By: David Rodnitzky - Topic: Search
The days of the one-size-fits-all search algorithm are over. As impressed as we all were with Google's PageRank algorithm back in 2001, the results you'd get from that algorithm today would be laughable in comparison to the results we have come to expect from search engines.
Why? Well, in part because SEOs have gamed the original algorithm to death at this point, but mostly because search technology has gotten so much better since then.
Here, then, are six search technologies that will (or are) reshaping the search landscape.
1. Collaborative Filtering. Loyal readers may wonder why I don't just change the title of this blog to "Collaborative Filtering Thoughts" since I mention this technology about once a post. Collaborative filtering is technology that matches your interests to people similar to you, best expressed in Amazon's "People who bought this book also bought . . ." Many Web 2.0 applications are based on this principle, such as StumbleUpon, del.icio.us, and Flixster. I'm very bullish on collaborative filtering, simply because I believe that the "wisdom of crowds" can be far more effective than even the best algorithm for many types of searches (product reviews, restaurant recommendations, someday perhaps even dating!).
Examples of Collaborative Filtering: Collarity, Launchcast, Gasta.com Amazon.com.
2. Personalization. As the name implies, personalization uses data a search engine has about you to serve more relevant results in the future. For example, if I continually do searches for "lake trout" and "fly fishing", a personalization engine will likely conclude that my search for "laker" is not for a basketball team, but rather for a fish. Personalization has the potential to be very powerful, but it also comes with a price - privacy concerns. Ultimately, this technology will only work if consumers really trust a search engine to protect and honor their personal data.
Examples of Personalization: Google Personalization.
3. Semantic Search. Semantic search identifies similarities in words and phrases. Thus, if I searched for "telephone", the search results might show me results that contained sites about "cell phones." In the paid search world, this might mean that you buy the word "mortgage" on broad match, but end up getting matched with terms like "refinance" and "home equity" because the search engine considers these words to be semantically related to one another.
Examples of Semantic Search: Hakia, Yahoo "also try" results. Gasta.com
4. Clustering. Clustering, or clustered search, tries to categorize words or phrases into a taxonomy (or groups) of related themes. I might type in "auction" and a clustering engine would show me categories like "Online Auctions" and "Fine Art Auctions" and beneath each category I would find sub-categories like "eBay", "Ubid" and "Sotherby's." Clustering is a great way to provide additional navigation options to users who might feel overwhelmed by the raw search results.
Examples of Clustering: Clusty, eBay search results.
5. Local Search. Local search can be described in two ways - either it's interactive maps like Google Maps, or it's geotargeting based on the IP address or user registration information. For example, as a registered user of Yahoo, Yahoo knows that I live in the Bay Area (I gave this info to them when I signed up, and I was actually honest). As a result, I get a lot of ads for local events, car dealers, and Bay Area real estate brokers. But even if I didn't register, Yahoo could still have a good idea of my location by looking at my IP address, or by cookie-ing my searches.
Examples of Local Search: Google Local, Krillion. Gasta.com. Gasta.co.uk
6. Human-Edited Search Engines. As funny as it may sound, humans are making a comeback (here's hoping I don't see the top of the Statue of Liberty on my next beach walk . . .). As the number of Web sites multiple, it becomes harder and harder for anyone to filter out the all the noise and get to the good stuff. So rather than do the hard work yourself, why not farm out the effort to someone else? That's the theory behind search newcomers like ChaCha, Mahalo, and really Wikipedia when you think about it.
Examples of Human-Edited Search Engines: ChaCha, Mahalo.Gasta Instantlinks
Phew, that's a lot of different search options. Ultimately, I'm still throwing my hat in the ring with collaborative filtering, but you can bet that each of the technologies above - as well as many that have yet to be developed - will play a role in the future of search!
David Rodnitzky is VP of Advertising at Mercantila.com, an online retailer. Read this post and others at his blog: http://blogation.blogspot.com
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Gasta Networking success PT1
The Next Phase of Social Business Networking is Here! By: Business Wire | 27 Jan 2009 | 09:57 AM ET Text Size AVENTURA, Fla., Jan 27, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Analysts have been talking about how Social Networking will be transformed into a new Business Networking platform in 2009. In today's economy, everybody from small businesses to major corporations have been cutting back on their advertising budgets and moving towards Social Networking as the next phenomenon in business marketing.
Networkers United Worldwide (www.nuworldwide.com) is a brand new community of social business networkers that share the same vision of helping each other in growing their businesses by referring business to one another, exchanging tips and ideas, educating, promoting and connecting with each other on a localized or global basis.
The group believes in the Giver's Gain Principle. Give to people first, and in return you will get business back. It is a very simple law of attraction. The community was started on LinkedIn and Facebook just a few weeks ago and growing exponentially by the day. Our goal is to have over 500,000 members by March 2009 and 5,000,000 members by the end of the year.
"We are overwhelmed by its success and the quality of our members. The feedback we're getting from our members is only positive for setting up such a great and needed platform for business referrals," says founder Daniel Pansky.
The principle behind this was started in September 2008 when Victoria Blintser (Daniel's wife) decided to expand her LinkedIn profile. Upon expanding her profile and setting up the business group, she is now considered one of the biggest success stories on LinkedIn. This has led to many opportunities including joint venture offers, consulting offers, radio appearances, and the offers just keep rolling in by the day. Four months ago I was a struggling Real Estate broker having problems finding the next deal in one of the toughest Real Estate markets in history. Today, four months later, my business is on turbo charge to where I can't hire enough real estate agents fast enough. We are currently selling bulk portfolios, all thanks to the power of social business networking.
www.nuworldwide.com is absolutely Free to join and Free to use for the entire business community worldwide. Members can go ahead and utilize the NU Worldwide platform, or set up their own groups pertaining to their desired subject or business. The group offers free services to all their members such as tips, social business networking strategies, and guest moderators from the world's top leaders in Social Business Networking.
SOURCE: Networkers United, Inc.
CONTACT: Networkers United, Inc., Aventura Daniel Pansky, 954-239-7093 www.nuworldwide.com Copyright Business Wire 2009 -0- KEYWORD: United States
Networkers United Worldwide (www.nuworldwide.com) is a brand new community of social business networkers that share the same vision of helping each other in growing their businesses by referring business to one another, exchanging tips and ideas, educating, promoting and connecting with each other on a localized or global basis.
The group believes in the Giver's Gain Principle. Give to people first, and in return you will get business back. It is a very simple law of attraction. The community was started on LinkedIn and Facebook just a few weeks ago and growing exponentially by the day. Our goal is to have over 500,000 members by March 2009 and 5,000,000 members by the end of the year.
"We are overwhelmed by its success and the quality of our members. The feedback we're getting from our members is only positive for setting up such a great and needed platform for business referrals," says founder Daniel Pansky.
The principle behind this was started in September 2008 when Victoria Blintser (Daniel's wife) decided to expand her LinkedIn profile. Upon expanding her profile and setting up the business group, she is now considered one of the biggest success stories on LinkedIn. This has led to many opportunities including joint venture offers, consulting offers, radio appearances, and the offers just keep rolling in by the day. Four months ago I was a struggling Real Estate broker having problems finding the next deal in one of the toughest Real Estate markets in history. Today, four months later, my business is on turbo charge to where I can't hire enough real estate agents fast enough. We are currently selling bulk portfolios, all thanks to the power of social business networking.
www.nuworldwide.com is absolutely Free to join and Free to use for the entire business community worldwide. Members can go ahead and utilize the NU Worldwide platform, or set up their own groups pertaining to their desired subject or business. The group offers free services to all their members such as tips, social business networking strategies, and guest moderators from the world's top leaders in Social Business Networking.
SOURCE: Networkers United, Inc.
CONTACT: Networkers United, Inc., Aventura Daniel Pansky, 954-239-7093 www.nuworldwide.com Copyright Business Wire 2009 -0- KEYWORD: United States
Gasta Networking success
Within a very short period of 4 months I have amassed over 10,000 connections on LinkedIn and have tripled my business. This has led to many other opportunities including joint venture offers, consulting offers, TV and radio appearances, and offers just keep rolling in by the day. Four months ago I was a struggling Real Estate Broker having problems finding the next deal in one of the toughest Real Estate Markets in history. Today, four months later, my Real Estate business is on turbo charge to the point where I can’t hire enough Real Estate agents fast enough! We are currently selling entire buildings at a time all thanks to powerful techniques that I have developed which I will share with you.
www.linkedsecret.com
This is a must have business tool for 2009! Your either going to be LinkedIn or LinkedOut!
www.linkedsecret.com
Friday, January 30, 2009
Gasta News; New Media Age Report
This week new media age reported that Google saw search impressions on its Content Network grow by over 300% year on year - an amazing statistic for something that doesn't seem to get many headlines (nma 29 January).
AdWords, naturally, is Google's piece de resistance, being far and away the most successful form of online advertising. But Content Network really isn't that far behind, if not necessarily in terms of revenue, and along with Google's display ambitions is starting to drive Google's core search business.
Efficient Frontier's UK Search Engine Performance Report Q4 2008 showed Adsense search ads generated by Google Content Network now accounting for 6.4% of all UK search impressions, up by 308% from 2.2% last year.
This is still a long way behind AdWords, at 81.8% of all impressions, but fast catching up Yahoo (8.4%) and well above Microsoft (3.4%), according to the report.
The catch-up isn't really surprising: Google's really pushed the Content Network hard this last year, rolling out new formats and better reporting.
In contrast, Yahoo last month announced the closure of Content Match, its text-based equivalent to Google's AdSense.
The company said it was because it saw the future in rich media, rather than text ads, but surely Google earning $1.68bn (£1.15bn) in revenues from AdSense in Q3 last year rebuts this view.
What I find most interesting is that while the discussions over Microsoft and Yahoo's failings in the search market have normally been with regard to AdWords, it's now the Content Network, not even a priority for Google, that is the biggest competitor.
AdWords, naturally, is Google's piece de resistance, being far and away the most successful form of online advertising. But Content Network really isn't that far behind, if not necessarily in terms of revenue, and along with Google's display ambitions is starting to drive Google's core search business.
