Advertising: Behavioral
Search News: The Unstoppable Nature of Google
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Written By Noah Mallin | March 12, 2009 | Share This
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When we aren’t writing about Twitter, we are writing about Google – that is when we aren’t writing about Google and Twitter. Twitter is the social media tool du jour, every marketer is talking about is so of course we are going to write about it. And Google? Well my friend, Google simply is search. They have a 72% share of the United States search market – and rising. Everyone else is a fringe player.
On top of that, just this week Google made a series of moves that on their own would have been a month’s worth of spin for another company. Yesterday we covered their rollout of behavioral targeting options for their content network, a major move with implications throughout display advertising and publishing.
Search News: Google Behavioral Targeting, but Not For Search
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Written By Noah Mallin | March 11, 2009 | Share This
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True Story: I’m at a party a few months ago – not the usual raucous affair that us search and social media types get into but a full on wine and cheese extravaganza. The kind of shindig Republicans go to and then accuse Democrats of loving when they get up in front of a “Joe the Plumber” type crowd. But I digress…
After far too much wine the discussion turned to crazy work environments and I naturally brought up the Fortress of Googletude and it’s predilection for hallway scooter parking and riding. A fellow party-go-er who I’ll call “Natasha” to protect her identity, nodded and said, ‘Yes it’s true, I’ve been there too!”
This led to a long, room-clearing talk about search and social media, the kind of talk that true geeks engage in while their spouses go off to chat about politics and religion. Somewhere between bottles Natasha said to me “Have you seen Google People Search?” “Google what now?” I replied.
OMMA Behavioral: Stalking Versus Talking
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Written By Noah Mallin | February 26, 2009 | Share This
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Emily Riley of Forrester Research presented a lot of data during her keynote presentation at today’s OMMA Behavioral Conference but one point she made seemed rather salient to me: many of those marketers and data firms involved in behavioral targeting seem to skip over social media as a source of information. They might look at the data surrounding the usage of those sites but they seem to rarely do any actually monitoring, let alone interacting there.
Search Engine News: Turn On, Log in, Opt Out - The Politics of Online Targeting
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Written By Noah Mallin | August 11, 2008 | Share This
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With Yahoo’s very public and Google’s characteristically more sly announcements that they are going to an “opt out” model for targeted ads, the continued legislative scrutiny of the search advertising and marketing industry ought to be addressed. During these dog days of summer it’s not surprising to find the political class in Washington DC casting about for an issue or to two to ride on home with and give the appearance of having done some actual work.
Behavioral Targeting: It’s Time for Industry Standards of Practice — Lack of Clear Guidelines Attracting Fear, Loathing and Worse — Politicians
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Written By Noah Mallin | July 29, 2008 | Share This
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SearchViews dealt with behavioral targeting a few weeks ago but the tide of bad publicity has now well and truly rolled in. There’s nothing like an election year to bring on the misplaced outrage – in this case towards behavioral marketing and targeting online. What’s even worse is that one numskull company has helped to paint everyone else with a broad brush. But first…
Cast your mind back to 1985 (if indeed you were sentient back then), admittedly not an election year but a fertile time for boogiemen (pun semi-intended). Future first lady-elect Tipper Gore forms the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center) after daughter Karenna was confused and shamed by the Prince song “Darling Nikki.” Cue full dress congressional hearings featuring testimony from that most unlikely of trios: John Denver, Frank Zappa, and Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider. The PMRC accused rock music of being lascivious, dangerous, even Satanic. (Incidentally their list of the worst offenders -the so-called Filthy 15 - makes a pretty great mix.) I think it’s safe to say that the youth of 1985 did not grow up to be wholesale Satan worshippers and that every generation’s music sounds a bit edgy to the one that preceded it. The politicians (and their wives) did get a lot of nice juicy headlines out of their hearings though.
Weekly Search Roundup: This Week’s Search News Crushed in a Glass with a Splish-Splash of Vermouth
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Written By Noah Mallin | July 11, 2008 | Share This
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What are all us search marketers going to be discussing this weekend at our garden parties, club luaus, and intimate yacht rides? Probably Hellboy 2 but here are a few of the other topics that will be touched upon between canapés and badminton.
Scrabble Scrambles to Squash Scrabulous – Still Needs a “u” to Spell Squash
Hasbro, the makers of Scrabble, have been making an unhappy sound since earlier in the year over top Facebook app Scrabulous. Some bright corporate bulbs realized that merely squashing the Scrabble-aping app would lead to some unhappy Facebookers and that perhaps they ought to have the official Scrabble ® app ready to roll. Pretty sneaky sis. In related news, I’m working on my own Facebook app called Connect 5-bulous. You know where to find me, Milton Bradley.
Search on the Beach: Summer Search, Social Media, and SEO Books, Your Official SearchViews Reading List
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Written By Noah Mallin | July 10, 2008 | Share This
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Ah, Summer. Here in
Either way, books and the beach go together like Amy Winehouse and liver damage, so we thought it would be fun to put together a little search industry reading list for your Summer pleasure. The idea originally came about when Reprise Media Managing Partner Peter Hershberg was on Business Wire’s recent Social Media panel and was asked to recommend a few books.
Social Media: LinkedIn Proves the Power of Three-Way Action
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Written By Noah Mallin | June 19, 2008 | Share This
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One of the great things about social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace is the ability to see what your old buddies are up to without actually having to talk to them. Hey, that guy who wore a skirt and mascara in college is a corporate lawyer now!
On the other hand, sometimes you want to do more than just accumulate “friends”, you actually want to network and do some online schmoozing. LinkedIn, which has been described back-handedly as “social media for grownups” and has been all over the news this week, is a site that focuses on career connections with a clean low-widget design and a plethora of helpful tools. This has helped them to become the number 4 site for social networking on the net according to Nielsen. Even more phenomenal is their 146% year-over-year growth, making them the fastest growing social network in the U.S…. check da chart:
Universal Search: Clueless! – ISP’s act like AP, Greed for Money Upfront will lead to a Kick in the Rear
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Written By Noah Mallin | June 17, 2008 | Share This
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The recent kerfuffle involving bloggers and the AP fired some interesting connections in my neural net. The attempt to levy a tax on bloggers for the right (nay the privilege!) of linking to the AP’s content smells a lot like the recent attempt of a few internet service providers to charge extra to high-bandwidth users.
The common thread between these two hair-brained schemes is an attempt to force old-school ideas about economics onto the new world of the internet. The irony is that the Internet at its best is probably the closest human beings have come to the perfect marketplace envisioned by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations.
In Smith’s ideal marketplace, all buyers and sellers have access to the same information and equal access to the marketplace, allowing prices to find their natural/optimal level. In a broad way that has been mostly true online whether we are talking about the cost of advertising a product or the product itself. In fact, the auction-based search model is about as close as you’re gonna get.
Best Practices: Online Marketing Voyeurs and the Consumer Exhibitionists Who Want to Be Watched
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Written By Noah Mallin | June 9, 2008 | Share This
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Cast your minds back to the primordial past – you know, ten years ago when the ‘net was poised to deliver the most personalized user experience imaginable with targeted, relevant advertising at every new page. What happened?
I’ll admit the teeth thing was close to home but my lips are actually quite large. Lip plumping is a very low priority for me. As for moving and storage, I’m not going anywhere or planning on storing anything.
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