Web marketing blog

Google reveals new Chrome operating system

2009-11-20T16:48:00.003+11:00

Google has made public its much-anticipated operating system, known as Chrome OS. Designed to power computers in the future, this new OS will eventually be taking on Microsoft's core product head-on, such as the recently launched Windows 7 system. Google's blog made a brief announcement about the new operating system and the launch in the US has been widely covered by the global media, including the BBC website.

The Google operating system will be a free and open source system, initially aimed at low-cost netbooks. Being open source, it allows contributors to help develop the product and it intends to remove many of the features of a traditional program. Most notably, all applications are designed to run in a web browser and all the user's data is stored on Google's servers, so that effectively most PC or laptop users will be working 'in the cloud' with limited software or content held on their own hardware.

Google has said that the first computers running the system would be available before the end of 2010 and had first announced its intention to build an operating system in July this year. The new system has been designed around the Google Chrome browser which was released in 2008 and now is reported to have 40m regular users. All programs or applications - such as word processing and e-mail - will run in different tabs in the browser and the aim is to improve the speed of work, although much of this will also be dependent on access to the Internet.

Any documents and files created on a computer would be automatically synced and saved on Google's servers. As a result, anybody who lost their computer would be able to buy a new machine and easily recover all their data. However, although Google expects most tasks to be done online, it will also offer the capability for users to access some programs when there is no connection.

Consumer views of online pay models

2009-11-18T12:23:00.003+11:00

With much talk recently around the future of newspapers and online content, and whether these should now starting charging users for access, Media Week has reported on some new research by Forrester in the US which found that while a minority of consumers is willing to pay for online content, not all pay models are considered equal.

Using a mail survey of just over 4,700 consumers, the responses showed that 80% said they wouldn't pay for access to online content if the publisher erects a pay wall. Then 8% of respondents said they preferred an online subscription, with the same percentage also preferring a multichannel subscription. Only 3% said they would prefer to use micropayments, which is one of the options being considered by publishers.

These results are therefore not good reading for publishers and suggest that they should keep offering free, ad-supported products to the vast majority of users who won't otherwise pay for the content, while giving those who will pay a choice of payment methods for access to premium products.

How people would want to access content online also varied, with 37% favouring a website, while smaller percentages preferred portable devices like mobile phones (14%), laptops and netbooks (11%). Another 10% favoured getting their former print publication via an emailed PDF and only 3% favored e-readers like the Kindle, although this reflects the early reach and acceptance of this new technology. Notably, 44% said they preferred none of those options!

When it comes to predicting who will pay for online content, the study found that people who are college-educated, 'technology optimists' and higher earners are more likely to pay for online newspapers than those who are unwilling to pay. Age was barely a factor in willingness to pay, however, but this did become a bigger factor amongst those who are willing to pay for online magazines.

Google buys AdMob for US$750m

2009-11-11T13:43:00.001+11:00

As reported widely in the press, Google has acquired a US mobile display advertising company, AdMob, for US$750m. According to Search Engine Land, the acquisition gives Google access to AdMob's 15,000-plus mobile websites and applications which will complement Google's own platform for AdSense on Mobile devices.

This acquisition also puts Google in a stronger position within the mobile display advertising market, which is one that is clearly seen to have big growth potential over the coming years. It also gives Google access to a great deal of experience and sophistication in the sector that it didn't previously have.

New IAB Australia figures show continued growth in Internet advertising

2009-11-09T10:28:00.003+11:00

The latest quarterly figures on Internet advertising in Australia have just been released by IAB Australia and they show that the market has recorded continued growth during the tough economic period. The total spend for the latest quarterly period, ending 30th September, reached $466 million, the highest total recorded to date.

The new Online Advertising Expenditure Report (OAER) has been compiled for the IAB by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as usual, using available data or estimates of advertising spend in the period covered. Although the latest quarterly figures have reached new highs, the year-on-year growth against the same period in 2008 was only up by 3%.

The Search and Directories sector, which is dominated by Google AdWords, is continuing to show healthy growth, despite actual figures from Google being unavailable, so the trend is largely based on market estimates. In total, this sector accounted for 51% of the total online advertising market in Q3 of 2009, and an increase of 12% on the same period a year ago. General Display accounted for 26% of the market and Classifieds 23%, although both of these sectors showed a decline in value compared to the same period a year ago, down 3.8% and 5% respectively.

