Posted by Gavin Smith on May 19th, 2008
Social Media
The legal status of internet downloads remains difficult to determine, one industry commentator has commented.
Speaking after an online music provider was sued by nine record labels for infringement of copyright, Ben Camm-Jones highlighted the hazy legal status of such services.
"Although precedents have been set, we’re still fairly unclear whether what they’re doing is wrong or not," he said.
Project Playlist is facing legal action from record companies including Interscope Records, Virgin Records America and Atlantic Recording.
Statistics revealed by NPD in January showed that 70 per cent of US nine to 14-year-olds downloaded music on the web, with 49 per cent using iTunes – the legal service from Apple – and 26 per cent using free feature LimeWire.
According to Mr Camm-Jones, a universal framework is needed in which the legality of music download provision can be assessed in a manner appropriate to the borderless nature of the web.
Posted by Gavin Smith on May 16th, 2008
Social Media
The next steps for the development of advertising on social networks should involve educating marketing professionals, Google’s co-founder has said.
According to Sergey Brin, users and advertisers need to learn and accept the processes involved with monetising user-generated online communities and forums.
Speaking at a Jerusalem conference to mark the 60th anniversary of Israel this week, Mr Brin acknowledged that the future of social networking marketing was by no means well defined, reports Reuters.
He reportedly said: "Things have been going well this year … it’s hard to predict where social networking will come out."
Mr Brin was dismissive of the notion that the relationship between advertising and social networking could make one single leap forward, maintaining that progression is likely to take time and come in stages.
Technological developments will need to be worked on, as will the appropriate business strategies, he said.
He was speaking after Google was named the top provider of search engine marketing in Britain by Efficient Frontier Europe.
Posted by Mike Gomez on May 16th, 2008
Paid Search
The proxy takeover being mounted by Carl Icahn, the billionaire investor with a history of involvement in similar incidents, has awoken Yahoo!’s defences.
Investor unrest has been developing in the Yahoo! camp after the company would not accept a purchase offer of $47.5 billion (£24.4 billion) from Microsoft.
Mr Icahn owns 59 million shares in Yahoo! and Espen Eckbo, founding director of the Centre for Corporate Governance at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, claims that his proposal of ten dissident board members may have a better than average chance of succeeding because shareholder dissatisfaction is so high.
However, Yahoo!’s chairman Roy Bostock commented that Mr Icahn has a poor understanding of the circumstances surrounding Microsoft’s offer.
"We do not believe it is in the best interests of Yahoo stockholders to allow you and your hand-picked nominees to take control," he said in a letter to Mr Icahn.
The investor has written to Yahoo! stating that the company has lost the support of its shareholders by acting "irrationally" regarding Microsoft.
Posted by Mike Gomez on May 16th, 2008
Natural search
A joined-up approach to web sales and search engine marketing (SEM) could be the key to e-commerce success, one expert has recommended.
Neil Jackson, search director at Tamar, commented that the battle between paid search and natural search is beginning to intensify as online retail grows more competitive.
"Many marketers are still neglecting the need to take a joined-up approach to treat their search engine strategy and web sales strategy as one integrated process, rather than two distinct entities," he said.
Mr Jackson was speaking after the 2008 Search Attitudes Report, commissioned by the company, revealed that 90 per cent of web users would respond to natural search.
Some 54 per cent of women begin their online shopping journey with search activity and 46 per cent of men would choose a search engine as their starting point, the report revealed.
Blue Collar SEO recently reminded marketers that high-quality content is crucial to search engine optimisation success.
Posted by Mike Gomez on May 15th, 2008
Paid Search
A proxy struggle for Yahoo! could be led by billionaire investor Carl Icahn, new reports suggest.
The deadline for nominating a dissident board is today (May 15th) and Mr Icahn, who has a history of involvement in proxy battles, has a slate of at least ten alternative directors to present to the company.
Investors in both Yahoo! and Microsoft were unhappy about the way takeover talks progressed, the Guardian reported last week.
Discussions culminated in Microsoft raising its offer to $47.5 billion (£24.4 billion), only to walk away when Yahoo! wanted more.
"I think there is a better than normal change of (Icahn) winning because it’s such a clear-cut case of what went wrong here," Espen Eckbo, founding director of the Centre for Corporate Governance at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, told the Associated Press
Former chief executive of Viacom, Frank Biondi, is thought to be one of the names on Mr Icahn’s list.
