Internet News and SEO Internet Marketing Information from DC2NET

The Next Frontier In Search Marketing

2009-05-22T19:41:00.001-07:00

by Sramana Mitra

It may be hard to believe for tech types like us, but in 2008 newspaper advertising still consumed almost $35 billion of U.S. advertising spending while TV took in double that amount. If I were a CMO, would I be spending so much on avenues that are so wishy-washy, unmeasurable and downright ineffective?

Online advertising's lure has been growing as businesses see it as a more effective way to measure customer engagement. In 2008, the Internet took in $23.4 billion in ad spending. Pioneered by Google, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is both measurable and efficient, and is attractive due to its pay-for-performance attribute.

But recently, paid search ad spending has been slowing down as advertisers figure out that organic search results drive a much more significant portion of their traffic. Organic search refers to search results that are not paid for by advertisers. They are a search engine's natural results, purely driven by the algorithms.

Internet tracker Hitwise claims that "the share of search traffic to Web sites generated from paid listings has dropped to about 7.25% over the last four weeks, down from 9.8% during the same period a year ago. And Hitwise noted that paid clicks from searches for brand name terms--such as Home Depot and Orbitz--saw especially sharp drops."

Andy Beal of Marketing Pilgrim points out that these major advertisers are most likely relying more heavily on organic traffic. Thus far, however, organic search marketing via search engine optimization (SEO) has not exactly been a science. CMOs have been leery of paying fees to SEO agencies and consultants without the ability to measure what they're getting in return.

This could change with Enquisite, a new search engine marketing company. For businesses that rely heavily on online traffic, Enquisite's search marketing innovation promises to address an important gap in search marketing: driving more of the right organic search traffic.

Through its suite of products like Enquisite Campaign, Enquisite Optimizer and Enquisite Auditor, customers can maximize their traffic flow from organic search results, and agencies can be completely transparent in demonstrating the progress and value of their work. They can even charge on a pay-for-performance basis, making organic search engine marketing a viable bucket in which CMOs can now safely allocate ad dollars.

I'm not the only one who is excited about this company. Veteran entrepreneur Mark Hoffman has made Enquisite his next run. For those too young to remember, he founded the database technology pioneer Sybase, and served as its chairman, chief executive and president. He was also chairman, chief executive and president of Commerce One, which is considered to have established the software standards for electronic commerce.

Enquisite was spun off from founder Richard Zwicky's prior venture Metamend, an SEO consulting boutique. The company has raised $12 million in funding so far.

There are lots of companies like Omniture, Coremetrics, WebTrends and Marin Software in the Web analytics sector, but none of these are focused on organic search. Yet 88% of Internet search traffic flows through organic search results, making it one of its biggest untapped innovation opportunities in the domain of online marketing. SEO is mostly contracted as a professional services (flat fee) model but SEO agencies earn little compared to the value delivered.

Enquisite provides the technology to address the untapped organic side of the search market. It has the necessary technology to measure, report, demonstrate and audit the results with no lag time. Customers are assured of predictable results since the profitable business model mitigates client risk and maximizes performance. This way, both the agency and advertiser are highly motivated.

Enquisite targets large sites that depend heavily on traffic for their business. These are generally in segments like travel, insurance and online retail. Customers include sites like Viator.com, as well as agencies like Metamend, Bruce Clay, ZaaZ and Netconcepts. Enquisite leverages agencies as its main channel. Some customers, like Viator, have seen a 300% improvement in natural traffic since they began using Enquisite.

Instead of spending advertising dollars on newspaper and magazine ads, focusing on acquiring more organic search traffic as a key pillar of advertising strategy should become mainstream in the next 12 months. Thus, I see organic as the next big frontier in online advertising.

As Hoffman puts it: "If a $100 billion market-cap company [Google] can be built on the shoulders of just 12% of the world's search traffic, what kind of value creation opportunity remains locked in the other 88%?"

Indeed, it would be wonderful to see innovators tap into the organic search opportunity and create both some great companies, as well as an eco-system that would take search marketing to its next level.

Twitter, online patter inescapable, says panel

2009-05-20T15:36:00.001-07:00

by New Mexico Business Weekly

Gweneth Doland of the New Mexico Independent says she gets breaking news on her iPhone before she even gets out of bed in the morning.

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Experts on social media, such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, say that soon the entire Internet will be transformed by these communications concepts.

“It will be much richer than what we see now,” said Sophie Martin of the online site, Duke City Fix. “We, as a community, will go much further with it in the future.”

Martin founded Duke City Fix, www.dukecityfix.com, five years ago in Albuquerque. It is a unedited community Web site about the city, moderated by volunteers.

The panel was hosted by the New Mexico Advertising Federation at the Embassy Suites hotel. Approximately 100 were in attendance. The discussion covered the growing influence and impact of social media on advertisers and consumers.

“When I wake up in the morning and roll over, the first thing I grab is my iPhone,” said Gweneth Doland of the New Mexico Independent.

Doland said she worried for years about the effect social media seemed to have on the “demise of newspapers,” but now thinks the two mediums offer a different product.

Doland previously worked for the Weekly Alibi and the Santa Fe New Mexican before taking a position with the entirely online Independent.

Panelists agreed that there are many misconceptions about social networking sites — the main one being that it’s only used by young people.

“The fastest growing demographic for Facebook is women over 50,” said panelist Greta Weiner of GWDC LLC, an Internet marketing company in Albuquerque.

“Power moms are also using Facebook. These are moms that are very busy, but want to keep up with what their kids are doing and keep up with the latest information.”

During the question and answer session, audience members wondered if social media was really the future of the Internet.

Martin said a familiar refrain she hears from clients is that they don’t have time to keep up with all the sites and constant updates.

“However, 10 years ago [clients] were wondering if they even had to have a Web site and wondered if it had to be good,” she said with a smile.

Other panelists included Nora Heineman Fleck, who runs the social media programs for the University of New Mexico, and Silvia Uribe, who administers a community news Web site, Edhat.com, out of Santa Barbara, Calif.

The New Mexico Advertising Federation was established in 1959 and serves as an “advertising voice” for the state. It is a chapter of the American Advertising Federation. The AAF is the nation’s oldest national advertising trade association, representing 40,000 professionals in the advertising industry.

The power of paid search marketing

2009-05-19T16:56:00.000-07:00

by AlterSage

With our previous focus on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and its importance in search marketing, we now look at Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising as the twin influence. PPC and SEO are the elements that comprise search marketing, and if the correct synergy is achieved, the two prove to be powerful marketing tools.

PPC works on a bidding system and provides paid-for traffic to your website on a per click basis. PPC advertising is key-phrased based and there are three visual elements to a Pay Per Click advert: a title, a description and a display URL. Adverts are displayed alongside relevant searches in the search engines, and alongside contextually relevant content on third party sites that have opted into PPC advertising publishers' programmes (also known as Adsense).

The position the advert takes on the search engine result page depends on a number of factors generally referred to as the Quality Score. These include the bid cost for the keyword (versus the competition), as well as the relevance of the advert, your chosen keywords and the landing page. Google determines the position of your advert by utilising a weighted algorithm that takes these factors into account. This means that the highest bid will not necessarily rank first in these paid listings.

A PPC campaign can complement a SEO campaign in a variety of ways, especially in the early stages of the SEO campaign when the website is still acquiring organic rankings within search engines. PPC is a valuable marketing research tool since it is a great way to test key-phrases for an SEO campaign. Due to PPC's immediate nature, your online marketing consultant can track which key-phrases are attracting the most visitors and conversions and adjust the SEO campaign accordingly to ensure maximum return on investment. Industries in South Africa that prosper by implementing PPC campaigns typically include commerce related websites and services such as property, tourism, financial services and consulting, health products, flowers, gifts, technology and dating amongst others.

Some studies suggest that running a SEO and PPC campaign simultaneously provides better click-through results. “You may not have a presence on the search engines in the organic listings for all of the key-phrases for which you'd like to rank, but utilising PPC to fill in the gaps will allow you to have a presence for all key-phrases related to your business activity” says Christine da Silva, AlterSage Founder and Chief Strategist. PPC can help to create brand awareness within the online sphere, especially since Google Ads appear not only on search engines but also on websites that have opted into the AdSense programme. These sites form part of the content network and give your PPC advert greater exposure to targeted audiences on third-party sites.

