Articles of the Day
GMI Probes Influence Of Candidates’ Social Network Pages - A new poll from Seattle-based Global Market Insite (GMI) has found that 17% of voters are using social network sites to research and make decisions on U.S. presidential candidates, and most of those doing so are over the age of 30.
Bebo Teams With Microsoft For IM - Seeking a young and vibrant audience for its Windows Live Web services, Microsoft plans to launch an instant-messaging service on social network Bebo this fall.
Roo Revenues Up 78% In Second Quarter As Operating Loss Doubles - Roo Group, which provides video solutions to content companies and advertisers reported second-quarter revenues of $3.6 million–up 78% from $2.0 million in the same period a year earlier. Net operating loss was $7.5 million, compared with $3.3 million year-over-year.
Google Earth’s New View Of Stars - Google Earth is expanding its scope to include the stars in the sky, the company said Tuesday. The search giant, whose Earth program gives users anything from an astronaut’s view of the earth to street level images, wants to turn the service into a playground for stargazers. It’s hard to imagine how Google could make money from this, although you can imagine it will soon integrate Google Earth images into its results.
YouTube’s Ad Revenue Prospects - Henry Blodget offers a detailed analysis of the revenue contribution from the video ads on YouTube that Google announced on Tuesday. His most aggressive forecasts range from a $450 million contribution to $13 billion. (Read the blog for all the variables put against these numbers.) YouTube’s revenue won’t likely be material to Google for at least a year or two and possibly more, Blodget says. What’s more, the impact on the bottom line will probably be even less pronounced, he says, because serving a video ad, even for Google, is far more expensive than serving a text link. At a $20 CPM, the gross margin on such ads will likely be well below Google’s current margins.
Web Research Still Not Accurate Enough - The Internet is advertising’s most measurable medium, but despite available research, Web data isn’t necessarily accurate, posing a massive problem for advertisers. You’ve seen it before: depending on whom you ask, comScore or Nielsen/NetRatings, Yahoo either had 133 million unique visitors in June or 108 million. That’s not a small difference.
