GastaTech Update: Bebo president Joanna Shields

Ex Bebo President Shields Joins Facebook As Sales VP

After former Bebo president Joanna Shields left last May ahead of the dismantling of her AOL (NYSE: AOL) People Networks division, she teamed with TV producer Shine Group CEO Elisabeth Murdoch to create a social content company.

But now she’s getting back in to the social networking business proper, joining Facebook in a new role of sales and business development for VP Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Shields is taking many of the duties of Facebook’s top European guy Blake Chandlee, who, after setting the business up in western Europe from London, is taking a refocused role as emerging markets sales VP, focusing on growth in eastern Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America.

This is a full-time role, though Shine confirmed Shields will be staying on as a non-executive chairperson for the division, which it’s calling Shine View.

Facebook tells paidContent:UK both VPs report to global sales VP Mike Murphy, though Shields also has a dotted line to business development VP Dan Rose.

“Expect these regions to play a significant role in our global sales strategy,” says Chandlee of the Asia and Latin America focus.

Gasta Tech Update : Facebook Users Like Gasta 'Search and Share' apps.

Facebook Users Like to Share Content
by Jason Hahn

Facebook is comfortably ahead of the social networking pack when it comes to the sharing of content, according to data provided to TechCrunch by Gigya.

Gasta.com web sharing tools on the search index for videos, news, weblinks, and advertisers is proving very popular with its vast global regional users. According to Alexa Gasta.com has a 700% increaes in traffic since the launch of the 'search and apps'across the complete Gasta Network. Gasta 'search and share' apps currently share to Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn and Digg.


According to Gigya, 44 percent of article links, videos, photos and other content from more than 5,000 sites that is shared through Gigya’s widgets are posted to Facebook. These sites include NBA.com, PGA.com and Answers.com, among others.


Twitter received 29 percent of this sharing through social media sites, followed by Yahoo! with 18 percent and MySpace with 9 percent.


AddThis affirmed this finding, as its numbers show that Facebook received 33 percent of observed sharing via the company’s sharing buttons. E-mail was second with 13 percent, followed by printing out copies of the content with 9 percent, Twitter with 9 percent, Favorites with 8 percent, Google with 6 percent and MySpace with 6 percent.


AddToAny, another company with a sharing widget, also shows that Facebook leads the way in terms of sharing, with 24 percent of such actions heading to Facebook.


In terms of site authentication (entering an existing username and password to log into another Web site), Facebook leads the way in the Entertainment, Live Event Chat and News categories, but with varying degrees of success in each.


In the Entertainment category, Facebook accounts for 52 percent of site authentication logins, while Google accounted for 17 percent. Yahoo! got 12 percent, followed by Twitter with 11 percent, MySpace with 7 percent and AOL with 1 percent.


For Live Event Chat, Facebook led the way with 56 percent, while Twitter followed with 28 percent of site authentication logins. Yahoo! followed with 9 percent, while MySpace had 7 percent.


For News, Facebook led by a slim margin with 31 percent of logins, followed closely by Google with 30 percent. Yahoo! wasn’t too far behind with 25 percent, while Twitter had 11 percent and AOL had 3 percent.


It’s clear that users of different sites appear more interested in different topics, and this might help site owners to better understand how their users share their content and how to make it easier for them to do so.


Sources:

http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/16/facebook-44-percent-social-sharing/

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007530

http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2010/02/facebook-corners-44-of-social-sharing.html

Gasta Tech News: Twitter extending reach

Twitter looking to expand on content
By Chris Crum

Gasta.com has launched Twitter sharing apps across its SERP on all 750+ search engines across the Gasta search Network and according to Mike Arrington of TechCrunch, "multiple sources have confirmed" that Twitter is readying the launch of a new set of tools to let third-party sites easily integrate with Twitter. He calls this the company's response to Facebook Connect.

This wouldn't be the first offering from Twitter that provides functionality similar to Facebook Connect. Early last year, Twitter released a product called "Sign in with Twitter", which is based on OAuth and lets users sign in to third-party site using their Twitter accounts. Twitter provided the following flowchart to illustrate how it works:
Sign in with Twitter

What exactly are they up to that competes more with Facebook Connect than this? Nick O'Neill of AllFacebook guesses the creation of a JavaScript library and new widgets. Writing for Social Times he says:

Twitter has placed very few restrictions on developers though and a number of visitor widgets have already been developed. TwitterCounter, for example, has developed the Twitter widget, which is essentially the Twitter version of MyBlogLog. What benefit would this new package provide? We aren’t quite sure aside from “better packaging” which doesn’t mean much given that Twitter already has an extremely well designed RESTful API.

Facebook has already launched a number of widgets for webmasters and developers, something which Twitter hasn’t successfully rolled out yet. Then again, does Twitter really need to develop more widgets? TweetMeme has essentially developed an identical service to Facebook’s share analytics. TwitterCounter already has a competitor to Facebook’s fan box and page badge.

Facebook announced last month that over 80,000 sites and other services have implemented Facebook Connect since its general availability in 2008. Over 60 million Facebook users engage with Facebook Connect on external services each month (not including mobile use of Facebook).

Facebook Connect

Twitter doesn't enjoy quite the same magnitude of usage that Facebook does, but it is growing internationally, and whatever this "answer to Facebook Connect" is, it will likely only help fuel that growth.

Gasta Tech News: Social Media and Search engines

Facebook/Twitter Use May Now Mean More for Google/Bing Rankings by Chris Crum

Google and Microsoft have both inked deals with Twitter and Microsoft has also inked one with Facebook to integrate Twitter and Facebook updates into Bing search results. Google will be adding tweets to search results.

Google's Marissa Mayer says, " We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months. That way, the next time you search for something that can be aided by a real-time observation, say, snow conditions at your favorite ski resort, you'll find tweets from other users who are there and sharing the latest and greatest information."

