August | 2008 | Search Marketing Communications

Archive for August, 2008

Live Search xRank and Barack Obama

August 29, 2008

Microsoft has re-launched Live Search along with its xRank features.

Today I was surprised to find the following picture embedded in Microsoft’s Live Search home page.

Or is it the other way around?

I was surprised to find the Microsoft Live Search box embedded in a picture of Barack Obama.

Live Search Barack Obam

I am not sure but I think this is a first.

Embed your search home page in images from the day’s headlines?

If your search appliance isn’t gaining search traffic market share from its competition piggy back your product on news and images known to produce search traffic by bolting your search box onto the backs of the day’s top headlines?

Yahoo already does this to some degree but Live Search has taken its editorial to a new level.

If search was previously defined by it’s transparency and absence of bias, Microsoft Live Search has now flip flopped with its decision to make its editorial choice the cover of their Live Search home page.

It will be interesting to see if this decision increases Microsoft’s Live Search traffic volume and market share or if it puts off both its otherwise loyal search users while dissuading potential additional search audience members from visiting the Live Search site.

Drilling down from the home page Live Search provides five categories of Live Search xRank results: Celebrity, Musician, Politician, Blogger and Olympics.

I assume as news cycles ebb and flow, so will their xRank editorial categories selections.

By optimizing its home page for maximum search audience traffic through co-opting the day’s headlines, Live Search has literally given new meaning to the terms search engine optimization and SEO.

Live Search xRank Celebrity

Live Search Celebrity xRank

Live Search xRank Musician

Live Search Musician xRank

Live Search xRank Politician

Live Search Politician xRank

Live Search xRank Blogger

Live Search Blogger xRank

Live Search xRank Olympics

Live Search Olympics xRank

Tags:Barack Obama, Blogger, Celebrity, Live Search, Musician, Olympics, Politician, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, xRank
Posted in Live Search, Microsoft, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, xRank | 1 Comment »

Google Hot Trends Gadget Error

August 28, 2008

Google Hot Trends offers a “Top 10 Trends” gadget that I display in my iGoogle account.

Google Hot Trends Gadget

The Hot Trends gadget appears to be on the blink and has been for the last several hours.

Google Labs can you get this fixed?

Googe Trends Gadget Error

Tags:Gadget, Google Labs, Google Trends, iGoogle
Posted in Google, Google Hot Trends, Google Labs | Leave a Comment »

Want to Cancel an XM Radio? Good Luck!

August 28, 2008

I bought a new car and sold my 1994 Mercedes Benz S420 after using a combination of Craigslist, AutoTrader.com and YouTube to advertise my old car for sale.

I had installed an aftermarket XM Radio in my S420 a number of years ago and upon selling the car needed to deactivate that particular XM Radio signal.

Listening to XM Radio on my laptop, I am accustomed to navigating the XM Radio website to select channels and manage my account.

Not having ever deactivated one of their radios, I went to their website’s Frequently Asked Questions section where I was unable to locate any mention of how to turn off an XM radio signal or cancel an XM account.

XM Radio Frequently Asked Questions

I then drilled down into my account’s “Listener Care” section where I thought surely I could deactivate my car’s XM radio unit. After much searching, I concluded XM Radio does not allow its customers to deactivate their radios online.

XM Radio Listener Care

XM Radio cares so much about me and my business they won’t let me deactivate a radio without my first having to call and speak to them about it!

The thought nearly moved me to tears – just not tears of joy…

After realizing they weren’t going to let me go without a fight, I then had the pleasure of speaking with a XM Customer Care representative half way around the world in India.

As their website had directed me, I called XM Radio @ 1-800-XM-RADIO (1-800-967-2346) between the following hours:

Mon-Sat: 8 AM – 11 PM ET
Sun: 8 AM – 8 PM ET

My ‘Listener Care” representative notified me he personally wouldn’t be able to help me deactivate my radio but would forward my call to the appropriate department where they could.

I was then placed on hold for about 15 minutes.

I hung up and dialed back where I told the next person who answered I had been on hold for 15 minutes and had all the “Listener Care” I could handle today.

