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Google Buzz vs. Everything ElseYesterday, Jeremiah Owyang of Web Strategy published a blog post that weighed in on his opinion of the freshly released "Google Buzz." So what is Google Buzz? Google's answer to social networks like Twitter and Facebook that attempts to incorporate and aggregate the chatter on all existing social networks. Many users have compared the feed that is aggregated and shared on Google Buzz similar to FriendFeed or the Facebook homepage feed. Google Buzz sits upon the email powerhouse of Gmail, not to mention the most popular website in the world, Google. Owyang offers a detailed matrix that compares and contrasts Google Buzz, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Most notably, Owang points out that Google Buzz is late to the party, but has potential to integrate the entire internet, while Facebook has gained traction with Facebook connect. The clearcut competition in social networks seems like it may come down to a faceoff between Facebook and Buzz, since many have predicted Twitter to be a commodity that will be integrated into everything. The real competition will not exist until Buzz gets enough users to sign up and use the service. Facebook, which already has 400 million active users, is starting in the lead. While Buzz was released to a public full of high expectations, users were fast to scrutinize the privacy flaws of the content aggregator. A Fox news article reported that Buzz users were automatically opted in to allow others to see who their email and chat contacts are. Google responded by making the opt out option for sharing contacts more clear, but many are still weary of the system's privacy. The Future of Google Buzz is unclear, however Owywang suggests that Buzz is quick to integrate into Chrome and Search to leverage the information and consumers that Google already possesses. Facebook is urged to become more open and reward users for sharing public information. However, Facebook's so-called "Titan" email project could be a game changer... Labels: Google, Google Buzz, Industry, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, web 2.0 Google Toolbar's Share FeatureAre you aware of the sharing feature on the Google Toolbar? Added in December 2009, this feature allows web surfers to share content on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. Additionally, surfers can use the tool to share content on blogs and through e-mail.   After users select where they would like to share information, a pop-up enables them to post the selected content to a social networking site, blog or e-mail. Here is an example of what the content looks like posted on a Facebook wall:  Labels: Google, Social Media Real Time Search isn't Real No sooner had we gotten used to the idea of “Universal Search” and every detail needed to understand what would go into dominating the search engine results pages with images, videos and text, than Google releases “Real-time Search”. The question is how real time is the returns and how flawed are the results. The lack of Google’s ability to show real-time results was a weakness that many people felt hurt them in development. With the release of Universal Search so many interesting features were added to Google Suggest and Google Quick Scroll enabling Google’s search capabilities to save users time and enhance the user experience. Real-time Google Search is available in English only for some people, but Google believes that by the first quarter of 2010 could be implemented in other languages. Some of the pages that will work with this new system will be Facebook, Twitter and MySpace sites that are updated every minute. For now if you want to see Real Time in action, I recommend choosing any of the terms found in Google Trends. Only for some specific terms will you see results, massive searches at a given time, so if you want to see it in action, I recommend choosing any of the terms in Google Trends. Not Just Google but Bing too: Both Bing and Google have agreements with Twitter to take every tweet (post or message) and analyze each with its own technology to deliver relevant results to searchers. There were already some partial solutions like Twitter Search Results for Google via GreaseMonkey, but this new real-time is certainly a step beyond. We see that Bing has completely separated search Twitter, trying not to affect results pages (SERPs) for your main browser. While search engines can be added to Twitter as an input to the characterization of the sites that are part of their index, they do not plan to add sound to your results pages with tweets. Therefore we must see real-time searching as a new type of search, and existing (News, Blogs, images, etc), which is sorted by relevancy. Social information is important and needed for business and individuals alike. Google’s new interest in blended results beyond Universal search is problematic on several dimensions. The sleek and streamlined results, Google used to serve, now look like a hodge podge of information. Gone are their austere results views, no longer conforming to the most relevant and best results credo. Add sponsored results which are now even more wonky given the addition of images in paid search and the results pages looks terrible. My concern stems from sources of information used and information available for use. So much of what happens in this world takes place in extranets and behind forum walls that truly influence our everyday lives that search engines have no access or insight into. So how real is real time search? Labels: Bing, Google, real time search, search results, SERPs, Social Media, Twitter Google-Yelp Deal Could Create Powerful Local Marketing ToolFor obvious reasons, local "mom and pop" businesses need to have different marketing tactics than large enterprises. What this means in the end, is that local businesses simply can't afford to advertise in the same places as their big-business counterparts. Even Google pay-per-click ads, which are low in cost, may be inefficient for some local businesses because the larger companies whom they compete against will inevitably show up in top positions and likely fill the first page, which is the most important place to be to generate impressions and clicks. Google already has the Local Business Center, which has helped local businesses with smaller budgets to show up atop search results based on users' geography. However, if Google's $500 million+ acquisition of local business and review site Yelp goes through, this could really open up the local search advertising market. It would also help to generate more data about local markets for advertisers. The benefit that Yelp would bring to Google is its hundreds of thousands of reviews on local businesses and services, across cities and towns large and small