Articles of the Day
Ask3D Search Promises ‘Instant Gettification’ - Ask.com today unveiled Ask3D, a re-engineered version of its search engine featuring a three-panel layout and promise of “instant gettification” by offering people a quicker route to what they need, without forcing them to keep clicking around.
Publicis Eyes More Digital Buys - Delighted with its recent purchase of Digitas, Publicis Groupe plans to make additional digitally focused acquisitions, Maurice Levy, company chairman and CEO, said during an annual shareholder meeting on Monday.
Q&A With Mahalo’s Jason Calacanis - Web entrepreneur Jason Calacanis talked about the advertising implications of his new “human-powered” search engine Mahalo, which is backed by NewsCorp. and CBS.
Borrell: Local Online Ads to Climb 31.6% This Year - Bucking the trend of slower online ad growth, local online ad spending will climb 31.6% this year to $7.5 billion, says a report to be released today by media consultants Borrell Associates. By contrast, national online ad growth is expected to rise by 20%.
Yahoo Rolls Out Commercial API Program - The imminent departure of Yahoo CTO Farzad Nazem has not yet impacted the company’s growth plans for its Panama advertising platform, as evidenced by the rollout of its Search Marketing Commercial API Program.
Europe Beats U.S. In Internet Users On Some Measures - An average of 122 million Europeans ages 15 and up were online on a typical April day, compared with 114 million Americans, according to comScore World Metrix’s first-ever comprehensive review of Internet activity across 16 European countries.
Marchex Expands Ad, Content Networks with Yahoo, Fox - Seattle-based search and media firm Marchex has inked a distribution deal with Yahoo to expand its Enhance Interactive ad network and a partnership with News Corp.’s Fox Latin America Channels to develop a set of Spanish-language Web sites.
Jupiter/iProspect Study: 88% Now Measure ROI - A study conducted by Jupiter Research for search engine marketing firm iProspect found that 88% of search marketers are now measuring ROI, up from 79% in 2005. The Search Marketer Measurement & Performance Study, also found that 86% of search marketers tie performance evaluation to search metrics, up from 81% two years ago.
Glam, Google Sign Multi-Year Deal - ONLINE LIFESTYLE AND FASHION PUBLISHER Glam Media announced a multi-year deal for Google to exclusively provide it with search and contextual ads through AdSense. Last month, Glam selected DoubleClick’s DART for Publishers as its ad management platform.
Tech Buyers Go Deep For Information and Bite on White Papers - Eighty-four percent of technology buyers begin their online search for information with one of the major search engines and ultimately use multiple channels during their search, including online publications, analyst sites, directories and IT vendor or community Websites. By using search engine optimization (SEO), paid search/search engine marketing (SEM) and content syndication, the study finds, marketers are able to effectively cover the Internet.
Package-Goods Marketers Finally Find Value in Search - “There’s an elevated consciousness [among package-goods marketers] that search is driving awareness and trial,” said Pete Blackshaw, chief marketing officer of Nielsen BuzzMetrics. “Five years ago, that was an awareness exclusively confined to higher-involvement products.” The conventional wisdom has been that low-involvement household and personal-care brands don’t get much out of search. Few people search for “laundry detergent,” for example. They more often search for benefits the brands confer, though many marketers have been relatively slow to capitalize on that.
Yahoo Turns to Openness - At a time when advertisers are questioning whether myriad new-media deals will be good for them and the FTC is investigating whether the Google-DoubleClick deal will bring together too much online ad power under one roof, Yahoo is taking another route, touting openness as an increasingly important part of its online-advertising strategy. Today, for example, the company is set to unveil open access to its commercial application program interfaces — more commonly known as APIs — which will let agencies, tool providers and even individual developers tap into the Panama ad platform and build applications on top of it.
How Martin Sorrell Closed the Real Deal - When Google announced its $3.1 billion deal to buy DoubleClick on Friday, April 13, WPP Group Chief Executive Martin Sorrell reacted. That Sunday, Mr. Sorrell got in touch with 24/7 Real Media Chairman-CEO David Moore to broach an acquisition. By mid-May, Mr. Sorrell had a Real deal, agreeing to fork over $649 million cash for the web ad-services outfit. Mr. Sorrell might have been able to pay less; in the end, there was only one other bidder. Private equity took a pass.
Applause For New Ask.com - Ask.com on Tuesday completely revamped its search interface–a bold move combining a new platform, a new search technology and a new nationwide marketing push. Ask, fourth in the increasingly one player search market, is doing what only a fourth place player can do — it is betting on a new interface. The boldest thing about the new Ask3D is its decision to abandon the ages-old 10 blue links approach in favor of a more robust, navigational approach to results combining visual, textual, and design elements.
Joost CEO Hints At Apple TV Partnership - Joost, the Web-based TV and video service, is in the news nearly as often as regulars Google and News Corp.’s MySpace. If it hasn’t raised additional funds, the peer-to-peer TV platform has mostlikely added another major media partner or recruited a big-name exec. Today it’s the latter: Joost named Mike Volpi, formerly of Cisco Systems, as CEO.
ANA, Four A’s, Question Industry Acquisitions - Major ad industry associations like the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4 As) expressed their concern over the recent spate of mergers and acquisitions in the industry–most notably the Google acquisition of DoubleClick, which it questioned in a joint letter to the Federal Trade Commission.
Google Strikes Partnership with Salesforce.com - As expected, Google has joined forces with Salesforce.com in launching a new Web site that allows Salesforce to resell Google’s AdWords through the company’s core customer relationship management software. Called Salesforce Group Edition, the companies will jointly market the new product, which records sales leads generated through ads placed on Google.com and the company’s AdSense network.
Spyware Still Plagues Web Searches - Search engines continue to drive users to spyware and other nuisances. That’s according to McAfee’s recent second annual State of Search Engine Safety. Overall, 4% of all search results take users to sites characterized as “risky,” down from 5% last year. Sponsored links account for more than double the risky links as organic results, according to McAfee, with 6.9% of paid links leading to suspect sites, compared to 2.9% for organic links.
