Gasta Tech Update: Sophia Search and Halo

Gasta Tech Update: Sophia Search gets massive funding round and Halo pick up angel network award

Heavenly growth helps Halo to pick up angel network award

A Northern Ireland business investors network has fought off stiff competition to win UK Business Angel Network of the Year.

The Halo network, based at the Northern Ireland Science Park in Belfast, said the award marked "amazing" growth over the last year after it expanded from 35 to 135 investors.

Halo is supported by Invest Northern Ireland and InterTrade Ireland with the purpose of helping private investors (business angels) investing in Northern Ireland-based companies.

The network was also recognised for the establishment of only the second Enterprise Investment Scheme approved fund in the UK - a method to drive business angel investing.

It was also commended for developing several angel workshops and investee company training programmes, demonstrating non-financial means to support entrepreneurs and angels in Northern Ireland.

Richard Ferguson, Halo manager, said: "This recognition puts Halo and the Northern Ireland Science Park at the forefront of the angel investment industry in the UK and can only strengthen Halo's presence and reach here, to attract not only local investors, but those from all around the UK.

Angel investors from the mainland bring not just new money to the region, but also much experience and learning for our local angels."

He added: "We now have a world-leading Angel Investment Network with an accolade to prove it, but in years to come the true legacy will be the new breed of Northern Ireland companies that Halo helps create, who will in turn lead the world in their respective sectors."

Belfast technology company SOPHIA Search recently won £800,000 seed funding, the single largest angel investment ever made in Northern Ireland.

Gasta Tech Update: Hotwise Europe

Hitwise News On Gasta.com




Feature Article
The brands topping the World Cup sponsorship league
Peroni, sponsors of the Italian team and England sponsors, Carlsberg saw the greatest number of UK Internet searches of all World Cup sponsors during the week ending 26/06/2010. Searches for Peroni, increased by 50% between the week ending June 19 and the week ending June 26, although the Italian team were on their way home from South Africa by June 24. Peroni's Experian Hitwise World Cup Index score increased from 100 to 150 based upon the volume of searches for the brand.

The promise of a last-16 tie against Germany saw UK Internet searches for Carlsberg increase by a third, while searches for Pepsi, sponsors of the USA, increased by the same amount. Telecoms businesses T-Mobile and Vodafone (down from fourth place in week two's index) completed the top five, but with a much lower increase in the volume of searches.

The results highlight the relative dominance of drinks brands in generating online buzz in the 2010 World Cup. Budweiser topped the brand index for the week ending 26/06/2010 with a 25% increase in online searches, while in the first week of the tournament, beer companies made up four of the top five performers.

Overall the best performing sector was food and drink, with a 4.8% increase in searches, followed by technology and telecoms with a 2.8% increase.

View the full article and past Brand Indexes.
Brand Index Week 3 - top five performers
Rank Brand Experian Hitwise Brand Search Index, w/e 19th June Experian Hitwise Brand Search Index w/e 26th June Week on week change (%)
1. Peroni 100 150 50.0%
2. Carlsberg 60 80 33.3%
3. Pepsi 49 65 33.3%
4. T-Mobile 110 118 7.2%
5. Vodafone 127 136 7.0%


Fast Movers
LoveFilm - www.lovefilm.com

Position for April 2010 - #134
Position for May 2010 - #89
Positions jumped - 45

Ranking 89th during May 2010, LoveFilm is now one of the top 100 websites in the UK, and the 11th most popular online retailer (putting it ahead of a number of big names including: B&Q, ASOS, Apple, Top Shop, Currys, and HMV). LoveFilm is also the second most visited movie website in the UK after IMDB.

Since taking over Amazon's DVD rental business in early 2008, UK internet traffic to LoveFilm has increased by 150%. Unlike most other retailers, the DVD rental subscription service isn't particularly reliant on search engines for traffic (they account for just one-fifth of visits vs. two-fifths for the typical retailer). Instead, other key sources of traffic are social networks (it is the 8th most popular retailer visited after Facebook), email and entertainment websites - with much of the former traffic coming via advertising, affiliates and refer a friend schemes.


News In Brief
Budget 2010: the online response
Given the wide range of changes introduced in the recent budget announcement, it was no surprise that many people went online to research both the key points and finer details. On 22/06/2010 1 in every 179 UK searches was budget related, including 21 of the top 1000 terms. 'budget 2010' was the 25th most searched for term in the UK on the day of the budget announcement, making it the top generic term ('budget' was 29th overall and 'world cup 2010' was 32nd).

After a number of the variations on the word 'budget', the next most popular term was 'capital gains tax', with tax credits, child benefit, VAT and the disability living allowance also picking up references in the top 1,000. 'bbc budget' was the top branded term ('sky news live' fell slightly outside of the top 1,000) and George Osbourne was the most searched for politician, followed by Harriet Harman (also falling outside the top 1,000).

As expected, both BBC News and Sky News experienced spikes in traffic following the budget announcement. Taking into account some of the smaller sites that benefited from traffic, Telegraph Blogs experienced the biggest increase (87% increase in UK Internet visits between 21/06/10 and 22/06/10), followed by Telegraph Shares (85%), Yahoo! Finance (74%) and MSN Money (60%).