Efficient Frontier's UK Search Engine Performance Report Q4 2008 showed Adsense search ads generated by Google Content Network now accounting for 6.4% of all UK search impressions, up by 308% from 2.2% last year.
This is still a long way behind AdWords, at 81.8% of all impressions, but fast catching up Yahoo (8.4%) and well above Microsoft (3.4%), according to the report.
The catch-up isn't really surprising: Google's really pushed the Content Network hard this last year, rolling out new formats and better reporting.
In contrast, Yahoo last month announced the closure of Content Match, its text-based equivalent to Google's AdSense.
The company said it was because it saw the future in rich media, rather than text ads, but surely Google earning $1.68bn (£1.15bn) in revenues from AdSense in Q3 last year rebuts this view.
What I find most interesting is that while the discussions over Microsoft and Yahoo's failings in the search market have normally been with regard to AdWords, it's now the Content Network, not even a priority for Google, that is the biggest competitor.
Gasta Mobile news
Mobile social networking grew by 152% between November 2007 and November 2008 in Western Europe, according to ComScore.
The figures show that in November 34% of mobile social network users in Western Europe accessed social media exclusive of all other mobile web content.
The UK has the highest penetration of mobile social networking at 9%, nearly triple that of Germany, where the activity is the least popular at 3.3% penetration. The average penetration rate across all countries is 5%.
Alistair Hill, analyst at ComScore M:Metrics, said, "A large portion of the growth in the mobile internet audience can be attributed to social networking."
"In the UK, for example, the audience of those accessing news and information, but not social networking services, with their mobile browser or an application grew by 149,000 unique users, whereas the number of those exclusively accessing social networking grew by six times that number in the past year."
The figures show that in November 34% of mobile social network users in Western Europe accessed social media exclusive of all other mobile web content.
The UK has the highest penetration of mobile social networking at 9%, nearly triple that of Germany, where the activity is the least popular at 3.3% penetration. The average penetration rate across all countries is 5%.
Alistair Hill, analyst at ComScore M:Metrics, said, "A large portion of the growth in the mobile internet audience can be attributed to social networking."
"In the UK, for example, the audience of those accessing news and information, but not social networking services, with their mobile browser or an application grew by 149,000 unique users, whereas the number of those exclusively accessing social networking grew by six times that number in the past year."
Monday, January 26, 2009
Gasta Opinion: Bye Bye Traditional Marketing
Heralding the death of non-social media
Right before the end of the year, there was a strong backlash against marketing through social media channels. If you were working anywhere near social media, it was hard to miss: People said it doesn't work. People said it doesn't work as they'd like it to. And people said it may work, but it takes effort (my favorite).
It was probably inevitable. There's never been a more explosive media format than social media. As someone wrote on one of my newsfeeds, "Is there anyone out there who isn't starting a social media company?" At any rate, backlash is practically street cred for the internet set. It's right there in the arc of the internet's growth. Personally, I have no question as to whether social media is a proper marketing channel for a company, and that's because of one simple reason: In the very near future, all media will be social media. Here's why -- and what it means for you.
Social media at point of purchase
Let's pause for a second before heading off into the future. For many brands, you could probably argue that all marketing efforts have already gone social. How?
A high percentage of purchases are already preceded by online research. And where there is online research, there are search results. Those search engine results pages often bring up links to a number of consumer review sites. Now, if you've done any amount of conversation monitoring, you know that reviewers don't exactly pull their punches. Even with shopping sites like Amazon, consumers posting negative reviews are hitting the brand where it hurts most -- at the point of purchase.
So given the above scenarios, even in a "controlled" push-media world, many brands can't even make it through the far end of the buying decision funnel without running head first into a social media situation. Compounding matters, many consumer comments are on social sites like Yelp, where they quickly rise to the top of search rankings.
This point-of-purchase invasion is heading for the physical shopping world as well. Have you tried any of the bar code scanner tools for mobile phones? I haven't found one that works well. Today. But with several of these technologies already in consumers' hands, how long until that's as seamless a part of the buying process as reading an Amazon review before purchasing online? Shoppers will be able to scan an item themselves and get all sorts of product information -- right in the store.
The rise of social viewing
So where's a company to hide from social media? On TV? Whether IPTV or internet TV is the TV model of the future, TV viewing is going to be highly social. I'd say the best glimpse of that future right now is internet TV.
Last November, I watched my high school football team play in the state championship -- on my laptop while waiting for a flight at O'Hare airport. Next to the video stream was a live chat box, open to anyone viewing the game. No sign-up, no identity verification -- just post off the top of your mind (and many did). Welcome to social viewing.
What I found particularly interesting is that during the few lulls in the game (they set the record for most points scored in a state final), the chat conversation topics would drift outside the game video to address the surrounding content on the page -- including the ads. And it certainly wasn't all positive.
Social viewing technology is also currently available in the "Watch & Chat" section of CBS.com, on View2gether.com, and in beta at NBC.com. It's similar to the gaming experience on Xbox Live, except that platform focuses primarily on voice instead of text.
If you project social viewing onto a national broadcast-like environment, you can imagine how vulnerable brands will be to public floggings. Social viewing carries with it all the things you were afraid of on the social networks, now fueled by anonymity combined with the reach of broadcast TV. With search engines aiding and abetting these conversations, even comments on small broadcasts could be discovered and shot into the mainstream conversation rapidly.
Commenting capabilities -- everywhere
In addition to TV, the future of display advertising offers little sign of protection from social media. Have you seen the display ads on Facebook? With commenting capabilities underneath? I recently commented on one, and it went straight into my newsfeed -- broadcast to all my "friends." (Facebook didn't even flag me that this would happen.)
You should expect comments across all online media to be more visible in the future. Disqus is already connecting comments across 45,000 websites, archiving them, making them more searchable, and tying them to database technologies like Plaxo.
Surely someone will invent something to stop all that, right? Here's what that would require: Less data made public for everyone to see. Less inclination among people to expose deeper and deeper levels of their lives in public. And fewer and fewer brands willing to venture into new media.
But since the public onset of the web, trends in this respect have been quite the opposite -- overwhelmingly so. So, in order to avoid that kind of social environment, brands would have to be practically invisible to anyone using online media -- and that's not exactly the objective of marketing departments.
So what's a brand to do?
How to get started
If the thought of participating in social media today seems scary, the thought of not participating in it in five years should really scare you.
Many brands will trip in their adoption path of social media. It just doesn't work the way push media like TV and print do, where you can turn on the fire hose and go from zero to $5 million a month in spend overnight. Doing so would be like the shy, quiet kid in the back of the classroom deciding to become the class clown the next day. It wouldn't be very authentic. And worse, it would be a path right back to the old-school "we're cool because we said so" form of branding. Beyond all that, it can take time to understand your audiences and to figure out what interests them and what they respond to.
This is what I would suggest to any brand that doesn't think it can go social: Start small and work your way up. Don't try to be Burger King in a month. Be yourself in a month. Start laying a foundational presence in the primary social media arenas. Initial moves into social media can be as simple as providing store locations, product information, coupons, or quizzes. Regardless, social media is where your customers are. It's where you should be too.
Papa John's has taken this route quite effectively on Facebook by adapting its website ordering technology for the social media network. As of this writing, the company has more than 200,000 "fans." Two months ago, prior to launching the Facebook app, it had about 10,000. Its 200,000 fans are a great social marketing foundation. If Papa John's can involve fans in a future Facebook campaign, their involvement will be forwarded on to their friends' newsfeeds.
Last year at SXSW, Mark Zuckerberg said the average number of friends on Facebook is 150. If that figure is anywhere near accurate, that's a newsfeed multiplier that can build significant word of mouth.
Connecting with your audience
Another proven social media tactic is to go directly to a community or group of influentials that includes your target audience. If you have something to say or share, they'll welcome you. And the more value you bring to them, the more they'll give back to you.
Virgin America connected with Boing Boing to launch its service here in the U.S. The company started by asking the Boing Boing editors to name one of its planes. (In true Boing Boing style, they tagged it "Unicorn Chaser.") That started the relationship. From there, Virgin America invited a top Boing Boing writer to join the inaugural flight.
Of course, effective social media marketing often comes back to the need for a quality product, which Virgin America has. And this reflects what Seth Godin has preached for years: Good products create their own positive press. The glowing reviews on Boing Boing were not only well written, they were supported by a convincing overview of the standout features on the plane. Boing Boing has a readership of more than 3 million early adopting consumers. What would it cost to reach them with a TV or print ad? And what ad would ever attain the level of credibility that came from Boing Boing's coverage?
So how should you begin your brand's move into social media? By reaching out to the people who are most interested in your products and services. Discover who your brand advocates are -- or who they could be. Figure out what they like about you and what they're interested in. There's a treasure trove of consumer research in that alone.
From there, expand your activities and begin engaging them in fun and distinct ways that define your brand's personality. You want to evolve with the medium so that several years from now, you don't come off as some uninformed noob.
When it comes to social media, think of your brand as a person. You don't have to be the class clown -- but you at least want to make an impression worth remembering.
Doug Schumacher is president and creative director at Basement Inc.
Right before the end of the year, there was a strong backlash against marketing through social media channels. If you were working anywhere near social media, it was hard to miss: People said it doesn't work. People said it doesn't work as they'd like it to. And people said it may work, but it takes effort (my favorite).
It was probably inevitable. There's never been a more explosive media format than social media. As someone wrote on one of my newsfeeds, "Is there anyone out there who isn't starting a social media company?" At any rate, backlash is practically street cred for the internet set. It's right there in the arc of the internet's growth. Personally, I have no question as to whether social media is a proper marketing channel for a company, and that's because of one simple reason: In the very near future, all media will be social media. Here's why -- and what it means for you.
Social media at point of purchase
Let's pause for a second before heading off into the future. For many brands, you could probably argue that all marketing efforts have already gone social. How?
A high percentage of purchases are already preceded by online research. And where there is online research, there are search results. Those search engine results pages often bring up links to a number of consumer review sites. Now, if you've done any amount of conversation monitoring, you know that reviewers don't exactly pull their punches. Even with shopping sites like Amazon, consumers posting negative reviews are hitting the brand where it hurts most -- at the point of purchase.