There is a good chance that Google will be making a similar deal with Facebook, but even if they don't, their deal with Twitter and Bing's deals with both make it all the more important for marketers to be found in real-time searches and Facebook/Twitter in general.

About Gasta web 2.0

About Gasta
Started in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1998 Gasta is a global search engine and web directory. Translated into six Languages, Gasta has now launched search engines in Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, French, & German,


Gasta has now launched SearchMatch paid inclusion programs for all 400 of its search engines and sees paid listings as the future of Internet marketing enabling and empowering advertisers to bid on niche contextual Keywords and phrases that are directly related to their business. Gasta organic growth of traffic extends the long tail of keywords and adds added value to all our client campaigns.

Platform
Gasta is written in MVC Asp.net, C#, and XML, Jscript,

Social Marketing Services
Gasta now offers the ability to share web search results, videos, news items, images, and Blogs with your chosen social networking partner site, Gasta now has social marketing links with FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Stumbleupon, Bebo, and Digg. This service not only offers an added value to our users but also greatly assists our advertisers with their social marketing and brand awareness campaigns.


Geo Targeting
Gasta automatically includes effective Geo Targeting of advertising across regions so the user searching in Dublin receives adverts from Dublin and UK Regions and the user searching in New York receives inventory from USA regions.

More than 97% of gasta.com users live and/or work in the regional search areas the index is aimed at. This offers an extremely focused way of targeting prospective customers. Localize to globalize. With Gasta.com you the advertiser only pay for the traffic you receive. Gasta.com has a unique featured Site scheme allows you to directly gear expenditure to traffic. This is the most cost effective method with no wasted clicks.

Diverse User Base

Gasta.com search results are rendered by a network of Search Partners ranging from major Internet brands to organizations who specifically address the Region. Gasta has also implemented social marketing tools on all search results to share video, news, images, blogs, and web results as well as the actual SearchMatch ad itself. A unique service for a search engine.
Gasta.com has a more focussed appeal because it is targeted directly to a local audience

Ad Management
24/7 Ad Campaign Management access your account and manage your listings 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with the gasta.com Management and bid System

Gasta white Label solution
The Gasta Hosted white label solution can be launched in a matter of minutes and offers a variety of solutions and ad platforms to Partners. These search engines can start earning revenues as soon as they are launched with a variety of monetisation features such as preloaded Google Adsense and SearchMatch and InstantAds platforms. Gasta has now launched white label partner sites in India, USA, and Australia. We are currently seeking regional partners in China, Singapore, and Latin America.

Partners
Gasta partners include:
Services: Microsoft Bing, Google, Miva, ABC Search, Adify, BT, Mirago UK, Admeld, Adconion,
Social Marketing: LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter, Digg, Stumbleupon, Bebo,
Content : BBC, Irish Times, Irish News, Belfastmedia group, FlashSeek,
Francis Higgins
bizz@amiwired.com

Associated Press is after you!

The AP is launching an all out assault on any use of its content that is not licensed (purchased) for use by Internet publishers and search engines. As I have said in the past, the AP is not just focusing on the blatant violators such as spam blogs or sites that quote paragraphs without attribution or link. On the contrary, the AP is specifically going after bigger mainstream blogs, Internet publications and believe it or not search engines such as Google.


The AP believes that desperate times call for desperate measures and that means demanding royalties from any company profiting from any aspect of their content. When Google links to an AP story in a search result with an Adwords ad on the page the AP expects to be paid. Include a rewritten headline link to an AP story Matt Drudge and you will be sued for payment by the AP. Add a paragraph snippet of content from an AP article in your PaidContent.org blog post and be ready for a call from an AP lawyer demanding their share of your ad revenue.

From the AP's perspective, the concept of fair use is primitive and counter to their desperate desire to prevent their demise in an ad supported Internet content economy. The Associated Press Board of Directors, which is made up mostly of newspaper executives, has issued a member call to arms against anyone and everyone who misappropriates AP content.

The release quotes AP Chairman Dean Singleton who spoke at the AP annual meeting in San Diego, "The news cooperative would work with portals and other partners who properly license content – and would pursue legal and legislative actions against those who don't." Mr. Singleton added, "We can no longer stand by and watch others walk off with our work under misguided legal theories."

Exactly what misguided legal theories Mr. Singleton was referring to became more clear as reports and interviews were published by other media. The New York Times quotes AP executives as stating, "They were concerned about a variety of news forums around the Web, including major search engines like Google and Yahoo and aggregators like the Drudge Report". In other words, they are challenging the long held assumption that search engines or news aggregation sites have a right under fair use principles to republish headlines or small snippets of content without permission or payment. Should the AP be paid? Comment.



If you don't believe the AP is really going after Google, Yahoo and Microsoft's Live Search for republishing AP content in search results read what Sue Cross, a senior vice president of AP told reporters as printed in the New York Times:

" When asked if The A.P. would require a licensing agreement before a search engine could show specific material, Ms. Cross said, "that could be an element of it," but added, "it's not that formed.""

Obviously, the AP doesn't consider a link that goes with the republished headline or snippet sufficient payment. The AP's stated goal is to make it illegal either through the courts or by new laws to link (with a quote) to copyrighted content on the Internet without the permission of the copyright holder. However, in the case of the Drudge Report where most headlines are rewritten, apparently even a link to their content without permission may need an AP license agreement.

If the AP is successful, and they clearly believe they will be, then the Internet will be changed as we know it. Linking (with snippets or not) to the content of others could become a permission based concept where one only links (and quotes) after they have received the appropriate approval.

If content owners like the AP can sue search engines for unauthorized use of their content and win a share of their ad revenue, then the Google apple cart could be turned upside down.

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