NI links up to underwater cable
Northern Ireland is to be linked to an underwater transatlantic communications cable for the first time.
The fibre optic cable, a telecommunications link which runs along the seabed, connects North America with Europe.
It will improve the speed and extent to which firms in NI can trade information with the rest of the world.
A new 22-mile extension will be built from an existing cable and will come ashore near Portrush.
Access to the new telecommunications will be available in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, according to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment.
Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster said the 30m euro investment (£28m) "would provide opportunities for Northern Ireland companies selling goods and services overseas and also improve our attractiveness to knowledge based inward investment".
"Northern Ireland businesses are competing more than ever for business in global markets," she said.
"This project will deliver the kind of international telecommunications, companies located in London, Amsterdam, Dublin and New York already depend on."
The department said Project Kelvin would involve connecting a new submarine cable to the Hibernia North Transatlantic cable located 22 miles off the north coast of Northern Ireland.
It said the new cable would come ashore in the Portrush area initially and then go onto a location where it could interconnect with Northern Ireland's existing telecoms infrastructure.
The department added that the new link could be interconnected at a number of different locations including Armagh, Ballymena, Belfast, Coleraine, Londonderry, Omagh, Portadown and Strabane.
The contract to construct the link to North America has been awarded to Hibernia Atlantic Limited.
The project is being funded by the European Union and the British and Irish governments.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Gasta Opinion: Why the forecasters are wrong about digital in 2009
While the pundits may be singing a similar tune when it comes to digital advertising's immediate future, here are a few points they may not have considered.
It's the first full work week of the New Year, and already I'm tired of the constant vacillation in moods concerning the health of internet marketing.
Depending on whom you believe, digital marketing will either follow newspapers into oblivion in 2009, or it will be hit hard but not quite as hard as other media. Hardly any of the pundits give it a positive outlook. And that's a shame, with self-fulfilling prophecies and all…
There are quite a few assertions, though, that are fairly consistently questionable from pundit to pundit when it comes to predicting digital's future. Among them:
1. Failing to grow at the same rate as last year is some sort of failure -- If digital advertising grew at 10-15 percent last year, and it will hit only 7-9 percent growth this year, that's not a failure. Accelerated year-over-year growth for any market sector, whether it be manufacturing, biotech engineering, or financial services, is unsustainable in the long term. Things have to slow down at some point. If digital advertising slows down but still grows in an economy where the word "Depression" is still commonly used in headlines for op-ed pieces, I think we're doing rather well, thankyouverymuch!
My other issue with this is that more marketers are doing things with digital that are not classified as advertising and probably don't get tracked by the prognosticators. Suppose your recommended solution to an e-commerce client is not to buy a bunch of ad banners, but instead to pay to have their digital shelf presence enhanced. Is that advertising? No. Does it address the business problem your client is trying to solve? Most definitely. Will such a deal get picked up by the powers-that-be who track internet spending? Probably not.
2. Video and social media need an ad model -- It's true that in order to make money the way that Yahoo, MSN, and Platform-A do, Facebook will need to improve its ad model. And yes, something will have to come along that can replace pre-roll and overlay ads in video. But hinging digital's growth potential on these ad model conundrums is a mistake, I think.
If video advertising won't scale appropriately (and I do believe it will to a certain degree in 2009), marketers might turn to other non-advertising ways to leverage video. Viral strategies, video syndication, and content sponsorship are all ways of making video work in ways that enhance the bottom line without registering on someone's radar as an ad spend.
As long as social networks can continue to capture everyone's attention the way they have in the last few years, I doubt the lack of an ad model will put them under. Not as long as I'm spending what I do on things like Facebook gifts and Facebook ads. I think there's a lot of potential in something like Facebook ads -- not the big banner deals they do, but the smaller, targeted buys that would appeal to small business marketers. I've used Facebook ads both to recruit people for positions at Underscore and to try to sell my home. In both cases, sub-$100 investments have yielded huge gains. If Google still has plenty of potential to roll up many thousands of small, self-serve ad deals in order to make money, why not Facebook?
3. Performance-based advertising will be where the growth is -- I've seen this prediction made by many of the pundits, followed by some Google-flattering comment about how search will drive modest growth in 2009. In the short term, this might be the case, but I think we've already seen what happens in digital when too many advertisers shift their focus to DR and performance-based digital media. Things quickly get crowded. Clearance issues abound. Lead and sale volumes drop sharply unless concessions are made with respect to price and environment. This is how we weathered the last downturn, and display never really went away and experienced a rebirth when the economy turned around and marketers learned to trust digital again.
I question these three assertions, and I'm skeptical that the equation is as simple as many of the pundits make it out to be. I'm also optimistic for another reason: Analysts and pundits who don't work in digital on a day-to-day basis often have trouble understanding the dynamic of how marketing budget decisions are made. I see a lot of potential out there for marketers and brand managers to come to the conclusion that their diminished budgets can't afford last year's levels of broadcast, and for those marketers to consider digital-heavy or digital-only options for marketing campaigns.
However, it turns out in 2009, I don't think we should resign ourselves to slowed growth or declines this year. People who work in digital tend to be people who thrive in chaos. There's certainly a good deal of chaotic behavior out there in the floundering economy, and I wouldn't be surprised if we figure out how to capitalize on it this year.
Tom Hespos is president of Underscore Marketing and blogs at Hespos.com.
It's the first full work week of the New Year, and already I'm tired of the constant vacillation in moods concerning the health of internet marketing.