So given the above scenarios, even in a "controlled" push-media world, many brands can't even make it through the far end of the buying decision funnel without running head first into a social media situation. Compounding matters, many consumer comments are on social sites like Yelp, where they quickly rise to the top of search rankings.
This point-of-purchase invasion is heading for the physical shopping world as well. Have you tried any of the bar code scanner tools for mobile phones? I haven't found one that works well. Today. But with several of these technologies already in consumers' hands, how long until that's as seamless a part of the buying process as reading an Amazon review before purchasing online? Shoppers will be able to scan an item themselves and get all sorts of product information -- right in the store.
The rise of social viewing
So where's a company to hide from social media? On TV? Whether IPTV or internet TV is the TV model of the future, TV viewing is going to be highly social. I'd say the best glimpse of that future right now is internet TV.
Last November, I watched my high school football team play in the state championship -- on my laptop while waiting for a flight at O'Hare airport. Next to the video stream was a live chat box, open to anyone viewing the game. No sign-up, no identity verification -- just post off the top of your mind (and many did). Welcome to social viewing.
What I found particularly interesting is that during the few lulls in the game (they set the record for most points scored in a state final), the chat conversation topics would drift outside the game video to address the surrounding content on the page -- including the ads. And it certainly wasn't all positive.
Social viewing technology is also currently available in the "Watch & Chat" section of CBS.com, on View2gether.com, and in beta at NBC.com. It's similar to the gaming experience on Xbox Live, except that platform focuses primarily on voice instead of text.
If you project social viewing onto a national broadcast-like environment, you can imagine how vulnerable brands will be to public floggings. Social viewing carries with it all the things you were afraid of on the social networks, now fueled by anonymity combined with the reach of broadcast TV. With search engines aiding and abetting these conversations, even comments on small broadcasts could be discovered and shot into the mainstream conversation rapidly.
Commenting capabilities -- everywhere
In addition to TV, the future of display advertising offers little sign of protection from social media. Have you seen the display ads on Facebook? With commenting capabilities underneath? I recently commented on one, and it went straight into my newsfeed -- broadcast to all my "friends." (Facebook didn't even flag me that this would happen.)
You should expect comments across all online media to be more visible in the future. Disqus is already connecting comments across 45,000 websites, archiving them, making them more searchable, and tying them to database technologies like Plaxo.
Surely someone will invent something to stop all that, right? Here's what that would require: Less data made public for everyone to see. Less inclination among people to expose deeper and deeper levels of their lives in public. And fewer and fewer brands willing to venture into new media.
But since the public onset of the web, trends in this respect have been quite the opposite -- overwhelmingly so. So, in order to avoid that kind of social environment, brands would have to be practically invisible to anyone using online media -- and that's not exactly the objective of marketing departments.
So what's a brand to do?
How to get started
If the thought of participating in social media today seems scary, the thought of not participating in it in five years should really scare you.
Many brands will trip in their adoption path of social media. It just doesn't work the way push media like TV and print do, where you can turn on the fire hose and go from zero to $5 million a month in spend overnight. Doing so would be like the shy, quiet kid in the back of the classroom deciding to become the class clown the next day. It wouldn't be very authentic. And worse, it would be a path right back to the old-school "we're cool because we said so" form of branding. Beyond all that, it can take time to understand your audiences and to figure out what interests them and what they respond to.
This is what I would suggest to any brand that doesn't think it can go social: Start small and work your way up. Don't try to be Burger King in a month. Be yourself in a month. Start laying a foundational presence in the primary social media arenas. Initial moves into social media can be as simple as providing store locations, product information, coupons, or quizzes. Regardless, social media is where your customers are. It's where you should be too.
Papa John's has taken this route quite effectively on Facebook by adapting its website ordering technology for the social media network. As of this writing, the company has more than 200,000 "fans." Two months ago, prior to launching the Facebook app, it had about 10,000. Its 200,000 fans are a great social marketing foundation. If Papa John's can involve fans in a future Facebook campaign, their involvement will be forwarded on to their friends' newsfeeds.
Last year at SXSW, Mark Zuckerberg said the average number of friends on Facebook is 150. If that figure is anywhere near accurate, that's a newsfeed multiplier that can build significant word of mouth.
Connecting with your audience
Another proven social media tactic is to go directly to a community or group of influentials that includes your target audience. If you have something to say or share, they'll welcome you. And the more value you bring to them, the more they'll give back to you.
Virgin America connected with Boing Boing to launch its service here in the U.S. The company started by asking the Boing Boing editors to name one of its planes. (In true Boing Boing style, they tagged it "Unicorn Chaser.") That started the relationship. From there, Virgin America invited a top Boing Boing writer to join the inaugural flight.
Of course, effective social media marketing often comes back to the need for a quality product, which Virgin America has. And this reflects what Seth Godin has preached for years: Good products create their own positive press. The glowing reviews on Boing Boing were not only well written, they were supported by a convincing overview of the standout features on the plane. Boing Boing has a readership of more than 3 million early adopting consumers. What would it cost to reach them with a TV or print ad? And what ad would ever attain the level of credibility that came from Boing Boing's coverage?
So how should you begin your brand's move into social media? By reaching out to the people who are most interested in your products and services. Discover who your brand advocates are -- or who they could be. Figure out what they like about you and what they're interested in. There's a treasure trove of consumer research in that alone.
From there, expand your activities and begin engaging them in fun and distinct ways that define your brand's personality. You want to evolve with the medium so that several years from now, you don't come off as some uninformed noob.
When it comes to social media, think of your brand as a person. You don't have to be the class clown -- but you at least want to make an impression worth remembering.
Doug Schumacher is president and creative director at Basement Inc.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Gasta Web Analytics
How many people visit our Web site every day? What are visitors doing when they get there? Which features are most popular? Was that big redesign worth the money?
If these types of questions keep you awake at night, you may need a good Web analytics tool (and possibly a better mattress).
Web analytics tools help you track your site's statistics, allowing you to see how many people are looking at which page, what sites your visitors are coming from, who your users are, and more. This information can in turn help you measure traffic, understand your visitors' needs and behavior, and gauge click-through rates to new content or features.
Whether you're a nonprofit or a for-profit, your data-tracking needs are virtually the same. Yet given the vast array of Web analytics tools out there, selecting the right package can be overwhelming. To help you understand your options, SPIWEB talked to six nonprofit experts about the Web analytics tools that they've seen work well, consulted postings on a number of nonprofit list serves, and scoured reports on the topic. Below, we'll show you what to consider when choosing an analytics package, and identify free tools and robust applications that can help you better understand your site's visitors.
Which Data Should You Analyze?
There's no point in looking for a tool without a sense of what you want to track. Needs can vary from simple traffic monitoring to complex analyses on the behavior of specific user groups, support for multivariate testing, and more.
What important metrics and figures should you keep in mind when selecting a Web analytics package?
* Hits. This is a metric that likely doesn't make sense for you to track, but you'll hear a lot about it regardless. A hit measures the number of requests for text, images, and files that your Web server receives for a given page. Despite what software packages may lead you to believe, hits are virtually meaningless when it comes to actually understanding what users are doing on your site. Because the number of hits a site receives depends on how it's organized, not how visitors interact with it, this metric is useful only in evaluating information such your server load.
* Visits. The most useful unit of measurement in site analytics is the number of visitors to a particular site or page. The trend in the overall number of visits to your site over time can give you insight into your site's popularity. Comparing the number of visits to each page is also a good way to identify which parts of your site are most useful to your visitors.
* Unique Visitors. This is the number of site visits by different users. If two people visit the site three times each, you'd have six visits by two unique visitors.
* Page Views. The number of times any page was viewed by any visitor. This is often divided by visits to give a page-views-per-visit figure that represents the average number of pages each visitor viewed on a single trip to your site. Increased page views can indicate a more interesting site, or simply one that requires people to jump through hoops to find what they need.
* Top Entry and Exit Pages. Just as they sound, these are the pages where most people enter your site (and don't assume it's the home page) and where most people leave it.
* Referrers. These are the external links that people follow to get to your site. For instance, if WebAnalyticsAssociation links to SPIWEB's site, WebAnalyticsAssociation would show up as a referrer in SPIWEB's Web stats. This metric can be very useful in tracking a big influx to your site or just in staying on top of who's talking about you.
* Search Keywords. Many stats packages can show the words or phrases people typed into search engines like Google or Yahoo in order to get to your site.
* Visitor Information. You can discover a lot about your visitors through analytics tools, including how many are new to the site, the country or region where they're located, the Web browser they're using, and much more.
* Click Paths. Also called click tracks, or click trees, these are graphical representations of typical journeys through your site. For instance, a click-path chart might show you that 20 percent of your home page visitors go on to click the Resources link, while 15 percent visit the About Us page, whereby 60 percent then leave the site and 10 percent go to the Board page ? and so on.
* Conversion. This is a complex statistic that typically needs to be customized in a tool or calculated by hand. Conversion tracks the number of people who did what you wanted them to do from a given starting point ? for instance, the number of users that went from a Donate link on your home page all the way through the donation process, or the percentage of people who viewed your home page and then signed up for your newsletter.
* Tracking Registered Users. If parts of your site require users to log in, a Web analytics tool can track exactly what those users did during each visit to the site. (Without a login, it’s not practical to link up data for a particular person from one visit to another.) This can allow for more detailed analyses and understanding of what different types of visitors are doing on your site.
* More Advanced Statistics. While the features listed above should be enough to get you going, powerful Web analytics tools support even more sophisticated analysis. There are professionals who make a living analyzing Web statistics; if you have a large site and the desire to do deep usage analysis, you may wish to consult with one of them.
The world of Web analytics is complicated by the fact that not every software package handles metrics in the same way. Determining what sequence of Web actions should be interpreted as a "visit" or a "unique visitor" is actually very complicated, and different tools calculate this differently. Don't be surprised if your metrics vary somewhat as you look at various tools.
Software Offered by Your Web Host
So now that you know what metrics and features you're looking for, what Web analytics software should you use? It turns out, you may already have some of the tools you need. If your Web site is hosted by a shared hosting company (such as DreamHost or LunarPages), you can likely access some Web statistics through the same control panel you use to administer email addresses, check available file space, and so on.
