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Why Google's Acquisition of Doubleclick Makes a Lot of Sense
2008-01-14 08:12:00
This is a follow up to my earlier post on Google Purchasing doubleclick .This posting on Google-Doubleclick deal has been published from The Google Official Blog Official Google Blog: Why we're buying DoubleClickGoogle with its impressive array of small publishers seems to go for the kill by acquiring Doubleclick .By using Double click's DART technology and adserving tools , expect Google show more display ads, something which Google is not very strong currently.Google will gain from the large database of advertisers and Publishers which Doubleclick has , and I wont be very suprised if Google adsense makes an entry by piggybacking on double click's impressive publisher websites , while existing adsense publishers would given an opportunity to sell their inventory to double click.This will pre-empt, publishers on an other CPM ad networks and you might well see , contextual adsense running on a blog along with double click display ads .Google could offer you a package deal which...
More About: Sense , Acquisition

Global Outsourcing to Grow 8% in 2008
2008-01-11 18:51:00
Global Outsourcing to Grow 8% in 2008 : Businessweek reports that there will be growth "worldwide in the IT outsourcing (ITO) and business process outsourcing (BPO) markets.More companies are favouring smaller deals and splitting services between several providers and countries, the Gartner report found.This shift away from large high-value deals is partly responsible for the fact that publicly reported BPO and ITO contract values fell by 50 per cent in 2007.But organisations are also still failing in their IT sourcing strategies and governance structures when drawing up outsourcing agreements, Gartner said.Kurt Potter, research director at Gartner, said in a statement: 'Because these organisations lack the basic building blocks for successful vendor management and outsourcing success, expected cost savings and other benefits are difficult to obtain.'Spending on offshore services is three times higher in North America than in Western Europe but the gap is closing, with Indian provi...
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More social networking sites join Data Portabilty Group
2008-01-10 21:41:00
Techcrunch reports that more and more social networks are joining the cavalcade of companies jumping on the open data bandwagon, LinkedIn has now joined Facebook, Google, Plaxo (announcement here) in joining the Data Portability Work Group.Data Portabilty Group is an organisation dedicated to creating ways to share user-generated content on social networking sites.LinkedIn has worked hard to become open since announcing their own open platform in June 2007 in response to Facebook, then becoming an initial OpenSocial launch partner in October 2007. DataPortability Work Group head Chris Saad prior was happy to see another leading social networking site join the group. Since the big announcement Tuesday Web developers from Flickr, SixApart, and Twitter have also joined"The Mission of Data Portabilty Group as in their website reads To put all existing technologies and initiatives in context to create a reference design for end-to-end Data Portability. To promote that design ...
More About: Social Networking , Networking , Sites

Money or Sex Chinese Decides on their Priorities
2008-01-03 21:03:00
It seems that the Chinese love Money more than sex .In an interesting search trends have revealed that the Chinese googled the names of two banks and the word "stock" most often in the entire 2007Money and Stock were among the most googled terms in China last year, according to a Google China list seen Thursday.China Merchants Bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and "stock" ranked second, third, and fourth, according to a list supplied by Google China on its Web site.The China Daily pointed out that "sex" was the most popular keyword for Google users in some other countries, but it didn't even make the top 10 list in China.China keeps a tight rein on Internet content and has launched several campaigns to root out online pornography, perhaps one reason why "sex" didn't score so well."On the Chinese mainland, it was money and technology that took the honors last year," according to an article in the China Daily. At No. 1 was QQ, a Chinese instant-messaging service an...

Top Google Searches For 2007
2008-01-03 20:56:00
Here are the Google top searches for 2007 .The Google top search data is taken from Google Trends a daily Google top search trends which gives you the most searched term foe every hour . Check out the graph below which gives the search trends for every quarter.Fastest Rising global search Trends 2007 1. iphone 2. badoo 3. facebook 4. dailymotion 5. webkinz 6. youtube 7. ebuddy 8. second life 9. hi5 10. club penguinFastest Rising (U.S.) search trends 1. iphone 2. webkinz 3. tmz 4. transformers 5. youtube 6. club penguin 7. myspace 8. heroes 9. facebook 10. anna nicole smithFastest Falling (global) Search Trends 1. world cup* 2. mozart 3. fifa 4. rebelde* 5. kazaa 6. xanga 7. webdetente 8. sudoku 9. shakira 10. mp3*featured in our 2006 fastest-rising listMethodologyIn compiling the 2007 Year-End Zeitgeist, we studied the aggregation of billions of search queries people conducted on Google. We should note that no individual searcher's information was made av...

