Social Networking Continues To Drive Mobile Search
- Posted by Mike Sachoff in MAKE MONEY ONLINE, WEBSITE SEO |
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Social networking remains the number one area of interest to mobile Internet users with Facebook and My Space being the top two search terms on both Google and Yahoo OneSearch, according to a report from mobile software and infrastructure provider Openwave Systems.
In terms of average hits per session, MySpace leads Facebook by nearly 46 percent, indicating that MySpace could become the preferred choice for mobile communications for a segment of the operator base and displace some popular email offerings.
In the mobile advertising marketplace AdMob servers nearly seven times more ads than its closest competitor, but it also has lower click through rate than rivals BuzzCity and Microsoft. AdMob’s lower click through rate could be because of generic ads that are not relevant to the subscriber.
The report also found that Craigslist ranked number 7 within the top 10 search terms on Google, indicating a trend towards mobile classifieds for jobs, housing, bargain items and services during the economic downturn.
"Subscriber data has always been part of an operator’s asset base, however extracting this information and transforming it to gain subscriber insight has been lacking," said Dan Nguyen, interim vice president, products and marketing, Openwave.
"In the current economic climate, better subscriber information and deep subscriber insight may help operators retain and gain customers.
 
Nearly Half Get News Online in Spain
- Posted by Chris Crum in MAKE MONEY ONLINE, WEBSITE SEO |
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Research from comScore found that out of the total Spanish Internet audience of 18.3 million people in February, 8.4 million or 46% visited an online newspaper site.
"With nearly half of the total Spanish Internet audience visiting a newspaper site in February, the online channel is undoubtedly an attractive marketplace for news publishers," said Mike Read, SVP and Managing Director of comScore Europe. "As a greater percentage of overall news consumption goes digital, it will become increasingly crucial for traditional newspaper brands to be able to understand and quantify their online audiences and ensure that they are generating value for consumers and advertisers alike."
Other highlights from comScore’s findings include:
- Of the 8.4 million Spanish Internet users who visited a newspaper site in February, 60% were male, and 69 percent were under the age of 45.
- Heavy online newspaper site users (defined as the top 20 percent of visitors by time spent in the category) spent an average of 3 hours per visitor on newspaper sites during the month, more than 4 times longer than the average Internet user.
- Of the 34.5 million mobile phone subscribers in Spain in January, 2.9 million accessed news and information via browser or download.
- In total, 7.6 million people around the world visited Elmundo.es in February, with 3.4 million of these visitors (45%) coming from the Latin American region.
As you’re probably well aware, there continues to be a big shift in consumers getting their news online as opposed to physical newspapers. It seems like each week, we hear about more print publications going online-only.
The idea of print dying is still considered to be quite exaggerated by some though. Alex Burmaster at Nielsen Online for example, has a post up that puts it into perspective quite well, likening newspapers to CDs, which despite the popularity of digital music, are still around:
Of course, CDs are a different media from newspapers, but the themes of physicality, practicality, familiarity, and convenience for the masses are consistent themes. Digital can’t replace the traditional walk to get the morning papers, reading the Sunday papers in bed, or an impulse purchase of a newspaper for a train journey - not everyone has the desire or the access to a portable electronic device at every moment of the day.
Whether it’s habit, touch and feel, familiarity, techno-illiteracy or convenience, a significant chunk of the population will still require a physical version to hold in their hands.
Maybe we’ll get to the point where everybody has portable electronic devices ideal for reading the news. But I have to agree with Burmaster that it’s probably going to be a while.
Yes, print is hurting, but it’s got a ways to go before it’s completely dead I think. And for the record, I think many of us who do still have access to devices with which we can easily read news online, still like to read newspapers and magazines sometimes.
The Internet CEO - How To Make “Independent” Money Online
- Posted by Taylor in MAKE MONEY ONLINE |
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New Jersey Law Seeks Monitoring Of Social Networks
- Posted by Mike Sachoff in MAKE MONEY ONLINE, WEBSITE SEO |
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The New Jersey State Legislature is considering a bill that would force social networking sites to monitor posts that are offensive or face legal action.
If the bill is enacted it would likely have little impact on sites like Facebook or MySpace since the Federal Communications Decency Act protects sites from lawsuits based on users posts.
Anne Milgram
The bill is part of New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram’s initiative concerning Internet safety. "The social networking site safety act is intended to deter cyber-bullying and the misuse of social networking Web sites," the Office of Attorney General said in a statement about the proposed bill.
"The bill empowers users of social networking sites to take steps to stop harassment or exploitation."
The bill would require a social networking website to display an icon or link that would allow users to report sexually offensive or abusive communication. The sites would then investigate the comments and contact law enforcement if necessary.  The sites would also have to allow user to block messages from the offenders.
