Top Search and Web Properties Query Share

September 20, 2008

comScore has released its August 2008 qSearch analysis of the the U.S. search marketplace.

According to comScore, Google core search sites continued to lead the U.S. core search market in August with 63% of the searches conducted, up from 61.9% in July.

Yahoo core search sites had the second largest amount of search traffic with 19.6%, followed by Microsoft with 8.3%, the Ask Network with 4.8% and AOL LLC with 4.3% of searches conducted.

At the top web properties where search is observed, Google web properties led with 10.2 billion searches followed by Yahoo web properties with 2.4 billion searches, Microsoft web properties with 1 billion searches and AOL LLC and it search sites with 839 million search queries.

What I found most interesting in the comScore top web properties search data was Fox Interactive’s web sites – including MySpace.com – conducted 593 millions searches compared to Ask Network’s properties 572 million searches.

July August 2008 comScore Site Search Share

July August 2008 comScore Site Search Shar

Also, according to comScore data and to my surprise, MySpace.com has even surpassed AOL’s Search Network – not including MapQuest – fielding 117 million more search queries per month than AOL search.

Even with MySpace network’s growth slowing, at some point won’t its user base and growth cause it to generate an equal and then ever increasing number of search queries per month?

At its present size and barring any significant search market disruptions, will MySpace.com eventually generate more searches per month than AOL?

Ultimately, will MySpace.com generate more search queries per month than even Microsoft’s web properties?

How to Start a Linkedin Groups Discussion

September 20, 2008

Linkedin Groups Discussions

Linkedin Groups Discussions

I have had a Linkedin account for some time and haven’t really utilized it as much as I could.

However, I recently noticed the Linkedin Groups feature and realized there might be a group for Google Adwords Professionals.

I searched Linkedin and found several groups for Google Adwords Professionals.

I found a group called Google Adwords Qualified Individuals and asked the group’s founder if I could join his Linkedin Group.

After having become a member of his group and entering the groups discussion area I then reached the overview tab which shows the group’s most recent discussion.

Linkedin Groups Discsussions Overview

Linkedin Groups Discsussions Overview

I then clicked on the discussions tab where all recent group discussions are summarized.

Linkedin Groups Recent Discussions

Linkedin Groups Recent Discussions

Before I posted my question to the group, I wanted to make sure my question hadn’t already been asked by another member.

It didn’t appear my question had been asked so I entered my question in Linkedin “start a discussion” box and submitted it to start a discussion.

Linkedin Groups Start a Discussion

Linkedin Groups Start a Discussion

My question then moved to the Most Recent Discussions field within the Google Adwords Qualified Individuals Linkedin Group.

While drafting my question I realized I could include a link to a post I had written on my blog that pertained to the subject of my question.

I included the link in the discussion.

Linkedin Groups Discussions Comments

Linkedin Groups Discussions Comments

Within a day, my WordPress blog statistics began showing clicks coming from the specifc Linkedin page where the question I had posed was up for discussion.

Members of the group from different parts of the world took the time to enter the discussion and answer my question.

By allowing an outbound link within their Groups Discussion feature, Linkedin has added a potentially new way to expand the reach and power of their network.

Domain Name Registration Statistics

September 19, 2008

Verisign the global registry operator for .com and .net, has published its September 2008 Domain Name Industry Brief.

Some report highlights:

By mid 2008 there were 168 million domain name registrations across all of the Top Level Domain Names (TLDs).

Domain registrations increased four percent over the first quarter of 2008 and grew 22 percent over the same quarter last year.

The base of Country Code Top Level Domain Names (ccTLDs) totaled 65 million domain names. Country Code Top Level Domain Names had a four percent increase quarter over quarter and a 27 percent increase year over year.

In terms of total domain name registrations, .com has the highest base followed by .de (Germany), .cn (China), and .net.

Rounding out the list of largest TLDs, .uk and .org had approximately the same number of registrations.

Domain Industry Registration Growth:

The number of new domain name registrations across all TLDs in the second quarter of 2008 was 11.7 million.

This represented a decline of new registrations by 18 percent from a very strong first quarter and eight percent from second quarter 2007, driven largely by a decline in Country Code Top Level Domain growth.

The decrease in domain name registrations reflects seasonal slowing historically seen in the second quarter.

