Archives for posts with tag: new products

Google Launches Media Planning Software

July 18, 2008 //
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Google has this week launched into closed beta testing its new media planning and buying tool, to be know as Google Adplanner.  The web based software enables media planners and buyers to build schedule’s for their clients using Google’s placement network.  The functionality looks pretty neat with the ability to filter the sites based on demographic and geographic factors and the ability to see all the volume information currently available through the adwords interface.  In itself the adplanner tool is only useful for the placement network and so has limited use to the every day media planner.  But you have to assume that somewhere along the line this functionality will be rolled out across non google sites, and if incorporated with double click adserving technology, will transform Google into an adserving and media planning provider.  One to look out for as Google tries to strengthen its grip on non search related markets.

google adplanner, ad planner, media planning buying

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Categories Display Advertising, Google

Google Launches lively.com

July 18, 2008 //
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Google’s long awaited entry into the virtual world has taken place in the last week with the launch of their competitor to Second Life, lively.com.  According to the Google blog the initial idea came as they “looked around the social web and wished that it could be less static”.  I’m not quite buying that seen as Second Life has been around for a while now but that
doesn’t mean it isn’t an interesting entrant.  Much like in Second Life you create an avatar for yourself although in Lively.com this is in more of a cartoon vein and in more of a Sims fashion.  You can also create your own rooms within the world and customise their look and decoration.  You can then hang out with your friends in the rooms you create, which brings in the social element.    The interesting part comes with how and where you engage with lively.com.   The system enables you to embed your room into your blog or website, and interact with it directly without the need to visit lively.com.  Whether this is enough of a selling point I am not sure but lively.com will certainly appeal to the youth market more than Second Life and lets face it, the younger generation are much more likely to spend ours chatting to friends online, even more so if they create a cool avatar for themselves in the process.  I was never a big fan of Sims, and never really got into Second Life, so I don’t think Ill be rushing along to set my account up.  But if the Alexa rankings below are anything to go by lively.com could create a bit of a stir in the world of social media.

google, lively.com, social media, social networks, virtual worlds

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Categories Google, Social Networking

The battle for stickiness

January 24, 2008 //
1

Search engine land reported today the release of some new functional by ask which allows a user to upload their own personal background image for the search engine.  The functionality to add a skin to the background has been available since last year but this was only for predetermined images and wasn’t customisable.  I like the idea of customising the results page and this is a much simpler solution than Google’s which involves xml information rather than a simple image upload.  It is also much more flexible and interesting than msn and yahoo’s offerings which only allow the selection of different colour palletes for the page.

This functionality is just another stage in the battle for search engine supremacy but also for loyalty within internet users through added value.  Yahoo had this a long time ago through positioning itself as an information portal and one stop shop for your internet needs (email, news, sport, search…) a similar position taken by MSN.  Then Google smashed this with its simplicity and accuracy of results.  But even the big G has recognised the need to give people more and through iGoogle struck a balance between information on the page and usability by allowing the user to choose which information feeds they received.  The issue at the bottom of all of this is keeping people using your page/engine, setting it as their homepage, and a base for all their online activities.  If they can use your site for everything they need online whey would they go elsewhere?  The longer a user in on your site, the more searches they do, the more ads they view, the more ads they click, the more money you make! Simple.  Expect a lot more releases like in this in the next 12 months as the battle continues.

It’ll take a lot more functionality for Yahoo, Ask or MSN to catch Google but I do know people who now use the Yahoo homepage as they prefer it to Google so there is some movement going on.   You can check out the Ask function on the US site here, it is not yet available in the UK.

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Categories Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation

Free media? dont make me laugh

January 9, 2008 //
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I read in article recently in marketing week entitled “Looking for new ways to make money in the age of free media” which discussed the rise of social media and its increasing strength and importance in shaping a brand and a products success.  The article began intelligently enough discussing the rise of user generated channels and their importance in online PR and reputation management.  This is all well and good and I completely agree with the importance of monitoring and managing a company or brands online profile to aid in its success.  But the closing question posed by the article was “how do they (agencies) get paid?” which I thought was pretty damn obvious.

There are two precious commodities involved in any successful online campaign which are rarely held by a client, expertise and time.  The majority of client side marketers (on or offline) would not know where to begin when looking at their online profile and certainly would not now the best way to leverage the channel to their advantage.  This is where a good agency steps in with the knowledge and the contacts to deal with things in the appropriate manner.  Then there is the time element which is one of the major reasons for any company taking on an agency for any activity.  Only the largest companies have a marketing team which can take on board all work in house and produce work of the desired standard, the majority are best served acting as project manager and the owner of the final decision and leaving their roster to get on with the real work, especially when it comes to something as time consuming as online reputation management.  When you combine these two factors you have a highly valuable, highly marketable product, and with consultants in many channels charging u to £5,000 per day I am surprised the writer asks such a naive question.  After all SEO is technically “free” yet there are countless companies out there charging for their expertise and time in this area, social media and online PR fall under the same category.

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Categories Social Networking

Google Phonebook – Get your name in lights!

August 15, 2007 //
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google phonebook, google, search engine blog
I stumbled across this result on Google today. On a search for boxer Ricky Hatton up popped a result I had never seen before, a phonebook listing for somebody in the US named Ricky Coil along with his phone number and address. I had heard they were planning a phonebook tool but this is the first time I have witnessed it for myself.

On clicking through the link you are taken to the Google Phonebook page which includes the option to view the persons address on Google Maps. On further investigation though the tool doesn’t appear to work yet, further searches for common names return no results and also a direct search for the initial result under the persons exact name also brought no results back. Looks like another case of Google doing some selective testing on a new product prior to full launch.

Obviously it will take Google a while to build a full directory, unless they do so through purchasing one, so it may be a while till this becomes common place. Not sure Id want my details plastered all over Google but I suppose if it is a purely opt in service then there should be no complaints.

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Categories Google