Another benefit of PPC is that the adverts appear in the search engines straight after you activate your campaign, therefore PPC is great way to achieve immediate results. Of course the advertisements are only active while you're within your budget, meaning that the only drawback is that as soon as your budget runs out, so do your paid visitors.

For e-commerce websites a search engine marketing campaign that combines PPC and SEO is a great online marketing solution, especially for promotions. Since PPC adverts appear immediately and for any geo-location, they can be placed at any time to promote products for special events or occasions like Valentine's Day or Mothers Day anywhere around the globe.

There are a number of ways to maximise the standard PPC conversion rate of 2% to the more profitable margins of between 4% and 10% (and sometimes as high as 20% depending on industry and offer), one being that the URL in the adverts should link to a unique landing page on your website. This will transfer the visitor to persuasive content relevant to exactly where they want to be. This typically reduces any additional clicks and searches on the website and psychologically leads to an action (conversion) taking place faster. Faster meaning possibly within the session rather than a return session.

Google recently announced they will be removing trademark protection and allow competitors to bid on rival trademark terms and brand names. “With this new Adwords ruling taking effect from 1 June 2009, it will be imperative that PPC campaigns are supported with a solid SEO campaign to promote increased presence regardless of competitor bidding,” says da Silva.

Google No Longer #1 Company to Work For

2009-05-01T15:19:00.001-07:00

by www.submitedge.com

Last year Google headed up the Fortune Magazine list of the 100 best companies to work for. This year they got shoved down to #3 – by a data management company, no less.

According to Fortune, NetApp has made the list the past six years – and landed the coveted top dog spot this year because of their realistic take on the way things work in the real world:

Typical of its down-to-earth management ethos, NetApp early on ditched a travel policy a dozen pages long in favor of this maxim: “We are a frugal company. But don’t show up dog-tired to save a few bucks. Use your common sense.” Rather than business plans, many units write “future histories,” imagining where their business will be a year or two out.

NetApp also has a top notch health package that includes autism benefits (unheard of), generous adoption aid credits ($11,390), and even five days paid leave a year for the specific purpose of allowing employees time to do volunteer work.

NetApp has had an increase in market share this year despite the economy, hasn’t had any layoffs, and has a liquidity of $2 million in cash, proving that treating employees right isn’t necessarily exclusive of profits.

Google still makes the list, but it seems more due to relaxed atmosphere, a generous telecommuting policy and onsite daycare…

SEOP Inc. SEO Company Unveils New Website

2009-03-22T08:07:00.000-07:00

by MarketWire

SEOP Inc. the largest International Search Engine Marketing firm in the world announced the unveiling of a newly designed website that provides comprehensive information about its services, values and philosophies. The updated website (www.seop.com), in addition to a sharper design, has revamped content and advertises several newer services.

SEOP is a full-service Search Engine Marketing firm, headquartered in Southern California with branches across the globe. Founded in 2000 by industry experts, SEOP focuses on the future of Search Engine Optimization to provide maximum ROI for all its clients. SEOP.com now highlights a variety of Search Engine Marketing services that the industry leader provides: Organic Search Engine Optimization, Link Building, Social Media Optimization, PPC Management, Affiliate Marketing, and Online Reputation Management. SEOP also offers more technical services, such as Web Content Writing and Site Design/Development. The new design of SEOP.com is meant to enhance a visitor's experience by placing organized information at their fingertips, said President Rhonda Spears.

"With the new SEOP.com, SEO and Search Engine Optimization Clients will be able to clearly understand the numerous ways SEOP can help them with their Search Engine Marketing needs," Spears stated. "SEOP remains the go-to company for the toughest SEO and PPC Management assignments. In today's environment, new clients know they have to make the right choice with their search marketing, and the value and performance that SEOP delivers makes the choice simple," she added.

For further information about SEOP Inc. and their Search Engine Marketing services, call 1-877-231-1557 or visit their website at http://www.seop.com.

About SEOP Inc. (SEOP.com)

With over a decade of Search Engine Marketing experience, SEOP offers an easy, cost-effective search engine optimization service that helps businesses stay competitive. We help you attract new customers by listing your business among the top search engine results for your competitive keyphrases.

Our professional, highly skilled staff has the knowledge and expertise to help your business increase exposure on major search engines and other high-traffic portals. We can help you start connecting with the millions of people everyday who use search engines to look for new products and services. It's fast, easy and guaranteed to deliver results. Call us at 1-877-231-1557 or visit www.SEOP.com to start your Search Engine Marketing campaign today!

SEO Consult UK's #1 SEO Company

2009-03-06T19:53:00.000-08:00

TopSEOs, the independent authority on search vendors, has ranked SEO Consult, the UK's leading Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) company, as the number one Organic SEO company in the UK for the fourth consecutive month.

TopSEOs bestow this monthly award on the UK SEO Agency which they consider offers the best all-round performance to clients. They make this decision based on an evaluation of 300 UK-based SEO agencies on several criteria, including their client retention rate, average Return on Investment (ROI) for SEO clients, their overall customer support including problem resolution, the amount of time in which first page organic SEO listings are achieved and also the competitiveness of service pricing. Part of the evaluation also includes feedback from at least three of the agency's clients to verify the quality of all services delivered.

"We are very excited to receive this award for the fourth month running," Matt Bullas, Managing Director of SEO Consult, comments. "Our aim at SEO Consult is to provide comprehensive and effective website optimisation services for our clients to result in maximum benefit for their business. To receive this award again shows that we are achieving our aim by delivering exceptional services and remaining at the top of the UK SEO industry."

For more details about SEO Consult, please visit our website www.seoconsult.co.uk or call 0845 205 0292.

About SEO Consult:

SEO Consult is the specialist SEO division of Click Consult. Established in 2003, Click Consult is a leading provider of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) solutions, including Pay Per Click (PPC) Campaigns, Content and Banner Advertising, Search Engine Optimisation, Affiliate Marketing, Shopping Feeds, Website Design and Development, E-Mail Marketing and Online PR. With over 35 Staff in Cheshire and London, Click Consult has over 200 PPC and SEO clients in every major industry. Click Consult is fully certified by Google AdWords, Microsoft adExcellence, the Internet Advertising Bureau, SEOCertification.org and TopSEOs.com.

The Great Video SEO Frontier

2009-02-13T11:46:00.001-08:00

By Liz Gannes

As people get more accustomed to seeing videos in their first page of Google search results, the range of marketing possibilities grows wider

While efforts to get Web sites onto the top page of Google's (GOOG) search results have spawned an entire industry, people are only starting to seriously consider the value of video optimization for search.

Google's "Universal Search" feature—which incorporates results from news sites, videos and maps right into the body of a search results page—was introduced in May 2007, but already one-fourth of U.S. Google searches (and more in other parts of the world) return videos in the results, according to a study by Nate Elliott, now with Forrester Research (FORR).

VIDEO'S BETTER ODDS

Videos are 53 times more likely to appear on the first page of search results than text pages, Elliott found. Under the catchy headline "The Easiest Way to a First-Page Ranking on Google," he blogged about some of the math behind that number. The study looked at 40 of the most popular keywords, and found:

"On the keywords for which Google offers video results, we found an average of 16,000 videos vying to appear on results pages containing an average of 1.5 video results—giving each video about an 11,000-to-1 chance of making it onto the first page of results. By comparison, there were an average of 4.7 million text pages competing for a place on results pages with an average of just 9.4 text results—giving each text page about a 500,000-to-1 chance of appearing on the first page of results."

The simplest reason for this finding is that there are far fewer videos than Web pages. But it's worth considering that U.S. video views have (as expected) surpassed searches—there were 12.7 billion video views in November 2008 and 12.3 billion searches.

A PRIMARY MARKETING FOCUS IN '09

These developments are old enough to already support multiple video SEO companies, among them Vmatrix and EveryZing, with services ranging from video production to creation of keyword-driven video pages based on natural language processing and content analysis.

In a PermissionTV survey of more than 400 executives, 67% said online video would be a primary focus of their 2009 online marketing, with 52% expecting to start or extend online video projects in the second quarter of this year, up from 32% at the time of the study in December.