Yahoo ! Top Searched Terms For 2007
2008-01-03 20:00:00
Its that time of the year when Search Companies tries to let users know the top searches for the year . This has become an annual ritual now . This is interesting in a variety of ways . It lets users know the popularity index of a few celebrities ( which are always among the top few search terms ) It helps industry watchers know the aggregate click stream of search terms users search forbthe entire year. Its a kind of fun doing some online voyeurism knowing what kind of things was searched most often during the entire year.Here are the top search keywords according to Yahoo for 2007The top queries of the year on Yahoo are:1. Britney Spears2. WWE3. Paris Hilton4. Naruto5. Beyonce6. Lindsay Lohan7. Rune Scape8. Fantasy Football9. Fergie10. Jessica AlbaAnd this year Yahoo is expanding the list to include top ten searches by category. They’ve included Delicious searches (not tags) as well in the list. Delicious users are clearly a more tech savvy and interesting group of people t...
More About: Terms , Yahoo!

F.T.C. Clears Google-DoubleClick Deal Finally
2007-12-31 06:25:00
In a landmark judgment for the online advertising Industry. FTC has cleared the Google Doubleclick deal that would provide Google with virtual end to end services in online Advertising.The Federal Trade Commission said that the deal won't significantly lessen competition in the online advertising market, rebuffing complaints from Microsoft Corp. and AT&T Inc. that it would give Google a dominant position.'The FTC's strong support sends a clear message: this acquisition poses no risk to competition and will benefit consumers,'' Eric Schmidt, Google Inc.'s chief executive, said. ''We hope that the European Commission will soon reach the same conclusion.''The FTC said in a report on its investigation that both the online ad sales and ad-serving markets have numerous competitors, several of which have been bolstered by recent acquisitions.Those include Microsoft's $6 billion purchase of DoubleClick rival aQuantive, the acquisition of online advertising provider Tacoda by...
More About: Deal , Finally

Healthcare Records Online : The Next big Marketing Surge
2007-12-28 23:11:00
In what should be the next big thing on the internet where marketers see a surge of activity and aggressive marketing tactics seems to be Healthcare . Online Healthcare provides a minefield of opportunities to advertisers and healthcare companies to target healthcare related products once user health records and data comes available.Most Paper records in hospitals and physician offices are increasingly being replaced by digital form on computers. Consumers are creating their own personal health records online as well. Advocates see opportunities for better health care, and some companies see profits. But a few patient privacy experts foresee problems.Gabriel and other doctors at the University of Pennsylvania can share computerized information about patients they have in common. But, he says, when patients aren't in that system, getting information about them isn't so easy. A personal health record, or PHR, could help.Here is how things could become very exciting for marketer...
More About: Marketing , Surge , Records

Online Marketing Predictions for 2008
2007-12-26 14:11:00
A lot of things in online marketing happened in 2008 . Among the many online trends that emerged and got tested in 2007 was in the areas of social networking . Google's open social e was something that kind of opened up many exciting areas to marketers and brand specialist. Facebook it seemed gave Google a run for its money by being the darling of media specialist in terms of press coverage it received. The web undoubtedly is more interesting when you can build applications that can easily interact with your social networks friends and colleagues. But with the trend towards more social applications also comes a growing list of site-specific APIs that developers must learn.OpenSocial provides a common set of APIs for social applications across multiple websites. With standard JavaScript and HTML, developers can create apps that access a social network's friends and update feeds. So developers wont have to really built different applications for different social networks, which...
More About: Marketing , Online Marketing , Predictions , Online

Goodbye 2007:Looking back on the Year It has Been
2007-12-25 06:43:00
The end of another year . As we finally bid goodbye to 2007 as the tradition goes, look back on what has been the most defining development in this year .The Stock markets zoomed to unprecedented levels and all the cassandras that had written off the Indian capital markets in 2007 was in for a mighty shock.After giving phenemenol returns in 2006.Year 2007 gave a lot of investors some great moments to cheer .FRom 11,000 the sensex zoomed to 20,000 in November .This was a fitting reply to all those who left that the Indian growth story is over for good.Its true that sensex does not determine a nations's exhaustive growth story . But Markets, specially capital markets are not isolated from the overall economic structure and they convey some idea on where exactly the macro economic growth story is happening. But that should not cause a great deal of happiness to our Communist Friends who supports the Congress led Coalition . As Mr AB Bardhan had once comented before th 2006 Budget .On...
More About: Back , Goodbye , Looking Back

