Thursday, November 18, 2010

POPULAR SCIENCE: 100 Top Innovations Of The Year….

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Link Trio: A Simple, Yet Powerful, Link Building Tactic

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Great information on link building

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Susan Wojcicki’s 5 Ad Products Of Google Christmas

Google has been ramping up its product search and advertising efforts just in time for the holidays. Case in point: At Web 2.0 Summit Google VP of Product Management Susan Wojcicki challenged herself to demo the 5 pretty important Google ad products the company’s released in the past two months or so, in under 10 minutes.

Wojcicki insisted that umbrella theme of all these launches was merging both the online and offline shopping worlds. To mirror the brevity of Wojcicki’s presentation, here is a laundry list of Google’s most recent ad related efforts, below:

1. “In Stock Nearby” Now you can search and receive information directly from local stores to see what’s available and where.

2. “Hyperlocal Mobile SEM” New ad integration shows users distance to the advertiser’s business or location as well as the advertiser’s phone number.

3. “Google Shopper Updates” — Google Shopper, the Google mobile shopping app, now shows you reviews as well as allows you to scan barcodes.

4. “Google Goggles Print Ad Integration” – Links ads in magazines (offline) with online information and sites.

5. “Google Ads Call Tracking Analytics” — Advertisers can now track how many phone calls come in to through Google search, through Google’s own system.

Wojcicki brought up multiple times that most people still think of online shopping and offline shopping as different channels and that Google is trying (really hard) to technologically change this perception. While 42% of in-store sales are motivated by online shopping searches according to Wojcicki,  7% of purchasing is currently done online while 93% is still done in IRL stores.

Google very very obviously wants to be a point of control on that other 93%, see above.

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Interesting info. Thought online had a bigger piece of the pie.

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Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Google Launches Personalized Fashion Shop Boutiques.com

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Just in time for the holidays.

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Thursday, October 14, 2010

Facebook and Bing’s Plan to Make Search Social

Like technology on the move.

via Mashable! by Adam Ostrow on 10/13/10


Microsoft and Facebook have announced a new partnership that brings “Like” data and profile search to Bing. The deal marks a big leap forward in social search and also represents a new advantage for Bing –- which Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg declared the “underdog” in search during today’s press conference -– in its quest to take market share from Google.

Starting today, Bing users now get an experience that’s customized using Facebook Instant Personalization. For now, that means searches (where appropriate) will feature a Facebook module that shows you what your friends have liked as it relates to that search, as well as a smarter people search results.

The Bing and Facebook teams offered a few examples of how that might be useful during today’s press event: surfacing restaurants that your friends like, pulling in movie likes from IMDB or articles that have been shared about a car you might be eyeing. With the like button now being used by more than two million sites and Facebook passing 500 million members, there’s now enough scale to make that type of data surface on a regular basis in search.

Beyond that, Bing is trying to dramatically improve people search, which Bing’s Senior VP Online Audience Business Yusuf Mehdi said makes up about 4% of searches. Much like Facebook’s site, Bing will recommend new friends based on mutual relationships. Bing now surfaces that data when you search for a name (for example, a “Bob Smith” that five of your friends know will come up higher than a “Bob Smith” that none of them know). From search results, you can add people as friends or send them a message.

The future gets even more interesting though. Bing and Facebook said they’re working on including like data from friends alongside each search result. Further out, the companies see an opportunity to surface people who are experts in specific subjects.

At face value, Facebook integration certainly seems to make Bing search better in some instances. I know I’d be more inclined to click on a link in search results if one of my friends had liked it. Does that make me more likely to use Bing over Google? Not necessarily, though for the examples offered –- where opinion matters –- Bing’s “decision engine” differentiator starts to make a lot more sense.

Will Facebook integration make you more likely to use Bing? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Reviews: Bing, Facebook, Google, imdb

More About: bing, facebook, Google, instant personalization, microsoft, trending

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Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Evan Williams: “Twitter Will Get to a Billion Members”

via Mashable! by Ben Parr on 10/12/10


Twitter co-founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams shared the stage today in a rare joint appearance where they addressed everything from criticism about its usefulness in activism to its impact on news to its overarching vision for the future.

Twitter’s co-founders participated in a lively fireside chat moderated by Businessweek’s Brad Stone at a sold-out event for the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. The conversation started with a discussion about whether Twitter has become mainstream. While Evan started by asking what “going mainstream” exactly meant, he did say that Twitter is getting more new user signups every week than the entire population of his home state of Nebraska. That’s 1.8 million users per week.

The conversation quickly moved into the rollout of the New Twitter. Both founders said that the reaction has been very positive. While VP of Product Jason Goldman was preparing the team for a backlash, it simply never occurred. The goal of the new design, Biz Stone said, was to keep Twitter’s inherent simplicity intact while adding the richness and the content people are linking to. Williams was the primary driver behind the new design.

The meat of the conversation really began when Brad Stone brought up a recent opinion piece in The New Yorker by best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell. In it, Gladwell argued that social media was essential when it came to serious activism. Biz Stone responded to the criticism first, stating that “some of it is right and some of it is wrong.” He agreed that tweeting doesn’t have the same impact as joining a physical protest where your life is at risk. However, he said it was “absurd” to not understand that Twitter and social media are complementary to that type of activism because of their ability to facilitate the fast exchange of information.