For his part, Elliott recommends that video marketers optimize keywords by including them in titles, tags, and file names; host their videos on YouTube, which shows up by far most often in Google results; and make sure to add new content, because freshness matters. He pointed out Electronic Arts' integration with YouTube for its game Spore, where users can directly upload game-play videos that are properly tagged automatically, as a successful effort to take over a generic word (though at this point there is only one agricultural-related result on the first "spore" results page, so it wasn't video alone).

NO MAGIC BULLET

Google is quick to point out that getting a video to the top of its results is not that easy. "[M]arketers shouldn't expect video SEO to be some sort of magic bullet," said Matt Cutts, Google software engineer in charge of Web spam, via e-mail. Because video production is expensive and intensive, and watching a video takes time, which may cut down on conversion, it's most appropriate for visual industries and branding efforts, not direct response. Cutts also warned, "[I]f Google believes that users are getting a low-quality search experience, we always reserve the right to change our algorithms, which can include how often we show videos." But by the same measure, those factors would seem to make video less susceptible to spam (my interpretation, not Cutts').

Cutts is right to caution against video as a cure-all. Elliott also warned in a phone interview, "If you're not very good at text-based SEO, then you're going to have trouble with video SEO." But it seems clear that video SEO has the ability to make all sorts of video marketing more valuable. Original branded video content, viral commercials, video analytics, and video search will become more valuable because of how prominent they can be.

E-Books Take Center Stage

2009-02-06T19:25:00.001-08:00

by Melissa J. Perenson

New Amazon Kindle rumors and Google's e-book announcement help fuel e-reading furor.

It’s been over a year since the Amazon Kindle e-book reader was introduced. And the electronic-ink-based device--which in many ways has transformed the e-book category--has spent much of that time in high-demand: The Kindle was on backorder and sold out during the holidays. Today the Kindle remains on backorder at Amazon's site, by three to five weeks.

Rumor has it that the second-generation Kindle will be introduced at an Amazon event in New York on Monday. Last fall, images purported to be the Kindle 2 surfaced on The Boy Genius Report.

The first-generation Kindle cost $359--when you could buy it. “The Kindle has spurred much interest in the e-book category, not only because of its wireless capabilities, but also because it extends the footprint of Amazon nearly anywhere," notes Ross Rubin, NPD Group director of industry analysis. "It's been one of the first wirelessly connected consumer electronics products to offer fast connectivity at no end-user cost to the consumer.”

That connectivity--an integrated 3G cellular radio and Kindle’s free, Whispernet EvDO wireless connection provided in partnership with Sprint--allows immediate access to the Kindle store for on-demand e-book purchases. Plus, you can use Whispernet to subscribe to and receive blogs and RSS feeds, as well as to browse basic Web sites (text pages, not graphics-heavy sites, so it's handy for quick news and weather checks, or for Wikipedia lookups).

A second-generation Kindle has the opportunity to correct some of the design flaws of the first-gen model--it was too bulky, and handled PDFs and other document files less than gracefully--while making the device more competitive and appealing, given new competition.

Sony, for example, has added backlighting and a touch screen, on its slim second-generation Sony Reader Digital Book PRS-700BC. Meanwhile, Google announced that the 1.5 million public-domain books in its Google Book Search will be accessible via mobile handsets such as the Apple iPhone 3G and the T-Mobile G1. And Amazon has countered by saying that it is working on making Kindle e-book titles accessible on cell phones as well.

Cell phones could be the ultimate mobile e-book reader, by virtue of their portability and ubiquitous nature. “There's a relatively small market for a dedicated device for reading best-sellers, and we're seeing more development on e-book initiatives for the iPhone, with offerings such as Shortcovers and Zinio for the iPhone,” says Rubin. Add in the Google Book Search and Amazon mobile Kindle initiatives, and cell phones could become the next big platform for e-books, beyond the dedicated electronic-ink screens.

Rubin says that one area Amazon could potentially mine is that of electronic textbooks. “There's a tremendous opportunity for the first e-book provider that can tap into the textbook market,” he says. “At the appropriate price, that could transform these devices from frequent-flyer folios into a staple in the homes of students.”

Amazon offers game downloads

2009-02-03T16:42:00.000-08:00

by Tech.yahoo.com/news

Online retail giant Amazon began offering game downloads on Tuesday, opening an online store featuring more than 600 titles.

Amazon said all of the casual games available at its new Game Downloads Store at amazon.com/gamedownloads were priced below 10 dollars.

The games, which are available for a free 30-minute trial, are only playable on personal computers which run Microsoft's Windows.

Amazon is one of the largest online sellers of digital music and books and the Games Downloads Store is its first venture into the world of downloadable gaming.

Amazon purchased casual game maker Reflexive Entertainment in October.

When you watch these ads, the ads check you out

2009-01-30T19:57:00.000-08:00

by AP

Watch an advertisement on a video screen in a mall, health club or grocery store and there's a slim — but growing — chance the ad is watching you too.

Small cameras can now be embedded in the screen or hidden around it, tracking who looks at the screen and for how long. The makers of the tracking systems say the software can determine the viewer's gender, approximate age range and, in some cases, ethnicity — and can change the ads accordingly.

That could mean razor ads for men, cosmetics ads for women and video-game ads for teens.

And even if the ads don't shift based on which people are watching, the technology's ability to determine the viewers' demographics is golden for advertisers who want to know how effectively they're reaching their target audience.

While the technology remains in limited use for now, advertising industry analysts say it is finally beginning to live up to its promise. The manufacturers say their systems can accurately determine gender 85 to 90 percent of the time, while accuracy for the other measures continues to be refined.

The concept is reminiscent of the science-fiction movie "Minority Report," in which Tom Cruise's character enters a mall and finds that retinal scanners identify him and prompt personalized ads that greet him by name.

But this technology doesn't go nearly that far. It doesn't identify people individually — it simply categorizes them by outward appearances.

So a video screen might show a motorcycle ad for a group of men, but switch to a minivan ad when women and children join them, said Vicki Rabenou, the chief measurement officer of Tampa, Fla.-based TruMedia Technologies Inc., one of the leaders in developing the technology.

"This is proactive merchandising," Rabenou said. "You're targeting people with smart ads."

Because the tracking industry is still in its infancy, there isn't yet consensus on how to refer to the technology. Some call it face reading, face counting, gaze tracking or, more generally, face-based audience measurement.

Whatever it's called, advertisers are finally ready to try it, said advertising consultant Jack Sullivan, a senior vice president of Starcom USA in Chicago. "I think you're going to see a lot of movement toward it by the end of this year in the top 10 markets," he said.

Because face tracking might feel reminiscent of Big Brother, manufacturers are racing to offer reassurances. When the systems capture an image of who's watching the screen, a computer instantly analyzes it. The systems' manufacturers insist, however, that nothing is ever stored and no identifying information is ever associated with the pictures. That makes the system less intrusive than a surveillance camera that records what it sees, the developers say.

The idea still worries Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil-liberties group in San Francisco. Tien said it's not enough to say some system is "not as bad as some other technology," and argues that cameras that study people contribute to an erosion of privacy.

In general, the tracking systems work like this: A sensor or camera in or near the screen identifies viewers' faces by picking up shapes, colors and the relative speed of movement. The concept is similar to the way consumer cameras now can automatically make sure faces are in focus.

When the ad system pinpoints a face, it compares shapes and patterns to faces that are already identified in a database as male or female. That lets the system predict the person's gender almost immediately.

"The most important features seem to be cheekbones, fullness of lips and the gap between the eyebrows," said Paolo Prandoni, chief scientific officer of Quividi, a French company that is another player in face-tracking technology. Others include Studio IMC Inc. in New York.

The companies say their systems have become adept at determining a viewer's gender, but age is trickier: The software can categorize age only in broad ranges — teens, younger to middle-aged folks and seniors. There's moderate demand for ads based on ethnic information, but the companies acknowledge that determining ethnicity is more challenging than figuring out gender and age range.

Prandoni provided The Associated Press a limited version of Quividi's software, which uses an ordinary webcam to stream video to a computer. The trial version tracked gender only, using color-coded circles to distinguish male and female faces.

The sample size was too small to be statistically significant, but it was accurate about 80 to 90 percent of the time.

That might be as precise as the systems ever get, said Deborah Mitchell, a professor of consumer psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Even the human brain can't always determine gender, age or ethnicity.

