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Another day in the world of consulting.
- Why Your Startup Shouldn't Hire Seth Godin No offense Seth but it looks like i wont be giving you a job!
Last week, AOL announced it will retire the Netscape web browser after nearly 14 years of operation, planning to cease support of Netscape software products as of February 1. AOL will instead throw its weight behind Mozilla’s Firefox browser which, since its release in late 2004, has been gaining ground against Microsoft’s ascendant Internet Explorer. “Given AOL’s current business focus and the success the Mozilla Foundation has had in developing critically acclaimed products, we feel it’s the right time to end development of Netscape-branded browsers, hand the reins fully to Mozilla, and encourage Netscape users to adopt Firefox,” said AOL/Netscape development director Tom Drapeau in a recent blog post.
AOL had acquired Netscape for $4.2 billion in 1998 and used Netscape’s code base to develop what would become Firefox. In 2003, the Mozilla Foundation separated from Netscape and AOL as a result of Microsoft’s $750 million antitrust settlement with AOL, though it has maintained close alignment with its former parent company. Though the Netscape browser was once dominant in terms of usage share, it lost most of the market to IE during the late 90s. By 2006, the usage share of Netscape browsers had fallen from over 90% in the mid 90s to less than 1%.
For most, this move by AOL has been a long time coming. The Internet security site Security Watch reacted by stating that infrequent security updates by Netscape had caused the browser to become a “security liability.” One of Firefox’s original programmers, Aza Dotzler, greeted the news with a “good riddance” in a recent blog post. However, some are protesting and petitioning for its continuation, circulating online petitions calling for security fixes to unknowing or loyal users of its software, and the protection of a well-known brand.
Yet, as a result of repeated attempts in the past few years by AOL to take advantage of the fading brand, the Netscape name will remain, albeit in other ventures. In 2003, AOL launched a discounted dial-up ISP through Netscape, and the summer before last it supported the transition of the Netscape website from a professionally programmed portal to a successful social news site, now propeller.com. The site features articles submitted by users, whose votes on stories help determine how prominently they’re featured on the page (much like the popular Digg.com). Regardless of these Netscape reincarnations, though, the retirement of the browser marks the final victory by Microsoft in the first browser war and deserves a respectful moment of silence.
Ok. Now you can get on with your day.
- Five Tips for Good Usability - Usability Myths Dispelled Usability myths, misinformation and simply misunderstandings of what usability is and how it should be implemented when designing and developing websites and web applications
- Elements of Sustainable Companies I was looking at the website of one of our (StrongMail: Startup 5.0) investors, Sequoia Capital, and I came across the following list of "Elements of Sustainable Companies". I think this list is spot on.
- Stephen Colbert Drops Presidential Bid "Although I lost by the slimmest margin in presidential election history—only 10 votes—I have chosen not to put the country through another agonizing Supreme Court battle," Colbert said Monday in a statement. "It is time for this nation to heal."
It’s becoming inherently clear that Al Gore has been a very busy man. From “inventing” the internet, to his Oscar winning film, An Inconvenient Truth, to his recent Nobel Peace Prize, he seems to be a man on a mission to alter the way everyone looks at the world. In recent news, he has done this in yet another way, in the advertising world.
The website, Current, which was co- founded by Gore along with its sister TV station, released a new version today which has many people talking. The site itself aims to reach the Myspace generation by allowing registered users to post news stories that appeal to them. It, in effect, is merging the social networking world with the news. Users are able to post stories and videos from other sites, as well as post ones they have created. Current then takes the top stories discussed online and puts them onto the TV station, which reaches nearly 52 millions homes in the world.
Although this entire notion is quite interesting, one might be curious what this means for the advertising world. Well, Current also will allow users to create their own advertisements. This is a growing trend which has been seen in the past and focuses on the younger, more indefinable demographic that this site is reaching. Also notable, these ads will be scattered throughout the site as actual content, rather than in separate sections on the page. When asked about this, Current’s President of Media, Joanna Drake Earl, says, “this will be far more effective than slapping a banner ad in a corner or having pre- and post-roll ads in videos”. Although losing some control over branding may be a concern for advertisers, ultimately the payoff could be huge; with the success the site is already seeing, the opportunities seem endless. Gore may have had some difficulties attaining the Oval Office in 2000, but he certainly seems to have put his spare time to good use.
