Healthy Blog Reviews

Aol. is still around folks. Back in June I heard CEO Tim Armstrong speak at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s content focused Innovation Days event. He was passionate about Aol. as a comeback story and was intent on focusing on how it would be generating a lot of custom content from real journalists. Honestly, I am not sure where that is at some 1 ½ months down the road but I’m sure Aol. will let us know of there is any success. For now, though, there is a need to get their future search partners in order since the current $700 million a year deal with Google is set to expire in December. It appears as if Armstrong is looking to get creative which could mean more than one search partner for the company. Fortune reports “Search is heating up from a multi-partner space—we are not talking to two companies,” said Armstrong while speaking at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference. As he embarks on a turnaround that has yet to manifest, Armstrong is thinking long into the future. “What you do today is probably going to have a seven-year outcome,” he explained. When a new search deal is announced later in the year, AOL-watchers may not see Google, which currently supplies a large percentage of the company’s revenue, as its only partner. Wow, Armstrong is certainly breaking the Internet mold by talking about seven-year outcomes. If something isn’t happening in seven weeks there will be more than a few folks getting antsy and wondering if Aol. is going to pull itself out of the Internet ditch or not. Since Aol. is really banking on advertising that will be placed around their ‘in-house’ content production the conversation seems to always come around to Aol.’s technique in this area. Their SEED methodology which is usually bunched in with Yahoo’s Associated Content and Demand Media is another mass content production process from ‘writers’ that can submit material. It’s the editorial oversight of this material that has people worried that the Internet will be cluttered with keyword triggered ‘stories’ that may have little to do with accuracy or dependability. It makes sense that if this technique were to drive more traffic to Aol. sites that a strong search partner or partners should be in place. Considering the cost of having Google do this in the past, Aol. is likely looking for some cost savings to try to see if any money will move to the bottom line in the near future. Regardless of who ends up being Aol.’s search buddy, what are YOUR feelings about Aol. and it’s chances for the future? Is there any gas left in the Aol. tank or will the effort needed to ‘right the ship’ be for naught? Feel free to give us your Aol. turnaround strategy. Maybe Tim Armstrong is looking for some user generated content in that area too.

Tags: announced-later, aol, conversation, demand-media, future, internet, right-the-ship, Search
Posted July 26, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

Two years AOL bought Bebo for $850 million it looks like the fire sale for this ‘asset’ may happen. We had wondered if this was even an option considering some of the tax laws attached to the sale like this could work against AOL. If that were the case it was a real possibility that AOL would just let Bebo fade into the sunset. According to the WSJ there appears to be a taker and it will likely be for next to nothing. Ending a failed attempt to capitalize on the social-networking craze, AOL Inc. is close to selling its social-networking site Bebo to a private investment firm at a fire-sale price, according to people familiar with the matter. AOL is in final negotiations to sell Bebo for a small fraction of the $850 million it paid for the site two years ago—the latest example of a hot Internet property that faded in popularity before figuring out how to make money. The buyer is Criterion Capital Partners LLC of Studio City, Calif., according to a person familiar with the matter. The small investment firm, which specializes in turning around companies with revenue between $3 million and $30 million, has been actively pursuing technology and media acquisitions, this person said. A deal could be announced as soon as Thursday. The chart below shows just how Bebo fares against the other major social networking sites in the world. Needless to say it’s not a pretty picture. Quantcast has reported a steady drop in US users as seen in the graph below. Honestly, I don’t know anyone who uses the site or has used it. The bottom line is that AOL bought a stinker and it will be a costly move. The statement below from an AOL exec pretty much sums it up. “Bebo, unfortunately, is a business that has been declining and, as a result, would require significant investment in order to compete in the competitive social networking space,” Jon Brod, executive vice president of AOL Ventures, wrote in a message to employees last April. “AOL is not in a position at this time to further fund and support Bebo in pursuing a turnaround in social networking.” So long Bebo. We hardly knew you. Join the Marketing Pilgrim Facebook Community

