Online Window Shopping

Posted by on February 27, 2007 at 01:33 PM

As a self-proclaimed shopaholic, it seems only natural for me to pursue shopping engines as an online marketing channel for my clients. Shopping search engines are a great tool for tapping into a widely visited outlet that is generally less expensive than paid advertising on the main search engines. They are also wonderful for consumers looking for the best online deals, buying guides and consumer reviews.

Shopping search engines are sometimes overlooked by search marketers, because it’s easy for consumers to compare prices among retailers; however, they also deliver prospective clients to you who are ready to buy. Searchers using shopping engines have already researched products and are in the market to purchase. Therefore, they are much more likely to convert than general searchers.

According to a recent study, the top shopping engines each had more than 20 million unique visitors in December 2006. CNET and Yahoo Shopping each topped 30 million unique visitors, followed closely with PriceGrabber, Shopping.com and ShopZilla. NexTag and MSN Shopping added 24 million. The top seven shopping engines had a combined total of 163 million unique visits in December alone. Granted, December is a busy shopping month, but even by December standards, 163 million is a lot.

It takes quite a bit of work to create and maintain accounts such as these, however, but when optimized correctly they can yield high returns. The shopping engines don’t make it easy; each data feed requires different fields and it can take a significant amount of time to manage and optimize these feeds. That’s why I suggest hiring Oneupweb, we’ve developed tools to manage and optimize data feeds. With our marketing expertise and knowledge, we can quickly produce high returns for your advertising dollar.

By showing up in the many places that your customers are looking, you can increase your online visibility. From my experience window shopping from the comfort of my couch, many e-tailers are not taking advantage of these listings, which means visibility in the shopping engines could give your e-commerce site a competitive advantage.

Mobile Advertising: iPhone's Potential Mark

Posted by adam on February 26, 2007 at 04:39 PM

Over the last several months there's been much push for mobile advertising progression and adoption. Many are optimistic that mobile ad spend will exceed $1 billion by the end of 2007, which would double the 2006 spend; however, it seems most are projecting major growth not to happen until the end of this decade.

Some are projecting $3 billion in spend by 2010 (as reported by MSNBC:Battle between Google, Yahoo goes mobile). Others expect ad spend will reach $11 billion by 2011 (as reported by MarketingVOX in Search Heavyweights in Mobile Advertising Race).

Several factors determine how fast mobile advertising will become a major ad channel player, such as:

• carrier acceptance


• handset compatibility and convenience


• user tolerance to mobile ads


• corporate confidence in the mobile channel


• the ability for advertisers to effectively track success of mobile ads

As we marketing professionals wait for the above factors to align, I'm looking forward to seeing the potential mobile advertising has to offer, whether it happens tomorrow, five, or even ten years from now.

We'll all be interested to see if Apple has the clout to change all of the above with the much anticipated iPhone.

Keys Are for Cars: SEO & SEM Headlines Are for Lemmings

Posted by matt on February 23, 2007 at 12:05 PM

Okay, it’s been a while since we’ve had a good, cleansing rant on Straight Up Search, so I thought I’d put on the gloves and take a couple swings at the sickening plethora of vapid SEO/M columnists who regularly contrive to mask lazy journalism (or blatant content theft) with flashy & irrelevant headline copy. The chief offenders typically drag out the old, hackneyed bit about “The key to online marketing success is…‎

Puh-leeeze! Will somebody make this stop?

Do you really expect anyone to believe that something as complex and involved as an online marketing strategy or plan can simply be boiled down to one little pearl of your supposed wisdom, or the wisdom of the author whose content you’re scraping, and likely taking out of context?

As in the publishing world, it does ultimately boil down to readership, but I feel compelled to issue this warning to the consumers of the SEO/M zeitgeist:

Reader beware! The quality of our industry’s news is slowly being eroded by writers concerned more about dishing up ads for their services than creating quality news and technical literature for professionals.

There are, of course, several great spots out there for excellent, thought provoking analysis, commentary & news for our little corner of the marketing universe. Hat’s off to those who shun the National Inquirer stylebook in favor of original thinking, and high quality, technical journalism.

To those who perpetuate the backslide of quality let me offer you this: The key to the success of your insipid marketing columns is simply this – get a clue.

More Moments in Mobile's Maturation:

Posted by chip on February 21, 2007 at 04:38 PM

Well here we are again, a few months have gone by since my last update on the evolution of the mobile web. As would be expected in a market evolving as quickly as this one, several interesting and/or significant developments have occurred. Here are a few of the highlights as I see them.

