Getting Granular: The DigitalGrit Blog

DG at CES: Watching the Tide Change for 2006

Is there a more fun way to start the year off than going to the Consumer Electronics Show? I get to watch clips on the Today Show, but our own Scott Delea and Tim McNamara are actually in Vegas, roaming the floor.

Apart from the little gadgets that we all love (iPod, Blackberry, etc.) a lot of focus this year is being placed on content distribution. Case in point, Yahoo has actually taken a booth at the show for the first time this year. They'll be demonstrating the ways Yahoo content can touch consumers in their homes throughout the day -- and making some sort of new service announcement, natch.

But Yahoo is definitely a key part of the shows big news:

"The most important theme of CES is that consumer devices are being connected up, either to the Internet or to each other," said Tim Bajarin, principal analyst at consulting firm Creative Strategies.

"Google and Yahoo represent the next generation of content distribution," he offered. "The major content-distribution companies -- CBS, ABC, CNN, and NBC -- have been asleep at the switch. They did not understand that their advertising-driven revenue model was threatened by the Internet and they missed the boat."

Bajarin said that, in the future, all content will be delivered via the Internet by companies such as Yahoo and Google, which communicate interactively with the consumer. "This is something that the old media companies can't do," he said.

Read the article.

Exciting start to the year, doncha think? We'll see what Tim and Scott have to report....and bring back some good swag, guys!!

DG at CES: Watching the Tide Change for 2006

Is there a more fun way to start the year off than going to the Consumer Electronics Show? I get to watch clips on the Today Show, but our own Scott Delea and Tim McNamara are actually in Vegas, roaming the floor.

Apart from the little gadgets that we all love (iPod, Blackberry, etc.) a lot of focus this year is being placed on content distribution. Case in point, Yahoo has actually taken a booth at the show for the first time this year. They'll be demonstrating the ways Yahoo content can touch consumers in their homes throughout the day -- and making some sort of new service announcement, natch.

But Yahoo is definitely a key part of the shows big news:

"The most important theme of CES is that consumer devices are being connected up, either to the Internet or to each other," said Tim Bajarin, principal analyst at consulting firm Creative Strategies.

"Google and Yahoo represent the next generation of content distribution," he offered. "The major content-distribution companies -- CBS, ABC, CNN, and NBC -- have been asleep at the switch. They did not understand that their advertising-driven revenue model was threatened by the Internet and they missed the boat."

Bajarin said that, in the future, all content will be delivered via the Internet by companies such as Yahoo and Google, which communicate interactively with the consumer. "This is something that the old media companies can't do," he said.

Read the article.

Exciting start to the year, doncha think? We'll see what Tim and Scott have to report....and bring back some good swag, guys!!

MarketingVox: Google Tests Click-to-Call Ads

Google is testing click-to-call (pay-per-call) ads on search engine results pages, reports ClickZ. Users who click on phone icons appearing next to sponsored search listings can enter their phone number; the system first calls the search user then connects with the merchant. Blogger and tech consultant Greg Yardley, among the first to notice the new feature, provides a series of screen shots of the process, which Google describes in an FAQ item.

Read the whole news item.

After holiday gatherings spent listening to a lot of near-retirement-age relatives talk about investments and the inflated price of Google stock, how it's too late to buy it now...all I can say is, WRONG. These guys never seem to stop innovating, and (knock wood) they never seem to misstep. Google stock still has a bright future, as far as I can tell. (Disclaimer: I know nothing about investing.)

MarketingVox: Google Tests Click-to-Call Ads

Google is testing click-to-call (pay-per-call) ads on search engine results pages, reports ClickZ. Users who click on phone icons appearing next to sponsored search listings can enter their phone number; the system first calls the search user then connects with the merchant. Blogger and tech consultant Greg Yardley, among the first to notice the new feature, provides a series of screen shots of the process, which Google describes in an FAQ item.

Read the whole news item.

After holiday gatherings spent listening to a lot of near-retirement-age relatives talk about investments and the inflated price of Google stock, how it's too late to buy it now...all I can say is, WRONG. These guys never seem to stop innovating, and (knock wood) they never seem to misstep. Google stock still has a bright future, as far as I can tell. (Disclaimer: I know nothing about investing.)

