Internet Research Pro

Published: July 24 2008

News of Adobe's decision to work with Google and Yahoo to make Flash searchable spread like wildfire. But so far, agencies aren't sure what this change really means.


When John Romano, a senior web developer for marketing firm Capstrat, sits down to build a website for a client, he worries about a lot of things. But one concern foremost in his mind is whether anyone will see the cutting-edge work his team is tasked with creating. While Romano's work is the kind clients pay handily for and users love, it's not the sort of content that is search engine friendly. But that will soon change, as the two leading search engines and Adobe, which makes the tools Romano uses, have joined forces to help make his work more accessible by indexing the web for rich media files.
For Romano, and many like him, the problem can be summed up in a word: Flash. Adobe's powerful multimedia tool has become the instrument of choice for interactive agencies eager to deliver fully immersive online experiences that do more than simply hurl text at today's fickle users.
But while 98 percent of internet-connected desktops have Flash Player installed, few users are likely to find a website rich in Flash.
"Getting Google [and other search engines] to connect users with specific Flash content has been a real problem," Romano confesses, "and it's been something the industry has been struggling with for years."
Since the beginning, search engines have been fixated on text, rather than images or other forms of reach media. The result has been that pages heavy in images and rich media don't rise to the top of the natural search results, even when they are more relevant than their text-based counterparts. To counteract this problem, digital agencies have employed an array of cumbersome solutions to help users find the more dazzling sites employed by major brand clients.
But the solutions -- a patchwork of proprietary fixes designed to boost SEO efforts for Flash-heavy sites -- have been far from ideal. Often developers find themselves duplicating efforts in both Flash and HTML, which can be both expensive and time consuming. The announcement earlier this month from Adobe, Google and Yahoo could change all that. At least, that's the plan. But as is often the case, a barrage of questions followed from the agencies charged with leveraging the latest technology development on behalf of their clients.
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So how much does Flash weigh?
Mention the words "SEO" and "change" and you're bound to get the attention of a lot people working in interactive. Little wonder. Being found is the name of the game for anyone working on the web. But the decision to begin indexing Flash has raised the web's constant question: what does this mean for my business?
According to Google and Adobe, developers using Flash won't need to make any retroactive changes, and they won't need to do any special work to make their files accessible to the search engine spiders. But finding the Flash content is only the beginning, according to Ivan Todorov, CEO of BLITZ, an interactive agency that has worked with clients ranging from FX Networks to Lincoln.
"In the long-term, we think this will have a huge impact for the future of interactive," Todorov says. "But right now, the primary concern is how Flash will be weighed by the search engines."
Unfortunately for Todorov, that question isn't one Google or Yahoo is likely to answer because it would mean sharing proprietary information related to their algorithms. While Todorov and others say they would like to be part of that conversation -- presumably to argue for giving Flash maximum value -- agencies are likely to be kept in the dark where SEO is concerned.
But according to Tom Barclay, senior manager, Flash Player at Adobe, all parties fully expect the Flash developer community as well as SEO experts to develop best practices for optimizing rich media content under the umbrella of an Adobe/Google/Yahoo collaboration.
"Existing Shockwave Flash (SWF) content is now searchable using Google search and, in the future, Yahoo search, dramatically improving the relevance of rich internet applications and rich media experiences that run in Adobe Flash Player," Barclay explains. "As with HTML content, best practices will emerge over time for creating SWF content that is more optimized for search engine rankings."