Still, "even if it gets to 70 percent accuracy, that's still giving you a wealth of information," said Mitchell, who teaches in the Wisconsin School of Business.

That information is certainly valuable to Bill Ketcham, the chief marketing officer of Adspace Networks Inc. His New York company sells video advertising on 1,400 video screens at 105 malls around the nation.

Adspace is testing six TruMedia systems at malls in Winston-Salem, N.C., Pittsburgh and St. Louis. The kiosks display a daily list of top 10 sales at the mall, as well as paid advertising that comes largely from movie studios and TV networks.

A 15-second video ad that replays across Adspace's national network can cost as much as $765,000 per month. So advertisers expect rigorous information about who sees the spots — information that face tracking can now provide, Ketcham said.

For now, at least, Adspace isn't changing the ads based on who's watching — Ketcham said the kiosks' audiences are so large that it wouldn't be practical to personalize ads to individuals.

While advertisers like the face-tracking technology, another privacy advocate, Harley Geiger, questions whether it should be used on consumers without their knowledge. Geiger, staff counsel for the Center for Democracy & Technology in Washington, D.C., said advertisers should be telling consumers what details about them are being collected and for what purpose.

"With the technology proliferating, now or the short-term is the time to consider privacy protections," he said. "If you don't build it in at an early stage it becomes very difficult to build it into an already established system."

Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 RC1 Improves Security

2009-01-27T13:40:00.001-08:00

By Thomas Claburn

Updates include architectural changes that mirror features found in Google's Chrome, Apple's Safari, and Mozilla's Firefox.

Microsoft has released Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 RC1, a near-final version of its new Web browser that's stable enough for widespread public testing.

Assuming that no show-stopping bugs or significant vulnerabilities are identified between now and whenever Microsoft is planning to offer the official release of Internet Explorer 8, RC1 represents the final form of Microsoft's browser, at least until the next revision.

Internet Explorer 8 has some catching up to do. Its global market share, according to Net Applications, is just 0.82%, compared with Google Chrome (all versions) at 1.04%, Mozilla Firefox (all versions) 21.34%, and Apple Safari (all versions) 7.93%.

The various versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer have 68.15% of the global browser market, down from 91.27% in 2004.

Among IE8's selling points are various safety and security improvements. These include architectural changes that put Web pages in separate processes, privacy enhancements, and online safety measures.

Microsoft has referred to IE8's architectural changes using the term "Loosely-Coupled IE," or "LCIE." In Internet Explorer 7, with a few exceptions, each browser window had its own process. But tabs, toolbar extensions, browser helper objects, and ActiveX controls also were managed by the same process. Thus, a crash in any part of this system could crash the browser.

In a move away from monolithic browser architecture, IE8's loosely coupled system puts tabs in separate processes, which in theory leads to better browser stability and less susceptibility to potential exploits. Google's Chrome browser also takes this approach, through in addition to running tabs on separate processes, it also gives plugs-ins separate processes. IE8 supports Data Execution Prevention, a technology that aims to reduce the exploitability of buffer overflows, which are commonly exploited for injecting malicious code. If programmers write their code with DEP in mind, many potential vulnerabilities could be eliminated.

IE8 also offers a private browsing mode called InPrivate, which allows the user to "launch a new browser session that won't record any information, including searches or Web page visits," as Microsoft puts it. This means that during InPrivate browsing sessions, which must initiated by the user, cookies, searches, Web history, and other information aren't stored where they usually are on the user's computer. Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome both offer similar technology, as does the current Mozilla Firefox 3.1 Beta 2.

Local privacy settings like this may be useful for hiding online activities from members of one's household, but they don't prevent one's ISP or visited Web sites from recording the IP address or other transactional information.

InPrivate Browsing protections are disabled if Parental Controls are used.

IE8 also includes malware protection in the form of the SmartScreen Filter, the Cross Site Scripting (XSS) Filter, and Domain Highlighting. The SmartScreen Filter is a warning page that loads when the browser detects an attempt to visit an unsafe site. The XSS Filter attempts to detect malicious code on compromised Web sites. And Domain Highlighting highlights the domain name of a URL in black to reduce the effectiveness of deceptive URLs, which are often used for phishing.

In all, IE8 delivers significant security improvements over its predecessors. But given the extent to which cybercrime relies on social engineering, users of IE8, like other modern browsers, would be well advised to remain cautious in the sites that they visit and the information that they disclose online. It's only a matter of time before someone figures out a way around IE8's new defenses.

Microsoft Shuts Down Flight Simulator Game Studio

2009-01-23T19:48:00.001-08:00

By Brian Heater and Mark Hachman

As the rest of the tech world scrambles to assess the implications of the recently announced 5,000 layoffs at software giant Microsoft, news has come in that might potentially spell the end of the company's nearly 30-year-old Flight Simulator series.

Microsoft confirmed Friday that the software giant has shuttered ACES Studios, the developer of the Flight Simulator series of games, whose latest incarnation is Flight Simulator X. The simulation is considered Microsoft's oldest product, whose original version first shipped in 1982.

However, a Microsoft spokeswoman said that while the studio has been closed, the software company remains committed to the Flight Simulator franchise, without explaining how future products can be launched without a dedicated software development team backing them.

"We can confirm the closing of ACES Studios, which was responsible for the Flight Simulator franchise," Microsoft spokeswoman Kelda Rericha told Appscout. "Following our annual strategy review process, IEB [Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business unit] is making adjustments within our business to align our people against our highest priorities. The closure of ACES Studios was one of those specific changes."

Rericha refused to disclose any further details regarding the future of the company. She did, however, suggest that the Flight Simulator series is likely to stick around in some form or another. "We are committed to the Flight Simulator franchise, which has proven to be a successful PC-based game for the last 27 years," Rericha added. "You should expect us to continue to invest in enabling great Live experiences on Windows, including flying games, but we have nothing specific to announce at this time."

Of course, the Flight Simulator franchise is a fairly broad one, and anything falling under the largely online Live umbrella would likely be fairly different than the game's traditionally resource-intensive online incarnation.

"It's definitely confusing; I wish I had more clarification on that that we could provide, Rericha added. "At this point, they're just not talking about it yet – how the product will, and if the product will, live within Microsoft."

Microsoft does not have a time frame on when it will provide additional information, Rericha added.

The most likely scenario seems that, like the rest of us, Microsoft is still attempting to assess exactly how such a large number of redundancies will affect its business strategy. Projects like Flight Simulator have likely been given a lower priority than, say, Windows or Office, and therefore their fates are still not entirely certain even in Redmond.

Numerous contractors also confirmed that they'd been let go in the ACES layoffs, including independent coders who were also fans of the series.

"One thing that every person at ACES will tell you is that the community and each of you in it mean the world to us for sharing our passion of flight, and so it really hurts that Gib and I can't tell you more," "PlaneEater, one of the affected contractors, wrote in a thread on SimOuthouse.com. "I was a FS fan before I joined the FS team, and being able to work on the sim we all love so much was a dream come true. I just want to thank everyone here for the time and passion they've poured into Flight Sim for so many years, and to let you all know that every person at ACES is in awe of how much the community cares about what we build."

It seems unlikely that Flight Simulator will go away entirely, even if it means branding a Live game with the name, fans speculated.

Personal Computer Dependency Weighing On Microsoft

2009-01-22T21:12:00.001-08:00

By Jessica Hodgson

Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) dramatic revenue and earnings misses on Thursday validate the company's decision to expand beyond its core software franchises. But it remains unclear if new initiatives, like videogames and online services, will deliver significant profits anytime soon.

On Thursday, the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant posted worse-than- expected financial results for the second quarter, missing earnings by 11%. The company blamed the performance on falling sales of personal computers.

The results underscore Microsoft's symbiotic reliance on personal computers, a relationship that has been the cornerstone of its success but which may become a liability. Its Windows operating system ships on over 90% of the world's computers and Microsoft's relationship with manufacturers and third-party service providers who equip them for customers has guaranteed its sales and profits in the past. Now, with sales of PCs falling, so is Microsoft's revenue.

Unlike competitors that have transformed their businesses through diversification to reduce reliance on their original products, like International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) and Apple Inc. (AAPL), Microsoft's profitability remains tied to its core business. More than 80% of its $22 billion in annual 2008 profits came from either its operating system or the Office suite of software that runs on it. While Microsoft has made a credible success of moving into the server business, which generated $4.5 billion of 2008 profits, efforts to diversify, like its XBox game machine and Zune music player, have generated little in terms of profitability.