Tags: aol, fire, marketing, matter, million-it-paid, person, quantcast-bebo, Social, sunset
Posted June 17, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to watch AOL’s CEO Tim Armstrong be interviewed by Slate’s Jacob Weisberg at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Innovation Days event during Internet Week in New York City. It was interesting to listen to Armstrong because he is an engaging guy. He comes off as very passionate about AOL and its efforts to re-establish itself as a leading brand in the Internet space. He talks about all of the things that people want to hear when it comes to the Internet and content generation. It just so happens that this talk comes on the heels of AOL’s announcement that it is hiring hundreds of journalists to add to its current 500 staffers on the content side plus the 40,000 free lancers that are out there creating content about who knows what and God knows what. FastCompany wonders aloud what all this means for ‘journalism’ Words like these, from AOL’s president of global advertising Jeff Levick don’t help: “We have insights into our audience, and can produce content they want, which leads to engagement, which leads to what advertisers want.” Content that ultimately snares the consumer, by hook or by crook, for the benefit of the advertisers? Doesn’t sound like journalism to us. As with all things on the Internet, this story / announcement is ultimately about revenue. You can talk all day about hiring journalists. Armstrong during his talk proclaimed that the average new hire has 8.8 years of experience as a journalist. He also spoke about how they are sending people into the field to cover stories like a, gulp, real news organization would. This all sounds great but ultimately is this just a way to generate what Armstrong deemed “super networks” of content that will look to corral consumers into a pen and so that advertisers can whack this ‘captive audience’ with marketing messages? The question is who wins and loses in this. Pure journalists are crying foul because the quality of this content is being questioned regardless of what credentials are being thrown around in talks. Marketers probably don’t care so much about quality as long as the audience is there. AdAge reported on the announcement yesterday that David Eun, recently appointed president of AOL’s media and studios division claimed “Our mission at this company is to be the world’s largest producer of high-quality content, period,” he said. “The content driving our traffic is home-grown, and 80% of it is now produced by folks on the AOL payroll.” All of this talk and gathering of ‘content weaponry’ by AOL and competitors like Yahoo with its purchase of Associated Content and the independent player Demand Media makes for some interesting decisions coming up for marketers and advertisers. The push is clearly to generate content that will be used to fill the void left by failing newspapers and traditional media as a whole. Who will be the winners and losers? Depends on which camp you want to believe. For the mass content producers the winner is both the content starved consumer and the advertisers that want to reach them. There are plenty of people, however, who are bemoaning this movement away from traditional journalism as the beginning of the end of quality and integrity first for journalism as a whole. If Mr. Armstrong has anything to say about it one big winner will be AOL who is looking to get into the “great big pile of cash that is moving online”. When you hear it like that you wonder what is first: journalism or just plain old capitalism. What do you think?

Tags: aol, armstrong, audience, consumer, content, Jacob Weisberg, opportunity, the-advertisers, traffic
Posted June 10, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

It looks like Carol Bartz has decided that the way for Yahoo to survive is to add to the proliferation of content that is being produced for the sole purpose of garnering search traffic. That ‘content’ is often just glorified keyword wrappers that do little to actually help a reader but plenty to sucker them into an advertising trap. Oh happy day. The deal for Yahoo to purchase the content factory Associated Content was reported yesterday and is said to be for $100 million. Just imagine how many $5 dollar articles can be sourced with that kind of money! Associated Content is well-known for its producing content on the cheap. Some might even say it is infamous for its concern for high quality ‘reporting’. Advertising Age reports The deal, which will be announced later today, is part of an effort to shore up Yahoo’s content offerings and underscores the increased use of low-cost, crowd-sourced content, a strategy that AOL is pursuing through its SEED content factory, as well as by Demand Media, which reportedly hired Goldman Sachs to explore an IPO this summer. Associated is in the business of generating a great deal of freelancer-produced content that can earn as little as $5 a story, and is optimized for search. (Examples of stories include “Guide to Reducing Stress in Daily Activities” and “Five Hollywood Career Revivals Waiting to Happen.”) Now be careful how you categorize this kind of content creation because the people responsible for it can get a little testy if called to the mat for producing content that is less than journalist grade. I did a post in December of last year and drew the ire of Associated Content’s founder and president, Luke Beatty. His comments for the post included As a firm believer in the idea that anyone is a content creator and everyone has the right to publish their thoughts and opinions, I totally respect your hostile commentary. That being said, I am going to defend over 300K contributors who use the Associated Content platform to produce thousands of content assets every day. These people range from trained, experienced media professionals to first-time content creators with experience or an opinion to share. You assert that they produce “crap.” That assertion that Mr. Beatty refers to is far from a lone voice in the crowd. There are many people who bemoan this new model that both Associated Content and AOL are specializing in which involves a ‘produce content and knock on wood for quality’ mentality. This technique is concerned about search traffic and advertising money with journalistic integrity being pushed to the back of the bus if it’s given a seat at all. Also, it looks like AOL’s CEO Tim Armstrong is the big winner in all of this due to his investment in AC (at least he was still invested in December of ’09). So he is now going head to head with Yahoo in the race to produce as much content as possible but at least he is making some money on the deal in both directions. Ad Age confirms that producing high quality content isn’t cheap so the new direction for Yahoo gets them into another ballgame altogether in which they are already participating. The deal signals a new approach to content for Yahoo, which tried an expensive, Hollywood-style approach under former studio boss Terry Semel, but has since dialed back those efforts to low-cost production of content such as Yahoo Sports and OMG, its entertainment-focused site. So it looks like the signal has been given that if you find enough desperate people who will produce ‘content’ for next to nothing that you can get rich. Of course, one man’s getting rich is another man’s cluttered Internet. Get ready for boatloads of ‘great’ content from Yahoo in the future. Can’t wait!

