industry. The IAB began a programme to educate civil servants in government departments from the DCMS to Berr. The move generated mixed emotions. On the one hand, anything to increase government understanding of the fast moving digital industry is to be applauded. On the other, it could be seen as worrying this education was needed following a year of increased regulatory attention to the internet by government, from Andy Burnham’s speech on the readiness of the internet for governance, to the Byron Report and the Council for Child Safety.
The evolution of online video and internet TV is clearly one area where regulatory confusion will see increasing government attention over the coming year. The sector is moving so fast that multi-platform commissions are becoming commonplace. However, the complexity of getting such projects to market was highlighted this month with Virgin Media's delay of launching Prom Queen due to the lack of a sponsor. Sony Pictures Television is the latest to be searching for distribution partners for its multi-platform series Gemini. The three minutes series was broadcast in the US by Amazon Unbox, NBC Online, NBC Mobile, Xbox Live and Zune. Just the type of fascinating broadcast model we'll be seeing more of in the UK in the coming year.
Monday, December 01, 2008
Gasta.com: Support New Irish Band BabyJenx Growing
Gasta.com are supporting two new bands from Ireland that are tipped for the top, venues and musicheads have been going mad on Myspace and Facebook to download the latest singles from Babyjenx, and The Beat Poets, to get information about these fantastic new and emerging talents, you can find links to both bands on Gasta.tv
About Baby Jenx
BABY JENX
"So beautiful, so intoxicating, so heavenly . . . Gary Reddy's voice reaches soaring glorious falsettos with an ease that would make Thom Yorke envious" – Musician.ie
THE BAND: Gary Reddy – guitar/vocals; Ewen Ferguson Denny - keyboards; Mick Reddy – bass; Graham Carey – drums
THE PAST: Named after a character in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, Baby Jenx have been together since the summer of 2005. Influenced by the big stadium sounds of U2, Radiohead and Muse, but with their own musical aesthetic firmly to the fore, they played their debut gig in legendary Dublin venue Mother Redcaps later that same year.
“Thrilling and epic, two words to describe the performance on the night… with melodic grooves and superb vocals on board, this is one act you need to get out and see” - Musicreveiw.com
Over the following months, Baby Jenx honed their live skills with a multitude of gigs. Their sparkling shows at the Irish IMRO showcase, Boston's NEMO Music Festival and Castlepalooza earned them rave reviews.
"... singer Gary Reddy is a natural performer and exceptional singer" – IMRO magazine
They recorded their first demo with producer Declan Lonergan in Bluebird Studios in Co. Kildare. This demo received extensive radio airplay, and was immediately chosen as Hot Press magazine's 'Demo of the Fortnight' by none other than Jackie Hayden (the former CBS boss, known for giving U2 their first record deal).
"The real gem is 'So Long', which opens around a slow staccato piano before it builds with sensitivity and pathos to a real ear-opener" – Jackie Hayden - Hot Press
THE FUTURE: Baby Jenx are currently in studio recording their debut album proper. Entitled “Trial By Fire” it will be released early 2009.
"… the band of this year to hit the music scene, with melodic, streaming vocals and uplifting sounds … you must catch a live gig from these guys, you are missing something special" – Hotpress.com
About Baby Jenx
BABY JENX
"So beautiful, so intoxicating, so heavenly . . . Gary Reddy's voice reaches soaring glorious falsettos with an ease that would make Thom Yorke envious" – Musician.ie
THE BAND: Gary Reddy – guitar/vocals; Ewen Ferguson Denny - keyboards; Mick Reddy – bass; Graham Carey – drums
THE PAST: Named after a character in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, Baby Jenx have been together since the summer of 2005. Influenced by the big stadium sounds of U2, Radiohead and Muse, but with their own musical aesthetic firmly to the fore, they played their debut gig in legendary Dublin venue Mother Redcaps later that same year.
“Thrilling and epic, two words to describe the performance on the night… with melodic grooves and superb vocals on board, this is one act you need to get out and see” - Musicreveiw.com
Over the following months, Baby Jenx honed their live skills with a multitude of gigs. Their sparkling shows at the Irish IMRO showcase, Boston's NEMO Music Festival and Castlepalooza earned them rave reviews.
"... singer Gary Reddy is a natural performer and exceptional singer" – IMRO magazine
They recorded their first demo with producer Declan Lonergan in Bluebird Studios in Co. Kildare. This demo received extensive radio airplay, and was immediately chosen as Hot Press magazine's 'Demo of the Fortnight' by none other than Jackie Hayden (the former CBS boss, known for giving U2 their first record deal).
"The real gem is 'So Long', which opens around a slow staccato piano before it builds with sensitivity and pathos to a real ear-opener" – Jackie Hayden - Hot Press
THE FUTURE: Baby Jenx are currently in studio recording their debut album proper. Entitled “Trial By Fire” it will be released early 2009.
"… the band of this year to hit the music scene, with melodic, streaming vocals and uplifting sounds … you must catch a live gig from these guys, you are missing something special" – Hotpress.com
Friday, November 28, 2008
Content Sites Win With Gasta.com
Gasta.com search network of over 250+ search engines and the content relevancy tools InstantAds and SearchMatch our winners on the content site platform.
Gasta.com offers Increased site engagement:
Gasta Search is the primary mode of navigation on the web, and a better search experience will keep users on your site longer.
Gasta.com Increased content consumption:
Industry research projects that within three years nearly 87 percent of all internet users in the U.S. will be regularly viewing online video – an audience of well over 150 million people. Surfacing your audio and video content as part of a user’s overall search experience is the key to driving increased multimedia consumption and the associated advertising opportunities.