For the first time, the latest report also captured the online advertising expenditure within the General Display category for the specific media of video, email, CPM (cost per thousand, often referred to as ‘brand’) as well as direct response (often referred to as ‘performance’) advertising. Online video advertising which represented 4% of the General Display category, is on par with figures seen in the US and UK, and is expected to increase sharply in future quarters. Email advertising was 6.5% of General Display whilst CPM advertising (mostly banner advertising) made up 75% of the category, with only 22% reported for response and 3% for a hybrid classification that combines these two forms of advertising.

Overall the online advertising industry is continuing to show healthy growth compared to recent declines of other advertising markets in Australia, so that the online share of the total market of the $13 billion Australian advertising industry continues to grow. However, this continued growth, although slowing against the previous year, continues to come from search advertising sector and particularly Google AdWords in Australia, as more and more companies enter this market to promote their businesses through targeted search marketing.

A spokesman for IAB Australia said that "With continued industry developments in online audience measurement, research demonstrating the effectiveness of online advertising in influencing consumers' purchasing decisions and behaviours, and maturing self-regulatory standards and best practice guidelines, online is now a trusted, core and essential component of effective marketing communications."

Web marketing newsletter published for November

2009-11-02T12:59:00.000+11:00

The latest issue of the monthly Web Marketing newsletter has been published for November, covering some of the recent stories on web search and online marketing trends.

This month's edition looks at the new deal that Twitter has recently signed with Microsoft and Google to incorporate its 'real time' feeds into their search engine results. It also reviews Google's recent launch of Place Pages for Google Maps which gives much more comprehensive information about a location. Finally this month, the newsletter considers the new Intelligence tool and other enhanced features that Google has added to their Analytics service.

If you want to sign up for future issues of this newsletter, please do so by using the form at the bottom of this page. To view back issues of this regular newsletter you can see the archive by date or by subject.

Google's Promoted Videos available in Australia

2009-10-29T13:53:00.003+11:00

In another new Google announcement, this time on the Google Australia blog, the launch of Promoted Videos provides a way for advertisers to place their video on related pages on YouTube and across the web. Like Google AdWords, this new service is an advertising program that anyone can use to help potential customers discover a relevant video.

Promoted Videos will help companies find a relevant audience wherever they are on the web, whether it's searching or watching videos on YouTube or browsing across Google's network of publisher sites. These video campaigns are targeted by keyword and priced on a cost-per-click basis. These campaigns can be purchased and managed directly in Google AdWords, where advertisers can place bids, select where the videos should appear (such as on relevant YouTube search results pages, video watch pages, and Google's publisher network), and set daily spending budgets.

Google's aim is to provide a single destination for the overall Google advertising management tools, as well as giving YouTube advertisers who are new to AdWords the access to additional campaign tools. There are also 'Call-to-Action overlays' in Promoted Videos, whereby advertisers will be able to add a clickable overlay to their videos, allowing them to drive viewers to a website off YouTube. This means that advertisers can track the performance of a video and whether viewers are converting into customers.

Google announces Social Search

2009-10-27T08:45:00.003+11:00

The Google blog has announced a new Social Search service, which will be available to Google account users who are logged in when they search Google. With this search option, Google finds relevant public content from a user's friends and contacts and highlights this at the bottom of the search results. Users can also filter their results to see only content from their social circle by clicking "Show options" on the results page and clicking "Social."

Google is collecting these search results from publicly available information on the web and by linking a user's Google profile to their wider social circle of friends and contacts using such sites as Twitter or FriendFeed. The results are then specific to each user and, if Gmail is also used, will display relevant content from 'chat buddies' and other contacts.

Twitter agrees deals with Bing and Google

2009-10-23T14:09:00.002+11:00

The big news for Twitter this week has been the new deals announced with Bing and Google, as the two search engines start competing to add new functionality and issue press releases. This latest news has been covered widely, such as on the BBC website, and the deals will see messages from the 'micro-blogging' service - or tweets - show up in Bing and Google search results almost as soon as they are posted on Twitter.