and every vertical you can imagine. According to Adam Bunn, head of SEO at Greenlight, the acquisition would give "direct access to structured data allowing them to reliably and accurately incorporate that data into their search results." Additionally, Yelp has been building a powerful mobile search platform. According to John Havens, VP of social media at Porter Novelli (via TechNewsWorld), "Right now, Yelp has a tool called 'Monocle' - a user holds up a phone using the app and pans it from left to right. Let's say you are in San Francisco and want to find a coffee shop. You start panning the phone around, and you can see the icons for coffee shops, along with consumers' comments about each shop." Combined with Google's capabilities, this could become a huge and influential tool for local marketing worldwide. According to MarketingVox, the Google/Yelp deal still has some kinks to work out and there are some doubts about its certainty. MarketingVox states, "...in fact, with its news made public participants reportedly fear that competitors may offer a higher bid for Yelp - a testament to the huge importance local business data has to the online search and ad community." To read more about the pending acquisition, click here. Source: MarketingVox Labels: Google, Local Search Marketing, Paid Search, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Yelp Google Announces Real-Time SearchGoogle recently released its real-time search option, online and for iPhone and Android smart phone devices, enabling users to receive search results as they happen. How does it work? When users enter a search term, results are automatically updated from live Tweets, news articles, Yahoo Answers and web pages. If users do not want to continue receiving live results, a pause option stops the search results from refreshing. Additionally, users are able to filter search results to just status updates from sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Another feature of Google's live search is the trending topics, similar to Twitter's, including topics from the "hour" and "day." Over the next few days, the search engine will roll the option out to users. Labels: Google Google to Offer Captioned YouTube VideosTranslation for online video is about to get a whole lot easier. Google just announced that they are going to start offering an automatic caption service for YouTube videos: Offering a service like this, provided it works as described, is nothing short of amazing. Subtitling videos or offering an alternative translated soundtrack is a time-consuming and often costly process that prevents content creators from optimizing the reach of their videos. Being able to post a video to a corporate YouTube channel and then having a captioned translation available in 51 different languages is going to make it a lot easier to get that content embedded in multiple blogs and partner sites. Labels: Blog Outreach, Google, Online Media, online video, Video, web 2.0, YouTube Expanding Your Reach on the Google Content NetworkThe Google Content Network is a great place to expand upon standard paid search campaigns, especially if your campaigns are utilizing low frequency terms or promoting a niche product or service. When search campaigns approach 100% impression share, the average cost per click can increase substantially as more aggressive bidding is required to capture the extra traffic on your relevant terms. However, simply flipping the switch on the content network for your existing campaigns is not typically a good way to get started with Content Network campaigns. Here are a few tips get you started with successful PPC campaign management and expansion on the Google Content Network. The first thing you should always do when setting up a content campaign is to separate the content campaign from search campaigns. Search campaigns often perform quite differently than content campaigns, so it is not enough to simply turn the Google Content Network on in an existing campaign; it is critical to make sure you create a separate campaign within the AdWords management interface . Keeping a separate campaign allows you to set unique budget caps for your search and content campaigns, ensuring your content buy won’t cannibalize the performance of an existing search campaign. Separate campaigns allow for easier PPC management and optimization as well. Content campaigns will always have a much higher level of impressions and lower click through rates, and will typically require a different bidding structure (usually lower bids on content). For keyword targeted content campaigns, you also might need to trim back to a core list of tightly grouped buckets of terms for each AdGroup. Content AdGroups should typically contain no more than 10-15 terms, and Google will ignore more than 50, so keep the list short. Google looks at the theme of grouped terms, not individual keywords in an AdGroup, so make sure your groups contain highly related terms. By keeping campaigns separate, you can also avoid taking a quality score hit to the search campaign as the CTR won’t take a sharp dive once the content program is launched. Optimizations are different for search and content as well so keeping things separate makes it easier to improve both campaigns. In terms of targeting by keyword vs. placement- there is no right or wrong here, and the goals and objectives of the campaign would need to be considered; one approach would be to utilize both forms of targeting. Start with the keywords. Again, use small lists of tightly themed terms with relevant ads and destinations. Set your caps and bids and begin collecting data. After you have some data built up, run a placement report to review performance by each URL where your ads are being displayed. Optimize the keyword campaign not only at the big and conversion level, but at the placement level as well. Pause any sites that spend money on clicks that don’t convert (assuming you are tracking actions and not just driving traffic). Also pause any sites that generate lots of impressions, but few clicks to improve quality score and lower overall cost per click. In addition to pausing non-performing placements, you can further improve overall PPC performance by placement targeting sites that have shown solid performance in the keyword targeted content campaign. Run the placement campaigns at the same time as the keyword campaigns, continuing to expand reach on the sites that perform well on keyword campaigns through direct placement targeting. Consider adding different creative formats to the top performing placements that emerge, including image or video ads. Additional placements that might perform well can be discovered through Google’s natural search results. Instead of searching through the categories and available content placements in AdWords, consider the inverse