Bigmouthmedia search engine news: online-pr

Apple fights with review quality

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Apple has changed its policy to ensure that reviews of iPhone Applications can only be written by users who have purchased the application in question. The change should make it harder for developers to negatively rate rival applications and manipulate star ratings.

User submitted reviews have become a cornerstone of the evolution of the internet. Increasingly, users expect to be able to comment on, compliment or criticise the services or products they've received. And it's a feature that has the ability to impact positively on a site's popularity. For example, in the travel market, sites like TripAdvisor have risen to prominence through their vast collection of reviews.

The early success of sites capitalising on user submitted reviews has been tempered with concerns over the integrity of the reviews themselves. In 2006 USA Today journalist Gene Sloan wrote of suspicions that hotel staff were reviewing their own hotels on TripAdivsor and highlighted the concern that hotels were offering cash in return for positive commentary.

The United Kingdom's Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations Act was updated in May 2008 to specifically make it illegal for companies to falsely represent themselves as a consumer. The law, however, places little emphasis on sites that allow reviews and the way that these reviews are policed to prevent infringement.

iPhone Application developer and news editor for Search Engine Land and Search Engine Roundtable, Barry Schwartz welcomed the new policy update from Apple on his blog. Mr Schwartz had experienced anti-Semitic comments on his popular Siddur & Zmanin iPhone application.

"I think this is a good first step in making the iTunes App Store review system more fair for both developers and users," Barry Schwartz told bigmouthmedia.

"To have people review an app without first trying it, well - that is like asking your brother for a letter of recommendation - it just is a skewed review. Outside of that, it adds a barrier to those who have anger towards an individual or group of people. It makes it one step harder for those types of people to leave racist or anti-semitic remarks."

"The best scenario would be to have Apple review reported reviews in a timely fashion, with this policy of having to buy or download the app, before reviewing. What is sad, is that anti-Semitic review is still in the App Store, after I know at least ten different people reported it to Apple over 15 days ago!"

Prolific tech blogger Christina Warren also welcomed the policy update on The Unofficial Apple Weblog noting that many people simply complained about the pricing of applications in the review section. "That isn't fair to developers, and it isn't fair to potential buyers", Warren wrote.

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Google Trends plots Xbox Live Troubles

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Xbox Live, the popular online gaming system from Microsoft, has been experiencing on-going technical issues this week and Google's Hot Trends has been catching the action in all its gory detail.

Xbox Live allows Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles to offer a number of games that allow users to play friends, rivals and strangers online. XboxLlive also permits users to download upgrades, new games, instant message, voice chat and even hire movies (delivered over the internet to the Xbox 360's hard drive).

Google's Hot Trends reveals the 100 most popular keyphrase searches in the US and updates daily - and its archives reveal that a certain gaming system has been featuring on the list of late.

According to Blake Grundman at Kombo, Microsoft claimed that there 'may be isolated issues' with the service yesterday. However, keyphrases such as [xbox live down] and [xbox live mtu failed] had surged into Google's hottest 100 keyphrase searches the day before.

The graph above plots the number of keyphrases containing [xbox] as they entered Google's hourly Hot Trend report over the last few days.

Xbox's Major Nelson twittered that the issues had been fixed. He noted, "The storm has passed" and "Back to Live you all go."
Whereas, over at Xbox360FanBoy Xav de Matos added a note of caution; "expect some rolling restarts as millions of gamers attempt to reconnect."

de Matos's warnings seem to have been well founded as a record number of [xbox] keyphrase terms have made Google's Hot Trends again today. [xbox live down again] entered the hot trend list at 8am GMT and was followed by [xbox live customer support number] and [xbox live customer support].

The speed at which Xbox keyphrases entered Google's Hot Trends is illustrative of just how quickly the digital generation will turn to the internet to resolve problems and the need for speedy communication from corporations today.

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The Kentucky List

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Casinos and poker sites could have their domain names stripped from them as the State of Kentucky takes unilateral action against sites hosted outside Kentucky.

Steve Beshear, Governor of Kentucky, has won a Court Order to transfer 141 domain names to the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Names on the list include FullTiltPoker.com, DoylesRoom.com and BodogLife.com. He described the online gaming sites as "leeches on our communities".

