Google Zeitgeist 2005
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Posted By Matt Certo on 12/21 at 09:02 AM |
Google has released its 2005 Year-End Zeitgeist. What's a zeitgeist, you ask? Wikipedia gives you a good definition. Nonetheless, these terms should mean something to marketers.
Google.com - Top Gainers of 2005
1. Myspace
2. Ares
3. Baidu
4. wikipedia
5. orkut
6. iTunes
7. Sky News
8. World of Warcraft
9. Green Day
10. Leonardo da Vinci
Google News - Top Searches in 2005
1. Janet Jackson
2. Hurricane Katrina
3. tsunami
4. xbox 360
5. Brad Pitt
6. Michael Jackson
7. American Idol
8. Britney Spears
9. Angelina Jolie
10. Harry Potter
Froogle - Top Searches in 2005
1. ipod
2. digital camera
3. mp3 player
4. ipod mini
5. psp
6. laptop
7. xbox
8. ipod shuffle
9. computer desk
10. ipod nano
Thanks to Matt Cutts for the tip.
Larry King can talk but not blog
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Posted By Keith Ort on 12/20 at 03:05 PM |
As I was channel surfing last night, I stopped off on Larry King when I saw the finalists from this past season’s Apprentice being interviewed. At one point Larry King asked “The Donald” if race had played a part in his decision. Larry cited his notes that some bloggers were accusing Trump of racism. Trump became very upset with the question. The part that came to be most interesting is how out of tune with technology Larry King portrayed himself. He said quote “I don't even know how to touch a blog. Do you know how to get a blog?” Even Trump didn’t have any interest in blogging when he said “Me? I have no interest.” Larry asked “Do you know how to reach a blogger?” to which Donald replied “I have no idea. Everybody that works for me knows.” It makes me wonder if Larry or Donald has even looked at blogs or if they have been quick to dismiss them. Maybe they should be since some people are making six figures off of it.
Television 2010?
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Posted By Rochelle Knight on 12/15 at 04:13 PM |
I honestly had no idea my last topic would spin off into even more but so it has. After doing some research on the video iPod's network episodes downloads, I found some news (to me at least) that the advertising revenue losses studios are experiencing are making them start to freak out and consider having viewers pay per television episode in general (similar to on-demand shows). Post-gazette.com has a "Q&A: TV's future" article with some interesting details - also touching on the benefits of using "added extras" as an incentive for increasing interst, i.e. go online to chat about a show, view web-only extra scenes, etc. Even the big networks are looking to offer online downloads the next day, commercial free, for a price.
While I am absolutely for the benefits of "added extras" online, I'm pretty torn about the new direction the television media might be going in general. On one hand, it'll give networks an easier time keeping up with shows that aren't as popular off-the-air and still accessible. On the other, why not buy the DVD if you really want to the show - Best Buy has several aisles dedicated to this. And I can't even imagine how this will end up affecting the cable companies with their already high prices.
In the end, as Steven Spiecher ponders the problems with per episode charges becoming an epidemic, I think -- ok, I hope -- that people will simply become more interested in finding other interests to occupy themselves versus losing themselves in front of the television screen. For everyone's sake... picnic, anyone?
Wikipedia Called 'Pretty Accurate'
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Posted By Matt Certo on 12/15 at 10:42 AM |
A recent Associated Press article on Yahoo characterizes Wikipedia as 'pretty accurate.' Some side-by-side spot checking with traditional encyclopedias has turned up high marks for the accuracy of the open-source encyclopedia. Should mean some pretty good things for the open-source movement and concept of wikis.
$100 Laptop - Update
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Posted By Matt Certo on 12/14 at 02:35 PM |
I wrote some time ago about Nicholas Negroponte's vision for the $100 laptop. As Yahoo reports today, a vendor in Taiwan has been selected. Looks like Negroponte's vision is inching toward reality.
Don't SEO your blog, market it
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Posted By Keith Ort on 12/14 at 01:38 PM |
In my research to become a better SEO, I came across an article about the relationship between search engine optimization (SEO) and blogging. The article argues that SEO advice for a traditional Web site is useless. I agree. Search engines such as Google want quality, original content. A good blog will be updated regularly so the front page won’t maintain a post for long. After x amount of time, the post becomes archived. These archives are a lot more important. I regularly check server statistics to find out how visitors got to where they are, where visitors are going from there, and what they do on the Web site. What I’ve seen is that this blog’s archives are its primary source of traffic from searchers. For instance, an article I posted quite a couple of months back regarding old computers has received large amounts of traffic from 1 keyword in there. This was not my intent but it is a most welcome gift.