approach- starting with a search on the most valuable terms in your campaign. Considering the scale of the Google Content Network, you might find several placements that rank high in natural results for your most critical terms. A quick look at the sites with page one and two listings on your key terms should reveal whether or not they are part of the Google Content Network- just look for the familiar “Ads By Google” box. Then, placement target the sites that already rank highly for the most relevant terms in your campaign. Labels: Google, online marketing, Paid Search, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) No Bling for BingLooks like all the hype hasn't translated into market share for Microsoft's "decision engine" Bing. After an initial bump in usage, Bing's market share is now 3.39%, according to the latest figures from a NetApplications survey. Meanwhile, StatCounter says that 89.92% of all global searches were done on Google. Here's a link to the article: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7016574732?Microsoft%27s%20%27Bing%27%20Is%20Anything%20But%20Bling%20As%20Marketshare%20Keeps%20Slipping Wonder what Google has up their sleeve to grab the remaining market share away from competitors like Bing and Yahoo? How about date ranges, pages not yet visited, and translation? After several months of an almost continuous barrage of feature upgrades, Google dropped a few more goodies into their feature set yesterday: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2353667,00.asp Social Media Weekly BuzzThis past week, Facebook was ranked one of America’s most trusted companies, blew past the 300 million mark in total users, and hinted at the release of voice chat powered by Boston-based Vivox. Google increased its ever-growing hold on the web with its acquisition of reCAPTCHA, whose technology they can utilize to help with large text-scanning projects such as Google Books. The company also released Google Public Sector, which offers tools and best practices for public sector collaboration. Following up on the sale of the popular VoIP and chat service Skype comes a lawsuit by the founder’s who are suing eBay for copyright infringement of a core peer-to-peer technology found in the program. Finally, Bing continues to skyrocket in popularity among other search engine services.
Things are truly looking good for Facebook these days. Now that the service is finally making money, albeit only $2 per person, and will soon be implementing video and voice chat features, it seems as if this social networking giant is on an unstoppable course to dominating the social market. The fact that Facebook is also one of the most trusted companies in the US will do well to solidify the service’s future growth, and should be a source of great concern for competitors such as Twitter, of which Facebook has recently launched a full-scale assault upon. Does Facebook have the momentum and power to ultimately become the only social networking service worth using? Labels: Facebook, Google, Social Media, Twitter Social Media Weekly BuzzWelcome to the second edition of Social Media Weekly Buzz. This week, both Google and Facebook managed to steal the majority of the headlines. Gmail’s outage on Tuesday sparked widespread panic and led most people, ironically, to use Google search to investigate the incident. In addition, the oh-so familiar, yet quite stark, Google search landing page has finally been patented, five years after being submitted to the USPTO. Facebook tested out a new ad scheme with direct offer engagement ads, and is being accused of leading a Welsh citizen to murder their partner. Also, have you checked out Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on YouTube yet? All this and more follows below:  • Gmail Outage – At 12:30pm PST, a small fraction of Gmail’s servers were taken offline for routine maintenance. Unfortunately, Google underestimated the load recent changes placed on the request routers… The result? Gmail went down for 100 minutes, and online chaos quickly ensued. • Google’s Search Landing Page Now Patented – After 5 years of fierce debate with federal bureaucrats, Google has finally won the right to patent their unmistakable home page. Google now owns the concept of having a large search box in the middle of the page, on top of two big buttons, with several links scattered here and there. Does this spell trouble for sites which possess similar layouts, such as Yahoo search?  • Facebook Tests Direct Response Ads – Craving a Chick-fil-A Chicken Biscuit? How about if it’s free? Soon you might be seeing more ad offers like this on Facebook if their testing of direct offer engagement ads goes well. Facebook has recently been exploring different advertising options as it gradually shifts away from its traditional sales funnel. • Facebook Regional Networks No More – Regional networks on Facebook are now officially gone. This move comes as Facebook attempts to expand beyond its college roots to a worldwide communication platform, not unlike Twitter. But is that really what users want? • Facebook Jealousy Blamed on Murder – A murder trial in South Wales has taken an interesting twist, with a UK prosecutor arguing that Facebook-related jealousy pre-empted the tragic event. Apparently the whole thing got started when Mrs. Jones started to “expand her social horizons” online. The last straw? When she changed her Facebook status to “single”. • Kremlin Launches YouTube Channel – Russian President Dmitri Medvedev launched his very own YouTube channel, located at www.youtube.com/kremlin. The main purpose of the channel will be to reach out to and connect with the youth of Russia. So far he has covered topics from good neighborhood ties between schoolchildren, to the outcome of the Second World War. • eBay Sells Skype – On Tuesday, eBay officially announced that it would be selling th  e VoIP and chat service Skype to a group of private investors for $2.75 billion. eBay will still retain a 35 percent equity stake in the service however, which they hope will increase in value under the new management. The decision to sell was provoked by a lack of synergy between Skype and eBay’s e-commerce and payments services.The Gmail downtime serves as a reminder of how much of our lives are becoming dependent on the Internet. As more and more services become cloud-based in nature, it is imperative that network interruption be minimized at all costs. Fortunately the Gmail downtime occurred during the night, which helped save what could have been a large-scale interruption in productivity for the US. Twitter experienced a similar issue not too long ago, though that issue was more malicious in nature, and not just a big mistake. Facebook continues to modify its services in order to improve both the experience of both consumers and advertisers. The