Increased advertising opportunities:
Exposing a previously buried treasure trove of multimedia content opens a new stream of advertising revenue. In addition, Gasta SearchMatch provides enhanced targeting opportunities from the rich metadata that wraps your audio and video content. With video advertising commanding premium pricing, enhancing multimedia consumption and targeting is the key to unlocking this $4 billion advertising opportunity.
Gasta.com offers Increased site engagement:
Gasta Search is the primary mode of navigation on the web, and a better search experience will keep users on your site longer.
Gasta.com Increased content consumption:
Industry research projects that within three years nearly 87 percent of all internet users in the U.S. will be regularly viewing online video – an audience of well over 150 million people. Surfacing your audio and video content as part of a user’s overall search experience is the key to driving increased multimedia consumption and the associated advertising opportunities.
Increased advertising opportunities:
Exposing a previously buried treasure trove of multimedia content opens a new stream of advertising revenue. In addition, Gasta SearchMatch provides enhanced targeting opportunities from the rich metadata that wraps your audio and video content. With video advertising commanding premium pricing, enhancing multimedia consumption and targeting is the key to unlocking this $4 billion advertising opportunity.
Gasta News: Mobile advertising on the Rise say analysts
Advertising: an emergent stream of revenues for the mobile industry
LONDON – 25 November 2008 – Mobile advertising could become a strong source of revenues for the mobile industry. The European mobile industry has extensively explored the use of advertising recently as a sustainable business model for mobile content, mobile messaging and other services. Despite being in the initial stage, these models have galvanised the industry. The level of confidence of the mobile communications and advertising industries in the potential of mobile advertising is very high.
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.wireless.frost.com), Ad-based Content and Communications: A Lucrative Avenue for the Mobile Industry estimates that the mobile social and content advertising market revenues should reach 2.18 billion euro in 2012 in Europe. Mobile content advertising, ad-based music, video, TV and games will represent the major source of revenues.
“To achieve high revenues, the mobile advertising industry will need to successfully confront three main challenges. What should be concentrated on is: continuously enhance the mobile user experience through high-speed connectivity and high-quality user interfaces; use ads as a transparent value to consumers’ mobile experience without being intrusive; and educate the advertising industry on how to exploit the advertising power of mobile devices,” notes Saverio Romeo, Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst. “If these challenges are not adequately faced, the advertising market will not grow strongly as the mobile industry expects.”
From the mobile industry point of view, advertising is a potential revenue stream that can counterbalance the continuous decrease of revenues from voice and SMS services. However, advertisers and agencies, the sources of the advertising revenue stream, are, only now, gradually learning the use of the mobile device as an advertising medium.
“Agencies’ budgets rarely include a specific allocation for mobile communications,” states Romeo. “An intense synergy between the mobile and the advertising industries is crucial to transform today’s enthusiasm into strong revenues in the future.”
Ad-based Content and Communications: A Lucrative Avenue for the Mobile Industry is part of the Mobile & Wireless Growth Partnership Services Programme, which also includes research in the following markets:European Mobile Premium Content Markets, Mobile Messaging Markets in Europe and Exploring the European Market for Mobile Smart Devices. All research included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends that have been evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants. Interviews with the press are available.
If you are interested in a virtual brochure, which provides manufacturers, end users and other industry participants with an overview of the ad-based content and communications market for the mobile industry, please send an e-mail to Joanna Lewandowska, Corporate Communications, at joanna.lewandowska@frost.com, with your contact details. Upon receipt of the above information, an overview will be sent to you by e-mail.
Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, partners with clients to accelerate their growth. The company's TEAM Research, Growth Consulting and Growth Team Membership™ empower clients to create a growth-focused culture that generates, evaluates and implements effective growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan employs over 45 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more than 30 offices on six continents. For more information about Frost & Sullivan’s Growth Partnership Services, visit http://www.frost.com.
LONDON – 25 November 2008 – Mobile advertising could become a strong source of revenues for the mobile industry. The European mobile industry has extensively explored the use of advertising recently as a sustainable business model for mobile content, mobile messaging and other services. Despite being in the initial stage, these models have galvanised the industry. The level of confidence of the mobile communications and advertising industries in the potential of mobile advertising is very high.
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.wireless.frost.com), Ad-based Content and Communications: A Lucrative Avenue for the Mobile Industry estimates that the mobile social and content advertising market revenues should reach 2.18 billion euro in 2012 in Europe. Mobile content advertising, ad-based music, video, TV and games will represent the major source of revenues.
“To achieve high revenues, the mobile advertising industry will need to successfully confront three main challenges. What should be concentrated on is: continuously enhance the mobile user experience through high-speed connectivity and high-quality user interfaces; use ads as a transparent value to consumers’ mobile experience without being intrusive; and educate the advertising industry on how to exploit the advertising power of mobile devices,” notes Saverio Romeo, Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst. “If these challenges are not adequately faced, the advertising market will not grow strongly as the mobile industry expects.”
From the mobile industry point of view, advertising is a potential revenue stream that can counterbalance the continuous decrease of revenues from voice and SMS services. However, advertisers and agencies, the sources of the advertising revenue stream, are, only now, gradually learning the use of the mobile device as an advertising medium.
“Agencies’ budgets rarely include a specific allocation for mobile communications,” states Romeo. “An intense synergy between the mobile and the advertising industries is crucial to transform today’s enthusiasm into strong revenues in the future.”