Tags: advertising, aol, Business, cloud-computing, daily, Hollywood, investment, people, proliferation, race, reducing-stress, summer, thoughts, Yahoo
Posted May 18, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

Google continues to plow forward swallowing up whatever it needs to do whatever it wants. Google will acquire Global IP Solutions Holding which will give it control of the voice over IP (VOIP) engine that sits behind offerings by competitors like Yahoo and AOL. The company makes processing software for voice and video over IP solutions. If you are Google this is just another day in the world of M & A but for the rest of the world it’s another day in watching Google control just a little more of the things that others need to run their operations. Good for Google but for the others maybe not so much. ZDNet reports Google on Tuesday said it will acquire Global IP Solutions Holding, which makes processing software for voice and video over IP, for $68.2 million. The deal means that Google will own the voice and video conferencing engine behind its competitors’ instant messaging systems. The search giant said it will use Global IP Solutions (GIPS) for real-time video and audio communications over an IP network (statement). Google is paying 27.5 percent premium over GIPS closing price May 14. GIPS trades on the Oslo Stock Exchange. While the voice and video conferencing offerings of Yahoo, AOL, WebEx and others may not seem insignificant in the big picture its what might happen next to these offerings that should be of concern. It is a bit ironic that GIP’s counts Chinese search giant Baidu as a customer as well. Right now, it is being called “business as usual” while under existing contracts. According to GIP’s CEO Emerick Woods in his letter to his customers they may want to be shopping because there are no guarantees. His letter reads. Google has been a valued customer of GIPS for many years and has greatly contributed to the development and innovation of our products to date. We have always respected their position in the industry and share the common vision of accelerating next generation innovation in the web-based solutions for real time communications. You may have many questions regarding this announcement but for now, until the successful completion of the offer, it will be business as usual for us here at GIPS. You will continue to interact with the same team members and can expect the same level of support and commitment that you have received in the past. Google has informed us that nothing will change for current and prospective customers of GIPS. Following the completion of the Offer, Google intends to continue servicing GIPS’s customers in accordance with existing contracts while offering them the opportunity to transition to new offerings developed by Google. Although we will not have more significant details until the process is complete and full integration efforts are underway, we will keep you informed throughout as events arise. Little comfort to clients other than Google and the writing on the wall is pretty clear. Google is assembling the pieces between its Google Voice, its Gizmo5 purchase and now GIP’s to compete with Skype in their space. Google figures that between most people being mobile in the next few years its getting more traction with Android. Then as more people move to a wireless only voice solution they can also help them get other voice and video conferencing services as well as free voice services over IP. All bases are being covered thus giving Google a very strong position in the communications industry as well as likely remaining the search giant it is currently. So is this another opportunity to cry monopoly against Google or is it just a reality of the new world order that Google will have its hand in nearly everything we do in the future? Any thoughts?

Tags: aol, cloud-computing, communications, development, GIPS, industry, offer, Search, Skype, space, voice, voip, world, writing, Yahoo
Posted May 18, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media