Well, not exactly. Yeah, I'm dropping names, but not to try to impress you with how important I am [laugh], but rather, the very cool people that I've had the distinct privilege to meet and/or chat with in-person over the past two weeks and the stuff they're working on:
Anita Wilhelm, Co-Founder & CEO, Caterpillar Mobile. I haven't gotten the full scoop on what Anita & her crew are up to, but from her preso at the well put together Mobile Media conference, Caterpillar is at the intersection of mobile photography, mobile gaming, and light-weight (assisted) annotation (which, if you read this whole bit, you know is an area of keen interest to me, dating back to my time at Ofoto.) I'm hoping to connect with Anita soon to see if she'll reveal enough about what they're doing to get you as excited as I am based on my high level chat with her. If not, we'll all just have to wait till July when the beta is birthed.
Mitch Ratcliffe, CEO Presuadio. Mitch's new company (he was formerly a founding member of ON24) is a Social Network analysis company (ack, competition!), an appropriate abstraction to match his etheral presentation. Whereas most presenters strictly informed, Mitch expanded the box (and blurred its edges), a key component of the conference mix for Media companies, most of whom don't know that they don't know what there is to know. Know what I mean? ;-)
Marc Brown, Co-founder Buzznet. I finally met Marc Brown and got a brief chance to chat with him. I walked away impressed and wanting to know more about what these guys are up to, and how abstractly they're thinking about the intersection point (photos, community and large commercial events) they're focused on. Hopefully the fact that they weren't part of the photo-acquisition spree over the past month won't prevent them from realizing their potential.
Brian Russell. Brian's "the other kind" of entreprenuer; you know, motivated by and focused on social causes and community, rather than profit. By day he's with AmeriCorps; by night, he's putting together PodcasterCon, focusing on Podcasting and its community. I encouraged Brian to reach out to Craig Newmark; there's a meeting I'd like evesdrop on.
Artie Wu, Entreprenuer in Residence (EIR), TPG Ventures. In Artie's past life, he was the founder and CEO of Vividence. In his new life, he's an EIR thinking deeply about social media. Artie's thinking and questioning around building community and encouraging certain behaviors showed (IMHO) a truly nuanced understanding of the space. In a victory for yours truly, I appearantly said enough things of interest over lunch that he finally broke down and got out a pen & paper to take notes. ;-) I'm looking forward to learning (and sharing) more as appropriate.
Ari Jacoby, CEO VoiceStar, a Pay-Per-Call infrastructure proider taking the opposite take of Ingenio (who I've gushed over in the past). I actually have enough notes to justify a long form post from our breakfast; hopefully this weekend. I said last year pay-per-call was a space to watch in 2005, and from what I'm hearing, VoiceStar seems well positioned to be a significant player.
Kirsten Mangers, Chief Strategy Officer, SME Global Solutions. SGS re-packages bidded clicks into a fixed price offering to make SEM less complex and time consuming for SMEs. The rumor mill says funding has arrived, and I'm thrilled for her and partner Terry. Perhaps we'll see them apply the same model to Pay-Per-Call? Hmm...
Stu MacFarlane, CEO & Founder, InsiderPages. A year into the biz, and things are really clicking (well, more aptly, ringing). To the tune of $1MM in new biz for their advertisers in their first month with a live pay-per-call implementation. And how about 20K listings in LA (and ramping nicely); sounds like a Tipping Point to me.
Pamela Parker Caird, Managing Editor, ClickZ Network. I finally met Pamela in person. I think I went overboard going for the hug instead of a handshake, but she accepted gracefully. (It's truly weird how reading her blog [coupled with some blog to blog and email exchanges] made me think I knew her well enough to be that personal. One day I'll have to try to track down Mary Hodder and see if she's studied that aspect of the blogging!)
Peter Krasilovsky, President, Krasilovsky Consulting. Plug another consultant? Yeah, I'm that kinda fool. Peter's put together some thoughtful posts on the Kelsey Conference sessions I "transcripted". You can find them here (four of 'em, dated April '05).
Dick Costolo, CEO, FeedBurner. While I already mentioned that FeedBurner was going to be releasing a public API (and that I hoped that some folks would reconsider the role of Feed Mgmt Srvs because of it), I didn't say why. In a word... courage. Feed Mgmt has a challenging slot in the stack, and offering a public API doesn't necessarily put them in a better position (in fact it could disadvantage them). On the other hand, a public API sends a crystal clear "you're in control" message to Publishers, which says a lot about the nature of the relationship FeedBurner intends to build with its customers (and frankly, the nature of the people making decisions at the company). My kudos, FWIW.
Alright, there's a catch-up on some smart and scrappy folks... which leaves two conferences, a few rants, and a ton of news to comment on. More over the next few days.
Game on! Yahoo has just announced (and launched) a "beta" personalized search mechanism named My Web (a rebranding and enhancement to its previous My Yahoo Search offering).
There's a lot here, so let's try to break it down.
Second, you need to activate My Web (not really necessary, but a solid opportunity for Yahoo! to push its updated toolbar at you, which includes My Web functionality). During this phase you'll be given the opportunity to import your Yahoo Bookmarks, etc... which is nice... albeit a bit confusing (IMHO).
Finally, you're free to start searching the web. As they say on Cribs, "this is where the magic happens." ;-)
When searching, you're given a link to Save a given search result listing. For example, if you search for buzzhit, you'll see a Save link next to the "more from this site" and "cached" links that you're likely overly familiar with.
When you click the Save link, you're given an opportunity to add a text "note" (i.e., tag) and a folder to save the listing to.
From here, there are two things of note:
1. Going forward, if your annotated site is displayed in another search result set, you'll see (and be able to edit) your notes and the save folder.
2. You can go to the My Web "control panel" (not clear what to call it) and browse and search your Saved listings (title, description, note, etc); very handy, especially for doing multi-session research projects.
Don't want to save individual sites? No problem. Just like A9 and Google's new personalized search offering, all of your search terms are automatically saved if you enabled the "my search history" option. [Note: This feature appears to be broken at the time of this writing.]
Okay. All of that seems pretty obvious. The twist, then, is that your saved listings can be shared. How? Well, as an RSS Feed, of course. And via an API. And (timing to be announced) via Yahoo 360. In fact, Yahoo is even supporting (to my pleasant surprise) the ability to format and share this data in (a version of) Attention.xml format. (Don't confuse this with real support for Attention.xml, but hey, it's a start.)
Greg Linden does what I'd normally do when I have time; compare it to other offerings. Greg does a solid job, though I'd disagree somewhat w.r.t. his assertion about the Save option being available at the wrong time; perhaps, but the incremental effort and cost of pushing the button is really low... it's really no different than bookmarking (yea?), except that users can annotate, search, share, etc the listings if they desire.
Also... expect to eventually see Yahoo push publishers for distribution of a "Yahoo My Web Save This Page" button (ala the MyYahoo RSS buttons and the Y! Q search in-situ buttons); of course publishers will want to help My Web users who aren't using the new toolbar save their pages, right? Riiiiggght.
During the cleverly named Mapping the Future of Local Search session at last week's Kelsey conference, conference attendees learned a key piece of jargon for conceptualizing how map providers think of annotating basic map presentation; overlays.
I was thinking about this when I read Gizmodo's coverage of T-Mobile's release of their "personal coverage check" solution, which allows you to see (claimed) signal strength at a user specified street address.
Until connectivity becomes truly ubiquitous, it would be very valuable (to me) to have a single mapping solution that could not only give you directions and local physical retailers/service providers (e.g., restaurants, banks, gas stations, etc), but also connectivity clouds (preferably with free vs. for fee presentations).
Chris Pirillo noted yesterday that his friend Robert McLaws' was running Google AdSense ads in his Feed; today, everyone is (not surprisingly) abuzz.
While I disagree with Chris w.r.t. to the signficance of this (is there anyone who didn't expect Google to support Feed Ads?!) vs. Google's announcement yesterday vis-a-vis CPM-based placed advertising, it's ultimately good for all involved that the cat is out of the bag; now perhaps we can start innovating instead of simply deploying a known mechanism into a new 'medium'? ;-)
Of note, FeedBurner announced this morning that they will move quickly to add AdSense support to publishers using their service (i.e., they will, to the best of my knowledge, become the first FMS to support multiple ad networks -- given their known relationship with Overture --a boon for publishers). Hopefully, this, coupled with their recent funding, launch of premium services, and announcement of a partner/open API will give critics of managed Feeds incentive to reconsider their position.
Google AdSense Enables Site Targeting, CPM Pricing, and Animated .GIFs
ClickZ breaks the story that Google AdSense is now offering advertisers the ability to target at the site level; this ability will be coupled with an auction-based CPM pricing model and animated .GIF placement. Writes ClickZ editor Pamela Parker:
"Using the same AdWords interface, advertisers will be able to select sites on which they want their ads to appear. They can either enter in the URLs of specific sites, or they can perform a keyword search to find sites on which to place their ads. Google will return a list of sites similar to the URLs people select, or a list that matches with the particular keywords. Advertisers can then select sites from those lists.
Google will continue to use an auction model to sell the site-targeted ads, but payments will be on a CPM basis. Advertisers will indicate the maximum price they're willing to pay per-thousand ad impressions. Google will then determine where those ads should appear among the CPC ads. Though CPC ads are ranked by both bid price and click-through rate, the CPM ads will only be ranked by bid price.
...There's one other differentiator for the site-targeted ads. Advertisers will be able to deploy animated .gifs for these placements."
While certainly a boon to brand advertisers, as described in this ClickZ piece, this is a slap in the face to major publishers (though Tail players like myself have reason to celebrate). To understand why, you need to think about how AdSense is used by most major pub houses, including Newspapers...
Traditionally, Contextual Advertising is used either a) as backfill for CPM based ad slots [rather than selling leftover inventory to a remnant player like Advertising.com], or, b) as an incremental revenue generator at the page footer.
By allowing advertisers to target specific sites, Google has moved into the role of a rep firm. Contextual Advertising will now compete against a major publisher's internal sales force, as advertisers will have the ability to buy Contextual placement via Google instead of directly from the publisher.
Major publishers should immediately insist that they be given the ability to restrict bidding on portions of their sites (rather than completely opt-out), and, more importantly, set a CPM floor for targeted ad placements.
As I've said many times, media co's have the choice of "playing their game" or "being players in the game". The consequences of the former (through aggressive acts by Google like this one) are becoming clearer and clearer. It'll be interesting to see how the big guys responsed.
Update: It took less than a day for chicken-little to scream "beware of impression fraud". Guess we'll be solving for that now too...
Spend a couple of days at a conference and the world passes you by. Some headlines and brief comments for topics of (potential) interest...
MSN Spaces has 7MM blogs and is growing at 100K a day [Blog Hearld]. Love it or hate it, it's clear MSFT hit the sweet spot for newbie's, and they deserve credit for that. The real question (about all these blog numbers, not just MSN) is about trial vs. adoption.
Rojo is out of private beta and sporting a ton of (near-term) differentiated features in the Feed Aggregator category (namely social networking and tagging). [Software Only has a great write-up]. I was very flattered to get an invite to the Rojo preview launch, but ended up passing, as I've been giving free bits of advice to a small team up in SF that's thinking along similar (but deeper) lines. No financial relationship, but as a consultant, your rep is all you've got, so best not to chance it. Hopefully the SF crew will launch soon...
Target and Yahoo! team for photos [via PaidContent]; automatically transmit your photos developed at Target to your Yahoo! account. Target's not known as a big photo finisher (Wal-greens and Wal-mart were bigger players last I looked), but the Target demographic is perfect for Yahoo!.
Google launches My Search History [via Geeking with Grek]; while most coverage (rightly) seems focused on the potential for search result relevance improvements (i.e., personalized search, or, in my anaology, "active listening"), one shouldn't forget the ad targeting implications (on and off network). This reminds me... we haven't heard much from Eurekster lately; now that social networking is getting mashed-up with blogging (Yahoo 360) and Feed Aggregation (Rojo, above), will anyone seek out Eurekster's learnings/IP?
Feedburner more than doubles the number of Feeds it manages through partnership, and a private API. [via Feedburner] They also mention opening up a public API later this year; will Yahoo!'s YPN do the same?
Ping-o-Matic celebrates its one year anniversary (congrats guys) and 100MM pings served. [Via Ping-o-Matic] Is there a future for this service... or will the powers-that-be actually cooperate on FeedMesh? Sounds like Google is supportive...
X1, the Idealab company that powers Yahoo!'s desktop search offering (and their own branded offering) just took $10MM in funding from SV-based USVP and idealab itself. [via SiliconBeat] Very interesting to see Idealab bring in outside money to grow one of its seedlings.
As I noted in my write-up of Udi Manber's keynote at the Kelsey conference, Amazon's A9 unit has launched five new cities for their Yellow Pages offering. It was shocking how many Newspaper and Yellow Pages execs hadn't seen A9's offering...
The Blog Hearld broke the story this morning about the launch of Feedster Media Network (FMN). As I'm included in the launch but have yet to receive a copy of the press release (ahem), I'll keep my comments high level. (And by way of disclosure, please note that I've done consulting work for the company in the past.)
First, the basics. Feedster has partnered with AdBrite to offer blog (HTML) advertising. Key differences between AdBrite and Google AdSense:
AdBrite gives publishers more sales control; while you can run contextual ads, the emphasis is on selling day, week or monthly listings based on a CPM structure. Blogs running AdBrite bear a "Your ad here" link (ala BlogAds) that lets a potential advertisier click to buy advertising for the blog, directly from the blog. Publishers may approve or reject individual advertiser offers. Publishers also have a significant amount of control over how the ads appear on their site (i.e., formatting control).
Feedster will also be pursuing a national ad sales tact, which ostensibly puts them in competition (on the ad rep'ing front) with Battelle's FM Publishing venture. If it's not already totally obvious, the battle for blog/Feed advertising has been fully joined.
Feedster is Feedster, not Blogster, so we should expect an RSS/Feed advertising offering "very soon" (as alarm:clock mused about a few days back). Beyond that, the company has a few other ideas up its proverbial sleeve, which I've hinted at before on these pages... more when appropriate on that front.
As for my inclusion in the press release... As I've mentioned before, I've been testing Feed advertising (with Moreover's FeedDirect and Pheedo) privately, and intend to do the same with Feedster (and FeedBurner, if they'll have me). I haven't done anything on the HTML front, and really hadn't intended to, but I'm very curious about the consistency between ads in HTML vs. RSS for a given posting, and this seems like a good opportunity to evaluate that too.
I'll report back anything of note over the next few weeks.
Update: Here's the press release text...
Feedster, Inc., an Internet search engine that provides timely and meaningful information from blogs and RSS feeds, and AdBrite, “The Internet’s Ad Marketplace”, today announced that they are partnering to offer blog publishers the most complete suite of tools for buying and selling ads.
San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) April 21, 2005 -- Feedster, Inc., an Internet search engine that provides timely and meaningful information from blogs and RSS feeds, and AdBrite, “The Internet’s Ad Marketplace”, today announced that they are partnering to offer blog publishers the most complete suite of tools for buying and selling ads.
“AdBrite makes it easy for bloggers to earn money by connecting them directly with interested advertisers. Using AdBrite, the only thing bloggers need to do is write their blog, approve ads, and cash checks,” said Philip Kaplan, CEO of AdBrite. “We are pleased to offer the Feedster community the opportunity to join the more than 4,000 sites already taking advantage of AdBrite’s ever-growing Internet ad marketplace.”
“We’ve partnered with AdBrite because we have similar objectives in our approach to advertising. This program enables both high volume blogs and smaller, highly targeted properties to generate revenue,” said Chris Redlitz, VP, Feedster. “Smaller sites also profit from Feedster's direct sales efforts to high profile advertisers. Publishers in our Network will gain access to advertisers they couldn’t sell to on an individual basis.”
The program is easy to use and offers the highest payout in the business. After a simple set up process, publishers can set rates, specify placement and approve or reject site-specific ads.. Advertisers can search to find individual blogs and customize ad copy for each property or purchase run-of-network ads. Statistical analysis provides easy ROI tracking, historical pricing, and response projections. More information is available at http://adbrite.feedster.com
The partnership with AdBrite is the first opportunity for publishers who sign up for the Feedster Media Network to monetize their traffic. Publishers can soon earn revenue from ads in RSS feeds and Podcasts. Prominent blogs such as Buzzhit, Metroblogs, Lockergnome, Bittsplitter, Muniwireless, and SkypeJournal are charter publishers in the network.
About AdBrite AdBrite is a marketplace for buying and selling ads online. More than 4,000 websites use AdBrite’s “Your Ad Here” functionality to sell ads directly to their visitors. Thousands of advertisers browse AdBrite’s online marketplace to find sites to place ads at a flat fee. AdBrite gives publishers full control over ad pricing, layout, and approval. AdBrite was founded by Philip Kaplan, the creator of F**ckedCompany.com and is backed by Sequoia Capital.
About Feedster Feedster is a rapidly growing Internet search engine that provides timely and meaningful information to consumers and large Internet sites in need of targeted media. Feedster provides a fresh index across over 6 million RSS feeds and over 100,000 professional feeds several times per hour, adding millions of new documents daily. The company’s content management and developer platform powers content syndication for targeted vertical categories such as sports. jobs, products, politics, and rich media feeds. Feedster is privately funded by a number of industry luminaries, New York Angels, and Omidyar Network. For more information go to: www.feedster.com# # #
One page to rule them all... Here's a single page that links to all of the individual session posts. A very important note: NONE of the participant comments should be assumed to be direct quotes; I did my best to capture the essence of what was said (with no intent to make any one look good, bad, etc). If you were a session panelist or keynoter and see something that's obviously wrong, please drop me an email or leave a comment
Also, all notes are raw; none have or will be proofed... take 'em or leave 'em, or, buy the DVD for $99! ;->
Online Word of Mouth: Blogs, RSS and Social Networks [missing, as I was a panelist... if you have notes you're willing to share openly, please email me a link or full text so that I may post it]
Update: Kelsey Group has posted Speaker PowerPoint decks [PPT] and additional presentations they think you'd value [Supplemental PPT]. I've added links here for convenience.