Ad-based Content and Communications: A Lucrative Avenue for the Mobile Industry is part of the Mobile & Wireless Growth Partnership Services Programme, which also includes research in the following markets:European Mobile Premium Content Markets, Mobile Messaging Markets in Europe and Exploring the European Market for Mobile Smart Devices. All research included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends that have been evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants. Interviews with the press are available.
If you are interested in a virtual brochure, which provides manufacturers, end users and other industry participants with an overview of the ad-based content and communications market for the mobile industry, please send an e-mail to Joanna Lewandowska, Corporate Communications, at joanna.lewandowska@frost.com, with your contact details. Upon receipt of the above information, an overview will be sent to you by e-mail.
Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, partners with clients to accelerate their growth. The company's TEAM Research, Growth Consulting and Growth Team Membership™ empower clients to create a growth-focused culture that generates, evaluates and implements effective growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan employs over 45 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more than 30 offices on six continents. For more information about Frost & Sullivan’s Growth Partnership Services, visit http://www.frost.com.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Gasta Marketing News: Mobile advertsing
Some 98% of marketers say online marketing is crucial to business success through the economic downturn, according to research by Efficient Frontier.
The survey of over 300 UK, French and German marketers found 73% expect to see the headcount of digital marketing teams increase through 2009, and 87% of those surveyed predict digital marketing will grow at the same rate in 2009 as it did in 2008.
UK marketers ranked SEM higher than both its French and German counterparts, some 78.5% of UK respondents rated SEM as a 'top three' priority in marketing campaigns.
David White, general manager of Efficient Frontier Europe, said, "We're continuing to see enormous growth from our UK, French and German offices. It's pleasing to see these survey results reflecting a positive story during this current economic environment."
Mobile Ads
Coca-Cola and Xbox are among brands set to increase their mobile ad investment, as new research shows mobile marketing budgets will grow by 150% over the next five years despite the economic downturn. An O2 survey by Vanson Bourne of 100 marketing and IT directors from the financial services, manufacturing and retail sectors found that 60% favoured mobile marketing due to its targeted nature. Some 85% said mobile marketing campaigns generate a higher response than traditional methods....
The survey of over 300 UK, French and German marketers found 73% expect to see the headcount of digital marketing teams increase through 2009, and 87% of those surveyed predict digital marketing will grow at the same rate in 2009 as it did in 2008.
UK marketers ranked SEM higher than both its French and German counterparts, some 78.5% of UK respondents rated SEM as a 'top three' priority in marketing campaigns.
David White, general manager of Efficient Frontier Europe, said, "We're continuing to see enormous growth from our UK, French and German offices. It's pleasing to see these survey results reflecting a positive story during this current economic environment."
Mobile Ads
Coca-Cola and Xbox are among brands set to increase their mobile ad investment, as new research shows mobile marketing budgets will grow by 150% over the next five years despite the economic downturn. An O2 survey by Vanson Bourne of 100 marketing and IT directors from the financial services, manufacturing and retail sectors found that 60% favoured mobile marketing due to its targeted nature. Some 85% said mobile marketing campaigns generate a higher response than traditional methods....
Gasta News: Yell Rollout
Yell.com adds more local content while BBC plans set back
Yell is rolling out a series of ultra-local sub-sites featuring town and city information as part of a move to ramp up content across its website.
The classified listings specialist is hiring journalists to create content, including advice on things to think about when hiring a serviceperson as well as quick facts about towns across the UK.
Yell is also considering including local news and event information, if the trial is successful. It plans to use the content to boost its position as a key destination for local services and information online, as well as its search rankings.
Its push comes in the week that local news services were thrust into the spotlight following the BBC Trust's decision to refuse permission for the BBC's planned rollout of local video sites (nma.co.uk 21 November).
The Trust halted plans to spend £68m of licence fee funds on local video, deeming it unjustified.
The proposed move was highly criticised by competitor commercial news providers, such as Northcliffe Media, which owns 151 sites under the Thisis brand. It said it would be unable to compete with such investment by the BBC.
Johnston Press claimed the BBC's Where I Live sites had already damaged its local sites, and Trinity Mirror accused the Corporation of losing sight of its purpose.
The rejection of the plans by the BBC Trust has received a cautious welcome by commercial rivals, with many concerned the setback won't keep the BBC away from local services for long.
Sam McIlveen, digital publisher at Independent News and Media, said, "I don't think this is the end of it. We're still worried because these plans were hugely disadvantageous for local media. Local sites can't compete with the BBC, especially when it's willing to spend £68m."
The Newspaper Society's director David Newell also expressed concern at the BBC not giving up on the area. "We must be on guard to ensure the BBC isn't allowed to expand its local services by other means," he said.
Sir Michael Lyons, chairman of the BBC Trust, said that while consumers want better local services, video sites were unlikely to meet their needs.
Regulator Ofcom said the plans would have a significant negative impact on commercial providers.
Author: By Will Cooper & Luan Goldie | Source: nma.co.uk | Published: 26.11.08
Yell is rolling out a series of ultra-local sub-sites featuring town and city information as part of a move to ramp up content across its website.
The classified listings specialist is hiring journalists to create content, including advice on things to think about when hiring a serviceperson as well as quick facts about towns across the UK.
Yell is also considering including local news and event information, if the trial is successful. It plans to use the content to boost its position as a key destination for local services and information online, as well as its search rankings.
Its push comes in the week that local news services were thrust into the spotlight following the BBC Trust's decision to refuse permission for the BBC's planned rollout of local video sites (nma.co.uk 21 November).
The Trust halted plans to spend £68m of licence fee funds on local video, deeming it unjustified.
