Hitwise United Kingdom Newsletter - August, 2010
Facebook accounts for 1 in 6 UK page views, but is it reaching saturation point?
Facebook is the second most visited website in the UK: in June it accounted for 7.14% of all UK Internet visits and over half (54.48%) of all visits to a social networking websites. In terms of total visits it continues to trail Google UK (9.59% market share in June) and, as previously highlighted, will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. However, using the measure of total page views rather than visits, Facebook is way ahead. The social network accounted for 16.73% of UK page views during June. In other words: 1 in every 6 Internet pages viewed in the UK was a Facebook page.
Facebook continues to grow around the world (during July 2010 it reached half a billion registered users) and there is no doubt that it leads the social networking pack in the UK. However, with 26m British users already, when will it start to reach saturation point? Facebook's market share of UK page views has trebled over the last five years, but growth has slowed significantly over the last six months. During July 2010 there was a slight decline in share, but this may well be down to seasonality (the August / September back to school / college / university period is significant for Facebook).
Another metric is average time spent on the site, a key metric for user engagement on social networks. Facebook has a very high average session time (almost half an hour) but, this has also stabilised over the last six months after increasing rapidly during the site's ascendency. Clearly Facebook is not losing traffic in the UK, but do these stats point to a stabilisation? The rapid period of the site's growth is now probably over in the UK, but does that mean Facebook has reached saturation point?
Fast Movers
Clearance Auctions @ Comet - www.clearance-comet.co.uk
UK Internet traffic to www.clearance-comet.co.uk, Comet's online auction site, has increased 2-fold from June to July this year. Moving up the ranks 2579 positions to #2,236 amongst all websites during July, the majority of traffic to Comet Auctions came from Google UK (35.8%) followed by Moneysavingexpert.com (8.7%), eBay UK (5.0%) and Comet (4.3%). The top non-branded search terms sending traffic to the site for the same period were, 'built in ovens electric' (0.24%), 'auctions' (0.21%) and 'american style fridge freezers' (0.17%). Notably 99% of the online auction site's traffic comes from organic search.
1 in every 100 UK Internet searches Sky Sports related
With the first Barclays Premier League matches taking place during the weekend of August 14 and 15th, the football season is now truly underway. As you would expect, UK Internet visits to key football related websites increased significantly during the week ending 15/08/2010: the Official Fantasy Premier League site by 186%, Sky Sports by 15%. There was also a 12% increase in traffic to BBC Sport, but it has yet to reach the same level of traffic it experienced during the World Cup.
All of the three sites mentioned above ranked amongst the top 100 most visited in the UK for the w/e 15/08/2010, with BBC Sport in 13th position and Sky Sports at number 15. Joining them in the top 100, in 70th position, was the Sky Digital TV Shop, the place where people go to either purchase Sky TV or upgrade their packages. The site is most popular in the North East, although Walsall is the individual postal area that currently most over-indexes in terms of traffic. This perhaps reflects the fact that there are four teams from West Midlands (Aston Villa, West Brom, Birmingham City, Wolves) competing in the top flight of English football this season - the first time this has happened for 27 years.
The main driver for all this traffic was clearly the demand for the Sky Sports channels, and searches for the terms 'sky sports' and 'sky sports football' increased by 38% and 22% respectively over the same period. These were the two most popular of 3,700 different ways in which people searched for the channels during the week ending 15/08/2010. Aggregating all of these together using Hitwise's new broad matching tool, shows that all of these variations accounted for 1% of all UK searches during this period - i.e. 1 in every 100 searches in the UK was related to Sky Sports.
Promotions
New research report: how to drive more value from email, SMS and social media
The latest Experian CheetahMail research, based on a YouGov poll of nearly 6,500 European consumers, looks at the types of marketing communications that resonate through email, SMS and social media. The findings illustrate the huge potential value that can be realised if a company succeeds like Gasta.com in finding the optimum digital marketing blend.
Webinar: How retail seasonal peaks impact your business
In the build up to Christmas, it's not just online retail which benefits - travel, news and media and entertainment websites all see a significant boost. Learn how understanding seasonal peaks can help you maximise your online promotions.
Showing posts with label Gasta acquisition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gasta acquisition. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Bing API Countdown
Bing Success grows
OLD API system to shut off
Microsoft announced that that it is phasing out version 1.1 of the Bing Search API. This comes as no surprise, as version 2.0 was launched over a year ago.
Version 1.1 will no longer be supported as of November 1, 2010. Webmasters and developers still using the version 1.1 API will need to migrate over to version 2.0 by then. "In addition to the improved features, a single Bing Search API means streamlined maintenance, updates and support," a representative for Bing tells WebProNews.
Version 2.0 comes with support for new source types like translation, answers, video, and related search. It also supports protocols like JSON, XML, and SOAP. Version 2.0 users can also send an unlimited number of query requests (for legitimate uses described in the terms of use).
Bing - Switch to newer version of API "There are other benefits of this transition as well," says Bing Developer Platform Senior Product Manager Reed Shaffner. "The new Bing Search API introduced considerable improvements for maintenance and updates so that going forward, we can introduce feature improvements and other changes without switching API versions. Furthermore, we will better able to aid you in your requests for assistance as there will now be a single version to monitor and support."
Version 2.0 is also accompanied by a new developer center and Project Silk Road, which is a set of tools from Microsoft for online publishers and developers aimed at generating traffic and increasing engagement on their sites.
OLD API system to shut off
Microsoft announced that that it is phasing out version 1.1 of the Bing Search API. This comes as no surprise, as version 2.0 was launched over a year ago.
Version 1.1 will no longer be supported as of November 1, 2010. Webmasters and developers still using the version 1.1 API will need to migrate over to version 2.0 by then. "In addition to the improved features, a single Bing Search API means streamlined maintenance, updates and support," a representative for Bing tells WebProNews.
Version 2.0 comes with support for new source types like translation, answers, video, and related search. It also supports protocols like JSON, XML, and SOAP. Version 2.0 users can also send an unlimited number of query requests (for legitimate uses described in the terms of use).
Bing - Switch to newer version of API "There are other benefits of this transition as well," says Bing Developer Platform Senior Product Manager Reed Shaffner. "The new Bing Search API introduced considerable improvements for maintenance and updates so that going forward, we can introduce feature improvements and other changes without switching API versions. Furthermore, we will better able to aid you in your requests for assistance as there will now be a single version to monitor and support."
Version 2.0 is also accompanied by a new developer center and Project Silk Road, which is a set of tools from Microsoft for online publishers and developers aimed at generating traffic and increasing engagement on their sites.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Gasta tech news: Hitwise Europe
Government Budget sparks surge in tax and benefit searches
On 22 June 2010 the new Chancellor, George Osborne, delivered an Emergency Budget aimed at reducing the British deficit. The key themes of the Budget were to increase taxes and freeze benefits, including a rise in VAT from 17.5% to 20%, a rise in capital gains tax for high earners and a three year freeze on child benefits.
Given the importance of the Budget to household finances in the UK, it wasn't a big surprise to learn that the Budget fuelled consumer searches immediately after the Chancellor's announcement. On the day of Mr Osborne's speech, 1 in every 179 searches in the UK was related to the budget.
The two principle areas of search for UK internet users were for taxes and benefits. Searches for term variations of 'government benefits' doubled in the week of the Emergency Budget but despite this spike, benefit-related searches actually decreased this quarter compared to the same time last year.
Searches for taxes on the other hand increased by 11.5% for the quarter ending June 2010 compared with the previous quarter (ending March 2010). In comparison with the same quarter in 2009, tax-related searches increased by 28%.
As one of the main features of Mr Osborne's Emergency Budget, 'capital gains tax' was the most prominent tax-related search term of the quarter. Council tax and VAT were also popular search terms followed by income tax and national insurance.
Find out more about the Hitwise Financial Services Quarterly Review.
With the unveiling in June of the Universal theme park, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the movie trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and the release of Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4, it's fair to say that Harry Potter fever is casting a spell over online audiences again.
Of the 32 million distinct search terms that UK internet users typed into search engines over June, nearly 16,500 of them contained the term 'harry potter', meaning 1 in every 2,000 search terms was Harry Potter-related. Such was the popularity of the fantastic boy wizard that 'harry potter' was a more popular search term than 'ipad', the second most popular Apple iPad related search term.
These three Harry Potter events accounted for the majority of the search traffic and search terms. Of the top 20 Harry Potter-related search terms, five were related to the new theme park in Orlando, four were related to the Lego game and three were related to the new movie.
Despite having the fewest search terms, search traffic for the seventh Harry Potter movie was the highest in volume terms, accounting for over 8% of Harry Potter searches. Searches for the Universal theme park accounted for over 5.7% and the new Lego game took 3.8% of the market share of related searches.
Times Paywall traffic loss less than expected
The Times' recent controversial move to take their content behind a paywall and charge online consumers to read their content has attracted a lot of attention. As the first general news content provider to charge for its online content, there has been ample speculation about consumers deserting The Times in favour of free online content.
Since the paywall was erected, The Times has lost two thirds of its market share of visits. In the weeks before the paywall went up, www.thetimes.co.uk received an average of 4.29% of all visits to the News and Media - Print category. By the week ending 10/07/2010, The Times' market share of visits had dropped to 1.43%, just 33% of where it had been five weeks previously.
The latest data for the week ending 17/07/2010 shows that The Times' market share of visits has dropped off further still to account for 1.37% of the News and Media - Print category. The rate of decline is slowing however and the data suggests traffic to The Times' website is stabilising.
Despite the decline in traffic, The Times' website is still ranked higher than the Financial Times, its nearest competitor in the pay wall market. The FT has received deserved praise for its financial model, with one journalist suggesting they had "unlocked the secret of eternal profitability". If The Times can match that feat with its paywall then the exercise has been a success.
Time will tell if The Times loses further internet traffic and when the introductory offer of "£1 for the first 30 days" expires perhaps consumers will search for their news content from other providers. So far though, The Times seems to be doing just fine. For now Mr Murdoch's gamble has paid off.
marketing.uk@hitwise.com.
On 22 June 2010 the new Chancellor, George Osborne, delivered an Emergency Budget aimed at reducing the British deficit. The key themes of the Budget were to increase taxes and freeze benefits, including a rise in VAT from 17.5% to 20%, a rise in capital gains tax for high earners and a three year freeze on child benefits.
Given the importance of the Budget to household finances in the UK, it wasn't a big surprise to learn that the Budget fuelled consumer searches immediately after the Chancellor's announcement. On the day of Mr Osborne's speech, 1 in every 179 searches in the UK was related to the budget.
The two principle areas of search for UK internet users were for taxes and benefits. Searches for term variations of 'government benefits' doubled in the week of the Emergency Budget but despite this spike, benefit-related searches actually decreased this quarter compared to the same time last year.
Searches for taxes on the other hand increased by 11.5% for the quarter ending June 2010 compared with the previous quarter (ending March 2010). In comparison with the same quarter in 2009, tax-related searches increased by 28%.
As one of the main features of Mr Osborne's Emergency Budget, 'capital gains tax' was the most prominent tax-related search term of the quarter. Council tax and VAT were also popular search terms followed by income tax and national insurance.
Find out more about the Hitwise Financial Services Quarterly Review.
With the unveiling in June of the Universal theme park, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the movie trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and the release of Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4, it's fair to say that Harry Potter fever is casting a spell over online audiences again.
Of the 32 million distinct search terms that UK internet users typed into search engines over June, nearly 16,500 of them contained the term 'harry potter', meaning 1 in every 2,000 search terms was Harry Potter-related. Such was the popularity of the fantastic boy wizard that 'harry potter' was a more popular search term than 'ipad', the second most popular Apple iPad related search term.
These three Harry Potter events accounted for the majority of the search traffic and search terms. Of the top 20 Harry Potter-related search terms, five were related to the new theme park in Orlando, four were related to the Lego game and three were related to the new movie.
Despite having the fewest search terms, search traffic for the seventh Harry Potter movie was the highest in volume terms, accounting for over 8% of Harry Potter searches. Searches for the Universal theme park accounted for over 5.7% and the new Lego game took 3.8% of the market share of related searches.
Times Paywall traffic loss less than expected
The Times' recent controversial move to take their content behind a paywall and charge online consumers to read their content has attracted a lot of attention. As the first general news content provider to charge for its online content, there has been ample speculation about consumers deserting The Times in favour of free online content.
Since the paywall was erected, The Times has lost two thirds of its market share of visits. In the weeks before the paywall went up, www.thetimes.co.uk received an average of 4.29% of all visits to the News and Media - Print category. By the week ending 10/07/2010, The Times' market share of visits had dropped to 1.43%, just 33% of where it had been five weeks previously.
The latest data for the week ending 17/07/2010 shows that The Times' market share of visits has dropped off further still to account for 1.37% of the News and Media - Print category. The rate of decline is slowing however and the data suggests traffic to The Times' website is stabilising.
Despite the decline in traffic, The Times' website is still ranked higher than the Financial Times, its nearest competitor in the pay wall market. The FT has received deserved praise for its financial model, with one journalist suggesting they had "unlocked the secret of eternal profitability". If The Times can match that feat with its paywall then the exercise has been a success.
