Gasta.com Expanded audiences, expanded opportunities

Gasta.com Expanded audiences, expanded opportunities
My first E3 was in 2000. There I was, at the biggest video game tradeshow on the planet -- a world of wonder and expectations that would be my first peek into the future of entertainment. It was the year before the first Xbox was launched, and the point at which Microsoft was entering the game world with its own hardware. It was also the time that I began to think about the potential of video games beyond just personal entertainment.
I went to E3 seeking opportunities to meet publishers who might let me experiment with their creations and use them as a unique way to deliver a brand message. At the time, I wasn't sure how and when that would happen -- and, based on the puzzled stares that were the standard response from the people on the floor with whom I first shared this idea almost a decade ago, the notion was foreign, if not outright weird. A handful of advertisers were already experimenting with video games, but for the most part they were one-off attempts, narrowly focused on trying something "new" to get teens' attention.
Nine years later, video games and audiences have expanded dramatically, an evolutionary path driven by the desire of consumers of all ages, genders, and socioeconomic statuses to have a more participatory entertainment experience.
According to the Entertainment Software Association, 68 percent of U.S. households now play games -- in other words, more than 170 million players. Other studies show games topping the list of favorite pastimes for both the obvious and the less-than-obvious segments of the population. The average age of today's gamer in the U.S. is 35, but there really is no such thing as an age barrier anymore. There is a game and a platform for every age, gender, taste, and free time allowance.
Certain audience segments are defecting from traditional media channels, and advertisers are finding gaming to be a highly effective option -- particularly for reaching males 18-34. Always a hard-to-reach audience, this cohort has been MIA for broadcast TV. But as Nielsen tells us, they are still in front of the screen -- they've just exchanged their remotes for gamepads. So it's no surprise that many of today's game titles feature brands from categories targeting this demographic, including auto, men's toiletries, beverage, and quick-service restaurants (QSR).
However, the broadening of game content and the acceptance of gaming in the entertainment diet of all segments of society has also created interest -- and success stories -- among some unexpected brands. In this article, we'll take a look at these surprising success stories.
An early gaming adopter, State Farm saw games as an opportunity to extend the value of its sports sponsorships and increase the frequency and quality of the engagement experience. A long-time stadium and programming sponsor, State Farm was well positioned to tap into audiences' desire to be part of the sports action. Leveraging the realism of games such as EA's and 2K Sports' NCAA games and 2K Sports' MLB games, State Farm was able to successfully integrate and keep fresh its broadcast and stadium elements, while connecting with its target in a new way.
In a 2K Sports' NCAA game, State Farm sponsored an entire segment called College Hoops Tonight, featuring virtual representation of Greg Gumbel and Clark Kellogg, for which the anchors supplied their own voice-overs. From the dorna boards to unique branded broadcast elements, such as State Farm Play of the Game and the State Farm Home Run Derby, the insurance provider successfully translated and enhanced the traditional live and TV experience for sports fans, while also enabling hours of brand exposure. A series of brand studies conducted on these integrations revealed significant increases in awareness, consideration, and recommendation.
Some of the most creative in-game integrations have come from Ubisoft. When asked to name one of the most surprising brands among their titles, head of product placement Jeffrey Dickstein didn't disappoint, offering the Dyson Root 6 handheld vacuum as a case in point.
Looking to simultaneously position its Root 6 handheld model -- which looks like a power drill -- as a vacuum a man would use, while also enabling a first-person experience around the product's hygienic benefits, Dyson opted for an interesting appearance in the "CSI: Hard Evidence" game. In one of the game's cases, the player collects a handheld vacuum from a suspect's car. Back at the CSI lab, the vacuum is placed on the assembly table, and the contents of the dirt chamber are examined, yielding key evidence that indicates someone cleaned up the crime scene.
The positioning toward a male audience is addressed by having the vacuum in this case belong to a husband. However, the part that makes this integration work really well is that in order to get the evidence, the player has to take a good look at the product. The game allows the player to rotate, zoom in, and inspect it from every angle -- even take it apart with the push of a button without getting your hands dirty, just as you would do in real life, albeit in more mundane situations.