MySpace Goes Mobile
Vodafone brings the MySpace community to the mobile front. Through an exclusive partnership, Vodafone will begin pre-loading MySpace software onto its mobile phones. Slated to happen sometime this year, the partnership will bring millions of Vodafone users, at least across Europe, the ability to edit their profiles, add friends, upload photos and send/receive messages within the MySpace community, all from the convenience of their mobile phone. Maybe with the convenience of mobile access I will finally have the time to get my second life? Doubtful.

Don't think it stops there for Vodafone though; they have been extremely busy working to establish themselves as a leader in advanced mobile applications as they relate to bringing the worlds of the PC and the mobile device closer together. Some of the highlights include mobile eBay, Google Maps, YouTube Mobile, and Microsoft Instant Messaging compatibility.

Mobile Video Killed the Desktop Star
A company called Vringo is bringing a subscription based service that allows users to push video to their friends via their mobile phone. Applications include both sending homemade videos captured with their camera phone as well as pushing various types of video content to friends in the form of ringtones. Possibilities for that latter include movie trailers, TV clips, music videos and several other cleverly disguised advertisements, which reportedly finance about half of the costs related to this service.

Ping Your Friends
Another company hoping to change the way users interact with an existing mobile phone service is Pinger. Improving upon both voicemail and the text message, Pinger allows users to instantly send voice messages to another person bypassing the need to ring their phone, listen to a greeting or be prompted with message options. Just dial your friend's number, say what you have to say and hang up. Your friend will receive your audio message just as they would a text message.

Webaroo! - Again?
A company that I have talked about before, and actually receive a little flack around here for continuing to talk about, Webaroo has released some new features as well. New additions include Web Packs and a new software version designed specifically for mobile devices. The mobile version is self explanatory, and Web Packs are pre-bundled webpages grouped by topic. Say you're really into tech gadgets; you can download the tech gadget web pack and a group of related sites will be added to your list of sites that update whenever you're connected to the internet.

Mobile Boob Tube
I guess no mobile update would be complete without at least a mention of what has been going on in the world of mobile TV. CBS has made a significant move towards offering programming to the mobile viewer with the launch of CBS Mobile. Verizon's V Cast mobile TV seems to be establishing itself as one of the most attractive mobile TV options with the release of full length television programming. And recent speculation around the possible future of Apple TV has also been nothing short of interesting.

With all that continues to evolve in the world of the mobile web, I guess it's no wonder that Vint Cerf himself has been reported as saying that mobile phones are the future of the internet. Now I realize that I haven't covered it all here, so if you feel that a noteworthy development in the evolution of the mobile web has been overlooked, feel free to post a comment.

Behold, the Magic of Geotargeting! Kind of.

Posted by andrew on February 21, 2007 at 09:45 AM

Search engine marketing is awesome. Better than all other forms of advertising. Why? Geotargeting. For sure.

No more wasting valuable advertising dollars on people who can’t use your services! There’s not a single advertising channel – other than search marketing – that can do that.

Do you run a one-person storefront, closed Tuesdays, open until 1 on Thursdays, and sometimes not at all if you’ve got a doctor’s appointment? You don’t want to ship internationally with your business – after all, you don’t have a webstore – but you could benefit from the additional foot traffic that a targeted consumer visit to your four-page website might generate. By all means, enter your address into the Google interface, select a given radius (or, if you’re feeling really frisky, design a custom-made polygon), and only show your ads in those specific areas. Never waste money on unwanted clicks! Totally.

Are you the CEO of a nationwide franchisor? Well, nationwide, kind of. Nationwide insomuch as you serve a variety of regions, but don’t cover every address or every ZIP code in every region? No problem! Enter the names of the cities you serve, and you’re guaranteed only the highest-quality traffic. Never generate a lead that you can’t translate into a sale! For sure.

Here’s the problem, friends. It doesn’t quite work that way. It can’t quite work that way. An ISP-provided IP address can only provide the search engines with limited location information, and, on occasion, it’s the wrong information. (Until recently, the humble Northern Michigan offices of Oneupweb were served ads geotargeted to ‘Chicago.’ Where in Michigan is Chicago? Well, hold out your left hand, palm out, and Chicago’s right... to the left of your wrist? Hmm.) Bummer.