The online gaming industry has responded angrily. The Poker Players Alliance stated;"not only unduly restricts the freedom of Kentucky residents to play games of skill, such as poker, online, but sets a precedent for censorship of the internet by force."

Speaking at the popular online gaming conference CapEuro in Barcelona Pete Wilson from lawyers Blake Lapthorn gave the attendees a quick overview of the situation. It was noted that the law being enacted by Kentucky seemed only to refer to 'mechanical devices' although further legal study was needed.

In 2000 the domain registrar Network Solutions won a case against Umbro International in which the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that a domain name is a contract for services rather than a commodity. Wilson suggested, given the 2000 ruling, Beshear may find his court order impossible to enforce.

At the time of writing less than a dozen casino sites had come offline with hosts and registers such as GoDaddy yet to obey the Kentucky Court.

The court hearing in Kentucky to discuss the list has been delayed until Friday the 27th of September.

The Kentucky Derby, the famous horse racing event, is protected by US federal laws.

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Internet users reject obtrusive advertising

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Independent research has shown that "intrusive and irrelevant" advertising is damaging brand perceptions and is a huge turn off for internet users. According to the recent study as many as 73% of web users have left a favourite website due to annoying advertising compared to 50% in 2007.

The findings, by Opinion Matters on behalf of www.howto.tv show that the worst offenders are certain adverts for gambling sites, financial services companies, car brands, household goods and beauty brands.

Major irritations for users were ads with loud noises, pop-ups that cover information and ads that were difficult to close.

The figures also show that 59% of users have stopped returning to a website because of problem advertising, with that figure rising to 70% for 25 to 34 year olds. That's an increase from just 16% and 14% respectively just one year ago.

Nearly all (97%) of users would be less likely to purchase from a brand if a pop-up unrelated to the subject of the website appeared on the page.

Pop-up ads have been around for years. The original method of creating a pop-up was to use code to open a new browser window containing just the advert. Browsers and browser toolbars eventually lowered the instances of this happening with so-called "pop-up blockers" but recently it has been more common to put a pop-up within the actual page, a box which often moves from one point on the page to another with "close" buttons that can be difficult to find. Whereas the old style pop-ups tended to be confined to lower end, more spammy websites, the new style has been increasingly used by big multinational companies on top-end websites.

The howto.tv survey of 1,046 adults over the age of sixteen also contained positive information for online advertisers. 56% of 16 to 24 year olds and 44% of 25 to 34 year olds said a video ad would make them more likely to purchase the brand. This figure was still substantial at 38% of 35 to 44 year olds and 29% of 45 to 54 year olds.

The survey in this case uses a small sample size and shouldn't be treated as gospel. A well designed pop-up needn't necessarily be intrusive to the user. What should be taken from this new research is that any innovative advertising should be user tested in advance of publication. After all, who wants to pay to have their brand sabotaged?

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Google blocks Yahoo's Pipes

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 12:00:00 GMT

The two leading search engines have reached a technical impasse over Google's news service and Yahoo's pipes product.

Pipes is a highly regarded product from Yahoo's Brickhouse team. Users are able to collect data from various sources around the internet, manipulate it, filter it, sort it and then deliver it in another format. For example, with Yahoo Pipes a brand team could monitor news aggregators and blog search engines around the web for mentions of their brand and then deliver this research in one single RSS feed. That's easy to read and easy to monitor.

In the past Google has been used by viruses to query the web looking for forum sites with known vulnerabilities or email addresses. Google's defence to this sort of virus attack is to block automated queries to the search engine and also to Google News.

Google's anti-automated query defense is now blocking the automated queries from Yahoo Pipes. Many of the published pipes in Yahoo's system are now showing as empty and blocked as Google News was an incredibly popular source of information.

Yahoo's Pipes requests for Google News URLs are being forwarded to Google's blocking page. Google is treating Pipes as a virus or other unwanted computer request.