Depending on whom you believe, digital marketing will either follow newspapers into oblivion in 2009, or it will be hit hard but not quite as hard as other media. Hardly any of the pundits give it a positive outlook. And that's a shame, with self-fulfilling prophecies and all…
There are quite a few assertions, though, that are fairly consistently questionable from pundit to pundit when it comes to predicting digital's future. Among them:
1. Failing to grow at the same rate as last year is some sort of failure -- If digital advertising grew at 10-15 percent last year, and it will hit only 7-9 percent growth this year, that's not a failure. Accelerated year-over-year growth for any market sector, whether it be manufacturing, biotech engineering, or financial services, is unsustainable in the long term. Things have to slow down at some point. If digital advertising slows down but still grows in an economy where the word "Depression" is still commonly used in headlines for op-ed pieces, I think we're doing rather well, thankyouverymuch!
My other issue with this is that more marketers are doing things with digital that are not classified as advertising and probably don't get tracked by the prognosticators. Suppose your recommended solution to an e-commerce client is not to buy a bunch of ad banners, but instead to pay to have their digital shelf presence enhanced. Is that advertising? No. Does it address the business problem your client is trying to solve? Most definitely. Will such a deal get picked up by the powers-that-be who track internet spending? Probably not.
2. Video and social media need an ad model -- It's true that in order to make money the way that Yahoo, MSN, and Platform-A do, Facebook will need to improve its ad model. And yes, something will have to come along that can replace pre-roll and overlay ads in video. But hinging digital's growth potential on these ad model conundrums is a mistake, I think.
If video advertising won't scale appropriately (and I do believe it will to a certain degree in 2009), marketers might turn to other non-advertising ways to leverage video. Viral strategies, video syndication, and content sponsorship are all ways of making video work in ways that enhance the bottom line without registering on someone's radar as an ad spend.
As long as social networks can continue to capture everyone's attention the way they have in the last few years, I doubt the lack of an ad model will put them under. Not as long as I'm spending what I do on things like Facebook gifts and Facebook ads. I think there's a lot of potential in something like Facebook ads -- not the big banner deals they do, but the smaller, targeted buys that would appeal to small business marketers. I've used Facebook ads both to recruit people for positions at Underscore and to try to sell my home. In both cases, sub-$100 investments have yielded huge gains. If Google still has plenty of potential to roll up many thousands of small, self-serve ad deals in order to make money, why not Facebook?
3. Performance-based advertising will be where the growth is -- I've seen this prediction made by many of the pundits, followed by some Google-flattering comment about how search will drive modest growth in 2009. In the short term, this might be the case, but I think we've already seen what happens in digital when too many advertisers shift their focus to DR and performance-based digital media. Things quickly get crowded. Clearance issues abound. Lead and sale volumes drop sharply unless concessions are made with respect to price and environment. This is how we weathered the last downturn, and display never really went away and experienced a rebirth when the economy turned around and marketers learned to trust digital again.
I question these three assertions, and I'm skeptical that the equation is as simple as many of the pundits make it out to be. I'm also optimistic for another reason: Analysts and pundits who don't work in digital on a day-to-day basis often have trouble understanding the dynamic of how marketing budget decisions are made. I see a lot of potential out there for marketers and brand managers to come to the conclusion that their diminished budgets can't afford last year's levels of broadcast, and for those marketers to consider digital-heavy or digital-only options for marketing campaigns.
However, it turns out in 2009, I don't think we should resign ourselves to slowed growth or declines this year. People who work in digital tend to be people who thrive in chaos. There's certainly a good deal of chaotic behavior out there in the floundering economy, and I wouldn't be surprised if we figure out how to capitalize on it this year.
Tom Hespos is president of Underscore Marketing and blogs at Hespos.com.
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Gasta Vertical ad network
Can Advertisers use Ad Networks for Brand Advertising?
That depends on the network. Over the past decade we have seen some very creative advertisers do amazing online brand building programs. Yet, most of these clever programs that come to mind were executed on an individual site or portal. Are ad networks only going to attract the direct response campaigns and the low CPMs associated with direct response? The answer is: “No”
The more complete answer is still “that depends” on such things as the quality of the network’s members and the networks ability to execute hi impact ad opportunities. Most ad networks are often associated with remnant advertising on lesser quality sites. This is often why the network does not disclose a complete list of its sites. Call me old fashioned, but if I am responsible for building a brand I want to know where my hard earned ad dollars are being invested, and I probably don’t want my ad impressions only showing up at 2:00 AM (unless of course I am selling sleeping aids).
More and more ad networks are willing to show a complete site list, offering things like geo targeting and even day parting. Yet, that is still not enough to satisfy many brand advertisers who care about things like editorial quality and high impact ad campaigns. That is why vertical ad networks associated with real media companies are becoming more popular.
Media companies like IDG, Forbes, Martha Stewart have been creating some of the highest quality content in their respective verticals and have been executing big online brand campaigns for year. Now these established media companies, and many more like them, are expanding the brand solutions they offer by building online ad networks. This creates a great opportunity for brand advertisers looking to expand their market share.
When you stop and think about it, a media company like IDG already is an ad network with over 450 “owned and operated” technology websites around the world. It makes sense for IDG to expand to include selected independent technology sites. For example, IDG already knows how to recognize, recruit and nurture the best editorial experts in technology media. IDG also has executed countess online branding campaigns across its network of sites. IDG’s TechNetwork is a natural extension. Plus, IDG’s vetting of each partner site insures advertisers will get the quality editorial environment and multiple site execution which are critical to an ad network branding campaign.
The best part for big brand advertisers is when these high impact ad campaigns arrive on these independent sites the impact can be well above average. That is because independent sites often miss out on the online brand campaigns until they partner with an establish media company. Many experts predict that more and more established media companies will be building high quality networks of sites which is good news to brand advertisers looking to find uncluttered ad environments and independent sites looking for access to brand advertisers in their markets.
