Articles of the Day
Marketers Put More Money Into Social Media: Survey - A recent survey indicates that nearly a third of Web marketers plan to increase spending significantly on such social media as blogs and discussion boards. Attention is the top measure for success.
Google Pays Advertisers To Use Audio Ads - Google is running a promotion for its Audio Ads product that will give advertisers a $2,000 credit toward future radio spots if they spend at least $1,000 on a single campaign. Whether it’s a sign of desperation or merely a way to introduce the program to a broader audience is up for debate.
AdBrite Delivers Print-Style Engagement With New Format - AdBrite has rolled out the ‘Full Page Ad,’ a new digital ad format that aims to blend the branding impact of a full-page magazine ad with the interactivity of the Web. Pennzoil, Sanyo and LiveNation are inaugural advertisers.
Infospace Exits Mobile Business; Motricity Buys Its Mobile Services Business For $135 Million - The deal has gone through after rumors for the last two months—InfoSpace (NSDQ: INSP) has sold its mobile services business to Motricity for $135 million in cash, meaning that the company will now be solely focused on online search. INSP also recently sold its online directory business for $225 million in cash. Once the transaction closes InfoSpace expects to have $550 million in cash, and will return part of it back to investors as a special cash distribution.
AOL To Lay Off 2000 Out of Its 10K Employees - The much-rumored AOL (NYSE: TWX) layoffs have been officially announced, at least internally…Kara has the memo here. “We refocused the business around three core areas – Platform-A, Publishing and Access – and are now managing these as three distinct but related components,” said CEO Randy Falco in the memo. Platform-A is its online and mobile ad serving and advertising business.
Reviewing Online TV Ad Sales Efforts, Google Moves Forward As eBay Remains Stuck - Although they’re not exactly going head-to-head, in assessing Google’s and eBay’s respective attempts at online media buying systems for TV over the past six months, Adweek finds Google (NSDQ: GOOG) meeting with some success, while eBay (NSDQ: EBAY) continues to struggle.
Alibaba.com to Raise up to $1.33 Billion in IPO - Alibaba.com, the B2B arm of China-based Alibaba Group, told investors that it plans to raise up to $1.33 billion through its IPO, currently scheduled for November 6th. Bloomberg has the full details: the company plans to sell 858.9 million shares at HK$10-HK$12 (US $1.29-$1.54) each; at the upper end of the range, it will have a market cap of $7.8 billion market cap, making it the largest internet IPO in Hong Kong this year.
Is Google Backing Off From Universal Search? - In May of this year, Google announced the advent of what it called “Universal Search,” which blends results from a wide array of multimedia objects into what had hitherto been an exclusively text-dominated SERP. The other engines quickly followed suit and modified their SERPs accordingly, making Universal Search a genuine trend, if not an actual craze. And yet in the past several weeks, Google’s SERP appears to have reverted to its old, text-heavy format. Google’s defenders will certainly claim that it’s merely tweaking its algorithm again, but I’d venture a guess that Google has quietly concluded that Universal Search is a bust.
Web Bubble? Not at These Prices - Many believe the valuations being placed on Web firms in Silicon Valley are out of control. Facebook fetching $10 billion? The company’s only expected to sell $150 million worth of advertising this year. What about RockYou, which creates programs for Facebook, seeking $500 million? The sum total of third-party revenues on the social networking site is less than $1 million. Then there’s the rumor that CNET wants TechCrunch for $100 million. TechCrunch is an industry blog. These were all unsubstantiated rumors of course, but the result is a whole bunch of bubble chatter in Silicon Valley.
How Google Did It Without Advertising - Google is ubiquitous. By some counts, it’s the most popular brand in the world, yet it’s unlike just about any other global brand, spending almost no money on marketing. Ironically, perhaps, advertising has been the pathway to Google’s mega millions. That it’s become a necessary tool for those searching for content and advertisers searching for consumers is advertising enough for the $190 billion Web company. Indeed, who needs to advertise when you provide a service people (and advertisers) need?
Kids Fueling Virtual World Growth - Virtual worlds have been billed as a kind of social networking 2.0, but so far, they’ve yet to really catch on-with adults, that is. Kids, on the other hand, love the colorful 3D environments at sites like Neopets, Stardoll.com, Gaia Online and Club Penguin, where they create and care for avatars of their own making. These sites are mostly skewed towards kids, because the market for kiddy virtual worlds is several times bigger than that of adults. Sites like Webkinz and Club Penguin have millions of active members, compared to Second Life and There.com, which attract between tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of users per month.
Facebook Adds Professional Networking - Facebook continues to pile on the press coverage, getting credit this time for stealing working professionals from the professional networking site LinkedIn. But it shouldn’t. The Web’s No. 2 social site is perfect for college dorm networking, but not so much for job or business development hunting. LinkedIn allows workers to delve into an extended network of contacts developed around the people you know. With Facebook, you can only see your friends’ friends.