But in the meantime, Andrew Lovasz, director of search marketing at Moxie Interactive, says the change is likely to reorder natural search results where smaller operations were benefiting because their competitors were relying almost exclusively on Flash.
"This is definitely going to raise the barrier to entry," Lovasz says, pointing out that big brands that are more likely to have Flash-heavy sites can expect to see a rise in their natural search results.
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The devil in the details
While searchable Flash raises the immediate and obvious question of "weighting" rich media as a content category, the truth of the matter is that the search engine ranking debate will always rage, whether the topic relates to text, Flash, video, audio or any other format. But behind the question of how all this newly ranked content will be integrated into natural search results, agencies will still have to grapple with the mechanics of developing for Flash.
"The headline was really nice to hear," says Cheryl Haas, VP Fleishman-Hillard. "Hearing that Google, Yahoo and Adobe are all working together is a great start, but I think we're still a long way off."
What looks like the proverbial flip of the switch -- Adobe's decision to partner with the two leading search engines -- in reality raises a slew of technical questions.
According to Lovasz, and many others, Yahoo, Google and Adobe have been long on excitement, but short on actionable details.
As a simple administrative matter, Google has said that it will take several weeks to index the vast amounts of Flash strewn across the web. Yahoo will begin indexing the web for Flash at an undetermined point in the near future. But while the indexing process is underway, Haas says her team has concerns that neither Google nor Yahoo will be able to crawl JavaScript, which is used to execute Flash content. That's true, according to Google, but the search giant says it's working on remedying that, and officials at Adobe say they're attacking that problem as well.
But Haas' concerns may highlight a larger problem for Adobe and its search engine partners. While agencies have uniformly praised the news, many have expressed concern that the Flash developer community remains largely in the dark regarding the establishment of best practices for building the Flash sites of tomorrow.
For its part, Google admits that there is no established best practices guide that is endorsed by all three companies. However, Google has its own online resource for developers, as does Adobe.
But a lack of communication -- perceived or real -- could slow the development of a Flash-friendly web, Romano says, and points out that it will be up to the armies of disconnected developers to figure out the mechanics of this latest tool.
"Our technical people have punched a lot of holes in this, and that's not surprising given the fact that matching Google's technology with Adobe isn't easy," Romano explains. "This is only the beginning of the solution, and it is likely going to take years to solve because it will require developers to ultimately build Flash sites differently."
But that doesn't mean that Adobe is operating independently of all developers. Stephen Jackson, CEO of Smashing Ideas, the largest independent developer of Flash in the U.S., says Adobe works hard to communicate changes with a core group of companies that use its products.
"I think a lot of the disconnect here is that there are millions of Flash users out there," Jackson says. "So working with all of them makes it rather hard to conduct business."
What will this mean for interactive?
Across the board, agencies do seem to agree that the decision by Yahoo, Google and Adobe to work together will be a good thing for the interactive advertising business. But just how good is hard to say.
What seems unlikely to some is the idea that improved search optimization for Flash will lead to more Flash development. As Haas put it: "You won't see people building in Flash just for the sake of having Flash; there has to be a reason."
But improvements in Flash should have an indirectly positive effect on the overall industry, according to Jackson, who says that getting cutting edge content in front of more users -- especially from a Google or Yahoo query -- should help drive impressions and clickthroughs.
"It all depends on impressions and clickthroughs," Jackson says. "If this makes that happen, then you'll see more advertisers increasing their online budgets."
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Michael Estrin is deputy editor at iMediaConnection.

