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Google Redefines the Meaning of "Top"
2006-12-29 15:32:02
Last week we covered the top ten search terms of 2006, based on the results released by the major search engines. This afternoon on Google 's blog, Artem Boytsov let us in on Google's methodology for generating that list. To come up with this list, we looked at several thousand of 2006's most popular searches, and ranked them based on how much their popularity increased compared to 2005. ("Bebo", for example, had very little traffic in 2005.) We also gave a bit higher score to searches with more traffic. Similarly, our "what is" and "who is" lists are not necessarily the absolute most frequent searches, but rather those that best represent the passing year. In other words, despite the title ("Top Searches in 2006"), Google's top ten isn't really made up of the most searched for words and phrases.  Rather, it's based mostly on change in popularity, with common words and dirty searches removed, and all in all seems to be pretty subject...
More About: Meaning , Fine , Redefine , Rede

Super-Targeted Online Marketing?
2006-12-28 03:30:03
BusinessWeek has an interesting story about local search marketing, and a small company called Skyhook Wireless that's hoping to change the way local businesses advertise on the internet. The major ad networks already provide some tools that allow advertisers to target specific geographic areas, but this new technology promises even more granular targeting, so ads could be displayed only to users within a few blocks of a local business. It's yet to be seen if Skyhook's technology will be picked up by any of the bigger online ad networks, but they're reportedly in talks with both Google and Yahoo. If we do see this made available to advertisers, it will give smaller businesses even more power to direct their message to the exact customers who are most likely to buy. A Chinese food restaurant could advertise only to customers within their precise delivery area. A small, local bookstore could target their ads to users within a few blocks, hoping to attract walk-in customers from th...
More About: Marketing , Online Marketing , Market , Super , Online

ReviewMe - Paid Reviews Done Right?
2006-12-23 03:25:01
There's certainly no shortage of bloggers writing about the new compensated review service, Review Me, which officially launched on November 9th. In a great example of a company "eating their own dog food", ReviewMe is paying bloggers to write reviews of their new service. In fact, this is a paid review.I must admit to feeling a little dirty being paid to write a review of anything. However, there are a few things that set ReviewMe apart from their competition in the paid review arena, and I believe these differences are the reason that so many bloggers have been willing to give the service a try. ReviewMe requires its reviewers to disclose that they are being paid, so it's clear to readers that the reviewer has been compensated. Also, reviewers are not required or even encouraged to write positive reviews. The truth is, I've been wanting to mention this service anyway because a lot of people have been talking about it, many of them bloggers excited about the opportun...
More About: Views , Reviews , Paid , View

Google's Secret Ad Network
2006-12-23 03:25:01
It's no suprise that Google offers preferential treatment to it's top publishers, but word has leaked out about an exclusive new ad network so secret that Google hasn't even acknowledged it's existence. John Chow reports that the Google Display Advertising Network was launched to allow Google to go after Fortune 1000 advertisers who are interested in building their brand, rather than simple click-thrus.  The new network has a CPM (cost per thousand) cost structure, instead of the CPC (cost per click) structure of Google's successful AdWords offering. The ads themselves are video and display ads, and each publisher negotiates their own rate with Google.  Sound interesting?  Too bad.  From the article: How do you join the Google Display Advertising Network? You can't. Google won't even acknowledge it exists... The only way to get into the display network is if Google invites you.  So for the moment, it looks like the little guys will have to stick with ...
More About: Work , Secret , Ad network

Link Exchange-the Good, the Bad & the Ugly
2006-12-23 03:25:01
Even new webmasters quickly grasp the importance of incoming links for building traffic and ranking in search results.  Link s are fundamental to the operation of the Web, and everyone wants more of them.  However, the means you use to acquire new links can be just as important as the links themselves, and all links are not created equal.Link exchange is one widely used method of acquiring links, wherein two web sites link to each other. It's a simple and apparently equitable transaction, but when  used without caution it can be hazardous to the health of your site. The Good Exchanging links can have beneficial results provided you link to revelant web sites that are likely to be of interest to your readers.  Your visitors benefit from access to additional resources they may not have been aware of, and you and your link exchange partner benefit from some additional traffic and new readers.Don't try to stretch the definition of "relevant web sites".&nbs...
More About: Link Exchange , Change , Exchange