Session Title: Branding and the Future of Search Marketing
Session Date: April 20, 2005
Session Time: 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
Session Description: Search engine marketing built a nearly US$4 billion empire largely on being a direct response medium, matching sellers with consumers who were “ready to buy.” But now that search has become the hottest form of online advertising, brand marketers and large agencies are starting to invest. As more and more branding dollars flood into search—as a comparatively inexpensive advertising medium—what are the implications for advertisers and the medium itself? While it will certainly boost revenues in the near and medium term, will it ultimately help or hurt search engine marketing? Will small businesses be shut out, or will search become highly segmented and stratified?
Session Participants: Jake Baillie, Product Manager, TrueLocal Daniel Boberg, Senior Director, Strategic Alliances, Overture Barbara Coll, CEO, WebMama.com, Chair & President, SEMPO Inc. Matt Naeger, VP & General Counsel, IMPAQT Mark Josephson, SVP, Marketing & Business Development, Kanoodle Rob Middleton, EVP, Chief Strategy Officer, Fathom Online Justin Sanger, President, LocalLaunch! Richard Zwicky, Founder & CEO, Metamend Software & Design Ltd.
Q: Can online properities such as CBS Marketwatch match the offline revenue generation?
Coll: Only if CBS can raise its prices...
Q: How big can the market grow...
Sanger: You create more inventory by continuing to publish; you also do this by moving offsite, by moving offset (contextual advertising)
Josephson: Perhaps community newspapers aren't being efficient in driving traffic to local advertisers...
Naeger: At the publisher level, you could be doing much more sophisticated segmentation to grow advertising rates.
Q: So that goes both to targeting capability and price increases, and to inventory
Naeger: People will be able to pay more if they are getting better conversion
Boberg: As more consumers use local products, advertisers are becoming more active. Targeting will play a role, but dollars will move as consumers adopt
Coll: It's a stretch to think that people will click the local button/tab; it might be 6 months, it might be three years (user education)
Q: Can you generate the revenues on a schedule that the (stock) marketplace is demanding? How are we going to train the users so that the inventory is going to be developed? How do we monetize the Tail?
Naeger: You can train users, but you can also use demographic information as a proxy for local targeting. I'm not a believer that contextual is the future
Josephson: Targeting via context is only one way; context is one way, behavior is another, geo is another, etc. We need to do a better job of educating the marketplace
Q: Advertisers will be able to pay more over time as targeting technologies improve
Josephson: Advertising is demanding more control and transparency; sponsored link providers will be more proactive in providing services in the way that large advertisers demand they work
Boberg: Clearly there's value around the search funnel; it's not all direct response, direct reaction. There's value throughout the marketing funnel. That will open up more dollars.
Middleton: More dollars are going to flow in as TV sags; not clear that Internet has the infrastructure to handle more dolalrs
Q: Isn't there a ceiling due to scarce inventory?
Baillie: I see advertisers who don't know how to use the tools they already have. Education and tool development are big problems
Coll: Advertisers think they can't brand via search; they can uplift their brand. Yahoo!'s op is in convincing advertisers to buy their own brand name
Middleton: People ask why they should buy their names if they are in organics; we did a controlled test, removing the sponsored listing... traffic fell off 27%
Zwicky: We had a similar situation, traffic went down but so did spend
Boberg: There are 100Ms of Tail searches that are untapped; more will be created as query length increases
Sanger: Most of our small biz customers don't care about branding, they care about conversions. Most of the marketplaces serve the highest bidded ad instead of the most relevant one
Q: Keep talking about it...
Sanger: If you look at Yahoo Local, "flower san jose", you get geographic IP targeting + local match (that's good: you're showing local advertisers to a local query, segmenting local answers out to local consumers). If you run the same search on Google, you get FTD, 1-800 Flowers. This is causing what's being perceived as an inventory shortage
Coll: I think there are national advertisers who will take advantage of the local opps; same thing happens in Yellow Pages. Their goal is to completely saturate listings in every city; small businesses can't compete.
Boberg: Local advertisers are looking for conversion; that's been true; people are looking for ROI, direct conversion. In YP, you're looking at $30 leads; isn't a lot of that brand advertising
Baillie: People talk about keyword space like it's all the same. For flowers, you're probably looking for a local guy; for rental cars, you're probably looking for Hertz, not Joe's Cars.
Q: Isn't the best way to train users to provide local results; isn't there a fundamental paradox if the inventory gets gobbled up by large national advertisers?
Zwicky: Customers fundamentally care about ROI. Down the road we're going to use speech, so inventory will explode as no one will phrase things exactly the same
Q: Back to previous question
Zwicky: I agree with the premise, but there are permutations. If you're in SJ searching for something in SJ, it'll be local. If you're in Chicago searching for something in SJ, you'll get national brands
Coll: Not going to work until we're mobile and have GPS; IP sniffing is useless
Josephson: Gotta rank advertisers by yield, not just bidded amount
Q: Don't you get into a contradiction? Isn't the motivation to take the national ad dollars
Josephson: The goal is to create an effective marketplace to bid for user attention, based on user decisions. Everyone wins.
Baillie: For loca, we toss out everyone who doesn't have a physical presence (all the aggregators, online presence only, etc); freeing up the inventory for local businesses
Josephson: And we're held accountable by our distribution partners for yield; if you rank on yield, advertisers generating more clicks can bid less. Yield rank creates better relevance
Boberg: Relance is king. Results have to be good or users won't use it. We have seen categories were local advertisers can outbid national aggregators; floral, dental. It just depends on the category.
Naeger: It still comes down to the value of the person who did the search and where they want to go. I have a problem with large national advertisers being blown out of the listings. Home Depot is my local hardware store.
Sanger: Search is splintering and segmenting; engines are infatuated with user intent. One search box is not where search is going. The brilliant part of the Internet is that it can drill down into human behavior. Engines will be forced to create an experience that coincides with human experience
Naeger: The problem is that users don't use IYP, they use Google. Education.
Coll: It comes down to a question being answered and the most relevant answer being delivered. We'll figure out how to respond to the question. How can you do that without understanding user behavior.
Q: Will the marketplace tolerate 8-9 years?
Coll: I don't think industry analysts be that patient, Greg [laugh]
Q: Will SERPs be segmented with local in one pane?
Sanger: Users will demand that search meets their needs. Vertical plays are exploding because they can provide specific answers that horizontal search can't.
Naeger: Aren't you really talkin about the evolution of what the user does, versus what the search engine does. Users are educating us as much as we're educating them.
Coll: This gets back to the question of whether analysts and Wall St. will wait. Portals need to invest in the user experience instead of other places. Where do those R&D dollars come from when the pressure is on making money now?
Josephson: The largest gating factor in offline spend moving online is the brand manager not getting it. But as people with more online experience move up the food chain, things will change
Audience Q: Are you seeing click fraud in Local and what are you doing
Sangster: Click fraud is more prevelant for SMEs than at the national level. The deeper you get, the more fraud you see
Boberg: We see click fraud as a serious but manageable one. We have a dedicated team to address it, continually improving algorithms and filtering clicks
Coll: I have to agree with Justin; SMEs have limited budgets, competitive click fraud a big issue
Josephson: It's interesting to see what providers have and haven't said about it. Yahoo's done a great job. We don't want to tell people what we're doing, because it will help them game it. We all have systems and technology. Everyone looks at every click.
Baillie: The issue isn't engines not detecting it; it's that businesses aren't tracking it. Click fraud will continue to be more and more prevelant until advertisers look at their clicks. Detection and prevention is years behind what's going on. Engines can't see the activity on your site; half the responsibility is the advertisers
Audience Q: Back to voice search... is this realistic, and if so, will avatars come back to brand
Zwicky: No idea on avatars, but I see natural language voice search as a natural evolution
Kelsey: Are Google and Yahoo trying to be all things to all people... what happens when NP and YP provide a great search experience, will I go to them instead of Yahoo/Google Local? They don't have the same challenge with national advertisers? Will there be many search engines instead of just a couple biggies
Coll: That hasn't been proven. MSN is doing great things, don't forget them. Yahoo has always tried to offer users everything; they're a portal. There's a huge OEM business servicing the NP and YP; that's who powers most of their search and contextual now
Sanger: In Chicago if you want restaurant results, you use MetroMix; Tribune company. You can't drill down as a horizontal player. I think you're right John
Q: Does it build out where aggregators own the front page and drive people to local sites... Say whatever you want
Boberg: We really value choice in the marketplace; consumers determine what's relevant. I think there's a lot of room for a lot of players to create a robust experience.
* These are raw, unproofed notes taken in real-time. Nothing attributed to any speaker should be assumed to be an exact quote. Rather, my goal was to capture and communicate the essence of what was said. If there is a significant mistake, please post a comment or email me; I will make a correction at my earliest opportunity.
Session Description: A potentially big component of the interactive local media market is wireless/mobile. There are roughly 1.5 billion mobile phone subscribers around the globe and approximately 170 million Americans that have wireless phones. The conventional wisdom holds that a lookup (whether DA or wireless Web) on a mobile device reflects an immediate consumer need and is therefore a highly qualified local lead. And as most of the directory publishers and search engines ramp up wireless products, the question is, how far off is a bona fide mobile search opportunity? Is it simply another distribution platform, or will it be separately monetized through usage fees and/or distinct advertising revenue? What needs to happen before widespread consumer adoption can take place?
Session Participants: Stephen R. Baker, Head of Emerging Applications; VP, eBusiness, Fast Search & Transfer Oscar Berg, Product Manager, Mobility, Eniro Heath Clarke, CEO, Interchange Ali Diab, Sr. Director, Local Products, Yahoo! Joe Herzog, Director, Emerging Products, InfoSpace Brian Lent, President & CTO, Medio Systems
Q: What are the differences between US, Europe and Asia in usage, technology, etc to provide context
Clarke: European markets lead wireless usage by a few years; conversely Internet is a few years ahead here. 30% of directory assistance is intiated SMS in Europe (still for fee). 54% CAGR in text messaging for the past few years.
Herzog: In US, expect more of what Yahoo and Infospace offer; driving from computer to phone; PC applications will lead.
Diab: I think it's interesting that some think Europe is ahead; technologically speaking, I think things are at parity now. Business models different; US carriers have much more control. As they lose control here, they're gaining more in Europe. One thing that's different here is the luxury of the web here; most Europeans don't have Internet access; mobile applications become a substitute there. Americans are also car bound; integration of web services (satellite radio, etc) will grow here.
Q: Will handset makers have a bigger roll in defining the applications/services than today?
Berg: Definitely. People buy mobiles because what they do, contain. It's very personal; always in your pocket.
Q: So will the gatekeeper transition to manufacturer or carrier
Herzog: I think you're going to see bundled devices and services; I don't think the carrier gatekeeper changes
Diab: I think the handset makers will continue to lose power; more and more manufacturers from Korea, etc., leads to fragmentation. Carriers will become more important, especially for client-based applications on the mobile; that'll be carrier dependent
Lent: I think it depends on who exposes the services; US carriers have a great deal of control over what goes into the phone
Diab: Carriers control the handset data
Clarke: To the extent that services are provisioned over the web, carriers and manufacturers lose control; the consumer has ultimate control
Q: To what extent have we not yet arrived at the "right" device; GPS. Is it just around the corner?
Herzog: Right device + network + application, made easy for the end user. We're close, but not there. Apps are still hard to find, slow. 40% YOY replacement rate. We're probably 18 months out
Q: What does the device look like? Treo, Blackberry
Herzog: That plus non-qwerty based devices; triple-tapping not an issue for certain age groups. Advances in voice technologies will improve things
Diab: Not a device issue at all. It needs to be as easy to access as typing 411; now you need to fire up a browser, nav, etc.
Clarke: Pysical device challenges, keyboard, screen. Local search even on the Internet isn't where it needs to be. 300K pages aren't it; first result or two needs to be spot on to deliver the right experience on mobile
Lent: 600M+ devices last year; how many were full keyboard, etc. Gotta work for devices people want to carry
Berg: All depends on what people want to do; for Internet use, it's gotta be bigger screen and keyboard. So much variance in device capabilities, form factors; makes it harder
Baker: A lot depends on the client application; a lot of European YPs are prototyping clients now; allows you to build in personalization, etc.
Q: How do you deliver relevance on a mobile device if we're still struggling online? What are the advertising impacts
Clarke: Consumer experience is everything. Might have to forgo advertising revenue to grow the marketplace. We don't allow non-geographic regions.
Baker: Very little room around advertising for first query. The opportunity is to upsell transaction services (for movie search, ask about restaurant reservation or parking garage)
Lent: Perdictive analytics will help winnow the set. The carrier needs to be involved; they have all sorts of data on you as a mobile user that can help target results (+ GPS)
Herzog: Many usability challenges; low psychology barrier
Diab: You generally don't dial 411 for something 300 yards away; the pressure to generate revenue is less than on the web, because they're making money on the 411 call to begin with
Q: Privacy issues...
Lent: Amazon uses a lot of personalized information; it's not about using it, but not letting it loose
Herzog: There's a big difference between using that information for the users benefit, vs. selling that information to third parties.
Q: What's the business model that's going to serve everyone and drive mass adoption
Lent: Two major phases. Current and 3 years out. 3 yrs out, it will be CPA based, cost per call, etc, once the infrastructure is built out. Near term its about supporting the carrier who ones the relationship; driving loyalty, bandwidth and minute usage, etc.
Baker: Generic directory assitance is under pressure by what Google and Yahoo are doing; it's about enhanced services, where there's value add (restaurant example again)
Diab: Agree that it's value added service. Yahoo doesn't believe spamming people on the phone is a good idea. We think that there is an opportunity to provide complimentary services to the carrier and share in the revenue
Q: How big is the market in 5 years
Lent: 2.5x as many mobile devices as PCs. Average price-per-call is $20.00 vs. PPC of $0.30; could be the first trillion dollar market [being provocative, intentionally]
Baker: Advertisers will be willing to pay more for local PPC
Diab: I think it'll be a $0B network as WiFi, which is effectively free, becomes widely available
Q: Look-ups are going to be for smaller items from the car, not looking for a divorce attorney
Lent: True, but there's a volume game here. In a mobile environment, you're probably much more likely to complete the transaction
Clarke: The consumer who calls up and doesn't know the business name is the opp in 411, and that's less than 1% of calls
Herzog: Music, ring tones, games, etc; premium data services will be the third largest opp, not first or tenth
Q: How do these competing models impact each other; for example, Google giving away 1GB of storage destroyed Yahoo's mail storage upsell model
Diab: Not any different than any other industry, models can coexist, depending on user needs, frequency of use... they'll subscribe, pay per use, etc
Herzog: Winner is free to end user, best ease of use, and revenue bearing for the carrier. At first, high end phone clients, end users will pay a fee per month; it'll drop to zero over time, subsidized by advertising. They'll tolerate it as long as there's rev share
Lent: I agree with Joe... the mobile industry is the only communication industry that hasn't been ad supported (TV, Radio, Internet, etc all are); must be free to users, though some fee for bandwidth (spectrum costs billions of dollars).
Q: What about SMEs? Is this big box only? Who gets SMEs in front of users
Clarke: It's search. It's value add or upsell to existing advertisers.
Lent: Who owns the relationship? I want to advertise to mobile users in my area... but that's across 5 carriers. Seems like a great opportunity to leapfrog to a CPA model.
Q: Does that impact the Internet model (in reverse)
Lent: Don't know if it accelerates it, but online is going there anway
Clarke: Certain industries lend themselves to CPA, CPC, CPM, etc. Enormous challenges in tracking CPA
Diab: Advertisers will be reluctant to pay a fee for someone who was looking for them anyway (i.e., without promotion). Transaction rev share does make sense in a duplex medium
Berg: We're one stop; all channels; mobile is bundled with Internet (WAP service)
Q: What do you do to get people with WAP/data enabled phones to use those services
Berg: Multi-channel answer; Yahoo's got the right idea, SMS from PC to phone... WAP link in the SMS would be perfect
Diab: We do
Mod Comment: And Infoseek just did that today
Q: Focus group were all heavy Internet, had phones that could do data, but weren't. What's the biggest constraint
Lent: Quality of experience, results, etc. Handset button should be "search" not "web"
Baker: No transparency for customers as to what it costs; I never know how much I'm going to be charged, when I can just do it on my PC
Herzog: It's the unknown of the packet fee charge; bills can be very expensive, $100s. Sprints "Vision" flat fee is the right direction
Audience Q: If WiMax frees us from carrier control, what happens
Herzog: WiMax will open up broadband, making it cheaper, but no impact on mobility
Lent: Regulatory issues if WiMax becomes a primary form of communication
Audience Q: Will users need to be retrained to use shorter querries?
Baker: Query transformation will help us get closer to what users want with shorter strings as the technology improves
Herzog: There's also the ability to use SMS-lingo query
Clarke: I think that makes it harder, let's stick with English. 20-27% of YP searches fail as it is. [Ed: Sterling says that data is a year old]
Q: A year out, what are the one or two issues that have been solved, or advanced
Herzog: Query intelligence and location based services
Lent: Resolving more information about location
Clarke: Disambiguation of search from wireless devices
Baker: Client-side applications
Berg: Simple user interface with location abilities
Diab: Carriers will make location info more available; user interfaces will improve; devices will be faster, more pleasing to look at
* These are raw, unproofed notes taken in real-time. Nothing attributed to any speaker should be assumed to be an exact quote. Rather, my goal was to capture and communicate the essence of what was said. If there is a significant mistake, please post a comment or email me; I will make a correction at my earliest opportunity.
