DoubleClick/Performics Shopping

Rumors are circulating that DoubleClick is up for grabs and Microsoft might be interested. The price tag is $2.5 Billion (Microsoft rarelyl buys anything more than $1 Billion). If the rumor is true then the DoubleClick acquisition by Microsoft will represent a key piece in the dinosaur's battle against Google.

DoubleClick is the owner of Performics the largest search marketing company in terms of revenue. A big share of their business is with Google. The acquisition would make more sense for Google, which has a lock on search ad dollars to expand its on-line display ad business.

Here is why I think that the deal will not happen;
1) Microsoft does not have the traffic to channel the ad inventory.
2) Microsoft has no experience in the online ad industry and it is clueless when it comes to operating one.

Usability Testing as Prevention Not Cure

This is a good article by Jared Spool on the value of usability testing. He writes "Usability tests can't tell you everything you need to know to make every decision right. However, if you pay attention to all the clues, you can learn a tremendous amount." He talks about usability as a preventative measure, what can and can't be learned from usability testing, getting the right test subjects, designing the right tasks, and the value of proper analysis of the findings.

Read the article.

Viacom The Next Olivetti - Lawsuit Business Model

Olivetti once ruled the office terrain until IBM and Microsoft arrived. The once mighty typewriter company has been reduced to a manufacture of compact discs and printer drives for Microsoft. Disc are dead and Microsoft is in trouble. Viacom the owner of MTV and other TV brands is going through hard times and even more hard times await the company's future. TV audiences are shifting to the internet, Tivo, cable and other mediums. Following the TV audiences are advertisers. Today, production costs have dropped so much that major studio backing is not necessary to produce professional quality movies or music.

However, distribution is as important as ever and YouTube is distribution without the expensive overhead. Also, content creators no longer need to get into restrictive licensing and ownership agreements with the studios in the hopes of getting distribution. YouTube provides them control over their content and efficient ways to monetize it.

The lawsuit by Viacom against YouTube's parent Google is a desperate attempt by dying company to stay alive. Also, going forward you will see more as the old studios and networks adopt lawsuits as a key piece of their business model, claiming that shows and recordings that are not being watched on TV or listened to on the radio are being consumed on the internet. Get with the program.

10 High-Profit Redesign Priorities

Great article by Jakob Nielsen on 10 Internet tactics with a particularly high return on investment (ROI).
1. Email Newsletters
2. Informative Product Pages
3. High-Quality Photography
4. Product Differentiation and Comparisons
5. Support for Reordering
6. Simplified Text
7. Catering to Seniors
8. Gift-Giving Support
9. Search
10. User Testing
Bonus Tactic: Loyalty Program

Read the full article.

Friendster says Ya Who? & Runs to Google

Friendster, a social networking website switch to Yahoo competitor Google. It is forecast that Google’s display ads based on web search will be integrated in Q2 of this year. Google paid out $3.3 billion to its online advertising partners in 2006.

Friendster hopes that this new deal with the search giant will generate much needed revenue by improving access to advertisers. "As a top-25 global web brand with 19 million monthly unique visitors and 6 billion page views per month, this agreement with Google allows Friendster to leverage the best industry platform to monetize our high-growth business," said Friendster business development VP Aaron Barnes.

Friendster boasts 37 million registered users spanning 75 countries of which 1.3 million are in the U.S compared with around 61.5 million at MySpace, according to comScore.

This leaves Yahoo out in the cold, just weeks after launching their advanced ad platform, Panama.

Report Indicates Continued Strong Internet Growth

The VeriSign® Domain Name Industry Brief for Q4'06 tells of ever increasing growth in the total domain name registrations which reached 120 million, representing a 32 percent increase over the previous year, and an eight percent increase over the third quarter of 2006.

Key Industry Stats and Trends:
- 32 percent increase in Top Level Domain (TLD) registrations in 2006
- Registrations average 10.1 million each quarter for 2006
- Historic country code TLD growth of 31 percent; 500,000 fourth quarter .cn registrations in China alone
- 89 percent increase in Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs)
- 2006 ended with more than 65 million .com and .net domain names

Read the press release.

Study Finds That Yahoo Offers Best Mobile Web Experience

It appears that users prefer a more desktop realistic version of a site, as it relates to what they see, on their mobile devices. As a result, the user experience on Yahoo Mobile appears to have beat out Google, Napster, YouTube and MySpace. "Yahoo! Mobile represented the best replication of the full website on the Third (mobile) screen. Full website in this context refers to the website that a user would see if that user navigated to the website via a desktop and/or a laptop computer." Read the article.

Ogilvy Group Gets Into Search Marketing

The Ogilvy Group has made a splash into search marketing via the purchase of search marketing firm Global Strategies International. Global Strategies specializes in search engine optimization, brand management and training in search marketing techniques.

Global Strategies International will become part Neo&Ogilvy, Ogilvy's media communications group. Co-founders Bill Hunt, Jeremy Sanchez and Andy Weatherwax will continue to lead the firm as it maintains its own identity as a part of Neo&Ogilvy.