View the 21 budget-related terms and read the full article.


Promotions
Hitwise 101 Training Webinar
Whether you are new to Hitwise or simply in need of a refresher, this 45 minute pre-recorded webinar will help you get the most out of your Hitwise subscription.

View the recording.

Hot Consumer Electronics List

The Hot Consumer Electronics List is a dynamic Excel-based report which leverages Hitwise's weekly search term data to produce an on-the-pulse view of the Consumer Electronics sector in the UK. Email marketing.uk@hitwise.com to find out how the Hot Consumer Electronics List helps marketers maximise PPC investment, assess and adjust search strategy to increase profits, maximise content appeal, effectively manage supply chains and improve campaign scheduling.


Media queries at Hitwise
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Additionally, if you require assistance with statistics or content, please feel free to contact our marketing team at newsletter.uk@hitwise.com.

Gasta Research: Quality Vs Quantity in lead genertion

The Quality Volume Divide
by Editor
It is a problem old as time in the performance marketing sector, one that shows itself much more clearly and painfully in the world of online lead generation. The challenge to produce high quality with high volume. Ask almost any advertiser who has at least a modicum of experience in online advertising, and growing volume while maintaining quality will rank high among their challenges and frustrations. The unfortunate truth is that after a certain point, quality starts to degrade. What exactly is quality, though? The reason that we use lead generation as an example is that quality is easy to explain. Let's use an auto insurance offer running on a CPA network as an example. The offer looks to get users to enter their information to see if they could lower their auto insurance payments. When a user enters their information, the network receives credit and they then credit the appropriate publisher. The person buying the lead receives no money from the user filling out the form only from the percentage of users who then go on to purchase a policy. The higher that conversion rate, the higher the quality. If more people convert from lead to policy, the lead buyer can afford to pay more. If fewer people do, then they will have to lower the payout in order to continue covering the cost of buying the leads.

In the optimal scenario, conversion rates start out profitably and even increase over time as both sides optimize. At a point, though, especially in the optimal scenario where the advertiser sees good returns with good volume, they will want more. Two things start to happen here. The first is often counterintuitive for the advertiser, and we called it the price fallacy in lead generation, namely that more volume comes at a higher price. What the price fallacy fails to capture is what, more often than not, happens to quality. Once under the gun to get more volume, when suppliers attempt to do so, they end up succeeding but at the expense of the initial quality.



As the illustration above shows, the optimal phase sees volume growing with quality remaining above the break even. When the two parties switch into the forced growth phase, volume continues to increase (often it increases at a slope higher than the initial growth), but quality starts to slip. More quickly than expected it goes from the advertiser having a positive yield to a negative one.

Quite a few explanations exist for the quality-volume divide. One of the more straight forward revolves around intent. Only so many people have a given interest in a product. B2B marketers deal with this issue all the time. For some high dollar, super complex sales, e.g., a multi-million dollar database configuration, there just aren't that many people who could be buyers. With auto insurance, the number is fortunately much higher, but it's not infinite. Different traffic channels have different levels of intent - search is not surprisingly higher than co-registration. For many verticals, there are only so many keywords available. To get in front of more users it means trying other avenues - email, display, contextual ads, etc. Each one of those will have its equivalent of head users and tail users - sites / placements where users who click will have an interest as opposed to someone who places an ad on Facebook saying, "Find out how much it is to insure a Ferrari." Each incremental step in obtaining more traffic tends to come at the expense of the intent of the person who views / clicks / converts on the ad. Here is what it looks like plotted.



Saturation also plays a role. At some point, an advertiser will simply have reached the vast majority of potential users for the product. The problem is that they want to grow. They don't want to settle for the same amount, and it pushes them to continue trying even at the detriment of their quality. It's not that higher volume and good quality can't go together. It's all about the incremental lead in the growth phase. In the forced growth phase, instead of the next lead converting at or near the previous lead, it keeps slipping. Good leads still exist, but they get lost among the lower quality ones. It's a problem which, if solved, will mean incredible gains but it currently falls outside the skill set of both the lead buyer and lead seller. Each can get better - they can implement various levels of verification (quality, scoring, call centers) but to get really good, means each getting away from what they do best. Buyers and sellers get closer, but they will never close the divide fully. It's too complex, too distracting, and not urgent enough for them. All of which means one of two things will happen. The divide will come and bite everyone in the behind and/or someone else will come along, solve it, and do very well. A note of warning though, there is another reason why no one has done so to date. It's anything but easy.

Gasta Advertisng slots model: increases in popularity

Leading economists are calling the current economic meltdown the worst crisis in history, and are stressing the need for a new and more responsible capitalism. This is notable, but by no means new. As far back as 1848, Karl Marx theorized that unconstrained capitalism contained the seeds of its own destruction, the dialectic of capitalism.

Marx argued that there was an inherent conflict between the base of capitalism and its superstructure. The economic base of capitalism was industrial production. The superstructure was the system of private property, under which people owning the technical apparatus received the lion's share of the returns. The two were mutually incompatible with each other.

Why?