AOL integrates widget tech to boost social-net ads

NEW YORK—Install a little photo program to show off pictures of your dog on Facebook, and you might find you're really spreading an ad.
Time Warner Inc.'s AOL said Wednesday it was integrating technology from its newly acquired Goowy Media Inc. to help advertisers pitch their products and services at social-networking sites, which have struggled to generate revenue despite heavy traffic.
Advertisers can buy ads for pet care and other services on AOL's Widgnet advertising network, and they will run on certain applications for the online hangouts Facebook and AOL's Bebo. Revenue would be shared between AOL and the application developer, but not the social-networking sites.
In addition, advertisers can create programs known as widgets using Goowy's technology and wrap an ad around them. Users of supported social-networking sites, which also include News Corp.'s MySpace and AOL's AIM Profile Pages, can add the widget to their personal profile page, customizing it with, say, a photo of their own pet.
In a sense, users are doing the work of advertisers in spreading word of their brand and interacting with it.
AOL is offering this free to advertisers already using AOL's ad services elsewhere. That's part of a broader effort by AOL to boost its advertising revenue and offset declines in legacy Internet access subscriptions.
"Widget-based advertising is gaining momentum in the industry," said Lynda Clarizio, president of Platform-A, AOL's advertising arm.

Auto Sales Plunge In June; GM Beats Toyota

Situation
• Automakers suffer huge losses in June sales report
• GM down 18.2% but Toyota fell even more: 21.4%
• Honda only automaker to post increase, a slight 1.1% jump
• Chrysler down 35.9%; Ford down 27.9%
• Sales reflect rapid loss of consumer interest in SUVs
2008 Chevy Malibu
Significance
• Toyota car sales down 9.4% but trucks crumbled at 38.8%
• GM stock traded slightly higher after reports released
• For Jan-Jan, GM sales down 16.3%; Toyota down 6.8%
• Chrysler trying to boost sales w/ $2.99 gas guarantee
• But Chrysler car sales off 48.5%, trucks off 30.1%
• Honda saw 19.3% jump in car sales while its trucks fell 24%
Read Quotes

Click Here for Full Digest and Source Article:
• http://www.automotivedigest.com/view_art.asp?articlesID=24749
Sourced From: MSNBC.msn.com, July 1, 2008

Can TV-Related Web Searches Prove Strong Advertising Avenue?

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. — With the current sales dampening in the auto industry, it becomes paramount for automakers to find innovative ways to reach potential buyers. According to a recent study from J.D. Power and Associates, the industry may be best served by tapping into online television content.

The summer edition of the 2008 Power Auto Online Media Study examines how new-vehicle shoppers utilize the Internet and points out Web sites that effectively target strong advertising audiences.

One of the best audiences? People who go to the Web for TV-related purposes.

The data revealed that 68 percent claimed they use the Internet to find information on TV shows. Furthermore, 22 percent more new-vehicle shoppers access TV content online compared with 2007.

Additionally, the study showed that TV-related content is one of the top three types of information that consumers access on the Web. The others include travel-related info and news.

"As the automotive market struggles in the current economy, it becomes even more important for manufacturers and advertisers to effectively target the diminishing number of consumers who are seeking to purchase a new vehicle," explained Arianne Walker, director of marketing and media research at J.D. Power.

"J.D. Power and Associates forecasts that fewer than 15 million new vehicles will be sold in 2008, compared with the 16.1 million sold in 2007. As new-vehicle sales shrink, understanding which advertising mediums will provide the best balance of audience reach and composition is absolutely critical," Walker continued.

"As more new-vehicle buyers seek information regarding television shows on the Web, advertisers can benefit from increasing their focus on this medium," Walker added.

The top sites that new-vehicle shoppers visit when looking for TV content include CNN.com (30 percent reach), MSNBC (24 percent), ESPN.com (23 percent) and FoxNews.com (21 percent).

ABC was the most-visited TV network Web site as 16 percent of new-vehicle buyers accessed the site, while CBS and NBC were each at 13 percent.

"Television networks are expanding the types of content offerings available on their Web sites to increase their online audience," Walker illustrated. "In particular, television network sites are issuing online broadcasts of archived television shows, which exposes viewers to pre- and post-roll advertising placements."

Premium-vehicle shoppers are the most likely to search for TV content online and are 8 percent more apt to research data about TV shows online compared to the average new-vehicle buyer.

The report also broke it down by the segments most likely to access TV show info online. Almost four-fifths (79 percent) of midsize premium SUV buyers, 76 percent of compact premium crossover shoppers and 75 percent of midsize premiums were likely to view such content.

Meanwhile, midsize premium conventional vehicle shoppers had the most dramatic rise in online TV content consumption from 2007 at 41 percent.

"Premium-brand vehicle buyers tend to be frequent users of digital video recorders, and of the 49 percent of buyers who have DVRs, the vast majority of them — 97 percent — tend to skip commercials when they watch recorded TV programming," Walker explained. "Fortunately for advertisers, their propensity to view television content online provides an ideal alternative way to expose advertising messages to this audience."

And even though online TV content has typically been geared toward Generation Y audiences (born between 1977 and 2002), other generations are approaching the same level of interest the data showed.