Time will tell if The Times loses further internet traffic and when the introductory offer of "£1 for the first 30 days" expires perhaps consumers will search for their news content from other providers. So far though, The Times seems to be doing just fine. For now Mr Murdoch's gamble has paid off.
marketing.uk@hitwise.com.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Gasta Tech Update: Gay and Lesbian Adults Are More Likely and More Frequent Blog Readers
Gay and Lesbian Adults Are More Likely and More Frequent Blog Readers
Social Networks, Blog Popularity Remain High for Gay Americans over Past Three Years
NEW YORK and WASHINGTON, July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- As media trends accelerate towards citizen-journalism and blogger-created news content, a new national survey again validates that gay and lesbian adults online today are among the nation's most loyal and heaviest blog readers and social network users.
According to a recent national survey conducted online by Harris Interactive®, a majority of gay and lesbian adults are reading blogs. More than half (54%) of gay men and lesbian respondents report reading some type of blog, compared to only 40% of heterosexuals. This represents an incremental increase from March 2008 when 51% of gay and lesbian respondents reported reading some type of blog. A similar question was asked in November 2006 and at that time, only 32% of gay and lesbian adults reported reading blogs.
When it comes to the types of blogs popular with Americans, the survey also found 36% of gay and lesbian adults read news and current issue blogs, compared to 25% of heterosexual adults. A quarter (25%) of gay and lesbian adults also read entertainment and pop culture blogs, compared to 16% of heterosexuals. Considering the global and media attention focused on American politics and the Obama presidency, 22% of gay and lesbian adults also read political blogs, compared to just 14% of heterosexual adults. Confirming their sustained strong connection with travel news and opportunities, 16% of gay and lesbian respondents report reading travel blogs, compared to 8% of heterosexual respondents.
Not surprising, over one third (35%) of all lesbian and gay male adults report they read blogs specifically tailored for gay and lesbian news and interests. More than half (53%) of these readers also say they visit gay and lesbian blogs weekly, and one in five (19%) do so daily. Michael Rogers, veteran gay blogger and media activist reported that these findings mirror his experience: "My own work tells me gay men and lesbians have tremendous need and appetite for authentic gay news and information, and they want it fast. As director of the National Blogger and Citizen Journalist Initiative, I work with scores of bloggers to enhance skills, improve delivery and content and grow connections with a very receptive lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender audience across the U.S."
The new nationwide survey of 2,412 U.S. adults, (ages 18 and over), of whom 271 self identified as gay or lesbian (which includes an oversample of lesbian and gay adults), was conducted online between June 14 and 21, 2010, by Harris Interactive, a global market research and consulting firm, in conjunction with Witeck-Combs Communications, Inc., a strategic public relations and marketing communications firm with special expertise in the LGBT market.
Apart from avidly reading blogs, gay and lesbian adults also are choosing to connect online through social networking sites more often than their heterosexual counterparts. A remarkable three-quarters (73%) of gay and lesbian adults state they are members of Facebook, compared to 65% of heterosexual adults. Also, 32% of gay and lesbian respondents report being members of MySpace, compared to 22% of heterosexual respondents (albeit a shrinking number of both groups from past years). When it comes to the business-oriented social networking site, LinkedIn, 22% of gay and lesbian respondents report being members, while 16% of heterosexual adults state they are members. Finally, nearly 3 out of 10 (or 29%) gay men and lesbians report they are members of Twitter, while the same can be said of just 15% of heterosexual adults.
Significantly, 55% of gay men and lesbians say they visit social network sites at least once a day – but only 41% of heterosexual adults report that same frequency. Three out of ten gay men and women also say they visit sites several times a day, while only 17% of heterosexuals share that habit.
"Over this past decade, through many comparative measures – we see first-hand that online media consumption for gays and lesbians is strong and growing stronger," said Bob Witeck, CEO of Witeck-Combs Communications. "A majority of LGBT households are hungrier than ever to stay well informed and to expand their social, professional and personal connections online. In today's uncertain economy, and with companies and organizations competing for share of attention, it is clear that blogs and social networking sites have not only come of age for gay America – but in many ways have become the virtual, new gay community centers and marketplace."
Methodology
Harris Interactive conducted the study online within the United States between June 14 and 21, 2010, among 2,412 adults (ages 18 and over), of whom 341 self-identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender. We over-sampled gay men and lesbians in order to allow for more detailed analysis of these groups.
Figures for age, sex, race, education, region and income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. In addition, the results for the gay and lesbian sample were weighted separately based on profiles of the gay and lesbian population that Harris Interactive has compiled through many different online surveys. Propensity score weighting also was used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online.
All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words "margin of error" as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.
Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.
About Harris Interactive
Harris Interactive is one of the world's leading custom market research firms, leveraging research, technology, and business acumen to transform relevant insight into actionable foresight. Known widely for the Harris Poll and for pioneering innovative research methodologies, Harris offers expertise in a wide range of industries including healthcare, technology, public affairs, energy, telecommunications, financial services, insurance, media, retail, restaurant, and consumer package goods. Serving clients in over 215 countries and territories through our North American, European, and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms, Harris specializes in delivering research solutions that help us – and our clients – stay ahead of what's next. For more information, please visit http://www.harrisinteractive.com.
About Witeck-Combs Communications, Inc.
Witeck-Combs Communications, Inc. is the nation's premier marketing communications and consulting firm, specializing in developing and implementing effective strategies reaching the gay and lesbian consumer market. With over 16 years experience in this unique market, Witeck-Combs Communications not only serves as a bridge between corporate America and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender consumers (LGBT), but also provides counsel to countless non-profit organizations that aim to educate the public on gay and lesbian issues or to better reach their LGBT membership.
In April 2003, American Demographics magazine identified Bob Witeck and Wes Combs as two of 25 experts over the last 25 years who have made significant contributions to the fields of demographics, market research, media and trendspotting for their path breaking work on the gay and lesbian market, and in 2006 Bob Witeck and Wes Combs co-authored Business Inside Out: Capturing Millions of Brand Loyal Gay Consumers (Kaplan Publishing), considered the first-ever book on marketing insights, practical tips and strategies targeting the LGBT market. They have appeared in worldwide media outlets including Fortune, CNBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, Ad Age, New York Times and Washington Post. For more information visit www.witeckcombs.com.
Press Contact:
Harris Interactive
Regina Corso
212-539-9600
rcorso@harrisinteractive.com
Witeck-Combs Communications
Bob Witeck
info@witeckcombs.com
SOURCE Harris Interactive
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RELATED LINKS
http://www.harrisinteractive.com
Social Networks, Blog Popularity Remain High for Gay Americans over Past Three Years
NEW YORK and WASHINGTON, July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- As media trends accelerate towards citizen-journalism and blogger-created news content, a new national survey again validates that gay and lesbian adults online today are among the nation's most loyal and heaviest blog readers and social network users.
According to a recent national survey conducted online by Harris Interactive®, a majority of gay and lesbian adults are reading blogs. More than half (54%) of gay men and lesbian respondents report reading some type of blog, compared to only 40% of heterosexuals. This represents an incremental increase from March 2008 when 51% of gay and lesbian respondents reported reading some type of blog. A similar question was asked in November 2006 and at that time, only 32% of gay and lesbian adults reported reading blogs.
When it comes to the types of blogs popular with Americans, the survey also found 36% of gay and lesbian adults read news and current issue blogs, compared to 25% of heterosexual adults. A quarter (25%) of gay and lesbian adults also read entertainment and pop culture blogs, compared to 16% of heterosexuals. Considering the global and media attention focused on American politics and the Obama presidency, 22% of gay and lesbian adults also read political blogs, compared to just 14% of heterosexual adults. Confirming their sustained strong connection with travel news and opportunities, 16% of gay and lesbian respondents report reading travel blogs, compared to 8% of heterosexual respondents.
Not surprising, over one third (35%) of all lesbian and gay male adults report they read blogs specifically tailored for gay and lesbian news and interests. More than half (53%) of these readers also say they visit gay and lesbian blogs weekly, and one in five (19%) do so daily. Michael Rogers, veteran gay blogger and media activist reported that these findings mirror his experience: "My own work tells me gay men and lesbians have tremendous need and appetite for authentic gay news and information, and they want it fast. As director of the National Blogger and Citizen Journalist Initiative, I work with scores of bloggers to enhance skills, improve delivery and content and grow connections with a very receptive lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender audience across the U.S."
The new nationwide survey of 2,412 U.S. adults, (ages 18 and over), of whom 271 self identified as gay or lesbian (which includes an oversample of lesbian and gay adults), was conducted online between June 14 and 21, 2010, by Harris Interactive, a global market research and consulting firm, in conjunction with Witeck-Combs Communications, Inc., a strategic public relations and marketing communications firm with special expertise in the LGBT market.
Apart from avidly reading blogs, gay and lesbian adults also are choosing to connect online through social networking sites more often than their heterosexual counterparts. A remarkable three-quarters (73%) of gay and lesbian adults state they are members of Facebook, compared to 65% of heterosexual adults. Also, 32% of gay and lesbian respondents report being members of MySpace, compared to 22% of heterosexual respondents (albeit a shrinking number of both groups from past years). When it comes to the business-oriented social networking site, LinkedIn, 22% of gay and lesbian respondents report being members, while 16% of heterosexual adults state they are members. Finally, nearly 3 out of 10 (or 29%) gay men and lesbians report they are members of Twitter, while the same can be said of just 15% of heterosexual adults.
Significantly, 55% of gay men and lesbians say they visit social network sites at least once a day – but only 41% of heterosexual adults report that same frequency. Three out of ten gay men and women also say they visit sites several times a day, while only 17% of heterosexuals share that habit.
"Over this past decade, through many comparative measures – we see first-hand that online media consumption for gays and lesbians is strong and growing stronger," said Bob Witeck, CEO of Witeck-Combs Communications. "A majority of LGBT households are hungrier than ever to stay well informed and to expand their social, professional and personal connections online. In today's uncertain economy, and with companies and organizations competing for share of attention, it is clear that blogs and social networking sites have not only come of age for gay America – but in many ways have become the virtual, new gay community centers and marketplace."
Methodology
Harris Interactive conducted the study online within the United States between June 14 and 21, 2010, among 2,412 adults (ages 18 and over), of whom 341 self-identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender. We over-sampled gay men and lesbians in order to allow for more detailed analysis of these groups.
Figures for age, sex, race, education, region and income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. In addition, the results for the gay and lesbian sample were weighted separately based on profiles of the gay and lesbian population that Harris Interactive has compiled through many different online surveys. Propensity score weighting also was used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online.
All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words "margin of error" as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.
Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.
About Harris Interactive
Harris Interactive is one of the world's leading custom market research firms, leveraging research, technology, and business acumen to transform relevant insight into actionable foresight. Known widely for the Harris Poll and for pioneering innovative research methodologies, Harris offers expertise in a wide range of industries including healthcare, technology, public affairs, energy, telecommunications, financial services, insurance, media, retail, restaurant, and consumer package goods. Serving clients in over 215 countries and territories through our North American, European, and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms, Harris specializes in delivering research solutions that help us – and our clients – stay ahead of what's next. For more information, please visit http://www.harrisinteractive.com.
About Witeck-Combs Communications, Inc.
Witeck-Combs Communications, Inc. is the nation's premier marketing communications and consulting firm, specializing in developing and implementing effective strategies reaching the gay and lesbian consumer market. With over 16 years experience in this unique market, Witeck-Combs Communications not only serves as a bridge between corporate America and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender consumers (LGBT), but also provides counsel to countless non-profit organizations that aim to educate the public on gay and lesbian issues or to better reach their LGBT membership.
In April 2003, American Demographics magazine identified Bob Witeck and Wes Combs as two of 25 experts over the last 25 years who have made significant contributions to the fields of demographics, market research, media and trendspotting for their path breaking work on the gay and lesbian market, and in 2006 Bob Witeck and Wes Combs co-authored Business Inside Out: Capturing Millions of Brand Loyal Gay Consumers (Kaplan Publishing), considered the first-ever book on marketing insights, practical tips and strategies targeting the LGBT market. They have appeared in worldwide media outlets including Fortune, CNBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, Ad Age, New York Times and Washington Post. For more information visit www.witeckcombs.com.
Press Contact:
Harris Interactive
Regina Corso
212-539-9600
rcorso@harrisinteractive.com
Witeck-Combs Communications
Bob Witeck
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Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Gasta Tech A viral strategy for using paid search
Gasta Tech A viral strategy for using paid search
By Seth Sarelson
March 12, 2010
* Each paid search click for a multi-channel merchant is more valuable for in-store revenue than for online revenue
* A coupon that's no better than your competitors' coupons or your standard everyday coupon isn't going to go viral
* Add a sense of urgency to your campaign by having a short-term expiration date on your coupon
Paid search has, and continues to be, one of the most effective ways of driving online sales. What you may not know is that paid search may actually be much more effective at driving in-store sales than it ever has been for ecommerce.
Co-author Jonathan Treiber is CEO and co-founder of RevTrax.
Data from a comScore and Yahoo study (PDF) actually suggest that consumers exposed to only search spent $16 in store for every $1 they spent online. Analysis of cross-channel conversion data by RevTrax has yielded the same conclusion -- that each paid search click for a multi-channel merchant is far more valuable for in-store revenue than it is for online revenue.