Microsoft's Bing search engine has moved first to set up a stand-alone Twitter search page accessible from the main site, whereas Google countered the announcement and said its Twitter search service would debut within the next few months. Although some parts of Twitter already show up in some search results they tend to be for individual accounts or messages that have been archived. Both deals will now take a feed of all public Twitter streams to make them searchable almost as soon as they are sent.

The Bing Twitter search page shows the most popular topics mentioned in the 140 character tweets. Visitors to Bing can also search for specific terms and see relevant messages ranked chronologically, as well as the most popular website links referred to from the relevant posts.

Google adds mobile tracking to Analytics

2009-10-22T12:22:00.002+11:00

As reported by MediaWeek, the recent announcement by Google of new functions within its Analytics stats package Google Analytics included the ability for users to track their visitor traffic to both mobile sites and applications, breaking out the devices being used so that marketers can track digital campaigns in one place, whether through the web or mobile.

Analytics users need to add a piece of code to their mobile sites or applications for Google to collect the stats from all mobile-enabled devices, although it doesn't cover all programming languages yet. Developers can now track the usage of their apps and with the link to Google's Android operating system, these apps can be linked to ad campaigns, with mobile searches reported to be up by 30% year-on-year for the recent quarter.

The mobile-tracking features are part of a broader update to Google Analytics that includes the ability to set and track engagement goals, add customized audience segments, track unique visitors for segments and set "intelligence alerts." With this latter function, Google hopes to automate the process of users having to sift through the data to find key insights. Google's algorithms will comb through analytics information to find interesting trends, such as a surge in traffic from a particular site or an increased bounce rate in a geographical area.

Google reports record quarterly profit

2009-10-19T09:37:00.003+11:00

As reported widely in the press, including by the BBC and The New York Times, Google has reported its highest quarterly profit for July-September, at US$1.64bn, which is up by 27% on the same period last year. At the announcement, Google's management claimed that the Internet advertising market is now coming out of the recessionary period, although it has always performed better than other advertising sectors in terms of annual growth rates.

Google's revenue for the three-month period was $4.38bn, which was well ahead of analysts' expectations of $4.24bn. The company also announced some new initiatives, including sales of electronic books through a new electronic editions service, which would compete with the likes of Amazon and their new Kindle product.

Highest PPC click costs reach US$100

2009-10-16T12:12:00.004+11:00

A report by MediaPost claims that the highest-priced keyword in the US during September was $99.44 per click on Google. This data comes from the AdGooroo Search Engine Advertising Update, which has begun to track the click costs for search terms for the first time. According to their analysis, the term 'mesothelioma' was the highest-selling keyword, which was also sold on Yahoo! for $60.68 per click to get the top ranking position. The search term 'auto insurance comparison' was the highest-cost phrase on the Bing search engine, at $55.20 per click.

Of course, the search engines themselves will know this data but keep the information confidential, and it's not clear how the figures revealed by AdGooroo are obtained, other than by estimates and market feedback. It seems that the term 'mesothelioma' has become highly expensive due to legal firms pursuing new lawsuits related to the asbestos-causing lung cancer.

The report also says that the search engines served up on average between five and six ads per keyword during September. In the US market, Google moved to 5.45 adverts in September 2009, up from 3.06 a year before. Yahoo! dropped to 5.35 from 7.53 and Bing also saw a decrease to 3.10, from 5.12.

Google trials new search ad pricing

2009-10-12T08:42:00.004+11:00

An article by AdAge reports on a test that Google is running in the US for local search advertisers. In an attempt to attract more local advertisers to buy search ads, Google is experimenting with a new type of search advert and pricing system in the San Francisco and San Diego markets.

Google is offering local advertisers (or non-advertisers) a search ad for a flat fee. The fee is set by Google and based on the average that similar businesses are paying for a given keyword in that market. As the article states, the goal is to simplify search advertising for local businesses that may not want to bid on keywords or to set up and optimize a search campaign.

This is a more familiar model for local businesses, such as plumbers, electricians or restaurants, or any local business that has advertised in the Yellow Pages. However, Google is offering an additional option to link the advert to a Google voice number so that advertisers will know which calls are being referred from the search ad. This is something they have tested before and allows small businesses that don't have a website to test search advertising and track the performance of their ad.