Nasreen Madhany, CEO of Neo@Ogilvy, said that Global Strategies International’s expertise in natural search will improve Neo’s ability to deliver comprehensive search marketing services to its global network of clients. The integration of GSI into Neo@Ogilvy will allow us to deliver end-to-end digital marketing solutions to clients throughout Neo`s global network."

NeoSearch@Ogilvy is the search marketing division, making Neo@Ogilvy one of the only companies with true global search marketing capabilities. NeoSearch@Ogilvy provides clients with a deep capability in both paid and organic search marketing that brings greater accountability, ROI and performance to every marketing initiative.

Vantage Raises $70M

Vantage Media announced raising $70M in series A funding. Vantage was one of the first companies to offer search marketing solutions on a performance basis. As an early customer of both Google and Yahoo, Vantage has gained unique insight into the inner-workings of these search engines and how to harness them to benefit its clients, said the company. Vantage currently manages more than 40 million keywords yielding over one billion impressions per year, and is one of the largest providers of search-based marketing leads for educational institutions.

Since its inception in 2002, Vantage Media has grown each year without external financing or acquisitions. Vantage is unique in its focus on high quality leads from search engines, versus lower-quality alternatives.

Online Video Best Practices

With the surge of video online, thanks to the likes of YouTube and others, how can corporate sites leverage this latest phenom to their advantage. It certainly makes for a highly effective marketing tool. Or, should such user voyeurism be relegated to the more B2C consumer facing sites?! Corporate and more B2B sites are not in favor of video discrimination and as such are slowly getting their video on as well.

How can or should video be implemented online to ensure the best user experience. Here are some best practices:
- embed and stream your video directly from your site versus downloading to view.
- avoid popups lest users' popup blockers intervene.
- don't make the screen size too small that the video content is not clearly visible. At the same time, don't make it too big that it becomes obnoxious and cumbersome to a good user experience.
- ensure your video picture and sound quality are crystal clear.
- be sure to provide video controls for play, pause, stop, and volume controls (including mute). A progress bar and time span of the movie are also useful.
- remember, users have limited attention spans and limited time to give to your video, so keep it to the point.
- preferably, do not autoplay. Let users opt-in to viewing the video content by clicking the 'play' button themselves.
- display the first frame of your movie by default on your web page as a teaser.
- although internet connections are faster today, be sure to optimize your file size for optimal viewing pleasure.
- use video sparingly and appropriately. Try not to overload a page with more than one video. Appropriate use includes using video for marketing, demos, training, support, customer testimonials, etc.
- in coding your webpage, use the noscript tag to add information about the video or software requirements needed for viewing for accessibility, seo, and overall user-experience purposes.

Online video is a highly under-utilized tool at our disposal with high potential ROI gains. A picture is worth a thousand words but online video may be worth a gazillion words given that with it, a message can be so much more powerful and impactful simply by adding audio and real people in motion versus static, textual messages with stock photography. In terms of tools, Flash video appears to be a highly popular one of choice for creating online video. Check out their video gallery examples.

Local.com Lands $8M

Local.com Corp. which provides technology and services for helping retailers advertise and consumers search for locally available products, has received $8 million in financing from Hearst Interactive Media and Greenway Capital.

Local.com Corp. (NASDAQ: LOCM) attracts about 10 million visitors a month seeking information on local businesses, products, services, people and jobs.

Google, Yahoo and other provide local search as side offering of their core platform. eg. I did a search on Google and Local.com for Chinese food in my zip code. Local.com displayed sponsor/paid listings first (which I quickly skipped) and when organic results. The results we displayed by the closest to my zip code in miles which made it easy. However, the map and directions went the best user experience.

I did the same search on Google and the closest venue to my zip code was third. If I was new to an area this would be useful information. Google Local in now integrated with Google Maps and it was very easy to use.

Click Fraud Rates Less Than 0.02%

Google reported that the rate of click fraud for which advertisers seek a refund represents less than 0.02% of all clicks. The company reported "every percentage point of invalid clicks we throw out represents over $100 million/year in potential revenue foregone", thus is in the interest of Google to reduce this rate.

On the other hand ClickForensics puts the click fraud rate at 14.2%. However ClickForensics' rate is an overall average of click fraud across the search industry. The rate of click fraud across different ad industry sectors and different search providers varies widely. Those buying expensive keywords as triggers for their search ads, for example, are more likely to be targeted by click fraudsters than other advertisers. Also the second and third tier search engines with do not have Google's technology to detect nor correct these problems.


Also, ClickForensics and others that build their business model around this issue are not about to say that they are in a small and declining market. Then, there are others with inferior technology that are utilizing this issue as part of their marketing strategy.

The bottom line is search marketing is the most effective medium to reach customers and even if the rate of errors is 14% it is better than displace where there is little relevance and metrics.