For all of the complaints coming from publishers about how Google siphons their content while offering nothing in exchange, I found this pop in ad on Forbes.com somewhat curious.
Welcome Google User
Had I not been searching on Google and had Forbes.com not had their content indexed by Google, I am highly certain I would not have visited Forbes.com at this particular time.
With the presence of their pop in ad, Forbes has at a minimum begun to accept a higher level of responsibility for how they serve their site visitors’ needs regardless of how the visitors arrived at any particular piece of content.
In this Google webinar, Avinash Kaushik gives marketers a list of five things they can do to improve their business results.
The theme of Kaushik’s presentation “Aggregation of Marginal Gains: Little Changes, Large Results” stemmed from John Carlzon’s quote: “You cannot improve one thing by 1000% but you can improve 1000 little things by 1%.”
In his Google webinar, Kaushik also brilliantly condensed the essence of business management into three simple steps:
comScore has released their list of the top 25 Online Advertising Networks based on their reach among U.S. Internet users in April 2009.
The top five online ad networks are AOL’s Platform-A , Yahoo! Network , Google Ad Network, ValueClick Networks and Specific Media.
The sixth largest network is the new Fox Ad Network.
Top 25 Online Advertising Networks
Jack Flanagan comments in the comScore Top 25 Online Advertising Networks press release “…that new ad networks are emerging every day, each aimed at helping advertisers achieve their campaign objectives, whether it’s to deliver reach and frequency or to target a specific audience segment.”
With the exception of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and Yahoo Ad Network’s joint venture with publishers. it appears the newspaper industry as a whole has missed possibly the only opportunity left remaining to extend its reach and audience targeting potential through ownership in or control of an online advertising network.
I guess that’s why Rupert Murdoch is Rupert Murdoch.
I noticed today while logging into my Adwords account, Google has begun offering and promoting a new Adwords consulting service: “Get started with expert advice on Adwords.”
Google Adwords Expert Advice
From the Adwords home page:
This service is only available for new AdWords advertisers in the US and Canada. Only businesses with an advertising budget of more than $250/month will be considered for this service.
I guess it was inevitable Google would eventually publicly offer advertisers help. However, further down the page Adwords asks a loaded question:
Is your company an advertising agency/SEM/SEO? Yes / No. If yes, indicate the company name of your client: ______________________
In the early days of paid search I believe there were concerns by Pay Per Click Agencies about Google circumventing the agency client relationship to distntermediate the paid search agency.
Could this expert advice service for new Adwords advertisers be Google’s first step toward disintermediation of pay per click agencies?
Or is Google Adwords actually trying to help new advertisers get the most bang for the advertising buck?
The following are excerpts from Eric Schmidt’s commencement address at Carnegie Mellon’s 112th commencement ceremony, held May 17, 2009.
You cannot plan innovation. You cannot plan invention. All you can do is try very hard to be at the right place and be ready.
How should you behave? Well, do things in a group. Don’t do things by yourself. Groups are stronger, groups are faster. None of us is as smart as all of us.
I wonder what Thomas Edison would think about Mr. Schmidt’s comments above?
Hitwise has an interesting post on year over year search referrals for 15 industry categories.
From Hitwise:
For the majority of categories measured at Hitwise, search is the top source of traffic referrals and the share has increased year-over-year. Overall, search is increasing as a traffic driver. Among the parent categories that received less than 25% of traffic from search in April 2008, all except News & Media received a higher share of search referrals last month.
2008 Search Referred Traffic vs. 2009 by Industry
Share of Search Referred Traffic by Industry
Hitwise Search Analyst Heather Dougherty suggests the data indicates growth opportunities remain in industries were search hasn’t yet been exploited fully as a referral tool.
According to Dougherty, laggard categories who have yet to capitalize on search referrals are the Automotive, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Gambling, News & Media, Business & Finance and Sports industries.
Could it be the businesses who haven’t yet capitalized on search as a referral mechanism haven’t clearly identified how an increased search engine presence will translate directly into increased revenues for their respective industries?
comScore’s Chairman Gian Fulgoni recently presented the “State of the U.S. Online Retail Economy through Q1 2009”.
Fulgoni’s presentation provided excellent insight into the online channel’s influence on both online and offline consumer behavior.
Because comScore gathers their data from a global panel of 2 Million Internet users, comScore research is required reading for every search behaviorist.
Of the material in comScore’s “State of the U.S. Online Retail Economy through Q1 2009”, I found the following slide one of the most provocative.
Research Onlne Buy Offline
The message is clear: whether a brand marketer or a one person shop – having an online presence is essential for reaching and connecting with buyers both online and off.
For several years I have been experimenting with domains and search engine results pages.
This particular domain SearchMarketingCommunications.com has been in both passive and active trials for several years.
Recently, I purchased the domain redirection option from WordPress for the blog address this domain publishes from cohn:wordpress.com.
Although it hasn’t yet been re-indexed by Google, the new domain is getting published by and distributed within both Yahoo and MSN search engine results pages (SERPs).
Search Marketing Communications 
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