Given this data, it's no surprise that marketers are looking more and more to paid search as an incredibly cost-effective tool to drive in-store sales via use of a printable coupon. By combining paid search with consumer-initiated social media and email to facilitate virality, marketers can set the stage to make a big impact at a low cost in a way that is impossible with other marketing strategies -- especially print.
Here are five tips to help you use paid search to make your coupons go viral:
1. Dig deep. Give a high value offer. A coupon that's no better than your competitors' coupons or your standard everyday coupon isn't going to go viral. If you want to go viral, you're going to need to push your limits and create an extraordinary offer.
2. Search + social media + email = viral. Each time a consumer prints your coupon, you'll want to prompt him or her to either A) share the coupon via social media, B) email friends, or C) both. A social media interaction that's generated by a consumer recommending your coupon to friends is far more valuable than anything marketers can do on their own. You can easily accomplish this by adding a social media widget on the page where consumers print your coupon.
3. Offers should expire quickly. Add a sense of urgency to your campaign by having a short-term expiration date on your coupon. If consumers know that your coupon expires in several days, they'll engage more quickly than if it was outstanding for a month before expiring.
4. Measure thoroughly, optimize frequently, and repeat. You should know which keywords are generating the greatest numbers of clicks, prints and, ultimately, sales. The same keywords that generate the heaviest click volume aren't necessarily the ones that generate the most coupons printed and in-store sales. There are technologies available to help you measure the full conversion funnel from paid search ads to in-store sales for each individual keyword to optimize your bidding. Also, the more frequently you measure the data (i.e., daily versus weekly), the quicker you can optimize bid-management and drive better results.
5. Geo-target. Run campaigns with a tight radius around each store. You probably have a good sense for how far consumers will travel. Optimize your campaigns by setting a geographic radius around each store if possible. If you have too many stores or this is not possible, at least make sure that you exclude regions where you do not have a physical presence.
In addition to the things you can do right, there's one big thing to avoid:
Don't make the consumer jump through hoops. It's one thing to ask a consumer to give a name or email address to build your database. Do not ask the consumer for endless amounts of registration data that you won't use. Also, do not force the consumer to download software to print the coupon. These roadblocks are the killers of conversion rates and viral marketing. The rule of thumb is that keeping it simple will keep your customers happy.
As marketers make the transition from traditional media to search and other types of digital media to drive in-store sales, it's critical that marketers utilize best practices to increase ROI and make it easy for consumers to engage and share coupons with friends. When executed correctly, a search campaign driving traffic to a printable coupon can be one of the most effective and targeted ways to generate in-store sales with incredibly high ROI.
Seth Sarelson is COO and co-founder of RevTrax, where co-founder Jonathan Treiber is CEO.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Gasta WHITE LABEL Tech Update
Gasta search network: Don’t think about it, just do it!!
Getting into the hearts and minds of web searchers requires building needs and becoming indispensible. It requires clean, accurate, and relevant results. The real secret sauce of the next generation of search will contain a multitude of ingredients that serve time, need, convenience, and desire. To bring them in, you have to be more compelling. To keep them, you have to be clever, and what Gasta.com has done is clever.
Gasta.com is getting ready to launch it biggest search innovation yet. Launched in 1997 the search engine network has been completely overhauled using the new Microsoft MVC platform, and this version of Gasta is the best yet with a lot of new Social Networking and Social marketing options.
You can now share search results straight to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Hi5, and a variety of other social networks. The results are faster (85% of sites are slower than Gasta). You can share Videos, News, Images, Blogs, and Adverts. Yes with Gasta.com new SearchMatch™ Platform you can send a link from your advertisement to a social network site, hence the role of the open networker and the key Influencer is utilized in your campaigns, simple.
As well as this Gasta now offers comparison shopping and seamless geo-ip targeting. The InstantLink directory is dropped but the keyword suggestion tool and suggested search tool is almalgamated into the SERp. This platform rewrite comes at a critical time for European Search industry as the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA) has just released figures that show, Up to 70% of European advertisers intend to increase online ad spend during 2009, as budgets continue to shift as a result of the recession.
Gasta’s focus on niche, long tail keywords that match your services, and a cost effective pricing with no PPC, are exactly are what is needed bring eyeballs to your 'online window shopping experience'.
Whatever the approach to media might be, it's clear that a shift is in order. Not just a shift in creative focus or emotional triggers, but a shift in how we approach the most important aspect of the search: the people behind each need-defining query. To this end Gasta.com web3.0 has been worked out leveraging the DigitalDesign outlook strategies, leading into 2010.
1. Advertising networks that can effectively leverage social information will
become marginally more important.
2. Widgets, as vehicles to carry a message effectively within and across various
social media environments will become more popular.
3. Exchanges or clearing houses will arise to provide compensation in some form
(e.g., cash, rewards, points, status) for users.
4. Niche social media will become attractive places for brands to engage in SIM
because relevance can be increased.
5. Gasta: A hosted search white label solution in Action.
Gasta 3.0 will be launching at the end of this month. Mysearchmachine.com is an ongoing project of the Gasta search network
“Tell them and show them the great things they'll find. Great creative might actually get them there, but as history has taught us, it's hard to keep them when it's so easy to switch. Don't give them a learning curve, and for heaven's sake, please don't make them think”.
Getting into the hearts and minds of web searchers requires building needs and becoming indispensible. It requires clean, accurate, and relevant results. The real secret sauce of the next generation of search will contain a multitude of ingredients that serve time, need, convenience, and desire. To bring them in, you have to be more compelling. To keep them, you have to be clever, and what Gasta.com has done is clever.
Gasta.com is getting ready to launch it biggest search innovation yet. Launched in 1997 the search engine network has been completely overhauled using the new Microsoft MVC platform, and this version of Gasta is the best yet with a lot of new Social Networking and Social marketing options.
You can now share search results straight to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Hi5, and a variety of other social networks. The results are faster (85% of sites are slower than Gasta). You can share Videos, News, Images, Blogs, and Adverts. Yes with Gasta.com new SearchMatch™ Platform you can send a link from your advertisement to a social network site, hence the role of the open networker and the key Influencer is utilized in your campaigns, simple.
As well as this Gasta now offers comparison shopping and seamless geo-ip targeting. The InstantLink directory is dropped but the keyword suggestion tool and suggested search tool is almalgamated into the SERp. This platform rewrite comes at a critical time for European Search industry as the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA) has just released figures that show, Up to 70% of European advertisers intend to increase online ad spend during 2009, as budgets continue to shift as a result of the recession.
Gasta’s focus on niche, long tail keywords that match your services, and a cost effective pricing with no PPC, are exactly are what is needed bring eyeballs to your 'online window shopping experience'.
Whatever the approach to media might be, it's clear that a shift is in order. Not just a shift in creative focus or emotional triggers, but a shift in how we approach the most important aspect of the search: the people behind each need-defining query. To this end Gasta.com web3.0 has been worked out leveraging the DigitalDesign outlook strategies, leading into 2010.
1. Advertising networks that can effectively leverage social information will
become marginally more important.
2. Widgets, as vehicles to carry a message effectively within and across various
social media environments will become more popular.
3. Exchanges or clearing houses will arise to provide compensation in some form
(e.g., cash, rewards, points, status) for users.
4. Niche social media will become attractive places for brands to engage in SIM
because relevance can be increased.
5. Gasta: A hosted search white label solution in Action.
Gasta 3.0 will be launching at the end of this month. Mysearchmachine.com is an ongoing project of the Gasta search network
“Tell them and show them the great things they'll find. Great creative might actually get them there, but as history has taught us, it's hard to keep them when it's so easy to switch. Don't give them a learning curve, and for heaven's sake, please don't make them think”.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Gasta Tech Update: LinkedIn traffic generation ob Gasta shared links
Gasta Search network Url shorteners and share apps in the search prove a winners with building resources and links from LinkedIn and Twitter.
LinkedIn Has New Ways to Drive Targeted Traffic to Your Site
Chris Crum | Staff Writer
April 24, 2010
http://www.WebProNews.com
Some Count LinkedIn as Top 5 Traffic Source
When you think about traffic-driving social networks, LinkedIn may not be the first thing that comes to your mind, and truth be told, there's a good chance it will not drive the kind of traffic Twitter or Facebook will for your site. However, some sites have found it to be a quite valuable traffic tool, and the company seems to want to further cement its status as such.
LinkedIn reportedly has about 65 million members. That may not seem like much compared to Facebooks 400 million (likely well over that by now in reality), but LinkedIn can bring a different brand of relevance to the table.
Has LinkedIn become an integral part to your marketing?
Let Us Know Here
Earlier this year, we talked to entrepreneur Lewis Howes (who claims that LinkedIn is one of the top traffic sources to his blogs) about how powerful LinkedIn can be for driving traffic. He had written on the subject previously at Darren Rowse's ProBlogger. "You need to take into consideration that LinkedIn has the highest average household income per user over any other social networking site (even NYTimes.com and BusinessWeek.com readers)," Howes told us. "That being said, these are business decision makers you are targeting with your traffic from LinkedIn. The network is for real, and it will only continue to grow in time..."
What's New
LinkedIn has announced some changes to its news sharing options, and some of them just may help content spread more like it would on Twitter. Notable changes include:
comScore Talks Mobile, Retail, and Chatroulette
Click Here to Watch the Live Video Now
1. Public vs. Private - Users now get complete control over who sees what they're sharing (everyone, connections, a group, or one person).
2. Images and article excerpt - Facebook-style images/excerpts that can increase clickthrough potential.
3. See and delete your own posts - preview, edit, and delete options for status updates to prevent typos.
4. Easily re-share - LinkedIn's version of the retweet - just click a button and share content with connections, groups or individuals. This could be a huge factor for traffic. Retweets are great for making content go viral.
5. Improved off-site sharing experience - Now content sites will be able to offer a similar sharing process for LinkedIn to its own internal re-share feature.
6. The URL shortener (Lnkd.in) - LinkedIn calls this a companion to its Twitter integration.
7. Attribution - Re-shared articles give "via-style" credit by attributing something you re-share to the person who shared it with you.
8. Shared items on your profile - If a user chooses to make shared items public, they will appear on their profile.
Howes told us that people don't generally associate LinkedIn with driving traffic, and that their perception of it is more like a resume or a way to get a job. "They don't see all of the powerful tools within LinkedIn that allow you to drive traffic back to your site," he said.
LinkedIn has recently launched some new integrations that can only help with a user's traffic strategy - notably, integrations with Twitter and Microsoft Outlook. "The Outlook integration is a way to connect more with your current LinkedIn contacts, and also help you grow you network as well," Howes noted. The Twitter integration obviously lets you tap into the following you already have on Twitter, which has already proven to be a significant traffic-driving tool.
LinkedIn Has New Ways to Drive Targeted Traffic to Your Site
Chris Crum | Staff Writer
April 24, 2010
http://www.WebProNews.com
Some Count LinkedIn as Top 5 Traffic Source
When you think about traffic-driving social networks, LinkedIn may not be the first thing that comes to your mind, and truth be told, there's a good chance it will not drive the kind of traffic Twitter or Facebook will for your site. However, some sites have found it to be a quite valuable traffic tool, and the company seems to want to further cement its status as such.
LinkedIn reportedly has about 65 million members. That may not seem like much compared to Facebooks 400 million (likely well over that by now in reality), but LinkedIn can bring a different brand of relevance to the table.
Has LinkedIn become an integral part to your marketing?
Let Us Know Here
Earlier this year, we talked to entrepreneur Lewis Howes (who claims that LinkedIn is one of the top traffic sources to his blogs) about how powerful LinkedIn can be for driving traffic. He had written on the subject previously at Darren Rowse's ProBlogger. "You need to take into consideration that LinkedIn has the highest average household income per user over any other social networking site (even NYTimes.com and BusinessWeek.com readers)," Howes told us. "That being said, these are business decision makers you are targeting with your traffic from LinkedIn. The network is for real, and it will only continue to grow in time..."
What's New
LinkedIn has announced some changes to its news sharing options, and some of them just may help content spread more like it would on Twitter. Notable changes include:
comScore Talks Mobile, Retail, and Chatroulette
Click Here to Watch the Live Video Now
1. Public vs. Private - Users now get complete control over who sees what they're sharing (everyone, connections, a group, or one person).
2. Images and article excerpt - Facebook-style images/excerpts that can increase clickthrough potential.
3. See and delete your own posts - preview, edit, and delete options for status updates to prevent typos.
4. Easily re-share - LinkedIn's version of the retweet - just click a button and share content with connections, groups or individuals. This could be a huge factor for traffic. Retweets are great for making content go viral.
5. Improved off-site sharing experience - Now content sites will be able to offer a similar sharing process for LinkedIn to its own internal re-share feature.
6. The URL shortener (Lnkd.in) - LinkedIn calls this a companion to its Twitter integration.
7. Attribution - Re-shared articles give "via-style" credit by attributing something you re-share to the person who shared it with you.
8. Shared items on your profile - If a user chooses to make shared items public, they will appear on their profile.
Howes told us that people don't generally associate LinkedIn with driving traffic, and that their perception of it is more like a resume or a way to get a job. "They don't see all of the powerful tools within LinkedIn that allow you to drive traffic back to your site," he said.
