100 Million Youtube Viewers

March 8, 2009

comScore reports Youtube surpassed 100 Million Viewers for the first time in January 2009.

14.8 Billion videos were viewed during January 2009, with Google sites including Youtube accounting for over 6.3 Billion videos viewed.

Videos Viewed January 2009

Videos Viewed January 2009

From comScore:

More than 147 million U.S. Internet users watched an average of 101 videos per viewer in January. Google Sites grew to 102 million online video viewers during the month, or more than two out of every three Internet users who watched video.

Top Online Video Properties

Top Online Video Properties

Online video watchers are not like the television viewing audience. The average video watcher viewed only 3 1/2 minutes of video online.

WordPress Domain Change and Google Indexing Issues

March 7, 2009

On January 28, 2009 I moved my several year old blog to a new domain while still hosting the site at WordPress.

In addition to the blog no longer being picked up by Google blog search or Technorati, the new domain hasn’t had any new posts crawled or indexed by Google since switching domains.

Google Search Marketing Communications

Google Search Marketing Communications

I verified the site with Google as suggested several weeks ago yet still no luck.

On the other hand, I haven’t verified the new domain with Yahoo or Microsoft Live.

Yahoo Search Marketing Communications

Yahoo Search Marketing Communications

Yet both Yahoo and Live are crawling and indexing my new blog domain address hosted at WordPress.com.

Live Search Marketing Communications

Live Search Marketing Communications

What gives?

Ironic? Microsoft Cashback Buying Ads in Google

March 6, 2009

I was reading Greg Sterling’s report in Search Engine Land about Microsoft’s Cashback search promotion being added to the MSN Toolbar.

After completing the article I scrolled to the bottom of the page where I noticed two Google Adsense ads.

Google’s distributed advertising on web publishers sites is called Google Adsense.

Adsense analyzes content on web pages where it places ads and since this article was about Microsoft and Cashback – Google searched and found within its ad inventory the most relevant advertiser ads.

Microsoft Cashback Google Adwords Ads

Microsoft Cashback Google Adwords Ads

Somewhat surprisingly, the first ad titled “Rebate” Search that Pays You Back. Search Now and Save! is an advertisement from none other than Microsoft itself for their Cashback program.

Clicking through takes readers to the Cashback Live Search page.

Cashback Live Search

Cashback Live Search

Microsoft’s advertising on Google’s publishing partner sites isn’t too unusual.

It does seem a bit ironic to me however that Microsoft is also advertising their Cashback search product on Google.

Google Search Cashback

Google Search Cashback

Do competing media networks advertise their television products on networks other than their own?

I guess the search business hasn’t yet considered what implications there may be – if any –  by allowing competitors to advertise their business on each others respective search networks.

Twitter Search, Profile and Settings Now Visible @ Web Login

March 5, 2009

Today while logging into Twitter, I noticed my account now features the Twitter Search box in the upper right hand corner of the page.

Placing Twitter Search atop Twitter account pages makes using their search feature much more likely.

Searching Twitter before the search box required scrolling to the bottom of the page and clicking Search or having to navigate directly to Twitter search in another browser window.

Having search on the same page will keep Twitter users on Twitter’s site.

Twitter Search

Twitter Search

Clicking on Search takes users to Twitter’s real time search box where Twitter users can “See what’s happening – right now.”

Twitter Trends

Twitter Trends

Searching Twitter produces a list of the 15 most recent “real time” Tweets containing the searched term.

Search Twitter

Search Twitter

Just to the left of the Search Now box, Twitter also provides a “Trends” drop down tool box.

Clicking on Trends takes account holders to a list of Twitter’s Top 10 most mentioned terms.

Twitter Trends Toolbox

Twitter Trends Toolbox

Click on any one of the terms to reach the real time stream of Tweets for any of Twitter’s Top 10 Trends.

Here Twitter also provides a list of Tweets containing the Trending term along with a list of Matching users and Featured users like it does on their “realtime results” page.

By providing Matching and Featured users Twitter gives its users a chance to explore topics they have already confirmed they have an interest in.

Matching Users Featured Users

Matching Users Featured Users

Twitter has also pushed links to both the account holder’s “Profile” and “Settings” to the Twitter users home page.

Name, Location, Web and Bio information are still found on the Twitter account holder’s public page.

Twitter Profile

Twitter Profile

By placing account related links on the “What are you doing” page, Twitter has reduced the number of clicks required to navigate Twitter account while also simplifying overall Twitter account management.

Twitter Settings

Twitter Settings

If the web continues to account for the majority of Twitter’s use as previously reported, surely adding search to every Twitter account will increase both Twitter’s use and usefulness further.

Microsoft+Yahoo+Twitter = Microhooter! to the Rescue?

March 4, 2009

While thinking about commenting on another blog regarding all the blather about how this company or that company will kill Google and its lead in the search space, I believe I stumbled upon the perfect Google killer: Microhooter!

Combined or by reputation alone couldn’t Microsoft’s desktop monopoly, Yahoo’s display ad business and Twitter’s mass texting be enough to derail Google’s money making search engine?

Maybe in theory but not in practice.

No, not even Microhooter! will save the day.

The search audience is an army of one – one billion people online that is – an army which will continue to march where it can find and get the answers it needs when and where they are needed.

With or without a Microhooter, for the time being and for the foreseeable future that place will remain Google.

You can go back to work now.

Stacking the Deck in Google Maps?

March 4, 2009

Could it be Public Storage has a monopoly on the self storage market in Oklahoma City or do they just appear to have one because of their dominance in Google’s search results?