MySpace Beats Yahoo in Page Views
2006-12-23 03:25:01
A recent leaked report from ComScore generated quite a few stories in the mainstream press about the rapid rise of MySpace , many with some passing reference to Yahoo 's use of AJAX as a contributing factor to Yahoo's decline. And while MySpace has reason to celebrate it's incredible growth, their besting of Yahoo just illustrates how irrelevant page views are becoming.  Yahoo, of course, must have known that their increased use of AJAX would have a detrimental effect on the number of pages viewed. But they did it anyway, probably because it made the site better for their users. Smart choice.Why isn't MySpace doing the same thing?  I rarely venture onto MySpace's web site, but when I do, I'm confronted with an interface that looks like it belongs in 1999.  It's most active users seem to love to customize their pages with wild layouts, questionable color schemes, and loud music, yet MySpace provides them with only the most limited to tools to ...
More About: Views , Myspace , Page

That Little Something Extra
2006-12-23 03:25:01
Last month, Andy Beal announced that he would give away an iPod Shuffle to one of his RSS subscribers over at Marketing Pilgrim (which struck me as a great way to promote a feed). This week he announced the results, and I was the lucky winner.I thought it was pretty cool to be rewarded for something I do anyway (reading Marketing Pilgrim), and I figured I'd have a nice new toy coming in the mail next week - or maybe later considering it's the week before Christmas when packages seem to take a little longer to arrive. So imagine my surprise when I had my new Shuffle in my hands this evening, shipped priority overnight via FedEx.It might not seem like a big deal, but that small gesture made the prize seem much more valuable. This wasn't just an iPod, it was an iPod that had to get here fast. My perspective might be a little unusual, because it's a twenty minute drive to my house from the nearest little town of Sutter Creek, over winding mountain roads, some of them gravel and lack...
More About: Hat , Methi , Little , That , Extra

2006 Search Wrap-Up
2006-12-23 03:25:01
Now that the Big 5 of Search have all released thier lists of top searches for 2006, let's take a look at the results - and what they say about the users of each search engine. Google's top ten shows a definite bias toward technology-related searches, with social networking players Bebo and MySpace leading the pack.  The only non-tech searches on the list, "World Cup" and "Rebelde" (a Mexican television series), are suggestive of a strong international user base, since we'd expect both soccer and Mexican TV to have stronger fan bases outside the United States. Bebo, at number 1, is also strong internationally. Bebo MySpace World Cup Metacafe Radioblog Wikipedia Video Rebelde Mininova Wiki via www.google.com/press/zeitgeist2006.html In contrast to Google's tech and international bias, Yahoo's top ten reads like a who's who of American pop culture. Not a single tech term made it onto the list. Considering the heavy emphasis on female sex symbols, ...
More About: Wrap

Wasting your online ad dollars?
2006-12-23 03:25:01
A report on internet traffic released yesterday by comScore reveals that some of the top internet properties in the United States receive a majority of their visitors from overseas. During the month of September 2006, 14 of the top 25 sites had more visitors from abroad, including all of the top 5 (Yahoo, Time Warner, Microsoft, Google, and eBay). US vs. Foreign Visitors - Top 5 Web Properties For web site owners, this news is more than just an interesting statistic. It's a reminder of the importance of geographic targeting of our online advertising. If you're not seeking these international visitors, a large portion of your advertising spend on major web sites may be wasted on visitors that you're not looking for. But you are paying for them. Geographic Targeting Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing, and Microsoft AdCenter all offer various options for targeting your online marketing to specific cities or regions.  Targeting is well worth the extra effort required to set ...
More About: Dollar , Your , Online , Sting , Line

Rebooted
2006-12-23 03:25:01
We've "rebooted" for the Fall 2006 CSS Reboot, where web site owners worldwide launch their redesigns simultaneously. This isn't a major redesign, just a little sprucing up and some color changes, but it's nice to have a fresh look in place.  Check out the before and after shots, and have a look at some of the other redesigns while you're there.
More About: Boot

Telegraph.co.uk caught copying blogger?
2006-12-23 03:25:01
Looks the web site of the Daily Tele graph, one of the UK's oldest newspapers, might have gotten itself into a bit of a plagiarism scandal.  Today they published an off-beat little blog entry (now offline), purportedly by columnist Melissa Whitworth, but it seems that the exact same piece was published 2 days ago at MediaBistro.com. Copy ing other people's content is certainly nothing new on the internet, though we tend to think of it as the act of spammers and lowlifes, not a major media company. UPDATE:The Telegraph has removed the story in question from their website, and Melissa Whitworth has posted an apology and explanation. While the explanation is plausible, this was a case of sloppy journalism at best, and one would hope that the editors at the Telegraph consider plagiarism, even the "accidental" variety, to be more than "a small error," as Melissa describes it.
More About: Blogger , Blog , Caught