LinkedIn has recently launched some new integrations that can only help with a user's traffic strategy - notably, integrations with Twitter and Microsoft Outlook. "The Outlook integration is a way to connect more with your current LinkedIn contacts, and also help you grow you network as well," Howes noted. The Twitter integration obviously lets you tap into the following you already have on Twitter, which has already proven to be a significant traffic-driving tool.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Gasta Keywords
HitWise North America Newsletter - April, 2010
Search Terms Analysis
'volcano'
Hitwise Search Intelligence™ data reveals the top websites from the complete list of websites that received traffic from the search term 'volcano'. The results are ordered based on the volume of traffic for the week ending April 17, 2010.
Most popular websites that received traffic from ‘volcano' for the week ending 04/17/10
Rank Website Domain Share
1. Wikipedia www.wikipedia.org 9.20%
2. USA Today www.usatoday.com 6.98%
3. YouTube www.youtube.com 6.44%
4. BBC News news.bbc.co.uk 5.64%
5. The New York Times www.nytimes.com 3.84%
6. Yahoo! News news.yahoo.com 3.26%
7. msn www.msn.com 3.20%
8. Guardian.co.uk www.guardian.co.uk 3.12%
Fast Movers
TaxExtensions.com - www.taxextensions.com
Rank week ending - April 17, 2010 - 1,560
Rank week ending - April 10, 2010 - 27,128
Positions jumped - 25,568
The TaxExtensions.com website moved up 25,568 positions among all websites visited by U.S. Internet users (week ending April 17, 2010) to rank number 1,560 overall and number 9 in the Accountancy industry. Of the website's total traffic, 95.5 percent consisted of new visitors. The top three websites visited after the TaxExtensions.com website were Internal Revenue Service , Google and TurboTax .
The top DMA® (Designated Marketed Areas) of visitors to the TaxExtensions.com website were from Dallas - Ft.Worth, TX (4.34%), New York, NY (3.84%) and Los Angeles, CA (3.38%). The majority of visitors to the website were female (62%), aged 55+ years (29%) with a household income of $30-$60K per year (36%) for the four weeks ending 04/17/10. Other websites with a similar demographic profile to the TaxExtensions.com website were My Life, Intelius and Home McAfee .
Leveraging Competitive Intelligence
Closing the Gap - Understanding Competitors' Search Marketing Strategies with Gap Analysis
By using Hitwise Search Intelligence™ 'Compare With' Reports, you can identify the search terms that are missing from your search campaigns and working for your competitors. For example, if you are Orbitz.com and one of your competitors is Priceline.com, by conducting a search terms 'Compare With' report you will discover keywords that are currently driving more traffic to Priceline.com than Orbitz. In the chart below, you can see the top search terms, not including the Priceline brand, that drive more traffic to Priceline.com than Orbitz.com are 'hotels.com,' 'cheap hotels,' 'hotels,' 'hotel' and 'enterprise car rental' for the four weeks ending 04/17/10. This insight is invaluable for gaining a competitive edge over your direct competitors.
For Hitwise clients who would like to discuss this product further, please contact Hitwise Customer Support, or visit the Hitwise University and download the Hitwise Search Intelligence™ Product Fact Sheet
To learn more about Hitwise data and Search Terms Gap Analysis, view the Hitwise Search Intelligence™ Product Fact Sheet.
Search Terms driving traffic to Priceline.com - 4 weeks ending 04/17/10, compared with Search Terms driving traffic to Orbitz
Rank Search Terms Clicks Priceline.com Clicks Orbitz Difference
1. priceline 23.76% <0.046% 23.76%
2. priceline.com hotels 2.67% <0.046% 2.67%
3. hotels.com 1.18% 0.05% 1.13%
4. cheap hotels 1.01% 0.34% 0.67%
5. price line 0.56% <0.046% 0.56%
6. hotels 0.46% 0.18% 0.27%
7. hotel 0.20% <0.046% 0.20%
8. enterprise car rental 0.16% <0.046% 0.16%
9. budget car rental 0.15% <0.046% 0.15%
10. cheaphotels.com 0.15% <0.046% 0.15%
Category Spotlight
Travel - Agencies
This category contains websites that provide third-party bookings for travel services, such as package holidays, flights, and tours. The category also includes the websites of offline travel agencies and tour operators, as well as publishers of travel deals and travel price comparison sites. It does not include sites which focus exclusively on accommodation bookings. The data below is based on All sites - Weekly rankings for the week ending 04/17/2010 - Ranks by 'Visits.'
Travel - Agencies - All sites - Weekly rankings for the week ending 04/17/10 - Ranks by 'Visits'
Rank Website
1. Expedia
2. priceline.com
3. Travelocity
4. Orbitz
5. Yahoo! Travel
6. Hotwire
7. bookingbuddy
8. CheapOair.com
9. Bing Travel
10. Lowfares.com
Local Competitiveness Index
97.9%
of traffic to this category was directed at domestic sites.
Top 10 Upstream Industries
Rank Industries Upstream Clicks
1. Computers and Internet 42.30%
2. Travel 40.98%
3. Agencies (Travel) 26.67%
4. Search Engines (Computers and Internet) 23.78%
5. Email Services (Computers and Internet) 6.88%
6. Destinations and Accommodation (Travel) 6.80%
7. Transport (Travel) 6.49%
8. Portal Frontpages (Computers and Internet) 6.49%
9. Social Networking and Forums (Computers and Internet) 4.44%
10. Aviation 3.56%
Top 10 Downstream Industries
Rank Industries Downstream Clicks
1. Travel 60.58%
2. Agencies (Travel) 39.43%
3. Computers and Internet 16.13%
4. Transport (Travel) 9.76%
5. Destinations and Accommodation (Travel) 8.44%
6. Aviation 6.89%
7. Commercial Airlines (Aviation) 6.79%
8. Search Engines (Computers and Internet) 6.07%
9. Social Networking and Forums (Computers and Internet) 4.57%
10. Business and Finance 3.90%
The economic downturn in the US had a strong impact upon consumers and resulted in a decline in discretionary spending for nearly two years. However in March, retailers started to report increased sales, signaling that consumer confidence may be increasing and shoppers are willing to start making purchases again. One sector that was among the hardest hit during the downturn was the luxury space, but recently retailers like Nordstrom, Saks and Bergdorf Goodman are also reporting higher year-over-year sales.
Online traffic patterns are reflecting the same behavior, visits to a custom category of Designer & Luxury Retailers increased 28% for the week ending April 10, 2010 as compared to the same week in 2009. In comparison, one year ago, visits declined 18% for the week ending April 11, 2009 from the previous year. This trend emerged during the holiday season, where the market share of visits to Designer & Luxury Retailers started to reach the same levels of traffic as the 2007 season.
Search Terms Analysis
'volcano'
Hitwise Search Intelligence™ data reveals the top websites from the complete list of websites that received traffic from the search term 'volcano'. The results are ordered based on the volume of traffic for the week ending April 17, 2010.
Most popular websites that received traffic from ‘volcano' for the week ending 04/17/10
Rank Website Domain Share
1. Wikipedia www.wikipedia.org 9.20%
2. USA Today www.usatoday.com 6.98%
3. YouTube www.youtube.com 6.44%
4. BBC News news.bbc.co.uk 5.64%
5. The New York Times www.nytimes.com 3.84%
6. Yahoo! News news.yahoo.com 3.26%
7. msn www.msn.com 3.20%
8. Guardian.co.uk www.guardian.co.uk 3.12%
Fast Movers
TaxExtensions.com - www.taxextensions.com
Rank week ending - April 17, 2010 - 1,560
Rank week ending - April 10, 2010 - 27,128
Positions jumped - 25,568
The TaxExtensions.com website moved up 25,568 positions among all websites visited by U.S. Internet users (week ending April 17, 2010) to rank number 1,560 overall and number 9 in the Accountancy industry. Of the website's total traffic, 95.5 percent consisted of new visitors. The top three websites visited after the TaxExtensions.com website were Internal Revenue Service , Google and TurboTax .
The top DMA® (Designated Marketed Areas) of visitors to the TaxExtensions.com website were from Dallas - Ft.Worth, TX (4.34%), New York, NY (3.84%) and Los Angeles, CA (3.38%). The majority of visitors to the website were female (62%), aged 55+ years (29%) with a household income of $30-$60K per year (36%) for the four weeks ending 04/17/10. Other websites with a similar demographic profile to the TaxExtensions.com website were My Life, Intelius and Home McAfee .
Leveraging Competitive Intelligence
Closing the Gap - Understanding Competitors' Search Marketing Strategies with Gap Analysis
By using Hitwise Search Intelligence™ 'Compare With' Reports, you can identify the search terms that are missing from your search campaigns and working for your competitors. For example, if you are Orbitz.com and one of your competitors is Priceline.com, by conducting a search terms 'Compare With' report you will discover keywords that are currently driving more traffic to Priceline.com than Orbitz. In the chart below, you can see the top search terms, not including the Priceline brand, that drive more traffic to Priceline.com than Orbitz.com are 'hotels.com,' 'cheap hotels,' 'hotels,' 'hotel' and 'enterprise car rental' for the four weeks ending 04/17/10. This insight is invaluable for gaining a competitive edge over your direct competitors.
For Hitwise clients who would like to discuss this product further, please contact Hitwise Customer Support, or visit the Hitwise University and download the Hitwise Search Intelligence™ Product Fact Sheet
To learn more about Hitwise data and Search Terms Gap Analysis, view the Hitwise Search Intelligence™ Product Fact Sheet.
Search Terms driving traffic to Priceline.com - 4 weeks ending 04/17/10, compared with Search Terms driving traffic to Orbitz
Rank Search Terms Clicks Priceline.com Clicks Orbitz Difference
1. priceline 23.76% <0.046% 23.76%
2. priceline.com hotels 2.67% <0.046% 2.67%
3. hotels.com 1.18% 0.05% 1.13%
4. cheap hotels 1.01% 0.34% 0.67%
5. price line 0.56% <0.046% 0.56%
6. hotels 0.46% 0.18% 0.27%
7. hotel 0.20% <0.046% 0.20%
8. enterprise car rental 0.16% <0.046% 0.16%
9. budget car rental 0.15% <0.046% 0.15%
10. cheaphotels.com 0.15% <0.046% 0.15%
Category Spotlight
Travel - Agencies
This category contains websites that provide third-party bookings for travel services, such as package holidays, flights, and tours. The category also includes the websites of offline travel agencies and tour operators, as well as publishers of travel deals and travel price comparison sites. It does not include sites which focus exclusively on accommodation bookings. The data below is based on All sites - Weekly rankings for the week ending 04/17/2010 - Ranks by 'Visits.'
Travel - Agencies - All sites - Weekly rankings for the week ending 04/17/10 - Ranks by 'Visits'
Rank Website
1. Expedia
2. priceline.com
3. Travelocity
4. Orbitz
5. Yahoo! Travel
6. Hotwire
7. bookingbuddy
8. CheapOair.com
9. Bing Travel
10. Lowfares.com
Local Competitiveness Index
97.9%
of traffic to this category was directed at domestic sites.
Top 10 Upstream Industries
Rank Industries Upstream Clicks
1. Computers and Internet 42.30%
2. Travel 40.98%
3. Agencies (Travel) 26.67%
4. Search Engines (Computers and Internet) 23.78%
5. Email Services (Computers and Internet) 6.88%
6. Destinations and Accommodation (Travel) 6.80%
7. Transport (Travel) 6.49%
8. Portal Frontpages (Computers and Internet) 6.49%
9. Social Networking and Forums (Computers and Internet) 4.44%
10. Aviation 3.56%
Top 10 Downstream Industries
Rank Industries Downstream Clicks
1. Travel 60.58%
2. Agencies (Travel) 39.43%
3. Computers and Internet 16.13%
4. Transport (Travel) 9.76%
5. Destinations and Accommodation (Travel) 8.44%
6. Aviation 6.89%
7. Commercial Airlines (Aviation) 6.79%
8. Search Engines (Computers and Internet) 6.07%
9. Social Networking and Forums (Computers and Internet) 4.57%
10. Business and Finance 3.90%
The economic downturn in the US had a strong impact upon consumers and resulted in a decline in discretionary spending for nearly two years. However in March, retailers started to report increased sales, signaling that consumer confidence may be increasing and shoppers are willing to start making purchases again. One sector that was among the hardest hit during the downturn was the luxury space, but recently retailers like Nordstrom, Saks and Bergdorf Goodman are also reporting higher year-over-year sales.
Online traffic patterns are reflecting the same behavior, visits to a custom category of Designer & Luxury Retailers increased 28% for the week ending April 10, 2010 as compared to the same week in 2009. In comparison, one year ago, visits declined 18% for the week ending April 11, 2009 from the previous year. This trend emerged during the holiday season, where the market share of visits to Designer & Luxury Retailers started to reach the same levels of traffic as the 2007 season.
Gasta Tech Update : Social Media the Peer to Peer Marketing Industry
Spotting the Creators of Peer Influence
Here's How to Find the People Who Generate 500 Billion Impressions a Year
Everyone knows people make impressions on each other -- it's called word of mouth. The question marketers always asked us was: just how many impressions? And who is responsible for the mass of those impressions?
Now we know. People make over 500 billion impressions on each other about products and services every year. And a small group of mass influencers are responsible for 80% of those impressions. This is the beginning of what we call Peer Influence Analysis.