Of course, websites can deliver a somewhat similar product demonstration -- but they only reach customers who are already inclined toward buying and are actively seeking out the information. The beauty of the game integration is that it goes beyond the likely purchaser, delivering a 16-minute experience during which design features and aesthetics are imprinted on potential buyers who might not otherwise have been exposed to the product. How many other platforms can deliver this much exposure time without the user skipping over the advertising message completely through a DVR, or by ignoring the ad in favor of the content on a web page?
By virtue of audience and price point, furniture may not at first glance seem like a prime category for game integration. However, the customization level of today's games, paired with pixel-perfect 3D detail, make for an ideal environment in which to showcase furniture design and utility.
Leveraging The Sims, the popular franchise that allows players to create and control a virtual world of people and environments, IKEA broke new ground in the category, creating its own co-branded retail game experience. The co-branded IKEA/Sims Furniture Stuff Pack offers the massive audience of "The Sims" an opportunity to furnish their virtual living spaces with the latest furniture from IKEA.
As the massive audience of Sims players knows, the majority of play time is spent creating and customizing worlds that reflect players' personality traits -- an ideal platform in which to showcase IKEA's vast product offering that covers every room in a house, and a wide range of style preferences. Inserting its product in "The Sims" world as an opt-in, IKEA helped players create their own interior designs -- and enabled extended interaction with IKEA products in a situation that was as close to real as it gets.
The experience was cleverly delivered not as a stand-alone but as an enhancement --which EA calls expansion packs -- to the current user base of "The Sims" players. Priced lower than a full retail game, the IKEA/Sims Furniture Pack was an immediate success that even topped the PC games sales charts for the first few weeks after its introduction.
Even before the success of the Wii and the music and fitness genres that helped broaden today's gaming audience, a number of forward-thinking brands saw the unprecedented opportunity for relevant brand experiences that gaming affords. Among these early adapters, Visa's integration with the "CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder" game was a stand-out success.
Looking for innovative ways to promote Visa's multiple layers of card security, the brand's media strategy agency, OMD, suggested the CSI game as an ideal platform. The game's target audience was an extension of the demos for the popular CBS show that inspired the game and was already a part of Visa's TV inventory. Beyond the target compatibility, the CSI game gave Visa the opportunity to take its message beyond passive reception to active engagement, enabling a first-person experience with the benefits that the card provides. In a unique execution, Visa's message lived within the game's script, giving the player a one-on-one experience with the brand while clearly communicating the security benefits of owning a Visa card.
In the game, a rich hotel heiress's posh apartment is found covered in blood. However, with no body found at the scene, it's up to the player to determine what happened. Taking the role of a CSI investigator, the player learns that the victim actually faked her own death to escape an abusive relationship, then uses her sister's Visa card to fund her getaway. Her almost-perfect plan falls apart when Visa's continuous fraud monitoring service flags suspicious spending activity on the account. At this point, the victim's sister explains that Visa cards come with fraud protection, which helps prevent her card from being used by anyone but herself. Could the unauthorized transactions have something to do with her sister's disappearance? This discovery then becomes the most important clue in solving the case.
A brand study on the integration showed the game enabled 10 minutes of message engagement with hundreds of thousands of players, and it helped drive a 53 percent increase in awareness of Visa's fraud protection security features.
As exciting and innovative as the examples in this article are, we are only at the beginning of a new era of advertising in games. In the next few years, we are sure to see many more unexpected brands find relevance and message differentiation through this platform. With game consoles now firmly established in the living room, and consumers spending more time with games than with other forms of entertainment, becoming gaming literate will be mandatory for marketers across the board. Done right, advertising in games will continue to be a winning strategy for advertisers.
As content continues to become more diverse, and interaction barriers break down, the opportunities for integration increase exponentially. However, the key to success for in-game advertising will stay the same: create a relevant storyline that showcases the product while also creating a valuable experience for the user. This is the best and only way to win with consumers.
Dario Raciti is director, Ignition Factory Gaming, at OMD.