TIME's 50 Coolest Websites
2006-12-23 03:25:01
TIME magazine recently published their list of the 50 Cool est Website s for 2006. It's worth a look just to see what the mainstream press considers the best of the web. There are a few sites you've probably seen before, including the design-challenged MySpace.com, but many of these may be new to the casual surfer.
More About: Time , Site , Websites

Could your web site get you sued?
2006-12-23 03:25:01
A precedent setting legal case this week should make all web site owners sit up and take notice.  A federal district court judge in California has allowed a suit brought by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) against Target Corp. to go forward, despite Target's claims that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) does not apply to web sites.
More About: Site , Your , Web site , Sued

Are you turning off 25% of your customers?
2006-12-23 03:25:01
Those with speedy internet connections seem to quickly forget what it's like to experience the web through a dial-up connection. Still, millions of people continue to access the internet through the reliable old 56k modem and standard phone line, and that's not likely to change any time soon, especially not in the United States.
More About: Customers , Customer , Your , Turn , Custom

The Yellow Pages aren't dead yet
2006-12-23 03:25:01
I'd just finished designing a half dozen Yell ow Page s ads for a client when a timely blog post caught my eye. It was Geoff Wilson at PseudoFish heralding the coming death of the Yellow Pages . While Google Local and other web sites may be taking business away from the offline directories, there are still plenty of reasons for small businesses to continue advertising in thier local directories:
More About: Dead

Lessons from Wal-Mart's Black Friday
2006-12-23 03:25:01
Black Friday is the name given to the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year for US retailers.  This year, Black Friday was a bit blacker than usual for Wal-Mart , as their web site was crushed under the load of online shoppers trying to beat the crowds by shopping from home.  The good news is that web site owners can learn a lot from Wal-Mart's mistakes, even if you're not handling millions of visitors like the retail giant. Do your IT people know what your Marketing people are doing? Wal-Mart's marketing department did a great job of promoting their website in their advertising efforts, including television advertising to inform shoppers that their Black Friday sale prices were also available online. They promoted an exclusive preview of several specials on the web site on Thanksgiving day, and reportedly stepped up their online advertising campaigns (at the time of this posting you can still see special "Black Friday" them...
More About: Black , Less , Sons

Want a forum on your site?
2006-12-23 03:25:01
Forums can be a great way to interact with your web site visitors, helping you build a sense of community that keeps people coming back. They can also be a lot of hard work. If you're thinking about adding a forum to your web site, be sure to check out this advice for new forum owners at A List Apart. It's written from a non-technical perspective, focusing on the human side of running a forum instead of the software and server requirements. Give it a read and make sure you're up to the task before adding a forum to your own site.
More About: Site , Your , Forum , Want

MySpace Beats Yahoo in Page Views
2006-12-21 09:22:04
A recent leaked report from ComScore generated quite a few stories in the mainstream press about the rapid rise of MySpace , many with some passing reference to Yahoo 's use of AJAX as a contributing factor to Yahoo's decline. And while MySpace has reason to celebrate it's incredible growth, their besting of Yahoo just illustrates how irrelevant page views are becoming.  Yahoo, of course, must have known that their increased use of AJAX would have a detrimental effect on the number of pages viewed. But they did it anyway, probably because it made the site better for their users. Smart choice.Why isn't MySpace doing the same thing?  I rarely venture onto MySpace's web site, but when I do, I'm confronted with an interface that looks like it belongs in 1999.  It's most active users seem to love to customize their pages with wild layouts, questionable color schemes, and loud music, yet MySpace provides them with only the most limited to tools to ...
More About: Views , Myspace , Page

That Little Something Extra
2006-12-21 09:22:04
Last month, Andy Beal announced that he would give away an iPod Shuffle to one of his RSS subscribers over at Marketing Pilgrim (which struck me as a great way to promote a feed). This week he announced the results, and I was the lucky winner.I thought it was pretty cool to be rewarded for something I do anyway (reading Marketing Pilgrim), and I figured I'd have a nice new toy coming in the mail next week - or maybe later considering it's the week before Christmas when packages seem to take a little longer to arrive. So imagine my surprise when I had my new Shuffle in my hands this evening, shipped priority overnight via FedEx.It might not seem like a big deal, but that small gesture made the prize seem much more valuable. This wasn't just an iPod, it was an iPod that had to get here fast. My perspective might be a little unusual, because it's a twenty minute drive to my house from the nearest little town of Sutter Creek, over winding mountain roads, some of them gravel and lack...
More About: Hat , Methi , Little , That , Extra