Here's how it works. Start by counting every instance in which a person influences another person online about a product or service. (We model this from Forrester's 10,000 person survey, which asks how frequently they post, in what places, how many followers they have, and what products and services they post about.)
This influence comes in two types.
First, there is influence from people posting within social networks: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and so on. We call these instances influence impressions. Based on our surveys, we estimate people in the U.S. create 256 billion influence impression on each other in social networks every year. (Has anyone ever measured this number before?) Of these influence impressions, 62% come from Facebook.
Second, there is influence created by posts: blog posts, blog comments, discussion forum posts, and ratings and reviews. We call these influence posts. We estimate that people in the U.S. create 1.64 billion influence posts every year. If around 150 people view each of these posts (a conservative estimate, based on our research), that's another 250 billion-plus impressions. Blog posts and blog comments account for about 40% of these posts.
Add the impressions from both social networks and posts together and you get the 500 billion impressions. Once you start analyzing this huge pool of influence, you can draw some very interesting conclusions. Here are a few.
* People's influence on each other rivals online advertising. For comparison, for a 12-month period ending September 30 last year, Nielsen Online estimates advertisers created 1.974 trillion online advertising impressions, compared to the 500 billion impressions people make on each other about products and services. So people's online impressions on each other about products and services are about one-fourth of the online advertising impression. And peer impressions are more credible than advertising, since they come from friends. Take those numbers into your next budget meeting!
* A minority of people generate 80% of the impressions. Take a look at the graphic. About 6.2% of the online adults generate 80% of the influence impressions. Around 13.8% of the online adults generate 80% of the influence posts. We call these two groups Mass Connectors and Mass Mavens (if you've read "The Tipping Point" you know where we got the names.). If you're a marketer, you probably want to know who these people are (demographics, where they share, that kind of thing) -- once we've identified them, we can find that all out through the survey.
* You can do peer influencer analysis for any type of product or service. For example, mass influencers in consumer electronics are far more concentrated, somewhat more affluent and quite a bit more male than the general mass influencers. If you want to build a word-of-mouth strategy, you have to start with the information on mass influencers in your market.
It's time to start analyzing peer influence with the same discipline we apply to media. And it's time word-of-mouth got a budget that reflects the amount of influence people have, and who has it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Josh Bernoff is co-author of "Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies," a comprehensive analysis of corporate strategy for dealing with social technologies such as blogs, social networks and wikis, and is a VP-principal analyst at Forrester Research. He blogs at blogs.forrester.com/groundswell.
Here's How to Find the People Who Generate 500 Billion Impressions a Year
Everyone knows people make impressions on each other -- it's called word of mouth. The question marketers always asked us was: just how many impressions? And who is responsible for the mass of those impressions?
Now we know. People make over 500 billion impressions on each other about products and services every year. And a small group of mass influencers are responsible for 80% of those impressions. This is the beginning of what we call Peer Influence Analysis.
Here's how it works. Start by counting every instance in which a person influences another person online about a product or service. (We model this from Forrester's 10,000 person survey, which asks how frequently they post, in what places, how many followers they have, and what products and services they post about.)
This influence comes in two types.
First, there is influence from people posting within social networks: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and so on. We call these instances influence impressions. Based on our surveys, we estimate people in the U.S. create 256 billion influence impression on each other in social networks every year. (Has anyone ever measured this number before?) Of these influence impressions, 62% come from Facebook.
Second, there is influence created by posts: blog posts, blog comments, discussion forum posts, and ratings and reviews. We call these influence posts. We estimate that people in the U.S. create 1.64 billion influence posts every year. If around 150 people view each of these posts (a conservative estimate, based on our research), that's another 250 billion-plus impressions. Blog posts and blog comments account for about 40% of these posts.
Add the impressions from both social networks and posts together and you get the 500 billion impressions. Once you start analyzing this huge pool of influence, you can draw some very interesting conclusions. Here are a few.
* People's influence on each other rivals online advertising. For comparison, for a 12-month period ending September 30 last year, Nielsen Online estimates advertisers created 1.974 trillion online advertising impressions, compared to the 500 billion impressions people make on each other about products and services. So people's online impressions on each other about products and services are about one-fourth of the online advertising impression. And peer impressions are more credible than advertising, since they come from friends. Take those numbers into your next budget meeting!
* A minority of people generate 80% of the impressions. Take a look at the graphic. About 6.2% of the online adults generate 80% of the influence impressions. Around 13.8% of the online adults generate 80% of the influence posts. We call these two groups Mass Connectors and Mass Mavens (if you've read "The Tipping Point" you know where we got the names.). If you're a marketer, you probably want to know who these people are (demographics, where they share, that kind of thing) -- once we've identified them, we can find that all out through the survey.
* You can do peer influencer analysis for any type of product or service. For example, mass influencers in consumer electronics are far more concentrated, somewhat more affluent and quite a bit more male than the general mass influencers. If you want to build a word-of-mouth strategy, you have to start with the information on mass influencers in your market.
It's time to start analyzing peer influence with the same discipline we apply to media. And it's time word-of-mouth got a budget that reflects the amount of influence people have, and who has it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Josh Bernoff is co-author of "Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies," a comprehensive analysis of corporate strategy for dealing with social technologies such as blogs, social networks and wikis, and is a VP-principal analyst at Forrester Research. He blogs at blogs.forrester.com/groundswell.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Gasta Tech Update : Investments
When Your Business Needs Money: Angel Investors
If your growing business needs capital, but your personal resources are tapped out, don't despair - you can put your faith in angel investors. According to the University of New Hampshire's Center for Venture Research, there were more 234,000 active angel investors in the United States at the end of 2006 who invested in 51,000 private companies in the same year. You probably already know some of these people - they may even be your friends or neighbors.
In this article, we'll show you who these angels are and how they can save your company from financial ruin.
Who Are These People?
Active angel investors are a mix of the working wealthy and the retired rich. Some dabble in these private investments, while others manage their money full time. Like the businesses they invest in, angels come in all shapes and sizes.
Angels are diverse, but they are not always commonplace, so it would be a mistake to go door to door selling your company's stock. In fact, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has strict rules about selling the stock of a private company to angels. In many cases, a business owner should accept investment dollars only from people who meet the SEC definition of an accredited investor - namely, a person with at least $1 million in net worth, or an annual income of more than $200,000 ($300,000, if married). There are, of course, many considerations to finding an angel investor, so make sure to check with a qualified securities attorney before accepting an investment from anyone.
Find Your Piece of Heaven
Even though an angel investor may live right next door, most prefer to fly under the radar. Start any angel hunt by networking through your legal or financial advisors. These professionals usually know who the players are and where they hide. Other business owners are also a good source of leads and introductions: there are probably hundreds of entrepreneurs in your city that have partnered with angels in the past.
Fortunately, finding angels is starting to get a little easier because they are joining clubs or networks. A new industry association of angel groups has even emerged, called the Angel Capital Association (ACA). The ACA keeps tabs on angel groups and estimates that there are 265 of them nationwide.
Take a Leap of Faith
Although finding an angel partner can be tough, living with one can be even tougher. Before you jump into a deal with an angel, be sure the fit is right. The wrong angel investor can be a pesky partner. Once you take an angel's money, be prepared to provide regular reports and to listen carefully to offered advice. And they will offer advice. An angel investor often expects to become your business partner and may even want to play an active role in the company. The more your company relies on this person's money, the more closely he or she will watch your every move.
Of course, a nosy investor can be a curse or a blessing, depending on how you develop the relationship. Work with your investor(s) to take advantage of their wisdom and support. Luckily, angels tend to invest in the industries that they know the most about. A retired software executive will invest primarily in software, for example. Use this to your advantage by hooking up with angels that can lend their expertise to your business challenges. (For more see, Cashing In On The Venture Capital Cycle.)
What's In It for the Good Guys?
Make no mistake: all angels invest for just one primary reason - to increase their wealth. Their money is not free, and they will expect a sizable return in the long run. Many will be willing to wait four or five years to get their money back, but by then they will expect a return of two or three times their original investment.
Even if it's not clear to you at the beginning, an angel will always be looking for an exit strategy, and it's your job to provide one. Angel capital is flexible but expensive. Even though angels will give you several years to generate a return, they will expect to be well compensated for their patience. Rates of return north of 30% compounded per year are not uncommon targets.
Maximizing Value
The most difficult part of any angel negotiation is likely to be setting the valuation for your business. How much will they invest and what stake in your company will you give up? It's not uncommon for both parties to be unhappy with the final outcome of this negotiation. One way to satisfy everyone is to have a third party weigh in on the valuation process. Professional business valuation consultants are available to help with this process, but there are also financial tools to help you bridge this thorny problem.
One aptly named solution is a bridge loan. This financial structure allows an angel to loan capital to the business, and then allows him or her to convert that loan to stock at a future time (and a future valuation). Typically, the loan converts when a larger investor comes on board. The angel receives the same, or slightly better, valuation as the new investor. This works best when the business plans on seeking institutional venture capital or private equity.
Getting to Heaven
Finding an angel investor can be a great way to dip your foot into the private equity pool, but it is not an automatic pass to financial heaven. Fortunately, angel investing is not new, and you don't need to be afraid of the process. After all, angel investors have been around since Christopher Columbus convinced Queen Isabella I of Spain to pay for his voyage to America. With common sense and sound legal advice, an angel investor can help you turn a risky venture into a rich voyage of discovery.
by David Worrell (Contact Author | Biography)
An accomplished entrepreneur, author and consultant, David specializes in helping emerging companies solve tough financial and strategic issues. Worrell is currently CFO of his third startup, AmeriStart.
If your growing business needs capital, but your personal resources are tapped out, don't despair - you can put your faith in angel investors. According to the University of New Hampshire's Center for Venture Research, there were more 234,000 active angel investors in the United States at the end of 2006 who invested in 51,000 private companies in the same year. You probably already know some of these people - they may even be your friends or neighbors.
In this article, we'll show you who these angels are and how they can save your company from financial ruin.
Who Are These People?
Active angel investors are a mix of the working wealthy and the retired rich. Some dabble in these private investments, while others manage their money full time. Like the businesses they invest in, angels come in all shapes and sizes.
Angels are diverse, but they are not always commonplace, so it would be a mistake to go door to door selling your company's stock. In fact, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has strict rules about selling the stock of a private company to angels. In many cases, a business owner should accept investment dollars only from people who meet the SEC definition of an accredited investor - namely, a person with at least $1 million in net worth, or an annual income of more than $200,000 ($300,000, if married). There are, of course, many considerations to finding an angel investor, so make sure to check with a qualified securities attorney before accepting an investment from anyone.
Find Your Piece of Heaven
Even though an angel investor may live right next door, most prefer to fly under the radar. Start any angel hunt by networking through your legal or financial advisors. These professionals usually know who the players are and where they hide. Other business owners are also a good source of leads and introductions: there are probably hundreds of entrepreneurs in your city that have partnered with angels in the past.
Fortunately, finding angels is starting to get a little easier because they are joining clubs or networks. A new industry association of angel groups has even emerged, called the Angel Capital Association (ACA). The ACA keeps tabs on angel groups and estimates that there are 265 of them nationwide.
Take a Leap of Faith
Although finding an angel partner can be tough, living with one can be even tougher. Before you jump into a deal with an angel, be sure the fit is right. The wrong angel investor can be a pesky partner. Once you take an angel's money, be prepared to provide regular reports and to listen carefully to offered advice. And they will offer advice. An angel investor often expects to become your business partner and may even want to play an active role in the company. The more your company relies on this person's money, the more closely he or she will watch your every move.
Of course, a nosy investor can be a curse or a blessing, depending on how you develop the relationship. Work with your investor(s) to take advantage of their wisdom and support. Luckily, angels tend to invest in the industries that they know the most about. A retired software executive will invest primarily in software, for example. Use this to your advantage by hooking up with angels that can lend their expertise to your business challenges. (For more see, Cashing In On The Venture Capital Cycle.)
What's In It for the Good Guys?
Make no mistake: all angels invest for just one primary reason - to increase their wealth. Their money is not free, and they will expect a sizable return in the long run. Many will be willing to wait four or five years to get their money back, but by then they will expect a return of two or three times their original investment.
Even if it's not clear to you at the beginning, an angel will always be looking for an exit strategy, and it's your job to provide one. Angel capital is flexible but expensive. Even though angels will give you several years to generate a return, they will expect to be well compensated for their patience. Rates of return north of 30% compounded per year are not uncommon targets.
Maximizing Value
The most difficult part of any angel negotiation is likely to be setting the valuation for your business. How much will they invest and what stake in your company will you give up? It's not uncommon for both parties to be unhappy with the final outcome of this negotiation. One way to satisfy everyone is to have a third party weigh in on the valuation process. Professional business valuation consultants are available to help with this process, but there are also financial tools to help you bridge this thorny problem.
One aptly named solution is a bridge loan. This financial structure allows an angel to loan capital to the business, and then allows him or her to convert that loan to stock at a future time (and a future valuation). Typically, the loan converts when a larger investor comes on board. The angel receives the same, or slightly better, valuation as the new investor. This works best when the business plans on seeking institutional venture capital or private equity.