By Kevin Normandeau on Jul 21, 2008 in The Aggregation of Fragmentation
That depends on the network. Over the past decade we have seen some very creative advertisers do amazing online brand building programs. Yet, most of these clever programs that come to mind were executed on an individual site or portal. Are ad networks only going to attract the direct response campaigns and the low CPMs associated with direct response? The answer is: “No”
The more complete answer is still “that depends” on such things as the quality of the network’s members and the networks ability to execute hi impact ad opportunities. Most ad networks are often associated with remnant advertising on lesser quality sites. This is often why the network does not disclose a complete list of its sites. Call me old fashioned, but if I am responsible for building a brand I want to know where my hard earned ad dollars are being invested, and I probably don’t want my ad impressions only showing up at 2:00 AM (unless of course I am selling sleeping aids).
More and more ad networks are willing to show a complete site list, offering things like geo targeting and even day parting. Yet, that is still not enough to satisfy many brand advertisers who care about things like editorial quality and high impact ad campaigns. That is why vertical ad networks associated with real media companies are becoming more popular.
Media companies like IDG, Forbes, Martha Stewart have been creating some of the highest quality content in their respective verticals and have been executing big online brand campaigns for year. Now these established media companies, and many more like them, are expanding the brand solutions they offer by building online ad networks. This creates a great opportunity for brand advertisers looking to expand their market share.
When you stop and think about it, a media company like IDG already is an ad network with over 450 “owned and operated” technology websites around the world. It makes sense for IDG to expand to include selected independent technology sites. For example, IDG already knows how to recognize, recruit and nurture the best editorial experts in technology media. IDG also has executed countess online branding campaigns across its network of sites. IDG’s TechNetwork is a natural extension. Plus, IDG’s vetting of each partner site insures advertisers will get the quality editorial environment and multiple site execution which are critical to an ad network branding campaign.
The best part for big brand advertisers is when these high impact ad campaigns arrive on these independent sites the impact can be well above average. That is because independent sites often miss out on the online brand campaigns until they partner with an establish media company. Many experts predict that more and more established media companies will be building high quality networks of sites which is good news to brand advertisers looking to find uncluttered ad environments and independent sites looking for access to brand advertisers in their markets.
By Kevin Normandeau on Jul 21, 2008 in The Aggregation of Fragmentation
Gasta Travel:
Today anyone with an Internet access and Credit card can just like that, plan for a week’s tour to South Africa or the Himalayas, thanks to the travel sites who offer trip planning at your finger-tips - flight booking, hotels and car rentals along with the reviews of the hotels, places of interest, and information on packaged deals. Clearly travel sites have been redefining the travel agency business. In 2005, over 79 million people in the US used the Internet to plan and book their travel, a function which previously involved travel agents much more actively.
Online travel is one of the largest e-commerce categories. According to Forrester Research the online travel industry is projected to grow from $63.6 billion in 2005 to $110.5 billion by 2008 in the US. JupiterResearch on the other hand estimates $128 billion to be spent on online travel in the US in 2011. Jupiter expects 38% of all travel revenues to be made online by 2011. Over the last few weeks, we have analyzed the Travel sites based on the Web 3.0 framework.
The online travel industry is expected to continue its strong growth and this is one of the main reasons for the ongoing VC and entrepreneurial interest in this category. In March 2007 Silver Lake and TPG acquired Sabre Holdings the owner of popular travel sites like Travelocity and LastMinute. The Blackstone Group along with its affiliates took over the Travelport business of Cendant Corporation for $4.3 billion in August 2006. Now, they’re trying to spin off Orbitz and take it public. Indian portal Sify entered the online travel business by acquiring Globe Travels.
We have been reviewing the online travel industry and have covered Yahoo! Travel, TripAdvisor, Travelocity, Orbitz, Expedia and Priceline and Lonely Planet from a Web 3.0 perspective.
The fact that online travel is a booming industry is clear from the growing number of travel sites, emergence of travel metasearch engines like Kayak and SideStep and the mushrooming of niche sites like Site59, Farecast, FlyerTalk, Mobissimo, etc. Identifying the opportunity Forbes has launched a special section for luxury travel and NYT has tied up with Expedia for its travel portal. We have not yet had a chance to review many of these other sites. Expect to see more in due course.
Context is, by and large, poorly understood by the sites, although nuances like flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises, vacation pacakges, maps, hotel and destination reviews, trip planning, sharing, etc. allow the consumers to plan their trips and make bookings. But few have created contexts like student travel, luxury travel, adventure travel, romantic travel, etc.
The Content offerings at many of the sites are good. Some, like Lonely Planet, come from Content roots, and do an especially good job. The CPM rates for these sites are similar and are in the range of $15 to $65 per thousand impressions. Considering the present boom in the online travel industry, ad rates are expected to rise in the coming years. As for leapfrog technology, my biggest wish-list item is large scale mashups from various parts of the web that can enrich and strengthen content that is already on the site.
The Community features on most of these sites lack punch and leaves a lot to be desired. Trip Advisor has the best community section but the rest really needs to improve the community features and incorporate photo and video sharing, forums and blogs on different aspects of traveling like trekking, backpackers, family, summer holiday, etc. LonelyPlanet, though has a good video sharing, review section, trip sharing, find a travel partner, forum, etc. According to Forrester peer reviews and blogs will have a decisive influence on travel behavior.
Online travel is the largest Commerce segment and most of the revenues come from the commissions earned on the bookings made through the sites. However, these sites are not taking full advantage of e-commerce and I believe there is an opportunity for these sites to retail a lot of travel related merchandise through their site. Yes, sites like, TripAdvisor, SideStep, etc. do merchandise travel gear in partnership with Cafepress but it is a pretty shoddy affair. LonelyPlanet in fact has done a much better job.