“The composition of the domain name industry and rank order in terms of base size remained relatively constant with the largest TLDs remaining in the same rank order.”

Domain Registration Statistics

Domain Registration Statistics

The top ten largest Top Level Domains in terms of base size according to Verisign were:

1) .com
2) .de
3) .cn
4) .net
5) .uk
6) .org
7) .info
8 ) .nl (The Netherlands)
9) .eu (European Union)
10) .biz

Hurricane Ike Galveston Texas Damage on Google Earth

September 18, 2008

The teams from Google Earth and Maps have assembled images and resources for Galveston Texas residents displaced by Hurricane Ike as well as state and local emergency management personnel.

Within hours after Hurricane Ike’s arrival the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Remote Sensing Division began flying rapid response aerial reconnaissance missions of the Texas and Louisiana Gulf region.

NOAA Remote Sensing

NOAA Remote Sensing

The NOAA Remote Sensing team has published the data they have collected on their official Hurricane Ike response page.

Hurricane Ike

Hurricane Ike

The images posted on NOAA site are of the coast of Texas and Louisiana after Hurricane Ike made landfall.

The NOAA Remote Sensing Division gathered their Hurricane Ike images to meet NOAA national security and emergency response requirements.

The NOAA data will also be used for ongoing research efforts to test and further develop standards for airborne digital imagery.

To see pictures of Galveston and the Texas coastline in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, click on the NOAA base map grid boxes.

Hurricane Ike Image

Hurricane Ike Image

You can then drill down to each NOAA picture taken after Hurricane Ike made landfall.

Hurricane Ike Damage

Hurricane Ike Damage

The Google Earth and Google Maps teams have also processed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data it into a KML image overlay for easy access.

Here is just one example of the type of before and after pictures you can view of Galveston, Texas after Hurricane Ike struck the Texas Gulf Coast.

Hurricane Ike Before Picture

Hurricane Ike Before Picture

Hurricane Ike Before Picture

Hurricane Ike After Picture

Hurricane Ike After Picture

Hurricane Ike After Picture

Yahoo! Search Marketing Console?

September 17, 2008

I was cleaning up some Yahoo Search Marketing accounts this morning and was trying to find Yahoo’s Search Submit login page.

In the past, keeping track of all their search product offerings was difficult.

Yahoo has consolidated all of their search marketing products into a drop down box on their Sponsored Search login page.

The Yahoo Search Marketing login page shows 13 different search marketing product categories:

1. Sponsored Search

2. Local Sponsored Search

3. Mobile Sponsored Search

4. Search Submit Pro

5. Search Submit Express

6. Search Submit Basic

7. Marketing Console

8. Search Optimizer

9. Product Submit

10. Travel Submit

11. Local Listings

12. Directory Submit

13. Small Business

Yahoo Marketing Console

Yahoo Marketing Console

I thought I would get reacquainted with Yahoo search marketing products so I clicked on their “Marketing Console” thinking this would somehow let me manage all of my Yahoo search marketing products in one dashboard.

Not today.

Yahoo Marketing Console 404 Not Found

Yahoo Marketing Console 404 Not Found

When I clicked on the Yahoo search marketing console I was sent to a non-existent page.

I then searched for the Yahoo search marketing console – in Yahoo – and was directed back to their sponsored search login page.

Did Yahoo have a search marketing console for managing all of their search products and I just wasn’t able to locate it?

Or, did Yahoo have a marketing console they have since abandoned?

MarketingConsultants.com Domain Auction

September 16, 2008

I received this email regarding the auctioning of the domain marketingconsultants.com. My thoughts about this domain and the auction are in [brackets] below.

Hello Tim,

I am the owner of the generic premium domain name MarketingConsultants.com.

Since you are a Marketing Service provider, I thought you or your firm would be interested to know that I am auctioning off the domain through domain broker Sedo.com.

[ I am, I have been a marketing consultant for 19 years.]

The auction for MarketingConsultants.com ends in about 3 days.

You own MarketingConsultants.org.

[Yes, I do.]

Advanced Marketing Consultants

Advanced Marketing Consultants

Why not get the best extension for marketing consultants? .Com is king and this domain has it!