Getting to Heaven
Finding an angel investor can be a great way to dip your foot into the private equity pool, but it is not an automatic pass to financial heaven. Fortunately, angel investing is not new, and you don't need to be afraid of the process. After all, angel investors have been around since Christopher Columbus convinced Queen Isabella I of Spain to pay for his voyage to America. With common sense and sound legal advice, an angel investor can help you turn a risky venture into a rich voyage of discovery.
by David Worrell (Contact Author | Biography)
An accomplished entrepreneur, author and consultant, David specializes in helping emerging companies solve tough financial and strategic issues. Worrell is currently CFO of his third startup, AmeriStart.
Saturday, February 06, 2010
GastaTech Update: Germany ad companies converge
Gasta.com stars shining brightly in Europe
Four of Germany’s largest media groups are set to form a shared web advertising network, after winning clearance from the European Commission’s competition department.
The commision said there was no anticompetitive effect from a “proposed joint venture would develop and sell a new product to allow advertisers to reach better defined target groups of Internet users whose profiles would be created based on anonymous data collected throughout a large network of participating websites”.
The proposal came from…
—Broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1‘s SevenOne Media marketing wing (Germany’s third-placed ad net with 17.9 million uniques)
—Mag publisher Gruner + Jaher‘s Electronic Media Sales wing, selling across mag sites like n-starmagazin.de and sportal.de
—Mag/web publisher Hubert Burda Media‘s Tomorrow Focus, which controls sales for 36 Burda magazines and operates its sites including Focus magazine.
—IP Deutschland, an ad house that already sells TV slots for broadcasters RTL, VOX, Super RTL and n-tv.
Details on the JV are scant, but the EC said: “The activity of the joint venture would be limited to the area of standard online display advertising.”
The JV looks like a remarkably powerful tag-team. But the EC said: “The proposed concentration was unlikely to raise competition concerns given the parties’ low market shares in online advertising and the presence of strong competitors like Google.”
Indeed, this could very well be a move to masculate Germany’s indigenous media against Google’s growing ad sales might. Last week, the company’s justice minister warned Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is becoming “a giant monopoly, similar to Microsoft”, while newspaper and magazine groups filed in Germany’s Federal Cartel Office against Google’s use of their news snippets.
Four of Germany’s largest media groups are set to form a shared web advertising network, after winning clearance from the European Commission’s competition department.
The commision said there was no anticompetitive effect from a “proposed joint venture would develop and sell a new product to allow advertisers to reach better defined target groups of Internet users whose profiles would be created based on anonymous data collected throughout a large network of participating websites”.
The proposal came from…
—Broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1‘s SevenOne Media marketing wing (Germany’s third-placed ad net with 17.9 million uniques)
—Mag publisher Gruner + Jaher‘s Electronic Media Sales wing, selling across mag sites like n-starmagazin.de and sportal.de
—Mag/web publisher Hubert Burda Media‘s Tomorrow Focus, which controls sales for 36 Burda magazines and operates its sites including Focus magazine.
—IP Deutschland, an ad house that already sells TV slots for broadcasters RTL, VOX, Super RTL and n-tv.
Details on the JV are scant, but the EC said: “The activity of the joint venture would be limited to the area of standard online display advertising.”
The JV looks like a remarkably powerful tag-team. But the EC said: “The proposed concentration was unlikely to raise competition concerns given the parties’ low market shares in online advertising and the presence of strong competitors like Google.”
Indeed, this could very well be a move to masculate Germany’s indigenous media against Google’s growing ad sales might. Last week, the company’s justice minister warned Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is becoming “a giant monopoly, similar to Microsoft”, while newspaper and magazine groups filed in Germany’s Federal Cartel Office against Google’s use of their news snippets.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Gasta Tech Update: Google banned more than an estimated 30,000 advertisers
Gasta SearchMatch traffic increases
Ban of 5% of AdWords Advertisers Pointed to Strong Q4 for Google
On Dec. 3, Google banned more than an estimated 30,000 advertisers who utilized its AdWords system, according to Chicago-based AdGooroo. This was the equivalent of banning approximately 5.3 percent of active advertisers who use the system, yet AdGooroo saw this as a sign that the search giant would have a strong fourth quarter – and they were right.
Last Thursday, Google announced that it had made $1.97 billion, or $6.13 per share, during the final quarter of 2009. This reflected a huge increase from its $382 million in earnings during the same quarter in 2008.
Revenue in the fourth quarter was $6.7 billion, an increase of 17 percent from the previous year. According to BusinessWeek, analysts expect Google’s revenue to boom about 20 percent in 2010, up about 9 percent from 2009.
AdGooroo, which noted that Google has always had strong fourth-quarter showings, saw the huge ban of advertisers as a good sign: “It is unlikely that Google’s management team would permit such a wide scale ban to take place during a weak quarter, so this almost certainly signifies strong quarter over quarter growth,” the company noted in a press release.
About two days before Google announced its fourth-quarter results, AdGooroo looked at its ad coverage metric and found that worldwide ad coverage drooped by nearly 10 percent in December to 4.97 ads per keyword from 5.48 in November. This came after 12 months of steady increases, according to the company, which believed that “this small drop will be more than offset by strong ad revenues.”
AdGooroo also noted that the top 80 U.S. retailers Google spend increased 12.5 percent to $298 million in the fourth quarter from $264 million in the third quarter.
“While most retail categories were up, several sectors stood out as particularly strong, including traditional retailers (“bricks”), online retailers (“clicks”), clothing, shoes, furniture, and auctions,” the company’s press release noted. “Weaker categories included consumer electronics (down 4.2% in Q4), office products (down 13%), children’s goods (down 2%), and home décor (down 15%).”
Google saw a 5.30 percent drop in first-page advertisers in December, compared to a 1.96 percent gain in the same month in 2008. Yahoo! experienced a 4.87 percent drop, compared to a 1.35 percent gain in November. Meanwhile, Bing experienced a 4.16 percent drop in December.
Google led the way with 81.0 percent of worldwide advertisers, followed by Yahoo! with 26.7 percent and Bing with 11.6 percent in December, according to AdGooroo.
In December, the top 25 advertisers for Google included amazon.com, ask.com, business.com, eBay.com and zappos.com. Best-price.com, mapquest.com and maps.google.com all made new appearances in the top-25 list for Google.
“Mesothelioma” was the most expensive keyword in December on Google, with a maximum cost-per-click of $99.44, followed by “buy structured settlements” with $79.01, “asbestos law suits” with $78.10 and “conference calling companies” with $75.29.
On Yahoo!, the most expensive keyword in December was “lloyds tsb insurance” ($53.44), followed by “scotttrade” ($45.27), “loyds insurance” ($44.58) and “love film” ($40.20).
“Low apr student credit card” ($54.24) was the keyword with the highest maximum CPC on Bing in December, followed by “accounting degrees” ($54.04), “student credit card application” ($51.39) and “health and dental insurance” ($50.15).
by Jason Hahn
Ban of 5% of AdWords Advertisers Pointed to Strong Q4 for Google
On Dec. 3, Google banned more than an estimated 30,000 advertisers who utilized its AdWords system, according to Chicago-based AdGooroo. This was the equivalent of banning approximately 5.3 percent of active advertisers who use the system, yet AdGooroo saw this as a sign that the search giant would have a strong fourth quarter – and they were right.
Last Thursday, Google announced that it had made $1.97 billion, or $6.13 per share, during the final quarter of 2009. This reflected a huge increase from its $382 million in earnings during the same quarter in 2008.
Revenue in the fourth quarter was $6.7 billion, an increase of 17 percent from the previous year. According to BusinessWeek, analysts expect Google’s revenue to boom about 20 percent in 2010, up about 9 percent from 2009.
AdGooroo, which noted that Google has always had strong fourth-quarter showings, saw the huge ban of advertisers as a good sign: “It is unlikely that Google’s management team would permit such a wide scale ban to take place during a weak quarter, so this almost certainly signifies strong quarter over quarter growth,” the company noted in a press release.
About two days before Google announced its fourth-quarter results, AdGooroo looked at its ad coverage metric and found that worldwide ad coverage drooped by nearly 10 percent in December to 4.97 ads per keyword from 5.48 in November. This came after 12 months of steady increases, according to the company, which believed that “this small drop will be more than offset by strong ad revenues.”
AdGooroo also noted that the top 80 U.S. retailers Google spend increased 12.5 percent to $298 million in the fourth quarter from $264 million in the third quarter.
“While most retail categories were up, several sectors stood out as particularly strong, including traditional retailers (“bricks”), online retailers (“clicks”), clothing, shoes, furniture, and auctions,” the company’s press release noted. “Weaker categories included consumer electronics (down 4.2% in Q4), office products (down 13%), children’s goods (down 2%), and home décor (down 15%).”
Google saw a 5.30 percent drop in first-page advertisers in December, compared to a 1.96 percent gain in the same month in 2008. Yahoo! experienced a 4.87 percent drop, compared to a 1.35 percent gain in November. Meanwhile, Bing experienced a 4.16 percent drop in December.
Google led the way with 81.0 percent of worldwide advertisers, followed by Yahoo! with 26.7 percent and Bing with 11.6 percent in December, according to AdGooroo.
In December, the top 25 advertisers for Google included amazon.com, ask.com, business.com, eBay.com and zappos.com. Best-price.com, mapquest.com and maps.google.com all made new appearances in the top-25 list for Google.
“Mesothelioma” was the most expensive keyword in December on Google, with a maximum cost-per-click of $99.44, followed by “buy structured settlements” with $79.01, “asbestos law suits” with $78.10 and “conference calling companies” with $75.29.
On Yahoo!, the most expensive keyword in December was “lloyds tsb insurance” ($53.44), followed by “scotttrade” ($45.27), “loyds insurance” ($44.58) and “love film” ($40.20).
“Low apr student credit card” ($54.24) was the keyword with the highest maximum CPC on Bing in December, followed by “accounting degrees” ($54.04), “student credit card application” ($51.39) and “health and dental insurance” ($50.15).
by Jason Hahn
Saturday, December 05, 2009
Gasta Property Search: Google to launch property app/
Google is set to launch a property dimension to its UK mapping system.
The new service will allow both estate agents and private sellers to put their property as an overlay on Google Maps.
The plans were outlined at a conference called Estate Agency Events last week, although Google has declined to give official confirmation.
Shares in the property portal Rightmove fell more than 10% as news emerged, the sharpest faller in the FTSE 350 index of companies for the day.
The new service is expected to launch next year and would be similar to a service Google launched in Australia.
Sarah Beeny
Sarah Beeny says Google will level the property playing field
That site allows estate agents to list properties for free, with pictures taken from its Street View service and listing details on a map.
Speaking to BBC News, Edward Mead - sales director for Douglas & Gordon estate agents - said that the new system would be a win-win situation for both Google and estate agents.
"The technology to do this is already in place and estate agents are a little busier these days, although transactions are still fifty per cent down on what they once were.
"So this service, which is free, will appeal to estate agents' cost-cutting nature and given that sixty per cent of agents are one-off traders, this will have serious appeal."
Mr Mead said that Google's head of property and classified team, Ben Wood, briefed 30 of England's top estate agents at Estate Agency Events last week, telling them everything about the system, other than an official launch date.
'Hurt estate agents'
But Sarah Beeny, who presents Channel 4's Property Ladder and also runs her own home sales property site Tepilo, told BBC News that the service could well damage estate agents in the long run.
"It will hurt estate agents and it will hurt property sites like Rightmove.
"If it does what Google says it will, then it brings the buyer and seller closer together and that could mean removing blocks in the way, and that could mean no longer having to pay extortionate fees to estate agents.
"It will certainly blow Rightmove out of the water. You can only get your property listed on that site if you are an estate agent - what Google will do is level the playing field and they are doing it for free," she said.
For sale signs
The site would directly link property buyers with vendors
The news shook traders on the London Stock Exchange. At one point, shares in online property portal Rightmove fell by 13% over concern about competition from the world's biggest search engine, although a late afternoon rally saw them close 10% down at £4.95 a share.
The firm remained bullish, despite the news.
Speaking to BBC News, the company's commercial director, Miles Shipside, said his business was still strong and the site was still getting lots of traffic.
"It remains to be seen what actually happens," he said.
"Google is a big name, but they don't always manage to follow things through on a local level.
"We only list property with estate agents due to UK legislation. Agents offer very good value and charge very competitive rates compared to the rest of the world.
The new service will allow both estate agents and private sellers to put their property as an overlay on Google Maps.
The plans were outlined at a conference called Estate Agency Events last week, although Google has declined to give official confirmation.
Shares in the property portal Rightmove fell more than 10% as news emerged, the sharpest faller in the FTSE 350 index of companies for the day.
The new service is expected to launch next year and would be similar to a service Google launched in Australia.
Sarah Beeny
Sarah Beeny says Google will level the property playing field
That site allows estate agents to list properties for free, with pictures taken from its Street View service and listing details on a map.
Speaking to BBC News, Edward Mead - sales director for Douglas & Gordon estate agents - said that the new system would be a win-win situation for both Google and estate agents.
"The technology to do this is already in place and estate agents are a little busier these days, although transactions are still fifty per cent down on what they once were.
"So this service, which is free, will appeal to estate agents' cost-cutting nature and given that sixty per cent of agents are one-off traders, this will have serious appeal."
Mr Mead said that Google's head of property and classified team, Ben Wood, briefed 30 of England's top estate agents at Estate Agency Events last week, telling them everything about the system, other than an official launch date.