"Microsoft is a quasi PC company," said Israel Hernandez, an analyst with Barclays Capital. "Its fortunes are inextricably tied to those of the PC."

Analysts say Microsoft needs to draw profitability out of its other projects, particularly its attempt to become a force in Internet advertising. Hernandez said part of the reason investors pushed Microsoft shares to an 11-year low after the earnings announcement - shares closed 11.7% lower at $17.11 - was because they were worried by the company's revenue mix.

"There are some structural issues there," he said.

Microsoft's Xbox was a bright spot in an otherwise downbeat quarter, with revenues at the company's entertainment and devices unit growing 3.5%, ahead of expectations. But the entertainment and devices unit provided only a fraction of Microsoft's 2008 profit. Microsoft doesn't disclose whether the Zune, its two- year old music player, is profitable, but the digital music player market is dominated by Apple's iPod device.

Despite its efforts, Microsoft is unlikely to wean itself off of its reliance on PCs anytime soon.

"Windows is the air we breathe," Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said late last year at an analysts' meeting. "As many transformations happen in the PC business itself, we have to drive forward."

But investors are increasingly aware the company faces challenges from a broad range of companies that have a head start in the markets it's targeting. Those include Apple in the devices market and Google Inc. (GOOG), dominant in the Internet and moving aggressively onto Microsoft's turf through free software it offers that mimics the Office applications. Google has also rolled out an operating system for cell phones, challenging Microsoft in another area in which it had established itself.

All that makes observers pause when they look at Microsoft.

"Several emerging technologies threaten to displace Microsoft's Windows and Office franchises," Kevin Buttigieg, an analyst with Stanford Group, noted after the earnings. "Microsoft must deliver several new products and must execute well from a sales and services perspective."

YouTube tinkers with e-commerce program

2009-01-21T19:05:00.000-08:00

by CNET

Google is trying to expand YouTube's e-commerce profile by offering viewers in Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands click-to-buy products, something that it had offered only in the U.S. and Great Britain, according to Peter Kafka at All Things Digital.

Kafka reported Wednesday that in these countries YouTube isn't satisfied with just posting links to Amazon or iTunes at the bottom of the video page.

The company is now linking in the form of transparent overlays that appear within the videos. The links can only be seen while watching clips on YouTube and can't be found on embedded clips.

A YouTube representative was not immediately available for comment.

Expect to see an increase in this type of experimenting at YouTube as Google tries to turn the Web's No. 1 video site into the cash cow many once predicted it would become. Google has acknowledged struggling to generate significant revenue from YouTube.

Obama is changing YouTube

2009-01-19T20:00:00.000-08:00

By Jimmy Orr

Hey, do you want more Obama inauguration stuff but already have a hat, ceremonial coin set, commemorative dinner plate, plush velvet mural, bottle opener, bobblehead, chaps, and sockpuppet?

Good news. Now there’s a way to get free Obama videos and you don’t have to worry about being busted like the guy who leaked the new Guns ‘n Roses album.

YouTube

YouTube has announced downloadable videos on their site. That means if you like a video, you can click a button and it’s yours to keep.

“La de da,” say tech enthusiasts who figured out how to rip copies of YouTube videos eons ago.

A haughty writer over a ITWire.com snips that there are a “zillion ways to download YouTube videos” already.

Important

But for us cavemen, this is kinda cool. Not to mention important says Stanford Law professor Lawrence Lessig.

“YouTube is rolling this out slowly, initially with content that aspires to be consistent with principles of open government,” writes Lessig. “I’m told it will be offered more generally. In any case, it is an important development.”

Portable

Other tech watchers say the development is a signal that YouTube sees the importance of portability. TechNewsWorld says letting consumers watch videos even when they don’t have Internet access is clearly where YouTube is headed.

“It’s clearly a step towards portability, and I think they’ve made it clear they want to be available on all screens — they want to be on the computer, portable devices and the TV,” said Phil Leigh, senior analyst for Inside Digital Media.

Everything is free!

So does this mean everyone will be able to download Numa Numa? Exactly how widespread will this become?

CNET’s Josh Lowensohn pinged Google and asked ‘em.

“Nothing further to announce at this time,” said YouTube’s Hunter Walk. “We’re just excited to have made this feature available in preparation for a historic week in American politics.”

The president-elect’s videos are now available to be downloaded on his YouTube channel (change.gov). You can, for example, click to own any of his radio addresses.

Terms

If there was a big change at YouTube allowing mass-downloading, they would have to change their policies as that really smart IT writer astutely points out.

“YouTube’s terms and conditions state that video clips can’t be downloaded, so perhaps the download option will be quite limited, or perhaps the T&C’s will need to be changed,” writes Alex Zaharov-Reutt.

Simple

How simple is it anyway? A caveman could do it.

Go to this video and look for the “click to download” link in the far left corner of video screen. Click it and you’ve got it. By the way, it’s an 18mb file so if your computer’s hard drive is almost full, be aware.

Buying on Web to avoid sales taxes could end soon (AP)

2009-01-12T16:51:00.000-08:00

Shopping online can be a way to find bargains while steering clear of crowds — and sales taxes.

But those tax breaks are starting to erode. With the recession pummeling states' budgets, their governments increasingly want to fill the gaps by collecting taxes on Internet sales, which are growing even as the economy shudders.

And that is sparking conflict with companies that do business online only and have enjoyed being able to offer sales-tax free shopping.

One of the most aggressive states, New York, is being sued by Amazon.com Inc. over a new requirement that online companies must collect taxes on shipments to New York residents, even if the companies are located elsewhere. New York's governor also wants to tax "Taxman" covers and other songs downloaded from Internet services like iTunes.

The amount of money at stake nationwide is unclear; online sales were expected to make up about 8 percent of all retail sales in 2008 and total $204 billion, according to Forrester Research. This is up from $175 billion in 2007.

Based on that 2008 figure, Forrester analyst Sucharita Mulpuru says her rough estimate is that if Web retailers had to collect taxes on all sales to consumers, it could generate $3 billion in new revenue for governments.

It's uncertain how much more could come as well from unpaid sales taxes on Internet transactions between businesses. But even with both kinds of taxes available, state budgets would need more help. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that the states' budget gaps in the current fiscal year will total $89 billion.

Collecting online sales taxes is not as simple as it might sound. A nationwide Internet business faces thousands of tax-collecting jurisdictions — states, counties and cities — and tangled rules about how various products are taxed.

And a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling said that states can't force businesses to collect sales taxes unless the businesses have operations in that state. The court also said Congress could lift the ban, which remains in place — for now.

As a result, generally only businesses with a "physical presence" in a state — such as a store or office building — collect sales tax on products sent to buyers in the same state. For instance, a Californian buying something from Barnes & Noble Inc.'s Web site pays sales tax because the bookseller has stores in the Golden State. Buying the same thing directly from Amazon would not ring up sales tax.

That doesn't mean products purchased online from out-of-state companies are necessarily tax-free. Consumers are usually supposed to self-report taxes on these items. This is called a use tax, but not surprisingly, it tends to go unreported.

In hopes of unraveling the complex tax rules — and bringing states more money — 22 states and many brick-and-mortar retailers support the efforts of a group called the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board. The group is getting states to simplify and make uniform their numerous tax rates and rules, in exchange for a crack at taxing online sales.

Among other things, participating states need to change how they define things such as "food" and "clothing." For example, one state might now consider a T-shirt clothing and tax it as such, while another might consider it a sporting good and tax it differently.

In response, more than 1,100 retailers have registered with the streamlining group and are collecting sales taxes on items shipped to states that are part of the agreement — even if they are not legally obligated to.

The streamlining board also is lobbying Congress to let the participating states do what the Supreme Court ruling banned: They could force businesses to collect taxes on sales made to in-state customers, even if the businesses don't have a physical presence there.

New Jersey, Michigan and North Carolina are among the largest of the 19 states that have adjusted their tax laws to fully comply with the group's streamlined setup. Washington was the only state to join in 2008, but three more states are close to becoming full members of the group. And Scott Peterson, the group's executive director, expects another seven states — including Texas, Florida and Illinois — to introduce legislation in January that would make them eligible to join.