Why should you buy MarketingConsultants.com? Besides the points below, you can also refer to the article here:

dmueller.com/benefits-of-generic-domains

MarketingConsultants.com is without doubt the best domain for Marketing
Consultants. It would be a perfect name & a growing asset for your company.

[Agreed, depending on the price.]

It caters to a highly lucrative niche – Offline & Online Marketing.

There are 612 Pay-per-click Sponsors for the term “Marketing Consultants” on Google.

[I actually found 83 pages of sponsored ads on Google totalling 996 advertisers.]

Marketing Consultants

Marketing Consultants

Pay per click rate for “Marketing Consultants” is $3.00-4.72 at Google Adwords!

Just 750 clicks per month would cost you $3,300+ monthly if you are one of the top advertisers for this keyword, but with this domain, you can get even more targeted traffic consistently for free.

This is just a one-time investment.

[ Actually there is a one time purchase price and then an ongoing annual renewal fee between $7 and $10 depending on which registrar the domain is transferred to.]

This premium domain will bring instant brand recognition!

[ Generic descriptive names can not become brands by definition, however established brands can benefit from owning their generic equivalency.]

It would bring authenticity and trustworthiness to any Marketing Consultancy or Marketing Service business.

The majority of clients are aware that only a serious and successful Marketing Consultant would invest in the most premium domain of their industry. A domain of this generic nature adds credibility to any existing Marketing business.

[ Correct ]

Incredible: over 2,880,000 Google Search Results for “Marketing Consultants”.

Keyword Rich domain: Search engines give lot of importance to keywords in the domain.

Once developed, it will easily get high ranks on Google. Getting 1st spot 1st page position for “Marketing Consultants” would not be difficult at all.

[ If getting first page, first result weren’t difficult then every domain would be first and there wouldn’t be any need for second place results or beyond.]

Sub-domains can be used for high search engine rankings. For example, if the new owner creates sub-domain: Internet.MarketingConsultants.com then the site is most likely to top search engines for the term “internet marketing consultant”.

Same with:

NewYork.MarketingConsultants.com

Top.MarketingConsultants.com

Sophisticated.MarketingConsultants.com etc.

[ Sounds good, but I don’t think I have ever seen a sub-domain on the first page for a competitive keyword.]

MarketingConsultants.com is a 10 year old domain: it is an authority aged domain. Will easily get top ranks in search engines.

[ If so, why isn’t it there now after 10 years?]

Domain is concise and to the point. It would describe the business very well.

No hyphen. No numbers. Correct Spelling.

Domains are growing in value consistently. This domain will be a valuable growing asset for your business.

[ Possibly ]

In the long run, this domain will bring a significant number of clients and build brand awareness for any marketing consultant business. This domain will, without a doubt, give unfair advantage to any Marketing business over competitors. Increasingly larger numbers of businesses are searching, researching and buying online, and with this domain, you will dominate this sector. Disney owns family.com, Intel owns chips.com, GE owns TransportationServices.com.

Who should own MarketingConsultants.com?

It’s a rare gem of a domain. Once sold, the buyer might never sell or will sell for much higher price. Do not miss this only chance!

This domain has been professionally appraised at over $45,000, but I have not put any reserve and the current bid is only at $9,100.

MarketingConsultants.com Sedo Auction

MarketingConsultants.com Sedo Auction

[ A professional domainer will probably end up buying this domain and then monetize it with ads. ]

— More info below—

32,000 searches are done by businesses looking for Marketing Consultants on Google (below is the exact search count). That is 32,000 potential clients for the new owner of MarketingConsultants.com. Since this domain will easily rank high for search phrases like “marketing consultants”, you can expect lot of business traffic from Google alone, and these searchers are targeted and are actively looking to buy Marketing services.