According to Marx, the base (industrial production) relies on community members working together in an organized and interdependent manner. On the other hand, the superstructure (private property) was highly individualistic. A complex capitalistic society would need rigid structure and direction, but capitalists themselves would seek out a ruinous freedom.

There are important lessons for online advertising professionals here. There are a variety of pricing models available today, and it is important to examine the dialectic within each of them to see which of them would prompt a race to the bottom, and which would result in a steady state.

To be more specific, this argument especially applies to the rapid growth of the cost-per-click (CPC) pricing model that is ascendant in the marketplace today. According to eMarketer, search engine marketing accounted for as much as 40 percent of the internet advertising spend in 2008.

The CPC pricing model has moved from strength to strength since the last recession in 2000-2002. As you might recall, even as online advertising declined by 27 percent, CPC advertising grew by a staggering 820 percent.

The shift was primarily driven by the fact that CPC advertising allowed advertisers to pay for clicks and not for wasted impressions. Advertisers warmed up to the offerings of Google and other search engines, and since then, the growth of CPC advertising has continued unabated.

However, like the example of unconstrained capitalism referenced earlier, CPC advertising cannot maintain its growth in its current state. It contains within it factors that run counter to its promise of increased returns and measurability of online advertising, which in turn will cause it to slow down, and in the long term give way to other pricing models.

These factors include:

Increasing costs of keywords
You might have heard of Jama, the Portland-based software company that moved money away from search engine marketing toward charitable contributions to see if the resulting publicity could generate business in a more affordable way. Jama is not alone in worrying about the rising cost of keywords. If you are a search marketer, you probably have worried about your marketing ROI.

A 2007 DoubleClick Performics Search Trends Report shows that there were nearly six times as many keywords with a cost-per-click of more than $1 in January 2007 than the prior year. The cost-per-keyword increased by 33 percent and the cost-per-click rose by as much as 55 percent.

That, to say the least, is a lot.

Increasing click fraud rate
In the third quarter of 2008, the Click Fraud report maintained by Click Forensics showed a 16 percent industry click fraud rate. The report said that average click fraud rate of PPC advertisements appearing on search engine content networks (e.g., Google AdSense and Yahoo Publisher Network) was as high as 27.1 percent.

With sophisticated technologies like botnets used to perpetrate click fraud on the rise, advertisers could very well end up paying for fraudulent clicks, which in a bad economy is more than wasteful -- it is criminal.

Lack of transparency
Search engines commonly deploy algorithms to determine the cost-per-click and the position of the advertisements. Yahoo, Ask.com, and Google have their own algorithms to determine the amount marketers will have to pay for a given advertisement.

The problem is that there is little to no transparency in the algorithm. It is difficult for marketers to determine how landing page quality, the quality of the ad copy, and variations on the bid price work together to determine the exact position and price of the search advertisement.

There is yet another element that contributes to the lack of transparency.

Often, it is difficult for the online marketer to know exactly where the click is coming from. Search networks often encompass a large number of sites beyond the primary entity. Many search engines don't divulge the member sites of their "content network."

The lack of transparency can ultimately be an inhibiting factor in increasing return on investment.

Difficult to tie campaign to business metrics
Metrics such as clicks, click-through rates, and cost-per-clicks are far removed from actual business metrics like acquisitions and sales. As a result, many marketers are unable to correlate the two, and optimize campaigns in an effective manner that will help them drive revenue.

According to the "2007 Marketing ROI and Measurements Study" from Lenskold Group and Marketing Profs, only 9 percent of marketers say their ability to measure the financial returns across all forms of marketing is "a real source of leadership" or "as good as it needs to be."

A McKinsey report, "How poor metrics undermine digital marketing," written after a survey of 340 senior executives around the country, sums it up aptly: Hobbled by nascent technologies, inconsistent metrics, and a reliance on outdated media models, marketers are failing to tap the digital world's full power.

To prevent a race to the bottom, the online advertising industry will have to ring in important changes that will address the shortcomings of CPC campaigns as they exist today.

1. Change in pricing models: If the last recession saw the industry move from a CPM to a CPC pricing model, the current recession will see the logical progression towards the cost-per-lead (CPL) pricing model. A move to CPL advertising will solve the problems resulting from expensive keywords and high click fraud rates.

"The industry is moving towards CPL advertising," says Daniel Taylor, senior analyst in Yankee Group's Consumer Research group. "The CPC pricing model is a placeholder for CPL," he says. "Advertisers only want to pay for very specific consumer interactions, and not for wasted clicks or impressions."

2. Improved transparency: Be it for display advertising, search advertising, or online lead generation, there will have to be a move toward greater transparency. Stretched for dollars, advertisers will want to optimize their campaigns to the greatest extent possible, and transparency helps them identify better performing placements accurately.

3. Improved customer relationship management (CRM): Marketers will also have to focus to a greater extent on the campaign backend to ensure that their marketing campaigns convert into tangible returns and revenue.

Email service providers and other CRM solutions will reap the benefits of this holistic marketing approach. According to Datamonitor, the CRM industry is forecast to reach $6.6 billon by year-end 2012, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 10.5 percent.