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Europasearch the future of contextual search

Europasearch.com offers the best value for money contextual advertising platform on the web. The platform is called SearchMatch, and what is unique about Europa SearchMatch is that it allows your advert to show in the number one position for your Keywords,with no competitors. The Keywords are yours as you have purchased them already for 1 month, 3 months, 6 months or 1 year. No one can competitively click on your keywords to waste your money or raise the price of PPC, because there is no PPC. Get it? You buy your niche or direct marketing keywords for a 1,2,3, month or 1 year period.

The SearchMatch platform also allows you to buy your keywords only across the regions you are intersted in as your target market, North America, UK /Ireland, Central Europe,China, Japan, Australasia. The Keywords you buy may only be relevant to you or your brand, like 'Gucci Bags' or may be generic like 'Car Insurance'. Your keywords might be seaonal like 'Christmas hampers'in which case you may only need them for 3 months of the year for a specific region. The SearchMatch platform is the worlds first truely anti click fraud service that enables and empowers the advertiser to run the top competitive keywords to suit their budget. Not only that the Unique Five Star number one position will start to develop organic traffic as it picked up by Google and the other major search networks as a backlink on The Europasearh network.

Europasearch is a blended search engine that will bring up results for videos, news, images, and web results with one mouse click, your ad will appear across all the blended search services, so if someone searches for a how to video on 'Christmas hampers'your advert will come up first on the video search as well as the web results index. this is a great service and great tools are available on the search results page for sharing results with LinkedIn, Twitter, FaceBook, and Digg.

Europasearch currently has 165 web search engines launched across global regions and is now offering a white label search solution for countries, cities, industry, or towns. to find out more about the white label hosted search solution contact bizz@amiwired.com.

Gasta and the future of contextual search

Gasta and the future of search
I can’t find my phone. What are my options for locating it?

1. Look for it
2. Ask others if they’ve seen it
3. Phone it

I would probably apply those strategies in that order as each fails. Of course, what I really want is for my phone to magically appear in my hand whenever I need it. That would be nice.
Search on the internet today is somewhere between a technology-driven stage 1 (Google, and minor variations like Wolfram Alpha and Bing) and a people-driven stage 2 (Digg, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Amazon recommendations). One might stretch the metaphor to argue that RSS, Google Alerts and the like are forms of stage 3; I’m not sure I would agree.
Technology markets typically display the following characteristics.
- Incumbents are displaced by products that are an order of magnitude better, not just 20% better.
- Product evolution is about adding value by getting closer to the user
The Internet has evolved. It has become more personal, less about static home pages and more about communication and collaboration (behaviour rather than data). This is what we would expect: The Internet is moving closer to us.
But what most people think of search has not changed significantly:
For the first 10 years, the web was primarily just a bunch of pages, and Google was an excellent tool for searching primary data.
Then we started doing mashups and social networks; these are essentially derived and dynamic forms of data and it’s not that we search differently, per se, but that we simply don’t think about search in these arenas in quite the same way. How many links away from me are you in a social network? Who is listening to the same music as me on Last.fm? What relevant experience do we have within our business? What houses are for sale on my street?
Inevitably, search will move closer to these problems, because these problems are closer to us.
Context is King
The end game for search is recognizing a context where an answer should be presented rather than sought. There are a few candidates in this field.

The semantic web garners a lot of attention (or at least it did once!). It attempts to wrap content in more meaning by enriching it with relevant keywords (I know this is a simplification, but really, who cares?). It is a rather an old fashioned view of the web because it solves an old fashioned problem — find relevant pages. It’s not that there is no room for innovation in this arena it’s jut that Google does this so well, you’re only ever go to be picking at their leftovers. Start-ups entering the search arena should be focussed on a different set of use cases.

There is a lot of talk about real time search but I think it is confused. Nothing is real time, particularly the typical examples that are given like Twitter (go talk to guys that build financial trading systems about “real-time”!).
Further, it is a rather unattractive property. I want data to arrive at the right time and real time is a narrow set of those cases (your house is on fire!). But we don’t understand what right time means so we’ll shove it at you whether you like it or not, so that when you actually need the data, it will have disappeared down the drain with the rest of the contents of the firehose.

Which returns me to my opening gambit. I want my phone to appear in my hand when I need it. How do we know when I need my phone? We start with behavioral triggers (he put his hand to his ear!) and continue to layer in those activities that provide meaning such as task-lists (I must order my groceries) or conversations (they are discussing the price of tomatoes).

Put that way it sounds a lot like the future of search belongs to collaboration: ‘What am I working on with you?’ is a the kind of behavioural question we could hang a new form of search off. What do we have to do to complete this project? That’s a context begging for unsolicited answers.
The future of search is not about better text fields and faster, smarter indexing; the future of search is about you and me.
This is a guest post by Jasper Westaway of OneDrum. Throughout the summer we’re running guest posts we like - exclusive to TC Europe - written by people on the tech scene in Europe. If you’d like to contribute get in touch. More info here.