So how do you adjust to this? Change expectations. Understand that generating some unwanted clicks is simply a cost of doing business online. Let’s say you’re that nationwide franchise, thriving in the Pacific Northwest but, for business reasons, you’ve chosen not to serve the city of Seattle. You’ll cover suburban Renton, and Bellevue’s no problem, but you want to stay out of the big city. You’ve targeted those two towns, and you’ve seen no search impressions. Why’s that? Because a search engine simply can’t be that specific, in all cases. Not cool.

So open up your targeting a little bit. Add the city of Seattle, or maybe the entire Seattle metro area. You’ll probably catch several internet users who work in the city, searching during the day. And, quite likely, you’ll be able to capture ZIP codes or towns that are ripe for service - even the bad leads will give you valuable information. Awesome.

I like the way Yahoo’s handled geotargeting options in the new Panama interface. They’ve offered targeting by continent, and by country, and by state, and by television market. No promises of showing your ads only in a 43 square mile hexagon. No promises of hitting only the most-targeted, most guaranteed-to-convert consumer. Only a humble offer – we’ll try. That’s worth something.

It could be pretty sweet.

MSN brings LeBron James to Digital Life

Posted by steve on February 20, 2007 at 10:57 AM

If you're a huge LeBron James fan, you may have heard by now that he is teaming up with MSN to bring his fans, and all others interested, a site which will reveal the experiences, challenges and accomplishments he encountered on his way to NBA super-stardom.

LeBron.msn.com is geared toward kids and teens and is designed to provide users with a unique, interactive and inspirational depiction of the basketball star's dedication to his team, friends, family and community, while also giving users the opportunity share in his experiences by participating in a variety of activities.

I think this is a great concept. Given the popularity of LeBron James, thousands of fans around the world are likely going to take advantage of this new, exclusive place to learn about, and even interact with, their favorite NBA player.

This means a lot of additional exposure for MSN and a number of Windows Live services. Windows Live Messenger will allow users to easily interact with people around the world, Live Spaces allows users to create a custom site design, and of course, Live Search will be directly accessible from LeBron.msn.com.

And who is Microsoft targeting with this new site? Today's youth. Millions of kids and teens around the world are fans of LeBron James, and by participating in this storybook-style Web site, they are becoming familiar with the services of Windows Live and are inadvertently forming user behaviors they will likely take with them as they grow. At least that's what Microsoft is probably hoping for.

It will be interesting to see what type of success MSN experiences with the site and if similar projects will soon follow.

Maybe next Microsoft can create BritneySpears.msn.com and we can all watch her transformation from a teen idol into a bald mother of two.

Take a Podcast to Lunch

Posted by tim on February 16, 2007 at 01:45 PM

Get ready, employers, this one is a shocker - your employees are consuming podcasts on your dime in record numbers. Oh sure, if cornered, they’ll tell you it was the company’s inspiring series 10 Steps to Make You A Better Employee, but don’t believe a word of it. A quick look at their computer iTunes account will give you a much different picture.

Now, before employers start papering the in-boxes with "Guidelines for Proper Internet Usage", let me offer the "half-full" explanation . . .

Using our nifty PodGarden PodTractor tracking technology, Oneupweb regularly tracks those iTunes subscribers. In fact, we've been tracking 100 percent of listener behavior from all sources for select entertainment sites, health care and topical business podcasts for more than seven months. And the results are a little eye-opening.

Be it entertainment or business, right now the patterns are all pretty much the same: corporate podcasts are being downloaded in the largest number between the hours of 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Clearly, a good deal of these are brownbag podcasts, consumed at the desk along with the turkey on whole wheat. Others are finding their way to the personal iPod for later consumption. And others still are being passed around the office like a good joke at the water cooler.

We also found another peak download period, for entertainment and education podcasts - around 4 p.m. This we attribute to the "grab a podcast for the commute home" set.

Employers, this is a good thing. First, our numbers show that a significant number of your employees are choosing to download business and education podcasts and listen on their own time, during lunch. While your competitors’ people are mulling over the proper wine to go with the sea bass, your employees are at their desks multi-tasking.

Second, we interpret the 4 pm download as basically a time-shifting activity. Most will actually listen or watch on their commute. And a good number of these podcasts are educational in nature. Most broadband connections allow someone to continue working while downloading. And then a quick upload to their iPod and the podcast goes home with them. What was wasted time becomes productive time that extends work hours.