The conversation then moved to the point where I explained how I wanted to deactivate a radio – not close my account. He then addressed my previous comment by saying the cancellation department can have extended queue times and that he could not guarantee I wouldn’t have to hold for a prolonged period of time again and that it would probably be better for me to call back on the weekend!

XM Listener Care Phone Number

I then asked him: “Can I not cancel an XM radio subscription online?” He said, no.

At this point I told him if he wasn’t able to help me cancel my radio signal right then that I would instead cancel my entire XM Radio account. I also mentioned I would now be writing about my XM Radio experience.

At this point it was obvious our call became “monitored” and I was magically wisked to the cancellation department in under one minute.

I was finally able to cancel the XM Radio in my now ex-S420 Mercedes Benz but not before having to go through 20 more questions about why I was canceling followed by a couple attempts to get me to put XM in my new car even though it came from the factory installed with Sirius.

If you are needing to cancel your XM Radio subscription – Good Luck – you will probably need it.

Tags:AutoTrader, Cancel, Craigslist, Frequently Asked Questions, Listener Care, XM Radio, XM Radio Phone Number, YouTube
Posted in 1-800-967-2346, 1-800-XM-RADIO, Autotrader.com, Craigslist, Frequently Asked Questions, Listener Care, YouTube | 3 Comments »

FAA Flight Delays Information Map

August 26, 2008

Airports across the US are experiencing flight delays today after a communications breakdown at a Federal Aviation Administration facility, the FAA said.

From CNN:

“The facility south of Atlanta was having problems processing data, requiring that all flight-plan information be processed through a facility in Salt Lake City, Utah — overloading that facility. The two facilities process all flight plans for commercial and general aviation flights in the United States, said FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen.

The administration said there are no radar outages and said they have not lost contact with any planes. The roughly 5,000 flights that were in the air when the breakdown happened were not affected — just those that were waiting to take off.”

The FAA’s Air Traffic Control System Command Center Flight Delay Information website provides real time updates on flight delays as well as expected delay times.

FAA Flight Delay Information Map

Tags:Air Traffic Control System Command Center, FAA, FAA Flight Delays, Federal Aviation Administration, Information, Map
Posted in Air Traffic Control System Command Center, FAA Flight Delays, Federal Aviation Administration | 1 Comment »

Tray Table Advertising: Will It Fly?

August 25, 2008

New York based Brand Connections has an exclusive license for selling ads on a patented tray table advertising system for passenger Airlines.

Imagine traveling with some brand’s message for 8 hours to Europe.

brand connections

Tray Table Advertising gives new meaning to marketing to a “captive audience.”

Tags:Brand Message, Captive Audience, Tray Table Advertising
Posted in Advertising, Brand, Marketing | 1 Comment »

Web Display and Search Advertising Combined; Their Sum Greater Than Parts

August 22, 2008

Gian Fulgoni chairman of comScore, recently wrote about his firm’s research on the impact online display and search advertising have on in-store retail sales.

How does comScore measure the impact online advertising has on retail offline sales? According to Fulgoni, “using the comScore panel, off line sales impact can be measured by linking panelists’ exposure to online ads with their in-store buying (through the use of retailers’ loyalty card data).’

Fulgoni draws two interesting conclusions from comScore’s
research:

1. “Search advertising provides higher sales lift than display advertising, but when combined, the synergy provides the highest lift…”

comScore Shoplocal.com Lift

Search and Display Ads Lift

2. “While search advertising results in a higher sales lift than display advertising among the people exposed to the ads, the number of people reached by display advertising is typically markedly higher than the number of people reached by search advertising …

comscore shoplocal.com reach

Online Advertising Reach

For media buyers planning to increase their brand message reach and lift consider the following;

1. An online display advertising campaign often reaches further than a search advertising campaign but online display ads will have less lift than search ads.

2. Search advertising will have more lift than online display ads but search ads may not reach as far as online display advertising.

Brand managers buying either online display advertising or search advertising but not both online display advertising and search advertising are likely diluting their brand’s message power – and along with it the ability to maximize their return on either form of online advertising they may have invested in.

Tags:Brand, comScore, Display Advertising, Lift, Reach, Retail Sales, Search Advertising
Posted in Ad Lift, Ad Reach, Advertisers, Advertising, Brand, comScore, Display Advertising, Retail Sales, Search Advertising | Leave a Comment »

eBay Being Distintermediated by Google?