What I would like in the Vertical Search space is that the sites allow users to Search by Context and by this I mean, if I am a student I would like to search for hostels for backpackers like me, as well as other travelers to hang out with, by destination. The basic bread-and-butter vertical search is provided by Kayak and Sidestep, which we have reviewed.
Personalization is sub-par in most of these sites and they allow users to plan their trip, save and share their trip, photos, make posts and write reviews. They have email alerts for travel deals and newsletters. Endless possibilities exist, all the way to a Personal Concierge.
Conclusion
The online travel industry is projected to grow at 30% per annum in the next 5 years and this has resulted in a number of entrepreneurs, VC and PE funds entering the space. New entrants (Gusto, Mobissimo, travelervideos.com) in the online travel space and stand-alone travel operators like airlines and hotel companies are going to put pressure on the existing travel sites. However, those sites that are able to integrate the latest technology, differentiate their offerings, build their brand and provide consumers with the best Web 3.0 experience will have an edge in this highly commoditized industry, and that opportunity applies just as well to the major airline sites.
Online travel is one of the largest e-commerce categories. According to Forrester Research the online travel industry is projected to grow from $63.6 billion in 2005 to $110.5 billion by 2008 in the US. JupiterResearch on the other hand estimates $128 billion to be spent on online travel in the US in 2011. Jupiter expects 38% of all travel revenues to be made online by 2011. Over the last few weeks, we have analyzed the Travel sites based on the Web 3.0 framework.
The online travel industry is expected to continue its strong growth and this is one of the main reasons for the ongoing VC and entrepreneurial interest in this category. In March 2007 Silver Lake and TPG acquired Sabre Holdings the owner of popular travel sites like Travelocity and LastMinute. The Blackstone Group along with its affiliates took over the Travelport business of Cendant Corporation for $4.3 billion in August 2006. Now, they’re trying to spin off Orbitz and take it public. Indian portal Sify entered the online travel business by acquiring Globe Travels.
We have been reviewing the online travel industry and have covered Yahoo! Travel, TripAdvisor, Travelocity, Orbitz, Expedia and Priceline and Lonely Planet from a Web 3.0 perspective.
The fact that online travel is a booming industry is clear from the growing number of travel sites, emergence of travel metasearch engines like Kayak and SideStep and the mushrooming of niche sites like Site59, Farecast, FlyerTalk, Mobissimo, etc. Identifying the opportunity Forbes has launched a special section for luxury travel and NYT has tied up with Expedia for its travel portal. We have not yet had a chance to review many of these other sites. Expect to see more in due course.
Context is, by and large, poorly understood by the sites, although nuances like flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises, vacation pacakges, maps, hotel and destination reviews, trip planning, sharing, etc. allow the consumers to plan their trips and make bookings. But few have created contexts like student travel, luxury travel, adventure travel, romantic travel, etc.
The Content offerings at many of the sites are good. Some, like Lonely Planet, come from Content roots, and do an especially good job. The CPM rates for these sites are similar and are in the range of $15 to $65 per thousand impressions. Considering the present boom in the online travel industry, ad rates are expected to rise in the coming years. As for leapfrog technology, my biggest wish-list item is large scale mashups from various parts of the web that can enrich and strengthen content that is already on the site.
The Community features on most of these sites lack punch and leaves a lot to be desired. Trip Advisor has the best community section but the rest really needs to improve the community features and incorporate photo and video sharing, forums and blogs on different aspects of traveling like trekking, backpackers, family, summer holiday, etc. LonelyPlanet, though has a good video sharing, review section, trip sharing, find a travel partner, forum, etc. According to Forrester peer reviews and blogs will have a decisive influence on travel behavior.
Online travel is the largest Commerce segment and most of the revenues come from the commissions earned on the bookings made through the sites. However, these sites are not taking full advantage of e-commerce and I believe there is an opportunity for these sites to retail a lot of travel related merchandise through their site. Yes, sites like, TripAdvisor, SideStep, etc. do merchandise travel gear in partnership with Cafepress but it is a pretty shoddy affair. LonelyPlanet in fact has done a much better job.
What I would like in the Vertical Search space is that the sites allow users to Search by Context and by this I mean, if I am a student I would like to search for hostels for backpackers like me, as well as other travelers to hang out with, by destination. The basic bread-and-butter vertical search is provided by Kayak and Sidestep, which we have reviewed.
Personalization is sub-par in most of these sites and they allow users to plan their trip, save and share their trip, photos, make posts and write reviews. They have email alerts for travel deals and newsletters. Endless possibilities exist, all the way to a Personal Concierge.
Conclusion
The online travel industry is projected to grow at 30% per annum in the next 5 years and this has resulted in a number of entrepreneurs, VC and PE funds entering the space. New entrants (Gusto, Mobissimo, travelervideos.com) in the online travel space and stand-alone travel operators like airlines and hotel companies are going to put pressure on the existing travel sites. However, those sites that are able to integrate the latest technology, differentiate their offerings, build their brand and provide consumers with the best Web 3.0 experience will have an edge in this highly commoditized industry, and that opportunity applies just as well to the major airline sites.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Gasta News:IAC Announces the Launch of Black Web Enterprises Inc
IAC Announces the Launch of Black Web Enterprises Inc.
IAC’s Online Destination for the Black Community Prepares to Introduce First Site in the Coming Weeks
NEW YORK – February 4, 2008 - IAC (NASDAQ: IACI) today announced the launch of Black Web Enterprises Inc. (BWE), the company’s online destination for the Black community, and its newly appointed executive management team. The announcement solidifies IAC’s previously publicized commitment to launch an interactive community platform for the U.S. Black population.