All popular affiliate marketing tracking platforms currently, or at one time, relied heavily on what is known as ‘Pixel Tracking’ as the mechanism to measure the performance of CPA campaigns. This mechanism requires the advertiser to place an image link to a third party on their web site, which allows the reading of cookie information on the consumer’s computer to determine the source of the traffic. As early as 2002, a major shift in the browser and anti-spyware add-on market has been moving toward blocking the ability for third party links to read cookie information. This seriously impacts the accuracy of performance statistics, and in most cases adversely affects the publisher as they are not credited for conversions where third party cookies are blocked. In turn, publishers’ pixels placed with the ad network to fire when a conversion happens do not fire as well. This can equate to up to 30-40% of uncredited conversions. In order to prevent this, Advent uses mechanisms to detect when third party cookies are being blocked, and can take appropriate measures to continue to accurately track the source of a conversion. Additionally, Advent prefers to use other methods of tracking which can avoid the third party problem entirely. Contact a sales rep to see how you may be losing conversions with other networks, or even with the software that you are licensing now.
“So this is only a problem if you use analytics software running on another company’s website which sets a cookie through yours — a third-party cookie. Tracking repeat visitors by other means, acceptable for audit standards, turns out to be as accurate as third-party cookies. In some cases (such as the insurance site) it may actually be more accurate not to use persistent cookies.” Third Party Cookies are Dead
In an attempt to end their tenure as the red headed stepchild of Google and return to the status they once had, Yahoo! has updated its search engine to end what it calls “Web search fatigue”. That name alludes to a Harris Interactive poll for Yahoo, explaining that only 15% of users found what they were looking for on the first search.
The biggest upgrade for the search engine is the Search Assist, which acts much like T9 on a phone, trying to predict the topic the user is seeking based on the spelling, as well as other relevant subject matter. Upon typing the letters “hou”, the terms “house”, “Houston chronicle” and “24 hour fitness” all appear. The Yahoo! Search VP Vish Makhijani explains, “In testing Search Assist, we found that users were 61% more successful in completing their task with this new search feature at their disposal.” There is also an option for users to turn this feature off, as to some (specifically myself) it can come off as a little bossy.
Another notable update, with specific implications in the advertising world, is that now pictures, videos, audio and text are all compiled in the response to a search. Although Google has this capability, it was astutely brought to my attention that when a search for a news topic on Yahoo is done, videos come up in the results, whereas they do not on Google. What does this mean for advertisers? To begin, there may be more opportunities for interactive multimedia ads throughout the results page. Also, these new image and video rich search results may nicely compliment the similar qualities of brand advertisers’ content, marking a point where the search engine domain may not belong to only direct response advertisers.
By upgrading their search engine, Yahoo has made a clear statement that they are not going to lie down and succumb to the powers of Google. With the changes not even 48 hours old, it is difficult to see what role this will all have in their future success; it seems that not a day goes by when there is not talk about Google swallowing up another company of technology. Those things taken into consideration, Yahoo still has a long road ahead of them.
DTC (direct to customer) advertising has the potential to make millions of lives easier by relaying information about breakthrough drugs that can help to better the quality of life for so many around the world. Unfortunately however, as of late, many of these campaigns have come under fire for misleading consumers when it comes to side effects and the effectiveness of some of these medications. For example, in a poll of 737 hip and knee surgeons, 77% of those polled believe that DTC ads mislead patients by exaggerating the benefits and downplaying the costs of treatment. Although many of these DTC ads should be doing a positive thing by keeping the public informed of updated practices, they often times are used to undermine or second guess a doctors’ opinion, yet the patient is not aware of how tried and true these methods are. Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives made an effort to change all of that.
On Wednesday September 19, the House took a number of steps to improve the safety of the public by increasing the amount of funding for the Food and Drug Administration. The bill, passed by the House in a 405-7 vote, is being called the most significant drug safety legislation in 40 years. The Senate is expected to pass the bill as early as today and it is anticipated that President Bush will then sign it. The bill renews two programs for five years and provides the additional funding to be used for more thorough testing of drugs after they have hit the market, and also to update labels on medication with additional warnings. The fees paid by drug makers to the FDA were $305.5 million last year and as a result of this, will increase to $417.8 million this year.
