Articles of the Day
Ad Spending On Social Networks Will Continue To Grow In ‘08 - Ad spending on online social networks worldwide will nearly double, to $2.2 billion in 2008 from $1.2 billion this year, according to an eMarketer study being released today. Most spending will come from the U.S., where social network advertising is projected to grow to $1.6 billion next year, from $920 million in 2007. MySpace and Facebook dominate U.S. social network advertising, claiming 70% of ad dollars.
Live from the Search Insider Summit: SEM Agencies Step Up Offerings - As search engines have increasingly begun to offer display, social media, RSS, widgets and other kinds of inventory, search agencies are stepping up to plan and execute these campaigns. Often, they’re leveraging search data and analytics to forecast performance, better target audiences and deliver results that are more brand than direct response-oriented.
Survey: Email Marketers Fall Short On Best Unsubscribe Practices - While nearly all marketers include an unsubscribe option in promotional emails, fewer than half include one in other types of emails, according to a new Lyris EmailLabs survey. Even fewer use unsubscribes as relationship-enhancing or research opportunities–and way too many are still using “tricks” to discourage unsubscribing.
Price Trumps Everything For Online Shoppers - With uncertainties about the economy creeping into more and more holiday purchase decisions, about 43% of online shoppers say a product’s price is the most important factor in making a purchase, according to a new poll conducted by Synovate of Chicago.
Putting Your Best Face Forward - “Nothing influences a person more than a recommendation from a trusted friend.” Sound familiar? No, it’s not from 1999’s “Cluetrain Manifesto.” It’s one of many comments recently made by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg regarding the influential power of social connections online.
Google Takes Microsoft Challenge to the Next Level - Web critics used to complain that Google was spreading itself thin by launching too many unfinished products and services that didn’t add up to a discernible whole. Google reveals that its expanding package of Web-based software and services are part of a greater movement than many would have imagined. As Google CEO Eric Schmidt says, Google Apps, the company’s suite of free online computing services, represents no less than Google’s march to put your entire desktop on the Web.
Opera Complains About Bundled Internet Explorer - The European Commission has been prompted to look further into the bundling practices of tech giant Microsoft Corp. following a formal complaint accusing the company of thwarting competition by tying the two services together. Opera, maker of the fourth-most-popular Web browser, said that Microsoft made it hard for rivals to offer a serious choice when Internet Explorer comes bundled with its operating system. The company wants the Commission to make Microsoft separate IE from Windows and pre-install other browsers on new personal computers.
The Year in Tech CEO Apologies - Forbes.com looks back at the year in CEO apologies, starting with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who recently had to apologize for touting his company’s privacy-violating peer-to-peer recommendation system, Beacon, as the greatest media invention of the last hundred years. The report claims that such apologies are becoming so commonplace that the executive apology has become a sector of study for public relations groups.
Google Unveils User Profiles - Last week, Google unveiled yet another key component of its “master plan” for Web domination: Google Profiles. The new program links your Google related activities under one profile. At the moment it’s most easily accessible through Google Maps and Google Reader. Profiles can contain as much or as little information as the user decides; there are entry fields for name, nickname, occupation, location, “about me” and a photo. Users will also be allowed to create multiple links for their site. For example, if you add or edit content on Google Maps, someone else can click through to your profile.
Is Google Knol a Conflict of Interest? - For years, Google has frustratingly watched Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, become one of the top destinations of its search traffic. Google would kill to supply ads to Wikipedia, but the stubborn non-profit has resisted any temptation to sell ads on its pages. The possibility of a partnership shot down, it makes for Google to launch a direct competitor, which is exactly Knol is.
On Facebook, Scholars Link Up With Data - Each day about 1,700 juniors at an East Coast college log on to Facebook.com to accumulate “friends,” compare movie preferences, share videos and exchange cybercocktails and kisses. Unwittingly, these students have become the subjects of academic research. To study how personal tastes, habits and values affect the formation of social relationships (and how social relationships affect tastes, habits and values), a team of researchers from Harvard and the University of California, Los Angeles, are monitoring the Facebook profiles of an entire class of students at one college, which they declined to name because it could compromise the integrity of their research.
Why You’ll Finally Use LinkedIn - For years, I’ve been befuddled by LinkedIn. I knew it was supposed to be the social network for work, but to me it was like war. “What is it good for?” I asked myself repeatedly, even as I occasionally poked around and accepted requests to link with people. I belonged to it, but I really didn’t know why. The other day I had a chance to sit down with LinkedIn CEO Dan Nye, who’s been on the job since February. He told me about a few changes that Linkedin subsequently announced (VentureBeat has a good description of them.). And his PR person upgraded me to what would otherwise be a paid account. (It can be $20 to $200 per month.)
Rebuttal: There is No Imminent PPC Recession - Jeff Hudson waited almost two months to respond to a post on Steve Rubel’s Micro Persuasion blog about an imminent PPC recession — but his rebuttal is thoughtful and provides a point-by-point critique of all of Rubel’s main points. Referring to clutter, Hudson said that the engines are actively working to make sure only the best ads get served with each search. After all, Google’s continued focus on the “user experience” and the constant tweaking of Quality Score metrics have to be impacting the number of ads that show up.