Google Running Geo-Targeted Contextual RSS Ads. Who Knew?

According to ClickZ, Google's been running geo-targeted contextual RSS ads for months, unbeknownst to just about everyone.

Google has quietly been running geo-targeted contextual ads in RSS feeds for several months, but many advertisers, agencies, and analysts contacted by ClickZ were surprised to learn about the placements....

"AdSense for feeds is part of the Google content network, so if an advertiser's campaign is opted into the content network, their ads are eligible to show in feeds," Shuman Ghosemajumder, business product manager at Google, told ClickZ News. Ghosemajumder notes that the geo-targeting has been part of the AdSense for feeds distribution since its launch.

There's a lot to talk about here. The geo-targeting aspect is huge, naturally, as it applies not only RSS feeds viewed on the PC, but also those on mobile devices. (The old pipe dream of receiving a timely offer from the Starbucks around the corner is soon to be a reality, I guess.)

But I'm more entranced with the whole advertising in feeds aspect in general. I think it's a cool concept...and even the most devout, old school blogger has to recognize that the feeding frenzy could not stay free forever. For years, since marketers first picked up on blogs, there's been talk about "monitizing" them. This is certainly a lot more exciting to a geeky marketer like me than AdWords or affiliate links.

But adoption of RSS ads by consumers is relatively low right now. Not surprising. The average consumer is just waking up to blogs, and they have no idea what an RSS feed is. Yet.

In fact, I'll bet the vast majority of advertisers aren't aware of the value of blogs and RSS as marketing tools yet. Debbie Weil ran a survey back in January that confirmed this...perhaps she'll do another and compare the two? Debbie???

According to (Jennifer) Slegg, ROI will determine whether they approve or disapprove of their ads being shown on RSS feeds. "From a publisher perspective, CTR is extremely low with RSS ads, so I would be surprised if any advertiser is receiving a significant amount of traffic from RSS, except for cases of high traffic blogs that have been site targeted by an advertiser," she said. "From an advertiser perspective, there hasn't been much buzz about RSS ads at all, either geo-targeted or otherwise. RSS ads are easily trackable in logs, so advertisers can track any clicks coming through RSS ads to determine ROI."

But kudos to Google for running the ads. I'd love to see how they're doing. I'd love to see more of them. You'll be hearing more on the topic from me and the rest of the DigitalGrit team, for sure.

Google Running Geo-Targeted Contextual RSS Ads. Who Knew?

According to ClickZ, Google's been running geo-targeted contextual RSS ads for months, unbeknownst to just about everyone.

Google has quietly been running geo-targeted contextual ads in RSS feeds for several months, but many advertisers, agencies, and analysts contacted by ClickZ were surprised to learn about the placements....

"AdSense for feeds is part of the Google content network, so if an advertiser's campaign is opted into the content network, their ads are eligible to show in feeds," Shuman Ghosemajumder, business product manager at Google, told ClickZ News. Ghosemajumder notes that the geo-targeting has been part of the AdSense for feeds distribution since its launch.

There's a lot to talk about here. The geo-targeting aspect is huge, naturally, as it applies not only RSS feeds viewed on the PC, but also those on mobile devices. (The old pipe dream of receiving a timely offer from the Starbucks around the corner is soon to be a reality, I guess.)

But I'm more entranced with the whole advertising in feeds aspect in general. I think it's a cool concept...and even the most devout, old school blogger has to recognize that the feeding frenzy could not stay free forever. For years, since marketers first picked up on blogs, there's been talk about "monitizing" them. This is certainly a lot more exciting to a geeky marketer like me than AdWords or affiliate links.

But adoption of RSS ads by consumers is relatively low right now. Not surprising. The average consumer is just waking up to blogs, and they have no idea what an RSS feed is. Yet.

In fact, I'll bet the vast majority of advertisers aren't aware of the value of blogs and RSS as marketing tools yet. Debbie Weil ran a survey back in January that confirmed this...perhaps she'll do another and compare the two? Debbie???