The proposed move was highly criticised by competitor commercial news providers, such as Northcliffe Media, which owns 151 sites under the Thisis brand. It said it would be unable to compete with such investment by the BBC.
Johnston Press claimed the BBC's Where I Live sites had already damaged its local sites, and Trinity Mirror accused the Corporation of losing sight of its purpose.
The rejection of the plans by the BBC Trust has received a cautious welcome by commercial rivals, with many concerned the setback won't keep the BBC away from local services for long.
Sam McIlveen, digital publisher at Independent News and Media, said, "I don't think this is the end of it. We're still worried because these plans were hugely disadvantageous for local media. Local sites can't compete with the BBC, especially when it's willing to spend £68m."
The Newspaper Society's director David Newell also expressed concern at the BBC not giving up on the area. "We must be on guard to ensure the BBC isn't allowed to expand its local services by other means," he said.
Sir Michael Lyons, chairman of the BBC Trust, said that while consumers want better local services, video sites were unlikely to meet their needs.
Regulator Ofcom said the plans would have a significant negative impact on commercial providers.
Author: By Will Cooper & Luan Goldie | Source: nma.co.uk | Published: 26.11.08
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Gasta Mobile News:Buongiorno
Buongiorno uses viral to push mobile social network
A viral ad campaign supporting digital entertainment company Buongiorno's mobile social network has been viewed over 400,000 times.
The 411,101 views in the first three weeks of the campaign resulted in 3,135 visits to the Real Time Real People website, which contains more information about the mobile-specific social network.
According to the company, around 12% of unique viewers requested an invitation code to Blinko with over 27% subscribing.
Blinko is a pan-European attempt from Buongiorno to enter mobile social networking following success from established online players including Bebo, Facebook and MySpace.
The viral campaign was designed and created by DLV Proximity to generate interest in the new product. Buongiorno has allocated a total marketing budget of €500,000 (£426,000) to promote Blinko.
A viral ad campaign supporting digital entertainment company Buongiorno's mobile social network has been viewed over 400,000 times.
The 411,101 views in the first three weeks of the campaign resulted in 3,135 visits to the Real Time Real People website, which contains more information about the mobile-specific social network.
According to the company, around 12% of unique viewers requested an invitation code to Blinko with over 27% subscribing.
Blinko is a pan-European attempt from Buongiorno to enter mobile social networking following success from established online players including Bebo, Facebook and MySpace.
The viral campaign was designed and created by DLV Proximity to generate interest in the new product. Buongiorno has allocated a total marketing budget of €500,000 (£426,000) to promote Blinko.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Gasta News:Mobile internet is growing eight times faster than PC-based web
Mobile internet is growing eight times faster than PC-based web
The mobile internet is growing eight times faster than traffic to the PC-based web, according to the first set of mobile data from Nielsen Online.
The research company has released its first Mobile Media findings which show traffic on the mobile internet increased by 25% to 7.3m during 3Q 2008. The survey found 25% of mobile internet users are aged 16-24 compared with just 12% who are older than 55.
BBC News is the most popular mobile internet site, attracting 1.7m
Kent Ferguson, senior analyst for Nielsen, said the mobile web was a great opportunity for advertisers and publishers to reach important demographic groups. "People often need fast, instant access to weather or sports news and mobile can obviously satisfy this, wherever they are," he said.
The mobile internet is growing eight times faster than traffic to the PC-based web, according to the first set of mobile data from Nielsen Online.
The research company has released its first Mobile Media findings which show traffic on the mobile internet increased by 25% to 7.3m during 3Q 2008. The survey found 25% of mobile internet users are aged 16-24 compared with just 12% who are older than 55.
BBC News is the most popular mobile internet site, attracting 1.7m
Kent Ferguson, senior analyst for Nielsen, said the mobile web was a great opportunity for advertisers and publishers to reach important demographic groups. "People often need fast, instant access to weather or sports news and mobile can obviously satisfy this, wherever they are," he said.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Gasta News: Google Personalized search, Personified
Interview with Googles Matt Cutts
Cutts said, "I'm not sure I would say ranking is dead but it's not as important as it used to be. The fact is the smart SEOs are not just necessarily looking at the rankings. They are looking at conversion, they are looking at their server log. It's great if you're ranking for a phrase but unless that leads to sales that doesn't help you very much."
"The challenge is not to pay so much attention to ranking, pay attention to traffic, pay attention to conversions and keep building good content and don't worry about 'can I show people that I rank number one for my trophy phrase.'"
Universal Search In 2009
"Universal is really useful and I think it will continue to expand and what that means in 2009 you can't just think of yourself as an SEO," said Cutts.
"SEOs are starting to embrace the fact that they are marketers. It's a broader spectrum. You have to think about how you build buzz, how do you get loyal customers, how do you optimize your ROI. All those different things and that can include how do I make good videos, do I have a book, things like that."
Cutts says that people will continue to pay attention to video and images in 2009 but noted a down side. "Of course anywhere there is money there will be spam." Google has been focusing on its different properties to manage the spam issue.
Metadata
Google has gotten better on Flash and submitting a video to video sitemaps is really helpful in getting onto Google Video Search. "We want to be able to present video from all kinds of places," said Cutts.
Video File Format
"Whatever file format you want to use is totally fine."
Mobile
Cutts says that just because search engines are getting better at Flash does not mean mobile is. On mobile devices you can't just think about search engines. You have to think about the user experience.
Competing with Black Hat SEO
"Black Hat SEO is getting a little more malicious. In a world where Black Hat is moving towards really illegal things as an SEO you have to decide your risk tolerance and do I really want to try to compete with people who are doing illegal stuff or do I want to make a long term site that's gonna stand the test of time."