- Data revenue growing; constitutes 10% ($6 of $60/mth) of monthly avg subscriber bill - 61% domestic mobile penetration; 67% by 2007 - 1x data services out (144k); moving to EV-DO (330k+) - Handset processor speeds improving; memory expanding as well, hard drives on the horizon
Why?
- People want to be un-thethered - Assumed "access to the world"
Three core developments: - Location based service; the ability to know where the device is - Near field communication; the ability of the device to communicate with nearby objects - Mobile payments; using the device to authorize payments
-> Watch for more use of "short codes" in advertisements
Mobile Entertainment - Games: $204M in 2004, $1.4B in 2008 - Music: $316M in 2004, $1.4B in 2008 - Video: $53M, $3.2B in 2008 - Local relevance: multiplayer community games, locally generated content, geographically licensed content
Communities and Communications - Community Networks: mobile communities and peers; builds strong loyalty and enables word-of-mouth and peer recommendations - Local relevance: location filters on IM buddy list, friend finders, push-to-talk "areas" and mobile blogs
Mobile Information - Mobile local search; paid search will come, but the focus first is on user experience, not returning dozens of results - Navigation/mapping; where am I relative to things - WaveMarket doing clever stuff - Yellow pages; much like search... - Traffic/Weather Alerts - Points-of-interest - Events (entertainment / sports)
Mobile Transactions - Targeted Advertising - Advertising pull (e.g., short codes); can be reserved across carriers (basically a GUID) - VERY targeted advertising push - Movie ticket purchased while en route; i.e., "closing the deal" - Fast food purchased at POS
Audience Q: Do you ever see free wireless, free mobile via advertising?
Reddick: I'm not bullish on full subsidy. I'd love to be able to offset some fees via advertising. Wireless mobile has a cost to transport; a 3 minute clip at 300K costs $0.10 a minute, going down to $0.05
Audience Q: With improvements in Voice XML, what's the possibility for voice search?
Reddick: I think there's great utility; it's a good front end for 411 services (what state are you in, etc); also good for driving. But, when you're at home, or just somewhere where you can text, it seems less useful.
Audience Q: Location based services have been coming "next year" for 4-5 years?
Reddick: Read the press in the coming days. Look at what Nextel is doing with GPS. We'll be launching some services this year. It has been painful, but it really will be this year; not everything that can be done, but a solid start
Audience Q: Are you looking at product comparison via camera phone shots of UPC codes?
Reddick: Yeah, more than just cameras and UPC codes though; could even analyze an album cover and determine if you have the ring tone. RFID chips will be $0.10 soon; waving a handset over a movie poster (RFID enabled), could tell you who's playing the movie nearby, transact on tickets
Q: How do you educate consumers to move them up the path
Reddick: One of the biggest challenges. All this functionality, but who uses it? We're hoping some of it is relevant to each person. Looking for help from those who profit from all this taking off, e.g., media companies
Q: Don't these services destroy your directory assistance business
Reddick: Don't get in the way of things that will better serve your customer; we won't restrict access to good services just to protect something (even though it's a great, high margin business)
* These are raw, unproofed notes taken in real-time. Nothing attributed to any speaker should be assumed to be an exact quote. Rather, my goal was to capture and communicate the essence of what was said. If there is a significant mistake, please post a comment or email me; I will make a correction at my earliest opportunity.
Session Title: Blurring the Picture: Cable TV, Video Search and Local Directional Media
Session Date: April 20, 2005
Session Time: 11:15 am – 12:00 pm
Session Description: Blurring the Picture: Cable TV, Video Search and Local Directional Media Video on demand, digital video recorders and Internet TV: All these innovations give viewers more and more control over TV content and, potentially, TV advertising. Do these consumer-oriented developments fundamentally transform TV from the once-preeminent branding vehicle for national advertisers into a directional medium with localization potential? What are the implications for cable companies, telecom companies, online publishers, consumers and local advertisers? And what about the proliferation of online video search? Will the Internet become a de facto broadcast medium and search engines the new networks?
Session Participants: Steve Cook, VP, Programming & Ad Sales, TWC/Road Runner Eitan Gelbaum, Marketing Director, Amdocs Advertising & Media Division Bradley Horowitz, Director, Multimedia & Desktop Search, Yahoo! Karen Howe, VP & General Manager, Singingfish.com Warren Schlichting, VP, New Business Strategies, Comcast
Q: Provocative question... broadcast media advertising model will collapse... agree or disagree, and will the Internet take over?
Howe: Television advertising will decend by 20% over the next 5 years... that's a large amount... that will put downward pressure on it, but it won't collapse it. Online will soak up some, but not all. Product placement may be a factor
Q: Factor Tivo into all of this; 70% skip ads
Schlicting: $60B business, fast forwarding isn't good. But consumers are in control; you can't fight that. If they don't like the model, where do you go. It's not clear that CPM expectations have moved accordingly. Interactive TV is directional
Cook: Collapse is a strong word. I think you're going to see dollars shift to where they're most efficient, and that will happen in verticals (like automotive), due to consumers researching purchases online, etc. People will want to consume media when/where they want it. Test marketing a time-shifting model where commercials can't be skipped [Ed: Wow, they really don't get it...]
Gelbaum: Technology enables highly targeted advertising, at least the way Telecomm's will deploy (IP-TV, Internet-TV). That requires a set-top box; each is uniquely identifiable. The interactive nature also allows people to conduct searches, using a very intuitive interface; 40% of households have 3 TVs. Enabling more interaction between the consumer and the medium
Horowitz: One thing that could drive the collapse is P-2-P file sharing like BitTorrent; getting a show that's aired on the East coast before it's aired on the West coast will drive change. There are some steep barriers with video than music, but if that were to start to happen, that would drive a point to point model vs broadcast.
Schlicting: The question is, can search support network television? And by the way, is network television relevant. One of the big questions is, will people search for video, to the decline of television video. They probably will. To what extent is the question. On the other hand, that's a legacy business that people are trying to protect. What happens with video blogging
Howe: People who use audio/video search are 16-24, they use it every day, rate it more important than email or IM. They use it concurrently with other activities; fractured, distracted audience. Studied 3000 kids across 40 campuses, they'd lose the TV before the Internet; it's that important to them. And there's different types of content being created; it's mostly short-form, 30 minutes or less... but that might shift. Content creators think about extending their market.
Horowitz: We see this trend; a shift from Head content to Tail content.... recently acquired Flickr, which is entirely user generated. Community that invests a lot of time, avid consumers, in building content. Will eventually apply to all forms of media. Jib-Jab ended up getting a deal with Yahoo for their content; moved from Tail to Head.
Howe: If you look at the production tools today, they're coming down market, making it easier and cheaper to generate content [Ed: Exactly what I said on the panel yesterday!]
Q: Will the money be available to create high quality shows... impossible for an individual to duplicate. Will those shows be available if people abandon the traditional model supported if the national reach disappears
Howe: People will pay for great stuff.... 80% of people do not [Ed: Bogus... that's a //service// number, e.g., dating sites, not content]
Q: What will be a hit show?
Schlicting: A hit is a profitable show; you don't need a lot of people if it only cost $6k to create
Cook: Does user generated content devalue professional content
Howe: The opposite happens; we all got tools that educated us, improved content [desktop pub reference]
Q: So that ad model of the future is verticalization, contextual relevance, and targeting ala IP-TV. Reach is no longer possible?
Gelbaum: Yes. Again, you must consider the interactive nature of search. The cost to get them on IP-TV is low. The data is there. We need to consider the passive, laid-back exposure to advertising, vs. allowing users to ask for information.
Q: Warren, Steve... your rev is not directional advertising; it's awareness and creative. How attractive is YP advertising, is it appealing?
Schlicting: Absolutely appealing... We bring the local nature of cable, we bring video... there are certain verticals where video is a bonus, upselling classifieds. We bring not only targeting and transaction, but also intent and awareness. You can't forget about branding going forward; just looks different
Q: So you'll be involved in the next 12 months
Schlicting: Yes
Cook: Cable is local by nature. Feet on the street in all of these markets. How do we get people to transition from buying YP to video. Targeted advertising is very interesting; a little easier to experiment online... some privacy issues on the video side.
Q: Can telecomm make the transition from delivering dial-tone to entertainment, and do they have the right to play in that space vs. MTV, etc.
Gelbaum: They will succeed because they have no choice. They are driven by the realities of the triple plays offered by the cable companies. No reps from telephone companies here. Hearing very aggressive talk; do or die.
Schlicting: Haven't heard that the RBOCs just want to be a pipe... they want to acquire content, upcharge, etc. Where do they draw the line?
Gelbaum: I don't see them going into programming. I see them trying to differentiate their offering. We can give you games, movie lsitings, order pizza, unified communications within the home?
Q: When does Yahoo announce Yahoo Studios
Horowitz: If planned, they haven't told me. We have created a media group, but that's focused on deals like the Apprentice deal... support and cross promotion of traditional broadcast; partnering with producers of content.
Q: Final remarks
Howe: We're talking about future possibilities.. the reality is people will do audio search, not video search. 3% of the population is interested in commerce on TV; 11% are interested in games.
Cook: We have to make this as seamless and easy as possible in order to drive adoption. Will people really pay for it? People don't really fast-forward through programs. [Ed: Huh?!]
Horowitz: I was surprised that the issue of IP didn't come up more... rights issues, licensing issues, when content moves online needs to be discussed... it actually pushes us toward the Tail, as Tail producers aren't worried about cannabilizing existing distribution
* These are raw, unproofed notes taken in real-time. Nothing attributed to any speaker should be assumed to be an exact quote. Rather, my goal was to capture and communicate the essence of what was said. If there is a significant mistake, please post a comment or email me; I will make a correction at my earliest opportunity.
Session Description: Classified advertising is a multi-billion dollar market, which is moving online. The rise of the Internet as a source of local classified listings and a range of new classifieds providers (many of them free) are putting pressure on traditional publishers, especially newspapers. Does the future of local classifieds reside in classified search sites such as oodle.com, local marketplaces like Craiglist, vertical sites or highly targeted communities that offer contextually relevant listings? The panelists, who represent a range of new classifieds sites, will discuss their models and where they believe the overall market is going.
Session Participants: Craig Donato, CEO, oodle.com Konstantin Guericke, VP, Marketing, & Co-Founder, LinkedIn Mike Hogan, CEO, ZiXXo Inc. Peter Krasilovsky, President, Krasilovsky Consulting Rajesh Navar, CEO, LiveDeal Mark Pincus, Founder & CEO, Tribe.net
Q: Offline classifieds, dominated by newspapers, is a multi-billion dollar industry. Do you see classifieds moving completely online, if so when, and economic impact
Krasilovsky: Aside from Craigslist, classifieds are being verticalized. It's all moving online
Q: Then do newspapers become second tier?
Pincus: This is really about the need for a consolidated local marketplace. We're fooling ourselves if we think newspapers are in danger near term; they're the only ones who have consolidated the local marketplace. It will all move online; the question is who will provide it... newspapers are well positioned.
Donato: It's moving online quickly; classifieds are better online... you can add pictures, more words, searchable. Superior experience.
Hogan: The experience is so much richer online. Easier to do research online. There will be segmentation, but the meat will all be online
Navar: Online you can provide free listings; you create revenue via PPC. Newspapers won't disappear, but what if classified revenue goes from $17B to $7B...
Q: There's been lots of organic classifieds, people putting "Garage Sale" on a telephone poll
Pincus: 85% of classified selling goes through non-traditional media (i.e., not commercial). Online represented 2% [2002 numbers]
Guericke: Monster drove 2% of job placements vs. 34% by employee referrals [ed: for a specific agency, name missed]
Navar: There is an opportunity to grow the market. Offenses need an offensive play; must partner with a technology play, leveraging distribution and cash flow
Donato: The fundamental business model, upfront fees, is being undercut by players like Craigslist. Big players like Yahoo are entering the market
Q: Will all online classifieds eventually be free?
Donato: A basic online listing will be free; upgrades will be available. Print will be an upgrade. But probably all P4P based.
Pincus: It seems fairly obvious that every classified site will have something free, and tons of aggregators (search engines) will aggregate everyone. Just like search engines, you'll be trying to optimize for free (SEO), but there will be upsells available (PPC).
Donato: I think the current pricing model alienates folks, driving them all to Craigslist. C-2-C will all be free (rooms for rent, etc). You can't afford to alienate whole segments if you're going to be a big player
Guericke: People get flooded with resumes when they put a job out. Crossing with social networking creates referrals, allowing employers to winnow. Listings will be a commodity; value added services will be the difference.
Hogan: The basic classified listing will be free, and it will get more and more rich: pictures, video, etc. Everything is free, but rising above the din will cost [Ed: essentially what Pincus said]
Navar: Ultimately it comes down to perfromance. [Ed: Essentially advocates a CPA approach]
Q: At Zixxo, I noticed that there's something called an ISR (Independent Sales Rep). Can you explain that, how it's working, why it's right
Hogan: We believe that word-of-mouth is critical. The local rep is feet on the street. Local businesses don't want cold calls; they want someone to explain it to them. We do have a self-service model, where we're making it easier and easier. And of course, social networking is another interesting tweak on this. The ISRs are performing, but it's very much a chicken and egg situation.
Q: Network vs. being a destination site. To what extent are you predicated on being a destination site vs. distributing listings out to the Internet to be found... and how does the network effect your brand?
Pincus: What I said in the Fall was that we were being pretty insane in the industry; that we shouldn't be competing with each other. My point is that it's assinine to try to win on being a brand people know to come back to, to building a sales force. If you're InsiderPages or Judy's Book, you should be a Web Service, so that others like LinkedIn could just access them instead of having to build their own. From our perspective, we've built a lot of these things because we've had to. We're very open to sharing our technology and users; the platform we launched yesterday has that in mind (it can integrate everyone elses stuff). People can plug in the best photos, invites, etc. You've gotta decide what piece you want to be in the puzzle
Guericke: For LinkedIn, in order to compete you have to give away something free that isn't available elsewhere. For us, that's connecting with clients.
Navar: Distributors would be a great partner for us. When you're a destination site you have to worry about other stuff, consistent experience, etc.
Q: Peter, you've been noticably quiet...
Kraslivosky: AutoTrader says no way am I going to let oodle.com aggregate me. Craig, what's the answer to that
Donato: If you're in the business of taking classified listings, you're rep'ing a seller. If you're turning down traffic, you're doing the seller an injustice. Inventory is fluid. Search for classifieds is important to help classifieds grow because it helps the buyer. If anyone thinks they can be the one-stop shop, they probably don't want to work with us.
Pincus: Craig, I think there's a real question you're going to have to answer... I totally agree that an industry level there has to be an exchange... whether it's a company or a standard... but the question is... when you start to stick a brand on it, that you want people to come back to, it makes it unclear. Sure, LiveDeal would love to syndicate their listings, but not if its to a branded site that wants to get that customer to come back to them yet.
Donato: If I can provide qualified prospects to folks, I'm not sure that would be a bad thing.
Navar: Craig, I think you have a different chicken and egg problem. eBay wouldn't use Google 5 years ago. Maybe you need to commit that within verticals, you'll have to promise you'll never be a listing service
Audience Q: Google and Yahoo are going to offer free classifieds; doesn't that destroy the business, and... doesn't that just beg for more and more of it to be free?
Navar: Just because someone has the traffic doesn't mean they can do everything.
Pincus: I'd add... why has Craigslist become such a force. I think the reason that has happened is because Classifieds are about longevity and brand. Building the better mouse-trap won't get you anywhere in 12 months. It took Craigslist 9 years. People only use classifieds a couple of times a year; you use Craigslist because a friend had a great experience with it.
Q: Final thoughts...
Guericke: Network effect is critical on the Internet. Technology is a commodity. [Ed: We understand what he meant, he just said it wrong] You have to differentiate to charge
Krasilovsky: I have a lot of confidence that you'll be able to upsell people. Newspapers get 45% of their classified revenues from upsells (extra pictures, etc)
Navar: I don't believe there's time for 10 years of trial and error, which is what's happened so far
Hogan: In response to Yahoo or Google entering the market... their brands are associated with one thing. People don't explore around beyond that; people want best of breed. [Ed: $350MM in free cash flow reinvested into their current products, YOY, will move them toward best of bread across the network...]
* These are raw, unproofed notes taken in real-time. Nothing attributed to any speaker should be assumed to be an exact quote. Rather, my goal was to capture and communicate the essence of what was said. If there is a significant mistake, please post a comment or email me; I will make a correction at my earliest opportunity.
Session Title: Newspapers: Sleeping Giants or Just Asleep?
Session Date: April 20, 2005
Session Time: 9:00 am – 10:00 am
Session Description: Newspapers have powerful local brands and unique local content. But, as widely reported, their local revenues and subscriber base is under siege from Internet players on all sides. Though there are some notable exceptions, newspapers as an industry have yet to really mount a spirited defense of their turf online—although that could be changing. Will more newspapers and newspaper networks aggressively compete online for local users and SME revenues, including competing for directory advertisers? Or is the inertia of internal organizational and cultural issues too great to overcome against the accelerated pace of online development?