Key Marketing and Branding Lessons From Narendra Modi
2007-12-24 09:54:00
Narendra Modi 's election victory can be a model Marketing Case study in many Management Institutions. Narendra Modi succeeded in doing which few very Indian Political leaders or for that matter very few Indian Companies could have achieved it right.That is getting the correct marketing mix . Right from segmenting the market,reaching out to the right audience and positioning himself as a messiah of Brand Gujarat . Modi penetrated his market position across demographic segments and managed to cut right across the narrow caste and class on which most Indian elections are often based onSo what made Moditva a Brand . Lets study a few things Modi did correctly to brand himself the way he didBranding Himself as Gujarat's savior: Modi knew exactly what he stood for.He branded himself as Gujarat's savior who knew what was best for his state and did not hesitate to portray this very effectively. While the opposition struggled with a variety of issues and befuddled thinking. Modi's ob...
More About: Lessons , Narendra Modi

Brand Modi: What Moditva can teach Marketers
2007-12-24 05:44:00
Brand Modi continues to surprise . The sheer power and charisma of this man continues to puzzle everyone, including our friends from the media who finds it beyond their comprehension that in spite of their exit polls projection,endless debates about the political landscape of Gujarat, the so called urban poor divide and even the rebel within the BJP in Saurastra and the much talked about polarization of votes caused by the Hindu Muslim divide have failed to make any dent in Mr Narendra Modi's Popularity. In fact The Gujarat results must come as a surprise to even the die-hard supporters of BJP.117 Seats out of 182 was nothing short of a spectacular victory and that too without the absence of any emotional or volatile issue unlike last year elections which was held in the backdrop of Godhra and Gujarat Communal carnageI wont be dwelling much on the political implications of Mr Modi's Victory since most of the national media's obsession with Mr Narendra Modi and his past will co...
More About: Brand , Marketers

Embracing Career Change : Need For a Course For HR Marketers
2007-12-21 13:16:00
Change is something most of us would be happy to avoid, some of us would never do it, and a minuscule of us would probably be forced to do it . I am not talking about change for the sake of changing . I am talking about a conscious choice of taking the less traveled path, sticking to your convictions and making something work for you.Most if us resist change because of the fear of unknown. We feel unknown is always uncomfortable compared to" known "thing.In professional life this is a syndrome which I would liken it to reaching "Professional Puberty"which means you are at that stage of your career, where you feel indispensable but at the same time, you realise that the top management no longer feels good to have you around, but also they dont or cant avoid you . You'r stuck at a mudslide,not knowing whether go get your feet away from it or to go down with it.This syndrome typically strikes when you are at a middle level in your career and have spent around 5 years with the same ...
More About: Change , Career , Marketers

Vodafone Replies Too Little Too Late
2007-12-21 12:54:00
Well , It seems someone has read the blog , or the email to vodafone really have done something . Or Lets say that the "small dog" is now beginning to get bigger . I just got an email from Vodafone from a lady who wrote" This is to let you know that You vodafone connection will be activated from tomorrow(not again) Also I am no longer on the position . Mr( Name ) has taken over my place. Pls direct all email conversations to him.Regards"well even if the Vodafone, Hyderabad connection gets activated . Its too little, too late . I fail to understand why big corporates like Vodafone fail to understand that they no longer can rule the Indian markets the way they used to earlier .We all know bad news spreads quickly. And on the internet bad news becomes real filthy and spreads virally. Is this sheer callousness ? ineptitude or just plain Bad management..? hard to say . But what I can say with certainty is that Vodafone has lost one customer for life and I will make sure none of the pe...
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Pathetic Service From Vodaphone at Hyderabad
2007-12-21 11:22:00
Its been almost 10 days, I am in Hyderabad and for a start I have begun to like the city .Hyderabad is not among the 4 metroes of India. But once getting there you will hardly feel your not in a metro city.You will feel the city throbbing with life and energy ,with Shopping Malls,Theme Restaurants,Multiplexes and all the trappings of an A1 Indian metro city . Coming from Kolkata it was good to see buses following lanes and not stopping anywhere they wanted. But like Kolkata the Auto-Rickshaws wallahs are the true ruler of roads. I like the undulating landscape of Hyderabad.Banjara Hills where my current office is is around 10 minutes from my residence near City center.However one incident left a bitter taste in my mouth ,which I want to share with my readers.I opted for a Vodaphone corporate connection since most managers were using this and recommded me to use Vodafone which I promtly did . Since I was already a Hutch subscriber and was pretty much pleased with their services i...
More About: Service , Pathetic , Path