Link Exchange-the Good, the Bad & the Ugly
2006-12-03 09:14:06
Even new webmasters quickly grasp the importance of incoming links for building traffic and ranking in search results.  Link s are fundamental to the operation of the Web, and everyone wants more of them.  However, the means you use to acquire new links can be just as important as the links themselves, and all links are not created equal.Link exchange is one widely used method of acquiring links, wherein two web sites link to each other. It's a simple and apparently equitable transaction, but when  used without caution it can be hazardous to the health of your site. The Good Exchanging links can have beneficial results provided you link to revelant web sites that are likely to be of interest to your readers.  Your visitors benefit from access to additional resources they may not have been aware of, and you and your link exchange partner benefit from some additional traffic and new readers.Don't try to stretch the definition of "relevant web sites".&nbs...
More About: Link Exchange , Change , Exchange

ReviewMe - Paid Reviews Done Right?
2006-12-03 09:14:06
There's certainly no shortage of bloggers writing about the new compensated review service, Review Me, which officially launched on November 9th. In a great example of a company "eating their own dog food", ReviewMe is paying bloggers to write reviews of their new service. In fact, this is a paid review.I must admit to feeling a little dirty being paid to write a review of anything. However, there are a few things that set ReviewMe apart from their competition in the paid review arena, and I believe these differences are the reason that so many bloggers have been willing to give the service a try. ReviewMe requires its reviewers to disclose that they are being paid, so it's clear to readers that the reviewer has been compensated. Also, reviewers are not required or even encouraged to write positive reviews. The truth is, I've been wanting to mention this service anyway because a lot of people have been talking about it, many of them bloggers excited about the opportun...
More About: Views , Reviews , Paid , View

Lessons from Wal-Mart's Black Friday
2006-12-03 09:14:06
Black Friday is the name given to the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year for US retailers.  This year, Black Friday was a bit blacker than usual for Wal-Mart , as their web site was crushed under the load of online shoppers trying to beat the crowds by shopping from home.  The good news is that web site owners can learn a lot from Wal-Mart's mistakes, even if you're not handling millions of visitors like the retail giant. Do your IT people know what your Marketing people are doing? Wal-Mart's marketing department did a great job of promoting their website in their advertising efforts, including television advertising to inform shoppers that their Black Friday sale prices were also available online. They promoted an exclusive preview of several specials on the web site on Thanksgiving day, and reportedly stepped up their online advertising campaigns (at the time of this posting you can still see special "Black Friday" them...
More About: Black , Less , Sons

Google's Secret Ad Network
2006-12-03 09:14:06
It's no suprise that Google offers preferential treatment to it's top publishers, but word has leaked out about an exclusive new ad network so secret that Google hasn't even acknowledged it's existence. John Chow reports that the Google Display Advertising Network was launched to allow Google to go after Fortune 1000 advertisers who are interested in building their brand, rather than simple click-thrus.  The new network has a CPM (cost per thousand) cost structure, instead of the CPC (cost per click) structure of Google's successful AdWords offering. The ads themselves are video and display ads, and each publisher negotiates their own rate with Google.  Sound interesting?  Too bad.  From the article: How do you join the Google Display Advertising Network? You can't. Google won't even acknowledge it exists... The only way to get into the display network is if Google invites you.  So for the moment, it looks like the little guys will have to stick with ...
More About: Work , Secret , Ad network

Wasting your online ad dollars?
2006-12-03 09:14:06
A report on internet traffic released yesterday by comScore reveals that some of the top internet properties in the United States receive a majority of their visitors from overseas. During the month of September 2006, 14 of the top 25 sites had more visitors from abroad, including all of the top 5 (Yahoo, Time Warner, Microsoft, Google, and eBay). US vs. Foreign Visitors - Top 5 Web Properties For web site owners, this news is more than just an interesting statistic. It's a reminder of the importance of geographic targeting of our online advertising. If you're not seeking these international visitors, a large portion of your advertising spend on major web sites may be wasted on visitors that you're not looking for. But you are paying for them. Geographic Targeting Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing, and Microsoft AdCenter all offer various options for targeting your online marketing to specific cities or regions.  Targeting is well worth the extra effort required to set ...
More About: Dollar , Your , Online , Sting , Line