Session Participants: Bob Armour, VP, Business Development, CrossMedia Services/ShopLocal Mike Markson, VP, Business Development, Topix.net Terry Millard, President, Planet Discover Tom Mohr, President, Knight Ridder Digital Jeff Moriarty, VP, Product & Technology, Boston.com Leif Welch, VP, Business Development, IPIX
Q: Has there been a change in Newspaper aggressiveness in the last couple of months, year?
Welch: The giants aren't asleep, certainly not over the last year. More like being in a daze. We're seeing small changes, not aggressive. Very fragmented, different behaviors from different players
Mohr: Newspapers vary in terms of their degree of sophistication. No question, it's been a learning curve since the mid-90s, lots of mistakes made. The commitment is there. I think we're gaining increasing competence in being a long-term successful player in the local space. We look at assets like CareerBuilder, Cars.com, etc along with our local sites as being powerful players.
Kelsey comment: You said we've made some mistakes. In my opinion, the only mistakes newspapers make is when they do nothing.
Mariarty: I think we've been asleep on classifieds, local search. We have a long way to go.
Millard: What we've seen over the past 12 months... 2004 was a lot of thinking about what local search is, since Jan 2005, we've started to see some action... proof of concepts, get in the market right or wrong, see how consumers and advertisers react. It's moved from thought to action.
Markson: I think newspapers are starting to realize that great brands aren't enough; you've got to have great technology. You're seeing Boston.com working with Feedster. The Three Bears investing in us.
Q: In an industry that has a lot of legacy systems, how does integration happen. How long will it take for newspapers to have the technology.
Markson: We're a 10 person shop in Palo Alto, mostly dev. But I'd say this is a Mohr question
Mohr: We're delighted with the relationship. We need to make sure we don't get too involved and integrated into what they're doing; we want them to have the freedom to do what they do. Long Tail play. Will integrate some Topix abilities into our site
Armour: [Ed: Back to first question] Acquired in May 2004, launched the destination site [ShopLocal] in 3 months. Pace is definitely accelerating from some key newspaper companies that are driving this
Q: The Three Bears are doing a lot of the driving. Tom, how do the Three Bears work together?
Mohr: It works very well, but it's a bit mystical. It's a collaborative relationship. The principles involved in the Boards are consistent across most of the holdings. Close, trusting relationship. Very little market overlap, so not competitive. Share a common vision for where things need to go.
Q: Could there be 2-3 newspaper brands in 5-10 years that serve the whole country, all largely drawing content from RSS Feeds?
Mohr: Clearly there will be national brands like the NY Times. But there's definitely a local play. Local traffic up 89% this year. Not all content is equal. Consumers are interested in what people write or rant about... but also want content from a trusted source with editorial they can rely on.
Markson: There's commoditization in national news; but not in local. Quality is definitely an issue in the blogosphere. There are only 500-1000 blogs in our crawl. Lots of meta-analysis.
Armour: In most small local markets, the newspaper is the dominant source
Mohr: Using HitBox to track reactions to stories in real-time. Newsrooms asking for live presentation in the newsroom, so that the assignment desk knows what the readers want.
Q: What are the innovative things that are going on in the newspaper space, and how are people responding to it? What's working?
Armour: We've been live for 6 months. Feedback is positive; we like the trusted brands. But we want more. We've got the big box players, but people want the local shops too. Newspapers are in the perfect position to do this. Then, how do we get into the YP market; some self-serve, some awareness
Q: How are the local retailers taking this opportunity
Mohr: We intend to aggressively leverage our existing relationships to populate ShopLocal with robust content
Welch: We see two consumer experience trends. We're seeing unique initiatives to compete against eBay and Craigslist; cheap and free classified listings. The point is to bring the consumers back; getting the readers to become advertisers. Second trend; great content, but not findable or dynamic... working on exposing this.
Moriarty: Blogging experiments; photo submissions. The question is how to get readers to think about us for more than just reading an article; getting them to transact (search, etc)... getting them to read a travel story, then book a trip.
Markson: Our focus is on making ads part of the content [ed: not literally] by making them highly contextually relevant; insulin pump ads with a diabetes article.
Q: What's the likelihood of NP and YP working together? What would make it likely
Markson: We view the search engines as the yellow pages. Through technology, they've turned YP ads into content [contextual] ads.
Welch: It makes so much sense on paper; lots of complimentary assets, salesforce, etc. In the NP side, we're still trying to get print and digital to work together. We've talked with YPs who would love to partner with NP; but in the end, there's zero action. Likely not something that'll happen in the next 5 years.
Millard: It'll only happen through acquisition
Mohr: Business case driven. The question is how do you leverage the synergies that creates incremental revenue. Agnostic, but open; skeptical.
Armour: Low, unless there's an acquisition. No JV, no partnership
Q: The fact that your competitors don't have these cultural barriers, that they can bring product sellers and service providers together creates a hole? What about that?
NO PANEL RESPONSE [Ed: So very telling... and so unfortunate]
Audience Q: AFP believes they are being exploited for $16.5M Are news aggregators exploiting creators, or are creators getting more than they give
Markson: If you're in the business of monetizing page views, more traffic is better. Most publishers see that. We have an opt-out policy; maybe 3-4 folks have done that. Unsolicited, we've had about 2K pubs ask to be part of the crawl. We distribute news to CitySearch, Ask Jeeves, etc.
Mohr: We're definitely in the distributed net side of this; some parties still want to be a walled garden. We want to be where consumers are.
Moriarty: We see 20% of our traffic from search engines; About.com is about 50%. We're looking for more traffic from the aggregators, not less
Audience Q: Newspapers have failed to bring their advertising franchise online; where do you see advertising revnue coming from
Mohr: We've been very focused in building an online classified offering. Free listing below $250, modest fees above. Launching print+online this summer. Craigslist has really opened up a new marketplace. We're focused on making sure that we provide the marketplace in most of our markets. CareerBuilder is increasing prices... and volumes! Overall take-rate is approaching 100%
Audience Q: What changes beyond hyperlinks will we see in the ways people interact with content
Moriarty: We're working with Feedster to link Red Sox player names with blogs. We're seeing a huge growth in video plays; 1.5-2MM plays per month. Lots of potential
Welch asks Q: You don't see many local advertisers in banner advertisers, contextual. Why not build your own Google Adsense?
Moriarty: In the process of implementing InDecka [sp?!]. Now we're looking to provide opportunities within a search environment
Audience Q: Please comment on the vertical players like Edmunds, FindLaw. Are they two small to be a threat, are the acquisition targets
Moriarty: We have a partnership with Edmunds; great distribution partnership. Lots of qualified leads.
Mohr: We're impressed by Edmunds. Our asset, Cars.com, is strongest in used. Homegain is interesting; lead gen is very interesting. We're learning from this; not just in potential partnerships, but in building our own offerings
Audience Q: Tom mentioned 80% growth: where is it happening
Mohr: That's local traffic growth. Overall traffic was up 25% last year
Millard: We're seeing 20% gains MOM in sites that are running our search
Audience Q: Buffett believe print advertising trends are slidding and will continue; they'll lbe irrelevant in 20 years
Welch: The demise of newspapers has been predicted for a long time, but they're still making money... which might be why they are changing so quickly. It's really about missed opportunities; they could have been eBay, Google, etc.
Millard: I'd agree with Buffett. Think of newspapers as local information sources; great ways to market online. That's where the play is.
Armour: No question that Buffett is right. The question is can they be just as effective online
* These are raw, unproofed notes taken in real-time. Nothing attributed to any speaker should be assumed to be an exact quote. Rather, my goal was to capture and communicate the essence of what was said. If there is a significant mistake, please post a comment or email me; I will make a correction at my earliest opportunity.
- Online advertising in 2005 $11.5B - Neck n Neck w/ Magazines - Will pass YP in 2006 - May rival radio in 2009 - $20B in 2010
- Local is the fastest growing segment; projected at $3.9B (46% YOY) for 2005 - Newspapers 44%, YP 6%, Paid Search 5%, TV 4%, Radio 1%, Pure Plays 40%
- Most growth can be attributed to at-work access to the Internet (whereas other medium aren't used in the workplace)
- NetRatings showing a decline in time spent online per month in US; -2%, ~14hrs month -- ~22 hours in Hong Kong, 25% YOY growth
Inventory shortage - Site based media businesses will not scale to the same degree as their analog counterparts; will have marginal impact in the marketplace as a result - 3-4 portals will dominate - Pricing elasticity is stretched to the limit, putting the medium at risk of being non-competitive
Long Tail [Ed: I'm happy for Chris Anderson, but why do people think this is new thinking?] - Lots of blogs presented - References Google Adsense as monetization of the Tail
Biggest price in the Tail is Local; newspapers and YP failing to take advantage of it - Content not readily seen - Expect user to gravitate to web site - Fails to serve the intent of the user - Publishing is the wrong model online; lean forward, not lean back
How to win: shedding the big-iron publishing model and embracing the open architecture of participation - Free content, organic distribution, leverage competition, meet and serve audience intent
Winning with local search - newspapers and YP publishers joining forces - One search box serving a single intent - Harnessing the best knowledge of the communit - Riding the distribution of the Internet - Feet on the street selling those services to SMEs - Leveraging traditional media assets
Shows examples of several newspaper web sites doing Federated Search, and a couple examples of newspapers integrating blogging...
New economic imperatives of 'unlimited' choice in conent - RSS and blogging are early enalers of this model - adopt them - Google as friend and foe; learn to exploit its massive distribution instead of only having Google exploit you - Leverage the distributed assets of the Internet - Aggregate and network
Q: How do you get newspapers and YPs to work together? What is Hearst doing with blogging?
Millstein: In Albany we're doing a proof of concept that we'll roll out in all TV and newspaper markets if it's successful. We're fortunate to own both the newspaper and YP in our markets. If we can be successful, other NP and YPs will follow; money will trump culture.
Q: Yahoo! just announced that they just generated $300M in free cash flow that they can reinvest in their business; do we have time to test?
Millstein: This is a live test; we're doing similar things in other markets. You're right; we've been slow to respond. Google, Yahoo are on a growth imperative; one bad quarter and they'll lose 25% of their valuation. [Ed: Huh? The point is, they //innovate//, NP and YP players don't, that's the story] The problem is we're applying a publishing model to the Internet and it doesn't work
Audience Q: Do you see NP and YP partnerships revolving solely around existing sites, or will a new local site need to be built
Millstein: You can do it with a newspaper web site; I'd rather attack this with Boston.com than starting over.
Moderator commentary: Boston.com is an exception; it's outstanding. My local site is awful.
Audience Q: How does Google exploit, how do you exploit them?
Millstein: It's corporate Judo; Google will do no evil, right? They have to deliver to the consumer the most relevant site to serve the user's intent. I'm going to create sites that are second to none. I'm going to ask everyone to point to everyone; SEO [Ed: Sounds like he's advocating link farming to game page rank...] What I'm not going to do is buy the PPC ad
Audience Q: If our competitve advantage in the future is feet on the street, why would we want to partner with Google to help them get to where they're going faster?
Millstein: That's another publishing sensibility that I've had to shed. I create a walled garden, lock everyone out; doesn't work. In this space, you need to embrace your enemies. Maybe in 10 years we won't, but for now, we want to engage in interchange
Audience Q: You talked about limited inventory, but not about raising prices
Millstein: I talked about it a little bit. At some point, you become uncompetitive with other mediums. You can't push it forever.
Audience Q: What do you think about branded RSS Readers (LA Times, etc)? Does it dillute the brand. Good or bad?
Millstein: We're looking at it; intrigued. Anything we can do to satisfy the user and his intent, we're willing to do.
* These are raw, unproofed notes taken in real-time. Nothing attributed to any speaker should be assumed to be an exact quote. Rather, my goal was to capture and communicate the essence of what was said. If there is a significant mistake, please post a comment or email me; I will make a correction at my earliest opportunity.
Session Description: Maps are critical to any sort of robust local search experience. Mapping and driving directions are consumer favorites. More recently, dynamic mapping has been introduced allowing consumers to use maps as a doorway into local search and directory listings. But there is still considerably more potential innovation on the horizon. What can we expect from the next generation of mapping tools and how will they become integrated with other utilities to deliver value for consumers searching for local information?
Session Participants: Walt Doyle, VP, Sales & Business Development, MapQuest Jeremy Kreitler, Product Manager, Maps, Yahoo! Bill Schwegler, Co-Founder & SVP of Strategic Initiatives, Telcontar Brad Sims, Manager, Product Development, SuperPages.com Sukhinder Singh, General Manager, Local & Third Party Partnerships, Google
Q: Grew up with Rand-McNally, "the mapping company". No where to be seen online now. Is there room for anyone else, or is the basic group of players that will be mapping, and what types of advances might we see?
Singh: Two things important in mapping. 1) The addition of new data sources (satellite, city blocks, POI); there are new data sources. A picture is just a location biased view of local search. 2) The UI still matters, and there's lots of innovation possible (panning/zooming). Advances: we're just beginning to look at GPS and mobility -- not far off, not technology but adoption
Doyle: It's a growing market. In a growing market, leaders benefit disproportionately. Mapquest mobile. Mapquest FindMe.
Q: So why can't a buy a map of Marin County from Mapquest? Why aren't you in the print side?
Doyle: Actually we are. We'll be launching Mapquest Publishing.
Q: Mapping is a secondary way into local information. What would make it a primary, front door, preferred way?
Kreitler: Yahoo! recognized this opportunity with SmartView, tying in YP, but also pulling in other data to make it actionable. Not an issue of customer segments, but of modality [Ed: Agree]
Q: How many have used AAA TripTips A: Many audience members raise hands
Q: One of the nice things was providing radio stations along the drive. Are those the types of things that we might see?
Sims: Location doesn't always matter, just showing a list of services to customers
Q: How do we monetize maps (directly)? Different sized icons, POIs that are paid listings, etc?
Schwegler: Localized search is a great equalizer vs. the big boxes. When mobile, and you're ready to buy a burger, you're a lead; make it compelling for me to choose your business. Real time maps
Singh: We need to be very careful in thinking about the available real estate and the user experience (usability). Adding 100s of local restaurants is great, but not if it makes the service unusable. I've yet to see a graphical implementation of monetization on a map that will not degrade the quality of the user experience, at scale.
Q: What about real-estate? How about being able to see MLS listings on the map, including realtor/sales-person info, etc. And what about printing it out?
Schwegler: The ability to overlay additional spatially related information on the map will happen. For instance, overlaying a house's property lines.
Singh: A click to overlays, e.g., schools for the real estate environment, is a clear integration point that can happen. It's a user request for info instead of pushing/crowding
Q: What about buying a map listing; equalizer for small businesses, because they're the only ones who can occupy that physical space
Sims: True if you're shopping by location, but not by product. It goes back to content collection and availability [Ed: and modality]
Doyle: About 10% of RE spend is online, but 70% of RE purchases start online. Seems ripe.
Audience Q: Personalization and maps... MyMaps
Schwegler: Key driver, many dimensions. Applying local knowledge. We give you best algo map, but if you know that a certain block is under construction, you could remove it from the route. Sometimes you don't drive to a destination, you drive to a nearby parking garage; again local knowledge.
Singh: GPS; excluding privacy issues, knowing where you're actually at is a big driver for starting your search. We're already seeing telematics, mobile, etc; searching from your desk may be outdated.
Q: What product features are essential; what's novel, but not useful... Second part, how will increased competition effect those who don't implement dynamic maps?
Kreitler: Being able to overlay more information, tailoring the experience, making the points provide context, etc. is the big feature.
Schwegler: Multiple channels: computer, mobile, telematics. Hands free operation. Consumer will expect consistent results and a seamless transition from one channel to another
Doyle: It's really about being useful. Helping people get to places; navigation.
Q: Does satellite radio play a role here?
Schwegler: Broadcast mechanism that knows what you are; can deliver a lot of the overlay data.
Singh: Telematics does the same, but the issue is price point. Satellite radio is all-you-can-eat; getting a lot of adoption at a cheap price point. The question is one of business model.
* These are raw, unproofed notes taken in real-time. Nothing attributed to any speaker should be assumed to be an exact quote. Rather, my goal was to capture and communicate the essence of what was said. If there is a significant mistake, please post a comment or email me; I will make a correction at my earliest opportunity.
Session Title: Pay-per-Call: Update from the Field
Session Date: April 19, 2005
Session Time: 4:00 pm – 4:45 pm
Session Description: Pay-per-call has been received by the press with considerable anticipation and excitement as the product that will demystify online advertising for local business. There are also many potential uses for national advertisers and some intriguing, potential offline uses. Ingenio pioneered the platform and FindWhat formally introduced pay-per-call in September 2004. Citysearch introduced a similar product in early December. Now a major portal has adopted pay-per-call. How have advertisers responded to date? Who’s using pay-per-call, and how far and wide is it likely to penetrate the marketplace?
Session Participants: Marc Barach, CMO, Ingenio Gerry Campbell, VP & GM, AOL Search & Directional Media Richard Rosen, VP of Business Development, CallSource Michael Kerans, SVP/General Manager, FindWhat Pay-Per-Call Jean-Pascal Lion, VP, Electronic Directories, Yellow Pages Group
Callsource: manages 150K numbers; provide call data
Q: What's the reception to a pay-per-call pitch from merchants
Lion: Different forms of ppc; offering it on wireless platform (with callGenie -- product named Hello Yellow). Will advertisers pay? Absolutely, though more so in certain categories/headings Kerans: We have 100K advertisers worldwide. Pricing is well above the cost of a click; clicks are expected to hit $5B. Taking this to direct reponse, which is a $5.2B market. A financial call (national) could go for $150/call.
Rosen: It's not about advertiser adoption; they already know from print, radio, etc what their cost per call is -- as long as we're in the range, they'll do it. The question is will the media companies (publishers) offer it
Lion: We're not doing ppc, we're doing a flat fee for aggregated volume of calls.