Please refer to search count below:

Searches Keyword

8,967 marketing consultants
6,750 internet marketing consultants
5,484 marketing for consultants
5,229 consultants marketing
620 direct marketing consultants
501 interactive marketing consultants
490 web marketing consultants
475 business marketing consultants
459 search engine marketing consultants
443 marketing strategy consultants
417 search marketing consultants
325 strategic marketing consultants
318 email marketing consultants
310 sales marketing consultants
280 small business marketing consultants
276 network marketing consultants
276 consultants marketing network
242 online marketing consultants
211 marketing consultants houston
211 software marketing consultants
210 boston marketing consultants
193 marketing consultants san diego
175 sales and marketing consultants
152 law firm marketing consultants
145 marketing consultants uk
144 automotive marketing consultants
139 internet marketing strategy consultants
134 marketing consultants new
134 marketing consultants new york
129 real estate marketing consultants
117 marketing communication consultants
110 marketing research consultants
104 affinity marketing consultants
102 marketing communications consultants

Source: PageRank.net/keyword-suggestion

Important:
Sedo requires member verification for bids above $10k, so if you are going to bid, do not forget to verify your account at Sedo first.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me. You can also call me at
xxx-xxx-xxxx

Thank you for your time.

Best regards,

X

[ Considering I bought marketingconsultants.org for $7.41, I am having a hard time justifying entering a domain auction for the same domain albeit with the superior extension at over 1,300 times the price I paid for mine.

I will check back in a few months to see what price marketingconsultants.com was auctioned for as well as to learn what steps its new owners have taken to generate a return on their domain investment. ]

Microsoft adCenter: No Cost Per Conversion Data

September 15, 2008

Is there a particular reason why the Microsoft adCenter doesn’t provide a cost per conversion column for its advertisers?

Microsoft adCenter Cost Per Conversion

Microsoft adCenter Cost Per Conversion

The Microsoft adCenter dashboard displays ad group name, ad group start date, ad group end date, status, spend, impressions, clicks, ctr %, average position, conversions, average cpc and negative keywords.

adCenter data does show number of conversions – just not their cost. This unnecessarily creates an extra level of interpretation and work for advertisers.

Why?

If an advertiser wants to manage and understand their advertising campaign’s effectiveness through cost per conversion data – Microsoft through its omission of this metric – leaves advertisers to make their own calculations… or not.

Is this a lack of transparency in Microsoft’s adCenter?

If it is, Microsoft’s not providing its advertisers with acquisition cost data makes calculating their return on investment more difficult.

Both Google and Yahoo supply this type of data.

Surely this is just an oversight on Microsoft’s part.

If it is an oversight, adding cost per conversion data in the Microsoft adCenter dashboard would help Microsoft’s advertisers understand more about their campaigns acquisition costs and in turn their return on investment from advertising with Microsoft.

Surely providing this data in column form would be in the best interest of both Microsoft and its advertisers.

Newspaper Classified Ads Functionally Obsolete

September 14, 2008

Newspaper classified advertising remains a $14 Billion dollar annual business.

However, in 2007 newspapers saw the single largest percentage drop in year over year classified advertising revenue since the Newspaper Association of America began compiling sales data 57 years ago.

From 2006 to 2007 newspaper classified advertising declined 16.5%.

Trulia CEO and co-Founder Pete Flint has produced graphs from the Newspaper Association of America showing quarterly classified expenditures along with their annual percentage change in revenues over a ten year period for three major newspaper classified advertising categories: real estate, recruitment and automotive.

As their charts illustrate, each newspaper classified advertising category’s expenditures appear to have mirrored US economic cycles yet more importantly, they also appear to reflect general media consumption trends.

Newspaper Real Estate Classified Ads

Newspaper Real Estate Classified Ads

Newspaper real estate classified advertising inflated along with the national housing market seeing its expenditures peaking in 2006.

Recruitment Classified Ads

Recruitment Classified Ads

Newspaper classified advertising for recruitment ie. jobs, saw its annual expenditures peak in 2000.

Automotive Classified Ads

Automotive Classified Ads

Expenditures for automotive classified ads peaked in 2002.

None of newspaper classified advertising categories have reached new levels of expenditures since each reached their respective peak.

Coincidentally, these newspaper classified advertising categories – real estate, recruitment and automotive – now produce a fraction of the revenues they once did for publishers -roughly $600 million per quarter.

It would be easy to attribute expenditures on newspaper classifieds to each respective industry’s sales peaks and troughs along with their accompanying economic cycles, but why are the charts for each category continuing to show double digit annual percentage drops in publisher revenues?

Because the graphs also illustrate changes in media consumption habits and how their adoption within a market disrupts then reduces expenditures on newspaper classified advertising along with publisher ad sales.

