Eiffel Tower, Earth Hour on YouTube

March 28, 2009

Cities around the world are participating in Earth Hour on Saturday, turning off their lights to raise awareness for energy conservation.

Earth Hour

Earth Hour

The French city of Paris has participated in Earth Hour by turning off the lights of the Eiffel Tower.

TweetTrail.com Twitter Audience and Twitterer Segmentation

March 27, 2009

Organizing the Twitter audience will prove key for Twitter and its users to monetize their Tweets.

TweetTrail.com segments the Twitter Audience albeit through manual searches.

TweetTrail.com

TweetTrail.com

TweetTrail.com is a pretty cool tool.

Search for Twitter users by the frequency of Tweets containing your market related keywords to identify and follow potential leaders in your industry’s niche.

The following Tweet Trail search produces the top twenty Twitter users whose Tweets contained Adwords.

Top 20 Adwords Tweeters

Top 20 Adwords Tweeters

I am not sure how far back TweetTrail.com mines Tweet data for keywords.

Recently I have noticed Twitter has begun reducing the amount of search history available for some search terms.

I would guess Tweet Trails keyword histories are also constrained by the same parameters Twitter now imposes on Twitter search.

Fake Chat Bounce Box

March 26, 2009

A “fake chat bounce box”?

I don’t know what else to call it but today I was visiting a site and as I began to navigate away from the page the following chat box appeared:

Faux Live Chat

Faux Live Chat

Each of the “agent’s” five chat lines loaded and scrolled slowly before the next one appeared.

The problem with this chat box was that it wasn’t actually a chat box at all – but a animated gif image.

The chat box didn’t allow me to input text or interact with the chat “agent” Alexa.

It simply held me and my attention hostage for about thirty seconds before I decided to close my browser.

If the chat box had been accompanied by a real agent I would have entered my question and more than likely got it answered.

I didn’t get my question answered but instead I left the site feeling short changed.

Although the website may increase its average visitor session length with this animated chat trick, I can only imagine it would also erode if not eliminate its visitors trust in the site’s offer let alone the people who are standing behind the site.

OK – Confirmed, navigate me away from this web page.

Browser Navigation Message

Browser Navigation Message

New Product for Newspapers: Taste-It-Notes Taste Marketing Technology

March 25, 2009

Has the newspaper industry found its savior in flavor – U.S. Ink’s new taste marketing technology?

Taste Marketing Technology

Taste Marketing Technology

Only if the Taste-It-Notes come loaded with High Fructose Corn Syrup and taste like a Big Mac.

What percentage of a newspaper’s advertising is from companies with edible products anyway?

Will the Taste Marketing Technology laced ads containing milk have disclaimers for the Lactose Intolerant?

What about ads containing peanuts or shellfish?

Will a portion of the Taste-It-Note ads be Kosher?

What will the Newspaper Advertisers’ average cost per taste be?

In what way will ad test tasters opinions and purchases be measured?

White House Town Hall Meeting with Google Moderator

March 24, 2009

To manage weekly town hall style meetings with its Founders, CEO and guest speakers, Google developed Google Moderator. t

Built on Google App Engine, Google Moderator lets Google conduct conferences with an audience of thousands in its offices around the world.

Managing Q&A with a large audience presents a unique challenge.

Google Moderator gives participants a way to submit questions and then vote for the ones they want answered.

Utilizing Google Moderator, the White House will be hosting an online town hall meeting on Thursday and has asked people to submit questions for the President and vote on which ones they think he should answer.

To take part in this experiment in large scale citizen participation, please visit: http://WhiteHouse.gov/OpenForQuestions

Top 50 Web Properties February 2009

March 23, 2009

comScore has released its list of the top 50 web properties for February 2009.

Google remained the #1 web property.

comScore Top 50 Web Properties February 2009

comScore Top 50 Web Properties February 2009

How To Copy Items in Adwords Editor

March 22, 2009

Google Adwords continues to add a variety of “How To” video tutorials to the Google Business video channel on YouTube.

This quick video shows how to copy and move items within an Adwords account using Adwords Editor.

Twitter Job Search Engine

March 21, 2009

TwitterJobSearch.com is a UK based Twitter based job search engine.

TwitterJobSearch.com

TwitterJobSearch.com

From TwitterJobSearch.com about their search technology:

Until now, search engines for social media sites merely looked for words. We’re looking at context.

We use semantic tools to look at what was said.

We then look at what they’ve said before.

We then look at who was saying it.

If we do this right, we can figure out why they’re saying anything at all.

Although the service is based in the UK and still in Beta, a search for “Search Engine Marketing” yielded 5,831 results.

Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Marketing

The same search also produced a Marketing Manager ad from Amazon.com for its Kindle product.

Amazon Kindle Marketing Manager

Amazon Kindle Marketing Manager

Further proof even innovative new products just don’t sell themselves.

iGoogle Sports Scores Gadget

March 20, 2009

iGoogle users can now add a Sports Score Gadget to their Google home page.

iGoogle Follow NCAA Tournament

iGoogle Follow NCAA Tournament

With the iGoogle Sports Score gadget, internet savvy sports fans can get real time scores and standings by league, conference or tournament as well upcoming match-ups and game times.

Sports Scores Gadget

Sports Scores Gadget

The sports score gadget is seasonal and presently features: the NCAA & the NCAA Tournament, the NBA and the NHL.

Sports Scores Standings

Sports Scores Standings

With the iGoogle Sports Score gadget, Google account holders will be able to view all their favorite teams and scores in one place within their browser.

Twitter Update Page Now Ajax

March 19, 2009

Twitter has switched account holder update pages to Ajax from the previous interface.

Prior to the switch, scrolling Twitter updates required a cumbersome page reload and wait time which has been replaced by a simple “more” button.

Twitter Results Scroll

Twitter Results Scroll

Pressing the more button produces a list of the 20 most recent Tweets of people being followed.

This new design lets Twitter users scroll their updates on the web more quickly and efficiently.