These local advert tests come at a time when Google is nearing the end of an extensive review of its search advertising system which has taken place over the last 6 months (and known internally as AdWords 3.0, according to this article).

As part of this revamp, Google is trying to give more relevant results for local searches, which plays into its local strategy. A user who searches for a restaurant, for example, no longer has to specify where they are as this can be determined by their IP address or browser, and relevant local results are returned, along with a map. Although not a perfect model, it could enable Google to vastly expand its search offering to a much wider market.

Mobile Internet usage grows in the US

2009-10-07T13:38:00.001+11:00

MediaWeek in the US has reported on the latest research data from Nielsen that shows mobile Internet usage growing exponentially, largely due to the increasing number of 'smartphones' such as the iPhone. However, despite the high level of expectations for this sector, the report says that only a quarter of wireless subscribers logged onto the web via their mobile devices in July.

The Nielsen research says there were 56.9 million mobile web users in the US by July 2009 - up 34% year on year. However, an earlier Nielsen report at the start of 2009 said there are almost 225 million total mobile subscribers in the US, which means that mobile Internet penetration is about 25% of the market and still trailing PC-based web usage.

The demographic profile of the mobile Internet sector shows that teens and seniors are pushing the growth in usage as they enter the market. The article says that Nielsen's data showed a 45% surge in usage amongst teens 13-17, as well as a 67% spike amongst users aged 65 and older. Males still dominate the sector with 53% of the market but the female audience rose by 43% in July, compared to a 26% growth spike amongst men.

New web marketing newsletter published for October

2009-10-01T09:42:00.003+10:00

The latest issue of the monthly Web Marketing newsletter has been published for October, covering some of the recent stories on web search and online marketing trends.

This month's edition is dominated by Google developments and issues. Firstly it looks at the new Google Sidewiki feature which enables web users to add or review shared comments about any website or web page. It also reviews Google's recent blog posting that confirms the status of the keywords meta tag not being used as a factor for search rankings. Finally this month's issue considers the Filter Manager function in Google's Analytics that allows users to block static and dynamic IP addresses, IP ranges and domains from its report data.

If you want to sign up for future issues of this newsletter, please do so by using the form at the bottom of this page. To view back issues of this regular newsletter you can see the archive by date or by subject.

Social networks display substantial annual growth trends

2009-09-28T15:20:00.005+10:00

The ClickZ website has summarised new data released by The Nielsen Company which says that the time being spent on social networking sites has nearly tripled in the past year. In addition to this trend, the amount being spent on advertising on these sites has also increased at a similar rate.

According to the report, consumer activity on social networking and blogging sites comprised 17% of all time spent on the Internet in August 2009, up from just 6% a year ago. At the same time, advertising spend on these sites grew 119%, from an estimated US$49 million in August 2008 to US$108 million last month. As a percentage of total online ad spend in the US, these ad expenditures on social networking sites climbed from 7% to 15% year on year.

Not surprisingly, Facebook is the big winner from this growth, as recently reported, and as well as the number of users growing substantially, the time spent on the site has also increased, with the average user now spending 5 hours and 46 minutes per month on the site, up from 1 hour and 40 minutes a year ago. As a result, Facebook has reportedly seen a significant growth in ad impressions, accounting for a 14.7% share of US display advertising views last month, up from just 1.8% in January this year.

According to Nielsen, the spend by industry sector on the top social network sites has increased in all areas, with the entertainment industry showing the biggest annual increase, up by 812%, and travel advertising increasing spend by 364%.

Google Sidewiki launched

2009-09-24T14:43:00.004+10:00

The Google blog has announced the launch of another notable new product, Google Sidewiki. This new feature allows searchers to contribute helpful information next to any webpage and can display a browser sidebar next to the web page, where users can read and write entries along the side of the page.

This is an extension of Google's personalised search and 'search wiki' option launched at the end of 2007, which allows users to adjust their own search results and add comments against ranked websites. The new Sidewiki tool now takes this a step further by giving users the chance to share knowledge, experience or advice against web content.

In developing Sidewiki, Google says that a priority was for users to see the most relevant entries first, so they have developed a system to rank the comments that are added in the 'best' order. So, instead of displaying the most recent entries first, the Sidewiki ranks entries using an algorithm that promotes the most useful, high-quality entries. It takes into account feedback from users, previous entries made by the same author, and many other signals they have developed and tracked.