Yahoo Pipes fail gracefully. Pipes constructed from various information sources continue to work and simply exclude the feeds taken from Google. One of the features that sets Yahoo Pipes aside is their unique visualisation of the information stream. Pipes sending data are highlighted in light blue whereas empty pipes, such as those now being blocked by Google, appear in dull grey.

Tim O'Reilly described Yahoo Pipes as a "milestone in the history of the internet" when it launched and Nic Cubrilovic of TechCrunch said, "...my mind is still buzzing thinking about all that can be done with Pipes."

It is within Google's ability to 'whitelist' Yahoo Pipes and allow the internet application to successfully auto-query the search engine, news and blog search. Until the impasse is resolved, however, Pipes may struggle to remain useful.

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Second Life or second home? Sony unveils new social media universe

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 12:00:00 GMT

Popular social sites such as MySpace, Digg, FaceBook and Flickr have been some of the biggest winners in the age of Web 2.0. Now, Sony are set to get in on the action with their forthcoming online network universe, "Home", which will be available as a free download for the PlayStation 3 in autumn 2007.

Described as a real time, networked 3D community, Home will build on the success of other virtual worlds and social networking sites, and incorporates elements of Second Life, YouTube and MySpace, which promote user generated content and allow web surfers to interact with each other online.

Gamers will be able to create a personal avatar, choosing from a wide range of body types, skin tones, ages, clothes and accessories. They will also be able to buy products from virtual shops and play online games. Users will be given a virtual living space in the form of a stylish modern apartment that can be customised with the users' own content. For example, you could hang your own personal photographs on your walls, have your MP3 collection playing on your apartment stereo or create a personal cinema for watching your movie downloads.

Communication between users will be facilitated through text, audio and video chat, and avatars will express their emotions through animations. Certain features of Home are expected to be available via the PlayStation Portable and on mobile phones; users will also be able to visit special paid-for events. It will even be possible to explore the Home world and meet other gamers in public spaces, but this will be controlled by Sony to ensure that the content remains suitable for minors.

Sony is expected to develop lucrative advertising deals with partners and businesses that will be able to incorporate commercials into the Home universe - for example, high definition movie trailers. Although it is expected that gaming companies will take up a large proportion of the available ad space, Sony hopes that businesses outside of the gaming world will also be attracted to the high exposure environment that Home hopes to provide.

Sony's move into the world of social networking marks the trend in user generated content and online communities. Phil Harrison, Sony's president of Worldwide Studios says that the company's vision of Home is to "create a rich layer that sits on top of the network platform... a rich three dimensional world where you can build community, you can customise and communicate - empowering audience with user content."

Compared to rival gaming systems Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Xbox, Sony's PS3 online functionality has been limited up to now. However PlayStation Home is expected to help the electronics giant's new PS3 gain a competitive edge in the software market, as well as increase Sony's online presence considerably.

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BBC in deal with Google-YouTube

Fri, 02 Mar 2007 12:00:00 GMT

The BBC has teamed up with YouTube in a deal which will see short clips of BBC content played on YouTube, the web's most popular video sharing website owned by Google. The aim of the deal for the BBC is to attract more web users to the BBC's website through site traffic from YouTube.

There will be three BBC channels on YouTube - one for news and two for entertainment:

BBC: this is one of two entertainment channels which will be a 'public service' with no advertising. This channel will show clips of programmes and trailers; for example, showing users around the Dr Who set to entice users to the BBC website, from where they can watch or download BBC programmes in full.

BBC Worldwide: this is the second entertainment channel that will play self-contained clips up to six minutes long from popular BBC programmes; for instance, clips from Top Gear and nature programmes by David Attenborough are expected to be included.

This channel will feature advertising; for example, banner ads and pre-roll adverts. BBC Worldwide said that this is not a new concept for them, as BBC magazines like Top Gear and channels like BBC World and UK Living already carry advertising.

The corporation will also get a share of the advertising revenue generated by traffic to the new YouTube channels.

BBC News: the news channel, which will be launched towards the end of 2007, will show about 30 news clips per day. It will be funded by advertising and similar to deals with Yahoo! USA and Real Networks. Controversially, because of advertising legislation, these clips can be seen outside the UK only. Any UK users clicking on a link to one of the news clips on YouTube will incur the message that they have no access to this clip.