Bad times bring about change -- that in turn lead to good times. The movement toward CPL advertising, improved transparency, and a greater focus on CRM are important ones will help online advertising deliver on its promise and hopefully prevent it from sowing the seeds of its own demise.

Zephrin Lasker is co-founder and CEO of Pontiflex.

Gasta News: LVMH vs Google: Let the Brand Wars Begin.

LVMH ((Louis Vitton, Moet Hennessy) versus Google goes to the very heart of the shift that the internet has forced upon us all. As the European Court considers whether Google should be allowed to let others bid on LVMH's trademarked brand terms, the broader question is whether brands can retain any sense of control in the online world.
Google is now the most powerful 'media owner' on the planet and it must accept the responsibility that comes with such power. But, its model is built on delivering what its users want. So, while we might argue that the decision to allow others to bid on trademarked brand terms was nothing but a bid to maintain paid search revenue growth, it can argue that it merely gives users the choice they deserve.
As chair of the IPA's search group, I'm keen to hear more on why it did it but, if search - whether paid or natural - is the 'navigation' in our customers' online journeys, then brands must also think hard about the 'conversation', that is their users' engagement in the combination of social sites, tools, emails and blogs that - alongside publisher-owned websites and brand destinations - help to shape their perceptions and, ultimately, their decisions.
The online journey that any one person takes to a decision is an incredible set of complex behaviours, founded on conversation and navigation, that the modern planner must fight to understand, embrace and act in accordance with.
That is a much more interesting battle than the one that's to be fought in Brussels since it deals, not just with what brands do about AdWords, but how they behave in everything they do now that their customers - enabled by services just like Google - are entirely in control.

Gasta News:Microsoft’s Ballmer Seeks More Web-Search Agreements

Microsoft Corp. will aim to strike more agreements for its Web-search software to be included on computers and mobile phones, even though the deals may not always make money, Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said.
“It might still be a good marketing investment for us to make,” Ballmer said today in an interview in New York. The deals may not make “economic sense” at the outset, he said.
Microsoft, Google Inc. and Yahoo! Inc. form partnerships to make their search engines the default setting on computers and mobile phones to attract new users. Google can pay more for the deals without losing money, Ballmer said.
Google, the most-popular search engine, gets an estimated 9.5 cents to 10 cents on average in ad sales from each search, while Microsoft and Yahoo get 4 cents to 5 cents, Ballmer said. That means Google can give its partners 8 cents from each search, while Microsoft may have to lose money, he said.
“Google can bid them to a point where we are not economical,” said Ballmer, 52. Microsoft will probably do a “bit of investment” in those agreements as existing partnerships that companies have with Google and Yahoo expire, he said.
Microsoft handled about 8 percent of search queries in the U.S. in February, compared with Google’s 63 percent and Yahoo’s 21 percent, according to researcher ComScore Inc. Outside the U.S., Microsoft’s market share is even smaller.
Dell, Verizon
Kim Rubey, a spokeswoman for Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo, declined to comment on how much revenue the company makes per search. Google, based in Mountain View, California, didn’t have an immediate comment.
Microsoft struck partnerships to put its search software on Dell Inc. computers and Verizon Wireless mobile phones this year, beating out Google for the deals. Last year, Microsoft reached agreements with Hewlett-Packard Co., Sun Microsystems Inc. and Facebook Inc. Hewlett-Packard, the world’s biggest personal-computer maker, had a deal with Yahoo.
The agreements mean that new computers come preloaded with a toolbar that lets them use Microsoft’s Live Search. The search engine also appears on the home screen of some Verizon handsets and is included when customers download Sun’s Java software.
Ballmer reiterated that he’s interested in a search partnership with Yahoo because it “makes all the sense in the world.”
Ballmer said earlier today at a conference that he has spoken with Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz and that they will talk when it’s appropriate.
“What’s she been there now -- all of a month and a half, two months?,” Ballmer said in the interview. The Web-search industry has been harder for him and other executives to learn than most businesses, Ballmer said.
Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, rose 18 cents to $17.14 today in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have lost 12 percent this year.

Gasta News: Would you buy a car from this website? Car sales up on the Internet.

The internet is the main influence which determines a consumer's car purchase as the majority believe they'll locate a better deal online, according to research from Microsoft.

A sample of 622 people found just two out of 10 people planning to buy a car in the next six months might delay the purchase due to the economic climate, and 65% believe this landscape will provide them with a better deal.

in the decision making process, with online shaping decisions about which make and model consumers choose.

Some 39% of people intending to buy said they had not decided on the category of car before coming online, with 55% still undecided over the brand and 61% over the model.

Furthermore, 69% of people said they used the web specifically for deciding which extras they wanted.

The report also said internet research empowered consumers, with 70% saying they feel more confident walking into a dealership if they have researched online first.

Jacqueline O'Sullivan, head of marketing communications at Microsoft Advertising, said, "The internet has now become the most important influence in a car buyers' decision-making process. Also, as less decisions are made before going online car brands have multiple opportunities to demonstrate why theirs should be the one that should be bought."

Gasta Social Networking: Facebook

Facebook Becoming Major Traffic Driver; Will The Revenue Come Next?