direct offer engagement ads are a great source of lead generation for businesses, however it will be interesting to see how many people are willing to enter their address and other personal info for discounts and promotions. This is definitely a jump in the right direction for Facebook as it tries to shift away from its traditional sales funnel. The major step in this development is that companies will now receive instant results from the advertisements they publish on the service. The Facebook alteration that might not be met with open arms is the decision to completely remove regional network categories. As Facebook attempts to take a more worldly approach to its communications platform, it has the potential of upsetting long time users of its service. For them, Facebook served as a tool to better connect with friends, not strangers. In addition, many users prefer Facebook over Twitter for the very fact that it isn’t… Twitter. Any step closer to the other service could be taken very negatively among its fan base. The sale of Skype was definitely a smart move for eBay, whose e-commerce and online payments businesses really have nothing in common with the VoIP service. The real question is what prompted eBay to make the acquisition in the first place? Earlier in April StumbleUpon was also sold off to a group of investors after a failed attempt to synergize operations. Fortunately now the company can turn to focusing on its core eBay and PayPal businesses. Labels: Facebook, Google, Industry, Landing Pages, online marketing, Online Media, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Twitter, Video, web 2.0, Yahoo, YouTube Google AdWords Trademark Policy Change Goes Into Effect Next Week!If you’re an agency, you’re likely aware of the major Google AdWords trademark policy change that will be going into effect beginning June 4th-15th. This change will significantly impact the control we’re able to have over our client’s brand names within Google Paid Search. What you need to know: -Google will no longer investigate the use of trademarks as keywords in the US, UK and other countries as well. Anyone who wants to sponsor your brand name can, effective June 4th. -Previously, Google restricted the use of brand names in ad text and would take action to prevent such usage. Only authorized resellers were allowed to use you brand, which ensured that most were restricted. This policy is being lifted as of June 15th, so previously disapproved ad text may now be permitted to run in both Google and the Content Network. Google will judge whether the ads will be able to run, and the trademark owner will not be able to prevent people from using their trademark in ad text. It is likely however that Google will not allow direct competitors to include their competitor’s trademark within their ads. What you can do to protect your clients: 1. Ensure that their brand presence is strong- ensure you’re bidding on their branded terms, include their brand name within the ad copy, URL, etc. 2. Report display URL abuse to Google- if you find brand hijacking (causing traffic to be diverted to sites other than your client’s) Google will take action 3. Negotiate deals with competitors- agree to not bid on each others trademarked terms Clients frequently question the value of bidding on their branded terms, when they have natural search presence and often times are listed within first page results in Google. As search marketers we know that having our client’s brand name present in both natural search listings and paid search listings can result in a sort of ‘page domination’ and ensure that we stand out against competitors who’s ads are likely appearing under our branded terms when searched for. This recent trademark policy change stresses the importance of this ‘page domination’ now more than ever. For more on the Google AdWords Trademark policy changes, click here. Labels: Brand Awareness, Google, Paid Search, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Google Announces a New Way to Manage Your Online IdentityBack in the days before the Internet took off, when you received someone’s contact information, business card, etc., you would use said information to either call, email, or send a letter or card to them. Nowadays, the first thing you do is Google them. To take advantage of this new feature, a user must Google the word “me” and click through from the Google Promotion ad that is currently in position 1 of the sponsored results. This will bring up a simple form including limited contact information, opportunities to link to other social profiles, images from Picasa, and a few generic fields for a user to add a detailed description about him or herself. Google Profiles also allows you to opt-in to have your profile show up in search results. This is not an automatic inclusion, so as to allow people to either essentially have “private” or “public” profiles. While not necessarily optimizing your profile to position 1, Google Profiles tend to show up on the first page of Google’s natural search results. This is a great tractic of natural search engine optimization on your own name.
Google Profiles could become a very powerful reputation management tool. Of course, if someone is typing your name into Google and they see your profile, it will likely only be one of the many links they end up looking at. However, it at least allows you to have a say in what Google returns to searchers; essentially, who Google thinks YOU are. According to Adam Ostrow at Mashable, “This is going to be a welcome addition for lots of people, especially those who aren’t necessarily happy with what links Google has for them on the first page of results.” Google Profiles opens up a whole new realm in the world of controlling your online identity. Now not only can you control sponsored results, but there's an additional level of control for the natural search results as well. Get started! http://lmgtfy.com/?q=me Labels: Google, POV, Reputation Management, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Strategy Paid Search Tips for Campaign OptimizationIf you've ever run a paid search campaign, chances are you've come across keywords that, while viable for your campaign, garner too much traffic and are just too expensive to bid on. However, what happens when the opposite is true? Some perfectly legitimate keywords carry such little frequency that Google may not show your ads consistently. I've highlighted some potential issues associated with low frequency keywords below and some tips on how to avoid this situation. When keywords carry an extremely low search frequency (by Google’s standards) paid search ads may not be displayed consistently. By increasing bids, this can counteract the low search frequency and increase the frequency of your ads being shown. The goal is to achieve a balance of ensuring