FAQ on Gasta white label solution

FAQ on Gasta white label solution

How will our branded site receive traffic?



a) Case 1 - A new domain with no existing traffic or index on Google



· As a Gasta Partner you will be connected with 200 active sites on the Gasta Network that have over 110,000 indexed pages in Google

· Our network will cross promote you internally across all our sites (http://gasta.com/ads/adnetwork)

· Gasta serves between 250k to 500k searches a day <-- We will push you domain

· You domain will be picked up and indexed on Google within 24-72 hours of launching

· Case example Gasta.cn <- when initially launched it was index with over 12,000 pages on Google with 6 weeks



b) Case 2 - Existing domain



· You can bring in an existing domain



· As previous applies.



Will we need to SEO the site our selves



· No, our sites are completely SEO optimised using our platform. The only thing we start out doing is creating a dictionary of keywords that describe your site (see - baroneracing.com HomePage) - this leverages and helps search engines both understand and create an index for you site.

· Our system takes care of the rest - for example Google SiteMaps, Meta Titles etc.

· We can provide you with a complete admin interface that allows you to tweak and add keywords and SEO mark-up or we can care-take this for you.



Who will host it?



· We can will host it - however we can offer to install the site on your own server if you wish.



Can we customize the links on the home page





a) Standard implementation (eg. baroneracing.com or gasta.com)



· Yes, the home page is completely customisable.

· The standard layout will allow you to change the keywords (tabbed directory) and ALL text on the home page.

· This is controlled from your admin area, or care-taken by our support team.



b) Custom implementation



· We can 100% create a customised homepage for you - alternative designs or new features as you request



Will there be adsense ads in our result page



· You can turn ads on and off via the control panel.

· If you wish to have adsense (or any other simliar third party ads) you can control them from you control panel.

· Your ads, your revenue, your option.



Note: On Ads



· The Gasta White Label has it's own version of adsense built in. We call these 'InstantAds' and 'SearchMatch'.

· Using the example http://gasta.com/Search/casino

o Draw you focus to the top left logo and the grey bar - directly below this is 'SearchMatch'.

o Now to the right column and at the top - notice your ad - this is 'InstantAds'.

· You can control the number of ads you wish to display in each unit via the admin.

· Both ad types can cross pollinate with each other.

· The Ad scope (this is how the system decides what ads to be displayed) can be set to 'exact' or 'universal'

o 'exact' is a direct keyword or contextual match

o 'universal' - display an exact match first (if available) and always display 'ad stock' regardless.



In addition



· You can sell you ad space if desired directly.

· You can create your own network of related sites.

· You can export you ads to existing sites (similar to Google Adsense)

· We can sell ad space for you.

· Turn the feature off.



I would suggest that the ads system be filled with a library of your corporate and associated network services and set to universally be displayed.

Gasta white label solution comes in three partnered solutions.

Basic

· We retain control of all Ads and Revenue including Google, SearchMatch, InstantAds and other third party campaigns

· Only the logo and keywords can be customised

· Branding and Copyright remains as part of the Gasta Network





Partnered

· As part of the Gasta Search Network all advertising revenue sold to third parties via your domain is split evenly on SearchMatch & InstantAds.

· All third party advert revenue (eg. Google Adsense, Trade Doubler etc.) on your site is 100% is retained by your company.

· You will receive a 50% discount on all adverts you place across the entire Gasta Network.

· Ad revenue sharing is completely optional. You may turn the ad system off.

· Initial set-up cost





Dedicated

· 100% Control of Ad system and 100% retained Advertising revenue

· 100% Branding as Your Company

· Create your own Exclusive Ad Network and Ad Content.





In addition we can provide you with a completely bespoke design. We can offer to redesign the home page or results page to suit your company needs.

Gasta SearchMatch

Your Customers Are Online: Can They Find Your Website?
The search world is fluid; keywords, rankings, links and more change everyday, and define your brands online success or failure. Help your customers find your products and services by effectively promoting your online brand with proven techniques. A recent Datran Media survey found 57% of marketing executives identified search marketing as one of the strongest advertising mediums for their company. Another 54% indicated that they have increased budgets for search while decreasing offline and direct marketing efforts.
Gasta SearchMatch™ now offering the best value for European keyword advertising across 200+ internet search engines. Get your niche targeted keywords now with a unique Instant Ad Free/

Social Marketing Services
Gasta now offers the ability to share web search results, videos, news items, images, and Blogs with your chosen social networking partner site, Gasta now has social marketing links with FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Stumbleupon, Bebo, and Digg. This service not only offers an added value to our users but also greatly assists our advertisers with their social marketing and brand awareness campaigns.