“With a phenomenal management team in place, we are on the cusp of unveiling the first initiative under the Black Web Enterprises umbrella… a site that will revolutionize the internet for the Black Community,” said Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., President & CEO of BWE. “Rather than compete with existing sites already geared toward the Black community, our goal with the initiative is to expand this market in order to bring the absolute best and most relevant web experience to Black people everywhere.”
Mr. Taylor will lead BWE. His executive management team includes:
Brad Gebert, Vice President, Technology – A proven technology expert, Mr. Gebert brings outstanding experience as a Technical Development Manager to BWE to lead application development and ensure that the business will run on the most advanced technological systems available. Brad also brings to BWE a keen understanding of IAC’s brands, having spent 7 years prior at IAC’s LendingTree and GetSmart.
Kevin McFall, Vice President, Products – An accomplished executive of the media and technology industries, with experience spanning a number of interactive media companies including Zap2it.com and BlackVoices.com (Tribune Company), Mr. McFall brings more than a decade of digital product development experience to guide strategic planning, as well as product management and execution for BWE.
Katrina Witherspoon, Vice President, Marketing & Business Development – With more than 12 years of product management and marketing experience with Reach Media Inc.’s BlackAmericaWeb.com and IAC’s Match.com, Ms. Witherspoon will lead BWE’s marketing, sales, and business development strategies.
Heather Keets Wright, Managing Editor – A seasoned journalist with 15 years experience in writing and editing for national magazines (Essence), newspapers, (The Washington Post) and websites (MarthaStewart.com), Ms. Keets Wright will oversee all editorial content related to BWE initiatives.
BWE will house a number of yet-to-be-announced online destinations catering to the distinct needs and interests of the estimated 50 million Black people living in the U.S., from African Americans to Blacks from Latin America and the Caribbean. The business is a part of IAC Programming, established in 2006 under the leadership of Michael Jackson to grow branded online content properties.
“Johnny and his colleagues have spent the greater part of a year engulfed in the task of building a site that understands and meets the needs of the Black community unlike any other that exists today,” said Mr. Jackson. “Beyond our enthusiasm for bringing this venture to the forefront of IAC Programming, we look forward to building upon the knowledge and success of this first launch for future endeavors tailored to very specific audiences.”
Today’s move comes after IAC’s November 2007 announcement of plans to separate IAC into five publicly traded companies, spinning off HSN, Ticketmaster, Interval International and LendingTree. Expected to be completed in the second or third quarter of 2008, the new IAC will include:
The businesses currently comprising its Media & Advertising sector: Ask.com, Bloglines, Citysearch, CursorMania, Evite, Excite, IAC Advertising Solutions, InsiderPages, iWon, My Fun Cards, My Way, Popular Screensavers, Smiley Central, Webfetti and Zwinky;
Match.com, ServiceMagic, Shoebuy.com, Entertainment Publications and ReserveAmerica;
Emerging Businesses including Pronto and Gifts.com, Green.com, Primal Ventures, and InstantAction;
IAC Programming businesses including Black Web Enterprises, BustedTees, CollegeHumor, GarageGames, Very Short List, Vimeo and 23/6;
IAC’s current investments in Active.com, Brightcove, FiLife, MerchantCircle, OpenTable, Points.com and SHOP Channel.
About IAC
IAC operates leading and diversified businesses in sectors being transformed by the internet, online and offline... our mission is to harness the power of interactivity to make daily life easier and more productive for people all over the world. To view a full list of the companies of IAC please visit our website at http://iac.com
Contact Information:
IAC Communications Office
Stacy Simpson / Leslie Cafferty
(212) 314-7470 / 7326
IAC Investor Relations
Eoin Ryan
(212) 314-7400
IAC’s Online Destination for the Black Community Prepares to Introduce First Site in the Coming Weeks
NEW YORK – February 4, 2008 - IAC (NASDAQ: IACI) today announced the launch of Black Web Enterprises Inc. (BWE), the company’s online destination for the Black community, and its newly appointed executive management team. The announcement solidifies IAC’s previously publicized commitment to launch an interactive community platform for the U.S. Black population.
“With a phenomenal management team in place, we are on the cusp of unveiling the first initiative under the Black Web Enterprises umbrella… a site that will revolutionize the internet for the Black Community,” said Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., President & CEO of BWE. “Rather than compete with existing sites already geared toward the Black community, our goal with the initiative is to expand this market in order to bring the absolute best and most relevant web experience to Black people everywhere.”
Mr. Taylor will lead BWE. His executive management team includes:
Brad Gebert, Vice President, Technology – A proven technology expert, Mr. Gebert brings outstanding experience as a Technical Development Manager to BWE to lead application development and ensure that the business will run on the most advanced technological systems available. Brad also brings to BWE a keen understanding of IAC’s brands, having spent 7 years prior at IAC’s LendingTree and GetSmart.
Kevin McFall, Vice President, Products – An accomplished executive of the media and technology industries, with experience spanning a number of interactive media companies including Zap2it.com and BlackVoices.com (Tribune Company), Mr. McFall brings more than a decade of digital product development experience to guide strategic planning, as well as product management and execution for BWE.
Katrina Witherspoon, Vice President, Marketing & Business Development – With more than 12 years of product management and marketing experience with Reach Media Inc.’s BlackAmericaWeb.com and IAC’s Match.com, Ms. Witherspoon will lead BWE’s marketing, sales, and business development strategies.
Heather Keets Wright, Managing Editor – A seasoned journalist with 15 years experience in writing and editing for national magazines (Essence), newspapers, (The Washington Post) and websites (MarthaStewart.com), Ms. Keets Wright will oversee all editorial content related to BWE initiatives.