Social networks and Internet service providers already have policies in place that address harassment and obscenity. They also work in cooperation with law enforcement on such issues.
 
Microsoft Closes the Door on Encarta Encyclopedia
- Posted by Chris Crum in MAKE MONEY ONLINE, WEBSITE SEO |
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Microsoft is closing the door on its world-renowned Encarta encyclopedia. It’s not exactly slamming the door. Online versions will still be available until October 31st, and in Japan, Encarta will still be available online until the end of the year.
It appears that Microsoft has simply given up in a battle that it has been brutalized in against Wikipedia for the online encyclopedia space. Noam Cohen at the NYT Bits blog writes:
In January, Wikipedia got 97 percent of the visits that Web surfers in the United States made to online encyclopedias, according to the Internet ratings service Hitwise. Encarta was second, with 1.27 percent. Unlike Wikipedia, where volunteer editors quickly update popular entries, Encarta can be embarrassingly outdated. The entry for Joseph R. Biden Jr., for example, identifies him as vice president-elect and a U.S. senator.
It may seem scary to think that everybody’s relying on Wikipedia for factual information, when we all know that it can’t be totally counted on for that all the time. But let’s not forget we have search engines, which we often use for research that can point us to more (while certainly less too) trustworthy destinations for facts.
Even Microsoft says, "The category of traditional encyclopedias and reference material has changed. People today seek and consume information in considerably different ways than in years past." From the sound of it, you couldn’t really trust Encarta for the facts anyway (at least not updated ones).
Encarta software products will stop being made available for sale in June as well. Encarta will also stop being available on MSN Explorer on October 31st.
Google Announces Venture Capital Fund
- Posted by Doug Caverly in MAKE MONEY ONLINE, WEBSITE SEO |
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It’s quite possible that, over the next few days, more short, business-oriented PowerPoint presentations will be put together than the world has ever seen.  Google’s announced a new venture capital fund, and the aptly-named Google Ventures is looking for companies to support.
A post on the Official Google Blog outlined the managing partners’ rather open-minded approach.  "We’ll be focusing on early stage investments across a diverse range of industries, including consumer Internet, software, clean-tech, bio-tech, health care and, no doubt, other areas we haven’t thought of yet."
 
Working with Google Ventures supposedly won’t bind a business to using Google’s products or getting bought by the search giant, either.
A simple 20-slide (or three-page) presentation sent to ventures@google.com is all that’s required of companies that want to put hats in the ring.  Rumor has it that at least $100 million is up for grabs.
Also, if you’re feeling either suspicious of or thankful for the timing of this development, the official post touched on the issue by stating, "Economically, times are tough, but great ideas come when they will.  If anything, we think the current downturn is an ideal time to invest in nascent companies that have the chance to be the ‘next big thing,’ and we’ll be working hard to find them."
Internet Increases Consumers’ Confidence to Part with Cash
- Posted by WebProNews Staff in MAKE MONEY ONLINE, WEBSITE SEO |
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Online shoppers are loosening the grips on their wallets, but continuing to be cautious about where and how they spend their cash. To secure their business, online retailers need to persuade consumers that they’re offering the best product at the best price.
A PriceGrabber.com online consumer survey in the U.S., carried out last October, showed 59% had cut back in spending. However, their most recent survey, carried out in February and March this year, found that figure to have dropped to 50% showing some optimism on the part of consumers.
However, it seems shoppers’ fingers have been burned by the recent recession and while they’re less inclined to cut back expenditure, they’re shopping smarter. To soothe their spending conscience, many have turned to the Internet in an attempt to focus their shopping behavior and avoid impulse purchases. PriceGrabber.com’s survey of over 4,200 online Americans found that 40% now spend more time online comparing products and prices. Some may track product prices and promotions online, watching the rises and falls and bagging a bargain at sales.
But, price comparison is not the only driver of online shopping. Many are seeking out coupons, even for offline purchases. In fact, traffic to coupon sites has seen big rises over the last six months or so, with around 40 million people currently printing online coupons, up 20% on last year, according to Simmons Market Research Bureau.
The Internet is fast becoming the favored place to search for coupons with a rise of 46% in the number of people who never use newspaper coupons. In addition, Hitwise recently reported a significant rise in the use of search terms relating to money-saving techniques. In December, 2008, searches for "coupon" doubled to 19.9 million, while "discount" rose 26% to 6.3 million.
Ultimately, what consumers want is the reassurance that they’re getting the best product at the best possible price. That’s where the Internet delivers, giving 91% of those surveyed confidence in their buying decision.