Gasta Search Marketing getting bigger, better, faster,

Search engine marketing, like nearly all digital media forms, is evolving rapidly. Text ads
accompanying search results came into the world with little fanfare, but the real-time,
individually targeted, bid-based buying system they spawned is now on the verge of
becoming the dominant method for all commodified media buying. During the most
difficult economic times that the search marketing industry has seen in its decade-long life,
search marketers are more relevant than ever.
The Web itself is getting ―smarter.‖ Web 1.0 was mostly static with publishers
communicating to consumers. Web 2.0 is two-way, with consumers talking back to
publishers. Web 3.0 uses information from the consumer to tailor the experience to
individuals. Gmail ads already do this. By taking advantage of email content, Google is
able to serve ads that are immediately and individually relevant. The new search site
Hunch.com asks searchers to tell the site about themselves in order to predict interests and
suggest searches. Why this matters to search marketers is that the entire infrastructure of
the Web 3.0 economy is built on what‘s known as the ―semantic web.‖ Having a
background in search engine optimization and PPC advertising is just about the best
possible way to prepare for the new ways of doing business this technology enables.
While the consumers of the world get nervous about change, it won‘t be long before an untargeted
―dumb‖ ad provokes as much consumer backlash as the first targeted ads did in
the last few years. As advertising undergoes a transformation from annoyance to utility, it
will be the semantic marketers of the world who make it happen. It‘s a very good time to
be in this business for a variety of reasons. You represent the first wave of a new media
economy. If that isn‘t enough to convince someone of the increasing relevance of search
marketing, perhaps the promise of money to be made will.

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Gasta Belfast:Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge 2009

Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge 2009
Belfast Maritime Festival, 13th – 16th August, Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge 2009


The Event – is held over 4 days this coming August, and the port of Belfast will play host to a magnificent spectacle as the final port of the Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge 2009.

Belfast will welcome crew from far and wide, as well as hundreds and thousands of visitors, with its own great brand of hospitality.

Ships will transform the famous quaysides along the River Lagan and provide the backdrop to four days and nights of festivities. There will be 12 ‘class A’ vessels – the biggest class of all the Tall Ships. The 2009 Atlantic Challenge
The Tall Ships last came to Belfast in 1991 when they berthed at Pollock Dock and were visited by 250,000 people. In August 2009 Belfast has been chosen to be the finish port for the Atlantic Challenge.

The Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge 2009 will start in Vigo, Spain from where the fleet will race to Tenerife in the Canary Islands, en route to Bermuda. The fleet will then race to a port on the east coast of the USA for a series of races and cruises-in-company north via New York or Boston to Halifax, Canada. From there the fleet will race back across the North Atlantic to the finish in Belfast.
Dates:
Vigo, Spain Thu 30 April - Sun 3 May
Tenerife Thu 14 - Sun 17 May
Bermuda Fri 12 - Mon 15 June
Halifax, Canada Thu 16 - Sun 19 July
Belfast Thu 13 - Sun 16 August 2009
The Fleet of square-riggers and classic ships will race over 7000 nautical miles from Spain in May, via the Canaries and Bermuda, before travelling up the coast of North America and leaving Halifax for the long final leg to Belfast.

The purpose of the race is sail training for young people from all over the world, giving them the wonderful, unforgettable experience of sailing these magnificent ships and fostering friendship and understanding between different nationalities and backgrounds.
The Celebrations
Along the quaysides of the city will be packed full of fun and excitement: music, street theatre, food markets, fireworks, and performances suitable for all the family.

The last visit of the Tall Ships was in 1991, it lured in excess of 400,000 visitors and even more are expected this time.

They will be joined for what will be a truly international experience with thousands of ships’ crew arriving in Belfast to join in the fun. Corporate Hospitality
The Hospitality – gives you a great opportunity to take part, to raise profile, to entertain clients and to reward staff – and this can all be done at an event unique to Belfast. As experts in the field of Tall Ships entertainment Topsail Events have been asked by Belfast Tall Ships Ltd to run all corporate hospitality during the festival. You can entertain your guests on one of these great ships!