'Hurt estate agents'
But Sarah Beeny, who presents Channel 4's Property Ladder and also runs her own home sales property site Tepilo, told BBC News that the service could well damage estate agents in the long run.
"It will hurt estate agents and it will hurt property sites like Rightmove.
"If it does what Google says it will, then it brings the buyer and seller closer together and that could mean removing blocks in the way, and that could mean no longer having to pay extortionate fees to estate agents.
"It will certainly blow Rightmove out of the water. You can only get your property listed on that site if you are an estate agent - what Google will do is level the playing field and they are doing it for free," she said.
For sale signs
The site would directly link property buyers with vendors
The news shook traders on the London Stock Exchange. At one point, shares in online property portal Rightmove fell by 13% over concern about competition from the world's biggest search engine, although a late afternoon rally saw them close 10% down at £4.95 a share.
The firm remained bullish, despite the news.
Speaking to BBC News, the company's commercial director, Miles Shipside, said his business was still strong and the site was still getting lots of traffic.
"It remains to be seen what actually happens," he said.
"Google is a big name, but they don't always manage to follow things through on a local level.
"We only list property with estate agents due to UK legislation. Agents offer very good value and charge very competitive rates compared to the rest of the world.
Gasta Tech News: Bing adds rich maps to search results
SAN FRANCISCO--Microsoft's Bing took a major step forward Wednesday in adding rich mapping and image data to its search engine, but until it assembles more data, pretty pictures aren't enough to beat the Google Maps juggernaut.
Bing Maps Beta was released during a presentation at Microsoft's offices here. It's a Silverlight-based application that runs inside Bing Maps and adds Microsoft's version of Google Street View--called Streetside--to Bing Maps, as well as enhanced "bird's eye" images that let you swoop over cities.
I spent some quality time Wednesday afternoon with the new Bing Maps Beta, zooming through the streets of San Francisco and New York and testing out various searches. The best part about Bing Maps Beta--by far--are the rich transitions between high-resolution street-level or bird's-eye view photos as you move around a city, making it feel like you're actually driving down the road.
Microsoft's Streetside cameras have yet to make it down Amphitheater Parkway to Google's headquarters, and still haven't mapped an awfully large portion of the San Francisco Bay Area, not to mention the heartland.
(Credit: Screenshot by Tom Krazit/CNET)
Unfortunately, that's also the worst part; you'll have to download Microsoft Silverlight to make the rich imagery come alive (although you can still use Bing Maps without it), and 10 minutes of poking around with the application put a noticeable drain on system resources. If I left the window open, but didn't do anything in Bing Maps, my activity monitor dropped back to a moderate pace, only to max out again once I started playing with the Streetside feature or scrolling around a map.
But what Microsoft has assembled is impressive. The images are high-quality, and the location fixes are quite precise. The bird's-eye views have been improved with more perspective on roads hidden by buildings and name prominent buildings right on the map.
Scrolling around a city in bird's-eye view also allows you to view geotagged picture galleries created with Microsoft Photosynth. Click the little blue Streetside man (Google's little Street View man is orange) to choose between Streetside or Photosynth views, and if you click on a green icon in a given location, you are presented with photo galleries shot of the location. You can check out exhibits in museums such as New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, for example, zooming into the building from the bird's-eye view.
Clicking on one of the green icons surrounding the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will bring up Microsoft Photosynth galleries of exhibits and the terrain around the building.
(Credit: Screenshot by Tom Krazit/CNET)
Microsoft is launching Bing Maps Beta with Streetside coverage of about 100 metropolitan areas in the U.S., but it's really only useful for traveling or searching medium-size cities or larger; suburban data is quite light. And even within cities such as San Francisco, Streetside is limited to essentially the downtown areas. Microsoft representatives said Wednesday they plan to add more data as soon as possible, but it could take quite a while.
A more generic search for a city or town such as San Francisco within Bing Maps Beta brings up a Wikipedia article on the city, weather information, and links to Photosynth galleries on the left hand side of the page alongside a map of the area. Clicking on "more details" brings up links to more photos, local news and "popular landmarks," although Microsoft should probably rethink the listing of the Port of Oakland as a popular San Francisco landmark.
Search for a specific address, such as CNET's downtown San Francisco office on 2nd Street, and Bing Maps Beta provides helpful icons to bars, restaurants, gas stations, and other locations within a given radius when you click on the "What's Nearby" icon.
It's pretty easy to get directions between two given locations, such as Microsoft Research's Mountain View, Calif., labs and CNET's downtown San Francisco headquarters. Bing lacks Google Maps' nice addition of Street View photos of each turn--since it doesn't have nearly that much data--but makes up a little bit of the gap with a helpful "if you reach X street, you've gone too far" reminder at the end of the journey and also listing prominent landmarks at certain turns.
Bing Maps Beta had plenty of suggestions for things to do around CNET's downtown San Francisco offices, but I had to zoom in very far to find my favorite bar. Maybe that's a good thing.
(Credit: Screenshot by Tom Krazit/CNET)
Microsoft has an awfully long way to go before it can duplicate the reams of Street View data that Google has assembled, as seen with its directions feature. Its rival certainly noticed Microsoft's announcement Wednesday, putting out a blog post of its own highlighting the fact that it has added Street View images of Sea World and second-rate New England learning institution Boston University. (Go Eagles)
At the moment, Google Maps has Bing beat when it comes to speed and comprehensive data. In addition, Google also surfaces some of the same helpful data, such as photo galleries and even videos.
Bing, however, offers a much richer look at the world. It does this at the expense of performance, but it presents a credible alternative to Google Maps for travelers and residents of major cities.
Bing Maps Beta was released during a presentation at Microsoft's offices here. It's a Silverlight-based application that runs inside Bing Maps and adds Microsoft's version of Google Street View--called Streetside--to Bing Maps, as well as enhanced "bird's eye" images that let you swoop over cities.
I spent some quality time Wednesday afternoon with the new Bing Maps Beta, zooming through the streets of San Francisco and New York and testing out various searches. The best part about Bing Maps Beta--by far--are the rich transitions between high-resolution street-level or bird's-eye view photos as you move around a city, making it feel like you're actually driving down the road.
Microsoft's Streetside cameras have yet to make it down Amphitheater Parkway to Google's headquarters, and still haven't mapped an awfully large portion of the San Francisco Bay Area, not to mention the heartland.
(Credit: Screenshot by Tom Krazit/CNET)
Unfortunately, that's also the worst part; you'll have to download Microsoft Silverlight to make the rich imagery come alive (although you can still use Bing Maps without it), and 10 minutes of poking around with the application put a noticeable drain on system resources. If I left the window open, but didn't do anything in Bing Maps, my activity monitor dropped back to a moderate pace, only to max out again once I started playing with the Streetside feature or scrolling around a map.
But what Microsoft has assembled is impressive. The images are high-quality, and the location fixes are quite precise. The bird's-eye views have been improved with more perspective on roads hidden by buildings and name prominent buildings right on the map.
Scrolling around a city in bird's-eye view also allows you to view geotagged picture galleries created with Microsoft Photosynth. Click the little blue Streetside man (Google's little Street View man is orange) to choose between Streetside or Photosynth views, and if you click on a green icon in a given location, you are presented with photo galleries shot of the location. You can check out exhibits in museums such as New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, for example, zooming into the building from the bird's-eye view.
Clicking on one of the green icons surrounding the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will bring up Microsoft Photosynth galleries of exhibits and the terrain around the building.
(Credit: Screenshot by Tom Krazit/CNET)
Microsoft is launching Bing Maps Beta with Streetside coverage of about 100 metropolitan areas in the U.S., but it's really only useful for traveling or searching medium-size cities or larger; suburban data is quite light. And even within cities such as San Francisco, Streetside is limited to essentially the downtown areas. Microsoft representatives said Wednesday they plan to add more data as soon as possible, but it could take quite a while.
A more generic search for a city or town such as San Francisco within Bing Maps Beta brings up a Wikipedia article on the city, weather information, and links to Photosynth galleries on the left hand side of the page alongside a map of the area. Clicking on "more details" brings up links to more photos, local news and "popular landmarks," although Microsoft should probably rethink the listing of the Port of Oakland as a popular San Francisco landmark.
Search for a specific address, such as CNET's downtown San Francisco office on 2nd Street, and Bing Maps Beta provides helpful icons to bars, restaurants, gas stations, and other locations within a given radius when you click on the "What's Nearby" icon.
It's pretty easy to get directions between two given locations, such as Microsoft Research's Mountain View, Calif., labs and CNET's downtown San Francisco headquarters. Bing lacks Google Maps' nice addition of Street View photos of each turn--since it doesn't have nearly that much data--but makes up a little bit of the gap with a helpful "if you reach X street, you've gone too far" reminder at the end of the journey and also listing prominent landmarks at certain turns.
Bing Maps Beta had plenty of suggestions for things to do around CNET's downtown San Francisco offices, but I had to zoom in very far to find my favorite bar. Maybe that's a good thing.
(Credit: Screenshot by Tom Krazit/CNET)
Microsoft has an awfully long way to go before it can duplicate the reams of Street View data that Google has assembled, as seen with its directions feature. Its rival certainly noticed Microsoft's announcement Wednesday, putting out a blog post of its own highlighting the fact that it has added Street View images of Sea World and second-rate New England learning institution Boston University. (Go Eagles)
At the moment, Google Maps has Bing beat when it comes to speed and comprehensive data. In addition, Google also surfaces some of the same helpful data, such as photo galleries and even videos.
Bing, however, offers a much richer look at the world. It does this at the expense of performance, but it presents a credible alternative to Google Maps for travelers and residents of major cities.
Gasta Tech Update: Microsoft and Yahoo have closed the deal.
Gasta sources say WebProNews received an email from a Yahoo representative saying that they have "finalized and executed the definitive Search and Advertising Services and Sales Agreement and License Agreement in accordance with the letter agreement announced in July."
Statements from the two companies are as follows:
“Microsoft and Yahoo! believe that this deal will create a sustainable and more compelling alternative in search that can provide consumers, advertisers and publishers real choice, better value, and more innovation.
“Yahoo! and Microsoft welcome the broad support the deal has received from key players in the advertising industry and remain hopeful that the closing of the transaction can occur in early 2010.”
Original Article: Kara Swisher of Boomtown, who is normally a pretty reliable source of industry scoops, is reporting that Yahoo and Microsoft may be very close to finally signing their much-anticipated search and advertising deal. According to Swisher, though she has not received confirmation from either party, the two companies may have their agreement in place by the end of the week.
"If all goes well, the various Microsoft and Yahoo execs–who have been ferreted away over the last weeks busy dotting all the i’s and crossing all the t’s on the massive document–could even turn in their deal homework to their bosses for signature by the end of the week," says Swisher. She cites "sources close to the situation" as the basis of her lead.
The deadline for completing the agreement was October 27, but both companies basically chalked up the lack of completion to the size and complexity of the document. They want to make sure all of the details are in there and are clear.
The deal isn't just waiting on the two companies to finalize a document, though. It also requires the approval of a bunch of government regulators, and not just in the U.S.
"And, several sources said those government approvals are now nearing completion at the Justice Department, even though the Federal Trade Commission might still ask for more assurances on privacy issues related to online advertising and consumer data issues," writes Swisher. "International regulatory approval is another story, especially in Europe, which could further delay the implementation of the partnership, since it is unlikely the pair would move forward without clearance globally."
Statements from the two companies are as follows:
“Microsoft and Yahoo! believe that this deal will create a sustainable and more compelling alternative in search that can provide consumers, advertisers and publishers real choice, better value, and more innovation.
“Yahoo! and Microsoft welcome the broad support the deal has received from key players in the advertising industry and remain hopeful that the closing of the transaction can occur in early 2010.”
Original Article: Kara Swisher of Boomtown, who is normally a pretty reliable source of industry scoops, is reporting that Yahoo and Microsoft may be very close to finally signing their much-anticipated search and advertising deal. According to Swisher, though she has not received confirmation from either party, the two companies may have their agreement in place by the end of the week.
"If all goes well, the various Microsoft and Yahoo execs–who have been ferreted away over the last weeks busy dotting all the i’s and crossing all the t’s on the massive document–could even turn in their deal homework to their bosses for signature by the end of the week," says Swisher. She cites "sources close to the situation" as the basis of her lead.
The deadline for completing the agreement was October 27, but both companies basically chalked up the lack of completion to the size and complexity of the document. They want to make sure all of the details are in there and are clear.
The deal isn't just waiting on the two companies to finalize a document, though. It also requires the approval of a bunch of government regulators, and not just in the U.S.
"And, several sources said those government approvals are now nearing completion at the Justice Department, even though the Federal Trade Commission might still ask for more assurances on privacy issues related to online advertising and consumer data issues," writes Swisher. "International regulatory approval is another story, especially in Europe, which could further delay the implementation of the partnership, since it is unlikely the pair would move forward without clearance globally."
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Gasta Tech: Bing taking on Google news
Microsoft Offers To Pay News Publishers to Pull Content from Google
The next battle in the search wars could be over access to news content. The FT reports that Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)—which has made increasing the market share of its Bing search engine its top online priority—has reached out to “big online publishers” in order to get them to pull their sites from Google (NSDQ: GOOG). Among the parties currently in discussions with Microsoft is News Corp. (NYSE: NWS), which has very loudly threatened to block search engines from crawling the content of its newspapers.