When it comes to deciding which retailer gets the sale, three-quarters of PriceGrabber.com’s  respondents said they look for retailers that offer free shipping and don’t charge sales tax. Just over half (54%) look for, you guessed it, coupons and discounts.
Easier Flash/Facebook Integration
- Posted by Chris Crum in MAKE MONEY ONLINE, WEBSITE SEO |
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Update: More from the press release, which has since come out:
Documentation, example applications and code are now available at http://www.adobe.com/go/facebook for developers to get started building rich applications with Adobe Flash and Flex software, and Facebook Platform.
The ActionScript 3.0 Client Library for Facebook Platform is available immediately as a free download along with developer documentation and tutorials at http://www.adobe.com/devnet/facebook.
Original article: Adobe and Facebook have announced the availability of a new Actionscript 3 Client Library for Facebook Platform, the platform for building apps on the social network. This library will enable developers to use Flash to create more compelling apps.
Flash in Facebook apps is not a new concept, but this library that Adobe has partnered with Facebook on will provide an organized and official resource for developers to utilize. In a conference call with WebProNews, Facebook Platform Program Manager Josh Elman and Adrian Ludwig, Group Manager for Adobe Flash Product Marketing told me that this project was started back in November.
There was a lot of unofficial stuff out there, but none of it had great documentation, they said, so they decided to start an officially supported, re-written code library with all public APIs, authentication, sessioning, etc. This way, Flash developers can build better integration between Flash and Facebook or Facebook Connect.
They talked a little about how developers and businesses can use flash-based Facebook apps for monetization. Of course there are advertising opportunities such as we’ve talked about in the past, but apps open up all kinds of ways for businesses to get potential customers engaged in their content.
They mentioned the Ben and Jerry’s site for example, that utilizes Facebook Connect and Flash to let users rate ice cream flavors and invite their friends to engage with the site.
They also talked about how CNN used Facebook and Flash to organize viewing of President Obama’s inauguration and allow people to pull in their friends and turn a simple streaming video opportunity into a social one and the "most streams ever."
Obviously the potential for engagement is there. Businesses can get creative with how to do it. I’m thinking you’ll want to have content that people will actually want to engage with first though.
Advertising Your Ebook
- Posted by KaHoongChai in MAKE MONEY ONLINE |
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This article is guested post by Tracey.
You’ve finished your ebook. It’s a PDF, it has a cover, it’s been proofed. It’s sitting on your website waiting for someone to buy it…but no one has, what gives?
Newsflash; there are millions and millions of websites out there; no one can find your website, let alone your ebook. [...]
Big Publishers Want Special Treatment from Google
- Posted by Chris Crum in MAKE MONEY ONLINE, WEBSITE SEO |
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Update: In an interesting turn to this story, the New York Times has eliminated 993,000 article pages as it rolls International Herald Tribune (IHT) into the NYT site. Instead of redirecting the articles to the same article on NYT, they all simply go now to one landing page.
Ryan Tate at Valleywag writes, "The Times’ longtime online chief, Martin Niesenholtz, recently whined that a Google search on the word ‘Gaza’ didn’t include any of his content on the first results page. And yet he just nuked 121,000 of his own articles containing that keyword."
Original article: Big-brand publishers don’t like being overshadowed by bloggers. What else is new?
A new AdAge article discusses a group of such publishers (including brands like the Wall Street Journal, ESPN, and the New York Times) which make up Google’s Publishing Advisory Board, which is calling for Google to rank their content higher because they’re "the original sources" of news stories. Of course we all know that while that may often be the case, it is also very often not. Somtimes even "original sources" even come from Microblogging. Remember when the news of the emergency landing on the  Hudson River broke on Twitter?
This is not a new discussion. As Steve Rubel says, when he read the article he felt like he had stepped back into 2004.
The truth of the matter is, many big brand publishers have become more blog-like and many bloggers and blog-style news sites have become big brands themselves. Rubel phrases it well, "To me, we don’t have zebras and elephants anymore. They have mated and we’re all one species."
But that’s not how some of these publishers see it. They’d rather get special treatment based on their own brand rather than putting forth the effort in search engine optimization that others would when they weren’t ranking to their satisfaction. Matt McGee (who has also joined this particular discussion) recently looked at a study showing that the Fortune 500 is still "largely invisible" in natural search results.
So where does Google stand? A recent update did supposedly cater to bigger brands anyway. "There’s absolutely value to original content," AdAge quotes a Google Spokesperson. "There’s value to derivative content, too. We look at this in many ways from the point of view of the user. But the truth is there are so many shades of gray even within, quote, original content."
The big-brand publishers are awaiting a more concrete answer from Google. The council meets again on April 30. With so much gray, that answer is probably going to be hard to reach.
Where do you stand on this subject? Talk about it with WPN readers.