BWE will house a number of yet-to-be-announced online destinations catering to the distinct needs and interests of the estimated 50 million Black people living in the U.S., from African Americans to Blacks from Latin America and the Caribbean. The business is a part of IAC Programming, established in 2006 under the leadership of Michael Jackson to grow branded online content properties.
“Johnny and his colleagues have spent the greater part of a year engulfed in the task of building a site that understands and meets the needs of the Black community unlike any other that exists today,” said Mr. Jackson. “Beyond our enthusiasm for bringing this venture to the forefront of IAC Programming, we look forward to building upon the knowledge and success of this first launch for future endeavors tailored to very specific audiences.”
Today’s move comes after IAC’s November 2007 announcement of plans to separate IAC into five publicly traded companies, spinning off HSN, Ticketmaster, Interval International and LendingTree. Expected to be completed in the second or third quarter of 2008, the new IAC will include:
The businesses currently comprising its Media & Advertising sector: Ask.com, Bloglines, Citysearch, CursorMania, Evite, Excite, IAC Advertising Solutions, InsiderPages, iWon, My Fun Cards, My Way, Popular Screensavers, Smiley Central, Webfetti and Zwinky;
Match.com, ServiceMagic, Shoebuy.com, Entertainment Publications and ReserveAmerica;
Emerging Businesses including Pronto and Gifts.com, Green.com, Primal Ventures, and InstantAction;
IAC Programming businesses including Black Web Enterprises, BustedTees, CollegeHumor, GarageGames, Very Short List, Vimeo and 23/6;
IAC’s current investments in Active.com, Brightcove, FiLife, MerchantCircle, OpenTable, Points.com and SHOP Channel.
About IAC
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Gasta News: Launch your own search engine for your community, your needs
Web searches for minority groups
The genesis of the World Wide Web, in a Swiss laboratory, to serve a multi-national team of physicists, might lead many to think that the network is blind when it comes to race, sex, creed and colour.
But some sites are taking steps to address shortcomings in the way that the web serves some sectors of the population.
In October, Ask gave its search engine a fresh interface to help with its new-found focus on its core search audience, 60% of which were women.
In the US, a search site aimed squarely at black Americans, launched in April 2008.
Rushmore Drive's creator, Johnny Taylor, said search results can be more relevant to some social groups than to others. He cited the example of Type 2 diabetes, which predominantly affects Afro-Caribbean and Asian people.
He said: "If a user were to search for diabetes on Google, why would [Google] rank diabetes results as it pertains to black Americans early on in the result set, when only 14% of the US population is black?"
Results ranking
All search engines generate their results by looking at links leading to a webpage to get a sense of how important it is to web debate on that subject.
In such a set 'relevance' is a quantitative rather than a qualitative measure, and it is a short step from the 'wisdom of the crowds' to the 'tyranny of the majority'.
Said Mr Taylor: "People can affect change on Google, but the black population has less of an influence on Google to affect the result rankings."
With Rushmore Drive, said Mr Taylor, "it is more a matter of optimising the relevancy ranking based on one's cultural identity."
Rushmore Drive's editorial team seeks out sites relevant to the black community, and uses a unique algorithm which weights "black results" higher. It also exploits user feedback to tweak the relevance of results.
Aleks Krotoski, a social psychologist researcher at the University of Surrey, argued that such initiatives need to be seen in a wider sociological context.
"Each community has its own social norms, its own mores which are part of how its members make sense of the world," she said.
"Technology isn't a passive tool. It reflects the social norms and the mores of the people who developed it.
"So, the results of any search come from the algorithms and databases of their cultural perspectives," she added.
"They may not speak to or reflect the identity or needs of the minority group, who would achieve much better results by developing their own system from the bottom-up rather than to use one imposed from the top-down," she continued.
Web ownership
For Bill Dutton, director of the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), there is no doubt that the web is a divisive force.
"There's still a relationship between using the internet and socio-economic status," he said.
"Those that have higher socio-economic status tend to be more likely to be online; that's to do with having a PC in the home," said Mr Dutton. "That's a barrier."
Research in the early 90s by the OII suggested that those living in "distressed" inner-city areas tended to feel that in using the web they were using someone else's technology.
"With web use becoming more common among younger people, there is a greater sense of ownership," he said.
Also, he added, there was no doubt that the web was getting more representative as it started to include more languages.
Search engines such as Google and Yahoo have already picked up on the trend towards more niche web use by providing the means to develop individual search engines via Custom Search and Search Builder sites.
Yahoo's BOSS (Build your Own Search Service) even allows developers to customise their own results ranking, and so create bespoke search engines which can reflect the needs and interests of a particular search community.
"If the web community at large becomes niche-centric, then community search, for those people, could be much more effective than Google or any other search engine, said media consultant Mihaela Lica.
But, she pointed out, community-based search sites face problems when pursuing a relatively narrow audience.
Ever-decreasing relevance, when drilling down within certain socio-demographic groups, is one factor.
Once an algorithm is developed to appeal effectively to one sociological group, further subdivisions within that group become an issue; between male and female searchers, or young and old searchers, for example.
Ms Lica said there were practical problems as sites letting their narrow groups help refine results. In the case of Rushmore Drive she said "How would they know that the user who gets involved in the rating, searching, refining process is actually a member of the black community?"
And, she added, those who believe in the unifying power of the web may baulk at the notion of "black" and "white" search results.
She said: "Online we have no colour - 'segregating' knowledge is not something that gets my vote. Search results should be unbiased and impartial."
nod to Murray Dick and Mark Ward
The genesis of the World Wide Web, in a Swiss laboratory, to serve a multi-national team of physicists, might lead many to think that the network is blind when it comes to race, sex, creed and colour.
But some sites are taking steps to address shortcomings in the way that the web serves some sectors of the population.