When a newspaper classified advertising category’s audience moves online for the new time efficiencies online classified advertising provides – both the newspaper publisher and their advertisers pay the price.

When a publisher’s audience segment disappears, so eventually will its advertisers and their money.

The first newspaper classified advertising category to be eviscerated by the internet was recruitment. Recruitment began moving online in earnest in 2000 and went on to became one of the first models to survive and thrive online – ultimately transforming recruitment in the process.

In 2002, automotive marketing began moving online.

eBay Motors has since become the world’s largest car dealer. When was the last time you heard of an individual placing a classified ad in the local paper to sell their car? When was the last time you placed a classified ad to sell your car in your local paper – and then sold it?

The next newspaper classified ad category to disappear?

Real Estate.

The newspaper industry and its Real Estate classified advertising business are now under assault on two fronts – the decline of the national housing market and the ascent of internet home listing information and marketing services like Pete Flint’s Trulia.com

If the newspaper industry’s loss of the two previous categories to internet publishers is any indication of how they will respond to the internet real estate publisher threat, newspaper real estate classified ads will soon become the next classified ad category to become functionally obsolete.

Cell Phone Monitoring Application

September 13, 2008

A new cell phone application from India’s Maverick Mobile can be programmed to remotely monitor cell phones with it software.

Dubbed Maverick Secure Mobile (MSM) the cell phone security application can also help mobile phone owners locate and potentially retrieve their lost or stolen cell phones.

For cell phone monitoring, Maverick Secure Media offers a feature called Spy Call. Spy Call lets cell phone owners program their cell phone for remote cell phone call monitoring.

Maverick Mobile’s Spy Call :

If the owner calls from the reporting device to the stolen device, its a “Spy Call.” Spy call switches on the loudspeaker & Mic of the stolen device remotely, so the caller can actually listen to the conversation the other person is engaged in. The Spy Call does not give any notification/ ring to the stolen device. The person who receives a Spy Call will not know he is being called by the cell phone owner. Even if he learns about spy call, he cannot disconnect it.

MSM List of features:

Cell Phone Monitoring Application

Cell Phone Monitoring Application

For tracking lost or stolen cell phones:
“In case of loss or theft the application will send the phone number, device id, country code, operator name and area code (location) to the reporting device through SMS.”

I am not sure how the device’s tracking capabilities will lead to its being found and returned unless it uses the phone’s data to triangulate a location through cell phone tower data or GPS.

If the application provides a precise lat/long coordinate, the cell phone owner could simply track it down.

Wouldn’t tracking down and retrieving a stolen cell phone from a thief be an entirely different matter?

In any case with Maverick Secure Mobile software; cell phone owners, jealous lovers and even concerned parents all have a new tool for remotely reaching out and touching their their cell phones and the people who use them.

Galveston Texas Hurricane Ike on Google Maps

September 12, 2008

Google Maps is providing a convenient weather forecast map overlay of Hurricane Ike and its projected path over the next 24, 36 and 48 hours.

Hurricane Ike 24 Hour Forecast

Hurricane Ike 24 Hour Forecast

Hurricane Ike: Galveston Island, TX 24 hour weather map forecast

Hurricane Ike 36 Hour Forecast

Hurricane Ike 36 Hour Forecast

Hurricane Ike: Houston Texas, Central Texas 36 weather map forecast

Hurricane Ike 48 Hour Forecast

Hurricane Ike 48 Hour Forecast

Hurricane Ike: Texas and Oklahoma 48 hour weather map forecast

Google Maps is also providing a third party’s “Rising Sea Simulator” for visualizing storm surge levels but according to HeyWhat’sThat.com:

“We’re currently seeing heavy demand on our servers, so for now you’ll have to hit ‘Go’ whenever you move or zoom the map to load the overlay images.”

I had difficulty getting their application to load and couldn’t get it to produce a storm surge map for Galveston Bay or Galveston Island other than from space.

Storm Surge

Storm Surge

To get more information about Hurricane Ike and its status, a quick Google search for Galveston web cams, Galveston newspapers or Galveston TV Stations will produce a list of other Hurricane Ike news sources.

I tried to access most of Galveston Web Cameras listed but they too were experiencing heavy usage and didn’t load very fast (less than 90 seconds).

Overall, it won’t be a good day to be in the Galveston Bay and Beach area.