AWStats and Webalizer are the two most common statistics packages available through shared hosting services. Both are fairly basic, offering information about visits over time, most-visited pages, referrers, search strings, and some data about your visitor's browsers and locations. Though Webalizer is a bit more popular, AWStats's reports are generally considered somewhat easier to understand.
Because these built-in tools are purchased and maintained by your Web host, no fees or installation are required. While basic, they are perfectly adequate options for those who simply want to keep an eye on their site.
Site Counters
You may have seen site counters on the bottom of Web pages. You can typically find these tools in the form of a number graphic at the bottom of a site's home page, indicating the number of people that have viewed the site.
A quick word about site counters: Don't use them. Nothing says, "My site was designed by an amateur" more than a site counter. There's no point in using one, as the free tools listed here will give you the same information without interfering with the look of your site.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics (www.google.com/analytics/) is in a class by itself. It offers substantially more functionality than the basic tools above, but is free (as opposed to the more advanced tools listed below).
Unlike tools such as Webalyzer or AWStats, you need to install Google Analytics on your site, which involves pasting a chuck of HTML (provided by Google) into every page. This obviously requires a bit of HTML know-how, but if you know what you're doing, shouldn't require too much effort. Depending on the size of your site and how it's set up, installing the Google Analytics code might take anywhere from a couple of minutes to a few hours. Once the code is added, Google displays your statistics in a custom reporting interface that you can view online.
In addition to the reports offered by tools like Webalizer or AWStats, Google allows you to find out how often visitors come to your site, tracks visitor conversion across a series of pages, compares the behavior of different types of visitors (such as new versus returning, or those from different referring sites), and much more. A selectable date range allows you to analyze any given time period, instead of being limited to a monthly view (as you are with AWStats and Webalizer). Google has a nifty feature that allows you to look at a rendered version of the site and see the percentage of people that clicked each link on a given page. It also offers robust integration to track the performance of any Google AdWords you have purchased.
Because the Google Analytics package is in an indefinite beta stage, some of the experts we consulted with cited occasional problems. Several reported difficulty in getting Google to show up-to-date stats, while others noted a very occasional loss in historic stats for an entire site. Google's customer service supports this product primarily through automated emails, so you may have little recourse if you encounter problems. The method by which this tool monitors traffic results in lower numbers (such as fewer visitors, and fewer page views) than some other methods. Also, keep in mind that Google offers its product for free because it makes money by watching you; by using Analytics, you're agreeing to let Google store your information and use it for aggregate reports.
Nevertheless, Google Analytics is widely used and widely liked. If you're building a new Web site, or have a bit of HTML knowledge, Google is a great free option for surprisingly robust analytics.
More Powerful Analytics Packages
If you find you're running into substantial limitations with Google Analytics, and you're ready to invest in a more predicable and powerful package, there are plenty of available options. The following tools give you substantially more control than any of the above packages; more powerful metrics; much more freedom to perform detailed user segmentation; the ability track detailed patterns; and, oftentimes, sophisticated data charts (such as trees or interactive layouts) that make it easier to track complex sites.
* ClickTracks (www.clicktracks.com). ClickTracks offers solid mid-priced to top-end analytics packages targeted toward non-technical marketing folks. Both an online version (similar to Google Analytics; you add a piece of code to your site and view the reports online) or an installed version (on your Web server) are available. ClickTracks is easy to use and offers many options for on-the-fly analysis of what different types of visitors are viewing on your site. Hosted packages are available at £12.50 a month, £50 a month, and £120 a month, and installed software ranges from £150 to £5,000 and up. Free trial versions of the hosted options are available on ClickTrack's Web site.
* WebTrends (www.webtrends.com). The well-known WebTrends has a broad user base and offers a variety of hosted and installed packages ranging in price from about £12.50 to £500 a month or more. While it's unclear if the less inexpensive packages offer much more than Google Analytics, their top-level products certainly do, with detailed data-mining features, including segmentation, click paths, conversion reporting, and a number of predictions and alert functionalities (for instance, you can be notified if your site reaches a certain level of traffic). Several of the experts we consulted with report that WebTrends is harder to use than others in this category, especially for non-technical staff. Their customer service, however, is easy to reach and helpful.
* WebSideStory HBX Analytics (www.websidestory.com). WebsideStory's HBX Analytics (formally HitBox) is widely regarded as one of the most powerful and usable hosted analytics solutions, appropriate for complex and highly trafficed Web sites. Like WebTrends, WebSideStory offers a wide range of price points, but is best known for its high-end products.
* Omniture's SiteCatalyst (www.omniture.com). Like HBX Analytics, SiteCatalyst is a powerful hosted analytics package directed at complex and high-traffic sites. It offers powerful segmentation and data-mining features that integrate with the tools's other functions, like email campaigns and site search. Usability is also a strength. SiteCatalyst starts at about $1,000 per month for a package that would support the site volume of most medium- and even large-sized nonprofits.
Choosing a Package
The first question to ask yourself when deciding on an analytic package is: Google Analytics or not? Google Analytics is a good default option for a lot of organizations. That said, if you have a Control Panel and analytic tools available to you through a shared Web host, you may take a look at AWStats and Webalyzer to see if they'll meet your needs. Of course, if you're familiar with Web statistics tools and want more than the analytics and limited control that Google offers, picking a more powerful analytics package might be the way to go.
The right Web analytics package can make a big difference in your ability to understand your visitors' needs and your site's traffic. Choosing the right option means you'll be able to track exactly what people are doing on your site, get all your (and your boss') questions answered, and maybe even sleep a little better at night.
If these types of questions keep you awake at night, you may need a good Web analytics tool (and possibly a better mattress).
Web analytics tools help you track your site's statistics, allowing you to see how many people are looking at which page, what sites your visitors are coming from, who your users are, and more. This information can in turn help you measure traffic, understand your visitors' needs and behavior, and gauge click-through rates to new content or features.
Whether you're a nonprofit or a for-profit, your data-tracking needs are virtually the same. Yet given the vast array of Web analytics tools out there, selecting the right package can be overwhelming. To help you understand your options, SPIWEB talked to six nonprofit experts about the Web analytics tools that they've seen work well, consulted postings on a number of nonprofit list serves, and scoured reports on the topic. Below, we'll show you what to consider when choosing an analytics package, and identify free tools and robust applications that can help you better understand your site's visitors.
Which Data Should You Analyze?
There's no point in looking for a tool without a sense of what you want to track. Needs can vary from simple traffic monitoring to complex analyses on the behavior of specific user groups, support for multivariate testing, and more.
What important metrics and figures should you keep in mind when selecting a Web analytics package?
* Hits. This is a metric that likely doesn't make sense for you to track, but you'll hear a lot about it regardless. A hit measures the number of requests for text, images, and files that your Web server receives for a given page. Despite what software packages may lead you to believe, hits are virtually meaningless when it comes to actually understanding what users are doing on your site. Because the number of hits a site receives depends on how it's organized, not how visitors interact with it, this metric is useful only in evaluating information such your server load.
* Visits. The most useful unit of measurement in site analytics is the number of visitors to a particular site or page. The trend in the overall number of visits to your site over time can give you insight into your site's popularity. Comparing the number of visits to each page is also a good way to identify which parts of your site are most useful to your visitors.
* Unique Visitors. This is the number of site visits by different users. If two people visit the site three times each, you'd have six visits by two unique visitors.
* Page Views. The number of times any page was viewed by any visitor. This is often divided by visits to give a page-views-per-visit figure that represents the average number of pages each visitor viewed on a single trip to your site. Increased page views can indicate a more interesting site, or simply one that requires people to jump through hoops to find what they need.
* Top Entry and Exit Pages. Just as they sound, these are the pages where most people enter your site (and don't assume it's the home page) and where most people leave it.
* Referrers. These are the external links that people follow to get to your site. For instance, if WebAnalyticsAssociation links to SPIWEB's site, WebAnalyticsAssociation would show up as a referrer in SPIWEB's Web stats. This metric can be very useful in tracking a big influx to your site or just in staying on top of who's talking about you.
* Search Keywords. Many stats packages can show the words or phrases people typed into search engines like Google or Yahoo in order to get to your site.
* Visitor Information. You can discover a lot about your visitors through analytics tools, including how many are new to the site, the country or region where they're located, the Web browser they're using, and much more.
* Click Paths. Also called click tracks, or click trees, these are graphical representations of typical journeys through your site. For instance, a click-path chart might show you that 20 percent of your home page visitors go on to click the Resources link, while 15 percent visit the About Us page, whereby 60 percent then leave the site and 10 percent go to the Board page ? and so on.
* Conversion. This is a complex statistic that typically needs to be customized in a tool or calculated by hand. Conversion tracks the number of people who did what you wanted them to do from a given starting point ? for instance, the number of users that went from a Donate link on your home page all the way through the donation process, or the percentage of people who viewed your home page and then signed up for your newsletter.
* Tracking Registered Users. If parts of your site require users to log in, a Web analytics tool can track exactly what those users did during each visit to the site. (Without a login, it’s not practical to link up data for a particular person from one visit to another.) This can allow for more detailed analyses and understanding of what different types of visitors are doing on your site.
* More Advanced Statistics. While the features listed above should be enough to get you going, powerful Web analytics tools support even more sophisticated analysis. There are professionals who make a living analyzing Web statistics; if you have a large site and the desire to do deep usage analysis, you may wish to consult with one of them.
The world of Web analytics is complicated by the fact that not every software package handles metrics in the same way. Determining what sequence of Web actions should be interpreted as a "visit" or a "unique visitor" is actually very complicated, and different tools calculate this differently. Don't be surprised if your metrics vary somewhat as you look at various tools.
Software Offered by Your Web Host
So now that you know what metrics and features you're looking for, what Web analytics software should you use? It turns out, you may already have some of the tools you need. If your Web site is hosted by a shared hosting company (such as DreamHost or LunarPages), you can likely access some Web statistics through the same control panel you use to administer email addresses, check available file space, and so on.