Subdomains
There is no real advantage to using Subdomains. If you have a lot of Subdomains that can be a lot of work. You don't want to overdo it. Really it's what ever is easiest for you.
Cutts said, "I'm not sure I would say ranking is dead but it's not as important as it used to be. The fact is the smart SEOs are not just necessarily looking at the rankings. They are looking at conversion, they are looking at their server log. It's great if you're ranking for a phrase but unless that leads to sales that doesn't help you very much."
"The challenge is not to pay so much attention to ranking, pay attention to traffic, pay attention to conversions and keep building good content and don't worry about 'can I show people that I rank number one for my trophy phrase.'"
Universal Search In 2009
"Universal is really useful and I think it will continue to expand and what that means in 2009 you can't just think of yourself as an SEO," said Cutts.
"SEOs are starting to embrace the fact that they are marketers. It's a broader spectrum. You have to think about how you build buzz, how do you get loyal customers, how do you optimize your ROI. All those different things and that can include how do I make good videos, do I have a book, things like that."
Cutts says that people will continue to pay attention to video and images in 2009 but noted a down side. "Of course anywhere there is money there will be spam." Google has been focusing on its different properties to manage the spam issue.
Metadata
Google has gotten better on Flash and submitting a video to video sitemaps is really helpful in getting onto Google Video Search. "We want to be able to present video from all kinds of places," said Cutts.
Video File Format
"Whatever file format you want to use is totally fine."
Mobile
Cutts says that just because search engines are getting better at Flash does not mean mobile is. On mobile devices you can't just think about search engines. You have to think about the user experience.
Competing with Black Hat SEO
"Black Hat SEO is getting a little more malicious. In a world where Black Hat is moving towards really illegal things as an SEO you have to decide your risk tolerance and do I really want to try to compete with people who are doing illegal stuff or do I want to make a long term site that's gonna stand the test of time."
Subdomains
There is no real advantage to using Subdomains. If you have a lot of Subdomains that can be a lot of work. You don't want to overdo it. Really it's what ever is easiest for you.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Gasta Search Statistics
Search engine data is the most relevant on the net
The net reveals the ties that bind
Regular columnist Bill Thompson wonders what it will take to get used to living in a networked society.
One of the throwaway remarks I sometimes make at conferences is that "Google knows you're pregnant before you do".
I can say this because the things you search for will change as your life changes, and search engine providers may well be able to spot the significance of these changes because they aggregate data from millions of people.
Now Google's philanthropic arm, google.org, has shown just what it can do with the data it gathers from us all by offering to predict where 'flu outbreaks will take place in the USA.
It has found that "certain search terms are good indicators of flu activity", in that they correlate well with reports from the official Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
And it claims that "across each of the nine surveillance regions of the United States, we were able to accurately estimate current flu levels one to two weeks faster than published CDC reports", a result that could save people's lives by alerting them to have 'flu vaccinations earlier than they might otherwise have done.
This is a really interesting piece of work and clearly demonstrates the power of data mining. Its potential usefulness is not limited to health matters.
Pick and mix
As John Naughton pointed out in The Observer, "everyone I know in business has known for months that the UK is in recession, but it's only lately that the authorities have been in a position to confirm that - because the official data always lag the current reality."
Perhaps the answer lies buried somewhere in the queries being made online, with company directors or politicians searching for terms that imply a coming recession, like details of redundancy pay or bankruptcy protection.
It isn't only Google who can do this of course. Its database of queries is vast and fast-growing, but it is only one among many databases that underpin the modern world.
The banking system is really only a collection of collected databases recording who has which assets, while neither government nor business could operate without complex data stores.
Soon the national ID register will store details of everyone in the UK, while the forthcoming Communications Data Bill is likely to include proposals to create a vast system that will record details of every e-mail sent, every website surfed and every file downloaded.
As we have seen with flu trends, sometimes the "interesting" knowledge that can be extracted is well-concealed until comparisons can be made with other sources, as it was the correlation between some search terms and the real-world data that mattered.
Of course Google has not revealed which search terms it analysed because doing so would undermine the model's effectiveness.
Unfortunately it is being equally reticent about how it has ensured that the data its uses is properly anonymised so that users cannot be identified on the basis of their queries.
A letter from the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and Patient Privacy Rights to Google boss Eric Schmidt has not been answered, leaving those concerned with online privacy uncertain over the broader implications of the project.
Early warning
But as Cade Metz points out in an insightful article in The Register, we may all be happy to know that a 'flu outbreak is coming, but what happens when the disease involved is more life-threatening and the government asks Google for the names and IP addresses of anyone whose search terms indicate that they are infected?
It's not that I don't trust Google. I don't trust any company, government department or individual without a good reason to do so.
In the case of search engines that claim to protect my privacy I want to know just how they do it and will not accept vague reassurances.
In the case of governments that want to build vast databases, I want strong legal sanctions against their abuse and full disclosure of the technical details.
Those of us living in the west with access to technology and the network have lived through a revolution in the last decade and a half that is as radical in its impact as the industrial revolution, and it has happened a lot faster.
It is hardly surprising that we do not yet know how to operate in a networked world where amazingly detailed data is routinely stored, processed and made available.
We will need to think in new ways, learn to assess risk according to new criteria, and find ways to hold those who have power over us - whether political, social or cultural - accountable in new ways.
The US writer Curt Monash has written about this topic many times over the years, arguing that since we clearly cannot halt the move towards data capture and use we should put legal and regulatory frameworks in place as a matter of urgency.