Campbell: Advertisers have to be in the system, but there has to be consumer demand. We're working to prove that they will, creating a great experience. We want this to be additive to PPC.
Q: This is a high profile launch for you, not a test, right?
Campbell: We don't have all the answers, but we're testing with placement all over the page. We do know that this is a logical, seamless transition from web to offline.
Barach: 25% of searches online are local, that's about a billion searches. We know that people call businesses; it supports a $16B YP business today. We also know that the consumer is different than the traditional search consumer; 33% of people who call a merchant are ready to transact //now// (vs. 1% clicking through to a site). [Ed: hmmmm]
Q: It seems like it's going to be very difficult to get merchants to pay on a per call basis; arguments about is it an old customer, etc. Selling a bucket of calls (per Lion), seems more logical. I don't think the marketplace has the capacity to understand the value per call
Lion: The name of the game is conversion.
Q: Refining question again... no one disputes the value of the call, but should it be per-call, a bucket of call, call tracking services, auctioned, etc.
Barach: The market is the best mechanism to set the price/value for a lead. Advertisers are incredibly astute as to what they should pay. And it's not just for a call, but for the LTV of a customer.
Q: Doesn't that assume a level of sophistication that doesn't exist among the SMEs; that they know how to manage in that type of marketplace
Barach: The complexity for bidding is reduced greatly when it's categories instead of keywords (because there are few of them). Because this is industry driven, some categories may change every three minutes, others may not change for days.
Rosen: Totally disagree. SME earlier said she'd be willing to pay a royalty; that's the last way that media wants to sell.
Lion: ppc already exists; it's a given that people will pay a fair amount per call. Bidded is a different matter.
Q: The context of the presentation of the phone number is critical. How much info do you need to wrap around the number, where does it appear? I'm not going to call for research...
Lion: We are working on making more pictures available with each number
Kerans: No one picks up the phone without the right call to action
Campbell: We're at the very beginning of this. The right consumer experience (category by category, buying cycle position, etc) hasn't been created yet. But we can't figure it out unless we try. [Ed: Disagree. All about confidence, which has triggers and is quantifiable. Correct, however, that you can't know some things without trying... at least AOL is innovating somewhere]
Q: Is there a ppc opportunity if they already know what they want? Why pay for a call if it's essentially a directory assitance look-up. We're going to turn a free listing into a revenue opportunity?
Lion: Yes
Campbell: If you want to have control over how the user sees it, a certain number of advertisers will choose to be on the page multiple times in order to win the customer.
Audience Q: Is this about branding?
Campbell: Branding probably isn't going to
Audience Q: Click to call A9, Google Mobile Local
Barach: Click-to-call has been around a long time, so we understand it pretty well. We prefer to go with presenting a telephone number.
Rosen: Part of that question is, is this a business? Or is it something that we do to measure response from the measure. You can measure response on click-to-call more easily than calls into a store
Audience Q: Is there an issue/liability with click-to-call for doctors
Kerans: Yes, for both doctors and lawyers.
Rosen: Real estate too.
Q: Sophistication...
Rosen: What is that advertiser spending? If it's $200/mth, who cares. If it's $5000-15k, then they're a real prospect and they probably have the sophistication.
Q: Is this really a national play, and SMEs, no matter how interested, won't have the savvy to do it
Kerans: The value of a lead (click) is there; look at Overture's CAGR. The same will happen here; these are inbound calls, not telemarketing
Campbell: The magic value is the consumer intent; when you get an effective path to critical mass of consumer intent, the dollars will flow.
Barach: 1/3 of all businesses don't buy YP. Those that take advantage of it will expand their businesses, others won't. [Ed: This gets back to the "appetite to grow your business" meme, legit]
* These are raw, unproofed notes taken in real-time. Nothing attributed to any speaker should be assumed to be an exact quote. Rather, my goal was to capture and communicate the essence of what was said. If there is a significant mistake, please post a comment or email me; I will make a correction at my earliest opportunity.
Session Description: The various “simplified search” products increasingly being offered to the local marketplace through small-business aggregators (e.g., Yellow Pages, verticals, Web hosts, local SEMs) have been hailed as the right product at the right time. But what’s happening “on the ground”? What is the level of demand, and will these products ultimately generate more business/leads for local advertisers? Are they the key to unlocking the revenue potential of "local," or will they ultimately collapse under the pressure of rising prices and shrinking inventory in a rapidly changing online/search marketplace?
Session Participants: Kirsten Mangers, Chief Strategy Officer, SME Global Solutions John Keister, President, Chief Operating Officer, Marchex Michael Kline, COO & VP Products, ReachLocal Michael Sack, EVP & CTO, Inceptor Neil Salvage, VP, Sales, YellowPages.com Todd Walrath, CEO, Leads.com
Q: If you over simplify SEM, you take away some of the efficency (someone pays more, someone less). Can you give pros and cons?
Mangers: This is a fluid model, not necessarily a long term model. What we've found is that this is a way to efficiently enter the market and gain market adoption. The more you make it like something they understand (e.g., print), the faster the adoption.
Kline: Need to distinquish between flat fee, guarenteed clicks, and monthly budgets. All have a place, and you need to offer the right solutions to the right vertical/category.
Sack: We don't believe that we should make guarentees about clicks; like yellow pages... they guarentee presence. The way to reduce churn is to return valuable information back to the customer. We give them a private web site where they can see their advertising presence, traffic, results, etc. Now in the process of implementing call tracking.
Walrath: We have a lot of advertisers that can't handle all of the volume we can drive. Click volume/fixed-price allows them to control the volume they receive.
Keister: Really a trusted source issue; who do you trust to provide leads, in the right package, etc.
Q: Is there demand for this product, is it being pushed. What do you hear from the merchants themselves
Salvage: The real question is, is the product efficient; does it reduce the time merchants have to spend on advertising so they can focus on the business. That's an indication of customer satisfaction. Bigger indication is, does it get them found.
Mangers: Largest, most readily adopted product since 1996 in the local space. Resembles mediums that advertisers are already familiar with. Logical sale: How are you promoting your web site?
Q: Average time on sales call
Salvage: Usually takes 10 minutes to explain it and make the sale.
Q: Any change in where the sales process takes place
Salvage: Yes. If you see laptops, ask them about how they buy themselves. Explain that we help you get found
Q: Does this product need to be sold over the phone?
Walrath: Conflict in incentive models, prints, etc. Focus on inside sales. Takes about an hour over 2-3 calls. Lots of education. Getting better, but still needs to be /sold/. Local is not a self-serve model at this point.
Sack: We don't sell directly; partners sell. Different models. In one vertical, it's a face-to-face meeting. Those doing it over the phone aren't as successful. $600 fixed fee to be "visible in Overture and Google"
Q: How are you incenting reps
Salvage: Traditional reps have the best interest of their clients at heart. Not worried about their comission, but whether the client will be happy and renew. [Ed: Selling Internet + print in this case, relationship risk if there's underperformancec]
Q: When Bellsouth + Google was announced, there were concerns about agencies being pushed out. On the other side, how do you look at the scarce inventory on the SERPs
Kline: Lots of competition between locals and national advertisers. The answer is to give them the reporting they need to make smart keyword choices at the right price point. Publisher diversity is also important.
Keister: Very important to have a stong mix of distribution, not one or two providers. We offer Paid Inclusion in addition to SEM.
Q: What about quality of leads? Different engines provide different quality.
Keister: Having a distribution mix allows you to compare quality of leads; allocate spend (and bidded PPC) appropriately.
Sack: There's a perception issue. Merchants want to be visible in Google and Overture, maybe FindWhat. Want that "association".
Walrath: At a local level, the Tail is long. A child custody lawyer in Wilmington, VA is a great lead (providing too much ROI). Very shallow market, will take a long time before these deep markets are liquid.
Mangers: We don't sell position; what's important is that the clicks occur.
Q: What other channel options are out there?
Salvage: Yellowpages.com doesn't do print; all online.
Audience Q: Customer ownership... who owns the customer? What's the long term dynamic?
Mangers: [Laughing] This is the ultimate defensibility question. Lots of people could squeeze us out. We don't go merchant direct, we leverage existing channels with relationships, billing tech, etc.
Keister: Who has the resources. Who has the technical expertise. Hopefully there will be millions of SMEs online and we'll all have a piece of the action, knowing that some advertisers will eventually go direct to Google, etc.
Q: Pick 1... What happens when multiple groups are selling in the same geography, or, Do calls have to become part of the package
Mangers: Less than 18% redundance in the same market amongst verticals, level of players etc. And yes, calls have to be part of the solution
Sack: SEs won't allow multiple listings (from different vendors) linking to the same site; whoever gets there first wins.
Salvage: Calls? It depends on the client. Requires merchant training, education. They need to learn how to convert
Walrath: Click reports monthly, call reports weekly; showing value is key. Most merchants convert 30-40% of calls into customers. Not sure that it has to be billed on a per-call basis; might be monthly, etc.
Kline: First question: best product wins... retention is the name of the game; lots of transparency in reporting, accountability, etc. Not sure if you can charge per call; seems like sticker shock at $10-$15/call.
Keister: The company that wins will be the one that can grow with the customer.
* These are raw, unproofed notes taken in real-time. Nothing attributed to any speaker should be assumed to be an exact quote. Rather, my goal was to capture and communicate the essence of what was said. If there is a significant mistake, please post a comment or email me; I will make a correction at my earliest opportunity.
Session Title: SMEs and Sites: Crossing the 50% Threshold
Session Date: April 19, 2005
Session Time: 2:00 pm – 2:45 pm
Session Description: As recently as two years ago there was still ambivalence and skepticism among small businesses about the importance of a Web site. The rise of broadband, search engines and Internet marketing has largely put that to rest. Kelsey Group data now reflects that almost 40% of U.S.-based SMEs have Web sites. Has this increasing adoption of Web sites by SMEs resulted in more customers and local revenues? What are the leading small-business Web hosts finding about the changing needs and attitudes in the SME marketplace and how those needs are being addressed? When do they believe that 50% of U.S.-based SMEs will have Web sites—later this year, next year or longer?
Session Participants: Rich Cannon, Area VP, Strategy, Interland Jim Collins, CMO, Affinity Internet Warren Kay, SVP, Business Development, Vista.com Rich Riley, VP & General Manager, Yahoo! Small Business
Projected growth of SME websites - 2004: 42% say they have - 2009: project 63%
Q: Are these numbers right? Are they first or second generation sites?
Cannon: I use a 7.8MM number (those that are larger than sole propriterorship); Yankee has a number that says 62%. About 70% of our customers already have web sites and are looking for a gen 2 website. Our goal is to help make the websites generate value rather than just being a marketing site. Business owners are involved vs. techies. Our data shows that 68% of small biz have generated ROI+ results from their web site. All about leads and sales.
Collins: Really depends on how you slice the market. Our approach is that a small biz is a group with 20 or less. 20% compound YOY market growth is good, but might not represent "success". Most site owners are dissatisfied with their sites.
Kay: Same question we've been asking for years, along with what's the right entry level price point. A9 is doing some really cool stuff; that's what it's going to take. If the audience is there, the small biz's will come. Believe that the number of small biz w/ site is less than 50%; amongst Sam's Club crowd, less than 50%, those that are online are doing 1st gen sites.
Riley: We look at the 26MM+ businesses, believe there are 12MM+ small business sites. The primary issue is credibility and a professional web site. Most businesses are embarrased that they don't yet have a web site, domain and email address. Focusing on ease of use, removing barriers, and driving traffic to their site.
Q: IDC says webhosting will be a $16.2B industry by EOY 2005, but it seems like the prices are falling (free at Yahoo!, low cost via Vista and Sam's Club). What does that mean for hosting co's, what value added services do you need to offer.
Kay: Website part of it is a commodity. Financial opportunity exists in helping them succeed online (vs. getting them online).
Collins: We've been raising our prices like crazy. Raising from $6 to $24 (selling through costCo at $18); small businesses telling them there's no difference between those two price points. Misconception that small biz's are cheap, poor, struggling to get buy. The issue isn't money, it's //time//. If you can create confidence that you'll help them be successful, you'll be successful.
Q: Are you raising it across the board?
Collins: Yes. 70k customers. 114 churned out when they raised the price.
Cannon: There's no pricing elasticity below $20; that's the floor. What we've done is gone and bundled the solution. We're making it simpler and simpler, because they don't know how to ask the "right" questions. We'll give you clicks, marketing solutions, etc. as part of a $200/mth bundle. Services businesses are leading because a $20 retail sale is nothing compared to a $20K lead for a lawyer.
Q: Sounds you're happy that Yahoo! went free
Collins: I think they're doing a great thing for the marketplace. Providing education, getting people on board. We say go to Yahoo!, then come to us when you get serious
Riley: Our strategy is to be the essential online partner to millions of businesses, because we think over time the Internet will become increasingly important to these businesses over time. We want to market a slew of services (Yahoo search marketing, payroll, etc) to them. Multi-year relationship. Remove all barriers (price and ease of use), get these guys online.
Q: How many people signed-up last week
Riley: It exceeded our expectations
Kay: Not a direct relationship between low cost and low value. We'd rather use their spend on acquiring customers and building their business, rather than web site design.
Q: What are these SMEs funding these websites from? Is it coming from other media? Part 2, how do you sell this to Kay Lemming (morning session: no web site, pressed for time)
Riley: We do have 100K's of customers paying us for hosting. $150/year isn't really coming from another budget; ROI is a no-brainer. Kay would find us through word-of-mouth or search.
Collins: Massive misconception. The dollars are irrelevant
Q: Let's go to the time question then
Collins: Getting our message out that a small biz can have a "professional" (emphasis) web site is the tough part. 73% aren't happy with their first site. Our message is "call us".
Cannon: She might trip over an Interland "I" (on another site); might come through TMP or another partner; might call us or find us in search; might receive a call from our sales reps.
Q: How much training do you give to reps selling SMEs
Cannon: Quite a bit. We sell the same message that we use for YP; we're going to get you targeted leads.
Kay: The problem is there hasn't been an effective outlet for them to spend their money. It has to deliver value.
Q: We ask how many measure the performance of their advertising. 50% say they do; if you drill down, it's really only 10-20%. Who's proving the value?
Cannon: One of the core values we provide is a feedback loop that alerts them to what's working and encourage them to increase spend in those areas. Email reporting.
Kay: We're focused on understanding what results mean to a small biz (it isn't page views); people perceive value if they can find themselves (or their cousin, etc), see their ad.
Collins: We have reporting, but most people don't get it. We call and explain it after a month.
Audience Q: What % are paid vs. free, and how do you upsell
Riley: 100k's of paying customers; not talking about free sites yet. Do have 10MM's of free sites on GeoCities. We upsell with own domain name, email address. We market via email and in-product marketing
Audience Q: What do you see as future must have services to bundle with hosting?
Collins: You've gotta solve the whole problem. A trusted online resource for small businesses.
Cannon: There are two apps driving small businesses. First is email; giving them business class email (ala corporate email) is a win. Second, some people rely on web for leads; more every year... generating leads is the killer app; //customers who get leads don't churn.//
Kay: I agree that leads are a critical component. Next step is tying in inventory management.
* These are raw, unproofed notes taken in real-time. Nothing attributed to any speaker should be assumed to be an exact quote. Rather, my goal was to capture and communicate the essence of what was said. If there is a significant mistake, please post a comment or email me; I will make a correction at my earliest opportunity.
Spin-out of Amazon, based in Palo Alto. Responsible for product search on Amazon.com, and for A9.com. Mandate is to innovate in search; to build great stuff.
Principles: - Customer centric - Innovations - Long term
Are you an R&D Lab: - Not in the classic sense; we have a direct relationship with customers - We do concentrate on new innovations, experimentation; our goal is to invent
History - Launch A9 9/2004 - A9 Yellow Pages 1/2005 - Open Search 3/2005 - Launching images for five more cities this morning
Live Demos - Shows live search with google results and image results; shows off tabbed interface
- Open Search, syndicated search, built on an extension to RSS, pick from hundreds of sources.
- Yellow Pages demo... searches sushi in new york; results page with listings, images and map with listings plotted; rolling over a listing highlights it on the map. Shows "walking around the block" and "running around the block". Enables you to search another way "that place that's next to the donut shop". Also includes a "subway map" which lists other businesses on the street (both sides). We put these listings on Amazon, and use its personalization; now people can rate it, write reviews, etc. Very easy sign-up for small businesses on Amazon's site; enter as little or as much info as you want; all totally free. There's also a button, "Click to Call Business"; automatically connects you to the business (provided by eStrata).
How we did it and what we learned - Fully automated process, all you have to do is drive around the city; speed adjusted - Shows map of photo points of Manhattan (totally saturated) - Relates security story; mouse use to keep laptop active, but invented "neutered mouse" instead - 26MM images captured, 20K miles drive, 14MM business detail pages (1MM with images), 20 TB of storage - 10 cities were launched, 5 more today (D.C., Miami, Phoenix, Houston and Fargo)
Where are we going from here - We transformed YP from a boring list of phone numbers and addresses into something more exciting - Search can be more than putting 2-3 words into a search box and getting a list of links
Audience Q: How do you handle refreshing the database as businesses change names, shut down, etc
A: We're not going to drive only once, because we can do it very efficiently. Plus customers can update the the database
Audience Q: Do you charge?
A: At the moment it's a free service; we're funded by the sponsored links.
Audience Q: How do you compare what you're doing to Google's Keyhole
A: They come from above, we come from the side.