"While 81 percent of Generation Y buyers visit Web sites regarding television shows, 80 percent of Generation X buyers and 73 percent of baby boomer buyers are also seeking this content, demonstrating that this medium is an effective way to reach new-vehicle buyers in various generational demographic groups," Walker concluded.

For more information, visit www.jdpower.com.

A Sample Social Media Toolkit

There are countless ways to get into the game with Social Media, but sometimes we get hung up on evaluating tools and thinking about which are the best for the job.
We go further into thinking about the variety of tools and why we'd use which ones for what, and then, next thing you know, the day's over and nothing's been done.
Here are a few sample tools and what they can be used for, and from there, maybe some new ideas will spread.
Quick note: I know and use and admire and communicate with lots of providers of these tools. For every one of these categories, I could probably name between four and sixteen more people. If I didn't list you, I probably still love you. Maybe that will be a post for another time: a big fat list of resources.
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The Quick List
For the sake of summary, let's list out what's in our toolkit, and why—and then we'll go into detail:
• Listening tool—Google Reader
• Search tools—Technorati and Google Blogsearch
• Home base blog—Wordpress.com or Wordpress.org (to host your own).
• Scratch blog—Tumblr
• Better reach—FeedBurner
• Mobile blogging—Utterz (Qik for streaming video from your phone).
• Social conversation—Twitter
• Social profile—Facebook
• Business profile—LinkedIn
• Social bookmarking—del.icio.us
• Collaboration—PBWiki
• Shared documents—Google Docs
• Instant messaging (Web-based)—Meebo or Campfire
• Photo sharing—Flickr or Zooomr
• Video hosting—Blip.tv (also YouTube)
What They All Do
Google Reader and the two search tools make it easy for you to set up a quick network of searches on topics, brands, company names, and whatever else you want to follow in your space. The "Shared Items" feature and the email to others feature makes this a great way to share interesting articles with others, by the way.
When I say "home base" blog, I mean that in most cases making your main Web site a blog is preferable to something static. Why? Because it hints at recurring content. It fills search engines with things to think about.
A "scratch" blog might be one that you don't even publish to the outside world; the beauty of Tumblr is that you can blurt short text, audio, video, and other things onto the site. I keep a few around for a few different purposes: one for private notes, and one for multimedia posts.
I use FeedBurner to improve the quality of my RSS feeds, to give people more options to subscribe to my posts, and for some extra functionality.
Utterz is a simple tool you can use from any mobile device (the barrier to entry is whether it has the #2), and post audio, text, photos, or video. Qik does live video streaming, if your phone supports making movies.
Twitter allows for one-to-many messaging from multiple points (Web, IM, third-party app, or mobile device). It's also good for presence, and sharing quick status information.
Facebook actually does lots of things and is a full-featured social network, but at the baseline, you can fill out a personal profile with lots of information about you, and links back to your main site and/or your blog, and it will do a great job of helping people find you. Other features exist, including groups and several third-party applications. There's lots to explore there.
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LinkedIn is a popular site for posting a summary of your current job role and responsibilities, as well as a work history. There is now a group feature there as well, and you can use this tool extensively to reach out and meet new colleagues in your field and prospective employees; there are all sorts of other uses for such information, if you give it some thought.
I like del.icio.us (pronounced "delicious") for social bookmarking because it means my bookmarks are out on the Web, so I can access them from anywhere. It also means that I can add tags and other metadata to the bookmarks to improve the ways I search for them.
We've used wikis for collaboration projects, such as planning an event (we built PodCamp on a wiki, and it's still running strong!), or sharing status information that might need to be changed by more than one person. There are tons of free wiki software projects out there. I think PBWiki is simple, flexible, and easy enough to share with others. The only tricky thing about explaining wikis to colleagues who aren't up to speed is the name itself. If you just say "collaborative web page" or some such, it's easier.
Google Docs works as a great replacement for sharing word processing and spreadsheet functions. It's free, secure, and makes for less file clutter, as you're sharing a link to a shared, common document instead of sending around various versions. Google Docs also has presentation software, though I haven't had much experience with it just yet.
Instant messaging isn't dead. There are still plenty of great business uses for quick one-to-one conversations. Meebo is a great tool because it lets you bridge several services at once (Desktop apps that do the same thing are Adium for the Mac and Trillian for PC) and chat with people about quick-hit items.
Photo sharing and video hosting can be used in lots of ways. They make for richer interactions, add some dimension to the media you're making with your company, and give you an opportunity to express your story in ways different from straight text.
How You Might Use These Tools
I won't go into every tool, but here is a quick rundown of some tools and how you can use them for business purposes:
• Listening tools—understand how people react to your organization, follow your competitors' news stories, learn more about things that might affect your business.
• Blogging—communicate your company's news, discuss the industry as a whole, share information and learning, respond to things you find while listening.
• Mobile tools and social conversation—status and presence information, visuals from field engineers, audible daily meeting messages.
• Collaboration and shared documents—project plans, intention documents, status reports, meeting minutes, shared creative projects.
• Instant messaging—meetings while virtual, backchannel during conference calls, quick integrated conversations.
Personal Use
Lots of these tools are often explained in their typical use as a way to communicate outwards to lots of people; yet, as I explained about "scratch blogs" use, all these great tools are yours to use for yourself—as a creative type looking to capture information on the fly.
Remember that tools have an obvious first use, but sometimes they have a different use when applied to a different kind of problem. Don't lose sight of that option.
What Would You Recommend?
These are all just part of one sample kit. You probably have different kit ideas and different use cases. For instance, what would a mobile journalist want to build? What would an audio producer add in there? How would you take advantage of even more Web tools that aren't exactly media but that you love for different reasons?