August 21, 2008

“eBay will be permanently marginalized by Google.” – Inspired by Erick Schonfeld, TechCrunch

via FastCompany:

“Although eBay is making changes to its fee structure – emphasizing fixed prices over the auction model it’s known for following, Schonfeld writes, “the Web has moved on and eBay is stuck in still waters.” Page views are down 15% year-over-year, while the stock is down 26%.

eBay’s main challenge, he says, “is that it is becoming easier and easier to find things to buy on the Web simply by searching for what you want on Google. During the early days of the Web, people needed a few big e-commerce sites they could trust and that could organize everything that was for sale online. That need was filled by Amazon and eBay. But now people are comfortable trawling the Net for the best bargains, and eBay is no longer the first place they go.”

Just as the tens of thousands of middle men and their companies like travel agents were disintermediated by Web 1.0, eBay who became the middle man for millions of buyers and sellers now faces being disrupted itself by the web’s largest middle man: Google.

Why go to eBay and pay their toll when you can go direct to any seller via a Google search – toll free?

Tags:Disintermediated, eBay, eBay Toll, Google, Middleman, Page Views, Search, Toll Free
Posted in Disintermediated, eBay, eBay Toll, Google, Google Search, Middleman, Page Views, Toll Free | Leave a Comment »

Google Street View Maps

August 20, 2008

Google has been busy populating their maps product with more street level view pictures.

To see whether or not your city has been captured on film or not, go to Google Maps and select street view.

Google Maps shows which cities have been photographed or not.

Google US Street View

Next drill down to your particular city and location by inputting the address, city and state or in the case of a specific landmark like the Golden Gate Bridge – just enter the landmark’s name with or without the city

Golden Gate Bridge San Francisco CA

Click on the street view link and you will get a photograph which can then be tilted up and down or rotated 360 degrees to view different angles of the location Google has mapped.

Golden Gate Bridge

In this case you can see the Golden Gate Bridge, the San Francisco Bay and the San Francisco skyline all at once.

San Francisco Bay

Tags:Golden Gate Bridge, Google Maps, Google Street View, Landmark
Posted in Golden Gate Bridge, Google, Google Maps, Google Street View, Landmark | Leave a Comment »

Reaching the Internet Audience with Google Ad Planner

August 19, 2008

Google has begun inviting internet ad agencies into their display ad buying product called Google Ad Planner.

Google Ad Planner is still in Beta.

Google Ad Planner’s available US internet audience is 230 million visitors via 160 billion page views.

For brands looking to broaden their web reach and add lift to sales both online and off, Google’s Ad Planner product offers media buyers a simplified internet display advertising research and media buying tool.

The following audience segments are available for brands planning to target and increase their message touch points online.

Google Ad Planner

You can request a Beta invite at Google Ad Planner.

Defined Internet Audience

Unique Visitors 230 M
Country Reach 100%
Page Views 160 Billion

Gender:

Male
Female

Age:

0 – 17
18 – 24
25 – 34
35 – 44
45 – 54
55 – 64
65 or more

Education:

Less than HS diploma
High school
Some college
Bachelors degree
Graduate degree

Household income:

$0 – $24,999
$25,000 – $49,999
$50,000 – $74,999
$75,000 – $99,999
$100,000 – $149,999
$150,000 or more

Tags:Ad Agencies, Display Advertising, Google Ad Planner, Internet Audience, Media Buyers
Posted in Advertising, Advertising Agencies, Google, Google Ad Planner, Internet Advertising, Internet Audience, Media Buyer | Leave a Comment »

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Search Marketing Communications

Archive for August, 2008

Live Search xRank and Barack Obama

Google Hot Trends Gadget Error

Want to Cancel an XM Radio? Good Luck!

Top 10 Internet Yellow Pages Searches

FAA Flight Delays Information Map

Tray Table Advertising: Will It Fly?

Web Display and Search Advertising Combined; Their Sum Greater Than Parts

eBay Being Distintermediated by Google?

Google Street View Maps

Reaching the Internet Audience with Google Ad Planner

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