your ads are being displayed while not increasing bids too high. Keywords Are Phrase Matched Normally for campaigns with a low cost per click you would want to broad match your terms, meaning that if someone entered any part of a keyword into a search query, your ads would show. This may not be possible though for a variety of reasons; maybe part of your keyword would not be relevant, maybe it would be too expensive broad matching certain terms Whatever the reason, a little elbow grease can help counteract this situation. Adding all variations of a term - misspellings, words in a different order, etc. - any variation you can think that would even remotely make sense, should be added to the campaign. This way you have a much better chance of bidding on the exact keyword a user entered, which in turn gives your ads a much better chance of showing up. While these tactics will definitely help, your ads still might not show up 100% of the time. The key is to closely monitor your campaign and find an acceptable balance of keyword bids and impression levels. If you would like Overdrive to help with your search engine marketing efforts, feel free to contact us anytime: 617-254-5000 x1100. Labels: Google, Paid Search, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Google Suggest Extension for Firefox displaying PPC Ads?This morning I discovered what appears to be partial paid search ad within the Google Suggest drop-down menu. It appears that the Firefox extension is pulling the 25 character ad headline and display URL right into the drop-down menu.  As an advertiser on Google, I was surprised not to have heard of this development. It has yet to be determined if these partial impressions are counted in the AdWords tally. What is more concerning is the fact that none of these paid ads actually appear to work. All of the paid partial ads point to the page below showing the page www.google.com/www.displayurl.com/ does not exist. I would assume that these "clicks" to the partial ads within the Suggest menu are not actually being counted since the user never hits the destination page, but this has yet to be confirmed. It looks like there are still some bugs to be worked out here obviously, but this is something advertisers should be aware of. Impressions on text ads might not be as valuable as impressions for other ad units, but they can still have a major impact, especially for users early in the decision making process that are compiling a short list of potential solutions or products. So, if 70 characters of your impression are missing, the value is undoubtedly decreased, as benefit statements and offers that most often influence click behavior are missing. Furthermore, as an advertiser I would be concerned about the partial impressions and how these partial impressions could bring down the click through rate, which in turn decreases the Quality Score and brings down the performance of the AdGroup and Campaign as a whole. Hopefully Google will allow for an option to block these impressions so that advertisers have the ability to save their limited funds for full ad impressions that don't dilute Quality Score overall campaign metrics. Labels: Advertising, Google, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Best Practices for Google Content TargetingThe lines between search marketing and online media have been blurring for some time. This is especially true with the Google AdSense network. It's basically a huge ad network where content sites run ads for Google. In a Google search program, this is also known as content targeting. Even though you manage these ads through the Google interface and they're often targeted by keywords that don't show up in search listings, they show up in Web sites, just like online media. A debate recently popped up in our agency about whether Google content ads, banners, and click-to-play videos managed by our search term could also be managed by our online media campaign managers as part of a media buy. Online media campaign managers should be able to manage these ads too, because -- to reiterate -- ads running in the Google content network aren't in search results. The ads are on regular Web sites and can be targeted on a site-by-site basis. Labels: ClickZ, Google, Strategy EMC Launches Content Management WidgetToday, EMC launched a social media widget and ad unit that will allow users in the field of enterprise content management to keep up to date with the rapidly moving industry. The widget provides a video, as well as links to the most recent whitepapers in the field of ECM. In addition, the widget displays a feed of the latest news, upcoming events, podcasts, and webinars in the field. The "grab it" functionality built into the widget allows for simple distribution of the widget throughout the social media grid on social sites like Facebook and MySpace, or even blog platforms like Blogger and WordPress. Users can even add the widget to their iGoogle homepage, or as a Windows Vista sidebar gadget. Try it out- the widget below is fully functional and can be added to the platform of your choice by clicking the "grab it" button in the top right corner of the widget below. Labels: Advertising, Facebook, Google, Online Media, RSS, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, web 2.0 Overdrive Interactive Secures Google Grant for First DescentsOverdrive Interactive is the online marketing agency behind highly successful search and online media campaigns for clients as diverse as Harley-Davidson, The Princeton Review, EMC, The Boston Globe and media giant Dow Jones. In support of First Descents, the agency will be deploying a search engine marketing program to generate awareness of the free trips and to drive registrations on the web site. The actual amount is not being disclosed; however it is six figures annually. The free advertising through Google AdWords™ will continue as long as the online campaign exists. Former high school classmates in Massachusetts and fellow cancer survivors, Shane Kelly, Account Executive for Overdrive Interactive, and Scott McDonald, Interim Executive Director for First Descents, partnered together to apply for and win the grant. “As a cancer survivor, I am thrilled to leverage Overdrive Interactive’s online marketing expertise to help such a fantastic organization achieve its goals,” said Kelly. “First Descents provides a life-changing experience for cancer patients and survivors, and we want everyone to know about it.” During the weeklong First Descents experience, young adults living with cancer are empowered through kayaking, team-building and other activities to push their limits and face the challenges associated with living with cancer. Emphasis is placed on daily goal setting, confidence workouts and teamwork exercises. Each program is limited to 15 participants, ensuring individualized