AWStats and Webalizer are the two most common statistics packages available through shared hosting services. Both are fairly basic, offering information about visits over time, most-visited pages, referrers, search strings, and some data about your visitor's browsers and locations. Though Webalizer is a bit more popular, AWStats's reports are generally considered somewhat easier to understand.
Because these built-in tools are purchased and maintained by your Web host, no fees or installation are required. While basic, they are perfectly adequate options for those who simply want to keep an eye on their site.
Site Counters
You may have seen site counters on the bottom of Web pages. You can typically find these tools in the form of a number graphic at the bottom of a site's home page, indicating the number of people that have viewed the site.
A quick word about site counters: Don't use them. Nothing says, "My site was designed by an amateur" more than a site counter. There's no point in using one, as the free tools listed here will give you the same information without interfering with the look of your site.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics (www.google.com/analytics/) is in a class by itself. It offers substantially more functionality than the basic tools above, but is free (as opposed to the more advanced tools listed below).
Unlike tools such as Webalyzer or AWStats, you need to install Google Analytics on your site, which involves pasting a chuck of HTML (provided by Google) into every page. This obviously requires a bit of HTML know-how, but if you know what you're doing, shouldn't require too much effort. Depending on the size of your site and how it's set up, installing the Google Analytics code might take anywhere from a couple of minutes to a few hours. Once the code is added, Google displays your statistics in a custom reporting interface that you can view online.
In addition to the reports offered by tools like Webalizer or AWStats, Google allows you to find out how often visitors come to your site, tracks visitor conversion across a series of pages, compares the behavior of different types of visitors (such as new versus returning, or those from different referring sites), and much more. A selectable date range allows you to analyze any given time period, instead of being limited to a monthly view (as you are with AWStats and Webalizer). Google has a nifty feature that allows you to look at a rendered version of the site and see the percentage of people that clicked each link on a given page. It also offers robust integration to track the performance of any Google AdWords you have purchased.
Because the Google Analytics package is in an indefinite beta stage, some of the experts we consulted with cited occasional problems. Several reported difficulty in getting Google to show up-to-date stats, while others noted a very occasional loss in historic stats for an entire site. Google's customer service supports this product primarily through automated emails, so you may have little recourse if you encounter problems. The method by which this tool monitors traffic results in lower numbers (such as fewer visitors, and fewer page views) than some other methods. Also, keep in mind that Google offers its product for free because it makes money by watching you; by using Analytics, you're agreeing to let Google store your information and use it for aggregate reports.
Nevertheless, Google Analytics is widely used and widely liked. If you're building a new Web site, or have a bit of HTML knowledge, Google is a great free option for surprisingly robust analytics.
More Powerful Analytics Packages
If you find you're running into substantial limitations with Google Analytics, and you're ready to invest in a more predicable and powerful package, there are plenty of available options. The following tools give you substantially more control than any of the above packages; more powerful metrics; much more freedom to perform detailed user segmentation; the ability track detailed patterns; and, oftentimes, sophisticated data charts (such as trees or interactive layouts) that make it easier to track complex sites.
* ClickTracks (www.clicktracks.com). ClickTracks offers solid mid-priced to top-end analytics packages targeted toward non-technical marketing folks. Both an online version (similar to Google Analytics; you add a piece of code to your site and view the reports online) or an installed version (on your Web server) are available. ClickTracks is easy to use and offers many options for on-the-fly analysis of what different types of visitors are viewing on your site. Hosted packages are available at £12.50 a month, £50 a month, and £120 a month, and installed software ranges from £150 to £5,000 and up. Free trial versions of the hosted options are available on ClickTrack's Web site.
* WebTrends (www.webtrends.com). The well-known WebTrends has a broad user base and offers a variety of hosted and installed packages ranging in price from about £12.50 to £500 a month or more. While it's unclear if the less inexpensive packages offer much more than Google Analytics, their top-level products certainly do, with detailed data-mining features, including segmentation, click paths, conversion reporting, and a number of predictions and alert functionalities (for instance, you can be notified if your site reaches a certain level of traffic). Several of the experts we consulted with report that WebTrends is harder to use than others in this category, especially for non-technical staff. Their customer service, however, is easy to reach and helpful.
* WebSideStory HBX Analytics (www.websidestory.com). WebsideStory's HBX Analytics (formally HitBox) is widely regarded as one of the most powerful and usable hosted analytics solutions, appropriate for complex and highly trafficed Web sites. Like WebTrends, WebSideStory offers a wide range of price points, but is best known for its high-end products.
* Omniture's SiteCatalyst (www.omniture.com). Like HBX Analytics, SiteCatalyst is a powerful hosted analytics package directed at complex and high-traffic sites. It offers powerful segmentation and data-mining features that integrate with the tools's other functions, like email campaigns and site search. Usability is also a strength. SiteCatalyst starts at about $1,000 per month for a package that would support the site volume of most medium- and even large-sized nonprofits.
Choosing a Package
The first question to ask yourself when deciding on an analytic package is: Google Analytics or not? Google Analytics is a good default option for a lot of organizations. That said, if you have a Control Panel and analytic tools available to you through a shared Web host, you may take a look at AWStats and Webalyzer to see if they'll meet your needs. Of course, if you're familiar with Web statistics tools and want more than the analytics and limited control that Google offers, picking a more powerful analytics package might be the way to go.
The right Web analytics package can make a big difference in your ability to understand your visitors' needs and your site's traffic. Choosing the right option means you'll be able to track exactly what people are doing on your site, get all your (and your boss') questions answered, and maybe even sleep a little better at night.
Gasta Marketing: Social Media Earns its crust
Marketers are finding new homes for search ads outside the traditional framework of search engines, according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required). Striking a goal aimed at cutting costs while still boosting clients' online exposure, marketers are turning to social media powerhouses and internet darlings like Google-owned YouTube.
More online searches are done on YouTube than on Yahoo, the No. 2 search engine, the Journal reports. That shift has prompted brands like Pizza Hut, Universal Pictures, and Monster.com to move marketing dollars away from higher-priced search engines to social networking sites and destinations that generate high traffic from mobile phones.
"Search is being redefined in a lot of different ways," Peter Hershberg, managing partner at Reprise Media, told the Journal.
For example, Pizza Hut has been buying mobile search ads to pitch its products and is creating a promotion and building ads through Facebook to drive interest in a new whole-grain pizza being sold by the chain. Universal Pictures is promoting recent film releases on YouTube, and Monster.com is testing a search-ad program for mobile search on the iPhone.
Search has become the largest category for online ad spending in the U.S. over the last decade, but social networking sites are still having a tough time generating large ad revenue because of the content that often finds a home on such sites. Whereas marketers buy ads tied to search terms on sites like Google, ads on Facebook and MySpace are linked to personal information that users share with others online.
More online searches are done on YouTube than on Yahoo, the No. 2 search engine, the Journal reports. That shift has prompted brands like Pizza Hut, Universal Pictures, and Monster.com to move marketing dollars away from higher-priced search engines to social networking sites and destinations that generate high traffic from mobile phones.
"Search is being redefined in a lot of different ways," Peter Hershberg, managing partner at Reprise Media, told the Journal.
For example, Pizza Hut has been buying mobile search ads to pitch its products and is creating a promotion and building ads through Facebook to drive interest in a new whole-grain pizza being sold by the chain. Universal Pictures is promoting recent film releases on YouTube, and Monster.com is testing a search-ad program for mobile search on the iPhone.
Search has become the largest category for online ad spending in the U.S. over the last decade, but social networking sites are still having a tough time generating large ad revenue because of the content that often finds a home on such sites. Whereas marketers buy ads tied to search terms on sites like Google, ads on Facebook and MySpace are linked to personal information that users share with others online.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Gasta News: The future of search & Blended Search
The future of search: 5 ways to prepare
By Kevin Ryan
The process of searching and finding on the internet is changing right before our eyes. Billions of pages have been indexed and organized into relevant results to match billions of queries. The first goal of search engines was to gather as many pages as they could into an index. The next goal of each search engine included ranking the queries while delivering results as fast as possible. Searching and finding was meant to be a fast, efficient experience.
The introduction and subsequent proliferation of blended search results have changed the way searchers think while they search. Searchers are now being programmed to spend more time on the search results page. Their search experience is being enriched with more visual candy, and the days of providing a link and exit from the search page as quickly as possible are over.
Marketers have to learn how to function in the new age of search. Every inch of a company's web presence has the potential to be included on the main search results page. Video, images, and local business information (including maps) are now being included on search results pages. Smart marketers who recognize and embrace these changes will move ahead of their competitors and gain more revenue, mindshare, and brand equity.
Are you ready for the new Gasta search?
1. Rethink your thinking
Search engine optimization used to mean garnering hundreds of back links into a website and then hoping that search engines would rank your site favorably. Prior to that, search engines only read text through robotic software applications called crawlers or bots, so optimizing was all about the text.
Search engine result pages predictably included miles and miles of text listings, along with sponsored listings that can be bought in an auction format. Thus, SEO was focused primarily on obtaining better rankings through popularity and clearly labeling your content to make sure listing results were accurate and timely.
Ah, what a grand time it was.
Today's search results are a complex labyrinth consisting of text listings and advertisements for websites, along with video, maps, images, news, and local information. Google's introduction of Universal Search, combined with moves by other major search engines like Yahoo and Microsoft to offer consistently "blended" search results, has changed the way results are offered to the consuming public.
Your thinking had better change with the results.
2. Understand what's in the blend
Your content must now be segmented and thought of as individual assets that can (and should) be optimized independently. In the past, getting someone to your website from a search engine meant healthy, vibrant content. Rarely did we think of ancillary content as a means of appearing in search results.
comScore's qSearch reports more than 30 percent of all search results contained at least one blended result in September 2008. That number has been steadily increasing over time, and I expect blended penetration to continue a steady upward climb over the next year. Also in September 2008, comScore observed that 85 percent of searchers saw some type of blended result.
So, if nearly one-third of results contain some type of blend, what do those blends look like? While your business category results should be scrutinized on their own, qSearch data suggest that video is the most popular segment of all blended results.