Audience Q: What product search innovations should we expect in 12-18 months
A: We don't talk ahead of launch, but we're working on lets of things
Audience Q: Would you consider licensing or sharing data
A: Yes
Audience Q: Open Search is great, but are you working on a way to dynamically choose which one should be used
A: Yes. In general, you don't know what source you need for a query, so we need to help solve that.
Audience Q: Click per call, normally that's a for pay service, and, what about the privacy issues of people being photographed
A: Second question first... if they contact us, we'll take the image offline; not common. First question, it is free right now, no comments on the future
Audience Q: How do you validate the consumer generated information?
A: First, that's true for Amazon in general (did they actually read the book); consumer must read it and know for themselves. We also focus on getting people to give real names for reviews. And, there are algorithmic ways for us to analyze.
Audience Q: Are you planning to compete directly with Google, and how will you get the traffic A: We don't think about competition, we think about our users
Audience Q: What kind of feedback are you getting
A: Phenomenal. People are starting to use it in ways that we hadn't expected, like posting A9 photos on Flickr
Audience Q: Do you have any stats on businesses adding info themselves
A: Not marketed, all beta. Not actively pursuing that yet.
* These are raw, unproofed notes taken in real-time. Nothing attributed to any speaker should be assumed to be an exact quote. Rather, my goal was to capture and communicate the essence of what was said. If there is a significant mistake, please post a comment or email me; I will make a correction at my earliest opportunity.
Session Title: The comScore-Overture Study: Findings and Implications
Session Date: April 19, 2005
Session Time: 10:00 am – 10:45 am
Session Description: The widely publicized findings of a seminal comScore-Overture study will be explored in depth. The study found that 25% of search engine users ultimately purchased a consumer electronics product and that 92% of those purchases were offline. Generic search terms drove more than 70% of the volume, while trademarked terms were responsible for 20% and product terms the final 10%. Though the generic terms drove most of the volume, the more specific terms revealed consumers who were closer to a purchase decision. The study challenges conventional assumptions about consumer behavior and suggests important changes that will likely occur in search. Those shifts will have implications for other online media as well as the local marketplace.
Session Participants: Anne Frisbie, Senior Director, Category Initiatives, Overture Chris Henger, VP, Marketing & Product Development, Performics Sarah Stevens, comScore Networks Kevin M. Ryan, Search Editor, iMedia Communications Christopher Skinner, Managing Partner, MakeBuzz
- Search nbehavior for 10 specific products - Time-aligned 3 months - Global panel of 2MM consumers
- 7% ltent online conversion - 1% same session online conversion - 92% offline conversion - 25% total conversion
- 35% 30 days conversion - 18% 60 days conversion - 20% 90 days conversion
- 57% general terms - 11.7% specific terms - 14% header terms - remainder trademark product
- 84% of all trademark conversions were influenced by broad terms during their first search. Loinking standard search with Local
Q: Can I make the statement that 92% of searches are local?
Skinner: Yes, you can. 98% of our retail economy is offline... so search must be driving offline, because it's not happening anywhere else
Frisbie: It really varies by category. If people want to buy tires or cars, it may be offline. If people are buying flowers and shipping them, it's probably more biased toward online.
Henger: There is a lifecycle of searching before purchase. People aren't necessarily looking for local places to buy, but that's a result of the online search activity.
Ryan: Data will be more meaningful when we can break this down by category
Q: Search has always been considered directional, but this data indicates otherwise
Henger: The share volume of generic searches doesn't totally surprise; more terms. But what really took place before purchase is a big shift to the brand terms. The general search appears to be influencing the volume and ROI of brand terms
Ryan: Sure, you get 4000% return on the brand term, but would that search have occurred had you not been a part of the general term. You must attribute some of the ROI to the general terms. Also interesting that the latency in purchases means that 30 day cookies are a bad idea
Frisbie: Search will prove to be an even stronger direct marketing vehicle, but clearly there's more complexity in understanding its role and impact
Skinner: A lot of the trillion dollars in advertising influences (and even generates) the generic searches (and terms)
Henger: Search is a complimentary medium in the awareness phase (to broadcast et al); the question is are you there during the consideration phase of the buying cycle.
Q: Search isn't a medium that subsitutes for others, rather it complements, sitting in the middle; it's a purchase funnel enabler.
Skinner: In broad terms, yes. It depends on the industry. My question would be, "do you think a competitor for Ann Taylor or Bose be created strictly by buying search terms"
Henger: I think they would have a lot of trouble. There's clearly a branding element to search, but I wouldn't want to be the CMO competing with Ann Taylor and only having SEM as my option
Ryan: Advertising didn't build Bose. "The best speakers ever built" built Bose; quality of product and service
Stevens: Searchers do go online for research and education, which means awareness and branding
Q: There's an enormous amount of Tail inventory. People are only willing to look at the first page of results, which only has 3-5 slots. Doesn't that favor people who can afford to buy in (national buyers); doesn't that crowd out the small local businesses?
Skinner: Make search a three panel/column result set. The little guys, maybe part of local search, should be in the middle column
Frisbie: I don't know user design... but we want to provide consumers with the results they want. Right now, in many categories, consumers want local listings. We're spending a lot of resources trying to figure out how to best service in this area, including providing opportunities to offline stores to get in front of search users
Q: Do we have a situation evolving where a vertical directory (lawyers.com, superpages.com) is the place where the local advertiser ultimately resides, and that directory buys the general or category term, because they can compete with the national advertisers
Henger: That's what exists at shopping comparison shops right now. Most of them are the biggest buyers on Google and Overture.
Ryan: Amazon is becoming a shopping destination not just for Amazon, but for hundreds of stores. They're buying any terms that relate to almost anything that might be sold on their platform
Frisbie: We're still in kindergarten. We need to figure out together how to provide consumers what they want, when and where they want it.
Skinner: When things go multi-channel, where search gets credited for offline transactions, the PPC explodes. But few marketers will know that, and fewer will have the resources to measure and tweak
Q: Doesn't all of this become impossibly complicated for the local advertiser who doesn't have the same sophistication as the national players?
Henger: How do small businesses compete with players today, and how does that transcend online? Do they have unique products? Do they do event marketing?
Frisbie: The mass merchants are struggling with creating loyal customers; small businesses have tremendous community standing.
Henger: Clearly small businesses can't compete on price; they have to involve the community
Audience Q (and comment): We seem to be struggling to find a one size fits all answer; but this is a target audience and segmentation question.
Q: But isn't scale built on automation and do a degree, one-size fits all implementation?
Ryan: Small biz need an intermediary like an Amazon who has the resources to act as a proxy
Frisbie: It's not a one size fits all. Eventually, we're going to know who you are and what you've been doing. Because of that we'll be able to offer you better advertising
Audience Q: Won't the search curve, or Tail, evolve over time (next 5-10 years) as tail terms become more common, and how will that change search and local search?
Frisbie: I believe we setup a myth that consumers are really dumb and just put in one word; it's just because they're new that the use one word. In reality, the people doing product specific searches have done research elsewhere and are using limited words. Consumers are very happy with search, being able to look at the full consideration set, so that they don't feel like they're being taken advantage of.
Henger: Two things to think about 1) volume of activity on Tail is very low, but we are seeing a decent lift in conversion on those longer terms. The question becomes what's involved in building out that Tail.
Ryan: I think that 98% number is crap. I think we've programmed people to think search engines are stupid. Try to do some natural language searches; you can't find what you're looking for. People have to do a half dozen searches across four search engines to reach that "level of happiness".
Stevens: I think some of our data shows that consumers have advanced; people using local search modifiers. The specificity of search terms has changed; people are using more tokens per query. Users are getting smarter.
* These are raw, unproofed notes taken in real-time. Nothing attributed to any speaker should be assumed to be an exact quote. Rather, my goal was to capture and communicate the essence of what was said. If there is a significant mistake, please post a comment or email me; I will make a correction at my earliest opportunity.
Session Title: Consumers and the New Multi-Channel Reality
Session Date: April 19, 2005
Session Time: 8:45 am – 9:30 am
Session Description: The biggest gains online this past holiday season were recorded by traditional retailers, so-called "brick and mortars" that are more successfully integrating online and offline selling. Given the rise of Internet adoption for local shopping, it's clear that consumer behaviors are evolving. How are retailers adapting to those new consumer behavior patterns? What trends are they finding -- especially in local -- and what strategies are they adopting to drive traffic to local stores?
Session Participants: Eric Chandler, VP, e-Commerce Marketing, SuperPages.com Erin Bayer, CEO/Founder of SeeJaneRunSports Kendall M. Fargo, Founder & CEO, StepUp.com Kay Lamming, Owner, Cotton Basics Carol Yenne, Owner, Small Fry's
Commentary: SEM not being marketed successfully to small businesses
Q: How has the Internet changed your business
Bayer: Started 5 years ago, always had web site. Three physical stores in Bay Area. Provide running supplies for women. Mission is to provide a community for female atheletes. Understand the needs of their customers/potential customers to learn about their company, offerings, etc. Encourage staff to direct people to sites. Started e-commerce 3 years ago. Over last 4 months, online business has increased 400%. Attributes it to brand recognition; also showing up now in search results due to signing up for Yahoo Product Submit. Strategic pricing of items (including low prices on popular items) seems to be influencing search ranking.
Lamming: Cotton basics around 20 years. 4 physical stores. Don't have a web site. Have been on StepUps 'Market Square' for several months, which is generating some leads. Haven't done web because they haven't known what they wanted to do; believe now that they want to drive traffic to the physical stores. Unique challenge, since they manufacturer all of their own clothing items, which aren't necessarily the things people are searching for online.
Yenne: Small Fry's aroundd for 20 years. One physical store. Have used CitySearch for quite some time. Got very few sales due to it. Built own web site 5 years ago, focused on specific, nationally known items. This has been the most effective for them. Lots of purchases (e.g., for a baby shower) are last minute, don't work well online. Lots of high end purchases (e.g., $800 strollers) happening at sites like eBay. Feels that the cost of paying for web site creation is greater than revenues derived from online sales.
Q: How does the local retailer differentiate from national retailers
Fargo: We're a link between physical store retailers and shopping sites. We see two distinct trends. 1) Lots of last minute shoppers who want to find something locally (e.g., Valentine's Day). 2) Lots of unique items that people are looking for; would prefer to buy from local store vs. big box competitors (like supporting small biz)
Chandler: Small biz wants 1) Trusted relationship with explaining the benefits of going online. 2) Back-end hand-holding; doing the implementation for them. 3) Simplify product offering; managing 5-10k keywords is much too much... need something that requires less time. 30k PPC advertisers, 2/3rds are small biz.
Q: National advertisers seem to percolate up to the top (of SuperPages); how do we get these small businesses on the first page of results
Chandler: Great question... One fundamental decision we made was to create two separate auctions; top 3 listings are national, next 3 are local (regardless of bid rates).
Q: Went searching for a mountain bike last night. How do you get more small biz to particpate in your program
Fargo: Getting referrals from existing small biz customers. Looking for channel plays (inventory system vendors, etc). Largely though, it's about SERP results
Q: Retailers, how hands on vs. off have you been in transitioning online
Bayer: Lots of hands on work to maintain Yahoo Shopping. Don't do anything with Market Square; they do everything.
Lamming: We don't have a person dedicated to advertising, let alone online. Would love a turnkey online presence that she could tweak, provided it was easy. Would like a bigger presence.
Yenne: Would love to see Google searches that directed you locally instead of everything going to Amazon. So overwhelming. Relates tragic Earthlink experience. Should be as easy as banking; no more than an hour or two a week.
Q: What's it going to take to satisft that requirement
Fargo: Learning process for everyone. Tech is advancing to the point where much can be automated. Bar code scanning is helping with inventory mgmt (vs. physical audits).
Chandler: I think you need to have a diverse product line; some small businesses are really engaged and want to do much themselves... but most don't.
Q: SuperPages has thousands of sales reps. Can they make the turnkey case?
Chandler: 100 businesses a day signing up. So the business is there, but you have to have the offering in place. Really need to customize pitch and offering for these guys vs. nationals.
Q: What kind of experiences have you (retailers) had with people selling you online pitches
Yenne: Spent 3 minutes with lady from Market Square (all the time I had). Came by next day, took pictures. That was it. Main callers are folks that want to design their page. Lots of calls from those wanting to sell advertising; "until someone comes to me and says that anyone in san francisco looking for a baby levi jacket will be directed to you, I have no real interest".
Bayer: Get many calls, don't listen to any. Too busy for cold calling. Market Square came by in person. First time didn't give her the time of day. Second time was more receptive. Pitch that worked is "we're not selling you anything, we'll try it and see what happens". Didn't have to do anything. No online advertising; would consider pay for placement. Have email lists for customers who want promotions.
Lamming: Get calls all the time. Hang up on them; too busy with customers. Would read something that came snail mail; don't open unsolicited emails.
Audience Q: As you get better with inventory, do you see handling fullfillment
Fargo: Have a service that allows shoppers to reserve a product, but no, don't really see going there unless there's demand from the retailers.
Audience Q: Say your day is busy, but don't have time. Would you allocate 10 minutes a day to talk to sales people
Bayer: Can't imagine that. Does her own searches. If she sees something that appeals and is easy, she might sign up.
Q: Do you take calls from Chronicle, Yellow Pages?
Bayer: Do do newspaper, no print. Mostly direct mail. That and good press (word of mouth); also have a training team (running) out in the community
Yenne: Bring us the business; knows that someone holding Wave magazine in the store saw the had; proved it worked. Advertising online just hasn't worked. Prove it.
Bayer: Would pay a percentage of sale from an ad; would rather do that than pay an overhead fee.
Lamming: Don't think that print media works well for small businesses. Direct mail database gets results. Don't want to be one of 10MM listings online; we get lost in there.
Chandler: Chicken and egg problem. Lots of small businesses don't see the opportunity. CPC gets you part of the way to CPA; risk is shared between the publisher and small business.
Q: Does that address the issue of the small biz being lost in 10MM results
Chandler: It depends on whether you're looking for everything on general search engines, or if people will be using vertical SEs that screen out a lot of that junk.
Audience Q: For merchants... What role does the phone play in your sales operation. Is Pay Per Call of interest
Lamming: Maybe... haven't thought about that.
Yenne: Think the royalty idea is a good one. Happy to share profits with someone driving business. Really want to see local stores integrated into core search (called out)
Audience Q: Merchants... do you interact with your suppliers or find suppliers online?
Bayer: Find products at tradeshows.
Yenne: Have found stuff online that isn't available at a tradeshow. Sometimes takes 3 weeks before getting a response. Robbiez; will give a local retailer a piece of the action if their product is bought online (and could have been bought offline). Likes the model, because it avoids channel conflict
Polachek observation: Always thought local product retailers would be the first to move online. Yesterday, we saw a bunch of service providers who were deep into online advertising. Today, seeing retailers who don't want much to do with online advertising.
* These are raw, unproofed notes taken in real-time. Nothing attributed to any speaker should be assumed to be an exact quote. Rather, my goal was to capture and communicate the essence of what was said. If there is a significant mistake, please post a comment or email me; I will make a correction at my earliest opportunity.
Session Title: The Emerging Online-Offline Paradigm
Session Date: April 19, 2005
Session Time: 8:15 am – 8:45 am
Session Description: Notwithstanding the big gain in online holiday shopping, e-commerce remains a tiny fraction of offline consumer spending. But that fact does not reveal the degree to which consumers are increasingly using the Internet to conduct research and shop for products and services, especially in their local markets. Indeed, one hypothetical definition of “local search” is Web-influenced offline transactions. The Kelsey Group will present new consumer research findings about changing media use and how the Internet is affecting traditional media and offline commerce.
Session Participants: Greg Sterling, Program Director, Interactive Local Media, The Kelsey Group
E-commerce - 2004 Q4 ecommerce was $21.4B (22% YOY increase) - Still only 2.2% of total retail - $70B or 1.9% for all of 2004
Online Influence: - 39% of US consumers made a local purchase after Web research - 92% influced by Search Engine usage in Consumer Elects/Compus were made offline - 74% research online buy offline - 62% of US consumers prefer to buy offline
Local Internet Growing - Internet => Newspaers and Yellow Pages for local shopping research - Internet rated higher on 10-pt excellence scale than NP or YP - Purchases over $500, 34% started online, 90% transacted offline
[Ed: Narration of a failed attempt to purchase a photo printer online that ends up in the consumer purchasing the product offline, at a premium price, in order to get the convenience and confidence he requires in a transaction. Included online coupon search and usage.]
Takeaways: - Internet being integrated heavily into consumer resaerch/buying behavior; notable as 98% of purchases are local - Broadband users rely on Internet as a powerful and often primary shopping tool (depending on category) - Local consumer behaviors are now more complex, creating new complexity for marketers - esp local SMEs - The question becomes, where do you put your ad dollars to engage consumers at strategic points in the buying cycle
* These are raw, unproofed notes taken in real-time. Nothing attributed to any speaker should be assumed to be an exact quote. Rather, my goal was to capture and communicate the essence of what was said. If there is a significant mistake, please post a comment or email me; I will make a correction at my earliest opportunity.
Alright, I lied... one more before calling it a day.
According to this press release (likely to link rot since it's on Yahoo!) from the NYTimes.com:
For March 2005, NYTimes.com achieved a traffic record of 555 million pageviews, a 17% increase from March 2004
The previous monthly record was set in January 2005, when NYTimes.com had 553 million pageviews, a 30% increase from January of last year
NYTimes.com's RSS feeds generated 5.9 million pageviews on the site in March, which represents a 342% increase year over year and a 39% increase from February's 4.3 million pageviews.
Sections that were most popular among RSS feeds included: Washington and Business.
