Alex McWhirter, head of enterprise at Yorkshire Forward, said: “A
growing number of young people are thinking about starting their own
business. Most never get the chance to experiment with their ideas
because they do not have easy access to people who will encourage and
support them.

“The Wildfire website is a hub for young people in which they can
develop business ideas within a few minutes of landing on the site. The
really exciting part of the website is that youngsters can get actual
feedback and learn from the experiences of people who have established
their own business.”

Ask.com, previously AskJeeves.com, is keen to remind people that not only are they still around, but that they could be the success story of 2007. An in-depth article on CNet.com revealed that they have been chosen by Lycos to replace Microsoft as their Natural Search engine and replace Google as their sponsored listings provider. So where has this come from?

New features, such as a zoom option to expand or narrow a search, and binoculars to see a preview of the sites next to the search results, has won acclaim from experts and led it to be identified as the second fastest growing search engine in the US (Google making the number one spot). Another reason for their growing success has been attributed to their advertising strategy -  in essence, they’ve reduced the number.  An executive at the company reasons that although this has led to a drop in advertising revenue,  more people have  returned to the site, which long term  has increased revenue.  They are well aware of the fact that the biggest challenge they face is to convince people to change their search engine allegiance, which is going to take more than a few user interface tweaks.

[Via Cnet]

To turn what could be perceived as a slightly irritating post on their part, they added some ‘helpful examples’ of where they would allow us to use their name, and where it would be entirely inappropriate. For example, the following:

"Usage: ‘Google’ as verb referring to searching for information via any conduit other than Google.
Example: "I googled him on Yahoo and he seems pretty interesting."
Our lawyers say:
Bad. Very, very bad. You can only "Google" on the Google search engine.
If you absolutely must use one of our competitors, please feel free to
"search" on Yahoo or any other search engine."

Interestingly, Google don’t allow for comments on their blogs. Perhaps because they could predict the backlash they might provoke? But it does present a conundrum – is it a good or a bad thing when your brand becomes synonymous with the action they promote?  It seems the general answer from the blogosphere is that this is no more a sign than Google getting too big for its boots – such as the post here.

Google Co-op is a search engine that you can build yourself, based on your own particular interests and passions. You can they use it to add to your blog or site. For instance, some of the sites created so far have been on Global warming, wine, gadgets – all manner of different areas on interest. It’s simple to create and Google are keen to get everyone involved (as long as they’re got the essential Google account).

Once you’ve chosen your name for your search engine, the description and a list of which sites to search, you’re invited to choose whether to keep this search engine only accesible to your friends, or to everyone. This means you could receive suggestions and amends from anyone.  And of course, despite being able to specify that you only want to receive results from the sites you’ve added to the search engine, there’s still space for the crucial Google Ads!

This growth has been attributed to a recovering retail sector, a booming labour market and a property sector which is also performing well, but according to the experts at Ernst and Young, could still go faster. However, they added a warning note to their optimistic prediction. Whilst the added pounds in the Government’s tax coffers are handy, they predict that they’re not going to go to decreasing the budget deficit – currently standing at £11bn.

It’s a really weird concept actually – this Ms Dewey is an attractive 20-something woman who acts in a manner vaguely reminiscent of Nanny. Telling you off for mispelt words, chastising you for not getting on with things – it’s all very strange.  It takes a while to notice it, but her comments are almost entirely random. Saying that, she’s obviously been pre-programmed with a few key responses. For instance, when you type ‘iPod’ she references mugging and white headphones. There’s a clue here to the origins of this search engine. Design wise, the search results are difficult to see, and there’s an animation you go through before you get to the actual search engine capabilities. 

The interesting thing about this is that this actually an experiment from Microsoft, and specifically with their Windows Live initiative.  To give them credit, it’s not branded in any way, and there’s no ‘about this site’ evidence on the site itself. They really have just let it loose on the web – with varied response. It seems there is a proportion of the male population that can stand the slow set up, the difficult interface and the sarky comments, but there aren’t many happy faces with the rest of us. It seems Google has nothing to worry about – yet.

Seminars are to be run in Barnsley, Sheffield, Doncaster and Rotherham, when SMEs can get advise on how they can best take advantage. Malcolm Kay, executive director of the Digital Knowledge Exchange highlighted just a few possibilities: "The technology can be adapted to provide architects with the most advanced drawings, help medical products firms visualise an application on a virtual body or marketing companies design industry-leading presentations." Hopes are that the project will also train an elite working force in the region, who can best take advantage of the future technological advances.

Essentially, the control of consumed media is being given back the consumer: Sky+ has got us skipping through adverts, and iPods are drawing listeners away from commercial radio stations. This is also reflected online. Banner ads are losing popularity to pay per click advertising, which takes into account what the customer is interested in. There is also a move towards Web 2.0 endeavours such as MySpace and YouTube, although search engines are still playing an important part in developing the web space. Lucinda asks what the future for advertising is, now that it seems everyone is developing their own content.

Her solution is that advertisers should endeavour to become content, rather than piggyback off content. She cites Mastercard as an example. Their ‘Priceless’ commercials have been hijacked, providing the punchline for everything from World Cup defeat to Michael Jackson’s trial. Whilst they don’t publicly condone these films, it’s hard to deny that they’ve helped the campaign, delivering it straight to people’s inboxes.

So, is this the advertising of the future? And how far away is the future? And is Google concerned?

According to Google: “The acquisition combines one of the largest and fastest growing online video entertainment communities with Google’s expertise in organising information and creating new models for advertising on the Internet.” It has guaranteed to retain YouTube’s “distinct brand identity”, whilst "providing a better, more comprehensive experience for users interested in uploading, watching and sharing videos."

Founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chan were early PayPal employees, and even today, the company consists of no more than 60 employees. In typical Web 2.0 style, they’ve decided to communicate directly with their users through this video, currently number one in the YouTube charts.

The plans have been met by strong opposition however, by small businesses concerned about a loss in profit. In particular, Chris Glen, Policy Chairman of the regional Federation of Small Businesses, has been speaking to the Yorkshire Post about his and his colleagues concerns.  He has suggested that it wouldn’t be a realistic option unless an alternative free route was opened.

This chart summarises the breakdown, although he points out that it’s not always a simple case of dividing each week or month like this. For instance, developing new features is time consuming when redesigning a website, but will not take any time for several months after that. There are also several perhaps unexpected segments – participation in online communities is something that is often overlooked by many web teams. There’s also areas which don’t fit in to this model, such as all the admin which inevitably comes with running a web based business.

For more information, and to read people’s comments on the model, click here.

As one such man said, “A certain amount of mail goes missing – are you not going to write letters? Airlines occasionally crash, are you going to stop flying?”. The general feeling seems to be that as long as the tactic is still making money overall, the percentage of click fraud (estimated to about 20%) is negligable enough to be seen as a business expense. And in fact, once you recognise it, steps can be taken to minimise the risk, as well as collect data on it. The benefit of having your advert read by someone who has been preselected as having an interest in the area is too valuable to discard.

This marks an increase in accountability from marketing firms, as 73% claimed that analysis skills have become more important in the past few years. Almost a third of respondents believed that search engine marketing was now the top most important skill a marketing expert could have. This is particularly interesting, since the questions were directed at senior marketing professionals, who have seen years of changes over the industry and who don’t all specialise in the digital field. This is recognition from traditional marketing bods, who although slow on the uptake, seem to finally recognise the importance of search engine optimisation.

71% of respondents said that the current educational programmes weren’t preparing marketing graduates for this shift in emphasis, indicating that those with the know-how would soon be at a premium with a salary to match!