Click here for further information on Corporate Hospitality at the Tall Ships event.

Or contact:
Topsail Events and Charters Ltd
9 -12 Middle Street
Brighton
East Sussex BN1 1AL
Tel: 0207 022 2201
Email: enquiries@topsailevents.co.uk
www.topsailevents.co.uk

Gasta News: Guardian launches Open Platform.

The Guardian newspaper in the UK has today launched its open API which will carry all the content the newspaper produces in print and online. That’s over a million articles which go back to 1999. The “Open Platform” will allow allow partners to reuse Guardian.co.uk content and data for free, in a clear move to try and make the The Guardian an all pervasive part of the Web. In contrast with many newspaper groups, The Guardian is effectively letting control of its content go in order to maximise its reach - and therefore the number of eyeballs that see its brand/content - across the Web. It helps that the paper is owned and run by a charitable trust which does not have shareholders who would normally have a heart attack at such a move.
The Open Platform launches with two services, both of which carry advertising. Web developers will use the API to build applications and services using Guardian content. And a Data Store will “contain datasets curated by Guardian editors and open for others to use.”
However the API does not prevent developers from running “commercial applications” using the API - but I’d read the fine detail first. They do say: “You can display your own ads and keep your own revenue. We will require that you join our ad network in the future.”
Emily Bell, the Guardian News & Media director of digital content, thinks the move will allow Guardian content “to be woven into the fabric of the internet”. And there’s a hell of a lot of it. The APIs feature ‘full fat’ feeds and other content including video, audio and photo galleries. You can combine free text search and combine tags to create feeds based on XML, JSON and Atom. API infrastructure company Mashery also helped build the platform.
The service is free but, Matt McAlister, head of the Guardian Developer Network, said, it is limited to 5000 queries a day, and the payback is that apps developers help build the advertising network, which is still in beta.
Some early examples include Zemanta’s Guardian topic research demo. It’s a simple app that searches the vast database of Guardian articles via its API and then uses Zemanta’s API to get links to related concepts.
There is also Content Tagger, an application to provide user-generated tagging on guardian.co.uk content. ApiMaps.org, built by Stamen Design, is designed to crowdsource geodata about Guardian articles. Cass Sculpture Foundation is using the Open Platform to insert lists of articles from the Guardian about its sculptors into their biography and home pages.
You can register for the API here. Here is what they say about the API:
The Open Platform currently includes two products, the Content API and the Data Store:
1. The Content API is a mechanism for getting Guardian content. You can query our content database for articles and get them back in formats that are geared toward integration with other internet applications.
The Content API is a free service. We have some limits and restrictions detailed in our terms and conditions, but we hope that you will use our service for whatever needs you have, including commercial applications.
2. The Data Store is a collection of important and high quality data sets curated by Guardian journalists. You can find useful data here, download it, and integrate it with other internet applications.
The Data Store has a range of different uses for different types of partners. We will include relevant terms and conditions along with each service.
Our aim is to make the Guardian Open Platform a useful environment for anyone who creates for the internet. We will offer more services in the future such as an ad network and an application platform.
This initial release is a beta trial that will help us identify the ways our partners want to work with us. Access will be granted on a limited basis.

Gasta.com: Yahoo report on search behavour

As searchers, we all have frustrations when we search. That’s why Yahoo conducted a study to better understand our search behavior. In this video, Larry Cornett of Yahoo tells us about their study as well as what they found out.

The company went around to 6 different U.S. cities and surveyed 150 Web users. The 3 continuing themes from their research were:

1. Information overload
2. Text overload
3. Impersonal experience

As Larry explains, the average Web user does not care how many million results the search engines return. Even though it means a lot to the search engines, the average user doesn’t even look past the first page.

The same idea is true with text overload. It takes a lot of work for the user to sort through all the text. As users, we want relevant information and want it quickly. The study also found that we desire a personal experience as we search. Larry explains that since we use the engine every day, it should know our habits.

Yahoo is working to respond to this study and to users search needs. One of the approaches the company is taking to answer this dilemma is with Yahoo SearchMonkey. The open platform is a developer tool that essentially gives Yahoo more structured data in order for the company to deliver better results. A few specific examples include ratings for restaurants, phone numbers, and street addresses.