Other segments of blended results getting attention include: "news," "images," "shopping," "entertainment," and "travel."
The problem is this: A high-ranking website doesn't necessarily mean high rankings for, or inclusion of, other site assets. It also doesn't mean that your content will be featured in an associated search for your brand, products, or services. Therefore, challenges facing the search engine marketer going forward will include stiffer competition for getting assets included from competitors, amateurs, and related providers.
Understanding where engines place emphasis is mission-critical.
3. Know who's blending what
Google is blending everything from news, images, and shopping to maps, stocks, weather, and travel. Google stands alone in including "books," "blogs," and "groups" information in its blended results.
Microsoft's Live Search is including health information as well, but unlike Google, MSN is taking a pass on "multiple" types of blended results and the likes of "books" and "groups." Yahoo is not including "books," "blogs," "groups," or health information in its blended results.
Every search engine is including local information, news, and video in its blended results. Local business information is also included with maps and weather, so local ads and assets are becoming more important than ever. Are all of your local addresses and telephone numbers correct? Get on it.
Another interesting development is the inclusion of "answers" and "definitions" categories in blended results across the top three search sites. These are most often in response to information gathering, as opposed to immediate commerce-driven searches, but that doesn't mean people aren't searching for technically specific information in searches. Technical information about an electronics item or the national switch to digital television, for example, may be high in the purchase funnel, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be there.
A searcher looking for information on "sarcoidosis" might be looking for information on diagnosis, but they could also be a potential medical drama audience member. Why shouldn't a 20-second clip from the television series "House" appear in a "sarcoidosis" search result alongside the mountain of pharma ads and "answers?"
A mid-tail search like "foam ear pads" for in-ear headphones might appear benign enough, but what about the commercial impact of images in results? If I am peddling $500 in-ear noise isolating headphones like the Shure SE530, I'd want to make sure my images (as opposed to only amateur images) appear in search results.
Any way you slice the blend, search is getting more personal.
4. Get personal with results
As search results become more personalized and relevant to the unique searcher, competition will increase for paid search market share. Searchers are either unaware or could care less about providing information to search engines about how they search.
My iGoogle page has local information news and fun gadgets. Yahoo and Microsoft also offer customized search solutions driven by the natural human desire to make everything one's own. Google even introduced an experimental project that allows users to rate search listings and suggest alternative sites. Yahoo's Search Monkey is another example of the search personalization phenomenon. Search Monkey is an open platform that Yahoo hopes will make search more useful and visually compelling.
Why would people invest time in helping Google make money? Why aren't people just searching and finding? The basic human need for recognition is a flame that has burned since the dawn of modern man. The internet and personalized search have poured napalm on that flame.
In the early stages of video's inclusion in blended results, one could watch the video on the results page. Watching video in results was quickly eliminated for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the need for search engines to have searchers click off the page, as opposed to loitering on it.
While many of the projects search engines are engaged in to make search more efficient may be temporary, we will see components of these experiments incorporated on future search pages.
Information gathering is not a new phenomenon for search engines hoping to create a more relevant experience for searchers. The impact this information gathering has on the results page has never been more pronounced.
Personalization and customization will serve to facilitate increased blended search and thus serve to increase competitive activity in paid results. Recreating the search results page as a temporary destination, as opposed to a quick clicking-off point, will work against you if you do not shift your search engine marketing strategy to accommodate the change.
The search model has changed; how shall I begin to change with it?
5. Optimize everything
Now is the time to use every aspect of what you know about your existing and potential audience. You must apply that knowledge to your search strategy. You can't optimize everything out of the chute, so focus on the top-blended search categories initially.
Whether searching for "sushi" or "puppies" to the latest on "Beyonce" and "Britney," along with everything in between, the social components of the web are beginning to appear in search results. If you can't afford to start shooting video with your latest and greatest information, chances are your fans and detractors already have created brand love or hate content. Amping up social media marketing strategies with a search priority should be another driver for embracing the new search.
Video, local, news, and maps are among the highest categories represented in blended results, but niche interests are also represented. Consider the random and obscure search for a "coach gun scabbard." Embedded within the results page for coach gun scabbards was an amateur video reviewing scabbards made for -- you guessed it -- coach guns.
Make sure images, video, and local information are both accurate and included. Tagging video information is very important, but so are popularity rankings, so make sure you are putting your best foot forward.
From top-end search traffic to obscure mid- and long-tail searches, blended search has changed the way we find everything on the web. It is still early enough in the game to achieve some big and quick wins with modern audience optimization tactics -- so what are you waiting for?
Kevin Ryan is CMO of WebVisible Inc.
By Kevin Ryan
The process of searching and finding on the internet is changing right before our eyes. Billions of pages have been indexed and organized into relevant results to match billions of queries. The first goal of search engines was to gather as many pages as they could into an index. The next goal of each search engine included ranking the queries while delivering results as fast as possible. Searching and finding was meant to be a fast, efficient experience.
The introduction and subsequent proliferation of blended search results have changed the way searchers think while they search. Searchers are now being programmed to spend more time on the search results page. Their search experience is being enriched with more visual candy, and the days of providing a link and exit from the search page as quickly as possible are over.
Marketers have to learn how to function in the new age of search. Every inch of a company's web presence has the potential to be included on the main search results page. Video, images, and local business information (including maps) are now being included on search results pages. Smart marketers who recognize and embrace these changes will move ahead of their competitors and gain more revenue, mindshare, and brand equity.
Are you ready for the new Gasta search?
1. Rethink your thinking
Search engine optimization used to mean garnering hundreds of back links into a website and then hoping that search engines would rank your site favorably. Prior to that, search engines only read text through robotic software applications called crawlers or bots, so optimizing was all about the text.
Search engine result pages predictably included miles and miles of text listings, along with sponsored listings that can be bought in an auction format. Thus, SEO was focused primarily on obtaining better rankings through popularity and clearly labeling your content to make sure listing results were accurate and timely.
Ah, what a grand time it was.
Today's search results are a complex labyrinth consisting of text listings and advertisements for websites, along with video, maps, images, news, and local information. Google's introduction of Universal Search, combined with moves by other major search engines like Yahoo and Microsoft to offer consistently "blended" search results, has changed the way results are offered to the consuming public.
Your thinking had better change with the results.
2. Understand what's in the blend
Your content must now be segmented and thought of as individual assets that can (and should) be optimized independently. In the past, getting someone to your website from a search engine meant healthy, vibrant content. Rarely did we think of ancillary content as a means of appearing in search results.
comScore's qSearch reports more than 30 percent of all search results contained at least one blended result in September 2008. That number has been steadily increasing over time, and I expect blended penetration to continue a steady upward climb over the next year. Also in September 2008, comScore observed that 85 percent of searchers saw some type of blended result.
So, if nearly one-third of results contain some type of blend, what do those blends look like? While your business category results should be scrutinized on their own, qSearch data suggest that video is the most popular segment of all blended results.
Other segments of blended results getting attention include: "news," "images," "shopping," "entertainment," and "travel."
The problem is this: A high-ranking website doesn't necessarily mean high rankings for, or inclusion of, other site assets. It also doesn't mean that your content will be featured in an associated search for your brand, products, or services. Therefore, challenges facing the search engine marketer going forward will include stiffer competition for getting assets included from competitors, amateurs, and related providers.
Understanding where engines place emphasis is mission-critical.
3. Know who's blending what
Google is blending everything from news, images, and shopping to maps, stocks, weather, and travel. Google stands alone in including "books," "blogs," and "groups" information in its blended results.
Microsoft's Live Search is including health information as well, but unlike Google, MSN is taking a pass on "multiple" types of blended results and the likes of "books" and "groups." Yahoo is not including "books," "blogs," "groups," or health information in its blended results.
Every search engine is including local information, news, and video in its blended results. Local business information is also included with maps and weather, so local ads and assets are becoming more important than ever. Are all of your local addresses and telephone numbers correct? Get on it.
Another interesting development is the inclusion of "answers" and "definitions" categories in blended results across the top three search sites. These are most often in response to information gathering, as opposed to immediate commerce-driven searches, but that doesn't mean people aren't searching for technically specific information in searches. Technical information about an electronics item or the national switch to digital television, for example, may be high in the purchase funnel, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be there.
A searcher looking for information on "sarcoidosis" might be looking for information on diagnosis, but they could also be a potential medical drama audience member. Why shouldn't a 20-second clip from the television series "House" appear in a "sarcoidosis" search result alongside the mountain of pharma ads and "answers?"
A mid-tail search like "foam ear pads" for in-ear headphones might appear benign enough, but what about the commercial impact of images in results? If I am peddling $500 in-ear noise isolating headphones like the Shure SE530, I'd want to make sure my images (as opposed to only amateur images) appear in search results.
Any way you slice the blend, search is getting more personal.
4. Get personal with results
As search results become more personalized and relevant to the unique searcher, competition will increase for paid search market share. Searchers are either unaware or could care less about providing information to search engines about how they search.
My iGoogle page has local information news and fun gadgets. Yahoo and Microsoft also offer customized search solutions driven by the natural human desire to make everything one's own. Google even introduced an experimental project that allows users to rate search listings and suggest alternative sites. Yahoo's Search Monkey is another example of the search personalization phenomenon. Search Monkey is an open platform that Yahoo hopes will make search more useful and visually compelling.
Why would people invest time in helping Google make money? Why aren't people just searching and finding? The basic human need for recognition is a flame that has burned since the dawn of modern man. The internet and personalized search have poured napalm on that flame.
In the early stages of video's inclusion in blended results, one could watch the video on the results page. Watching video in results was quickly eliminated for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the need for search engines to have searchers click off the page, as opposed to loitering on it.
While many of the projects search engines are engaged in to make search more efficient may be temporary, we will see components of these experiments incorporated on future search pages.
Information gathering is not a new phenomenon for search engines hoping to create a more relevant experience for searchers. The impact this information gathering has on the results page has never been more pronounced.
Personalization and customization will serve to facilitate increased blended search and thus serve to increase competitive activity in paid results. Recreating the search results page as a temporary destination, as opposed to a quick clicking-off point, will work against you if you do not shift your search engine marketing strategy to accommodate the change.