Facebook’s willingness to work with third-party developers and pull in third-party content, and its encouragement of content-sharing between members has helped the social network’s population surge to more than 175 million members. That openness is also boosting Facebook’s status as a traffic-driver: the social net has topped Google (NSDQ: GOOG) as the number-one source of traffic to a number of large sites, including PerezHilton.com, Gasta.com,CafeMom.com and events site Evite.

And it’s a trend to watch, since, as AdAge notes, Facebook now only gets about a third of Google.com’s unique visitors, per comScore, and the traffic—both the clicks and the eyeballs—is what generates search revenues. Companies spent over $12 billion on search marketing last year.

Much of the Facebook-driven traffic comes from links that members post via areas like “Notes” and photos. If Facebook’s influence as a traffic source continues to rise, the next step would be to figure out how to monetize the traffic to those areas with paid search. That would be one way to entice Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) to renew its search deal (and give Microsoft a better return on its $240 million investment in the social net).
By Tameka Kee

Gasta News: Mobile advertising on the Rise say analysts

Advertising: an emergent stream of revenues for the mobile industry

LONDON – 25 November 2008 – Mobile advertising could become a strong source of revenues for the mobile industry. The European mobile industry has extensively explored the use of advertising recently as a sustainable business model for mobile content, mobile messaging and other services. Despite being in the initial stage, these models have galvanised the industry. The level of confidence of the mobile communications and advertising industries in the potential of mobile advertising is very high.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.wireless.frost.com), Ad-based Content and Communications: A Lucrative Avenue for the Mobile Industry estimates that the mobile social and content advertising market revenues should reach 2.18 billion euro in 2012 in Europe. Mobile content advertising, ad-based music, video, TV and games will represent the major source of revenues.

“To achieve high revenues, the mobile advertising industry will need to successfully confront three main challenges. What should be concentrated on is: continuously enhance the mobile user experience through high-speed connectivity and high-quality user interfaces; use ads as a transparent value to consumers’ mobile experience without being intrusive; and educate the advertising industry on how to exploit the advertising power of mobile devices,” notes Saverio Romeo, Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst. “If these challenges are not adequately faced, the advertising market will not grow strongly as the mobile industry expects.”

From the mobile industry point of view, advertising is a potential revenue stream that can counterbalance the continuous decrease of revenues from voice and SMS services. However, advertisers and agencies, the sources of the advertising revenue stream, are, only now, gradually learning the use of the mobile device as an advertising medium.

“Agencies’ budgets rarely include a specific allocation for mobile communications,” states Romeo. “An intense synergy between the mobile and the advertising industries is crucial to transform today’s enthusiasm into strong revenues in the future.”

Ad-based Content and Communications: A Lucrative Avenue for the Mobile Industry is part of the Mobile & Wireless Growth Partnership Services Programme, which also includes research in the following markets:European Mobile Premium Content Markets, Mobile Messaging Markets in Europe and Exploring the European Market for Mobile Smart Devices. All research included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends that have been evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants. Interviews with the press are available.

If you are interested in a virtual brochure, which provides manufacturers, end users and other industry participants with an overview of the ad-based content and communications market for the mobile industry, please send an e-mail to Joanna Lewandowska, Corporate Communications, at joanna.lewandowska@frost.com, with your contact details. Upon receipt of the above information, an overview will be sent to you by e-mail.

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, partners with clients to accelerate their growth. The company's TEAM Research, Growth Consulting and Growth Team Membership™ empower clients to create a growth-focused culture that generates, evaluates and implements effective growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan employs over 45 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more than 30 offices on six continents. For more information about Frost & Sullivan’s Growth Partnership Services, visit http://www.frost.com.

Gasta News: Yell Rollout

Yell.com adds more local content while BBC plans set back
Yell is rolling out a series of ultra-local sub-sites featuring town and city information as part of a move to ramp up content across its website.
The classified listings specialist is hiring journalists to create content, including advice on things to think about when hiring a serviceperson as well as quick facts about towns across the UK.
Yell is also considering including local news and event information, if the trial is successful. It plans to use the content to boost its position as a key destination for local services and information online, as well as its search rankings.
Its push comes in the week that local news services were thrust into the spotlight following the BBC Trust's decision to refuse permission for the BBC's planned rollout of local video sites (nma.co.uk 21 November).
The Trust halted plans to spend £68m of licence fee funds on local video, deeming it unjustified.
The proposed move was highly criticised by competitor commercial news providers, such as Northcliffe Media, which owns 151 sites under the Thisis brand. It said it would be unable to compete with such investment by the BBC.
Johnston Press claimed the BBC's Where I Live sites had already damaged its local sites, and Trinity Mirror accused the Corporation of losing sight of its purpose.
The rejection of the plans by the BBC Trust has received a cautious welcome by commercial rivals, with many concerned the setback won't keep the BBC away from local services for long.
Sam McIlveen, digital publisher at Independent News and Media, said, "I don't think this is the end of it. We're still worried because these plans were hugely disadvantageous for local media. Local sites can't compete with the BBC, especially when it's willing to spend £68m."
The Newspaper Society's director David Newell also expressed concern at the BBC not giving up on the area. "We must be on guard to ensure the BBC isn't allowed to expand its local services by other means," he said.
Sir Michael Lyons, chairman of the BBC Trust, said that while consumers want better local services, video sites were unlikely to meet their needs.
Regulator Ofcom said the plans would have a significant negative impact on commercial providers.
Author: By Will Cooper & Luan Goldie | Source: nma.co.uk | Published: 26.11.08