So, bosses, don’t fight it. Join the crowd and take a podcast to lunch this week.

AdWords Quality Scoring Upgrade

Posted by drew on February 15, 2007 at 11:45 AM

Google announced this week that it will release a new ad quality algorithm before the end of the month, along with a few associated features.

With the existing algorithm, Google never really gives AdWords advertisers a grade for taking the test; only the effects of taking it.

The existing ad quality algorithm can be compared to a high school guidance counselor who gives you a test to take and the next day tells you to be a heavy machines operator. Additional explanation not included. Why heavy machines operator? You never know why.

With this update, advertisers still won't know exactly why ads are working or not, but at least they will see a score (or grade, if you will) and be able to act accordingly from that.

Could this algorithm update be in repsonse to Yahoo's jump onto the ad quality bus with Panama clutched in its 3rd-grader hand? Even with Panama implementing ad-quality scoring, Google's update may make the battlefield uneven again. Are we about to see the start of the true search engine battle?

Searching for Love in All the Retail Locations

Posted by bill on February 14, 2007 at 11:11 AM

Office romance just took on a whole new dimension -- online.

Apparently, the Valentine’s season -- just exactly when this manufactured event became a “season‎ escapes me -- has become the time to do your online love-guilt shopping with the office broadband connection. (Whatever happened to the heart-shaped, sitting on the copier Valentines that used to be the limit of February office equipment abuse?)

Oneupweb just completed a Valentine's Day Online Retail study tracking the search trends of about a quarter million unique visitors to some of our more prominent online retailers. What we found somewhat mirrors what we discovered when we tracked last October through December’s holiday season activity (traffic, conversions, sales). People spend less time shopping online on the weekends – they’re probably having lives and checking out their bad gift ideas at the malls – and more time searching and buying from the office computers on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Peak sales day was Tuesday, February 6th. Apparently, about a week’s shipping time seemed optimum to our office love lights. Traffic continued to rise, however, with the biggest day recorded on Monday the 12th -- probably guys who slept through their Cupid wake-up call and are now contemplating overnight shipping as that big Valentine’s clock ticks ever closer.

Clearly, retailers who expect to experience a Valentine’s Day selling surge can learn a few lessons here for next year. Plan your campaigns to start in mid January -- might as well get the planners while they’re looking. Torque it up right through the 14th; never underestimate that potential of procrastination. The more cunning among us can buy a few more days until the weekend. Promote overnight shipping for the week leading up to V-Day, and be prepared for your biggest volume on your site during the start of the week.

And what about those of us who have to deal with the results of these seasonal office romantics? Well, in the automotive industry they used to say, never buy a car manufactured on a Friday. What does this tell us about office productivity on Mondays and Tuesdays? “Ah, could you get back to me on, say, Wednesday? Yeah, Wednesday, maybe even Thursday. Thanks.‎ We know you’ve been waiting all weekend, but believe me, it’s worth the wait.

CSS Table Tutorial

Posted by on February 13, 2007 at 02:50 PM

How to get the most out of your table design
Recently I was presented with the challenge of creating a chart for an article I was converting to html. Normally, I would use CSS div tags to format the table data, but with dozens of cells and rows facing me I chose to find a more efficient way.

By using background images for the header and left section of the chart, I am able to control the look and feel of the table represented in the original print document. From this point I built three graphics to use as the background images. View the background graphics: Head, Lead Row, Alternate Row

Applying CSS to the table
For the headers I created a class called "head". Within this style I chose the darker background graphic and added a one pixel border to the top, right and bottom of the table cell. Remember to insert a background color in case something happens to your background graphic.

On the left column I created two identical classes for the alternating rows. Then I just changed the background graphics and border colors. Lastly, I did the same for the table cells so the background colors could alternate as well.

A Table you can take home to mom
Now we have a table that not only looks sharp but is totally customizable. Plus you don't have to fight with the table column widths jumping all over the place. Personally, I don't miss those days.