Undoing the patchwork can be difficult, even if the weak economy increases states' motivation to go after online sales taxes. Similar bills have been introduced in several states and failed, sometimes because of the cost of changing tax laws. New York, for example, decided against joining the streamlining board because it would require extensive revisions to its tax rules.

Besides various states and retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Borders Group Inc. and J.C. Penney Co., the National Retail Federation, the industry's biggest trade group, also supports the Streamlined Sales Tax group.

Companies that handle Web sales only have organized as well. NetChoice, whose members include eBay Inc. and online discount retailer Overstock.com Inc., supports the states' tax simplification efforts, but its executive director, Steve DelBianco, says online retailers should have to collect taxes only in states where they have a physical presence.

But what if the meaning of "physical presence" is changed? New York essentially did that in April when its budget included a provision requiring online retailers like Amazon to collect taxes on purchases made by New Yorkers.

The new rule requires retailers to collect sales tax if they solicit business in New York by paying anyone within the state for leading customers to them. Since some Web site operators within New York are compensated for posting ads that link to sites like Amazon, the online retailers would have to collect taxes.

Matt Anderson, spokesman for the New York State Division of the Budget, said the state expects to reap $23 million during the current fiscal year, which ends March 31, from newly collected online sales taxes.

That's a sliver of the overall state budget for the same period, which is $119.7 billion. The state faces a revenue gap of $1.7 billion.

Yet Anderson said the state wants "to level the playing field and end the "unfair competitive advantage" Web-only companies have over brick-and-mortar stores that can't avoid collecting sales taxes.

Amazon complies, and collects sales taxes on shipments to New York. However, Amazon is still fighting the rule. It sued New York in April, alleging its provision is unconstitutional. Amazon also said it is being specifically targeted by the law. The case is pending.

Amazon declined further comment.

Salt Lake City-based Overstock is also suing New York over the law. Unlike Amazon, Overstock is not collecting sales tax in New York, because it ended agreements with about 3,400 affiliates in the state that were being paid for directing traffic to Overstock.com.

The Streamlined Sales Tax group hopes Congress takes up its uniform-tax idea in 2009. Peterson thinks the dismal economy boosts the chances of passage.

But Congress also will be occupied with economic stimulus plans involving bigger pools of money. And Mulpuru, the Forrester Research analyst, notes that for years there has been talk of taxing online retailers.

"It's a legal morass," she said. "In a best-case scenario, it's going to take a while to sort everything out."

Google Follows Rivals into Voice Search

2008-11-14T09:32:00.000-08:00

by Brian Heater

Don't let it be said that Google has given up on the iPhone. They may be plugging away at their own mobile OS, Android, but the company has just bestowed Apple's popular smartphone with the gift of hearing.

The thing is, this isn't new. Not by a long shot. But this is a story with the buzzwords "Google" and "Apple" in it, and people seem to automatically think anything with "Google" and "Apple" in it is magic, like fairies and pie.

Here's the deal: a free app, developed by the search giant, is available for free through the iTunes app store. It converts spoken questions into Google searches.

The most practical application for the service--at least at the moment--is local search. Questions spoken into the phone will bring up local results in moments, as the phone determines its location.

As The New York Times points out, Google's chief competitors Yahoo and Microsoft already offer similar voice services, as well as other carriers.

And, of course, local search, as ever, offers a unique targeted opportunity for advertisers. But mobile voice search isn't a new feature, and it doesn't require a high-end phone. For instance, V-Enable's voice search app is on almost every MetroPCS phone (branded as Metro411).

MetroPCS sells low-end phones with discount, unlimited plans. Yahoo's OneSearch with Voice already runs on BlackBerry and some Nokia phones. And Nuance, for years a leader in voice recognition technology, has an "Open Voice Search" product that may be coming to several major carriers in the very near future.

YouTube to play full-length TV shows

2008-10-13T08:03:00.000-07:00

By Joshua Hill

In the most recent attempt to squeeze money out of YouTube traffic, Google unveiled full-length episodes of some fan favorite TV shows. "We are starting to test full-length programming on YouTube, beginning with some fan favorites requested by you," the YouTube blog announced.

The full-length episodes will be available in traditional view as well as YouTube’s new “theatre view,” which seems to play upon the belief that people want fake curtains (and a ‘lights off’ gimmick) framing their online video watching. In addition, Google is playing around with a new advertising method, playing 15-second ads at the beginning of the video. Ads also roll in during playback and after.

“As we test this new format, we also want to ensure that our partners have more options when it comes to advertising on their full-length TV shows,” YouTube said. "You may see in-stream video ads embedded in some of these episodes; this advertising format will only appear on premium content where you are most comfortable seeing such ads."

However, the full-length videos are not available for viewing outside the U.S. Non-U.S. users trying to access the videos are greeted with a note saying that “This video is not available in your country.”

It is somewhat surprising to us that it took Google and YouTube so long to integrate full-length videos, while other services, foremost Hulu.com, have positioned themselves as leading services in this segment.

Can Google and YouTube turn the new service into a goldmine? Time will tell.

Sinking shares could make Yahoo a target again (AP)

2008-10-10T15:59:00.000-07:00

When Yahoo Inc. co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang spurned Microsoft Corp.'s rich buyout offer this spring, he promised brighter days in Sunnyvale were just over the horizon.

Now the market collapse has helped drive Yahoo's value to a fraction of what Microsoft originally bid. If Microsoft — or another buyer — were to float a new offer, the acquisition would come much cheaper, and Yahoo would likely be under even greater pressure to take it.

Matt Rosoff, an analyst for the independent research group Directions on Microsoft, said Microsoft is much less likely to bid for all of Yahoo this time. Its search engine, No. 2 to Google Inc.'s, would likely be Microsoft's target.

Rosoff said Yahoo's pummeled stock price leaves time on Microsoft's side. The company can afford to throw money into its own Internet search operations and swoop in when Yahoo is finally strapped.

"I think they're looking at Yahoo as a rapidly declining asset," he said.
On Feb. 1, Microsoft tried to buy Yahoo for $31 per share, or $44.6 billion at the time, in a mixture of cash and stock. The offer marked a 62 percent premium to Yahoo's closing price of $19.18 the day before.

Microsoft later sweetened its bid to $33 per share, or $47.5 billion — an amount Yang and board chairman Roy Bostock said in May still undervalued Yahoo.

Since then, Yahoo's share price has been halved and analysts are seeing few bright spots as they slash expectations for Web display advertising, Yahoo's strength, in the coming quarters.
Microsoft's stock has been battered as well, but even at the shares' current level, Microsoft's original stock-and-cash bid for Yahoo would be worth about $37.1 billion to Yahoo shareholders. That's more twice Yahoo's current market value.

Having missed that opportunity, many Yahoo shareholders would love to see another one emerge now.

Mithras Capital, a Napa, Calif.-based investment fund that said it holds more than 1.9 million Yahoo shares, this week urged Microsoft to come back with an offer to buy just Yahoo's search business for $10.3 billion, a tactic that failed for the software maker in July.

"It is imperative for the Yahoo board to embrace this proposal as the best outcome for long-suffering Yahoo shareholders," Mithras' Mark Nelson wrote in a statement.

The bigger question is whether Microsoft is still interested, even though its plan to pour more resources into Web search and online advertising have not borne fruit. And given the lack of support for a deal among Yahoo executives and employees, regulatory uncertainty that will last at least through the November elections and the economic turmoil, a deal could simply take too long, Rosoff said, giving Google time to grow even stronger.

Shares of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo fell 62 cents, or 4.9 percent, to $12.03 on Friday, and Microsoft's stock sank 82 cents, or 3.7 percent, to $21.48.

Smartphone Success May Be in the Touch

2008-10-09T08:52:00.000-07:00

By Judy Mottl

Handset designs that meet user needs will be market winners.

There's no debate that the touch screen is having a phenomenal impact on the smartphone market. Apple's iPhone finger-tap panel design is literally rattling the competitive smartphone industry into refreshing traditional small static screens and is driving handset innovations across the device from the keyboard to applications.

Now such a phenomenon may happen again, and possibly to a greater degree, as Research in Motion's BlackBerry Storm 9730'click technology' touch screen is viewed as an advancement on Apple's innovative design. And just like Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), RIM's tenacity in taking its time in development and to get to market, to get it right out of the gate may pay bigger, according to one industry watcher.