Gasta News:Mobile internet is growing eight times faster than PC-based web

Mobile internet is growing eight times faster than PC-based web
The mobile internet is growing eight times faster than traffic to the PC-based web, according to the first set of mobile data from Nielsen Online.
The research company has released its first Mobile Media findings which show traffic on the mobile internet increased by 25% to 7.3m during 3Q 2008. The survey found 25% of mobile internet users are aged 16-24 compared with just 12% who are older than 55.
BBC News is the most popular mobile internet site, attracting 1.7m
Kent Ferguson, senior analyst for Nielsen, said the mobile web was a great opportunity for advertisers and publishers to reach important demographic groups. "People often need fast, instant access to weather or sports news and mobile can obviously satisfy this, wherever they are," he said.

Gasta Search Network:New Report Documents Insanely Long Tail Of Search

New Report Documents Insanely Long Tail Of Search

When something seemingly insignificant is able to control a more powerful entity, talk of the tail wagging the dog occasionally comes into play. But according to a new report from Hitwise, the long tail of search is capable of something more akin to launching the dog into orbit.


Dustin Woodward, a Seattle-based SEO and Web analytics expert, tried to look at the top 10000 search terms recorded by Hitwise during a three-month period. What he got was a very strange-looking graph, with data displayed in almost invisible amounts along great stretches of both axes.


"Top 10,000 Search Terms by Percentage of All Search Traffic" (Source: Hitwise)

So Woodard then examined just the top 100 terms, and this sample generated a graph more normal in appearance. He writes, "However, this is just 100 search terms out of the more than 14 million."

It turns out that, at least in this particular three-month data set, the top 100 terms accounted for just 5.7 percent of all search traffic. Expand to the top 500, 1000, and 10000 terms, and just 8.9 percent, 10.6 percent, and 18.5 percent of all search traffic is involved, respectively.


"Top 100 Search Terms by Percentage of All Search Traffic" (Source: Hitwise)

Woodard concludes, "This means if you had a monopoly over the top 1,000 search terms across all search engines (which is impossible), you'd still be missing out on 89.4% of all search traffic. There's so much traffic in the tail it is hard to even comprehend. To illustrate, if search were represented by a tiny lizard with a one-inch head, the tail of that lizard would stretch for 221 miles."

Lone bloggers, SEO professionals, and small businesses (among all other sorts of things) should be able to take comfort in this discovery. Woodard's analysis makes it look like there's plenty of traffic for everyone, without a need for cutthroat behavior and the spending of huge sums of money over the top few search terms.

A better approach might be to optimize for a lot of truly niche terms and see what happens. Be careful not to confuse increased holiday traffic for success - and also not to put your holiday income at risk in the event of failure - but some small-scale testing seems appropriate, at least.

Anyone wanting even more reasons to experiment should know that the Hitwise sample only included 10 million U.S. Internet users, adult search terms were removed by filters, and the three spotlighted months were relatively slow ones.
By Doug Caverly

New Cotract Gains for Gasta.com

Gasta wins two web advertising contracts, Gasta.com has won the Global advertising contract for Taca, the UK and Ireland Irish Language promotion body with a mission to promote the Irish language worlwide through the sponsorship of the TACA Lottery fund. Gasta has also won the contract to deliver PPC campiagn management for VFI overseas Property. An Irish Italian joint venture with extensive beach front properties in Tunisia, one of the fastest growing emerging holiday destinations with expected growth of 35% on property by next year.

Gasta Ad Network

Does your ad network make the grade?

With an explosion in the number of ad networks over the last 18 months, it has become increasingly difficult for agencies and clients to identify which network is their best long-term marketing partner -- the network that can deliver a brand's objectives year in, year out.

It will come as no surprise that I believe in the value that a strong network can provide a brand, but the operative word in that sentence is "strong." Ad networks are emphatically not interchangeable, and the business relationships you create in this sector can make a big difference in how well you exceed your business objectives.

As one of the pioneers in this space, I have seen a lot of brands and networks work together over the years. That experience has led me to conclude that there are nine key considerations that should be used to determine what ad networks a planner should choose to have as part of their marketing plans. In my experience, these factors are relevant to both the "vertical" ad network sector, as well as the "horizontal" or general market sector:

Take a look at your ad networks checklist.

Site quality and transparency

• Site quality: Some ad networks truly represent the best sites online. Some mostly sell junk. In my view, the quality of content has both qualitative and quantitative benefits for a brand. On the quant side, sites with better content hold viewer eyes longer on each page, and that enduring exposure makes it far more likely that a user will notice an ad, interact with it and process its message. Qualitatively, there is evidence that the strength of content surrounding an ad can have an impact on brand perceptions. Quality content gives a brand increased credibility; in the vertical sector, having ads placed in quality content can also demonstrate brand support of a user's interest areas.

