Healthy Blog Reviews

Each time I find out about how Google is making strides in turning many of their popular services into a usable mobile form I am reminded of just how far mobile has to go. Honestly, I am naïve enough to think that a company like Google would already have done something long ago with an important feature like Google Finance to make it a mobile standard. Guess I was wrong. If Google is playing “catch-up” then just how far behind is the rest of the world? From the Google Mobile blog (which was from a cross post from the Google Finance blog which brings up the point that it is a part time job trying to keep up with all the blogs Google has but anyway) Here on the Google Finance team, we’re always looking for new ways to help you access the finance data, charts, and reports that you need in the blink of an eye. But all the data in the world won’t help if you can’t access it when you need it most. Since many of us are on the run throughout the day and don’t always have our computers in front of us, it came as no surprise that one of users’ most frequently requested features was a fast, easy-to-use mobile website for Google Finance. We heard your feedback and are please to announce we’ve launched the new Android/iPhone edition of Google Finance for mobile! The markets don’t stop when you leave your desk, so we’re bringing the markets to you. Our new design gives you a unified experience across desktop and Android or iPhone phones, offering nearly all the same features and functionality on both. You can easily access the new site when you do a Google search for stock tickers or company names on your mobile device, or when you tap the “Finance” tab on the Google mobile homepage. For full disclosure (since finance types are supposed to do that right?) I am not a high finance guy. However, if I was I would be surprised that Google is just now paying more attention to turning something as time sensitive as financial dealings into a more usable mobile form that helps people to effectively use the tool while on the go. Here’s what it looks like So what’s the marketing angle here? It’s pretty simple. You need to get your mobile strategy in order. If Google is seeing just how important this is do you think you might want to take the hint? Now for some Google gamesmanship. If you would prefer to have this in an app it is only available for Android devices. Go figure, right?

Tags: cloud-computing, cloud-hosting, computers, data, finance, google-finance, Local/Mobile, marketing, markets, mobile, tool, world
Posted August 25, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

India. It sits in South Asia, tantalizing you with its 1.18 billion people. You know that with a growing service economy, decent Internet access and a ton of English speakers, there must be opportunities you can cash in on. It turns out you could be right. Indian portal Rediff.com as just published a press release in which Ajit Balakrishnan, chairman and CEO, states This past quarter, January-March 2010, has sent signals that the online advertising market in India is starting to recover after nearly three consecutive quarters. Advertisers in the Finance, Education, IT products, Electronics among categories who had stayed away or reduced their online budgets during the past three quarters are now back. This is reflected in our India Online advertisement revenues for the quarter increasing 29% on a year-over-year basis and 15% on a sequential basis. This increase in revenues is despite us foregoing all ads on our home page. To be fair, part of this increase in revenue can be attributed to a 15% increase in Rediff’s registered users. Still, this could be good news depending on your perspective. From a publisher’s point of view, increases in overall ad spend mean that you could be more likely to monetize ad supported Indian-centric content. Of course, most of us would actually need to create Indian-centric content, but if you’ve been eying new markets you could make worse choices than India. From an advertiser’s point of view, I think the signs are less clear. Are the increases in ad spend a sign that lucrative traffic is being exploited by savvy advertisers or that not-so-savvy advertisers are blindly dumping new found cash without seeing tangible results? While I like to believe that most advertisers are ROI focused, I know that experiments, branding campaigns, and just plain bad ad buys can misrepresent the value of traffic as it relates to actual conversions. Regardless of your take on the increases Rediff is seeing and its reflection of the current online advertising market, India represents a solid long term opportunity. Many Indians are seeing huge increases in standards of living and disposable income. Indian Internet infrastructure is very strong, offering many citizens speeds Americans can only dream of. With the world’s second largest population India has huge potential to be an online marketing powerhouse. The only question left is if you have the time, ability, and methods to monetize it.

Tags: away-or-reduced, during-the-past, electronics, finance, increase, India, indian-centric, internet, Online Advertising, past, perspective, time
Posted May 19, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

.Fox, Fox International Channels’ global online ad network, commissioned comScore to study the effectiveness of video ads on brand engagement in the UK last year. Four industries, four campaigns and 300 million impressions later, the results are in: video ads provide “significant uplift” to visitor numbers and advertiser search queries, as MediaPost reports . And by “significant,” we mean significant . Over a four-week period, the average uplift for the four campaigns after users viewed a video ad was a seven-fold increase in site visitors. Consumers were also three times as likely to search on brand terms or relevant generic terms after viewing a video ad. In the press release, comScore said: Confirming expectations and previous industry understanding, video was able to generate a more immediate impact in the first five exposures than display ads in terms of increases in site visitation and search queries; however, behavioural response for those exposed to display climbed steadily as the number of ad impressions increased. . . . The study underscores the fact that consumer search behaviour is positively impacted by the presence of display or video advertising — even in the face of minimal clicks. In each of the four campaigns, search activity increased significantly when consumers were exposed to these online ad formats, suggesting that the last click on a search ad should not be given 100 percent of the credit in attribution studies. So it looks like it’s another example of the principle we shall now call Avinash’s Wife (you know, like Occam’s Razor?): Giving all of the credit to the first click is “like giving all of the credit for marrying my wife to my first girlfriend.” The study also compared the results side-by-side with a print campaign. Compared to print, users were 28% more likely to visit the brand site if they’d seen the video ad, and almost twice as likely to search for the trademark. The study focused on sites in the Travel, Finance, Government and Utilities verticals and used comScore’s single-source panel methodology. A matched pair sample compared the habits of users exposed to the ads with a control group not exposed to the ads, controlling for behavioral and demographic differences. (Meaning: comScore used its panel of UK users and selected pairs of people roughly the same demographically and behaviorally. One person was exposed to the video ad; the other wasn’t. Then they compared the two groups’ behavior.) The study made sure that users in both groups visited the same sites, but the control group didn’t see the video ads. What do you think? Have you seen results from video ads—and how many exposures did it take? Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!