According to (Jennifer) Slegg, ROI will determine whether they approve or disapprove of their ads being shown on RSS feeds. "From a publisher perspective, CTR is extremely low with RSS ads, so I would be surprised if any advertiser is receiving a significant amount of traffic from RSS, except for cases of high traffic blogs that have been site targeted by an advertiser," she said. "From an advertiser perspective, there hasn't been much buzz about RSS ads at all, either geo-targeted or otherwise. RSS ads are easily trackable in logs, so advertisers can track any clicks coming through RSS ads to determine ROI."

But kudos to Google for running the ads. I'd love to see how they're doing. I'd love to see more of them. You'll be hearing more on the topic from me and the rest of the DigitalGrit team, for sure.

Guest Post: Verisign buys Weblogs.com

A guest post from DigitalGrit's own Frank Patrick:

...But the really big story of validation this week, IMHO, is Verisign buying weblogs.com…the ping “backbone” of the blogosphere. Immediately, it’s probably more of a Relevant Noise story than a DigitalGrit story.

From the blog of the founders (who, a case could be made, could also be called the father of blogs and the read-write web)…

I hope …we'll all find a way to work with Verisign. I think there's reason to believe they can and will do a much better job of running the ping center than I have been able to, and this is the perfect example of individual innovators (myself in this case) working with large companies in ways that leverage the strength of both.

The bootstrap of weblogs.com is something a bigco should not attempt, it's hard to make it go, and most bootstraps don't, and it requires trust, something an individual is more likely able to inspire than a big company. On the other hand, running a serivce that other bigco's depend on (like Google, and Microsoft, to name two) is not something a person like myself should attempt. I think Verisign is the perfect company to do it. Their name servers, I hear, respond to 250,000 requests per second at peak loads. In comparison, weblogs.com's 1-2 million pings a day seems a drop in the bucket. Further, it will require great resources to tackle the ping-spam issue, and there Verisign's expertise, not just what's visible today, but what's coming down the road, will make all the difference. I was in no posiiton to do this on my own. And belive me, the Technorait's and PubSub's, even Feedster and Bloglines, weren't helping out very much. I belive they'll respect Verisign much more than they respected me. And this deal will free me up to work on new ideas around blogging, RSS, OPML, web services, podcasting, etc. I'm good at digging holes, I have to pass off to others to make the trains run on time when the service grows as big as weblogs.com has.

http://archive.scripting.com/2005/10/07#whatADay

Guest Post: Verisign buys Weblogs.com

A guest post from DigitalGrit's own Frank Patrick:

...But the really big story of validation this week, IMHO, is Verisign buying weblogs.com…the ping “backbone” of the blogosphere. Immediately, it’s probably more of a Relevant Noise story than a DigitalGrit story.

From the blog of the founders (who, a case could be made, could also be called the father of blogs and the read-write web)…

I hope …we'll all find a way to work with Verisign. I think there's reason to believe they can and will do a much better job of running the ping center than I have been able to, and this is the perfect example of individual innovators (myself in this case) working with large companies in ways that leverage the strength of both.

The bootstrap of weblogs.com is something a bigco should not attempt, it's hard to make it go, and most bootstraps don't, and it requires trust, something an individual is more likely able to inspire than a big company. On the other hand, running a serivce that other bigco's depend on (like Google, and Microsoft, to name two) is not something a person like myself should attempt. I think Verisign is the perfect company to do it. Their name servers, I hear, respond to 250,000 requests per second at peak loads. In comparison, weblogs.com's 1-2 million pings a day seems a drop in the bucket. Further, it will require great resources to tackle the ping-spam issue, and there Verisign's expertise, not just what's visible today, but what's coming down the road, will make all the difference. I was in no posiiton to do this on my own. And belive me, the Technorait's and PubSub's, even Feedster and Bloglines, weren't helping out very much. I belive they'll respect Verisign much more than they respected me. And this deal will free me up to work on new ideas around blogging, RSS, OPML, web services, podcasting, etc. I'm good at digging holes, I have to pass off to others to make the trains run on time when the service grows as big as weblogs.com has.

http://archive.scripting.com/2005/10/07#whatADay

Microsoft and AOL add new VoIP services. See a trend?