Blogs are not only for exposing frauds, updating friends on your vacation, or learning the latest about a band, they are for networking. Blogs are easy ways to gain new business without the drive to the local business breakfast (while the food is great). This moves blogs from falling into needing search engine optimization and into the world of search engine marketing (SEM).
Get paid by Bill Gates
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Posted By Keith Ort on 12/14 at 08:50 AM |
It seems Bill has an issue with other companies hording their income selfishly so he is proposing something to change that. In his campaign to prove MSN search as the superior search engine, Bill said Microsoft may kick start a new program where you, the user, is paid to use MSN Search. In the current business model, Bill argues, Google keeps a large chunk of its revenues from advertisements. To my knowledge, Google does not publish an exact figure of how much they distribute to publishers of adSense. So would either a check or free software entice you to change your homepage from Google.com or Yahoo.com to MSN.com or Search.MSN.com?
Online Media Emphasis
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Posted By Matt Certo on 12/13 at 04:31 PM |
Christopher Kenton makes a really good point about a recent B2B article in which the 'best and brightest' of the media world had very little reference to the online space. His rhetorical questions at the end of the post seem to say it all.
Television 2005
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Posted By Rochelle Knight on 12/13 at 02:18 PM |
I was watching a show the other day promoting the new video iPod and how you can now download actual television episodes and thought -- What a great way to promote something: offer it on TV, available for download, maybe even include it to view online. -- Two seconds later, they mention that it costs $1.99 per episode. $1.99?? Most of these shows are on the local stations, not to mention I already pay some crazy amount for cable. Why would I want to pay more - especially when I can DVR them?
Now, I'm not a huge iPod user - I find mine works well for airplanes and working out - but it seems like this is asking for a lot more out of the user than it really should considering the popularity of TiVo and DVR which are already endangering advertiser revenues. I understand the reasons to charge people money to download the video (maybe even make up for lost revenues), but I think it would be a better direction to offer network television downloads for free, and charge for other more valuable items (music videos, maybe actual cable channels, or special artist interviews - I haven't really thought this part through but I'm sure there's something better that could be done).
So, while I feel networks are losing out on growing their audiences with download incentives such as iPod's network downloads, my very small point to tie this in to Web sites is that it's important not to ask your visitors (or potential visitors) to jump through hoops to do what you want them to do. Find out what makes your customers loyal (or brings them in initially) and focus on building from there. In my case, I would be much more receptive to the video iPod's episode downloads if there was an incentive - such as free network shows - to draw me in.
Feedburner Data
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Posted By Matt Certo on 12/13 at 01:22 PM |
Feedburner has released some interesting data about feeds, RSS, and otherwise on its blog. The following image looks at the emergence of RSS and its use in media beyond blogs.
His Life As a Blogger
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Posted By Matt Certo on 12/12 at 03:49 PM |
Rich Karlgaard, Publisher of Forbes Magazine, has a nice article/column in this week's issue of Forbes Magazine. It's entitled 'My Life As a Blogger' and has a good number of simple conclusions about the impact of blogs on the business world. Among my favorites:
- Blogging is not overhyped
- Blogs do threaten mainstream media
- If blogs can take down Dan Rather, they are a truly considerable force
RSS - Thinking out Loud
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Posted By Matt Certo on 12/12 at 02:55 PM |
Many of you who read this blog are probably sick and tired of me talking about the ins and outs of RSS all the time. It really fascinates me, though...both because of the high potential and relatively low adoption rate. One thought I had this morning in the car: RSS is important with blogs moreso than online newspapers and magazines. With the latter there is an expectation of up-to-the-minute content freshness. As such, I know that I can go to an online newspaper at any time and see updated content. Not so with your typical blogs. Many of them go for days (or weeks) without any changes. My RSS-enabled reader keeps me from going to each URL all of the time. I'm afraid that if I subscribed to an online newspaper via RSS, I wouldn't be able to keep up with the flurry of content.