We have made a start in Europe with data protection legislation which could be strengthened and reinforced if politicians were willing to make the effort.
But first we need an active press and an engaged population, one that asks hard questions, forces those who want to develop new databases to be accountable and open, and makes the boundaries of acceptable surveillance a matter of public debate.
And perhaps we should ask google.org to start work on "Privacy Trends", hoping to spot privacy disasters before they happen by looking at searches for "compromised data", "hacked database" and "lost USB stick".
Bill Thompson is an independent journalist and regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Digital Planet.
Gasta Ready for the New search3.0 wave
At PubCon, Bruce Clay, Inc. President Bruce Clay presented at a session entitled "Top-Shelf Organic SEO" in which he discussed the approaching future of SEO as search engines evolve into more modern ranking methods. Bruce was good enough to take the time to speak with our own Michael McDonald in a one-on-one interview, which can be viewed in the video below.
Behavior Based Search
Bruce says that everybody who does a search will end up with different search results based on their prior search history. Personalization is going to be "web-wide" using third party cookies and things.
He provided a specific example of a search for "java". Some are looking for programming, some are looking for the beverage, and some are looking for travel information. Theoretically, the search engines will know that and provide results accordingly.
"We can't search for any term and look at rankings because I can get different results than you for exactly the same query. So that's going to change a lot," he says. It doesn't matter if you're logged into Google or not. Bruce believes that personalized results will be coming out within the first quarter of next year.
Intent-based Search
Google has been looking up your IP and revising results based on IP. They know where you're located and can make assumptions about the intent of your search. As you get more into intent-based search, it's going to change the way pages rank, Bruce explains. "The page that ranks for a shopping query is an entirely different architecture than the page that ranks for a research query."
Where Does this Leave the SEO Crowd?
"Ranking is dead," says Bruce, recalling his words from his presentation. Going forward, he says you're going to have to look at analytics, measure traffic, bounce rates, action, etc. SEOs will have to ask themselves questions like:
- Did I get the conversion I was after?
- Did I really deliver on the promise of SEO?
Bruce thinks that in the first six months of 2009, we're going to see a lot more implementation of behavior and intent-based search leading to a mindset of "ranking is dead, and traffic is all that matters."
Universal Search
Bruce ClayBruce says this will be the most significant factor of 2009. Google looks at soundtracks and convert them to text. They can jump into the middle of videos, scan sites to determine if you have video/images or not. There are a lot of variables in universal search, and some of these variables tell how engaging your site is.
If you don't have video and your competition does, Bruce thinks we're going to see a big shift in rankings. He thinks if the top ten sites don't have video, they may lose their ranking over night.
Bruce notes that Google has been testing some of these variables, and will really start testing them a lot more in the first quarter, once the holidays are out of the way. He mentions the criticism Google took over the Florida Update, which took place in the month of November, and believes the company wants to avoid that again. He thinks we're going to see a lot of "Google Dances" early in the year though.
The Impact on Spam
According to Bruce, this is all going to really help Google fight spammers. He says it will affect the way scrapers and spammers work, because if they are just scraping text, they wouldn't be able to rank.
He also says that all of the variables that come into play may diminish the value of linking, which will certainly not help the spammers' cause either. He says it will be a big win for Google, and big win for the searchers.
There's no question that if everything Bruce talked about comes true, the SEO world will be turned on its ear. Bruce says, "If you're not ready for it as an SEO, you're gonna lose."
Behavior Based Search
Bruce says that everybody who does a search will end up with different search results based on their prior search history. Personalization is going to be "web-wide" using third party cookies and things.
He provided a specific example of a search for "java". Some are looking for programming, some are looking for the beverage, and some are looking for travel information. Theoretically, the search engines will know that and provide results accordingly.
"We can't search for any term and look at rankings because I can get different results than you for exactly the same query. So that's going to change a lot," he says. It doesn't matter if you're logged into Google or not. Bruce believes that personalized results will be coming out within the first quarter of next year.
Intent-based Search
Google has been looking up your IP and revising results based on IP. They know where you're located and can make assumptions about the intent of your search. As you get more into intent-based search, it's going to change the way pages rank, Bruce explains. "The page that ranks for a shopping query is an entirely different architecture than the page that ranks for a research query."
Where Does this Leave the SEO Crowd?
"Ranking is dead," says Bruce, recalling his words from his presentation. Going forward, he says you're going to have to look at analytics, measure traffic, bounce rates, action, etc. SEOs will have to ask themselves questions like:
- Did I get the conversion I was after?
- Did I really deliver on the promise of SEO?
Bruce thinks that in the first six months of 2009, we're going to see a lot more implementation of behavior and intent-based search leading to a mindset of "ranking is dead, and traffic is all that matters."
Universal Search
Bruce ClayBruce says this will be the most significant factor of 2009. Google looks at soundtracks and convert them to text. They can jump into the middle of videos, scan sites to determine if you have video/images or not. There are a lot of variables in universal search, and some of these variables tell how engaging your site is.
If you don't have video and your competition does, Bruce thinks we're going to see a big shift in rankings. He thinks if the top ten sites don't have video, they may lose their ranking over night.
Bruce notes that Google has been testing some of these variables, and will really start testing them a lot more in the first quarter, once the holidays are out of the way. He mentions the criticism Google took over the Florida Update, which took place in the month of November, and believes the company wants to avoid that again. He thinks we're going to see a lot of "Google Dances" early in the year though.
The Impact on Spam
According to Bruce, this is all going to really help Google fight spammers. He says it will affect the way scrapers and spammers work, because if they are just scraping text, they wouldn't be able to rank.