• Transparent site lists: There appear to be three kinds of site lists out there now: 100 percent transparent, ersatz transparent and "black box." The first and third categories are self-explanatory, while the second refers to networks that are willing to provide some "example" sites, but not the entire list. Although our network does share its entire site list, I don't believe that is an essential consideration for an advertiser. This is because the sites not on your plan have no bearing on your brand, but the sites on your plan do have a profound bearing on your brand. You deserve to know where your ads are running -- all of your ads.

Reach and targeting

• Reach: You don't need to go with the biggest network, but focus your major network spending on players with large numbers of your users/prospects, for practical reasons. Digital planning, buying and reporting are complex enough without having to deal with 25 networks for every buy. By choosing a mix of larger vertical networks and a leading horizontal or two, you can simplify your efforts considerably.

Targeting options: Whether or not you are currently using advanced targeting approaches, having access to some of the methodologies can be a boon for a planner. Behavioural, retargeting and audience segmentation will likely be a part of your future plans, and creating working relationships with highly capable networks can make capitalizing on these technologies easier and more productive in the future.

Cross-platform and growth

Cross-platform opportunities: Just when most marketers are becoming reasonably comfortable with online ads, the media environment has begun to diversify across digital media platforms in a big way. While vehicles like mobile, gaming, social media and widgets aren't new, they are all rapidly reaching a critical mass state that makes ignoring them shortsighted. Some networks have already recognized this glacial change and can offer you entrée into such platforms as part of your standard buys. You would do well to consider these networks more carefully, as they can help guide your efforts through our dramatically changing media environment.

Growth trends: Networks and sites that are growing make under-delivery less likely and ensure that your ads appear in highly involving content. Additionally, when more and more sites are joining a network, you can be assured that they are offering a quality marketing environment.

Exclusive sites and reporting

Exclusive site representation agreements: The polar extremes of the network business are "leftover" networks that sell remnant inventory versus "exclusive" networks that are the outsourced sales arms of publishers. Naturally, most networks fall somewhere in between. But particularly in the "vertical" side of the business, working with networks that are the exclusive sales agents of at least some of their sites provides assurance that they have unique understanding of that vertical, and can provide value-add insights that help make your efforts more efficacious.

Reporting capabilities: If you think about how much time your team spends futzing with spreadsheets, it'll be immediately apparent why working with partners that offer strong reporting should be high on your list of considerations. Depending on your reporting approach, they should either offer strong standalone systems or a way to easily integrate data into existing reporting platforms like DFP. Good reporting also makes real optimization possible -- and to actually optimize, you need to free up hours that would otherwise be spent cursing at Microsoft Excel files.

The people: Before you sign with a network, think about the person who will be serving your account? Is he/she responsive? Proactive? Smart? Do they answer your call promptly? Do they really listen to what you want and need? Great networks can be murder to deal with if your salesperson is lousy. Do yourself a favour and skip the networks that have teams that create problems instead of solutions.

Nine simple considerations -- none of them rocket science -- but each of them an important way to filter the 300 or so networks out there down to a manageable short list. If you choose correctly, you will benefit from long-term relationships that really help build your success.

I hope this brief list of considerations helps you find exactly the right ad network for your future efforts

Robert Tas Sportgenic.

Gasta News: Microsoft to buy Yahoo for $44.6bn (£22.4bn)

Microsoft has offered to buy the search engine company Yahoo for $44.6bn (£22.4bn) in cash and shares.

The offer, contained in a letter to Yahoo's board, is 62% above Yahoo's closing share price on Thursday.

Yahoo cut its revenue forecasts earlier this week and said it would have to spend an additional $300m this year trying to revive the company.

It has been struggling in recent years to compete with Google, which has also been a competitor to Microsoft.

"We have great respect for Yahoo, and together we can offer an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market," Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said.

Chairman quit

There has not yet been any comment from Yahoo.

Its chief executive, Jerry Yang, announced on Tuesday that he intended to lay off 1,000 staff as part of a restructuring plan.

Terry Semel, who stepped down as chief executive last June, also quit as non-executive chairman on Thursday.

Microsoft said that Yahoo shareholders could choose to receive either cash or shares.

Yahoo shares have fallen 46% since reaching a year-high of $34.08 in October. They rose 54% in pre-market trading.

"Ultimately this corporate marriage was forced by the rise of Google, which has grown into a serious competitor for both Microsoft as a software company and Yahoo as an internet portal," said Tim Weber, business editor of the BBC News website.

"It is a shotgun marriage, but the person holding the shotgun is Google."

'Exorbitant premium'

According to its letter to Yahoo, Microsoft attempted to enter talks about a deal a year ago, but was rebuffed because Yahoo was confident about the "potential upside" presented by the reorganisation and operational activities that were being put in place at the time.

"A year has gone by, and the competitive situation has not improved," Microsoft's letter said.

But there has been some concern about the price that Microsoft is offering.

"To me, the premium seems exorbitant, for what is a dwindling business," said Tim Smalls from the brokerage firm Execution LLC.

"I personally don't see how the synergies of Microsoft-Yahoo is going to take on Google."