CSS Styles

.table th.head {
	font: bold 10px Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
	text-transform: uppercase;
	text-align: left;
	color: #fff;
	letter-spacing: 2px;
	border-top: 1px solid #885546;
	border-right: 1px solid #885546;
	border-bottom: 1px solid #885546;
	padding: 6px;
	background: #822123 url(images/table_bg.jpg) no-repeat;
}

.table th.spec {

	font: bold 9px Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;

	text-transform: uppercase;

	text-align: left;

	color: #822123;

	letter-spacing: 2px;

	border-top: 0;

	border-left: 1px solid #FFF798;

	padding: 6px;

	background: #FFF798 url(images/table_bgspec.jpg) no-repeat;

}

.table th.specalt {

	font: bold 9px Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;

	text-transform: uppercase;

	text-align: left;

	letter-spacing: 2px;

	color: #822123;

	border-top: 1px solid #FBE689;

	border-right: 1px solid #FBE689;

	border-bottom: 1px solid #FBE689;

	padding: 6px;

	background: #F8DD6D url(images/table_bgspecalt.jpg) no-repeat;

}

.table td {

	font: 9px Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;

	text-align: left;

	color: #822123;;

	border-right: 1px solid #FFF798;

	border-bottom: 1px solid #FFF798;

	padding: 6px;

	background: #FFFBCB;

}

.table td.alt {

	color: #822123;

	background: #FBE689;

}

Thank you to Veerle Duoh for CSS inspiration.

SEO's Bad Rap

Posted by sarah on February 12, 2007 at 02:48 PM

From Jason Calcanis' ranting about how SEO is "bullsh-t" to members spewing vitriolic comments at digg.com to SEO is Not Rocket Science t-shirts, SEO really seems to be getting a bad rap lately.

The problem is that search engine optimization - along with much of all online marketing - has become equated with spam.

Spam in traditional advertising is nothing new. Junk mail. Telemarketers. Billboards. You name it, companies are always trying to shove themselves in our face, and humanity is forever resenting it and gobbling it all up at the same time. In the long run, as much as we hate to admit it, we're sold. Even the too-cool-for-you brands with the chip on their shoulder - they're still gaming us just as much as Clairol Herbal Essences is.

The same thing goes for online marketing. It can be meaningful, it can win you over, or it can really suck. I detest MFA (Made For AdSense) sites, I abhor email spam, and I resent landing pages (either organic or paid) that have such a poor user experience that I trip over my keyboard trying to hit the back button.

But I like a well-optimized site. And if a page is able to position well in SERPs, providing quality relevant content that leads me that much closer to what I'm searching for, then I'm one happy user. And I can guarantee you that there's one satisfied business owner behind that site as well.

So is all SEO spam? Of course not, but a lot of the confusion also seems to be a direct result of the fact that no one can agree on what SEO really is.

Even Jason Calcanis says that there are some companies who do "white hat" SEO, but he doesn't consider that SEO at all because what they're really doing is "solid web design".

Our Oneupweb glossary provides a thorough definition of search engine optimization.

I personally would like to add to that by saying that to us here at Oneupweb, SEO means helping you connect with the people who are searching for you online - not forcing yourself in front of those who aren't. It means enriching a site with quality content and facilitating a design that is accessible to search engine web crawlers as well as users (you'll find that the two practically go hand-in-hand).

That's the difference between a mountain vista and a billboard, and that's the difference between SEO and spam.

To Blog, Or Not to Blog

Posted by Christopher on February 09, 2007 at 03:59 PM

SEO, increasingly, is becoming a bona fide discipline, an industry to be reckoned with. With an increase in prominence comes an increase in exposure, and an attendant increase in the level of knowledge evinced by the populace. For example, relatives, when they inevitably ask what I do, are no longer inevitably slackjawed. People know what it is, this thing we do. Sort of.

Thusly, potential clients are approaching us with a limited education, an idea of what they need. Toward that end, one of the questions I get, with rapidly growing frequency, is "should we have a blog?"

My answer is, do you want one?

Followed by, are you sure?

A blog can serve many purposes, one of the most important being to bridge the gap between your customers and your organization. If your CEO is participating, no longer is he/she a suit on the "About Us" page, the result of an increasingly-generic combination of education and experience (it takes more, in this day, in this age, than an MBA from Pepperdine to impress people); with a blog, an executive offers the rare chance for the client or stakeholder to see the person behind the obligatory photo, the list of accomplishments. Through a regular blog a corporation can establish a dialog, speaking directly to constituents, "one-on-one," as it were. A nice fringe benefit of this conversation is that it results in a lot of new content for your site, which, if properly optimized, can hold considerable weight in search engine rankings.

We're obviously sold on them.

So, should you have a blog?

Do you want one?

Why?