In October, Ask gave its search engine a fresh interface to help with its new-found focus on its core search audience, 60% of which were women.
In the US, a search site aimed squarely at black Americans, launched in April 2008.
Rushmore Drive's creator, Johnny Taylor, said search results can be more relevant to some social groups than to others. He cited the example of Type 2 diabetes, which predominantly affects Afro-Caribbean and Asian people.
He said: "If a user were to search for diabetes on Google, why would [Google] rank diabetes results as it pertains to black Americans early on in the result set, when only 14% of the US population is black?"
Results ranking
All search engines generate their results by looking at links leading to a webpage to get a sense of how important it is to web debate on that subject.
In such a set 'relevance' is a quantitative rather than a qualitative measure, and it is a short step from the 'wisdom of the crowds' to the 'tyranny of the majority'.
Said Mr Taylor: "People can affect change on Google, but the black population has less of an influence on Google to affect the result rankings."
With Rushmore Drive, said Mr Taylor, "it is more a matter of optimising the relevancy ranking based on one's cultural identity."
Rushmore Drive's editorial team seeks out sites relevant to the black community, and uses a unique algorithm which weights "black results" higher. It also exploits user feedback to tweak the relevance of results.
Aleks Krotoski, a social psychologist researcher at the University of Surrey, argued that such initiatives need to be seen in a wider sociological context.
"Each community has its own social norms, its own mores which are part of how its members make sense of the world," she said.
"Technology isn't a passive tool. It reflects the social norms and the mores of the people who developed it.
"So, the results of any search come from the algorithms and databases of their cultural perspectives," she added.
"They may not speak to or reflect the identity or needs of the minority group, who would achieve much better results by developing their own system from the bottom-up rather than to use one imposed from the top-down," she continued.
Web ownership
For Bill Dutton, director of the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), there is no doubt that the web is a divisive force.
"There's still a relationship between using the internet and socio-economic status," he said.
"Those that have higher socio-economic status tend to be more likely to be online; that's to do with having a PC in the home," said Mr Dutton. "That's a barrier."
Research in the early 90s by the OII suggested that those living in "distressed" inner-city areas tended to feel that in using the web they were using someone else's technology.
"With web use becoming more common among younger people, there is a greater sense of ownership," he said.
Also, he added, there was no doubt that the web was getting more representative as it started to include more languages.
Search engines such as Google and Yahoo have already picked up on the trend towards more niche web use by providing the means to develop individual search engines via Custom Search and Search Builder sites.
Yahoo's BOSS (Build your Own Search Service) even allows developers to customise their own results ranking, and so create bespoke search engines which can reflect the needs and interests of a particular search community.
"If the web community at large becomes niche-centric, then community search, for those people, could be much more effective than Google or any other search engine, said media consultant Mihaela Lica.
But, she pointed out, community-based search sites face problems when pursuing a relatively narrow audience.
Ever-decreasing relevance, when drilling down within certain socio-demographic groups, is one factor.
Once an algorithm is developed to appeal effectively to one sociological group, further subdivisions within that group become an issue; between male and female searchers, or young and old searchers, for example.
Ms Lica said there were practical problems as sites letting their narrow groups help refine results. In the case of Rushmore Drive she said "How would they know that the user who gets involved in the rating, searching, refining process is actually a member of the black community?"
And, she added, those who believe in the unifying power of the web may baulk at the notion of "black" and "white" search results.
She said: "Online we have no colour - 'segregating' knowledge is not something that gets my vote. Search results should be unbiased and impartial."
nod to Murray Dick and Mark Ward
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Gasta Vertical Ad Network
As advertisers look for more ways to yield greater efficiency, going narrower but still with some scale means looking seriously at vertical ad networks.
Vertical ad networks are all the rage. If they aren't the toast of the town these days, they certainly are the talk of it.
However, vertical ad networks are nothing new. They are online advertising networks that have a particular focus. They aggregate a collection of sites together that have an affinity with one another and bring those "passion places" together in a way that provides advertisers meaningful scale without the uncertainty of a vast collection of unknown and dissimilar sites.
The appeal of a vertical ad network is first and foremost its focus. Second is the modicum of control it offers. As advertisers look for more ways to yield greater efficiencies and better accountability, going narrower but still with some scale means looking more seriously at vertical ad networks.
Travel Advertising Network is one such vertical, and company representatives gave the folks at the iMedia Agency Summit in La Quinta, Calif., a good look at what they are doing and why vertical ad networks are so important.
Travel Ad Network actually has the largest travel information audience in the world, with 19 million users worldwide (14 million in the U.S.). Notice that I did not say "travel" audience. This is an audience looking for information about traveling, be it destinations or transportation or boarding. This is not where they transact, according to Cree Lawson, founder/CEO, and Brian Silver, president. Their users are "in the aisles."
Why a vertical ad network?
The reason Travel Ad Network went this route was for three reasons: They listened to their clients who were demanding some level of transparency; they could get a better quality of advertiser; and they offered exclusive representation.
The guys from Travel Ad Network proceeded to deliver some valuable information in the form of a kind of Trivial Pursuit game. These questions and their answers make a terrific primer on vertical ad networks (particularly of the travel variety).
1. Are consumers different at vertical ad networks than horizontal ad networks? No. The reason advertisers should use vertical ad networks is not necessarily because the audiences there are so different than horizontal ad networks, but because those audiences are more engaged. As Lawson and Silver pointed out during their Spotlight presentation, people found in either horizontal or vertical ad networks are equally diverse. But those found within the confines of a vertical network have a higher degree of engagement and specialization. They are in their passion places.