Other analysts were more enthusiastic about the offer.

"It is a fantastic offer. It is game on," said Colin Gillis from Canaccord Adams.

"This consolidates the marketplace down to Google versus Microsoft. These two companies will be going head to head."

Gasta search convergence

The Register reports that Microsoft is to acquire Norwegian business search engine company Fast Search and Transfer for 6.6bn kroner ($1.23bn)

The software giant said it would pay 19 Norwegian kroner a share for the Oslo-based firm, which represents a 42 per cent premium to the closing share price on 4 January, the day before Microsoft stepped in with its bid.

Fast's board of directors and nearly half of its shareholders have already voted in favour of the buy-out and urged its remaining shareholders to accept Redmond's hefty offer.

In recent months Microsoft has beefed up its Web 2.0 intentions by investing in a number of data centres inside and outside the US as it clambers for a larger chunk of the search engine pie.

The Fast deal, which should be completed in the second quarter of 2008 subject to the usual regulatory approvals, will give the firm tailored internet search functions for corporate customers that include the likes of United Parcel Services and Deutsche Telekom AG.

Publicly-listed Fast said it welcomed the arrival of the Bill Gates jamboree, perhaps unsurprising given that in its last set of results the firm reported a third-quarter loss of $100m.

GASTA WEB 2.0

We will soon be launching our next generation web.20 multimedia search, this version is almost complete and has simple push button administration areas that control search feeds, adverts, links, and keywords, all linked by our InstantLinks, InstantAds, and SearchMatch products. Gasta disseminates information and like an electronic amoeba spreads the information across networks, when a search is made on Gasta the search keyword is collected and collated for popularity, the most popular keywords are then added to the list of Gasta directories; this is all carried out in quantum nanoseconds (on the fly). Web marketers and SME’s then have the opportunity to create an IntantLink ™ to that directory. Users can also bookmark videos, images, webpage’s, and view their search history.

This is a new innovation in web directories and dynamic linking, and part of the new exciting Gasta interface. Gasta’s new interface is designed to give the maximum use of directories but at the same time make easier to use the search tool. Having morphed from an old school directory like Yahoo, Gasta has now harnessed the minimalist elements of Google and tied these to the directory listing by popular keywords. This is very new and very creative design for the launch of Gasta web2.0 with the additional tools of predictive search assists, playlists, and transparent search history we give the user more power to search faster, and more precisely.

Please feel free to have a look around http://www.mysearchmachine.com

And let us know what you think, we would like the opportunity to discuss future strategies partners and individuals.

Belfastmediagroup:strategic alliance with gasta.com

Belfastmediagroup announces new online strategy with gasta.com, heres how the announcement was made on the new Belfastmediagroup websites front pages.


"Equally exciting is the move towards digital 'citizen' hubs across the city as we roll out our newly-acquired sites including, southbelfast.com and belfasteast.com. These hubs are being developed under our new strategic alliance with gasta.com, the successful search engine company based in Belfast which enjoys marketing deals with yahoo, askjeeves and google. These sites will carry the news and advertisements from the Belfast Media Group newspapers while tailoring their offering to the younger reader with 'what's on' lists of local pubs and restaurants, cinema listings and photo-ordering facilities."

Gasta online sales 50% rise

Gasta online sales of advertising rose in the last quarter despite the doom and gloom initiated by the credit crunch, according to the BBC overall online sales rose by 50% . This is good news for the technology sector and the online advertising community, Gasta will continue to offer the most cost effective internet campiagns to SME's.

UK online sales rose by more than 50% in the three months to Christmas, according to an industry survey.

Internet sales between 1 October and 31 December hit £15.2bn, up from £9.61bn a year earlier, with electronics and clothing doing well, Capgemini said.

Firms with both a High Street and online presence, such as John Lewis, did best, the survey said.

For every pound spent on goods in 2007, 15 pence was spent online, pushing annual electronic sales to £30.2bn.

In 2006, for every pound spent on retail goods, the internet spend had been 10 pence.

Discounting

"There can be no doubt [that] online is growing its share at the expense of bricks and mortar retailers and we believe this trend will continue," said Anthoula Madden, vice president at Capgemini's consumer products and retail division.

Online shopping peaked during the first week in December, with sales rising 9% year-on-year.

However, in previous years the busiest period had been earlier, signalling that consumers were delaying spending, to take advantage of discounting before Christmas.

Retailers have painted a mixed picture of results covering the crucial Christmas period, but several firms have highlighted the strength of their online sales.

In its latest trading update, music shop HMV said its bookstore chain Waterstones saw internet sales double in the five weeks to 5 January.

Argos, which is owned by Home Retail Group, said internet orders increased by a third in the 18 weeks to 5 January, representing nearly a quarter of all sales at its Argos stores.

The firm said its online reservation system for collection in store proved particularly popular.

Tesco said its online businesses had a "very successful" Christmas, in the six weeks to 5 January, with strong demand for MP3 players, digital cameras and laptops sending total sales 24% higher.

Even Marks & Spencer, though seeing its worst Christmas sales for more than two years, saw internet sales surge 78% in the last three months of 2007, year-on-year.