Chris Brogan (chrisbrogan.com) is VP of technology and strategy at CrossTechMedia (crosstechmedia.com), a group of companies that focuses on empowering business technology. He is a social-media maker and adviser on how to use social-media tools to build communities of interest and marketplaces of value.

Getting and Keeping Clients and Customers

Here's the story of how a local hangout got us in and kept us coming back. It's a testament to how important good customer service is to anyone who works with customers or clients.

How They Got Us In

This little family-owned bar/restaurant is about 2 miles from our house. It's been around for longer than we've lived there (over 22 years). The owners are brothers who split the duties of running the place. When our kids were younger (like 12 to 15 years ago), we tried their inexpensive Sunday brunch, but at the time we weren't impressed. The food was okay, but back then smoking was allowed inside and the place was full of smoke. Since we were non-smokers with little kids, it didn't seem like a great place for us.

When the smoking ban came to town a few years ago, it really hurt their business – they had built up a huge clientele, most of whom were smokers. To keep them happy, the owners built a giant deck/porch outside with a built-in bar (with a roof), TVs and a large dining area with umbrella tables. It was great for the smokers, but it also brought in new customers who enjoyed being outside in nice weather. We figured it was worth another shot because we were looking for a good place to enjoy some Red Sox games outdoors with a drink in hand.

Why We Kept Coming Back

What we liked about the place from the start was, first and foremost, that their drinks are twice as strong and half as expensive as most places! In fact, they were so strong that I'd sometimes need some extra soda or juice added. Similarly, while the food is nothing fancy, it costs half as much as many places, and we always end up with leftovers for lunch. Plus, from the very beginning, even though the place was often filled with tattooed Harley riders, we were made to feel welcome in a variety of ways.

One of the first warm evenings that we were there to watch a game, the bartender (a woman a few years younger than I am) introduced herself and asked our names. She also remembered them (and our drink orders) on future visits. On various occasions, one or another of the owners would buy us a round of drinks for no apparent reason.

With the overall low drink prices and good customer service, we always tip generously. This in turn results in better service for us. For instance, if they make an extra drink or open a beer by mistake, they will often just give it to us rather than dumping it. The other night I ended up with a free Frozen Mudslide – they had just gotten a new blender that the bartender wasn't quite used to, and she ended up making too much for another customer.

We've gone there so many times over the past few years that we would definitely be considered regulars. While at first we would mostly just go during nice weather, we now go into the regular bar and don't even notice all the keno tickets on the floor, or it being fairly dark inside. None of that matters because it's a friendly home away from home.

So what's all this got to do with running a search marketing business?