Unclear how far along these discussions are, although TechCrunch also reported a week ago that Microsoft had a meeting with representatives from top British papers, including the Financial Times, about giving their content “premium positions” on Bing.
This report seems to take that a step further since not only would Microsoft presumably be giving the content of its partners better play, it would also be paying to ensure that their content could not be found directly via the search engine of its arch-rival.
That would give Bing bragging rights to something Google does not have. Its other attempts at doing so haven’t been as successful. For instance, after it announced a deal with Twitter to feature Tweets from the microblog in real-time, Google followed up with its own agreement hours later.
For the newspapers, of course, the question is whether Microsoft’s dollars can make up for the loss of traffic that Google generates for them.
Online publishers would likely demand top dollar. Asked about the possibility last week, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch said he wasn’t convinced even Microsoft could afford it: “If they were to pay everybody for everything they took, from every newspaper in the world and every magazine they wouldn’t have any profits left.”
The next battle in the search wars could be over access to news content. The FT reports that Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)—which has made increasing the market share of its Bing search engine its top online priority—has reached out to “big online publishers” in order to get them to pull their sites from Google (NSDQ: GOOG). Among the parties currently in discussions with Microsoft is News Corp. (NYSE: NWS), which has very loudly threatened to block search engines from crawling the content of its newspapers.
Unclear how far along these discussions are, although TechCrunch also reported a week ago that Microsoft had a meeting with representatives from top British papers, including the Financial Times, about giving their content “premium positions” on Bing.
This report seems to take that a step further since not only would Microsoft presumably be giving the content of its partners better play, it would also be paying to ensure that their content could not be found directly via the search engine of its arch-rival.
That would give Bing bragging rights to something Google does not have. Its other attempts at doing so haven’t been as successful. For instance, after it announced a deal with Twitter to feature Tweets from the microblog in real-time, Google followed up with its own agreement hours later.
For the newspapers, of course, the question is whether Microsoft’s dollars can make up for the loss of traffic that Google generates for them.
Online publishers would likely demand top dollar. Asked about the possibility last week, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch said he wasn’t convinced even Microsoft could afford it: “If they were to pay everybody for everything they took, from every newspaper in the world and every magazine they wouldn’t have any profits left.”
Friday, October 23, 2009
Gasta Tech News: Social Media and Search engines
SOCIAL MEDIA BEST PRACTICE FOR SEARCH ENGINE RANKINGS By Chris Crum
A while back WebProNews compiled a list of five tips for getting found in real-time searches, which basically boils down to staying in the conversation for relevant topics that people are searching for. The tips were:
1. Use keywords
2. Talk about timely events
3. Have a lot of followers
4. Promote conversation
5. Include calls to engagement
I elaborated on each of these in the previous article. Social media is viral by nature, and real-time search is nothing more than putting things in chronological order. You have to keep people talking to stay relevant "right now."
That said, we don't know all the details about how Google and Bing will be integrating its Twitter and Facebook results into the rest of their results yet. Bing has made available a beta tool for people to mess around with for searching tweets with the search engine. "You can now search for what people are saying all over the web about breaking news topics, your favorite celebrity, hometown sports team, and anything else you use Twitter to stay on top of today," says Paul Yiu of Bing's Social Search team.
A while back WebProNews compiled a list of five tips for getting found in real-time searches, which basically boils down to staying in the conversation for relevant topics that people are searching for. The tips were:
1. Use keywords
2. Talk about timely events
3. Have a lot of followers
4. Promote conversation
5. Include calls to engagement
I elaborated on each of these in the previous article. Social media is viral by nature, and real-time search is nothing more than putting things in chronological order. You have to keep people talking to stay relevant "right now."
That said, we don't know all the details about how Google and Bing will be integrating its Twitter and Facebook results into the rest of their results yet. Bing has made available a beta tool for people to mess around with for searching tweets with the search engine. "You can now search for what people are saying all over the web about breaking news topics, your favorite celebrity, hometown sports team, and anything else you use Twitter to stay on top of today," says Paul Yiu of Bing's Social Search team.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Full List of Gasta Property Domains UK
# propertybelgravia.com
# propertyblackburn.com
# propertyblackburn.com
# propertybolton.com
# propertybrighton.com
# propertybristol.com
# propertybrittany.com
# propertyburnley.com
# propertycambridge.com
# propertychelsea.com
# propertycheltenham.com
# propertycotswolds.com
# propertydoncaster.com
# propertyedinburgh.com
# propertygloucester.com
# propertyguernsey.com
# propertykent.com
# propertyknightsbridge.com
# propertyliverpool.com
# propertylondon.net
# propertyluton.com
# propertymanchester.com
# propertymayfair.com
# propertymiddlesbrough.com
# propertynewcastle.net
# propertynormandy.com
# propertynorwich.com
# propertyoldham.com
# propertyoxford.net
# propertypeterborough.com
# propertyrotherham.com
# propertysouthwest.com
# propertysquaremile.com
# propertysunderland.com
# propertysurrey.com
# propertytorquay.com
# propertywatford.com
# propertywigan.com
# propertywindsor.com
# propertywirral.com
# propertyblackburn.com
# propertyblackburn.com
# propertybolton.com
# propertybrighton.com
# propertybristol.com
# propertybrittany.com
# propertyburnley.com
# propertycambridge.com
# propertychelsea.com
# propertycheltenham.com
# propertycotswolds.com
# propertydoncaster.com
# propertyedinburgh.com
# propertygloucester.com
# propertyguernsey.com
# propertykent.com
# propertyknightsbridge.com
# propertyliverpool.com
# propertylondon.net
# propertyluton.com
# propertymanchester.com
# propertymayfair.com
# propertymiddlesbrough.com
# propertynewcastle.net
# propertynormandy.com
# propertynorwich.com
# propertyoldham.com
# propertyoxford.net
# propertypeterborough.com
# propertyrotherham.com
# propertysouthwest.com
# propertysquaremile.com
# propertysunderland.com
# propertysurrey.com
# propertytorquay.com
# propertywatford.com
# propertywigan.com
# propertywindsor.com
# propertywirral.com
Sunday, August 09, 2009
FAQ on Gasta white label solution
FAQ on Gasta white label solution
How will our branded site receive traffic?
a) Case 1 - A new domain with no existing traffic or index on Google
· As a Gasta Partner you will be connected with 200 active sites on the Gasta Network that have over 110,000 indexed pages in Google
· Our network will cross promote you internally across all our sites (http://gasta.com/ads/adnetwork)
· Gasta serves between 250k to 500k searches a day <-- We will push you domain
· You domain will be picked up and indexed on Google within 24-72 hours of launching
· Case example Gasta.cn <- when initially launched it was index with over 12,000 pages on Google with 6 weeks
b) Case 2 - Existing domain
· You can bring in an existing domain
· As previous applies.
Will we need to SEO the site our selves
· No, our sites are completely SEO optimised using our platform. The only thing we start out doing is creating a dictionary of keywords that describe your site (see - baroneracing.com HomePage) - this leverages and helps search engines both understand and create an index for you site.
· Our system takes care of the rest - for example Google SiteMaps, Meta Titles etc.
· We can provide you with a complete admin interface that allows you to tweak and add keywords and SEO mark-up or we can care-take this for you.
Who will host it?
· We can will host it - however we can offer to install the site on your own server if you wish.
Can we customize the links on the home page
a) Standard implementation (eg. baroneracing.com or gasta.com)
· Yes, the home page is completely customisable.
· The standard layout will allow you to change the keywords (tabbed directory) and ALL text on the home page.
· This is controlled from your admin area, or care-taken by our support team.
b) Custom implementation
· We can 100% create a customised homepage for you - alternative designs or new features as you request
Will there be adsense ads in our result page
· You can turn ads on and off via the control panel.
· If you wish to have adsense (or any other simliar third party ads) you can control them from you control panel.
· Your ads, your revenue, your option.
Note: On Ads
· The Gasta White Label has it's own version of adsense built in. We call these 'InstantAds' and 'SearchMatch'.
· Using the example http://gasta.com/Search/casino
o Draw you focus to the top left logo and the grey bar - directly below this is 'SearchMatch'.
o Now to the right column and at the top - notice your ad - this is 'InstantAds'.
· You can control the number of ads you wish to display in each unit via the admin.
· Both ad types can cross pollinate with each other.
· The Ad scope (this is how the system decides what ads to be displayed) can be set to 'exact' or 'universal'
o 'exact' is a direct keyword or contextual match
o 'universal' - display an exact match first (if available) and always display 'ad stock' regardless.
In addition
· You can sell you ad space if desired directly.
· You can create your own network of related sites.
· You can export you ads to existing sites (similar to Google Adsense)
· We can sell ad space for you.
· Turn the feature off.
I would suggest that the ads system be filled with a library of your corporate and associated network services and set to universally be displayed.
Gasta white label solution comes in three partnered solutions.
Basic
· We retain control of all Ads and Revenue including Google, SearchMatch, InstantAds and other third party campaigns
· Only the logo and keywords can be customised
· Branding and Copyright remains as part of the Gasta Network
Partnered
· As part of the Gasta Search Network all advertising revenue sold to third parties via your domain is split evenly on SearchMatch & InstantAds.
· All third party advert revenue (eg. Google Adsense, Trade Doubler etc.) on your site is 100% is retained by your company.
· You will receive a 50% discount on all adverts you place across the entire Gasta Network.
· Ad revenue sharing is completely optional. You may turn the ad system off.
· Initial set-up cost
Dedicated
· 100% Control of Ad system and 100% retained Advertising revenue
· 100% Branding as Your Company
· Create your own Exclusive Ad Network and Ad Content.
In addition we can provide you with a completely bespoke design. We can offer to redesign the home page or results page to suit your company needs.
How will our branded site receive traffic?
a) Case 1 - A new domain with no existing traffic or index on Google
· As a Gasta Partner you will be connected with 200 active sites on the Gasta Network that have over 110,000 indexed pages in Google
· Our network will cross promote you internally across all our sites (http://gasta.com/ads/adnetwork)
· Gasta serves between 250k to 500k searches a day <-- We will push you domain
· You domain will be picked up and indexed on Google within 24-72 hours of launching
· Case example Gasta.cn <- when initially launched it was index with over 12,000 pages on Google with 6 weeks
b) Case 2 - Existing domain
· You can bring in an existing domain
· As previous applies.
Will we need to SEO the site our selves
· No, our sites are completely SEO optimised using our platform. The only thing we start out doing is creating a dictionary of keywords that describe your site (see - baroneracing.com HomePage) - this leverages and helps search engines both understand and create an index for you site.
· Our system takes care of the rest - for example Google SiteMaps, Meta Titles etc.
· We can provide you with a complete admin interface that allows you to tweak and add keywords and SEO mark-up or we can care-take this for you.
Who will host it?
· We can will host it - however we can offer to install the site on your own server if you wish.
Can we customize the links on the home page
a) Standard implementation (eg. baroneracing.com or gasta.com)
· Yes, the home page is completely customisable.
· The standard layout will allow you to change the keywords (tabbed directory) and ALL text on the home page.
· This is controlled from your admin area, or care-taken by our support team.
b) Custom implementation
· We can 100% create a customised homepage for you - alternative designs or new features as you request
Will there be adsense ads in our result page
· You can turn ads on and off via the control panel.
· If you wish to have adsense (or any other simliar third party ads) you can control them from you control panel.
· Your ads, your revenue, your option.
Note: On Ads
· The Gasta White Label has it's own version of adsense built in. We call these 'InstantAds' and 'SearchMatch'.
· Using the example http://gasta.com/Search/casino
o Draw you focus to the top left logo and the grey bar - directly below this is 'SearchMatch'.
o Now to the right column and at the top - notice your ad - this is 'InstantAds'.
· You can control the number of ads you wish to display in each unit via the admin.
· Both ad types can cross pollinate with each other.
· The Ad scope (this is how the system decides what ads to be displayed) can be set to 'exact' or 'universal'
o 'exact' is a direct keyword or contextual match
o 'universal' - display an exact match first (if available) and always display 'ad stock' regardless.
In addition
· You can sell you ad space if desired directly.
· You can create your own network of related sites.
· You can export you ads to existing sites (similar to Google Adsense)
· We can sell ad space for you.
· Turn the feature off.
I would suggest that the ads system be filled with a library of your corporate and associated network services and set to universally be displayed.
Gasta white label solution comes in three partnered solutions.
Basic
· We retain control of all Ads and Revenue including Google, SearchMatch, InstantAds and other third party campaigns
· Only the logo and keywords can be customised
· Branding and Copyright remains as part of the Gasta Network
Partnered
· As part of the Gasta Search Network all advertising revenue sold to third parties via your domain is split evenly on SearchMatch & InstantAds.
· All third party advert revenue (eg. Google Adsense, Trade Doubler etc.) on your site is 100% is retained by your company.
· You will receive a 50% discount on all adverts you place across the entire Gasta Network.
· Ad revenue sharing is completely optional. You may turn the ad system off.
· Initial set-up cost
Dedicated
· 100% Control of Ad system and 100% retained Advertising revenue
· 100% Branding as Your Company
· Create your own Exclusive Ad Network and Ad Content.
In addition we can provide you with a completely bespoke design. We can offer to redesign the home page or results page to suit your company needs.
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