care, medical attention and an intimate experience with fellow First Descents participants. All meals, accommodations and program activities are provided to participants free of charge. First Descents has just announced the dates for Summer 2009 programs, which can be applied for at www.firstdescents.org. “We are proud of Shane’s efforts on behalf of First Descents and happy to donate our services to such a worthy cause,” said Harry Gold, CEO of Overdrive Interactive. “Thanks to this Google Grant, we will really be able to help First Descents extend its reach online.” About First Descents First Descents was founded in 2001 by professional kayaker Brad Ludden. The mission of First Descents is to provide physical, emotional and psychological healing for young adults with cancer. The young adult cancer population (ages 18 - 40) is the most underserved demographic of survivors, with very few resources and limited support. First Descents’ week-long programs aim to kick-start young adult survivors back into life – regaining confidence, control, security and independence. For more information, please visit www.firstdescents.org. About Overdrive Interactive Overdrive Interactive is a full-service online marketing agency based in Boston that helps clients grow their business with engaging and measurable online media, social media and search engine marketing campaigns and services. The agency specializes in creating genuine consumer connections that help companies build their brands, generate leads and drive revenue. Overdrive serves organizations who are seeking a high level of accountability from their marketing firms and advertising investments. For more information, please visit www.OverdriveInteractive.com. Labels: Google, Overdrive News, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Google Unveils Flu TrendsOn Tuesday, Google unveiled its newest product, Flu Trends. Flu Trends is a part of Google.org- the non-profit arm of the search giant. This new tool is based on the finding by Google that there is a significant relationship between people’s searches on flu-related queries and people actually suffering from flu symptoms. Google states, “We compared our query counts with data from a surveillance system managed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and found that some search queries tend to be popular exactly when flu season is happening. By counting how often we see these search queries, we can estimate how much flu is circulating in various regions of the United States." Google Flu Trends site displays shows areas of the country labeled with flu activity anywhere from "minimal" to "intense.” Additionally, the site features an overall analysis of the United States flu activity level, a flu shot locator, a CDC flu prevention message, and links to recent news articles about the disease. The bottom line behind the emergence of Google Flu Trends as the latest in Google’s array of offerings is that it is further proof that when someone has a need- they search for the solution on Google. When someone has the flu, they search their symptoms on Google. And now Google is responding to that need, before the need is even identified, by using its research and knowledge to show areas where the flu is most prominent, in just about as close to real-time as you can get. Here at Overdrive, we have always stood by our feeling that when people have an immediate need for information or solutions to problems, their first instinct is to turn to Google.com and search for what it is they need. And usually, from that search, they’ll find the answers they’re looking for. Therein lies the value of search marketing- sending a message out to users exactly when they’re looking for you. Kudos to Google on the latest new tool! Labels: Google, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Twitter Tweets from the Google/TechTarget B2B RoadshowI got to attend an invitation-only Google/TechTarget event at Google's office in Cambridge, MA, and tweeted some of the more interesting tidbits of knowledge I picked up. (In all truthfulness, I added a couple to this column.) The event, "The Google/TechTarget Research Project: How IT Pros Search Online During the Purchase Process," was billed as "TechTarget and Google partnered to research the search behaviors and online interests of business technology buyers, including the relationship between brand and search activity." The research was compiled from a sample of 2,200 participants from North America, Europe, and Asia. Topics covered included search terms used at the various stages of the IT buying process, buyer attitudes toward lead-generation efforts, and more. There were some very interesting data offered, and the food was actually pretty darn good. However, I wish they gave more examples of practical applications for the data and findings they revealed. I guess it's up to us to figure out how to apply the data to what we do in the future. Read more...Labels: ClickZ, Events, Google, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Google; Where the Beer Flows Like WineUp until this month advertisers selling beer online or promoting the sale and/or consumption of beer on their website were banned from using paid search ads to promote their products. Google has recently decided to lift that ban, allowing purveyors of beer the same opportunities that wine and champagne distributors have enjoyed up to this point. While Google has not commented on this change, analysts at Search Engine Land believe that Google is trying to increase their ad revenues during tough financial times. Although beer ads have been given the go-ahead, hard alcohol and liqueurs remain Restricted Products and "cannot be promoted in ad text or be the purpose of your site" (occupying a significant portion of the site), according to the Google AdWords policy page. It is unknown whether Google will continue to update it's paid search policies, but if current economic trends continue, it appears very plausible that Google will loosen their policies in order to gain additional revenue. - Bill Holmes Labels: Google, Paid Search Googlebot Visits Overdrive for Halloween!A Googlebot, is Google's web crawling robot that finds webpages and turns them over to Google's indexer - this is Jonah's visual interpretation:  The aluminum arms made for some candy-eating difficulties...  