Plenty. Any business that works with customers or clients can learn a lot by looking closely at all the little feel-good experiences that create a loyal following.

It's a Two-way Street

You'll notice in my story above that part of the reason we get treated so well is that we give back (in the form of tips). We're also respectful of the bartenders' time, especially when they're extremely busy and running around like crazy.

In search marketing, being a good client also reaps benefits. While we don't expect (or want) tips, being respectful of our time is certainly important. It's critical for us that you answer any questions we ask in a timely manner, and that you generally be available to us as we work on your project. A client's communication often sets the stage for how a project is likely to go.

Underpromise and Overdeliver

Personal touches that don't cost a whole lot can go a long way. At our local bar, you might assume that for the low drink price you'd get a crappy drink, but in fact it's the exact opposite. I relate this to any business in the form of underpromising and overdelivering. While I don't recommend that search marketing firms ever underprice, it's critical to overdeliver with every service you offer. At High Rankings, I personally still stress about every site audit report, always wondering if it's good enough. Yet I know by the feedback we receive that we always provide way more than the client was expecting.

Another way of underpromising and overdelivering is when clients ask by what percentage we'll increase their traffic once we get into our SEO campaign. Since every website is different, and things often depend on the client correctly implementing our recommendations, it's very difficult if not impossible to accurately predict the targeted traffic increase. Therefore, we generally start with a small number like 10–20%. In reality, for most websites that allow us to do exactly what we want to do, the increases are often in the hundreds or thousands of percentage points. Overdelivering can definitely make you a hero, while underdelivering can cause you to lose the client altogether.

So what are you doing with your customer service to get and keep your clients?

To Shift Brand Dollars Online

ADOTAS EXCLUSIVE — The Internet is badly underdeveloped as a brand advertising medium, and it’s not just “a matter of time” before those premium dollars shift online in search of anything other than cheap fill. After over 10 years in the mainstream of American life, the Internet now accounts for over 25% of U.S. adult media attention, but less than 8% of brand spending. Blue-chip brand marketers recognize this as a dangerous gap, but the Internet has presented as too fragmented, too complicated, and, ironically, even too derivative of traditional media to attract a meaningful share of brand spending.
The Internet has developed as a direct-response medium for the simple reason that interactivity, the property that distinguishes the Internet from traditional media, makes direct-response marketing easy and powerful. Interactivity allows users to indicate their interests, either through search or some other telling online behavior, and allows marketers to present offers directly to those users. Not surprisingly, the biggest ad spenders on the Internet today are direct-response marketers. What is needed to shift brand dollars online is a unique ad proposition for the medium “upstream”—in the areas of awareness building and preference shaping that account for the bulk of media spending by large, sophisticated marketers.
The question for this medium is: how do you harness interactivity, and its output data, in a way that can be put to use for brand advertisers on a mass scale? Well, even the most sophisticated, deep-pocketed marketers are limited in their ability to reach their real targets in media. Marketers like P&G, Ford, and American Express define their target consumers richly, less on the basis of undifferentiating demographics, and more on the basis of the “soft” values, the mindsets and habits, that drive demand and choice. Auto manufacturers, for example, see huge differences in the values of “SUV people” and “minivan people,” though these two critical targets are demographically identical. Marketers can refine their pitches to their target segments by developing tailored creative messages, but they have had no way to accomplish the same level of strategic targeting in media, because the media define mass targets on the basis of demographics, and little else.
Brand marketers have traditionally navigated around this shortcoming in media by “triangulating” their way to softer audience attributes via context. However, that is difficult to do in an environment where the majority of ad impressions reside in a rapidly expanding “Long Tail” and have limited scale applications. According to JP Morgan, this problem will only intensify: the number of Web pages and ad impressions are expected to grow by 15% in 2008 alone. This fragmentation presents a real challenge for brand marketers: they need a way to assemble enough inventory to effectively fill their upper funnels with the right people to become buyers at some point in the future. Marketers quickly reach a point of diminishing returns on their energy invested in assembling that inventory contextually.
Ad technology has the potential to deliver on the fundamental brand targeting need and resolve brand marketers’ issues with the fragmentation and complexity of the Internet. It can identify mass audiences that have a common set of characteristics, including psychographics - and reach them, no matter where they are on the Internet.
Ad technology is creating new and relevant handles for buying and selling Internet media. This creates a unique set of opportunities for both buyers and sellers of online media. Yet, the open question remains, one which will define the future of the online landscape: what side of the house will ad technology end up with, the buyer or the seller?