He also says that all of the variables that come into play may diminish the value of linking, which will certainly not help the spammers' cause either. He says it will be a big win for Google, and big win for the searchers.
There's no question that if everything Bruce talked about comes true, the SEO world will be turned on its ear. Bruce says, "If you're not ready for it as an SEO, you're gonna lose."
Friday, November 14, 2008
Gasta Long tail keywords
Keywords can be split into two main groups, short tail keywords and long tail keywords, or broad keywords and narrow keywords. The term ‘long tail’ was coined by Chris Anderson and is used to describe the strategy of targeting less-competitive niche markets rather than the hugely competitive broad keywords. A long tail keyword is something like ‘Small Business Web Design’ while a short wail keyword is something like ‘Web Design’.
When you compare the two keywords, ‘Web Design’ has about 30 times as many competitors as ‘Small Business Web Design’ but ‘Web Design’ also gets far more searches each month. A small number of broad terms such as ‘Web Design’ and ‘Marketing’ account for a large proportion of searches but an equally large proportion of the searches are made up of millions of more specific search queries such as ‘Small Business Web Design’. This search distribution can be understood through the following graph.
Long Tail
A real life example
I speak about www.NarutoWallpaper.biz a lot and I will speak about it again in this article, each day NarutoWallpaper gets over 1000 visitors from search engines from roughly 200 unique keywords but the best keyword brings almost 50% of those visitors, following is a list of the top 12 keywords. Notice that the first keyword brings 45%, the second keyword brings 20% and the remaining 198 keywords account for the remaining 35% of the searches.
Keywords List
This distribution seems very similar to the graph I displayed earlier, the top few keywords account for a lot of the searches but there is many, many more specific searches which cumulatively total a significant figure. Let me display the keywords in graph form.
NarutoWallpaper Long Tail
You can see that the top two keywords bring in lots of traffic and the remaining keywords each bring minute amounts of traffic that cumulatively totals a significant amount, but separately are not significant.
Benefiting from the long tail
You may be wondering why anybody would want to target hundreds or thousands of keywords which bring only small traffic. Well the answer is simply that there is less competition so you can rank on the first page of Google for long tail keywords far easier than ranking for short tail keywords. Yes, they don’t bring a lot of traffic separately but if you target lots of long tail keywords you can get lots of easy traffic. Not everybody is capable of ranking highly for highly competitive keywords but anybody(!) can rank for long tail keywords.
Another benefit of long tail keywords is that the visitors convert amazingly well to sales and ad clicks. The visitors searching for long tail keywords know exactly what they want, be it ‘Small Business Web Design’ or ‘Half Price Armani Suits’, they know exactly what they want and hopefully you can provide it to them.
To put this into numbers, in general my websites might make $5 per 1000 impressions but from long tail visitors I can earn $100 per 1000 impressions, that’s 20 times the revenue if the traffic is equal. Although admittedly the traffic is not equal, my best keywords bring in more visitors than the long tail keywords combined, but the long tail keywords still bring in nice revenue.
On this website I have two pages providing free business resources: Free Business Card Templates and Sample Marketing Plan and Marketing Plan Template. Both are targeting long tail keywords such as ‘DJ Business Cards’ and ‘Massage Business Cards’. Those two pages make a lot of revenue per 1000 impressions but currently have low traffic. The keywords I am targeting are very specific and the visitors are getting what they came for so they convert well.
Conclusion
Whether you can achieve high rankings for competitive keywords or not, long tail keywords could be highly beneficial for you. If you have a website selling ‘Armani Suits’ but can’t pull any search engine traffic, rather than targeting the keyword ‘Armani’ or ‘Armani Suits’ try targeting more specific keywords such as ‘Armani Mens Suits’. Hopefully you will see an increase in conversions and sales.
Popularity: 43% [?]
When you compare the two keywords, ‘Web Design’ has about 30 times as many competitors as ‘Small Business Web Design’ but ‘Web Design’ also gets far more searches each month. A small number of broad terms such as ‘Web Design’ and ‘Marketing’ account for a large proportion of searches but an equally large proportion of the searches are made up of millions of more specific search queries such as ‘Small Business Web Design’. This search distribution can be understood through the following graph.
Long Tail
A real life example
I speak about www.NarutoWallpaper.biz a lot and I will speak about it again in this article, each day NarutoWallpaper gets over 1000 visitors from search engines from roughly 200 unique keywords but the best keyword brings almost 50% of those visitors, following is a list of the top 12 keywords. Notice that the first keyword brings 45%, the second keyword brings 20% and the remaining 198 keywords account for the remaining 35% of the searches.
Keywords List
This distribution seems very similar to the graph I displayed earlier, the top few keywords account for a lot of the searches but there is many, many more specific searches which cumulatively total a significant figure. Let me display the keywords in graph form.
NarutoWallpaper Long Tail
You can see that the top two keywords bring in lots of traffic and the remaining keywords each bring minute amounts of traffic that cumulatively totals a significant amount, but separately are not significant.
Benefiting from the long tail
You may be wondering why anybody would want to target hundreds or thousands of keywords which bring only small traffic. Well the answer is simply that there is less competition so you can rank on the first page of Google for long tail keywords far easier than ranking for short tail keywords. Yes, they don’t bring a lot of traffic separately but if you target lots of long tail keywords you can get lots of easy traffic. Not everybody is capable of ranking highly for highly competitive keywords but anybody(!) can rank for long tail keywords.