2. Which ad supported property is in comScore's Buying Power Index top 10 list? Yes, Yahoo is there. But at the very top is Travel Ad Network, with a BPI of 280. That means that the average person found within Travel Ad Network has 2.8 times more buying power than the average person online.
3. What percentage of brands that advertise in verticals are endemic versus non-endemic? It turns out a lot more non-endemic advertising is going on. Just to give you a sense of what is meant by this: Less than 25 percent of advertising in a travel magazine is from travel product advertisers.
4. How many visits to travel sites does the average consumer make before booking a trip? Twenty-two. Before you click that "buy" button to book your airfare or hotel, chances are you've been to sites 22 times. That doesn't mean you've been to 22 sites, but you have made 22 different trips online before making your decision. It turns out that 15 percent of people don't know where they are going when they start planning, and 39 percent don't know when they will be traveling. This provides ample opportunity to talk to people in the questing frame of mind, to inform their seeking.
5. How much has the share of total page views changed for travel agencies in the last two years? It's down 15 percent. With all the information out there, people are starting to go around booking engines to find out what they want to know, and then pop onto that booking engine at the last minute to get the transaction done. If you are looking for an audience that is a travel audience, or has affinity with it, there are many chances to message that audience before they get to buy.
6. How much of every dollar spent online is spent on travel/travel products? Forty-four percent. That's right, $.44 of every dollar is spent on travel. This does not mean that travel makes up the bulk of the transactions. As someone in the audience pointed out, the dollars per transaction for travel are much higher than they are for, say, books. But all that means is that the online travel buyer is someone comfortable with spending a good deal of money online. The point here is that verticals are good for those "spending" audiences.
Vertical ad networks, like any ad network, may consist of a lot of sites an advertiser has never heard of. But if the audience they are looking for has, and that audience is at those sites, it makes sense to be there when the audience is there. You may not recognize the cover of the book, but if the book is being read, isn't that all that matters?
Jim Meskauskas
Vertical ad networks are all the rage. If they aren't the toast of the town these days, they certainly are the talk of it.
However, vertical ad networks are nothing new. They are online advertising networks that have a particular focus. They aggregate a collection of sites together that have an affinity with one another and bring those "passion places" together in a way that provides advertisers meaningful scale without the uncertainty of a vast collection of unknown and dissimilar sites.
The appeal of a vertical ad network is first and foremost its focus. Second is the modicum of control it offers. As advertisers look for more ways to yield greater efficiencies and better accountability, going narrower but still with some scale means looking more seriously at vertical ad networks.
Travel Advertising Network is one such vertical, and company representatives gave the folks at the iMedia Agency Summit in La Quinta, Calif., a good look at what they are doing and why vertical ad networks are so important.
Travel Ad Network actually has the largest travel information audience in the world, with 19 million users worldwide (14 million in the U.S.). Notice that I did not say "travel" audience. This is an audience looking for information about traveling, be it destinations or transportation or boarding. This is not where they transact, according to Cree Lawson, founder/CEO, and Brian Silver, president. Their users are "in the aisles."
Why a vertical ad network?
The reason Travel Ad Network went this route was for three reasons: They listened to their clients who were demanding some level of transparency; they could get a better quality of advertiser; and they offered exclusive representation.
The guys from Travel Ad Network proceeded to deliver some valuable information in the form of a kind of Trivial Pursuit game. These questions and their answers make a terrific primer on vertical ad networks (particularly of the travel variety).
1. Are consumers different at vertical ad networks than horizontal ad networks? No. The reason advertisers should use vertical ad networks is not necessarily because the audiences there are so different than horizontal ad networks, but because those audiences are more engaged. As Lawson and Silver pointed out during their Spotlight presentation, people found in either horizontal or vertical ad networks are equally diverse. But those found within the confines of a vertical network have a higher degree of engagement and specialization. They are in their passion places.
2. Which ad supported property is in comScore's Buying Power Index top 10 list? Yes, Yahoo is there. But at the very top is Travel Ad Network, with a BPI of 280. That means that the average person found within Travel Ad Network has 2.8 times more buying power than the average person online.
3. What percentage of brands that advertise in verticals are endemic versus non-endemic? It turns out a lot more non-endemic advertising is going on. Just to give you a sense of what is meant by this: Less than 25 percent of advertising in a travel magazine is from travel product advertisers.
4. How many visits to travel sites does the average consumer make before booking a trip? Twenty-two. Before you click that "buy" button to book your airfare or hotel, chances are you've been to sites 22 times. That doesn't mean you've been to 22 sites, but you have made 22 different trips online before making your decision. It turns out that 15 percent of people don't know where they are going when they start planning, and 39 percent don't know when they will be traveling. This provides ample opportunity to talk to people in the questing frame of mind, to inform their seeking.
5. How much has the share of total page views changed for travel agencies in the last two years? It's down 15 percent. With all the information out there, people are starting to go around booking engines to find out what they want to know, and then pop onto that booking engine at the last minute to get the transaction done. If you are looking for an audience that is a travel audience, or has affinity with it, there are many chances to message that audience before they get to buy.
6. How much of every dollar spent online is spent on travel/travel products? Forty-four percent. That's right, $.44 of every dollar is spent on travel. This does not mean that travel makes up the bulk of the transactions. As someone in the audience pointed out, the dollars per transaction for travel are much higher than they are for, say, books. But all that means is that the online travel buyer is someone comfortable with spending a good deal of money online. The point here is that verticals are good for those "spending" audiences.
Vertical ad networks, like any ad network, may consist of a lot of sites an advertiser has never heard of. But if the audience they are looking for has, and that audience is at those sites, it makes sense to be there when the audience is there. You may not recognize the cover of the book, but if the book is being read, isn't that all that matters?
Jim Meskauskas
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Gasta News: The Power of Search Networks
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
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
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
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