The BBC's director general, Mark Thompson, said the deal was a "ground-breaking partnership" that would "engage new audiences in the UK and abroad".

The BBC's director of Future Media and Technology, Ashley Highfield, said the deal was "not about distributing content like full-length programmes; YouTube is a promotional vehicle for us".

TV networks in the US, including CBS, NBC and Fox, have already trialled this method of promotion and several television programmes experienced a huge increase in viewers after clips were made available on YouTube.

Other media companies have already accused the BBC of straying from its license-fee funded public service remit and moving too far into commercial web ventures.

YouTube enables members to watch, share videos and upload their own content. As a result, the site hosts a lot of pirated film and music clips uploaded by members who do not own the copyright. The media firm Viacom, for example, recently demanded that YouTube remove tens of thousands of clips from the site for which the firm owned the copyright.

The BBC said they would not be hunting down all BBC-copyrighted clips already uploaded by YouTube members. However, it said it would reserve the right to swap poor quality clips with the real thing or to have content removed that infringed other people's copyright, like sport, or that had been edited or altered in a way that would damage the BBC as a brand.

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AOL makes $900m bid for Swedish online marketing group, TradeDoubler.

Mon, 15 Jan 2007 12:00:00 GMT

Swedish online marketing group, TradeDoubler, have been subject to a $900m cash offer by internet content provider AOL, a wholly owned subsidiary of US media giant, Time Warner Inc.

AOL has recently been restructuring most of its markets in order to become a more advertising-led business, competing with the likes of Yahoo! and Google within the ever-growing web marketing sphere. The acquisition of TradeDoubler would allow AOL to sell more advertising online via its European sites; moreover, parent company Time Warner believes the addition would complement their own AOL-owned company, Advertising.com - an online advertising network for publishers and advertisers.

Jeff Bewkes, President of Time Warner Inc. said of the offer:

"With AOL and Advertising.com, we have built a robust online advertising business in Europe, and TradeDoubler will help us accelerate the growth of this business."

The offer of 215 kronor per share represents a 20 per cent increase over the average TradeDoubler share price across the preceding three months, as well as reflecting AOL's determination to reinforce its European advertising business following the sale of its internet service operations across the UK and Europe. While the offer is still subject to shareholder approval, the board of directors at TradeDoubler has recommended that AOL's offer be accepted. The acceptance period for the offer is expected to run from January 22nd to February 19th, with around 20 per cent of TradeDoubler's shareholders having already accepted the bid.

Randy Falco, Chairman and CEO of AOL, said:

"This investment provides a unique opportunity for both TradeDoubler and [AOL] to capitalize on the continued rapid growth in online advertising and e-commerce in Europe. We believe that TradeDoubler will be complementary with our other businesses, especially with our third-party advertising network - Advertising.com. We look forward to working with the great people at TradeDoubler to offer European online marketers the broadest range of advertising solutions and websites the most comprehensive set of monetization opportunities."

TradeDoubler was founded in 1999 and went public in 2005, following the completion of its IPO. The company provides online marketing and sales solutions and manages many performance-based marketing programmes for a list of high-profile clients. Although headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, the company's biggest market is the UK, where it has benefited from rapid adoption of online advertising by marketers. TradeDoubler has 334 workers with operations in 18 countries, including France and Germany, as well as Scandinavia and other parts of Europe.

The company, whose clients include Dell, British Telecom and ASDA among others, is best known for their pioneering affiliate marketing programmes, in which website owners receive payment for passing traffic onto affiliated sites, recording sales of $151 million in 2005.

TradeDoubler had been the subject of much takeover speculation during 2006, but said in mid-December that takeover talks had ended. However, many analysts expect that the company may yet receive a higher bid. Opening stock trading in Stockholm saw TradeDoubler's price per share rise to 220 kronor, an increase of 5 kronor over the price offered by AOL.

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MSN debuts marketing strategy for coming months

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 12:00:00 GMT

Forums and blogs are abuzz with the announcement of the new Microsoft online marketing strategy for the coming months, which possesses the express aim of trying to gain new users and wrest back some control of the search market. Whilst MSN search used to be a powerful force in the search engine arena, its attraction to users has waned in the face of multiple new innovations and better search results provided by their major rival; and if you don't know who they are, here's a wee hint - they hail from America and begin with a G.