This should help to address the obvious concerns of website owners that competitors will post negative comments and reviews against their web content, in much the same way that review based websites have been trying to deal with competitive 'spam'. There is also the ultimate question of how the tone of comments will be used by Google in the long term to have another impact on the relevancy of search ranking results.

Another feature of the Sidewiki is that the technology will match comments about a web page with other websites where the same content is displayed. This will help to broaden the value of the system and to reduce the need for duplicated comments or posts. Google is also going to use relevant posts from blogs and other sources that talk about the specific page of content so that users can discover their insights more easily, right next to the page they refer to.

Google Sidewiki is being made available as a new feature of the Google Toolbar so you need to download the latest version to access this sidebar and add or view comments. It's still going through a beta stage of development and Google will be improving and enhancing this feature in the coming months. You can also view more information about this tool here: http://www.google.com/sidewiki/intl/en/learnmore.html

Conficker worm poses global security threat

2009-09-22T09:25:00.004+10:00

According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, the 'Conficker worm' remains the biggest security threat to the Internet at the moment, with the spread of the virus being almost impossible to stop. If has already infected more than 5 million computers and could be used to disrupt the Internet in entire countries, according to some experts.

The worm was first detected in November last year and spreads rapidly to computers through a security flaw in the Windows operating system.When machines get infected they are 'co-opted' into a viral network which can potentially be controlled and used by the hackers to launch unprecedented cyber attacks. Those behind the worm can reportedly do anything they want with the infected machines, including stealing users' banking details or flooding government servers to knock them offline.

The particular challenge of Conficker is that it contains built-in mechanisms to prevent people from scanning their computers with anti-virus software. Even for those who wipe their computers clean and start fresh, if they back up any important data on a portable hard drive, the clean machine is reinfected when the drive is connected to the computer. The worm also spreads automatically between computers on a network and infects machines without the user having to do anything other than switch their computers on.

As usual, security experts recommend that people who are not yet infected should ensure that they have installed the latest Windows patches and anti-virus software.

Facebook reaches 300 million users

2009-09-17T16:13:00.002+10:00

The Wall Street Journal covers the latest announcement from Facebook that it has now reached 300 million users, another sign of the continued growth of this popular social networking site. This means that an extra 50 million users have been added since July, when the 250m mark was announced, so the upward growth curve continues at a rapid rate.

Of course all these users are not regular users of the site, but it still makes for an impressive user base of registered names, with 70% reported to be based outside of the US now. Facebook also claim to have moved into a positive cashflow situation now and are expected to earn more than US$500 million in revenue in 2009 - another significant growth in the past year, up more than 70% on the 2008 figure.

Microsoft launches visual search option

2009-09-15T13:57:00.002+10:00

Microsoft has announced a new feature for the recently launched Bing search engine. As reported by the BBC website, the new feature is designed to set their search experience apart from Google and will allow users to browse results using pictures instead of text.

The visual search option will initially concentrate on the four main areas where Bing has been providing specialised search options to date - namely travel, health, leisure and shopping. At the recent launch, Microsoft claimed Visual Search allowed users to conduct some searches faster than the "traditional image search" offered by rival Google and other search engines.

Microsoft say the new feature is "like searching through a large online catalogue". When a searcher enters their search term, a link at the top of the first page of results allows users to "visualise" what Bing has found.By clicking on the link displays a gallery of related images which the searcher can then scroll through and select to enter the relevant web content.

At the moment only a small number of search results will return a visual display and the feature is currently only available on the US version of Bing, but these categories and coverage are likely to be expanded as the tool moves out of beta.

Google launches new AdWords 'opportunities'

2009-09-10T13:29:00.002+10:00

As part of their ongoing development of the new AdWords interface, Google has announced the roll-out of their 'Opportunities' function for advertisers. This is a new section in the AdWords account interface that is designed to give advertisers additional cost-effective traffic through search term suggestions based on the existing campaign structure.

The Opportunities tab can be used as a way to further optimise an AdWords account. It provides a quick overview of Google's customised keyword and budget suggestions for active campaigns and adgroups. Advertisers can also compare the potential impact of different ideas before they make any changes, so for example they can increase the keyword coverage for a specific product, or have adverts appear more often for existing keywords.