The feeds have been available since February 2002
I've been "consuming" news primarily via RSS for a couple years now (I honestly couldn't tell you when I started). Always valuable to remember how far ahead of the curve we are on this stuff... and to see the exponential growth as adoption revs up.
I'm taking the day off from any serious blogging ahead of the start of the Kelsey conference tomorrow, but just had to share what feels like a late, bad April Fools joke...
I just got an email from Netflix (looks to be a mass mailing) informing me that they've "redesigned" Netflix Friends (which I previously reviewed and commented on), emphasis theirs:
"We hope you're enjoying Netflix Friends. We've been busy finding ways to improve the feature and thought you might like to know that we've completely redesigned the Friends page. Starting tomorrow, here are some of the new things to look for.
What's There? See what movies your friends are currently enjoying at home.
What's Coming? See what movies your friends have coming next by taking a peek at their Queue.
What's New? See what movies your friends just added to their Queue."
Now, I suppose the voyeur in me finds this somewhat interesting... though at the same time, it feels just a bit creepy sharing this stuff. And sure, I can stretch and find a couple of use cases: a) Looking at what a friend has so that I can invite myself over to watch their movie, or b) Asking them to swap a movie they have on-hand that's long-waited in my queue [Peerflix-like]...
These new features feel like a miss to me (with the caveats above), and don't address any of the "what's missing" items I mentioned in my review. Am I missing some huge benefit to having read-only access to a Friend's queue?
Update: As usual, Mike @ HackingNetflix is on top of things. He calls out one very salient point that I passed on (I already feel like Debbie Downer doing product reviews these days); why not give users control over what they do and don't share with Friends (rather then recommending that you drop friends you aren't comfortable sharing your queue contents with)?
I've put off commenting on Yahoo! 360 for a number for reasons (including finding out that a personal friend and former co-worker is part of the product mgmt team leading its development!), but I just read a smart bit from Marc Canter that makes me want to speak up. Marc says:
"So I'm seeing soemthing alittle different here on Y 360. The inter-blogging is different than other places. Since we all can see each other's internal blog posts and I (at least) have been returning here (as it's the SNS du jour) - I'm now reading these blog posts from my friends here."
So Marc's hit on the one thing (*) that I think is a of particular note about Yahoo! 360. Before diving into it, let me add a bit more context...
Dave Winer has previously talked about his preferred news reading (or more specifically, skimming) presentation mode, which he calls A River Of News:
"Instead of having to hunt for new stories by clicking on the titles of feeds, you just view the page of new stuff and scroll through it. It's like sitting on the bank of a river, watching the boats go by. If you miss one, no big deal. You can even make the river flow backward by moving the scollbar up. To me, this more approximates the way I read a print newspaper, actually it's the way I wish I could read a print newspaper -- instead of having to go to the stories, they come to me. This makes it easier for me to use my brain's powerful scanning mechanism. It's faster, I can subscribe to more, and my fingers do less work."
He also uses another metaphor for the textually impaired, "conveyor-belt sushi".
The problem with the sushi metaphor is that sushi boat delivery is effectually a closed system. There are a finite number of types of fish shipped through the system, and most are visually distinct enough that it's easy to quickly identify the one(s) of your liking; and if not, each is played on a unique plate design, to aid you in identifying fish (and billing you for what you've eaten).
And so, there lies the rub with many River Of News style aggregator implementations (at least in my personal experience); while the presentation mode is appealing, the variety of news sources and full article contents weakens the central value proposition of quick scanning.
Now, enter the Yahoo! 360 implementation. Each post contains a user profile image (and IM status), making it quick and easy to visually differentiate news source. And, rather than flowing the entire blog post, a small tease is presented. (While this does mean you ultimately have to "go to" the full story, the decreased amount of content improves scanning rate; it also encourages writers to make the first couple of sentences clear and compelling.)
Finally, Yahoo! 360's "Blasts" (and Lists) are visually distinct from blog posts, making it obvious that the user is broadcasting a heads up to one and all. (At least amongst my Yahoo! 360 contacts, folks are using blasts for same day/last minute notification of meet-ups, etc.)
The only real weakness I see in this feature's implementation (especially vs. Dave's reference implementation description) is that only a half dozen or so of the latest updates are presented. While this is fine for small groups and low activity levels, it doesn't scale well (hence the option to click-through to see updates 10 up, with paging and filtering). I'd like to see the team reconsider this in the next update to the Beta (both on the home page and in the dedicated update page). For the latter, minimally, consider add the paging and filtering options to the bottom of the page and allow for more than 10-up at a time. Ideally, open up and let the "update page" be a true meta-blog with its own RSS Feed...
(*) Actually, there is a second piece of functionality of note in 360; the users and groups permissioning scheme. While it is integral for 360's mission, many a company has tried (and failed, often very badly) to present users & groups functionality to mainstream audiences. I hope -- but doubt -- Yahoo will share usage data; cracking the code would be good for a number of apps.
alarm:clock uncovers John Battelle's not-so-hidden blog detailing his plans for his nascent venture, named Federated Media Publishing. [via PaidContent]
From the site, we learn that FMP intends to, "...partner with site authors, acting as a platform which provides important services to them - revenue (in the form of advertising), back end support, and the like. In essence, FM will act as a publisher to sites which need and want a publisher. We don't plan to take a lot of folks on, initially, but hope to grow over time."
This is interesting from a number of perspectives, including...
- It is an emergent Head play (along the continuum of advertising solutions offered to, or employed by, content creators from the Head through the Tail). This begs two questions in my mind: 1) is there an incremental distribution halo for Battelle's smaller clients, and 2) will Battelle's larger clients ultimately outgrow him (i.e., hire their own salesforces, etc)
- It is exactly what the NYTimes is doing with About.com, and what Calacanis, Denton, et al are doing with their properties... but inverted (as all things can be in a Web 2.0 world). Why write for Calacanis et al for $300.00/mth (building their brand, losing all rights to your content, etc) if you can instead scrape your way into FMP's range?
- The barriers to entry for providing these services are largely structural (i.e., contracts between FMP and its client content creators). Will Newspapers, Magazines or perhaps even Radio and Broadcast players sieze on this by forming similar syndicates?
Interesting times, to be sure...
UPDATE: A few things...
1. Jason Calacanis cruises through and leaves some smart comments. (Jason, thanks for taking the high road and not seeing my commentary as a dig.)
2. Added the "other media player possibility" bit
3. Typos, as usual. One day I'll proof read before I post... no really...
Just a quick FYI that I'll be blogging Kelsey Group's Drilling Down On Local 2005 conference next Tuesday and Wednesday. My goal will be to live blog 'notes' from the majority of the sessions (Blogger.com and connectivity permitting), followed by analysis/takeaways toward the end of the week.
This also means that I'll probably be a bit behind on other news of interest happening elsewhere... but I'll do my best to point to things I see that aren't covered in spades by everyone else.
UPDATE: I've posted an index page of raw notes from all sessions, save the one for which I was a panelist.
I strive not to be a link blog, but sometimes it happens. Here, I'm delighted to link to an excellent set of notes by Mike Rowehl over at Bitsplitter.net from a solid set of panelists discussing recent innovations in search. (This was a BayCHI event.)
While at first glance it looks largely like a UI refresh (which Yahoo! has been busy doing across its network), there are some interesting improvements (and oddities) worth mentioning...
Of particular interest is how sources are presented. Rather than being off to the side, they are now, tabbed headers (e.g., AP, USAToday, etc) within a given news category (e.g., Top Stories, Sports, etc). Moreover, UI state is persisted across sessions; that is, if you click to view Top Stories via the WashingtonPost, you'll get the same view if you close your browser and come back to Yahoo! News in another session. Very nice.
On the kookiness front... within each news category, there's an option named My Sources, which presumably allows you to add an information source of your choosing to the default set of tabs.
Nope. Instead, you get to choose from a very incomplete list of Yahoo selected RSS sources (with no free-form entry option, no search, and no directory). If you select a source, it gets added to your MyYahoo page automatically (whether you wanted that to happen or not) and tossed into a list in the My Sources tab.
Funky. I understand that this approach fits well with their container metaphor, but it means that explicit user choices are secondary to Yahoo's default tab structure! While it certainly would not create the best experience, it seems more fitting to add user selected sources to the "MORE FROM" bin (which should be at the bottom of every category, not just the Top Stories category), so that they're always visible.
Speaking of MORE FROM... wow, what a feeling it must be for proud news brands like KR, NPR, etc., to be in the "oh yeah, these guys have $0.02 to add too" bin. Is Yahoo! playing the artificial scarcity game, looking for fees or other concessions in exchange for slotting/placement (sure feels like it)?
If that's not the case, how about providing a profiling option to create a custom set of default tabs per user (and give users direct control to modify their set of tabbed sources)?
In a long overdue move, Yahoo! is offering free web sites (up to five pages total) to small businesses. Chris Sherman at SEW has the best early write-up, noting (my edits in brackets):
"The new program is available to any U.S. business that has a physical presence and serves a local area. Yahoo is specifically targeting the estimated 50% of businesses in the U.S. that do not have a web site—more than 10 million in all, according to the Kelsey Group."
"Free business sites are template-based, five-page sites with a unique business URL. [Paul] Levine, [GM Yahoo! Local] says that the process of creating a site is designed to take a maximum of ten minutes."
Disappointingly, he notes (emphasis mine), "Once you've created your business web site, it goes through the same editorial review process that local listings receive, a process that can take up to a couple of weeks to complete. Once your site goes live, you can edit its contents at any time."
So, why do I see this as long overdue? Well, first, if Yahoo! can build a service and "give away" storage and bandwidth to Bloggers via Yahoo! 360, they can certainly "afford" to do the same for Small Businesses (saying nothing of the value of being a channel to either audience).
"What local businesses who are using SEM [love] about the medium is its ability to allow them to fully express their businesses, at a price that provides substantially more value than Yellow Pages. An example: a local photographer put up his portfolio, references, schedule, etc. Even if the [print] Yellow Pages could accomodate that much information (they can't), he'd be looking at $10s to $100s of thousands of dollars! Online, he pays a few bucks a month to host."
Something tells me the LTV of a local business, who Yahoo! Local will surely market advertising services (etc) to, makes the incremental hosting costs a complete no-brainer... especially if it substantially lowers (or eliminates) acquisition costs.
Hosted Blogs Errupting... Or Just User Experimentation?
Perseus Development Corporation announced earlier today that their recently completed blog survey shows that 31.6MM blogs have been created to date; further, they project 53.4MM blogs by the end of the year. These numbers don't exactly jive with other blog market data we've seen over the past month or two.
I don't think so... Here, it seems much more likely that new and existing bloggers are sampling a variety of publishing platforms before picking a home, much as we saw with the various social networking sites.
While I can't prove this, I can tell you that most everyone I know who blogs regularly has "their blog", an MSN Spaces blog, and, as of a week or so ago, a Yahoo 360 blog. (I have all of those plus the remnants of this blog that still lives on BlogSpot, and, an AOL Journals blog. Oh yeah, I also have a couple of test blogs on BlogSpot for experimenting, plus a resume/bio blog.)
Google just announced that they took Scott Johnson's advice (no acknowledgement though...) and have added a captcha to new blog creation in an attempt to eliminate the automated creation of spam blogs.
Excellent. Now guys, can you please make it available as an option for us on our Comments pages, and, add moderated trackback support? That'd be swell.
Update: Scott Rafer calls Google on the false, proactive positioning in their announcement. What is the deal with the Blogger.com team these days; here, I thought I was the master of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory...
In a very clever spin, the organizers have created an offering called "A room of your own", allowing potential speakers/moderators to take over a room (for a chunk of time) and hold a discussion of a topic of their choosing. An excellent idea (though probably tough to parcel out fairly).
I've voluntered to blog a live-session (I'll be doing my best to channel Ross Mayfield in this effort, the de facto standard... who was appearantly busted this morning for live blogging while on a panel!); if that fails, I'll see if I can find another way to contribute (and definitely plan to attend).
Update: Lisa Stone (aka Surfette) has accepted my offer to volunteer (thank you!) so I'm confirmed as an attendee and am contributing (in a very modest way). On the latter, I'll be watching [subscribed] for additional ways of helping out and encourage you to do the same.
Had drinks with a friend this weekend who mentioned that Google was moving aggressively to triple the size of their mobile team (though no mention of its current or planned size). Obviously, they're as serious about the opportunity as Yahoo appears to be.
But today, I learned (via Rubel) that a company named TVEyes intends to offer a service named Podscope (by the end of the month) that will do exactly that. (Video, err, "vodcasts", "podshows", insert-clever-meme-name-here, will be supported too. In fact, it's hard to imagine that any audio content, including recordings of VOIP/Skype conference calls, university/conference lectures, etc. wouldn't eventually be supported.)
Beautiful! Anything that makes audio and video more searchable, referenceable, etc. would be a huge boon if that were the only application.
But let's project out to a future point (just riffing, not doing feasability assessment)... Apple, Odeo and others have made creating audio and video an order of magnitude easier. Google, Yahoo and Ourmedia's efforts allow for a ton of personal audio and video to be hosted server-side at no-cost to the publisher... All of it is automatically transcripted to text (and largely, publishers care enough to fix inevitable transcription mistakes)...
Now, let's make a leap and assume that all of your transcripted audio is persisted within a personal voice profile (part of Identity 2.0, perhaps) and that it's accessible via an API. That is, a single service, with a very-large vocabulary of your continuous, speaker dependent (i.e., personal) voice could be invoked by apps that you approve.
This would seem to be a huge boon for IVR applications. Finally, your bank would reliably understand you when you say "account balance" or "let me talk to the operator you lousy piece of...". More interestingly for our focus here, Yahoo! and Google voice-driven search from your cell phone (etc) would have a large index of your pronunciations of common and industry specific jargon to work with.
Lots of other possibilities of course... drop on by if you care to riff. :)
Aside: The other topic... I wanted to tie all of this into the excellent series of posts that Tim Oren has been writing about Machine (Language) Translation, using blog text for language pair seeding. (I guess I just did.) Yes yes, tons of "fidelity" might be lost in early systems, but Voice->Text->Translated Text seems very compelling... and if you could close the loop by going from Translated Text -> Translated Voice... well ok, that's just crazy talk. ;-)
...And eventually, the sun will shine on your little corner of the world. My thanks to the folks at Feedster (Disclosure) for naming buzzhit! the Feed Of The Day.
So, Greg Linden of Findory was kind enough to drop by yesterday and leave some thoughts regarding my post on automated tag creation. Greg, I realized this morning -- with a fresh pair of eyes -- that I completely missed the point of your comment (sorry); you weren't asking so much about the implementation or the 'need' I was solving for... you were (I'm now guessing) asking about the value of tags in general (especially vs. search).
Let me take a quick (overly simple) shot at describing what I see as the key difference(s).
In my mind: - Tags describe what something is, is about, etc; whereas - Search allows me to discover a set of "objects" that contain my query tokens
Tags are pretty obvious in a "low text" environment, e.g., photos (Flickr was nowhere close to being the first to use tags with photos). With photos, if the user doesn't annotate, there's precious little meta-data to use for discovery in most use cases. (EXIF headers **generally** offer little more than a time/date stamp to help discover photos; other EXIF data like camera make/model is much less useful.) So here, tags are good, as is any other lightweight scheme that would help users avoid the "shoebox" situation.
But tags are also interesting in a "high text" environment, where there is a lot of "extra information" that can lead to false positives. For example, neither this post nor my last post are about Greg Linden or Findory. Yet, if I wanted to find all of my posts that were about either of those entities using Search, both this post and the last post would be surfaced, thereby degrading the relevancy of the result set.
Hopefully that's a bit more helpful; definitely interested in continuing the conversation.
When I first read on Niall Kennedy's blog that Yahoo had released their Term Extraction API, I immediately thought, "Cool, if I can rig up a method of inserting the extracted terms into my blog posts, I can get all of the benfits of Tags, without the added time and hassle of creating them all by hand."
The first step for this project was looking at the Yahoo API, and more specifically, the examples of the terms that it extracts. And that's where the experiment ended.
The problem is, of course, that the Term Extractor is just that, not a Meaningful Term Extractor. While I strongly believe that corpus analytics holds amazing promise (sorry, couldn't resist the tease), Yahoo's freebie offering is far too crude a tool to move straight to automated tag creation.
If we assume that "meaningful" is hard to automate near-term (it is), need we give up? Not necessarily. Rather than late binding the extracted terms to the post (computationally expensive, as Jonas notes, and with mixed results, as above)... what if we could invoke Jonas's service before publishing a post (or even more interestingly, dynamically, as we're typing)?
That would allow me (the publisher and editor) to winnow the relevant terms from the automated result set, including them as tags in the post;
What if the winnowed terms were then automatically passed to a process that would return all of my blog posts (likely as hyperlinked headlines) that use those terms? Well, with that, I could again winnow the result set so that I could in-line a "buzzhit!'s related articles" offering (or, draw examples, previous ideas and writing, etc from the returned articles to strengthen the post under creation);
Similarly, through another service, I could receive and in-line" articles from around the web" (and/or, "from my reading list" [OPML file], and/or "from my social network [XFN et al]"
Lots of potential here (and more broadly for mashups resulting in automated meta-data creation). On the latter topic, I've got a few ideas that I'd love to "reduce to practice" if any of my more savvy dev buddies have a few spare cycles. ;-p Drop me a note...
Update:
Greg Linden (of Findory, a cool service) drops by and gently asks "What's the point?" (my words) and suggests a more considered approach.
Agreed. Remember that this post is focused on building something of use off of what Jonas has built out in the open (i.e., prototyping or as is trendy, 'hacking') with publicly available APIs. To your point, there are definitely smarter ways of satisfying the 'needs' that I'm expressing.