The reason? RIM (NASDAQ: RIMM) understands its user base just as well as Apple does, IDC analyst Ryan Reith told InternetNews.com. While many market watchers are already calling the Storm 9730, which RIM formally announced today, the biggest 'iPhone Killer,' Reith believes both smartphones will command impressive market segments.

"Smartphones are all similar but it's the touch screen that's the comparison point with these two devices," Reith said. "Apple and RIM both took their time but have different visions and different approaches," he explained.

Apple's vision, said Reith, was to provide an easy, enjoyable multimedia experience. The iPhone's multi-touch user interface lets users tap once to open applications and access functions, twice to reset the screen panel, and move icons around, and slide/swipe to browse music files, photos, e-mail and Web pages. For text, users tap on a keyboard that will magnify certain letters during activity to help avoid mistyping.

RIM's new touch screen mimics the look and feel and incorporate the 'click' bump of current BlackBerry keyboards. That provides users with a familiar experience, explained Reith. As another pundit noted in a report issued yesterday it provides "superior" typing accuracy as compared to the iPhone -- "leveraging a RIM hallmark" in the handset maker's push into the consumer market.

In typing the BlackBerry touch-screen is depressed "ever so slightly," according to a product press statement. Users experience a gentle “click,” similar to a physical keyboard, according to RIM. Users can also tap and slide screens for navigation needs.

Calls to RIM and Apple regarding touch screen strategy were not returned by press time.
"RIM has put precision into where the user's finger needs to be when typing," said Reith.
"I'm not saying one is right and one is wrong but RIM is pushing the next wave in this [design] area," he said. RIM went with its touch 'click' approach as testing revealed that iPhone touch and as swipe would frustrate RIM's heavy text user base. BlackBerry users are typically enterprise application users and that means much more text and e-mail use.

"What RIM did was make sure its touch screen fit the needs of its users, just as Apple did," said the analyst. "Both are sticking to the core fundamentals and the needs of their users," he added.
The fact that RIM is not deviating from what its loyal 'Crackberry' audience likes and wants could easily keep it ahead of Apple in the market race, and way ahead of newcomers like Google and its G1 Android-based HTC handset, said Reith.

"For example Google's G1 interface is going to change, as its users' needs come into play. BlackBerry already has the core foundation and is not giving up any efficiency, stability or security aspects in its design changes," said Reith.

"Yes, some will say the Storm is the number one iPhone competitor and see them as head to head," said the analyst. "But both have unique audiences and both are targeting those audiences."

Congress OKs bill to improve broadband access

2008-09-30T17:16:00.001-07:00

By JOHN DUNBAR

Congress has passed legislation that will require the government to keep closer tabs on who has access to the Internet and who does not. Supporters hope the Broadband Data Improvement Act will help policymakers better identify areas of the country that are falling behind when it comes to high-speed Internet access.

The bill passed both houses of Congress, with the Senate approving a final version Tuesday on a voice vote.

Senate sponsor Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, said the federal government has a responsibility to make sure Americans have access to the Internet, but "we cannot manage what we do not measure."

The Federal Communications Commission collects data on broadband use, but its methods have been criticized as outdated. The commission voted in March to greatly improve its data collection. Broadband providers will be required to provide subscription numbers by Census tract, speed and type of technology.

The legislation passed by Congress goes further. It requires the FCC to conduct consumer surveys of broadband use in urban, suburban and rural areas, as well as large and small business markets. Survey questions will include the cost of access and data transmission speeds.
The legislation requires the agency to compile a list of locales that lack broadband service and determine population and income levels in those areas.

The bill also requires the Census Bureau to add questions about Internet use on its survey. Residents will be asked whether they have a computer, whether they have Internet access and, if so, whether they have a dial-up or broadband connection.

It also orders the Government Accountability Office to study broadband speeds and costs and to compare the "availability and quality of broadband offerings" in the U.S. to other industrialized nations.

Such an analysis might provide some insight as to why the U.S. — the birthplace of the Internet — lags behind other developed countries in broadband usage. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ranks the U.S. 15th for broadband penetration.

Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., who sponsored a similar bill that passed the House earlier this year, supported the legislation.

"This initiative will help us ascertain whether the nation is achieving its broadband policy goals because, unfortunately, our current knowledge on the state of broadband deployment, speed and affordability in the U.S. is grossly and inexcusably lacking," Markey said.
___
The bill is S. 1492.
___
On the Net:
Bill text: http://www.thomas.loc.gov

Google’s First Phone: The iPhone With More Buttons

2008-09-23T15:02:00.000-07:00

By Saul Hansell

If the HTC’s new G1 cellphone, featuring Google’s Android software, were introduced two years ago, jaws would drop. But Apple’s iPhone already won the wows that go to the first small phone that is truly good at Web browsing. So the G1 offers some interesting evolution, but not a revolution in the concept.

After playing with the G1 for 20 minutes, my initial take is that the G1 is the PC to the iPhone’s Macintosh.

The G1, which is initially being offered exclusively through T-Mobile in the United States and Europe, has many more buttons on the front and many more options on the screens inside. That means that it takes longer to do the things you want to do most frequently, but you also have many more options at hand. For example, when you take a photo, the software asks you whether you want to keep it or delete it. The iPhone just saves all your pictures and you have to go back and delete the ones you don’t want later. (There may be a way to change that setting on the G1, but I didn’t get around to looking at the configuration options. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a lot of them. It’s that sort of device.)

Physically, it is a little narrower than the iPhone, but thicker. That means the screen is a little smaller. I also found that the plastic case feels a little cheap. The biggest differentiator is the G1’s slide-out keyboard, some might find easier to type on than the iPhone’s virtual keyboard.

Some of the software in I played with seemed nice, like the mapping software, which is built on Google Maps and very clearly displayed travel directions. But the phone doesn’t yet give turn-by-turn directions the way a car GPS device does, which is also a well-noted flaw of the iPhone. Neither does the phone record video, another feature some people miss on Apple’s smartphone.
One area where the G1 falls far short of the iPhone is streaming media. The software supports neither Adobe’s Flash — the standard for Web video — nor Apple’s QuickTime. Google did write a special interface so the phone can play videos from Google’s YouTube service. The issue with both Flash and QuickTime appears to be royalties. Neither Google, nor HTC, nor T-Mobile want to pay for this software. If Adobe or Apple wants to release a video player for the phone, they are welcome to, a T-Mobile spokesman said.

It is a bit hard to evaluate the true capabilities of the phone because so much of its potential is what it offers to third-party application developers. In six months, we may see if people can make the G1 do things that no other phone can.

For now, it seems like a very interesting phone for people who really want to type on a little keyboard. But until the value of Android’s slightly clunky flexibility proves out, I suspect many people will prefer the polished simplicity of the iPhone.

Intel Lifts Curtain On Six-Core Server Chips

2008-09-15T21:32:00.000-07:00

By Damon Poeter

Intel launched seven new Xeon 7400 Series server processors Monday, including the chip giant's first six-core chip, promising that the devices are better suited for virtualization than Xeon 7300 products already on the market and will deliver performance increases of nearly 50 percent over the previous generation of server processors. Although a good deal of industry interest in the 7400 Series has focused on the six-core processor, at Monday morning's San Francisco launch event, Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel said surprisingly little about the $2,729, 2.13GHz chip listed as Xeon L7455. Instead, Intel focused almost entirely on pitching the virtualization advantages of its newest Xeon processors.

Describing the current transition in server virtualization from largely testing and development installations to full-on production deployments, Intel's Tom Kilroy argued that enterprise data centers are entering what he called the "Virtualization 2.0" phase, and the Xeon 7400 Series, formerly code named Dunnington, will be a key to getting there.

"With new features such as additional cores, large shared caches and advanced virtualization technologies, the Xeon 7400 series delivers record-breaking performance that will lead enterprises into the next wave of virtualization deployments," said Kilroy, VP and GM of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group.

The new Xeon series chips have up to 16MB of shared L3 cache, come in both quad-core and six-core flavors, feature 45nm process technology, include a low-voltage 50W version for blade configurations, and feature Intel's VT FlexMigration technology, which eases backwards and forwards VM migration across previous Core-based hardware platforms through to the upcoming Nehalem-based MP server products set to be released in 2009.