The search model has changed; how shall I begin to change with it?
5. Optimize everything
Now is the time to use every aspect of what you know about your existing and potential audience. You must apply that knowledge to your search strategy. You can't optimize everything out of the chute, so focus on the top-blended search categories initially.
Whether searching for "sushi" or "puppies" to the latest on "Beyonce" and "Britney," along with everything in between, the social components of the web are beginning to appear in search results. If you can't afford to start shooting video with your latest and greatest information, chances are your fans and detractors already have created brand love or hate content. Amping up social media marketing strategies with a search priority should be another driver for embracing the new search.
Video, local, news, and maps are among the highest categories represented in blended results, but niche interests are also represented. Consider the random and obscure search for a "coach gun scabbard." Embedded within the results page for coach gun scabbards was an amateur video reviewing scabbards made for -- you guessed it -- coach guns.
Make sure images, video, and local information are both accurate and included. Tagging video information is very important, but so are popularity rankings, so make sure you are putting your best foot forward.
From top-end search traffic to obscure mid- and long-tail searches, blended search has changed the way we find everything on the web. It is still early enough in the game to achieve some big and quick wins with modern audience optimization tactics -- so what are you waiting for?
Kevin Ryan is CMO of WebVisible Inc.
Gasta News: Digital Industry awaits the Carter Report
It will be a case of Get Carter as the Digital Industry rushes to find out the proposition of Stephen Carters report on Digital Britain.
The digital industry is buzzing ahead of Stephen Carter's much-anticipated Digital Britain report, but let's not forget the compelling vision at the centre of Carter's report: the aim to make the UK a world-leading digital creative capital.
Speaking last week, Carter hinted at a need to create greater opportunities and protection for the creative industries, in order to help the UK become a location of choice for the content industries. The plan is to create the regulatory framework and structures to help shape a Britain that is fit for purpose in the digital future.
Reports today suggest Carter will push for BBC Worldwide to be freed from its regulatory shackles to allow the commercial organisation to become a "British rights company on the global stage".
It's part of Carter's vision to ensure British content continues to be exported around the world in order to reap the economic and cultural benefits. With the UK largely viewed as a leader in digital advertising, it's time the content and technology industries were awarded the same kudos.
Carter's vision is imperative as the global content market accelerates. The UK market needs to create infrastructures that support the nurturing and growth of home grown talent and businesses.
Channel 4 CEO Andy Duncan has said the report could be one of the most important elements in deciding how the UK competes in the global economy. He believes it could determine how Britain contributes culturally, creatively and economically through the turbulent times ahead and has urged the UK media industry to work together to support the UK's cultural and economic future. Duncan's not wrong on this point. The potential to create an established vision is both necessary and inspiring - if it works.
Interestingly this comes ahead of the Competition Commission's decision on Project Kangaroo due early next month. While local rivals and the CC itself have major concerns about the potential lessening of competition in the UK market, the shareholders - ITV, Channel 4 and BBC Worldwide - have always argued that Kangaroo is crucial to the UK's ability to compete on a global stage as the likes of Hulu and iTunes continue to grow internationally.
With Carter's vision likely to stir up much debate in this area, is it possible that the controversial video-on demand service may still manage to limp across the line?
The digital industry is buzzing ahead of Stephen Carter's much-anticipated Digital Britain report, but let's not forget the compelling vision at the centre of Carter's report: the aim to make the UK a world-leading digital creative capital.
Speaking last week, Carter hinted at a need to create greater opportunities and protection for the creative industries, in order to help the UK become a location of choice for the content industries. The plan is to create the regulatory framework and structures to help shape a Britain that is fit for purpose in the digital future.
Reports today suggest Carter will push for BBC Worldwide to be freed from its regulatory shackles to allow the commercial organisation to become a "British rights company on the global stage".
It's part of Carter's vision to ensure British content continues to be exported around the world in order to reap the economic and cultural benefits. With the UK largely viewed as a leader in digital advertising, it's time the content and technology industries were awarded the same kudos.
Carter's vision is imperative as the global content market accelerates. The UK market needs to create infrastructures that support the nurturing and growth of home grown talent and businesses.
Channel 4 CEO Andy Duncan has said the report could be one of the most important elements in deciding how the UK competes in the global economy. He believes it could determine how Britain contributes culturally, creatively and economically through the turbulent times ahead and has urged the UK media industry to work together to support the UK's cultural and economic future. Duncan's not wrong on this point. The potential to create an established vision is both necessary and inspiring - if it works.
Interestingly this comes ahead of the Competition Commission's decision on Project Kangaroo due early next month. While local rivals and the CC itself have major concerns about the potential lessening of competition in the UK market, the shareholders - ITV, Channel 4 and BBC Worldwide - have always argued that Kangaroo is crucial to the UK's ability to compete on a global stage as the likes of Hulu and iTunes continue to grow internationally.
With Carter's vision likely to stir up much debate in this area, is it possible that the controversial video-on demand service may still manage to limp across the line?
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Gasta Advertising: Latest trend news
Search Advertising Slowed in 2008
Though Internet advertising has been vulnerable to the overall economic decline, search advertising has become more desirable for marketers. Still, U.S. search advertising saw its annual spending increase slow down a bit from its 2007 growth.
During the first half of 2008, $5.06 billion was spent on paid search, according to a report released by Interactive Advertising Bureau/PricewaterhouseCoopers. This reflected a 23.6 percent increase compared to the first half of 2007 when paid search spending was $4.10 billion.
However, search advertising saw its annual spending increase $1.89 billion in 2008, reflecting a slower growth compared to the $2.01 billion in additional year-over-year spending in 2007, according to eMarketer.
Search advertising annual spending increases are expected to remain relatively sluggish until 2012.
Video advertising saw a 245 percent increase in revenues during the first half of 2008, thanks mostly to a low base figure from the first half of 2007.
Sponsorships and classifieds both saw declines during the first half of 2008 compared to the same period in 2007. Classifieds lost 5.2 percent, while sponsorships lost 23.3 percent in revenues, according to the IAB/PwC study.
Search advertising’s share of total online ad spending increase to 45.3 percent in 2008 from 41.5 percent in 2007.
eMarketer attributes this to search advertising’s performance-based approach, which allows marketers to keep this area accountable and controlled during tough economic times.
Source:
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006853
Though Internet advertising has been vulnerable to the overall economic decline, search advertising has become more desirable for marketers. Still, U.S. search advertising saw its annual spending increase slow down a bit from its 2007 growth.
During the first half of 2008, $5.06 billion was spent on paid search, according to a report released by Interactive Advertising Bureau/PricewaterhouseCoopers. This reflected a 23.6 percent increase compared to the first half of 2007 when paid search spending was $4.10 billion.
However, search advertising saw its annual spending increase $1.89 billion in 2008, reflecting a slower growth compared to the $2.01 billion in additional year-over-year spending in 2007, according to eMarketer.
Search advertising annual spending increases are expected to remain relatively sluggish until 2012.
Video advertising saw a 245 percent increase in revenues during the first half of 2008, thanks mostly to a low base figure from the first half of 2007.
Sponsorships and classifieds both saw declines during the first half of 2008 compared to the same period in 2007. Classifieds lost 5.2 percent, while sponsorships lost 23.3 percent in revenues, according to the IAB/PwC study.
Search advertising’s share of total online ad spending increase to 45.3 percent in 2008 from 41.5 percent in 2007.
eMarketer attributes this to search advertising’s performance-based approach, which allows marketers to keep this area accountable and controlled during tough economic times.
Source:
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006853
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Gasta News: China online growth explosion
China's online population, already the world's largest, has expanded to 298 million.
This marks a 41.9% increase on the previous year and is still growing fast, said the government-linked China Internet Network Information Centre.
The study also showed huge increases in the number of people in China accessing the internet through mobile phones.
The report by Cinic also noted that internet use in the countryside was increasing faster than in the cities.
At the end of 2008, the number of net users in China, which has a population of 1.3 billion, was almost the same as the entire population of the United States.
Users in the countryside surged by 60.8% year-on-year to 84.6 million, compared with much more modest growth of 35.6% in the urban areas, the report said.
The Cinic report said 117.6 million people accessed the internet using their mobile phones last year, up 133% from 2007.
Students are the main strength of mobile internet users, the study said: 43.5% of them use their mobile phones to read online news, download music, check email and perform a variety of other tasks.
3G boom
China, with 633.8 million mobile phone users, last week issued long-awaited licences for third-generation (3G) mobile phones to China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom.
CHINA'S INTERNET USE
Total users: 298 million
Year-on-year increase: 41.9%
Mobile net users: 117.6 million
Internet penetration: 22.6%
"With the coming of the 3G era, wireless internet will have exponential growth," Cinic said in a statement accompanying the release of its report.
3G phones enable faster data transmission and services such as watching TV, playing online games, wide-area wireless calls and web surfing.
By 2011, the three operators expect to start 3G services all over China, a move which analysts predict will spur further massive growth in mobile internet use.
As the categories of mobile internet services increase, charges have also been dropping fast.
China's internet penetration is still low at just 22.6%, leaving more room for rapid growth, Cinic said.
Constraints
The study said 234 million people surfed the internet to read or watch news by the end of 2008, a much higher estimate than recently made by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
In 2007, 155 million Chinese internet users relied on the web to read news, accounting for 73.6% of the total internet population, according to Cinic.
It also said the number of Chinese bloggers hit 162 million by the end of 2008.
China's booming internet use comes despite the government's tight grip on the web.
Certain websites deemed politically sensitive are blocked; these include the BBC's Chinese language news site, Reporters Without Borders and some Hong Kong and Taiwan sites.
Access to sites offering diverse political opinions remains highly restricted, even as Chinese intellectuals and activists regularly brave the constraints to post new statements.
The government is also targeting what it calls unhealthy content on the internet. Earlier this month, it launched a campaign to get rid of vulgar and pornographic content, targeting 19 websites and search engines it said had failed to remove unsuitable material.
Authorities in Beijing, meanwhile, actively use the internet to sway opinion, put across actions and ideas, and promote top leaders.
This marks a 41.9% increase on the previous year and is still growing fast, said the government-linked China Internet Network Information Centre.