Google to Offer a Tool

As soon as Tuesday, Google plans to unveil a new service that measures Internet use, according to advertising executives who have been briefed on it. The tool is intended to help advertisers identify the best places to buy online ads by telling them which Web sites their target audiences visit.
Google's approach, aimed at bolstering its ad-sales business, could pose a major threat to the Web measurement services that are available now, ad executives say. The two main players in the business -- comScore and Nielsen Online -- gather data on Internet use largely by tracking what panels of people do online or by conducting surveys, and their results can be inconsistent and incomplete. Google's new offering will be based mostly on data from Web servers, allowing for a deeper and broader view of Internet use. And unlike the services from comScore and Nielsen, Google's will be offered to marketers free, according to ad executives.
BY WHAT MEASURE

Google is getting into the business of measuring Web hits, a field where the major measurement firms often come up with different results. Here's why:
• The Web measurement firms rely largely on panels, tracking the online actions of people in those groups.
• The size and recruitment for these groups vary by company.
• The companies use differing methodologies to weight results, and extrapolate differently from them.
• Companies don't agree on the makeup of the Internet-using population. After all, it's hard to know who's sitting behind a computer.
Source: WSJ reporting
But with Google already controlling a growing swath of advertising real estate both online and off, some ad executives are leery about placing even more power in the company's hands. "For an advertiser, the last thing you want to do is to have your adviser be the same person you are spending your money with," says Sarah Fay, chief executive of Aegis North America, the media-buying giant owned by Aegis Group of the U.K.
ComScore said it wouldn't comment before Google makes an official announcement. Nielsen Online also declined to comment.
Billions of marketing dollars a year trade hands based at least in part on Web-audience figures. Advertisers study the data -- which can estimate the total number of people that visit a Web site or the average amount of time those people spend on the site or both -- to try to determine which sites are popular among particular demographic groups or in certain topic areas, such as technology or health. Publishers also rely on the data to set ad rates.
Google's new tool could bring more efficiency to the process of buying online ads, ad executives say. Google already has one of the dominant systems for online ad-serving, which helps Web publishers manage their advertising sales and serve up ads each time a consumer opens one of their Web pages. The Web-audience data could be combined with the ad-serving system, so that advertisers would be able to find out whether they would reach the right audience before they committed to placing an ad. Existing ad-serving systems don't currently provide detailed Web-audience data about the sites where they place ads. By giving away the new tool, Google could presumably attract more ad business.
Separately, Google this week is expected to roll out a new tool aimed at showing how Web surfers respond to online ads. It will compare groups of people who are exposed to an ad with others who haven't seen it, taking into account such factors as search activity and site visitation.
The services are a logical next step for Google as it moves into other parts of the advertising business, including television and newspapers, where the company has begun selling ad space. Marketers are hungry for research that helps them compare the results of offline and online ads so that they can allocate their marketing budgets more intelligently. Google could be positioned to serve this one-stop-shopping role.
Some ad executives say they are concerned that Google could use the data it compiles about their campaigns to make a business pitch to a competitor. They imagine a scenario in which the biggest online advertiser in a category is running its campaign through Google's ad-serving systems. Not only would Google be helping that marketer deliver ads to particular Web sites; it would also be capturing data about which Web sites and types of ads work best. Advertising executives fear that Google could then resell that same intelligence to competitors. (Any data that marketers put into Google's ad systems will remain confidential, a Google spokesman says.)
For all the cutting-edge technology on the Web, the systems used to measure Internet use are mostly based on traditional models. Both comScore and Nielsen rely on panels of people who agree to let the companies track their online movements, from the Web sites they visit to the purchases they make. ComScore and Nielsen then take these data and extrapolate from them to make statements about the broader population of Internet users. In some cases, Nielsen benchmarks its findings against a Web site's computer-server logs.
With its new service, Google, like comScore and Nielsen, will offer marketers demographic details about potential customers, such as age, gender and income. Google's new tool, which will also rely on some data gleaned from panels of human users and other sources, is similar to one developed by New York-based start-up Quantcast, which has been gaining popularity among media buyers. But because of its size, Google has the potential to shake up the Web-measurement business.
"This could disrupt some of the current ways that people are working," says Alan Schanzer, managing partner of MEC Interaction North America, part of WPP Group's media-buying and planning unit Mediaedge:cia.
Server-based data come with challenges of their own. Measurements are generally based on "cookies," or small pieces of tracking data, on Web surfers' computer hard drives. Because consumers sometimes delete cookies and then get new ones when they return to a site, server-based systems often overcount audiences. Also, a computer server can have a hard time distinguishing whether a site's visitor is a real person or a technology that visits Web sites for other purposes. In addition, server-based systems can track only those Web sites with which they have struck agreements to place cookies.