Tags: credit, finance, government, industries, picture, Research, trademark, travel, utilities, video, wife
Posted March 26, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

Just in time for the iPad, Yahoo is premiering two new Apple apps based around their local/mobile search offerings . One is a fairly standard search app—but the other brings an interesting dimension to local search. Considering that, as Google reported, a third of mobile searches are local , there’s obviously a significant market for local/mobile search. Using the iPod and iPhone’s touch-screen capabilities, users of the new Sketch-a-Search app can outline an area on a map and search within that area for a specific type of business. The feature is specifically geared toward US restaurants and lets users search by details including ambiance, ratings and types of cuisine. The app is slated to expand to other business categories and countries soon. This is especially nice if you live in one of those megalopolii (the plural of megalopolis, of course), where you can never be sure exactly what city that awesome Thai place was in (and who on earth would remember a ZIP code?). The regular search app also includes some cool local features: Since mobile searchers tend to ping-pong back and forth between map applications and search, we’ve integrated maps into the app to simplify the experience. The app also allows you to customize the local maps experience: Want to see more map and fewer local results? More results and less map? It’s totally up to you. . . . Finally, we’ve made it easier to search for what’s nearby with location-based, local results. For example, if you’re searching for plumbers here in Sunnyvale, California, the app will detect that you’re likely looking for plumbers in this area and will provide you with results in a combined map-list view. As you scroll down the list of plumbers and their reviews, the app repositions the map with the currently selected item. You can also use the map to browse the associated ratings and reviews. The search app also includes shortcuts for Yahoo’s Movies, Finance and News areas, as well as a voice to search feature. I think these apps (especially Sketch-a-Search) are a big step forward for mobile search. While there may already be some similar offerings out there, the backing of a big brand like Yahoo can help these apps gain popularity. We can only hope that these apps and this kind of thinking can continue after the merger with Microsoft (you know, if/when). What do you think? What other features would you like to see in mobile search?

Tags: Apple, Business, California, experience, finance, ipod, Local/Mobile, made-it-easier, Microsoft, movies, Search, using-the-ipod, Yahoo
Posted March 23, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

Better late than never is what they say right? Everyone else and their brother have made their deal with Twitter so Yahoo doing so only makes sense. What is interesting is that while this kind of announcement should be a big deal it comes off as sounding a little “after the fact” which, unfortunately, seems to be how Yahoo is perceived more and more these days. To be fair, Yahoo has more properties to tie Twitter into so the deal is likely to be more complex than the “real time search” deals that have been struck with Google and Microsoft. Yahoo’s Yodel Anecdotal blog sings the deal’s praises What does this mean for you? Very soon, you will be able to see your Twitter feed on Yahoo! just as easily as you use Yahoo! to consume all of the other great content you love from across the Web. Through today’s partnership, along with our recently announced Facebook relationship, Yahoo! is giving your online social life wings to help you stay in touch with the people and things you care about most across the Web. It’s part of our strategy to ensure that Yahoo! delivers the people and things that matter most to you! Want to see your friends’ latest Twitter posts? Or update your Twitter feed with stories and content from Yahoo!? Or check out trending topics and public updates? You no longer need to stop what you’re doing to see what’s going on with your Twitterverse — you’ll be able to do it all from Yahoo!. This kind of a play is probably most important to Yahoo because now that it is not a search engine (although the average person may never have a clue that Yahoo doesn’t actually do the search behind the scenes which is for another discussion). The social side of the web is about content and that’s where Yahoo is hanging their hat for the future. In their blog post they are showing their hand that while they are making this announcement they are not quite there yet. Here is what we can look forward to Coming Soon: Read your personal Twitter feeds directly from Yahoo!’s many products and properties, including the homepage, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Sports, and others — anywhere you can see Yahoo! Updates across our network. Coming Soon: Update your Twitter status and share content from Yahoo! in your Twitter stream — we’ve made it even easier to share what’s going on with your friends and followers on Yahoo! and Twitter. Coming Soon: Whenever you produce social actions on any website (like comments on articles, ratings, buzzes on Yahoo! Buzz) that you’ve allowed to appear on Yahoo! Updates, those actions can also be shared automatically with your friends on Twitter. (Pssst: Publishers and developers interested in learning more about Yahoo! Updates, including publishing directly into it or using Yahoo! Buzz or the Yahoo! Application Platform as ways of driving social traffic to your site, look here [http://developer.yahoo.com/updates], here [http://buzz.yahoo.com/publisher/about], and here [http://developer.yahoo.com/homepage].) Coming Soon: Yahoo! media properties like News, Finance, Entertainment, and Sports will include real-time public Twitter updates, allowing you to get a quick pulse-check on topics, trending and otherwise. Available Today: Yahoo! Search users will immediately see real-time Twitter results starting today. So there are a lot of changes coming down the line for Yahoo. The question still remains though whether these are enough to keep Yahoo as a relevant player in the space. How do you use Yahoo today and does this look attractive enough to make you more of a user in the future?

Tags: coming-soon, facebook, finance, friends, online, Search, space, sports, twitterverse
Posted February 24, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media