This is the type of strategy that professional AdWords advertisers should be using on a regular basis, but for others it brings to the fore some of Google's existing tools that can help a campaign, or if not used carefully, enhance Google's revenue!

Social networking sites attract advertising share

2009-09-08T15:58:00.003+10:00

A report by Reuters says that around one of every five Internet display ads in the United States is now being viewed on a social networking website, such as MySpace and Facebook. The data comes from a new survey by comScore which demonstrates the increasing importance of social media sites and the broadening acceptance of such sites by brand advertisers, as well as the challenge now being faced by the more traditional online publishers, such as Yahoo and AOL.

The new report says that social media sites represented just over 21% of U.S. Internet display ads in July, with MySpace and Facebook accounting for more than 80% of those ads. However, the question will remain as to whether these sites can be used as effectively for advertising, due to the nature of their usage. Also, because the content on social media sites is created by users, some have questioned the willingness of marketers to place their brands alongside that content and the potential risks that could bring.

Nielsen's new audience measurement

2009-09-03T09:15:00.004+10:00

An article in the Sydney Morning Herald reviews the new Internet measurement panels being introduced by Nielsen, the recognised authority in data for online advertisers. The traditional figures for 'unique browsers' visiting a website are now being reconsidered as a misleading figure, to be replaced by 'unique audience'.

The change comes as part of the relaunch of the Nielsen NetView service, the measurement panel which provides audience ratings for web publishers as part of their advertising sales statistics. The panel has increased to a representative 7000 people, enabling a better view on work and home Internet usage, as well as eliminating the duplication of computers as web browser.

This was essentially the problem with the earlier figures, in that they double-counted people as browsers, whether they might be using the web at work, home or even on their mobiles. The newer unique audience figures will provide more credibility, but in the short term, publishers will see their audience figures decline with the new measures.

Web marketing newsletter published for September

2009-09-01T09:52:00.000+10:00

The new September issue of the monthly Web Marketing newsletter has been published, covering some of the recent stories on web search and online marketing trends.

This month's edition looks at Google's announcement of their next-generation search architecture, dubbed Google 'Caffeine', and the implications for website rankings. It also reviews how Australia's Internet advertising sector continues to grow, from the latest IAB quarterly and annual figures. Finally this month, the issue covers the launch of the new Bid Simulator Tool for Google AdWords, which can be used by advertisers to view the potential impact of a different bid level within their PPC advertising results.

If you want to sign up for future issues of this newsletter, please do so by using the form at the bottom of this page. To view back issues of this regular newsletter you can see the archive by date or by subject.

Facebook amends privacy policy

2009-08-28T08:49:00.002+10:00

Facebook, the market-leading social networking site, has been forced to change its global privacy policy following negotiations with the privacy commissioner in Canada. A report by the BBC says that Facebook was recently found to breach Canadian law by holding on to users' personal data indefinitely and has therefore agreed to make changes to the way it handles this information and be more transparent about what data it collects and why.

The other main stumbling block that has been an issue for some time has been the inability for users to deactivate or delete their account, but this is now being changed so that it will be possible in the future. The decision could also have implications for other social networking websites.

As well as updating their privacy policy, Facebook has said it will make changes that will give users more control over the data they provide to third-party developers of applications, such as games and quizzes. These changes will require applications to state which information they wish to access and obtain consent from the user before it is used or shared.

Broadband caps in Australia

2009-08-27T09:30:00.004+10:00

An article from the Sydney Morning Herald considers the usage caps in the Australian broadband market which are potentially holding back Internet growth in the country and are an outdated system which is virtually non-existent in other countries.

All the main ISPs in Australia price on a monthly usage cap, which for the current web applications of social networks, online videos and photos, are outdated and restrictive. In contrast, the article takes the example of some US Internet providers suggesting 250 gigabytes-a-month limit which led to consumer outrage, despite the fact only 0.003% of US broadband users exceed that level!

The article then considers the options for changing the pricing system in Australia and the potential opportunities for new providers to break the mould. It is possible that the new management of Telstra is more open to change but it's likely to take time and be linked with the national broadband network.