Borrell: Local Online Revenue to Jump 50% in '08

Local online revenue is expected to skyrocket this year, up 50 percent to $13.1 billion, according to a study released Thursday (May 29) by Borrell Associates.

Most of the growth is driven by pure-play companies and to a lesser extent, traditional local media companies ramping up ad sales on their own sites. More than half of the $13.1 billion revenue will go to pure-play local Web sites. Of the traditional media, newspapers are projected to bring in the most at $3.7 million, followed by TV stations at $1.2 billion, local yellow pages at $1.2 billion, and radio stations at $255 million.

According to Borrell, a transformation is taking place in local Web sites, which are taking on new identities rather than cloning the identity of the radio or TV station that is publishing them. "They are creating unique identities and breaking away from their print and broadcast roots," the report said.

Local Web sites are also posing new threats to the Yellow Pages, with directories popping up everywhere.

For the next 18 months, Borrell expects local online advertising to continuing growing in the strong double-digits, and the moderating to single-digit "market norm" levels by 2012.

"By then we expect the 'winners' in local online advertising to have grown to the size of the second-or-third largest media outlets in their markets in terms of total revenues," Borrell said. "Newspaper sites, with a formidable lead on everyone else, have the biggest head start."

Businesses on the move to make Web sites suitable for mobile access

With three mobile phones to every personal computer in the world, companies are racing to create a mobile presence that will drive traffic to their Web sites and, ultimately, generate more revenues.

Locally, companies like FedEx Corp. and AutoZone, Inc., have designed wireless phone-adapted Web sites to better serve existing and prospective clients, mostly those who are constantly on the go.

"There's an increasingly large subset of business users who expect to conduct business through their mobile phone," says Russell Fleming, vice president of digital access marketing for FedEx Corp. "Business users expect Fortune 500 companies to be on the cutting edge of mobile technology."

With minimal data input, shipping, receiving rate quotes, tracking and finding locations are "conducive to mobile," he says.

Having a mobile presence is cost-effective for FedEx -- the company found its 1-800 call center receives numerous calls from mobile phones -- but Fleming says that fedex.com/mobi is more than that.

"It's the 'purple promise' to our customers to access our network in the way they want," he says. "We're giving them access on their own terms."

Accessibility is key when it comes to e-commerce, says Sheperd Simmons, president of Counterpart Communication Design, which designs Web sites and marketing materials.

"Accessibility applies to mobility," Simmons says. "You don't want to make clients plug into a computer. It goes back to 'Marketing 101' -- be accessible to your customers."

Worldwide, about 1.3 billion people are connected to the Internet through their cell phone, according to The GSM Association, which monitors the Global System for Mobile communications, and wireless providers are quick to seize the opportunity. Revenues from data services are growing faster than those generated by voice services, says Dave Miller, a spokesman for Cellular South.

"There are 3 billion mobile phones in the world and 1 billion personal computers," he says. "What does this tell you? That you need a more robust presence on the mobile Web. It's a tremendous business opportunity."