Publishing
Search News: Google Spreading Tentacles Wider into Ad Exchanges?
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Written By Shivan Durbal | September 17, 2009 | Share This
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Rumor has it that in the near future, possibly within the next two weeks, we may see Google’s invitation only DoubleClick ad exchange marketplace door swung wide open to all buyers and sellers. This is according to ClickZ, but as such it’s still only rumor. As Mia Wallace said in Pulp Fiction “When you little scamps get together, you’re worse than a sewing circle.”
Still, assuming it’s true; Google could bring the worlds of search and display marketing closer together than ever and finally impose tools and measurement on display that we’ve been using for years in the search marketing field.
For those search marketers out there that are unfamiliar with ad exchanges in the display advertising space, in effect they are a support structure for the sale of undervalued, unused or remnant banner advertising inventory.
SEO and Paid Search: How Publishers Can Wriggle Out of the Ad Squeeze Without Losing Their Shirts
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Written By Alex Staunton with James Song and Vicky Fudali | August 26, 2009 | Share This
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At a time when the online publishing sector is almost as squeezed by the economy as its offline brethren, boosting visitors and engagement are key to maintaining and raising the ad revenue that can mean the survival of a publishing site. Typically this is best done through properly optimizing site content but it takes time to analyze the current site, make SEO recommendations, deploy those recommendations, and then for those changes to begin to bear fruit.
Social Media and Publishing: Revolutions Online and Offline
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Written By Noah Mallin | June 15, 2009 | Share This
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When Iran had their most recent popular revolution in 1979, people around the world had no 24 hour news source to convey what was happening. CNN would be launched the following year by Ted Turner so coverage was limited to shows like ABC’s Nightline (which was created in response to the hostage crisis which grew out of the uprising) and the regularly scheduled network new programs, as well as the daily newspapers like The New York Times and newsweeklies like Time magazine. The Internet? A gleam in Al Gore’s eye.
Blogging: CNN and Larry King Caught Stealing Blog Content - UPDATE
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Written By Noah Mallin | May 11, 2009 | Share This
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Accusing Larry King and CNN of content theft on Larry King’s blog may seem pretty brazen but it has and continues to happen. It’s interesting that the AP and several major media organizations including Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal have been huffing and puffing lately over news aggregators who link to their content. At least when that happens, the aggregators (like Google News and Huffington Post) give attribution and send visitors who want more info to the main story.
Search 3.0: Real Time Search Poses Real Time Challenge for Engines
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Written By Noah Mallin | April 21, 2009 | Share This
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When things start happening quickly, it can be tough to control results. It’s one thing to drive Germany’s legendary Nurburgring racetrack in a dimed-out Olds Cutlass at 85 MPH, but quite a bit more challenging when you’re behind the wheel of a Formula One car doing 150-plus.
Accelerating the speed at which search results are indexed and served up by search engines similarly challenges the ability to respond to erroneous or purposely malicious results. I posted earlier about Google News being the test bed for Google’s future search offerings, it’s only fitting that the fastest index part of the Googleverse should also be a testing ground for future Black Hat trickery.
Publishing: Thoughts on Associated Press - Raiders of the Lost Click or Temple of Doom?
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Written By Noah Mallin | April 7, 2009 | Share This
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The AP seems to be grasping at straws in an effort to be viable in the face of a newspaper industry in decline. More importantly it’s an industry less inclined to pay AP’s syndication fees. After successfully getting Google to cough up some dough to show AP stories in Google News, they now seem to want to pass the hat around to aggregators like Huffington Post. In the meantime, Rupert Murdoch seems to feel the WSJ should be entitled to whatever coin the AP is getting from Google and others. In the immortal words of Fred Flintstone, “Oh brother.”
Web 2.0 Expo: Real Time Comes to Analytics with Chartbeat
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Written By Noah Mallin | April 2, 2009 | Share This
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We’ve been beating the drum for a while now about the concept of real time search, especially as Search 3.0 ushers in more real time interactions like twittering which find their way into traditional search engine results and drive traffic to non-social media sites. The one place that continues to lag woefully behind this movement is web analytics.Using typical analytics tools to determine what’s happening on your website or blog in real time is like driving down the street while only using your rear-view mirrors to see. 9 out of 10 times you’ll hit that neighbor kid on a skateboard. And they’re usually on the sidewalk. I know - I’ve tried it. (more…)
Social Media: Twitter Tests Search Ads
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Written By Noah Mallin | March 24, 2009 | Share This
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With all the hullabaloo over Twitter’s big deal promoting ExecTweets, what may prove to be a far more significant revenue stream has been overlooked. The ExecTweets promotion is tied to a spot on Twitter’s main page right below the user counts, which Twitter uses to promote a variety of tools including third-party iPhone app Tweetie. So far only the ExecTweets placement there is paid. What shows up in that area is completely untethered to activity on the page or by the user, and seems aimed at the relative newcomer who might not know about stuff like Twitter Search – another tool that gets time in the box.
With our interest in how social media and search intersect, it’s no surprise that Twitter’s rollout of integrated search functionality piques our interest. Not every user has access to Twitter search as an integrated function yet but for those who do there is a brand new “featured user” ad spot that looks very much like a typical search ad:
Why hello there, gray lady.
Advertising: Why Super Banners are Lame and Publishers are Perishing (Even Online)
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Written By Noah Mallin | March 10, 2009 | Share This
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When people don’t pay attention to me I like to get up in their faces and SCREAM REALLY LOUDLY. What gets me is that they run away and avoid me after that – sometimes they never come back. OK, fair enough, I don’t actually scream in people’s faces, unless I’m doing my favorite scene from Full Metal Jacket at office happy hours.
So if a reasonable person (and I like to think I am one) wouldn’t expect to scream and wave their arms in people’s faces and say “HellOOOOO Loook at MEEE!” and expect to keep any friends, why do 27 major online publishers think that doing the advertising equivalent of the same will answer their monetary prayers?
Social Media: Facebook, Tumblr Switch Channels
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Written By Noah Mallin | February 18, 2009 | Share This
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Facebook learned a lesson in both how to and how not to engage with their community over the last few days. By changing their Terms of Service (TOS) quietly in a way that highlights the permanent nature of sharing information and posting items online, they riled up their users and the blogosphere. They have since reverted back to the old TOS and opened up a forum for users suggestions and comments about how their content should be used.
Reprise Media Managing Partner Joshua Stylman shared his take on this in a post for Advertising Age’s Digital Next column. He makes a number of important points there but I want to highlight one line in particular that should be taken to heart by anyone engaging in search and social media marketing (and indeed any online marketing):
“Regardless of your individual perspective, the one certainty is that there has never been a lower barrier to produce and distribute content for others to see. With that emerges a new responsibility for people (and companies as well) to think about their own digital footprint.”
When I spoke to Josh about this he elaborated in a way I found striking – saying (and I’m paraphrasing here) that we operate online as our own media channels now – from a corporate level right on down to the individual.