Williams followed up by saying that Twitter’s use in Iran was likely overstated, but it was an early sign of “what is possible and what wer’re trying to enable.” His next point was that the web and electronic networks are now a central point for organization of this type of activism, now that communities don’t all congregate in one place, such as the church, anymore.

Twitter, Advertising and New CEOs

Advertising was also a central focus of the fireside chat. Brad Stone asked the Twitter co-founders how they felt about the separation of advertising and editorial content and how they might be affecting that. Evan Williams immediately responded that Twitter clearly labels any tweets or trends that are advertisements. More importantly, he made clear that Twitter is a mix of advertisement and non-advertisement content. He cited brands such as Starbucks as examples of users voluntarily opting in for promotional tweets about a product because they asked for it. After all, Starbucks didn’t get more than 1 million followers without a lot of people expressing interest in their products.

At one point, Williams and Stone were asked whether they thought the commercialization of Twitter was “bittersweet.” Biz Stone responded that he believed the company was succeeding in balancing advertising and commercial content with Twitter’s content quite well. “I want to ask you to name another platform where you can send a message to 5 million people for free,” he told Brad Stone during the conversation. Yet if a company wanted to reach more people than their own followers, they had the opportunity to do so through Promoted Trends, Tweets or Accounts.

Of course, no Twitter interview this quarter would be complete without a discussion about Evan Williams stepping down as CEO of Twitter. There are plenty of product-oriented CEOs, and Brad Stone asked the Twitter co-founders why Williams didn’t choose to go that route instead. Williams responded that he chose roles at Twitter based on where he would be the most useful, and in fact, he was in his fourth role at Twitter.

Williams said he loved focusing on product the most, and he believed that the position of CEO of Twitter, due to is phenomenal growth, would require more attention on operational efficiency and personnel management than product strategy and direction, which is really what excited Williams more than other factors.

Twitter and a Billion Users

During the Q&A session, Biz Stone and Evan Williams were asked about their long-term vision for Twitter. Williams responded that they thought about Twitter in “broad strokes” and that they were focused on helping people find out what’s happening in the world and becoming an indispensable service for spreading and consuming information woldwide.

This led to another question: Do Twitter’s execs think the service could reach a billion users, something at Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg famously claimed his company would reach after it surpassed the 500 million user mark. Williams affirmed his belief, saying, “Twitter will get to a billion members.” He quickly added it wouldn’t be the same billion individuals as Facebook, and he wouldn’t specify just how long it would take to reach that goal.

His comments likely refer to his team’s belief that Facebook and Twitter are fundamentally different services with fundamentally different goals. Tonight’s conversation was entirely about Twitter as an information network, something that Twitter likes to emphasize anytime they’re compared to Facebook. In the eyes of Twitter’s cofounders, they’ve built a tool that has changed how we consume news and information for the better.

There are a lot of people that would agree.

More About: biz stone, evan williams, INFORUM, twitter

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Sunday, October 3, 2010

WARNING: Facebook “Like” Worm Spreading Through Javascript Exploit

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About Mashable

Mashable is an online guide to social media. One of the top 10 blogs worldwide, Mashable is a hub for those looking to make sense of the online realm.

What will you find here? Step-by-step guides to using popular websites, reviews of mobile applications, breaking news about what's happening on the web, the best viral videos, tips for marketing your businesses online and much much more!

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This is one to watch out for...

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WARNING: Facebook “Like” Worm Spreading Through Javascript Exploit

top stories the last 7 days

Back to Top

About Mashable

Mashable is an online guide to social media. One of the top 10 blogs worldwide, Mashable is a hub for those looking to make sense of the online realm.

What will you find here? Step-by-step guides to using popular websites, reviews of mobile applications, breaking news about what's happening on the web, the best viral videos, tips for marketing your businesses online and much much more!

More About Mashable »

© 2010 Mashable. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction without explicit permission is prohibited.

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This is one to watch out for...

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Friday, September 24, 2010

Lead Generation is Growing

Online lead generation is now responsible for 42% of sales made by companies to consumers, compared to 40% last year, according to Econsultancy’s Online Lead Generation (B2C) Report.

More than 500 advertisers, agencies and publishers took part in the global survey, backed by the IAB UK and the Performance Marketing Association (PMA) in the United States.

Additionally, search engine optimization continues to be the most widely used channel for this purpose.

Paid search has also increased in lead generation, but the biggest increase was for social media.

Details of the report are available at http://econsultancy.com/reports/online-lead-generation-report.

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Lead Generation is Growing

Online lead generation is now responsible for 42% of sales made by companies to consumers, compared to 40% last year, according to Econsultancy’s Online Lead Generation (B2C) Report.

More than 500 advertisers, agencies and publishers took part in the global survey, backed by the IAB UK and the Performance Marketing Association (PMA) in the United States.

Additionally, search engine optimization continues to be the most widely used channel for this purpose.

Paid search has also increased in lead generation, but the biggest increase was for social media.

Details of the report are available at http://econsultancy.com/reports/online-lead-generation-report.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print

  • Digg

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  • Facebook

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  • LinkedIn

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  • Twitter

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Check out Shawn's post...

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