Given that, and the stated assumption that people need to be involved in the process to get the best results, the basic thinking is that, well, "people are lazy" and "human memory is lossy". I'm looking for a suite of services that would automate the process of assisting me as an author/editor by recommending relevant pieces of content and meta-data during the blog post creation process. Specifically, I could use help with tag recommendations/mgmt, and surfacing what I and others have written about this topic/entity in the past. (Am I the only one who hates manually invoking these activities in a bunch of extra windows?!)
But hell, I'm still waiting for basic stuff, like a NOFOLLOW checkbox in the hyperlink dlog. ;-)
Back in late 2003, as I was coming on board at KRD, I was asked to do an analysis of the company's current shopping offering vs. competitive offerings (newspapers, Amazon, etc), factoring in emergent shopping behaviors.
While there were many takeaways, one of the most obvious ones was that Newspapers were doing a poor job of exposing the rich content they had in a disparate collection of data silos (articles, classifieds, yellow pages/directory, etc).
The obvious recommendation? Federated search. (Not the end all be all, but a good starting point.)
Well, it's more than a year later, and KRD and most of its peers have been preoccupied with plenty of other things, leaving consumers with an awkward search experience. Check out this page for an example of their fragmented offering (you can search Current News OR the Archive OR the Web OR one of several different classified categories, the latter frequently requiring a trip to co-hosted JV/partner page).
Enter those scrapy folks at StarTribune (a McClatchy pub) with a new "Integrated Search" offering powered by Terry Millard's Planet Discover. (Disclosure: I met Terry while I was at KRD.)
Now, compare the above search experience with a search for "DVD" (from the core search box) on StarTribune; one page, showing article, directory, classified ad, newspaper ad, "local" web sites, etc. results, with convenient mechanisms for refining your search and digging deeper into large result sets.
Nicely done guys (but don't forget persistent RSS search Feeds, your event/venue data base, etc). It's a pretty safe bet we'll see similar implementations from other Newspaper players in the future.
"I've been reading Tony Gentile's Buzzhit blog for a bit now. It is a good blog. Some good insight... However, every time I open bloglines, 30 old posts are displayed as new... So Tony... Get this fixed or I am unsubscribing."
It'll come as no surprise to anyone who reads regularly that I have a keen interest in all things RSS, including RSS Advertising. As such, I created Ad-bearing versions of the core buzzhit! Feed a while back for my personal use.
Appearantly, at least one of these Ad-bearing Feeds was discovered and made it into Bloglines (but oddly, not into their directory/search offering). And, it appears that Peter and a few other folks (7 in total) have subscribed to said Feed. (If you don't see ads at the bottom of this post, you've got the right Feed.)
So, to be clear... the only version of the Feed meant for general use is this one; here's a link to it on Bloglines. (I'll email Bloglines to see if I can get the other Feed[s] removed.)
Peter, thanks a ton for the heads up; hopefully you'll have a better reading experience going forward. And, if you -- or anyone else reading this -- have feedback on how I can move from having a "good blog" to a "great blog", please let me know. Thanks!
I noticed yesterday that two of my posts were truncated on Bloglines, causing many of you to have to click-through to read those stories. Not sure if that was due to a Blogger.com issue (seems likely) or a Bloglines issue, but just to be clear... no policy changes on my end; full text Feeds for the foreseeable future.
"The first group are the mass marketers. This group craves safety, as the Wall Street Journal noted last month. They are skittish about advertising on blogs. As a result, they will gravitate towards teaming with the larger players when it comes to experimenting with the medium. This will include partnering with the platforms - such as MSN Spaces, Yahoo! 360, TypePad and Blogger - as well buying space on the "big three" blog networks, Gawker Media, Weblogs Inc. and Corante.
The second group of blog advertisers are the "mid-market" marketers. These advertisers will will likely feel comfortable purchasing ads on specialized networks like BlogAds.
Finally, the last category - perhaps the largest in number - are the smaller blog advertisers. The majority of these companies will either strike one-off deals with individual bloggers or use Google and Overture to advertise across blogs."
This is a transitory industry state, and has already been factored and solved for (at least in a first generation kinda way)... this should become clearer within the next week or so...
As it pertains to those with more than a trivial content consumption habit, this statement goes down in my book next to predictions like "six computers should be sufficient for all the world's requirements":
"In a case of what Outsell sees as enthusiasm run amok, Bloglines, the RSS reader unit of Ask Jeeves, has announced it will go beyond accommodating RSS feeds for news and updates by enabling users to track shipping information as RSS feeds. Additionally, its press release promises that weather and stock portfolio tracking are on the horizon. The “one portal to rule them all” model is so 1990s, says Outsell’s Chuck Richard. “Users are firmly in control, and most will not want to be walled inside a blog reader application” for all their disparate information needs. In the face of the ability and habit of users to easily go anywhere and everywhere for various information types, this will likely become a hodgepodge solution in search of a problem."
It's 2005, and people are talking about portals being "so 1990's", when the conversation the rest of us are having is about democratized aggregation (i.e., implicit and explicit user controlled selection and "personalization" of content and content sources).
PointCast (the proprietary predecessor to today's Feed Readers) did not fail because it didn't fill a need or fit a usage pattern; it failed because of product execution (well, that, and the typical internal corporate BS).
Browsing is soooo '90s. Aggregation is in (hint: it already dominates our physical lives). Aggregation subsumes browsing (not totally, but for most all things routine). Democratized aggregation (where the user picks the sources) is even better.
UPDATE: Chuck Richard from Outsell was kind enough to drop by and leave a thoughtful response in which he states that we're in agreement.
Chuck, I don't believe we're in agreement. I'll clarify my perspective here (and point to you, here or elsewhere, if you decide to do the same). Let's deconstruct...
"In a case of what Outsell sees as enthusiasm run amok, Bloglines, the RSS reader unit of Ask Jeeves, has announced it will go beyond accommodating RSS feeds for news and updates by enabling users to track shipping information as RSS feeds."
Personally, micro-feeds for an individual shipment (i.e., limited useful lifespan) aren't super compelling to me, given the hassle of set-up and tear-down currently associated with Feed subscriptions. However, I would welcome a personalized Feed (ala Netflix Feeds) from each Carrier (UPS, FedEx, et al) that persisted in my aggregator and brought updates on the individual shipping lifecycle of any package they are charged with delivering to me. Similarly, I would expect that a business (e.g., Amazon, a given eBay Power Seller, etc) would welcome a Feed from each Carrier that provided it with near real-time status for all of its shipments in process. (The Carriers obviously provide the latter already, though not necessarily in RSS format.) Net-net? Package delivery has a place in my aggregator, if properly implemented.
"Additionally, its press release promises that weather and stock portfolio tracking are on the horizon."
These were, in fact, the two most popular 'Channels' on PointCast, and would be a welcome addition in my aggregator. In fact, there isn't any type of content that I can think of that I wouldn't want to have the option of including in my aggregator.
"“Users are firmly in control, and most will not want to be walled inside a blog reader application” for all their disparate information needs."
I think this is where our paths truly start to diverge. You (appearantly) believe in browsing for content. I believe in aggregation, and non-limiting aggregation UIs.
Plus, there's no walling in involved. Bloglines (et al) are working to create a receptacle and destination (i.e., Feed Aggregator) for an aggregated content experience. Nothing prohibits users from browsing to any other destination and nothing limits their choice of content sources within the aggregator.
"In the face of the ability and habit of users to easily go anywhere and everywhere for various information types, this will likely become a hodgepodge solution in search of a problem."
Again, you're advocating a usage scenario where the primary means by which users get the information they desire is by navigating from site to site. I'm advocating a centralized service that automates the routine collection of disparate information types and sources; in this scenario, browsing is the exception, not the norm (and is often initiated by information found from existing sources, or, by analysis of implict and explicit user behavior).
In the comments, you state, "One source, AskJeeves, Google or any other, setting out to be the only or dominant source of anyone's content, via RSS feeds or any other delivery mechnanism was the dream of so many portals designed in the 1990's... AskJeeves will never be more than a drop in the ocean."
Again, I think we differ on what the play is here. While these players may well choose to offer their own (branded) content Feeds, and may encourage distribution of them by defaulting them or "suggesting" them, their primary goal at this point in the game is to create a destination site/content receptacle. That makes them a channel play, and gives them access to all manner of... interesting... meta-data.
One last comment; I specifically called out at the very beginning of this post that my view doesn't hold for those who have a "small information appetite". As a user with a "large information appetite", I spend an order of magnitude more time in my aggregator than I do in my browser... and when all of my other data sources (Financial, Health, etc) are available in (as appropriate, personalized, secured) Feeds, my browser usage will decrease even further. This is what I meant by "Aggregation subsumes browsing (not totally, but for most all things routine)."
On a bad press day for Blogger.com, Google magically appears on the scene to offer an AutoSave feature (something all platforms should offer). Cool (and thank you), that's one less Blogger issue to deal with. Now about those availability, stability and aging competitive feature set issues...
[Aside: This post was written over 18 hours ago... the last time Blogger.com was working semi-properly. After 18 hours of downtime, corrupted cookies, FTP timesouts and innane Customer Support responses, the service is finally functional. Also, having looked deeper into AutoSave, it appears to be cookie-based (vs. server based -- yes I understand the tech challenges) making it significantly less useful, and more a kludge to cover up the constant stability issues customers face with the service.]
In somewhat related news, MSN has rev'ed Spaces. Digging through the feature set, it looks like the notable changes include:
1. Support for pinging a few Feed search engines (vs. creating an open 'registry' so that any company can subscribe -- disappointing). Notably, this breaks the Weblogs.com chokepoint, which is a good thing (architecturally speaking); all publishing platforms will eventually follow suit.
2. Your profile picture is now part of your Feed, and, the header of your Posts includes a count of the comments on that Post. Incremental improvements add up; nicely done.
3. Space's built-in statistics/reporting feature now includes some RSS measurement (a first for a hosted blog publishing app so far as I'm aware), but doesn't seem to include many basics, e.g., number of subscribers.
Like Yahoo 360, Spaces remains an offering for the hands-off set... but according to MSFT, they've found 4.5MM of those folks, so their closed-stack approach will likely continue. (I'd like to be wrong about this last point.)
A little over a year ago, during Microsoft's first big push of portable video players, Steve Jobs was widely derided for his lack of vision on the potential for video on mobile devices. Jobs was criticized again during the launch of iPod Photo, when it became clear that the highly anticipated device could only render stills, instead of supporting video.
Of course, Jobs is no fool. There's no point in promoting or selling what you don't have, especially when the resurgence of your brand is tied to a device (iPod), that while clearly a leader in ease-of-use, is falling behind the competitive feature set (the two need not be mutually exclusive).
With the pending beta launch of MTV Overdrive (*), content that complements the portable video form factor and suits the (primary) target audience will arrive en masse: music videos. If you don't believe me, ask anyone grinding away on an elliptical climber who's been forced to endure an hour of Home Shopping Network flipped on by some bozo at the gym who thinks April is the right time to start on their Christmas shopping... While the PR for Overdrive doesn't talk about portable playback, it's clearly just a matter of time; the cries for a multimedia, wifi and camera enabled 'vpod' are already making the rounds.
But here's the rub for me; I don't want to have to pay for the same content again, and again, and again. The RIIA got away with this the first time by playing off of changing mediums; buying the same song on 8-track, record, tape and CD. With distribution going digital, they've tried (with little success) to resell us 5.1 and other "enhanced" versions of the same damn content. You can bet that they've got high margin hopes for downloadable video (standard, director's cut, high-def and on and on).
Enough is enough. It's time for Amorphous (Perpetual) Content Licensing. I want to pay for a song once and get a perpetual license to an on-going stream of "versions" of that song that will provide maximum fidelity with whatever playback device I'm using at a given moment. This fits neatly with an emerging vision (at least in my head), which marries services liked Orb (now free, thanks Elle!) with componetized I/O devices that leverage 'nearby' resources to create a richer experience. (If you're not familiar with Bluetooth Device Discovery [one of many possible approaches], especially as appearantly implemented in the 'leaked' Windows Mobile 2005 ROMs that made rounds a few months back, you should definitely check it out.)
Of course, the RIIA isn't likely to offer such a licensing scheme, and if so, certainly not at the individual song level (they'd rather sell you a $50/month service). The question is, have consumers wised up to the game, and if so, will they demand a licensing scheme that gets them off the versioning treadmill? I can only hope so...
(*) Yes, I know iTunes and Yahoo! Launch offer videos... but MTV is pop-culture and trend generating machine with huge reach.
I haven't been following SEM quite as closely as I used to, but I had an opportunity yesterday to talk with some savvy folks in the space and thought I'd pass along two companies that piqued my interest.
The first is Efficient Frontier, of Mountain View, CA. I first heard about the company when their funding (Redpoint Venture and Cambrian Ventures) was announced this past summer. The company's technology promises to maximize SEM returns by applying "Wall Street analytics" to your keyword campaigns, managing them as a portfolio rather than individually, ala Bidrank et al. There are a few other players that claim to be doing what Efficient Frontier is doing, but I have it on good advice that EF "has the goods".
The second company is Offermatica, of San Francisco, CA. Offermatica offers a service for something that many top retailers have built internally, use religiously and guard jealously: multi-variate landing page testing and optimization. No matter what you do online, if it involves conversion, you need to be doing multi-variate testing... and if you can't build it, you should take a hard look at these guys. I suspect that Google, Yahoo or MSFT will either build, buy or partner for this technology in the next 12 months; conversion is in their best interests too.
I'll be tying both of these companies into a broader theme... shortly...
(BTW, I have no relationship with either of these companies.)
Media Center Mobile Conference Fellowships Available
Gloria Pan, Director of Communications at the Media Center, dropped me a note to let me know that they have two Fellowships available for their upcoming Mobility seminar:
"Thanks to the generous support of the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation of Oaklahoma City, the fellowships cover registration and hotel fees and up to $300 travel expenses. Recipients must be able to attend the entire program and take on the role of program reporters."
The deadline for applying is noon ET 4/12/2005. You can reach Gloria at gpan [at] mediacenter [dot] org.
Well, not nearly as big as the last rumor... but there's been some buzz about town today that we're likely to see an update to Google Maps tonight that includes a "Keyhole View" as an alternative to the standard Google Maps view.
I wrote about a number of potential uses for Keyhole when Google announced the acquisition; it looks like some of the obvious stuff is starting to materialize.
I'll add more if/when I get details... and of course, after the 9PM PT embargo is lifted.
UPDATE: Well, it appears that either the embargo info was wrong, or, they released early. Either way the feature, Google Maps "Satellite View", is now live. Here's an example for the White House... Now, imagine this combined with the A9 Search Inside The Store idea I described a few weeks back, Pay-per-Call and Coupons, real time traffic, etc., and you've got the foundational pieces for a next generation Local Search solution...
Update and Disclaimer: Well, more than a few minutes later thanks to Blogger... In any event, congrats to the FeedBurner team on their funding. And what a slew of investors they now have. During the Bubble, I used to look at average-sized funding rounds that included new VC investors as a sign of a lack of an appetite for the business amongst the original VCs; back then it was more common for ten VCs to independently fund the same concept. Could cooperative venture funding (vs. starving each other out) represent Funding 2.0, to go along with Web 2.0, Where 2.0 and all the other 2.x meme's we're likely to invent? Hmm...
The announcement includes some interesting tidbits, including additional confirmation of FeedBurner's pending Premium and Feed advertising services. Also of note is the fact that they are currently servicing 40K active Feeds. Assuming half of all blogs are active (8MM->4MM) and 40% of blogs have Feeds (4MM->1.6MM), FeedBurner has a 2.5% penetration rate... enough to prove initial market acceptance... and show a lot of growth potential.
The release mentions "bulk feed management services", directly or indirectly, on more than one occasion. In my opinion, the nature of these relationships will be very telling of FeedBurner's long-term viability as a standalone business. More on that another time.
It's clear from the headlines today that Pope John Paul II's health is continuing to deteriorate and that his end may well be within sight. Regardless of your personal beliefs, I think most would agree that his passing will be a loss; agree with him or not, it's clear that he was well intentioned in many of his words and actions.
Listening to the news, the Pope is being celebrated for a number of things, but namely, for being very charasmatic, very widely traveled, and for speaking many languages. These same outlets go on to say that these attributes were now "expected" by the people.
Blogs and Feeds have already permeated politics, both from the bottom-up and from the top-down. While there are plenty of bottom-up 'religious blogs', will the next leader of the Catholic Church (which claims 1.1billion followers worldwide) use emerging technologies like blogs/Feeds to extend the reach (i.e., travel), accessibility (i.e., language) and immediacy of Papal messages, whether they be text, audio, or video (i.e., podcasts et al)?
Don't be too quick to disagree; Vatican Radio's 200 journalists already allow it to broadcast to 61 countries in 40 languages, with both live and on-demand audio broadcasting...
Update 4/5/2005: On April 2nd, CNET posted about many uses of technology the Catholic Church has embraced under Pope John Paul II. And, on April 3rd, they noted the use of email and SMS to announce the Pope's passing. It seems like only a matter of time before Feeds will be used to distribute religious messages from the top-down. Universal in-box, indeed...
For good reason, I didn't comment on the thread on FeedBurner this past weekend. For now, I'll just say that those who don't see the opportunity for Feed-services are missing a key piece of the puzzle... Who offers those services, and in what way, are much more interesting questions.
Analysis of online business and technology trends, including: Search and Directory, Digital Media, Social Networking, RSS, and E-commerce. Written by buzzhit!'sTony Gentile.