If you want to have a blog simply for the purpose of increasing your search engine rankings, you might want to think again. Do you have the time and resources to maintain this dialog, this relationship? A blog's not a one-off; it's a long-term commitment, and the more you post, the better. When you start one, you're starting a conversation, and if you get bored, get up and walk away, your efforts are going to be transparent. Transparent and off-putting, the online equivalent of a salesperson whose wage is entirely commission-based finding out you're not a potential customer. Conversation over. You mean you don't care what I think about the Superbowl? You don't actually think my kids are cute? When you asked me about the weather, that wasn't coming from the heart? Well up yours, friend; I'm going home.

Do blogs help search engine positions? Sure, the way any great content helps search engine positions. From a strict SEO standpoint they have lost a bit of their lustre, thanks to the advent of the splog and the attendant SE algorithm adjustments. But they're still good.

This is going to sound strange coming from someone whose job it is to sell SEO services: SEO strictly for the sake of SEO is a bad idea, and leads to inferior practices and ugly, unusable websites. And there are enough of those already. Don't write a blog simply for the sake of SEO. Write it because you have something to say.

And if you have something to say, we're happy to help you spread the word.

Google, Radio and the Great Convergence

Posted by bill on February 08, 2007 at 11:17 AM

As an old time marketer with a particular affection for the medium of radio, I found myself with a rush of emotions when Google announced last year that they were adding radio advertising into their expanding marketing quiver.

At first blush it appeared that they were simply buying and reselling excess radio ad inventory for pre-negotiated rates in select markets. But a look at the fine print showed a much more ambitious agenda. By licensing certain production sources, Google is seeking control of every aspect of radio advertising except (and this one just kills me) copywriting.

Why would they do this? Same reason your local supermarket is rotating those naked chickens for you to take home for dinner. They’d rather you buy from them than the restaurant down the street. Even if they don’t make a dime on their whirling chickens, they’ll reclaim once eroding market share and position themselves as the universal solution for “hungry‎ – a position now held by fast food.

But Google and radio? That’s like General Motors and skateboards. Sure, they’re both into personal transportation, but… Until you look at the great media convergence. Online access to local radio now makes many local stations, national stations. Not that Google is that concerned about addressing just this aspect of radio. Apparently, they’re skipping right over it.

The big loser in all this is, as always, the consumer. The quality of what will be interrupting your listening day always suffers when creative becomes a low bidder commodity. Google has established a production budget of $100 - $1,000 per radio spot and is seeking to license approved producers. Clients are told to write themselves a nice little 30-second radio spot (Google has apparently decided to single-handedly kill the 60-second variety). Boil your entire message into a compelling 75 words – that can’t be hard, can it – and then send it to Acme Productions where undoubtedly Ed and Shirley Acme and their magic accordion will be providing all the “talent‎ and homemade sound effects from their occasionally leaking basement studio.

Needless to say, Google has a lot to learn about radio and what it takes to make it effective.

If you want to see a more immediate and interesting trend in media convergence and radio, look into online radio stations and some of the new reverse auction ideas out there to sell online radio station advertising. Check out sites such as Bid4spots, where advertisers can pick up unused local online station inventory for a predetermined price and demographic. Advertisers provide their own creative while getting deep discounts on a well-targeted national media buy. Stations participate in the auction and low bidders who deliver the most for the least get the business. Creative doesn’t suffer and media budgets deliver more bang for the buck.

What do you say, let’s not mention this to Google.

Listen to the Google Voice In Your Head

Posted by dave on February 07, 2007 at 01:16 PM

As Senator Ted Stevens taught us, the internet is a series of tubes. Personally, I think it is much more. The internet is like a huge online garage sale. You may go there looking for vintage records, and walk away with Rockem Sockem Robots (the metal version, not plastic one), or a Snake Eyes action figure with all the original accessories. This exploratory discovery process that the internet provides is what makes it special - You can always find something new or interesting.

Now, with Personalized Search, Google is threatening to take the uniqueness of the internet away. The goal of Personalized Search is to help provide you with the most relevant, individualized search results possible. Although this may sound like a great idea, after looking into how they personalize these results, I can honestly say, I will never search Google again while signed in to my account.

When you are signed in to your Google account, Personalized Search works by looking at your past search history, as well as the search and news results you have clicked on and then uses these items to reorder how your results appear for a search query. Google goes on to say that although you may not notice a huge impact right away, over time, as you build up a search history, your results will begin to change.