Another benefit of long tail keywords is that the visitors convert amazingly well to sales and ad clicks. The visitors searching for long tail keywords know exactly what they want, be it ‘Small Business Web Design’ or ‘Half Price Armani Suits’, they know exactly what they want and hopefully you can provide it to them.
To put this into numbers, in general my websites might make $5 per 1000 impressions but from long tail visitors I can earn $100 per 1000 impressions, that’s 20 times the revenue if the traffic is equal. Although admittedly the traffic is not equal, my best keywords bring in more visitors than the long tail keywords combined, but the long tail keywords still bring in nice revenue.
On this website I have two pages providing free business resources: Free Business Card Templates and Sample Marketing Plan and Marketing Plan Template. Both are targeting long tail keywords such as ‘DJ Business Cards’ and ‘Massage Business Cards’. Those two pages make a lot of revenue per 1000 impressions but currently have low traffic. The keywords I am targeting are very specific and the visitors are getting what they came for so they convert well.
Conclusion
Whether you can achieve high rankings for competitive keywords or not, long tail keywords could be highly beneficial for you. If you have a website selling ‘Armani Suits’ but can’t pull any search engine traffic, rather than targeting the keyword ‘Armani’ or ‘Armani Suits’ try targeting more specific keywords such as ‘Armani Mens Suits’. Hopefully you will see an increase in conversions and sales.
Popularity: 43% [?]
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Gasta Search Network:New Report Documents Insanely Long Tail Of Search
New Report Documents Insanely Long Tail Of Search
When something seemingly insignificant is able to control a more powerful entity, talk of the tail wagging the dog occasionally comes into play. But according to a new report from Hitwise, the long tail of search is capable of something more akin to launching the dog into orbit.
Dustin Woodward, a Seattle-based SEO and Web analytics expert, tried to look at the top 10000 search terms recorded by Hitwise during a three-month period. What he got was a very strange-looking graph, with data displayed in almost invisible amounts along great stretches of both axes.
"Top 10,000 Search Terms by Percentage of All Search Traffic" (Source: Hitwise)
So Woodard then examined just the top 100 terms, and this sample generated a graph more normal in appearance. He writes, "However, this is just 100 search terms out of the more than 14 million."
It turns out that, at least in this particular three-month data set, the top 100 terms accounted for just 5.7 percent of all search traffic. Expand to the top 500, 1000, and 10000 terms, and just 8.9 percent, 10.6 percent, and 18.5 percent of all search traffic is involved, respectively.
"Top 100 Search Terms by Percentage of All Search Traffic" (Source: Hitwise)
Woodard concludes, "This means if you had a monopoly over the top 1,000 search terms across all search engines (which is impossible), you'd still be missing out on 89.4% of all search traffic. There's so much traffic in the tail it is hard to even comprehend. To illustrate, if search were represented by a tiny lizard with a one-inch head, the tail of that lizard would stretch for 221 miles."
Lone bloggers, SEO professionals, and small businesses (among all other sorts of things) should be able to take comfort in this discovery. Woodard's analysis makes it look like there's plenty of traffic for everyone, without a need for cutthroat behavior and the spending of huge sums of money over the top few search terms.
A better approach might be to optimize for a lot of truly niche terms and see what happens. Be careful not to confuse increased holiday traffic for success - and also not to put your holiday income at risk in the event of failure - but some small-scale testing seems appropriate, at least.
Anyone wanting even more reasons to experiment should know that the Hitwise sample only included 10 million U.S. Internet users, adult search terms were removed by filters, and the three spotlighted months were relatively slow ones.
By Doug Caverly
When something seemingly insignificant is able to control a more powerful entity, talk of the tail wagging the dog occasionally comes into play. But according to a new report from Hitwise, the long tail of search is capable of something more akin to launching the dog into orbit.
Dustin Woodward, a Seattle-based SEO and Web analytics expert, tried to look at the top 10000 search terms recorded by Hitwise during a three-month period. What he got was a very strange-looking graph, with data displayed in almost invisible amounts along great stretches of both axes.
"Top 10,000 Search Terms by Percentage of All Search Traffic" (Source: Hitwise)
So Woodard then examined just the top 100 terms, and this sample generated a graph more normal in appearance. He writes, "However, this is just 100 search terms out of the more than 14 million."
It turns out that, at least in this particular three-month data set, the top 100 terms accounted for just 5.7 percent of all search traffic. Expand to the top 500, 1000, and 10000 terms, and just 8.9 percent, 10.6 percent, and 18.5 percent of all search traffic is involved, respectively.
"Top 100 Search Terms by Percentage of All Search Traffic" (Source: Hitwise)
Woodard concludes, "This means if you had a monopoly over the top 1,000 search terms across all search engines (which is impossible), you'd still be missing out on 89.4% of all search traffic. There's so much traffic in the tail it is hard to even comprehend. To illustrate, if search were represented by a tiny lizard with a one-inch head, the tail of that lizard would stretch for 221 miles."
Lone bloggers, SEO professionals, and small businesses (among all other sorts of things) should be able to take comfort in this discovery. Woodard's analysis makes it look like there's plenty of traffic for everyone, without a need for cutthroat behavior and the spending of huge sums of money over the top few search terms.
A better approach might be to optimize for a lot of truly niche terms and see what happens. Be careful not to confuse increased holiday traffic for success - and also not to put your holiday income at risk in the event of failure - but some small-scale testing seems appropriate, at least.
Anyone wanting even more reasons to experiment should know that the Hitwise sample only included 10 million U.S. Internet users, adult search terms were removed by filters, and the three spotlighted months were relatively slow ones.
By Doug Caverly
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
