Posted by Gavin Smith on April 16th, 2008
Natural search
Google extended its reach into the search sphere in March, according to new figures.
A report from comScore indicates that the search giant grew its market share to 59.8 per cent from 59.2 per cent between February and March of this year.
With Google leading the way, Yahoo! was named the second most prominent engine with a share of 21.3 per cent of searches, while the corresponding share for Microsoft’s sites was 9.4 per cent.
Some 10.8 billion searches were conducted on core engines by web users in the US last month, representing growth of nine per cent since February.
And all the core search engines saw an increase in query gains, with core searches numbering 6.4 billion on Google, 2.3 billion on Yahoo! and one billion on Microsoft.
Meanwhile, Google came top on the list of the top 50 properties on which searches are conducted, registering 8.3 billion searches, while Yahoo! saw 2.4 billion over the month and Microsoft one billion.
The news comes after it was announced this week that an extended deal between Salesforce and Google is to see the delivery of online software applications.
Posted by Gavin Smith on April 16th, 2008
Social Media
Online marketing strategies that target users based on their web-surfing behaviour must subject to stringent privacy regulations, one expert has said.
The Open Rights Group, a non-governmental organisation that aims to raise awareness of issues surrounding data protection and privacy, has commented on internet tracking service Phorm.
Used by companies including BT, Talk Talk and Virgin, Phorm creates keyword profiles for individual users based on the websites they have visited, which companies can then use to target consumers with tailored adverts.
Becky Hogge, executive director of Open Rights Group, said that without website tracking many of the most useful aspects of the internet would not be possible.
"However, website owners, marketers and anyone dealing with personal information or private communications need to comply with laws like the data protection act and Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act," Ms Hogge said.
According to the Open Rights Group head, the responsibility now lies in the hands of the government and companies like BT to respond to user concerns about privacy regarding Phorm.
Posted by Daniel Peden on April 15th, 2008
Social Media
Financial services customers are open to next-generation telecoms services, according to a new report.
Analysis from comScore discovered that 23 per cent of people would welcome a social networking application that informed them of their account balance, while 25 per cent would be willing to discuss their finances online with a bank representative.
Brian Jurutka, vice-president of the digital world analyst, claimed that adoption of such services remained low, despite open consumer attitudes to online customer service.
"This may be due to the fact that many banks have not yet developed capabilities to adequately match consumer expectations, which provides additional opportunities for banks to satisfy their customers," he said.
Growth in the number of customers of the top ten web banks was 8.1 per cent last year compared to 9.5 per cent in 2006, the report discovered.
Its release followed that of a report by Family Investments, which showed that two-thirds of women cited the internet as their favoured medium for financial management.
Posted by Alex Postance on April 15th, 2008
Paid Search
Demographic and behavioural targeting by ad networks is growing more sophisticated, a new report indicates.
Jeff Hackett, vice-president of comScore, said that ad networks are becoming more efficient at behavioural targeting as they extend their influence.
"The increasing ability of many ad networks to target and deliver ads either behaviourally or demographically is enabling a more efficient expression of ad dollars and an improved return on advertisers’ online marketing investment," said Mr Hackett.
According to the report, niche ad networks compensate for their reduced reach compared to more generalised networks with higher success rates.
The digital world analyst also found that Platform-A – which last week made a deal to provide Verizon’s online marketing services – was the top network last month.
Platform-A , which combines Advertising.com, Quigo and Tacoda, reached 170 million US web users – equal to 91 per cent of the total population – during the month.
Posted by Daniel Peden on April 15th, 2008
Natural search
Age Concern has called for online marketers to make more of an effort to target older web users.
Director-general of the organisation, Gordon Lishman, said that older people have considerable "spending power" on the web, but companies are failing to take advantage of this.
Too few websites cater to the needs of people over the age of 50 compared to the number aimed at younger age groups, despite the fact that three in five consumers in this age group have access to a computer, Mr Lishman pointed out.
He noted that older consumers use the internet to pursue hobbies, make new friends or communicate with existing ones.
Mr Lishman’s comments came after a study from alljoinon.com found that the average monthly online expenditure of a consumer in their 60s is £48.78.
"Web providers need to switch on to the buying power and increasing internet usage of the grey pound," the Age Concern director-general said.
Posted by Alex Postance on April 14th, 2008
Paid Search
Marketers risk alienating consumers with misguided paid search campaigns, one commentator warns.