We always knew Bianca had soft spot in her heart for Googlebots! Other people around the office wanted in on the Googlebot action - first up, Harry: John and Helidon: Ty and Andrew: The official name tag of a Googlebot Labels: Campus Life, Google Google's G1 Phone Launches Today Today Google took one more step towards complete world domination; October 22, 2008 marks the launch of the G1, Google's first foray into the mobile market. Built by HTC and distributed exclusively by T-Mobile, the G1 is the first mobile device to feature Android, Google's open source operating system. Android was developed by Google to be an open source operating system, meaning anyone can download the development kit and create applications that are downloadable through the Android marketplace. Combined with 3G mobile technology - allowing for fast wi-fi speeds - the G1 is set to make mobile internet much more accessible to everyone. So, what does this mean for marketers? Greater exposure across a wider range of media sources. In a March 2008 study by The Nielson Company, twenty-three percent (58 million) of all U.S. mobile subscribers say they were exposed to advertising on their phones in the past 30 days. Of those about half said they responded in some way. With the launch of the G1 and more phones on more providers on the way, it is becoming increasingly easier for users to access the internet via their mobile devices. This means more users online, seeing more ads, with a greater ability to interact with what they see. For more information on the G1, visit T-Mobile - Bill Holmes Labels: Google, Mobile Marketing, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Mail GogglesWe've all heard of beer goggles, a slang term for a phenomenon of vision distortion due to alcohol consumption, but have you heard of mail goggles?? Earlier this month, Google launched (via Google Labs) a new feature called Mail Goggles, which would help you "stop sending emails you later regret" (check out the official Gmail Blog). Mail Goggles is basically a Gmail feature that kicks in late at night to make that the user really wants to send that email (and is in the right frame of mind, so to speak) by asking you to solve a few simple math problems before you hit the send button. This way, if you're Drunk, Dangerous, and at the Keyboard (as the New York Times so eloquently wrote), you'll have Google to thank for preventing you from sending that regrettable email (and if you're actually sober and actually really meant to compose that late-night email, then good for you. Just consider this another layer of "are your sure?" options). Right now, Goggles is only active between 10 am and 4 pm on weekends (supposedly the times when people need a double/quintuple check). Here's a sample that shows 5 simple math problems you'll have to solve to verify your state of mind:  To activate Goggles, Gmail users should click the "Settings" link at the top of a Gmail page, then go to the "Labs" section. There probably will be some controversy over this (if there's isn't any already) but people have to remember that Google always comes up with all sorts of funny/entertaining/useful beta programs through Google Labs (Forgotten Attachment Detector, iGoogle, etc). And sure, this is a cute novelty - but I wonder, how many people are really going to use this? And how much will it really help us? Just to be sure, I'm going to activate it on my account, and report back if it's ever really needed... Will you use Mail Goggles?? Cheers! Labels: Google Google Chrome and its Implications for Online MarketingYesterday, Google announced their new web browser, Google Chrome, in a blog post. Chrome is an open source web browser designed to address many of the flaws with other browsers on the market today; notably, FireFox and Internet Explorer. Google has outlined the reasoning behind their development of Chrome and presented many of its features in a short comic book. Primarily, Chrome has been designed from the ground up with a more streamlined, efficient, and security conscious architecture designed to meet the needs of modern internet users and to present modern Web 2.0 sites as efficiently as possible. As a result, Chrome has a minimalist design that presents only the features that Google thinks users want, is intuitive and easy to use, and loads many pages faster than other browsers do - especially pages that rely heavily on JavaScript, like many Web 2.0 applications. The current release of Google Chrome is a beta, and still has bugs. It is currently only available for Windows XP and Vista. However, it is certainly making a big splash in the tech industry, and many bloggers and news sites are predicting a return to the "Browser Wars" of the 90's (before Internet Explorer became dominant). Whether Chrome will gain significant market share in the near future is up for debate. As marketers, an important issue is the impact Google Chrome will have on online advertising. For now, it appears that the answer is very little. While Chrome has made significant advances in user interface and the fundamental back-end design and structure of web browsers, the ultimate user experience is fairly similar to other browsers. Chrome is reported to render pages the same way that Safari does, so preliminarily, it does not appear that web sites will have to change site design to meet the specific needs of a new browser. From a user experience and interaction point of view, Chrome is likely to have a negligible impact. One of Chrome's features is increased security to help prevent malware and phishing attacks. Additionally, Chrome offers an "Incognito mode" that wipes cookies and search history when tabs opened in this mode are closed. These features may impact long-term cookie based tracking for actions resulting in later sessions from a user's initial interaction with a banner or other advertisement. However, similar features have existed in FireFox and Internet Explorer for some time, and Action undercounts as a result of browser or other security settings is an acknowledged issue with tracking the results of online advertising. Significant impacts are not expected to result from Google's new features, as the heightened security modes that may interfere with most tracking solutions are not enabled by default. Although there has been speculation about Google using data collected by Chrome to adjust their search results and their ads, this does not appear to be true for the immediate future. Matt Cutts, head of Webspam at Google, posted a rundown of what information Chrome transmits back to Google on his blog. Chrome contacts Google to search for updates to the software of the browser, and transmits some data back to Google to provide search results and suggestions to the user. However, Chrome does not transmit web history to Google, and does not present additional advertising. Google Chrome is also an open source project, meaning that all the code for the browser is available to the public and any programmer interested in contributing to the project or simply curious about how the browser is put together. Any code that provides information to Google to help better target advertising would be public, and will likely quickly be discovered in the coming weeks as the online community scrutinizes the new browser. Ultimately, Chrome is