Adtech Research Reveals lower click through rates
2007-12-04 19:56:00
Click-through rates by IAB format and country: Average DE UK F Italy DK FI Pop-ups/ Layer 0.58 0.59 0.69 ...
More About: Research , Click , Lower , Rates

Christmas Holiday Gifts Countdown: LCD Photoframes beats Digital Cameras
2007-12-03 21:05:00
A recent report from Hitwise shows that the "Nintendo Wii is currently the most searched for console in the UK . The iPhone now accounts for one third of all searches for a specific mobile phone. However, one gadget that has crept up slowly without a huge amount of fanfare is the digital photo frame – those small LCD photo frames that show digital photos either via a USB connection or memory card slot. In fact, they are now so popular that last week searches for them overtook searches for cameras – digital or otherwise."This sudden popularity has led to flurry of bidding and optimization on digital photo frame related terms – primarily from gadget shops and sites set up specifically to cash in on the trend, but also from more mainstream retailers such as Amazon UK ('digital photo frames' was the 28th most popular search term sending traffic there over the last 4 weeks). All of the four sites charted below receive the vast majority of their search traffic from digital photo f...
More About: Christmas , Holiday , Gifts , Digital Cameras , Cameras

Affiliate Marketing : Tips for working succesfully with affiliates
2007-12-03 20:04:00
Imagine a promotional tool, where you give money to your sales partners only when you are guaranteed a 20-30% increase in your sales. This is affiliate marketing in action. Affiliate marketing involves the publisher( generally the affiliate) and the advertiser( the merchant) comes together and partners in such a way,by which the publishers markets and promotes your site through links and your software tracking tool monitors the click through and the conversion rate and once a sale is made, you pay the affiliate a commission.This is a win- win situation for everyone. However most merchants with the exceptions of the big shots like ebay and Amazon find it difficult to work with affiliates . lack of transparency, problems over affiliate commission, increasingly competitive business and lack of communication are some of the problem areas.A visit to an affiliate site results in a click through to the merchant or destination site which is managed and tracked by tracking software. If ...
More About: Marketing , Affiliate Marketing , Marketing Tips , Tips

Email Marketing Trivia
2007-12-02 18:49:00
Fun facts and Trivia About Email Marketing Did you know...Users spend an average of 51 seconds reading the average newsletter. It's critical that the newsletter layout and writing need to be relevant and easy to use in order to survive a user's crowded inbox.23% of newsletters are read thoroughly - 50% are skimmed or partly read and the remaining 27% were never opened! (Nielsen Norman Study)50 characters could be all that stands between you and the success of your next email campaign. Many recipients use the subject line to decide whether or not to open or delete an email.35 percent of email users open messages because of what's contained in the subject line and, including your company name in the subject line can increase open rates by up to 32 percent to 60 percent over a subject line without branding. (Jupiter Research)The most significant decline in email performance comes two months after recipients opt in. The new subscriber needs to be immediately engaged which includes a w...
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Websites That provides Contextual Advertising Services
2007-12-01 19:54:00
Contextual advertising is now largely proffered by publishers these days,since this provides site owners the opportunity to target relevant ads in front of the user , thereby providing more incentive for users to click on the ad . Google Adsense is the granddaddy of Contextual ads service. Google adsense revolutionized the entire Online marketing Industry as even Small and medium Publishers and Bloggers could now monetize their content.Suddenly banner ads which were a ubiquitous now began to slow signs of weakening due to the banner blindness . Banner ads clearly started to become less than effective and Contextual advertising led by Google Adsense dawned a new erahere are some list of websites that provides Contextual ads .Google AdSense the first truely successful contextual advertising serviceYahoo! Publisher Network also known as YPN. Yahoo's answer to AdSense. Still in non-public Beta.eBay AdContext - Currently in non-public Beta. To apply for the beta, Join the ebay Aff...
More About: Services , Advertising , Websites , Contextual