Melissa Burdon asserts on Future Now that search strategies need to avoid marketing jargon and speak the same language as their customers.
The tip is one of three offered by Ms Burdon on how higher conversion rates and returns on pay-per-click investments can be achieved.
She says: "Sometimes, marketers get so focused on their own sales process that they convince themselves that would-be customers actually care about the words they use to describe their own products and services."
Her comments come after E-consultancy advised advertisers to bid on niche keywords before highly-trafficked phrases.
Also recommended by the Future Now blogger is keeping generic keywords to a minimum, as specific terms are said to be more likely to lead to sales.
Keywords with possible double meanings should also be ditched, states Ms Burdon, as customers could be led to a product or service they have no intention of purchasing.
Posted by Alex Postance on April 14th, 2008
Paid Search
Competition authorities in the US and Europe could have concerns about a deal between Yahoo! and Google, new reports suggest.
As speculation mounts over a possible merger between Microsoft and Yahoo! or an alternative deal that would combine AOL and Yahoo! under Time Warner’s control, the alternative possibility of a partnership between the two search companies has arisen.
But Chris Silver Smith, lead strategist at Netconcepts, told Online Media Daily that marketers could find the costs of advertising online could rise following a Yahoo!-Google deal.
He said: "And it’s kind of nice to have alternatives to Google’s distribution."
And competition regulators are likely to be more sympathetic to a Microsoft deal with Yahoo! than an alliance between the company and Google, Thomas Hazlett, law and economics teacher at Virginia’s George Mason University, told Reuters.
While a company combining Microsoft and Yahoo! could potentially challenge Google’s dominance, the sector would become even less competitive if the two search engines combined, he explained.
AOL has made a deal to provide online advertising services to Verizon Communications, it has emerged.
Posted by Malcolm Slade on April 14th, 2008
Paid Search
The new advertising platform being released by Yahoo! is going to transform the industry, the company president has said.
Ahead of AMP’s launch, Sue Decker claimed on the Yodel Anecdotal blog that "the impact is hard to overstate".
She claimed that many of the processes associated with paid advertising on the net – such as targeting audiences, negotiating costs and testing campaigns – are currently "unnecessarily Byzantine".
This is all set to change with the introduction of AMP!, which is to enable marketers to buy and sell in one interface, Ms Decker asserted.
Like a "stock market for ads", AMP! is to automate these processes in an innovation compared by the president to the evolution from 8-track to iPod.
She was speaking as speculation over Yahoo!’s future – which could involve a merger with Microsoft or a deal with Time Warner to become part of AOL – continued to mount.
Posted by Daniel Peden on April 11th, 2008
Paid Search
Yahoo! is attempting to steer away from a joint-takeover by Microsoft and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation by merging with AOL, it has emerged.
According to reports, Time Warner – which purchased AOL eight years ago on the cusp of the dotcom boom – may up its stake by 20 per cent, using the cash paid to purchase Yahoo!’s shares at a more expensive price than the $29.34 (£14.87) per share offered by Microsoft.
"We believe Yahoo! is more ‘in play’ than its stock price and its discount to the Microsoft offer imply. It has more strategic options than the market has believed," Citigroup’s Mark Mahaney told the Independent.
However, a joint Microsoft-News Corporation offer could be difficult for Yahoo! to turn down, notes the publication, adding that such a deal could create a network to rival Google’s dominance of the advertising world.
Meanwhile, consumer groups are concerned that choice and competition are to be minimised whatever the outcome, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Posted by Malcolm Slade on April 11th, 2008
Paid Search
The health conditions most likely to be queried on the web in February were cancer and pregnancy, a new report has revealed.
Figures from comScore have identified that pregnancy was the subject of 8,841 searches over the course of the month, compared to a corresponding figure of 7,718 for cancer.
Carolina Petrini, the company’s senior vice-president, said that the fact such conditions were more likely to be the subject of searches than more common illnesses like diabetes, depression and flu was interesting.
"A reason for this may be due to life-changing nature of a cancer diagnosis or a pregnancy," said Ms Petrini.
Meanwhile, five of the 20 health conditions most commonly searched for in February were sexual health related, the report found.
The prevalence of searches for herpes, HIV, menopause, HPV and pregnancy was said by comScore to be evidence that the web’s anonymity was a crucial factor for users looking for information about such conditions.
Online medical resources and telemedicine are viewed as feasible options for two-thirds of US residents over the age of 65, a recent investigation by the American Association of Retired Persons found.
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