Posted by Mike Gomez on May 15th, 2008
Natural search
Google was reportedly the most popular web property for video streaming in the US in March, with most of the company’s share accounted for by YouTube.
New figures from comScore suggest that the search giant commanded a 38 per cent share of all videos watched over the course of the month in the US, with YouTube representing 98 per cent of this proportion.
Of the 11.5 billion videos watched on the internet during March, Google served 4.3 billion, the digital world analyst shows.
By contrast, Fox Interactive Media – the second most prominent property in the report – accounted for 477 million views during the month, with Yahoo coming up third with 328 million.
Google has recently emphasised its intention to concentrate on monetising its investment in YouTube, which it purchased for $1.65 billion (£848.29 million) in 2006.
Eric Schmidt, chief executive officer of Google, told a California conference earlier this month that a new approach to integrating video with advertising may be pursued.
Posted by Daniel Peden on May 15th, 2008
Paid Search
Online news is providing a boost to overall audience numbers for current affairs providers in the UK, one expert has commented.
Jack Flanagan, comScore’s executive vice-president, said that the growing prominence of web news could be a good thing for the sector overall.
"It’s clear that the expansion of traditional print newspapers to the internet is making a significant contribution to their overall readership," Mr Flanagan commented.
He was speaking after figures from the digital world analyst indicated that 44 per cent of the online population in Britain accessed a newspaper’s website in March.
The Sun received the most page views, accounting for 30 per cent of the overall share with 4.3 million hits.
Meanwhile, the Guardian was found to be the second most popular news website, attracting 3.6 million readers, with the corresponding figures for the Telegraph and the Times 2.8 million and 2.6 million respectively.
The Times utilises search engine optimisation, its editor-in-chief Anne Spackman recently said, according to the Press Gazette.
Posted by Daniel Peden on May 14th, 2008
Social Media
A study has revealed that almost half of employees in the UK are not worried about their bosses checking up on them via social networking sites, according to reports.
Zinc Research and Dufferin Research compiled the report as part of understanding modern attitudes to work and the internet.
When asked in the survey whether they felt wary about the content of the online profile, two out five even said they would consider showing them to their employers.
ClickAJob chief executive Yngve Traberg said that employers could use the technology to their advantage.
"On a social-networking site, it’s possible to get a fix on the actual teams themselves – the people, their backgrounds and the skills they can deploy," he said, according to online news source Onrec.
In related news, a recent survey by law firm Peninsula has found that seven out of ten employers now ban employees from using social networking sites during company time.
Many businesses believe the use of these websites during company hours could lead to reduced employee efficiency.
Posted by Daniel Peden on May 13th, 2008
Social Media
Search supremo Google has revealed plans to offer website developers free applications.
The company’s engineering director, David Glazer, said that the project represented a shift from ‘protectionism’ to a more open approach in the social networking sphere.
"Social activity on the web has been bottled up in a handful of sites. As things mature on the web they become more open and more interoperable," Mr Glazer told AFP.
He was speaking after MySpace announced plans to make personal details stored on the site transportable to alternative providers, such as Twitter.
The News Corporation-owned site’s revelation was followed by a similar statement from Facebook, which is planning its own data sharing project.
Facebook also this week revealed it is to adopt a heftier approach to security in order to protect younger consumers.
Entitled Friend Connect, the Google initiative was unveiled at California’s Googleplex campus earlier this week.
It would see applications, photo sharing galleries and message boards made available to website owners for no charge.
Posted by Daniel Peden on May 13th, 2008
Natural search
The traditional, offline method of purchasing automobile cover may have a rival in the form of the internet.
According to new comScore figures, a three per cent rise in the number of car insurance policies purchased on the web has taken place over the past year.
This trend has been accompanied by a corresponding three per cent fall in the amount of deals sold by traditional agents, the analyst suggested.
Data from the third week of March 2008 found that 15 per cent of sales are accounted for by the web, while 53 per cent represent offline deals.
"While it still remains the primary method, these latest findings show us that the landscape is beginning to change, with more and more consumers turning from traditional, offline channels to the internet," commented Kevin Litt, vice-president of the company.
In January, the analyst revealed that General Motors was the heaviest online advertiser in the automobile sector during the month.
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