Blogging and MBAs
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Posted By Matt Certo on 12/06 at 10:59 AM |
I had the chance recently to give a talk to about 60 MBA students about the impact of blogs and social media upon the business world. Broad topic, I know, but I put together a few slides to try and provide some context for the discussion and shared my experiences and perspectives with the group. Among other items, here are a few of the topics we went over:
- Word-of-mouth marketing's evolution
- The demonstrated impact of blogs (i.e. Rathergate, Kryptonite, etc.)
- The tools of the trade (i.e. Technorati, RSS, etc.)
I did some 'show-of-hands' polling to ascertain how many of the students were involved with blogging on some level. I was fairly surprised to discover that most of the students had never heard of Technorati (let alone used it) or blog search engines. Naturally, none of them had begun to subscribe to RSS feeds or even read blogs on a regular basis.
It has gotten me to thinking that the whole message of blogs is a long way from being mainstream. It seems to have been relegated to self-proclaimed 'geeks' who are interested and intrigued by the technology and overall movement. There are exceptions, undoubtedly, but there is much distance yet to travel.
The ironic thing, though, is that people really nod their heads in agreement when you explain the 'impact' stories of Dell-Hell, Kryptonite, and others. I think that the potential for traction exists, but the educational divide seems too great. I'm wondering what it will take for the business world to really grab on en masse. Will Microsoft's inclusion of RSS in the next version of IE help? Will another cover story in a magazine bring it all to a boil? Will a newer, simpler platform for social media emerge to shift emphasis from blogging? Or is this just a technology whose time has yet to arrive?
I know that Technorati's numbers create a pretty compelling case (i.e. the time has already come) for the media. But when will social media be empasized in more MBA programs? When will more small business owners (not just the fortune 500s) dig into the movement?
I have been comparing this response to my interactions with executives who are in pretty much the same place. Blogs are a known entity, but only on a superficial level. I am encountering very few folks who are truly considering the impact of social media on their organization's future.
The true search king?
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Posted By Keith Ort on 12/06 at 10:05 AM |
John Battelle has indirectly opened up a discussion about who the true king of search is. eBay is claiming they process upwards of 2 billion (yes, that’s with 9 zeros) searches per month which they claim is “on par with Google” (slide 18). Now officially Google refuses to disclose how much traffic they process but some estimates have put it at much more substantial number than 2 billion a month. This leads me to ask, where did eBay get their figures?
Lyrical Heartbreak
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Posted By Matt Certo on 12/01 at 09:47 AM |
I heard about Pandora today via Seth's Blog. Free site which features deep personalization for music lovers based upon The Music Genome Project. You type in one of your favorite artists (I put in Dave Matthews). From the artist(s) you select, the site suggests other (lesser-known) songs/artists based upon the underlying likes/dislikes you indicate as each song plays. As it suggests each new song you can ask why it suggested the song. For me, once I passed Coldplay, Travis, and others, it told me: "based on what you've told us so far, we're playing this track because it features mild rhythmic syncopation, use of a string ensemble, mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation, a vocal-centric aesthetic and heart-breaking lyrics..."
This site is another great Web 2.0 demo which should get marketers thinking way past the Web as a vehicle to put your brochure online! Naturally, the site is peddling the records it's suggesting via Amazon.com and iTunes. Can't say that I blame them!
New Addiction for Snoops and Egomaniacs
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Posted By Matt Certo on 12/01 at 09:05 AM |
Just saw the link for ZoomInfo over on Micropersuasion and was pretty impressed with this tool. It appears to be a Web 2.0 'people research' tool. Many of us probably wouldn't admit that we 'Google ourselves' to see what's been written about us or, (cough-cough) Google other people to snoop. But for those of us who have done so, this tool will be your newest fetish.
It appears as if this tool harvests all that has been written about individuals on the Web and then intelligently 'builds' profiles for them based upon where they work, awards they have won, and affiliations they maintain. The site also presents the Web links from which the information is compiled.
Aside from the ego factor, the business implications for this could be potentially very significant. The site is touting premium memberships (with deeper results) organized around recruiting, prospecting, and business (i.e. competitive) intelligence.
Powerful stuff and a great example of Web 2.0 at work.