The study also showed huge increases in the number of people in China accessing the internet through mobile phones.
The report by Cinic also noted that internet use in the countryside was increasing faster than in the cities.
At the end of 2008, the number of net users in China, which has a population of 1.3 billion, was almost the same as the entire population of the United States.
Users in the countryside surged by 60.8% year-on-year to 84.6 million, compared with much more modest growth of 35.6% in the urban areas, the report said.
The Cinic report said 117.6 million people accessed the internet using their mobile phones last year, up 133% from 2007.
Students are the main strength of mobile internet users, the study said: 43.5% of them use their mobile phones to read online news, download music, check email and perform a variety of other tasks.
3G boom
China, with 633.8 million mobile phone users, last week issued long-awaited licences for third-generation (3G) mobile phones to China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom.
CHINA'S INTERNET USE
Total users: 298 million
Year-on-year increase: 41.9%
Mobile net users: 117.6 million
Internet penetration: 22.6%
"With the coming of the 3G era, wireless internet will have exponential growth," Cinic said in a statement accompanying the release of its report.
3G phones enable faster data transmission and services such as watching TV, playing online games, wide-area wireless calls and web surfing.
By 2011, the three operators expect to start 3G services all over China, a move which analysts predict will spur further massive growth in mobile internet use.
As the categories of mobile internet services increase, charges have also been dropping fast.
China's internet penetration is still low at just 22.6%, leaving more room for rapid growth, Cinic said.
Constraints
The study said 234 million people surfed the internet to read or watch news by the end of 2008, a much higher estimate than recently made by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
In 2007, 155 million Chinese internet users relied on the web to read news, accounting for 73.6% of the total internet population, according to Cinic.
It also said the number of Chinese bloggers hit 162 million by the end of 2008.
China's booming internet use comes despite the government's tight grip on the web.
Certain websites deemed politically sensitive are blocked; these include the BBC's Chinese language news site, Reporters Without Borders and some Hong Kong and Taiwan sites.
Access to sites offering diverse political opinions remains highly restricted, even as Chinese intellectuals and activists regularly brave the constraints to post new statements.
The government is also targeting what it calls unhealthy content on the internet. Earlier this month, it launched a campaign to get rid of vulgar and pornographic content, targeting 19 websites and search engines it said had failed to remove unsuitable material.
Authorities in Beijing, meanwhile, actively use the internet to sway opinion, put across actions and ideas, and promote top leaders.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Gasta News: Top ten online retailers in UK see Increase in Traffic in December 2008
Visits to the top ten online UK retailers grew by an average of 37% year-on-year through the Christmas period, according to Nielsen Online.
Amazon, which averaged 15.6m unique users each month during the Christmas period (October to December) and Play.com, which averaged 5.7m unique users a month, were the only pure-plays to feature in the top ten.
Amazon was top of the list, with Argos coming in second (8.2m users on average per month) and Tesco in third (7.3m MW Live users on average each month).
Littlewoods, which ranked sixth, was the fastest growing site in the top ten after it saw a 66% year-on-year increase.
Asda (8th) grew by 53% over the Christmas period while Marks & Spencer (5th) saw a 46% increase.
Alex Burmaster, communications director of Nielsen Online, said, "Online retail won't be impervious to the tighter financial environment but it has an opportunity to weather the storm better than other elements of the economy, particularly if retailers promote the web as the best way of finding cheaper goods in the most efficient and convenient way possible."
Amazon, which averaged 15.6m unique users each month during the Christmas period (October to December) and Play.com, which averaged 5.7m unique users a month, were the only pure-plays to feature in the top ten.
Amazon was top of the list, with Argos coming in second (8.2m users on average per month) and Tesco in third (7.3m MW Live users on average each month).
Littlewoods, which ranked sixth, was the fastest growing site in the top ten after it saw a 66% year-on-year increase.
Asda (8th) grew by 53% over the Christmas period while Marks & Spencer (5th) saw a 46% increase.
Alex Burmaster, communications director of Nielsen Online, said, "Online retail won't be impervious to the tighter financial environment but it has an opportunity to weather the storm better than other elements of the economy, particularly if retailers promote the web as the best way of finding cheaper goods in the most efficient and convenient way possible."
Monday, January 12, 2009
Gasta Profile:Nortel Networks Corporation
Nortel Networks Corporation (NYSE: NT) with revenues of $11.4 billion in 2006 is a global supplier of networking solutions to both service providers and enterprises. It is a leader in delivering VoIP and Wide Area Networking to carrier customers, holds the number-two position in providing carriers with optical equipment, is the number-one provider of total enterprise telephony lines, and is the second-largest provider of IP business telephony. Its business is organized in four segments: Carrier Networks (CN), Enterprise Solutions (ES) Global Services (GS), and Metro Ethernet Networks (MEN).
Nortel anticipates increase in demand for wireless networking solutions due to network traffic growth to support applications such as mobile video. To cater to this demand, it plans to increase its investment in metro Ethernet to support video delivery over wired as well as wireless access and in next generation products. To capitalize on the trend towards IP converged networks, it is trying to focus on the enterprise market and strengthen its end-to-end convergence solutions.
In 2006, it acquired Tasman Networks to strengthen its data networking portfolio and formed a strategic alliance with Microsoft to accelerate availability of unified communications. In 2005, it formed a joint venture with LG Electronics. In March this year, it announced that it would offer its own set-top box to carriers as part of its IPTV strategy. The set top boxes would be manufactured by its LG-Nortel joint venture.
In May 2007, Nortel announced its Nortel Hosted Solutions for enterprises and service providers. The portfolio, with a strong focus on the enterprise segment includes IP telephony, unified communications, automatic call distribution (ACD), contact centers and other network application services delivered to enterprises through service providers using equipment owned and managed by Nortel. It has also entered into an agreement with Polycom to jointly deliver telepresence and high definition (HD) video conferencing solutions to enterprises.
On the financial front, Nortel reported revenues of $2.56 billion in Q2 2007, a decrease of 8% compared to Q2 2006. Revenues decreased in the CN, MEN and GS segments, partially offset by an increase in the ES segment. The decline in revenue was mainly due to UMTS Access divestiture in 2006. It also reported net loss of $37 million compared to earnings of $342 million in Q2 2006. In Q1 2007, Nortel announced its 2007 Restructuring Plan which would reduce its workforce by 2,900 employees and shift approximately 1,000 positions from higher-cost to lower-cost locations. This plan is expected to save $400 million annually.
Nortel’s market cap is $7.47 billion, well below its annual revenue number. Its stock is on a downward trend since February this year when it had reached a high of $31.6. It is currently hovering around $17.
As the online video driven networking equipment market momentum marches on, a distinct possibility is that Cisco’s competitors would consolidate as a combined force. Today, the networking industry is represented as Cisco and the Seven Dwarfs. Well, if at least 3-4 of the dwarfs get together, the chances of actually being able to compete in specific markets would become higher. In fact, the combination of Nortel, 3Com and Polycom would create more efficient industry dynamics, whereby, rather than also having to compete amongst each other, they can focus their combined energy on competing with Cisco. It would also create a larger entity (although still only one-third the size of Cisco) that has product offerings in most of the important segments on the networking market, from Carriers, to Enterprise, to SME. The missing pieces need to be brought together from the other dwarfs, some of which we will explore this week.
In the meantime, Nortel, like 3Com, needs to continue cleaning up its house.
Nortel anticipates increase in demand for wireless networking solutions due to network traffic growth to support applications such as mobile video. To cater to this demand, it plans to increase its investment in metro Ethernet to support video delivery over wired as well as wireless access and in next generation products. To capitalize on the trend towards IP converged networks, it is trying to focus on the enterprise market and strengthen its end-to-end convergence solutions.
In 2006, it acquired Tasman Networks to strengthen its data networking portfolio and formed a strategic alliance with Microsoft to accelerate availability of unified communications. In 2005, it formed a joint venture with LG Electronics. In March this year, it announced that it would offer its own set-top box to carriers as part of its IPTV strategy. The set top boxes would be manufactured by its LG-Nortel joint venture.
In May 2007, Nortel announced its Nortel Hosted Solutions for enterprises and service providers. The portfolio, with a strong focus on the enterprise segment includes IP telephony, unified communications, automatic call distribution (ACD), contact centers and other network application services delivered to enterprises through service providers using equipment owned and managed by Nortel. It has also entered into an agreement with Polycom to jointly deliver telepresence and high definition (HD) video conferencing solutions to enterprises.
On the financial front, Nortel reported revenues of $2.56 billion in Q2 2007, a decrease of 8% compared to Q2 2006. Revenues decreased in the CN, MEN and GS segments, partially offset by an increase in the ES segment. The decline in revenue was mainly due to UMTS Access divestiture in 2006. It also reported net loss of $37 million compared to earnings of $342 million in Q2 2006. In Q1 2007, Nortel announced its 2007 Restructuring Plan which would reduce its workforce by 2,900 employees and shift approximately 1,000 positions from higher-cost to lower-cost locations. This plan is expected to save $400 million annually.
Nortel’s market cap is $7.47 billion, well below its annual revenue number. Its stock is on a downward trend since February this year when it had reached a high of $31.6. It is currently hovering around $17.
As the online video driven networking equipment market momentum marches on, a distinct possibility is that Cisco’s competitors would consolidate as a combined force. Today, the networking industry is represented as Cisco and the Seven Dwarfs. Well, if at least 3-4 of the dwarfs get together, the chances of actually being able to compete in specific markets would become higher. In fact, the combination of Nortel, 3Com and Polycom would create more efficient industry dynamics, whereby, rather than also having to compete amongst each other, they can focus their combined energy on competing with Cisco. It would also create a larger entity (although still only one-third the size of Cisco) that has product offerings in most of the important segments on the networking market, from Carriers, to Enterprise, to SME. The missing pieces need to be brought together from the other dwarfs, some of which we will explore this week.
In the meantime, Nortel, like 3Com, needs to continue cleaning up its house.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Gasta News:Hibernia Atlantic to link Northern Ireland to an underwater transatlantic communications cable for the first time.
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.
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.
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
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
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
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