After reading about this new feature, I started to wonder how this may impact the search results I see. The first site that came to mind was Wikipedia. Although I would never quote Wikipedia as a credible source of information, when I see a Wikipedia result show up, often times I am inclined to click on it just to see what people have to say. If I signed into my Google account, and Personalized Search was stalking me around noticing that I had a propensity to click on Wikipedia results, how long would it take before Wikipedia type results littered the first two or three pages of my search results? For that matter, how long will it take to cut me off from a large percentage of the sites online just because I have never visited them before?

I know that Google is just trying to make our online searching experiences better, but we are not livestock. Put down the cattle prod and stop trying to herd us.

Use Google Webmaster Tools to Find the Missing Link

Posted by keirsun on February 06, 2007 at 04:10 PM

I think it's safe to say that any webmaster who is serious about getting positions in Google search results is also concerned about knowing who's linking to their website.

Now Google has a new tool that makes it easier for webmasters to find out what websites point to their own.

As an addition to its suite of webmaster tools, Google now provides in-depth reporting on links that point to individual pages of your site.

In order to use the link analysis tool, you will need to login to Google Webmaster Tools and verify site ownership. Once verified, click on the Links tab.

Google has always provided generic information about backlinks via the link: operator but is now sharing much more of its linking knowledge, including how many links point to individual site pages and where each of those links is coming from.

You can also look at data for internal links, meaning links from your very own site, which is useful for analyzing your site's internal linking structure.

Visit Google's Webmaster Central Blog for additional information.

Have Marketing Budgets Watered-Down Football?

Posted by on February 05, 2007 at 04:19 PM

As I sat down to watch Super Bowl XLI this weekend with friends, I heard the commentators mention the 40 percent chance of showers. It would be the first time in history where it rained at a Super Bowl. Shortly after the announcement, the rain started to fall. One friend asked, "What are they going to do if the game gets rained out?" I thought to myself, "It’s rain, not a meteor shower."

I began thinking about how much the game of football has changed. I've watched documentaries about major games in the 70’s and 80’s where you would see guys playing in snow, mud and sleet in 20 degree weather, in double overtime. Is the drama of the actual game less important than the hype around the pre-game shows, commercials, and half time performances in this 21-century world?

Has football been watered down to nothing more than an opportunity for advertisers? Have we forgotten about the real reason the game is played? Do we decide to watch only if the commercials or the halftime show get good previews? Can a little rain cause a delay-of-game that would blow the primetime marketing plans of some of the smartest, richest, biggest companies of our time?

This year’s stats help us answer these questions. An estimated 90 million viewers in the U.S. were expected to watch the Super Bowl this Sunday. According to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive, more than half of U.S. adults watch the big event for the commercials. For Super Bowl XLI, advertisers reportedly spent $2.6 million for a 30-second commercial spot.

I guess I know why advertisers worry about a little rain. If the game was delayed, would people still see those spots? Or would viewers still pay special attention to the commercial breaks, despite the inaction on the field?

In my younger years I can remember my Dad, Grandfather and Uncle sitting down in front of the TV to watch the game, going back and forth about who would win while comparing past Super Bowl highlights. To them it was all about the game. They could talk for hours about the season stats, Hall-of-Fame history, and highlights from some of their own years on the football field.

While my Dad, Grandfather and Uncle remember the games of every Super Bowl match in their lifetimes, I can't even remember what teams played last year. Instead, I remember a huge, grizzly bear beating the stuffing out of a man for a Budweiser on a 30-second commercial spot.

Comparing today's game with 20 years ago, Aurora author Terry Haynes agrees that while the Super Bowl is the biggest event of the year, it is no longer due to the actual game, but the marketing. Going back farther, when the Super Bowl was launched 41 years ago, it was not about television rights or pricey commercials, but about two leagues sending one team to the big game and finding a champion among them.

And for me, that's still the important part - so go ahead, play in the snow or the mud or delay the game until the weather clears. Eventually, one team will come out the champion and that's why I watch. Now that I have that off my chest, I think I'll go call my Dad about the highlights.

Yawning at Search Engine Super Bowl Ads

Posted by duncan on February 02, 2007 at 09:14 AM

As the big game quickly approaches, even us online marketers get excited about the advertisements. It's not like we are the only ones. There's likely someone in every profession that at least quietly enjoys the barrage of advertising that goes on during the game.