Intel describes the six-core product as an "x86-compatible 65-watt version which translates to just under 11 watts per core." The fastest chip in the 45nm Xeon 7400 Series is a quad-core 2.66GHz version, listed at the same $2,729 price as the six-core product.

The specs and prices for Xeon 7400 MP Series processors listed by Intel Sunday are:

- X7460 (16MB L3 cache, 2.66GHz, 130W, 1066MHz FSB, 45nm): $2,729
- E7450 (12MB L3 cache, 2.40GHz, 90W, 1066MHz FSB, 45nm): $2,301
- E7440 (16MB L3 cache, 2.40GHz, 90W, 1066MHz FSB, 45nm): $1,980
- E7430 (12MB L3 cache, 2.13GHz, 90W, 1066MHz FSB, 45nm): $1,391
- E7420 (8MB L3 cache, 2.13GHz, 90W, 1066MHz FSB, 45nm): $1,177
- L7455 (12MB L3 cache, 2.13GHz, 65W, 1066MHz FSB, 45nm): $2,729
- L7445 (12MB L3 cache, 2.13GHz, 50W, 1066MHz FSB, 45nm): $1,980

Google and the SEO Benefits of Affiliate Tracking Links

2008-09-12T09:25:00.000-07:00

by CarstenCumbrowski

Brian Klais wrote in June, 2008 in his post “Amazon’s Secret to Dominating SERP Results” at the Natural Search Blog about how Amazon.com leverages the inbound links of their vast number of affiliates for their organic SEO advantage by 301-redirecting BOTs for the URLs that include the affiliate tracking code to the single primary URL of the same page that they want to be indexed by the search engines.

Some folks think that what Amazon.com is doing violates the Google Webmaster Guidelines, because what they do is a special kind of cloaking, but I would argue that. The webpage where the bots and the user end up are the same. Amazon is not deceiving anybody, not the users and not the bots either. If you 301 only bots and not everybody who access your site via YourDomain.com to www.YourDomain.com to prevent duplicate indexing of your website homepage and PageRank leakage, is that cloaking? Is it unethical? I am sure that most people would agree with me when I say that it is not. So technically everything should be cool and peachy, or shouldn’t it?

Well, there is another aspect to the whole thing. I spent almost the entire year 2007 to get an answer my question whether affiliate links are considered paid links by Google or not and if they are, should they be “no-followed” by the affiliate publisher to avoid potential penalties (for “selling” links) by Google, or not?

After numerous posts here at SearchEngineJournal.com and ReveNews.com, Matt Cutts finally was so kind to provide a response in December 2007 in the comment section of my post about Matt’s “paid reviews” examples. I made it easy for him and provided pre-set answers to my question in multiple choice formats.

Does Google consider affiliate links to be paid links?

Yes No It depends We are not sure yet Matt’s Answer was:
“Hi Carsten, the short answer is 3 depending on the affiliate link.

Here’s a slightly longer answer: I wrote about this a bit on our webmaster help group discussion at http://groups.google.com/group/Google_Webmaster_Help-Indexing/msg/7db86afb08801278where I said
“we’ve spent most of our time talking about paying money for text links or paid posts, because Google does a pretty good job of detecting and handling things like affiliate links or banner ads. In addition, many banner ads (whether they be the 468×80 kind or the 125×125 kind) end up doing at least one redirect through a 302. If you’re a site owner, one rule of thumb I’d recommend is that if you’re being directly paid to place a link, that link shouldn’t affect search engines, but we haven’t talked much about those advertising banners because Google detects and handles such banner ads quite well.”

The fact is that many affiliate links go through several redirects and don’t flow PageRank, so Google wouldn’t be concerned with such links at all. However, if your affiliate link were a direct static link that passes PageRank and you get paid for even placing that affiliate link on your site whether or not someone clicks on it, that would look pretty close to a paid link to us.”

The last sentence seems to provide the answer to the question and validate the legitimacy of Amazons SEO tactics. It also shows how little Google (or at least Matt) understands about affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is performance marketing. Affiliates are not getting paid to place a link on their website. They only get paid for results. That is the whole point of this marketing channel. Affiliates are certainly not paid anything for placing one type of tracking link on their site over another. It is not uncommon that affiliates get an incentive for better placement or special exposure on a popular publisher website, but that deal has absolutely nothing to do with SEO. The incentive is often a higher commission rate across the board for all referrals and seldom a one-time cash bonus.

Furthermore, for advertisers to offer two different sets of tracking links, one set that does not pass PageRank (e.g. a traditional affiliate network provided link via Commission Junction, LinkShare or Performics, excuse me, Google Affiliate Network) and a second set that does pass PageRank would create all kinds of new problems for the advertiser. Offering this second set of links for the sole purpose of SEO does not outweigh the complications and issues that come along with it. Offering a second set (or third or fourth) is being done by some advertisers, but that has usually many other reasons. Any SEO benefit would only be an afterthought or added bonus. The reason for the additional sets is usually the increase of reach to new and/or different group of publishers, which the advertiser cannot easily reach via his existing tracking and reporting platform.

However, there is an entirely different trend that should be of the concern of Google and that is the increase of affiliate tracking platforms that offer to advertisers not only the means to track referrals and manage affiliate publishers and their payments, but benefits for SEO purposes, by leveraging the inbound link power from the publisher websites as a special bonus. This bonus is not hard to implement from a technological point of view. Having tracking links (and tracking cookies) managed by the advertiser on his website requires more technical expertise from the advertiser for the implementation of the tracking platform, but the benefits beyond just SEO make this extra investment worthwhile for advertisers who can afford it.

LinkShare, one of the oldest affiliate networks always required this kind of expertise from their advertisers, which kept the setup cost for the LinkShare solution considerably high compared to the low cost, easy to implement “pixel tracking” solutions offered by competitors of LinkShare. LinkShare’s tracking links don’t provide any SEO benefit, because it was not thought about that back in 1996 when they developed their core tracking platform. This shortcoming could be changed fairly easy though, if LinkShare decides one day that this provides value for their advertisers and gives them a competitive advantage over its major competitors CJ and Performics, excuse me, Google Affiliate Network.

I wrote a long article about the technology behind affiliate tracking at ReveNews.com back in April, 2008, if you would like to learn more about this subject.

Now that Google became a player in the affiliate marketing space themselves via their acquisition of DoubleClick, where they got the affiliate network Performics, which was owned by DoubleClick as a bonus. Google decided to split off the SEM part of Performics and sell it, but to keep the affiliate network part, which they re-branded to Google Affiliate Network not too long ago. I hope this will provide Google with a better understanding about the affiliate marketing industry.

The Amazon.com example is only the tip of the iceberg. I told Matt in a response to his comment that there is more going on than he seemed to be aware of, specifically the trend to provide affiliate tracking solutions that are SEO friendly at the same time. Affiliates are not paid money for putting up a link on their websites, but they (might, or they at least hope to) have a financial interest in putting up this link, because they want people to click on that link AND they want even more that the user takes a desired action at the advertisers website that will make them a commission. In contradiction to AdSense or other CPM or PPC based advertising is it necessary that the user converts, before the affiliate gets paid a single dime for their efforts and links on their websites.

This is the reason why it does not make sense to add irrelevant links on your affiliate website, because you can have millions of impressions and thousands of click-throughs and still don’t get a penny worth of commission for it, if the people who see the Ad and maybe click on it are not the right target for the offer and simply do not convert.

So the answer to my question should be a clear “NO“. This would end the debate once and for all. This subject is still on the minds of advertisers and publishers alike, because Google refuses to be clear about it.

A discussion at WebMasterWorld.com forums from December, 2007 shows that webmasters are uncertain and worried about what Google makes out of all of this, so I am not making it up that there are valid concerns that should be addressed by Google officially rather sooner than later, unless the folks in Mountain View prefer the strategy of deception, doubt, uncertainty and fear to deal with this issue as they do in the broader paid links issue already.

Since Google is now part of the affiliate marketing “family”, I hope that their attitude will change and that clear answers will be given to webmasters that they do not have to worry about possible Google penalties, if they do something that makes sense from an affiliate business point of view.

Google and Affiliates have the same goal, providing the most relevant results (and ads) to their users that they convert and are happy, because if they do a poor job, both will be put out of business in the long run.