Healthy Blog Reviews

Whenever research is brought forward that merits one of those “Is that right?!” responses it’s worth looking into. I guess it’s the Internet’s equivalent of riding by a car wreck, you know you shouldn’t look but you do anyway. Well, a study by USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism shows that despite the immense popularity of Twitter there are 0% of people surveyed who would pay to use the service. Yup, zero percent. It’s certainly the kind of statistic that turns head but can it be true? The study was brought to my attention by a post on the HubSpot blog so I decided to look a little deeper. Since I am a sports fan, my first reaction was the hope that USC’s journalism school is more reputable than its athletic department but I got past that pretty quickly . “Such an extreme finding that produced a zero response underscores the difficulty of getting Internet users to pay for anything that they already receive for free,” said Jeffrey I. Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. “Twitter has no plans to charge its users, but this result illustrates, beyond any doubt, the tremendous problem of transforming free users into paying users,” said Cole. “Online providers face major challenges to get customers to pay for services they now receive for free.” Not earth shattering because I think that the vast majority of people would at least have to really think about whether they would pay to be on services like Facebook and Twitter. I doubt this will ever be a real concern hence the push to find revenue under every other rock that can be overturned from premium services to advertising and more. Another finding of the study, however, should concern Internet marketers and advertisers. It states The responses about Twitter are reinforced by other findings in the Digital Future Study that explore Internet users’ opinions about online advertising. The current study found that half of Internet users never click on Web advertising, and 70 percent said that Internet advertising is “annoying. ” Yet 55 percent of users said they would rather see Web advertising than pay for content. “Internet users can obtain content in three ways: they can steal it, or pay for it, or accept advertising on the Web pages they view,” said Cole. “Users express strong negative views about online advertising, but they still prefer seeing ads as an alternative to paying for content. Consumers really want free content without advertising, but ultimately they understand that content has to be paid for — one way or another.” It looks like Internet users are confused and they are just like the rest of us. They want their cake and they want to eat it too. This is the great divide that the publishing industry has allowed to become so great that it may not be closed – ever. Free only lasts for so long and then there are things like payroll and offices etc which are not, and never will be, free. The trouble is that those are business problems and consumers don’t want to hear about them. They want their content and since they expect it to be free they will rebel (at least in the short term) if there is any attempt to require payment for something they feel they have a ‘right’ to. It’s the old entitlement mentality that is part of the culture whether we like it or not. Check out the highlights of the report for more information about the Internet in general including the continued decline or newspapers, the public’s general distrust of online information and other interesting ‘facts’ like this one: The percentage of users age 16 and older who said that communication technology makes the world a better place has declined to 56 percent of users from its peak of 66 percent in 2002. That’s an interesting ‘trend’ if you really think about it, isn’t it? So what are you wiling to pay for online? Is there anything that you simply cannot do without that would merit a payment to get it? Where do you draw the line? Let us know in an informal Pilgrim’s Poll. I bet there are some interesting takes on this out there among our readers.

Tags: cloud-hosting, communication, culture, digital-future, hence-the-push, interesting, internet, makes-the-world, Online Advertising, publishing, rock, Search
Posted July 28, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

Ask has always been the red-headed stepchild of the search industry. It’s always lurking in the shadows as the #4 search engine and usually gets a mention in search share only if there was significant up or down movement. Accounting has the Big 4 but search only has the Big 3 which is soon to be the Big 2 ½ or something once bing and Yahoo fully consummate their relationship. Ask is usually not included in those talks but is making changes to differentiate itself and hopefully make more of a splash in that area. The key to that hope: good ol’ fashioned human beings! The Ask blog reports Today we’ve officially launched the public beta for the new Ask.com, which combines our proprietary answers technology (specifically tailored to extract questions and answers from the Web) with the human insight of the thriving Ask.com community drawn from our 87 million monthly uniques. Now available on an invite-only basis (you can request your invite here), the capability to pose questions to real people is now possible for those complex, subjective and/or time-sensitive queries that, no matter how advanced, computers simply can’t address. That means that Ask.com is now uniquely able to offer the most comprehensive and convenient approach to getting answers, combining pages and people to help users find the answers to all questions – even questions for which no answer is published online. In the search world there may just be a place for this kind of service if it can catch on with people who are ‘blue text link trained’ like myself. In this age of social media and trusting sources that reach far beyond our truly trusted circle of friends (be that a good or bad thing, it still is) there may be more of an acceptance of this approach. Mashable’s Jennifer Van Grove sums up the improvements for you The beta offering is a product of four new features: a completely overhauled look with a focus on highlighting trending questions from the community, semantic search with answers displayed on the page, a large Q&A database and a user community element that targets members for answering questions based on their areas of expertise. The latter somewhat mirrors Aardvark’s formula for finding answers to user questions, and is initiated when users click the “Ask the Community” button on the right-hand side of the results page. Even if this Q & A approach seems to be somewhat antiquated it could have some legs if for no other reason than it looks different. Once again, though, Ask needs to drive people to the site and in the past their approach has been mass advertising pushes that come on real strong then disappear. There has been very little attempt to keep the Ask brand in the mind of the searcher in a way to help them possibly convert from Google or somewhere else to the new Ask. I have always hoped that Ask would put together something that was worthy of challenging bing and Yahoo! to at least push them a bit. Whether this approach is the answer certainly is a big TBD. If it’s not the answer then the next question has to be, is there a place for Ask at the search table or is it time to move on and look for someone else to challenge the Big 3 (or 2 1/8 or whatever it’s going to be)? Your thoughts?