an interesting application that could have a significant impact long-term on the way people browse the internet and the way web browsers are built. However, in the immediate future, it is unlikely to have a significant impact on online marketing or web design. If you want to try Chrome, you can download the beta at http://www.google.com/chrome/. To learn more about its features, you can read the Google Chrome comic book at http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/index.html or view a short video tour at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlh8gSF_hhE. Labels: Google, Industry, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), web 2.0 ESPN and MLB Strike Out Looking When it Comes to Search and the 2008 Home Run DerbyJosh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers put on a spectacle during the 2008 MLB Home Run Derby as he hit a single round record 28 home runs in the first round of the contest. I am not quite sure how the ratings will end up, but ESPN, the MLB, and their partners have to be optimistic for decent numbers based on the record breaking performance. And although this year’s derby was probably lacking the star-power of recent derbies past, the network could at least rely on promoting the historic venue-Yankee Stadium in it's final year. With all of the effort surrounding the promotion and coverage of this event by ESPN, the MLB and their partners, it's hard to believe they could have missed out on the opportunity with search, integrating online opportunities, and driving relevant traffic to a destination where further brand engagement could have occurred. One missed opportunity was not capitalizing on the spike in searches on “Home Run Derby” that would expectedly occur around the all-star break. Searching “Home Run Derby” resulted in NO paid ads...
...so it’s clear there isn’t much advertiser competition surrounding these terms. The cheap clicks could have been driven to a special Home Run Derby landing page or microsite with stats, blogs, past Home Run Derby highlights, pictures or even interactive games. But the good news is- it's not too late! The big game isn't until tomorrow night. It's as simple as coming up with a destination and some ad copy, and bidding on the term "all star game"-there is no advertiser competition here either. And the spike for "all star game" is also pretty high in mid July.
Labels: Google, Paid Search, Strategy Why Pay for Online Audience Metrics When You Can Get Them For Free?Everyone loves getting something for nothing, particularly when that something has a pretty decent price tag associated with it. What am I talking about here? It’s online audience metrics, which until now were primarily available to organizations willing to subscribe to comScore or Neilsen Online. So who’s out there shaking things up? It’s our old chum Google! Yes, in the very near future, Google is expected to announce its own online audience measurement tool aimed at helping advertisers identify the best places to reach their target audience and purchase online ads by telling them which sites they visit. Not only will the tool be free, but it will also have a different means of collecting user data than either comScore or Neilsen Online, which many believe will make it better and more accurate. Specifically, Google’s tool will be based mostly on data from Web servers, which will allow for a more in-depth and broad-based view of internet use. Comparatively, both comScore and Neilsen Online gather usage data by tracking panels of people and what they do online or by conducting surveys. This methodology has the ability to make results inconsistent and incomplete as you are in reality measuring a small segment of the online population and then aggregating those results to make more broad-based observations about the marketplace as a whole. In comparison, Google’s tool, which will still rely on some data gleaned from panels, will measure a much broader segment of the population as it will be deployed across their entire very, very expansive ad network. While Google’s system does not appear infallible (it's cookie-based and users can delete cookies), the sheer size of Google’s user base and network has the potential to make this a very revolutionary system and shake-up the way online activity is measured. And because it’s being offered for free, it will make this kind of intelligence more of a commodity and level the playing field in terms of online media planning and buying. What do I mean by “leveling the playing field”? Simply stated, services like comScore and Neilsen Online cost money and are available only to those who can afford them. However, by Google making audience data free of charge, it will enable everyone to leverage it and make more intelligent decisions about how they plan and buy online media. Therefore, while such intelligence has primarily been available to big agencies or companies and touted as a competitive advantage that smaller rivals just don’t have access to, this will no longer be the case. Hence, what is exciting about Google’s forthcoming tool is that it will enable everyone to make more accurate and confident decisions about the buys being executed and the targets being reached, which should in turn lead to an overall increase in the ROI associated with online advertising. And in an era of heightened accountability, this will likely only make advertisers more comfortable with committing more dollars online. But the true value that I see in a tool such as Google’s coming to market, is not just that it’s going to level the playing field, lead to increased budgets and provide free access to data that was previously only available to those with the means to pay for it, but that it’s going to force us as marketers to become better at what we do. In order to be competitive, we’re now going to be forced to further evolve our thinking. So in the online media planning and buying space where will the competitive advantage now come from? Simply stated, it will no longer be enough to say you have access to and spout audience statistics, as soon everyone will be able to do this. Rather you will need to demonstrate that you understand and know how to use and apply this data. The truth is, while everyone likes statistics, people love it when you can demonstrate that you know what they mean and apply this knowledge to solve real business issues. With Google’s forthcoming tool, we’ll all soon be able to know who is going where and doing what. But now, to truly differentiate your plans and buys, you’ll need to demonstrate that you not only have the data, but understand what it means and the business benefits derived from it, and this is what will separate the leaders from the pack. Labels: Analytics, Google, Industry, Online Media |
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