Since people from all walks of life use the search engines, I thought it would be neat to see how the big advertisers are gearing up with their multi-channel approach before the game.

So, I thought, "What of the Super Bowl ads appearing in the paid listings of a major search engine as the kick off draws closer?" I took at look and had to yawn a bit; yet, I was intrigued to know whether these ads are working for the advertisers.

I had queried the one word search "SuperBowl" to see what would come up. While the top paid search engine ad promised me tickets, I was also enticed by another ad that promised me some "..trained psychiatrists bringing football medical factoids." What the ...? I didn't click the ad.

Other gems were a site offering me hotels, and another that was selling what looked like some type of little known Asian-made soft drink.

One ad seemed to be offering religious/spiritual awakening. Through the Super Bowl?

A major newspaper brought me to their special Super Bowl section. I appreciated this as a fan. Go Peyton! I suppose this ad was put in place to get eyes on other ads. I hope the advertiser is seeing positive results on this particular keyword purchase.

I guess it isn't fair to suggest that search engine Super Bowl (or SuperBowl as I spelled it) ads should be as glamorous as those on the television during game day. If the TV advertisers are set to pay $2,000,000 for thirty seconds of air time during the game, however, why not purchase paid ad space in the search engines to show the ads online before, during, and after the game.

Why not integrate the campaign into this channel and get additional mileage out of your expensively made television ads? After all, this is the dawn of the age of video online. Soon, perhaps, we'll actually be watching the big game online anyway.

Social Network Marketing: YourSpace

Posted by geoff on February 01, 2007 at 02:49 PM

If you've read marketing predictions for 2007 and beyond, you can't miss the overwhelming belief that social networking sites can, and most likely will, have a greater effect on the ways companies reach out to consumers. With such great potential to engage customers in a natural dialogue, some companies continue to scuttle this ground-floor opportunity to really crank out some serious marketing mojo.

Before we break out the whooping stick, let's back up a little bit and talk about some of the significant differences between traditional forms of advertising and the differences in social network advertising. In traditional forms of advertising, such as print, television, and even the web, there is a clear separation between editorial content and advertising. You'll never misinterpret a Dodge commercial for an episode of the Dukes of Hazzard or mistake an adult diapers commercial for an episode of Golden Girls -- no matter how similar they may appear.

This differentiation is what consumers know and what they expect.

In social networking situations, the line of differentiation can be easily hidden. What may appear to be someone talking about how much they like their new running shoes may actually be a paid PR professional making it look like she's the average user. Trust quickly becomes an issue. And the last thing any brand wants is to be perceived as untrustworthy.

Still, the temptation has been just too much to resist for many companies. Mega-corporations like Sony and Wal-Mart / Edelman have even fallen guilty to creating fake blogs, or flogs, to promote their brands. And, frankly, it hurts those brands. More importantly, it devalues the idea of social networking as a viable option for companies to ethically and honestly engage their customer base as well as their potential customer base.

Even Craigslist.org, a site designed specifically for individuals to list free classifieds, is becoming so inundated with spamvertising that it's had to take specific measures to counter the problem.

Social Online Marketing is starting to echo those long ago Christmas mornings when you opened the coolest toy you'd even seen... and it broke within the first day you tried using it.

So how do we keep the prospects of legit marketing through networking from getting broken?

Well, how about using the real strength of social networking: sociability.

To keep things ethical, here are a few approaches:

Create a legitimate profile that clearly lets other users know who you are and what you represent.

Then create discussion-generating blogs relative to your business. Other users will likely take it from there.

I can't stress this enough: be REAL, and treat others as intelligent consumers. Keep them in the loop on what your organization has happening. Ask them questions about their opinions on the types of products or services your company supplies. Not only does this let users get closer to your brand, it can become a constant source of feedback and suggestions you can use to further your own company development.

Naturally, idiots may show up and trash your brand, your products, and even the person writing your blog. The natural response may be to hit back or have such posts deleted, but fight that urge. Trust users to know who has a legitimate complaint and who is simply stirring things up. Such people are immediately discounted. You may even be surprised by the likelihood of others to come to your rescue and defend your brand with their own positive experiences with your products.

Can you still talk about your new product launch? Absolutely. As long as users know you are a real person who is geeked about something your company is doing, and not just some undercover hype machine, they'll understand. Hopefully, as they get to know you, they'll get excited right along with you.

It's social. It's ethical. And most importantly, it's just good marketing.