Tags: answer, answers, ask-com, cloud-computing, cloud-hosting, improvements, mind, proprietary, relationship, Search, search-engine, Social Media, thoughts, Yahoo
Posted July 27, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

Although it comes as no surprise to most, the integration of e-mail campaigns and social media outlets is becoming more popular. Leading the charge are Facebook and Twitter which is probably no surprise either. What is a little surprising is just how quickly the numbers dive with regard to other options for social media integration. The following chart from eROI shows results from a survey they recently conducted (hat tip to MarketingProfs ). With Facebook being the most mainstream option of these outlets its appearance at the top of the list is almost expected. Twitter on the other hand is much more dependent on the type of e-mail recipient because it’s mass appeal is much less than Facebook’s at this time. In other words, Twitter likely skews toward a tech-savvy and generally younger crowd while Facebook hits a more widespread demographic target. What was interesting was the relative ignorance of the mobile market by these very same marketers. There seems to be confusion on subjects ranging from mobile’s usage amongst these companies’ customers to even how the company itself is utilizing the mobile web for their site in general and marketing as a whole. This points to the whole disconnect issue that happens when industry reporting and predictions leave reality in the dust. Why do you think it has been the “Year of Mobile” for about 7 years now? OK, so let’s step back for a second. If e-mail is very important and it is a pretty well known fact that there is a large group of consumers that get e-mail on mobile devices (iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and more) shouldn’t marketers be a little more ‘in tune’ with mobile? If you pay attention to most industry reports they already are right? Is there a perception vs. reality divide present here? Is it possible that hype is out-pacing implementation? How can that happen on the Internet ? As we have warned in the past, it is probably a good thing for companies to make sure they are doing the Internet marketing basics like search and e-mail well before they jet ahead into the mobile space. It’s this rush to get to the next best thing without ever really taking full advantage of the LAST next best thing that gets businesses in trouble online. So where are you with e-mail, social and mobile? Are all three humming on all cylinders or is there work to be done to bring one or more up to speed? Even when the assumption is that everyone does all of this well and is ready to move on, are you going to stick to the basics or go to the next big thing?

Tags: black, cloud-computing, cloud-hosting, facebook, integration, internet, Internet Marketing, mobile, mobile-chart, numbers, Social, Social Media, time
Posted July 26, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

A few days ago Google launched a new “image search” user interface to the public. If you haven’t tried it yet you should go ahead and give it whirl–after reading this post. My first impression was wow! I really like how the images are positioned in a way that maximizes all available screen real estate. As I continued to search for images and test out the new UI, I had this feeling of deja vu. Something didn’t seem right with this search feature. For some reason it felt like I had used this before. And, then it dawned on me! Certain aspects of Google’s new image search resemble Bing’s image search. The most notable similarity is the absence of pagination navigation at the bottom. This feature change alone on a search engine can stick out like a sore thumb and create a remarkable difference in other similar image search engines like Yahoo for example. Many say that imitation is the highest form of flattery. But in business, there’s sometimes is a fine line between flattery and insult. And when the corporation at hand can drop millions in legal fees on a daily basis, the insult can have a devastating impact. But if you are Google that doesn’t matter. Why doesn’t it matter if Google blatantly copies the features of its competitors? It doesn’t matter because Google dominates a majority of the market. Which means that the vast majority of the folks running image searches have never even tried Bing’s innovative features. Likewise it doesn’t matter if Kevin Spacey imitates well know actors because let’s face it, it’s an honor to be imitated by Kevin Spacey! Having a strong brand isn’t just about making more money or building trust. Often times it’s also about playing by a different set of rules, and sometimes creating your own. So as you grow your business remember that even though there are other ways to create revenue streams, nothing can replace the power of strong brand.

Tags: Business, cloud-computing, cloud-hosting, corporation, images, matter-if-kevin, Search, search-engine, then-it-dawned, Yahoo
Posted July 24, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

“Everyone is Local” That’s the tagline for Ortsbo , a new social media translation platform that works in real time. The client allows a person to chat online with a group of friends who all speak different languages. Each person types in their native language and the software automatically translates the text to suit each of the individuals in the chat. Currently, the free client interacts with Windows Live Messenger, Facebook, and Google Talk and it translates over 50 different languages. Now in Beta, the site is generating revenue through sponsorships and advertising. For a fee of $29.95, you can get a Ortsbo plug-in for Microsoft Outlook which will allow you to display an email in two languages, your own and that of the recipient. Showing both languages is a nice touch as it can help avoid confusion when slang terms are literally translated. Ortsbo will also customize and license their application to businesses who want to use it within their own websites. From a marketing standpoint, Ortsbo is an interesting combination of global and local as their tagline implies. It gives the marketer a chance to connect one-on-one with customers either to promote sales or offer support but it also allows you to move outside of your current market. And you don’t have to have an international client base to make use of the product. With the rise in Hispanic and Asian populations here in the US, Ortsbo could be exactly what you need to connect with the people in your own neighborhood.

Tags: application, chat, cloud-computing, cloud-hosting, facebook, flickr, Ortsbo, people, windows
Posted July 22, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media