Yahoo Search BOSS is another approach the company is taking and at SMX West, announced a few features and updates to the model. One feature allows access to SearchMonkey structured data through BOSS API. Search BOSS provides a 3-tier pricing structure and offers up to 10,000 search queries per day to all developers for free. The fee changes will not take effect until late Q2 of this year, but Yahoo wanted to give developers an advance notice.

Yahoo also encourages marketers to embrace blended/universal search to help better meet the searchers needs.

Gasta Comment: Google doesnt own the Internet

Matt Cutts Explains Why You're Out of Luck

If you've been involved with the web for any significant amount of time, there is a good chance there may be pages up somewhere that you're not thrilled about, but are out of your power to remove. Whether it is a page you made in high school or somebody else talking smack about you, you're concerned about your online reputation (as you should be) and would like to see the page removed from Google's index altogether.

Unfortunately, Google cannot be held responsible for this because as they say on the official help page for "How do I remove content from Google Search Results?" they do not own the Internet. The company says, "In order for information within Google search results to change, the information must first change on the website where it appears."
Matt Cutts Blog

Google's Matt Cutts posted about this on his own blog after receiving countless emails from people making such requests. He was kind enough to share his response to these emails, which usually goes something like this:

Unfortunately there’s not much I can do. The page you pointed out is not spam, and pretty much the only removals (at least in the U.S., which is what I know about) that we do for legal reasons are if a court orders us. We typically say that if person A doesn’t like a webpage B, only removing page B out of Google’s search results doesn’t do any good because webpage B is still there (e.g. it can be found by going to it directly or through other search engines). In that sense, the presence of that page in Google’s index is just reflecting the fact that the page exists on the wider web.

The best actions for you from our perspective can be one of a couple options. Either contact whoever put up webpage B and convince them to modify or to take the page down. Or if the page is doing something against the law, get a court to agree with you and force webpage B to be removed or changed. We really don’t want to be taking sides in a he-said/she-said dispute, so that’s why we typically say “Get the page fixed, changed, or removed on the web and then Google will update our index with those changes the next time that we crawl that page.” Our policies outside the U.S. might be different; I’m not as familiar with how legal stuff works outside the U.S.

This is pretty much the same thing you get from the official page. "If you can't get the webmaster to do anything, we're really sorry, but our hands are tied without action from the webmaster," is the position stated there. Though Google uses the opportunity to suggest reporting social security or credit card information in results, adult content in results when SafeSearch is on, defamatory content in results, and inappropriate images in video results. So if the content you're trying to get removed falls into any of these categories, there might still be hope for you.

Once people understand that Google can't take responsibility for listings they don't like, they seem (for the most part) to accept the explanation. It's the understanding in the first place that is often lacking. Hopefully Matt's comments will set the record straight.

Ultimately this leaves you no choice but to amp up your reputation management efforts. Go to the root of the problem. Make nice with people if you have to. It won't always work, but just like with the rest of life, sometimes you have to live with past mistakes and acceptance that someone might not like you.

Gasta Travel: Online travel search to exceed to £56bn by 2014

Online UK retail and travel sales are expected to increase to £56bn by 2014, according to Forrester Research.

The research house expects online sales to grow by 6% a year from its current level of £37bn as consumer spending continues to shift online.

According to the research, which is due out later today, fashion was the fastest growing area of online retail during 2008. Books, DVDs and travel were the most frequently bought items over the period.

The Forrester research, which places the UK's online spend ahead of that in France and Germany, expects the number of UK online shoppers to grow from 30m this year to 37m by 2014.

In January the first new media age online shopping survey revealed 36% of people plan to do more shopping online and less on the high street this year.

The FT Group has reported a 13% rise in profits for 2008 to £195m, spurred on by its digital and subscription businesses.
In its end of year results parent company Pearson said 67% of the publisher's revenues now come from digital, up from 28% from 2000.
FT.com subscribers rose 9% to 109,609 in 2008, while registered users grew from 150,000 to 966,000.
The company posted revenues of £796m, up 7% from 2007.
A statement by Pearson said, "Looking ahead, we believe the FT Group's premium and global positions, combined with our digital and subscription businesses, put us in a good position to weather tougher economic conditions."
It also said FT.com benefited from the launch of the new access model involving registration for access to more than three articles per month.
In January the Financial Times announced plans to make 80 job cuts due to the global recession (nma.co.uk 12 January).

Gasta Tech:Six Search Technologies You Should Know About

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

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

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

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.

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."

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.

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.