Seems that everyone's jumping on the VoIP bandwagon these days. Yahoo buys Dialpad. eBay buys Skype.  Now, according to the IAB SmartBrief, "America Online announced it would launch its TotalTalk VoIP service, the successor to AOL Internet Phone, on Oct. 4" and "Microsoft and Qwest Communications said that beginning next year they will market VoIP service to small- and medium-sized businesses."

All part of the pay-per-call trend? You have to assume. VoIP normally wouldn't even be considered as part of my blog subject material, but when Google, Yahoo!, MSN and even eBay all jump on a trend, you've gotta figure there's going to be a marketing opp in there somewhere. These guys don't do anything unless it presents enormous income potential...

Here's a nice capsulization from Om Malik's blog:

As I hinted earlier, this is a pay-per-call model that could be the “VoIP” play for Google. A lot of start-ups have already started mucking around with it. The leader in this space is Ingenio, which has a deal with AOL. The pay-per-call results typically make more money for sites that use pay-per-call model, and this includes various publications and portals. Another start-up that has jumped into the fray is Insider Pages, an Idea Lab company. Jupiter’s Gary Stein has some thoughts on this trend, as he tries to come-up with reasons for why Microsoft bought Teleo.

We know that local merchants would rather pay for a call than a click; having pay-per-call as a product is pretty much a must for anyone looking to get into the local directory business.

I guess, as Voice-over-IM tries to find its footing, the first application that becomes popular is this “pay for call” feature. Yannick sums it up nicely when he writes:

So could all the talk about Google’s VoIP plans really be all about extending its advertising franchise into pay-per-call, rather than offering plain old consumer minutes, a la everyone else?

An obvious, simple and practical observation!

Obviously, this post was made prior to the eBay-Skype deal, when Google announced plans to go vocal...but it does gives some insight into the trend.

Update: Here's another take from Andy Beal on Google's move to the audible web.

Microsoft and AOL add new VoIP services. See a trend?

Seems that everyone's jumping on the VoIP bandwagon these days. Yahoo buys Dialpad. eBay buys Skype.  Now, according to the IAB SmartBrief, "America Online announced it would launch its TotalTalk VoIP service, the successor to AOL Internet Phone, on Oct. 4" and "Microsoft and Qwest Communications said that beginning next year they will market VoIP service to small- and medium-sized businesses."

All part of the pay-per-call trend? You have to assume. VoIP normally wouldn't even be considered as part of my blog subject material, but when Google, Yahoo!, MSN and even eBay all jump on a trend, you've gotta figure there's going to be a marketing opp in there somewhere. These guys don't do anything unless it presents enormous income potential...

Here's a nice capsulization from Om Malik's blog:

As I hinted earlier, this is a pay-per-call model that could be the “VoIP” play for Google. A lot of start-ups have already started mucking around with it. The leader in this space is Ingenio, which has a deal with AOL. The pay-per-call results typically make more money for sites that use pay-per-call model, and this includes various publications and portals. Another start-up that has jumped into the fray is Insider Pages, an Idea Lab company. Jupiter’s Gary Stein has some thoughts on this trend, as he tries to come-up with reasons for why Microsoft bought Teleo.

We know that local merchants would rather pay for a call than a click; having pay-per-call as a product is pretty much a must for anyone looking to get into the local directory business.

I guess, as Voice-over-IM tries to find its footing, the first application that becomes popular is this “pay for call” feature. Yannick sums it up nicely when he writes:

So could all the talk about Google’s VoIP plans really be all about extending its advertising franchise into pay-per-call, rather than offering plain old consumer minutes, a la everyone else?

An obvious, simple and practical observation!

Obviously, this post was made prior to the eBay-Skype deal, when Google announced plans to go vocal...but it does gives some insight into the trend.

Update: Here's another take from Andy Beal on Google's move to the audible web.