Articles of the Day
Forrester: Hulu Should Please Advertisers, Viewers - Under the tightest controls, Hulu.com emerged from the lab on Monday to generally favorable reviews–or review, given that its creators had only briefed one analyst. Forrester analyst James McQuivey was impressed with both the design features and business strategy behind the joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp., noting that it has found “the best way to please advertisers is to maximize viewing of content.”
Tribune, Gannett Partner On Metromix Entertainment Network - Chicago-based Gannett and Tribune Company’s Tribune Interactive division have partnered to launch Metromix LLC–expanding Tribune’s already established network of local entertainment and activity sites. The network will exist as an independently operated joint venture headquartered in Chicago–with Tribune vet Kara Walsh signed on as the company’s CEO.
E-Mail ROI High, Response Rates Low - Spending on direct marketing commercial e-mail in the United States will hit $600 million in 2008, according to the Direct Marketing Association. That number represents an increase of nearly one-quarter over 2007. The numbers are dwarfed by spending on non-e-mail Internet direct marketing—such as search and display—which is expected to hit $23 billion. But judging by the DMA’s data, the spending figures belie e-mail’s low cost and high ROI.
Networks Help Advertisers Find the Long Tail - Ad networks are increasingly getting into bed with news distributors like Voxant, is in the business of delivering stories from major news outlets like the Associated Press to its own network of smaller blogs and Web sites. Many of these sites are valuable to advertisers because they have loyal niche audiences, but the traffic we’re talking about is very small-Donklephant, the blog has just 40,000 users per month. However, for sites that center around granular topics, Voxant helps deliver relevant text, videos and photos to make their content richer. They also open up new ad inventory from which the publisher and news outlet profit from, in addition to providing targeted advertising for the advertiser.
False and Misleading Data Devalues Facebook - Facebook’s user info may not be kosher for advertisers. For one thing, you can’t always trust online users–especially young online users–to provide accurate information. There is an awful lot of role-playing on the Web, but to a larger extent, social network users like to fib. A Pew study says that 56% of teens post false items on their social networking profiles.
Facebook Employees Are Watching You - Privacy concerns were raised at Facebook after an anonymous source revealed that a friend from the company had asked her why she kept looking at his profile. Well, according to the source, one of the “perks” of being a Facebook employee is the ability to see anyone’s profile and their profile activity.
Investors: Set AOL Free - When news came last Friday that Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons could be succeeded by Jeff Bewkes as early as next week, the company’s stock surged 3.5%. The media giant, whose share price has barely budged during Parsons’ five-year tenure, has been in need of change for some time, or so goes the general consensus. Some speculators said the surge indicated that investors hoped Bewkes would break up the lumbering conglomerate, starting with AOL.
Amazon: The Model Of SEO-Savvy Online Retail - Amazon is one of the online retailing greats — growing from its humble beginnings in 1995 as a book reseller, to a juggernaut that sells electronics, groceries and now challenges Apple for the sale of MP3s. But Amazon is also the perfect example of a company leveraging the “content is king” SEO mantra for stellar benefits.
MSN Improves Local Search - Erick Schonfeld notes that increased competition in the mapping space has spurred the online giants to launch a number of innovative map-based tools. In the past few months Yahoo, Google and even MapQuest have upgraded their map personalization and visualization features — and now Microsoft has stepped up to the plate with changes to its Live Search Maps.
Beyond Google: Who Will Lead Search’s 3rd Generation? - David Freedman chronicles a bit of the history of search in this piece that uncovers the “global effort” to find a better way to search for information on the Web — noting that as users seek to get their information from more refined sources, Google’s search domination seems vulnerable. His POV stems partly from the idea that while innovative, Google is only the 2nd generation of search engines (a step up from precursors like AltaVista that only searched by keyword) and that its method of ranking by links and keywords (among other “opaque” factors) stands the chance of being usurped by an upstart that figures out the next optimal formula.