Pay Per Click Search Engines
2007-11-29 20:27:00
Pay per click search engines ensures that publishers bid on the keywords they wish to target that are related to their websites. Website owners can choose the keywords that are related to their business, service, or products, and bid on the position on which they want to get their website listed. The higher the company bids, the higher their website will appear in the search results and the more traffic it will receive. A website owner can also submit a website title and description, which is displayed with their website listing.In pay per click search engine, you only pay for clicks or click throughs to your web site. Pay-per-click search engines play an important role in driving traffic to your site because you only pay for actual clicks. It is risk free and a cheaper alternative to listing with the bigger search engines. Service Free**Click s Min.Deposit Promo Code Expiration $25 - USCJ16 n/a $100 $30 US2237 n/a ...
More About: Search Engines , Pay Per Click , Search , Engines

Common Affiliate and Advertising marketing Models
2007-11-29 19:41:00
Invented by cdnow.com at the end of 1994 and pioneered by Amazon.com in 1996, "affiliate programs" - also known as "associate programs" or "partner programs" - are a simple way to generate revenue. Publisher or online merchants ads a piece of code in their site where the advertiser displays their ads. Advertisers gain whenever visitors clicks their ads or whenever ads are displayed for the users . There are mainly four kinds of affiliate models . CPM ( cost per Impressions) CPC ( Cost per click ) CPL ( Cost per lead ) CPA and Cost per ActionCost per Mile ( CPM ):This is the amount the advertiser/Merchant pays to the affiliate when their ads are displayed for every 1000 Impressions ( An "impression" is NOT a click; it is a page view or display of the ad. The ad can be a text ad, a banner image or rich media.In short it is the amount paid to affiliate for showing or displaying the banners every 1000 times ) The drawback of such a advertising or affiliate model is that is hardly prov...
More About: Marketing , Models , Advertising , Affiliate , Common

Tips To Increase your email delivery
2007-11-25 07:43:00
Ensuring that your email ultimately gets delivered to the end user or the person to whom it is intended in one of the greatest challengers for Online Media Companies. With over 60% of emails labelled as spam . Having a robust technology to beat ISP's stringest policies and beating spam filters is a must to get a high open rate for your email campaign . Ensuring permission-based email is delivered to recipients' inboxes requires an equal amount of effort on marketing and technical front.1)Create a reverse DNS. Make sure your outgoing mailing IPs have valid RDNS (reverse DNS) entries set up. This ensures when a receiving email server checks who owns the IP trying to connect to it, you'll come up as the result, passing one of the many basic checks ISPs do to deter spammer.# For delivering to AOL you need to make sure your SMTP service's domain can be verified using a reverse DNS lookup. Check with your webmaster or host provider. For more information on this topic check out:1....
More About: Email , Tips , Delivery

A Guide To Email marketing Process :Part 1
2007-11-24 18:57:00
Email marketing is probably the most effective form of marketing your business online . However email marketing has over the years undergone a huge change . From mass mailers to customised emails , email marketing scores over traditional marketing in a variety of waysSimply defined email marketing is a process by which companies can reach out to their global audiences by offering a service or a product , or can it can also be used as a toll for retaining their customersEmail Marketing 's main strength is that it takes advantage of a customer's most prolific touch point with the Internet… their inbox.Although spam mail has done a great deal to discredit the Email Marketing industry,and over the years even ethical marketers who practises the best email marketing principles has got their name tainted by spammers.However the benefits are still apparent and substantiated by the fact that in February, 2006,a JupiterResearch report concluded that spending on Email Marketing will rise...
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The Subtle Art of Lead generation
2007-11-24 09:52:00
Lead generation is one of the biggest tools of emarketing . The sucess of a lead generation campaign is the single most useful tool for advertisers to target their products and services to their prospects. The right kind of Lead generation techniques can go a long way in making significant affect on the bottomline . CPA or CPL ( cost per aquisition or cost per lead ) is a useful indicator for measuring this metric.Lead management is the process of tracking, consolidating and qualifying all of your leads and inquires, regardless of where you get them. Your leads are then expertly contacted via phone and qualified and verified before being sent to your sales team as certified, call to action opportunities. The rest of you leads are also useful in into your lead nurturing process. A sophisticated database system enables effective processing and tracking of all activities from actual leads that are short term to the " not so hot leads which may ripen over long term.Tips for a succe...
More About: Generation , Lead