But Microsoft hopes to change all that through the massive promotion of their MSN Live product, which offers well-formatted and relevant result pages, an image service, a dedicated news page and a product which allows you to zoom across the earth to view the globe from a variety of different perspectives. These services are very similar to those offered by Google and, as the recent battle between Firefox 2 and IE7 demonstrated, it is commonplace for companies to imitate a product or service once it becomes established.

Regardless of these clear similarities, MSN's marketing strategy is set to roll out with a bang - in fact, it already started on October 27, with large amounts of "relevant and targeted advertising" (i.e. a pay-per-click campaign aimed at the sites and users they wish to target). We will also see a "sustained strategic online program" that will last until the end of March 2007. Essentially, if you have a hotmail account, this means that you'll receive a barrage of emails from MSN in the coming months. Full page ads in the New York Times and Wall St. Journal are also being run for the next few weeks.

However, there is one fun widget Windows Live currently has in Beta. Extremely popular in Japan, QR codes allow a user to scan a 2-dimensional barcode picture which contains a large amount of encoded text. This is useful because it means a small picture on a business card can be photographed by a mobile or handheld device which is then converted into a ready-made, ready-formatted contact that can be saved with no manual data input. This potentially offers a hugely valuable time-saving device.

The new beta product offers the facility to convert either plain text or pre-made business card text into the QR code creator, which can then be used by mobile devices in the following fashion. There is wide scope for such codes, especially in the usage of novel promotions and marketing - research is already underway to think up a fun marketing campaign that people can view by scanning it into their phones (such as scavenger hunts and guerrilla marketing on the side of bus-stops, etc).

Essentially, the process goes like this: Firstly, add a new contact and turn on the camera on your device.

Then point your camera at the printed code and take a photo.

This is then converted into a ready-made contact.

The product seems to offer solid, Web 2.0-style functionality but, at the moment, is not multiple-browser friendly - and it doesn't take much of a stretch of the imagination to work out which browser it works in and which it doesn't.

Should be an interesting product to watch for when coming across a web marketing campaign or a piece of above the line advertising which tied back to below the line support and promotions.

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What's happened to Digg? Have teens rushed the site as Microsoft predicted?

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 12:00:00 GMT

In August 2006 Digg was used as a case study to examine Microsoft's adCenter technology. AdCenter is Microsoft's shiny new pay-per-click bidding technology, their attempt to take on Google and has the demographic targeting edge over Google's current AdSense. The adCenter labs are used to showcase the technology and whet our appetite for more.

Back in August Microsoft claimed that less than %10 of Digg's visitors where in the under 18 age bracket. Their prediction program forecast that the under 18 population on the site would rise dramatically to over %20. This would double the "credit card-less" audience of the site. The biggest reductions would be in the 18~24 and 24~34 age brackets - typically where many marketers try and target their messages.

Has it happened? No.

A look at Microsoft's adLabs today shows that the demographics have shifted but not in the way that was predicted. The under 18 bracket has slid up, a small fraction, to only %9.80. Despite this, Microsoft is predicting an even higher increase is still to come and states that the future audience for Digg will see nearly %22 of the viewers on the website 18 years old or younger.

There have been bigger changes. In August Microsoft adCenter Labs predicted a drop in the number of 24~34 year olds on the site. October's figures show that it has increased to over %27.

The adCenter labs also show that the gender gap on Digg is closing and there is now only a 12 point split between male and female web users on the site.

The August case study revealed a 56/44 split in favour of male viewers on the site.

Does this mean that Microsoft's demographic tracking and prediction technology is no good? No. We need to zoom in on the small print. Microsoft does make it clear that the adLab tools are not yet in full production. The demographic prediction tool is a prototype to demonstrate what adCenter tools might be like. An even more important caveat is that the data used to process the results is a sample only. The adLabs tools do use actual audience data but not nearly as much data as Microsoft has available to it. When it comes to demographic predictions then volume in data does help with accurate predictions.

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