The Search For Conversions

Europe

2008-07-23T03:43:15-07:00

One evening last week in rural South West France in a small guesthouse, we sat around a table to eat a meal with people from France, the UK and South Africa. At some stage in the evening, the discussion turned to the Lisbon Treaty and why Ireland voted no.

It turned into a very lively and at times very heated discussion with both pro and anti Sarkozy among the French. It was fun.

My only reason for saying this is that I thought Miriam Lord's hilarious article in the Irish Times yesterday was on it's own well worth the €1.80 purchase.

And now that the Irish Times is no longer behind a firewall, I can point to it.

Diminutive visitor opts for charm offensive on Irish Rescue Mission.

Broadband in Ireland. This is a plan?

2008-07-03T07:26:52-07:00

So, Communications Minister Eamon Ryan today launched our Government’s policy on Next Generation broadband.

For me the key statement is this.

"The Government is pledging to have universal access to broadband in Ireland by early 2010 and that by 2012 our broadband speeds would equal or exceed those in comparator EU regions."

I've only had a quick read, but my immediate thoughts are

Waffle. Waffle.

A few questions.

1. What technologies will be used to deliver this?
2. What is the target for the average broadband speed in rural areas? 512k is not broadband.
3. Define comparator EU regions.
4. Will broadband be available at a pricepoint that most households can afford.

If you can't measure it, it doesn't get done.

Only Microsoft is serious about competing with Google in Search

2008-07-02T03:50:11-07:00

Google has a virtual monopoly in search. Even though some believe that's not a problem, I believe that the market needs real competition. As far as I'm concerned, Yahoo threw in the towel when they did a deal with Google on search ads so Microsoft is the only one with the resources to try and compete, even though their current share of market is negligible.

So I'm happy to see Microsoft acquire Powerset, a natural language search start up and also happy to read rumours that Microsoft is seeking other media companies to join it in a bid for Yahoo, which would effectively see Microsoft taking over the search platform and selling off the rest of Yahoo to the other media companies. Something I've previously suggested they do.

Petrol Shock

2008-06-10T06:22:52-07:00

A new personal record. Very happy I don't have to drive a lot.

Why Yahoo Should just agree to be acquired by Microsoft

2008-04-10T07:40:21-07:00

The shenigans going on between Yahoo, Microsoft and Aol are descending into total farce.

In the meantime, Google moves ever closer to having a global monopoly on search and search advertising and is beginning to make inroads into other forms of digital marketing.

The only companies that look to have any realistic hope of providing any level of competition in this market are Yahoo and Microsoft. So in my opinion, Yahoo should just get on with it and accept the offer. Then let Microsoft decide what pieces of the business it wants and what it wants to dispose of.

Agreeing to test Google's ad serving on Yahoo is a kick in the teeth to their own people and is basically throwing in the towel.

A Google monopoly is not a good thing. Even if they believe they are not evil.

Yahoo Buys a Web Analytics Company

2008-04-09T04:54:22-07:00

Digital Ads and Analytics go hand in hand.

Google Ads has Google Analytics
Microsoft AdCenter is rolling out Gatineau

and now Yahoo has just annonced it's acquiring Index Tools.

Denis R Mortensen the COO of IndexTools blogs at VisualRevenue.
Eric Peterson has a detailed post on "How Yahoo! buying IndexTools changes web analytics."

For more detail on IndexTools features, read StoneTemple Consulting's "10 cool things you can do with IndexTools"

Trademark holders. Google Adwords policy change impacts you.

2008-04-08T08:58:37-07:00

Big Adwords policy change in the UK and Irish markets. If you are a trademark holder, don't be surprised to find others bidding on your trademarks. What does this mean? Quite possibly more revenue for Google, emptier pockets for you.

Update. I see that Hitwise has done some research into this and says..

navigational search was on the increase; in 2007, 76.0% of search volume for the top 2,000 terms was navigational in nature, up from 63.6% in 2006 and 58.2% in 2005..

..In other words, there has been a significant increase in navigational search. And because most of these terms are trademarked, that means that there has also been an increase in searches for trademarked terms. Consequently, this change from Google in the UK will have a significant impact on brand owners and affiliates.

So there you have it.

Domainer Invasion

2008-04-08T08:33:15-07:00

On a very small test campaign on Yahoo, I inadvertently allowed ads to run on the content network for a while. Looking at the referrers on Analytics later, the first phrase that popped into my mind was "The Invasion of the Domainers"

Won't do that again.

Google & Affiliate Marketing

2008-04-03T06:04:11-07:00

As expected, now that the Google acquisition of Doubleclick is done, it's no surprise that the company announced yesterday that they are selling off the Search Engine Marketing side of that business.

On the other hand, they are integrating the affiliate marketing operation into Google.

We plan to integrate the affiliate marketing business into existing Google operations, providing enhanced value and reach for our affiliate advertisers, and additional tools and monetization opportunities for our publishers.

Here's an overview of what was Performics Affiliate Marketing business. Interesting to see Google dive deeper into affiliate marketing.

Your Google Docs now available offline

2008-04-01T08:57:42-07:00

When I moved to the Mac about 18 months ago, I left Microsoft Office behind. I moved to Open Office, but have since become a big fan of Google Docs and I find myself using Open Office less and less. So its good news today that Google is rolling out the ability to view and edit your Google Docs while offline.

I notice that Hitwise say that visits to Google Docs are up 27% in the past three months, with Gmail the top source of visits.