Oklahoma City Storage Google Maps

Oklahoma City Storage Google Maps

Not sure whether these results are Public Storage’s handiwork or Google’s lack therof.

In either case, I am pretty sure Google prefers to deliver more varied business results for generic search terms like Oklahoma City Storage.

A quick check for “storage” in other cities doesn’t show the same degree of repetition of a single listing’s data.

Are these results spam or a Google anomaly?

McKinsey and Company’s Innovation Clusters Heat Map

March 3, 2009

McKinsey and Company has partnered with the World Economic Forum to produce a map of innovation clusters by market location.

From McKinsey and Company:

…in times of economic turbulence, innovation remains the most important differentiator separating economic winners from also-rans.

Global Innovation Heat Map

Global Innovation Heat Map

The McKinsey report places innovation clusters into four categories: Dynamic oceans, Silent lakes, Hot springs and Shrinking pools.

More from McKinsey about their report:

…we have examined the evolution of hundreds of such clusters around the world and analyzed over 700 variables, including those driving innovation (business environment, government and regulation, human capital, infrastructure, and local demand) along with proxies for innovation output (for example, economic value added, journal publications, patent applications) to identify trends among the success stories. In the process, we have found patterns that suggest the critical ingredients required to grow, nurture, and sustain innovation hubs.

Not without surprise, Silicon Valley is the largest Dynamic ocean of innovation in the world.

Financial engineering and marketing advantage excluded, I am convinced all new profits are fueled in part by technological advancements.

From where I sit in Oklahoma and for some time, it has looked like the majority of America’s innovations (technological advancements) and the world’s for that matter – have originated from Northern California (Silicon Valley & San Francisco).

Thus for any business to capture new profits from within its market  – and again barring financial engineering and marketing advantage – the profit seeking business must embrace technological innovation – innovations more than likely developed in Silicon Valley.

Coincidentally, the combination of these factors were what lead to my decision to become a Google Adwords Professional long ago.

Twitter and Skittles: An Experiment in Open Social Branding

March 2, 2009

In what may be a first from a major brand, Skittles has begun experimenting with integrating community comments and inputs into its online presence via Twitter Search and RSS feed.

The Skittles.com website has become a mashup of the brand and its community’s Tweet stream.

I am not sure what the short term or long term implications will be for the brand, but one thing is for sure this particular mashup approach is innovative by any definition.

Skittles.com

Skittles.com

In exchange for participating in the new Skittles.com website, visitors are asked to simply provide their birthday.

Skittles Audience

Skittles Audience

I suspect by day’s end with this simple request Skittles will have a more clear idea of who their online audience is vis-a-vis their average age.

Seems Skittles should have also asked whether their visitors were male or female – unless of course Skittles assumed the majority of their online visitors were going to be male.

The new Skittles home page still has a navigation box in the upper left hand corner where visitors can reach the brand’s website.

Taste The Rainbow

Taste The Rainbow

After being on the site for a while I received the following dialog box:

Return to Skittles Home Page

Return to Skittles Home Page

Unfortunately, I wasn’t ever able to reach the traditional Skittles.com home page from my Mac with  Safari or Firefox browsers.

I guess I will have to Tweet my experience with the new Skittles.com website on Twitter.

February 2009 WordPress Blog Traffic Stats

March 1, 2009

This blog: Search Marketing Communications generated its seventh highest month in terms of traffic during Febraury 2009 with 6.059 views.

Previously, this WordPress blog’s highest trafficked month was September 2008 with 22,897 views.

Approximately 27% as many views occurred during February 2009 as compared with September 2008.

Why the drop in traffic?

Because I switched this blog from a WordPress.com domain to my own private domain on January 28th and it has yet to get crawled and re-indexed in Google under my new domain name.

The vast majority of traffic this blog received in February 2009 came via search engines to posts written several months ago. Not a single one of my posts from February received any search engine referrals.

WordPress says it could take as long as six months for this simple change to recognized and acted on by Google.

If you are considering switching your WordPress blog to your own domain, you might think twice if you are looking to get search referrals anytime soon after the switch.

By the end of February 2009, searchmarketingommunications.com had been viewed 119,422 times since its launch in September 2006.

In its first month of existence this blog had 1,593 total views.

February 2009 traffic was approximately 4 times greater than September 2006 traffic.

Few people subscribe to this blog, thus the vast majority (an estimated 99% or greater) found this blog through some type of search query, which is why this blog is titled:

“Search Marketing Communications”

Search Traffic February 2009

Search Traffic February 2009

Third Largest Month Blog Search Traffic: 10,154 Views

February 2009 Total Blog Traffic

February 2009 Total Blog Traffic

Total Search Traffic February 2009

Google Innovations

February 28, 2009

David Pogue with The New York Times recently created a list of  innovations Google has produced or bought in its relatively short corporate history.

His list consists of Google products most any consumer who has been online in the last year would recognize including Google Earth, Gmail, YouTube and Blogger.

Some of the lesser known Google products and tools mentioned in Pogue’s New York Times article are: Google Docs, Picassa, iGoogle, Google Reader, Google Trends, Google Maps, Street View, Translator, 1-800-Goog411, Google SMS, Google Alerts and Google Sets.

Although the article begins by mentioning Google’s search box, Pogue doesn’t mention the greatest commercial result to come from Google’s search box by name: Google Adwords – arguably without which – none of Google’s other products would exist.

Maybe therein lies the keys to Google’s success.