This additional funding will allow the FDA to work with advertisers and the medication manufacturers to create a safer environment for all. This will be especially emphasized within the advertising world, as the bill also gives the FDA authority to fine advertisers up to $250,000 a day for continuing to run ads that have been deemed misleading, and then $500,000 a day for the second time it occurs within three years. The bill did leave out any mention of ad curbs, which would prevent marketing new drugs for the first two to three years once they are on the market. This in itself was a victory for the industry as it could have tremendously impacted the $4.5 billion dollars spent on these DTC ads each year.
Despite the fact that ad curbs did not make it into the bill, the bill itself is still a huge victory for everyone, not just the advertising industry. The FDA now has the power to more carefully regulate medication dispersed throughout the world and if they are more careful with performing after market testing of drugs, they can then change the labels and fewer ads will be deemed misleading. The problem of these misleading ads do not rest on the industry, nor should they solely rest on the manufacturers, the FDA needs to make a stand to protect the public and on Wednesday they did just that.
Odds are when most people go to their computer to search for information on any given topic, they will use Google. The site itself has garnered so much support, that the term “google” has become a verb. According to numbers put forth by Nielsen//NetRatings, Google consistently has over a 50% share of total online searches, something that should come as no surprise to the internet savvy. To begin, it seemed that Google was going to expand their empire by developing their technology in house, but a clear statement was made after the acquirement of internet video giant, YouTube. The only question that could be asked is where they would expand next.
Last week, CNNMoney.com brought forth rumblings of something that may be on Google’s radar; medical information. According to a Harris Poll in July, “The number of U.S. adults who have ever gone online to look for health or medical information has increased to approximately 160 million up from about 136 million last year.” With this increase in the number of “cyberchondriacs” online, it would not come as a surprise that Google might set their sights on internet health giant, WebMD.
Although it has been said that WebMD is not currently looking to sell, some changes in the administration of Google Health seem to indicate that a change may be coming.
Searchengineland.com ran a story explaining that the Google Vice President of Product Management, Adam Bosworth, who was crucial in the development of Google Health, “is now on vacation and has decided to pursue other opportunities after that.” Under Bosworth, Google Health has operated as more of a tool to help organize medical information for users, as opposed to offering their own. With the separation of the site from its architect, one might think that Google could be looking to purchase a health care site. Acknowledging that fact, WebMD would be the logical choice. Considering everything Google seems to touch turns to gold, the cyberchondriacs of the world should keep a watchful eye on the horizon and see what happens.
- Motive Interactive - B to B Directory Listing The BtoB Online Industry Directory is the resource buyers like yourself rely on when looking for up-to-date information on the products or services you are searching for. Think of it as the online version of the yellow pages for your industry. Because so
While the days of the lead generation wild wild west were exciting and filled with new opportunities, the industry seems to be showing signs that it is growing up. Industry expert and blogger, Jay Weintraub, recently announced that he will be organizing a conference called LeadsCon, focusing on innovation and issues facing the lead generation industry. Leadcon will add to the list only a handful of lead generation focused events that have sprung up over the past year.
In addition to conferences and expos, there has been a movement to set standards, and establish a foundation for companies to expand upon. Leading the way for a more structured future, the IAB recently published a Lead Generation Data Transfer Best Practices, which is the groundwork for a more accountable and standardized lead generation industry.
This maturity is essential for our industry’s stable expansion, and I look forward to seeing what Jay and other’s have in store.
- Small is big; Watch out for more Blog Bling Everyone is always looking for the next “Big ” idea, but in the current 2.0 landscape, small is redefining big. After all, people don’t want a big idea; that means a lot of work. They want a big money idea, & it’s looking like “widgets” may be
Everyone is always looking for the next “Big ” idea, but in the current 2.0 landscape, small is redefining big. After all, people don’t want a big idea; that means a lot of work. They want a big money idea, & it’s looking like “widgets” may be just that.
If you have been hiding in a cave for the past couple years, or you’ve just been busy adjusting the bunny ears on your TV, then you may need a little background info.
Widgets are simple little web applications that can be embedded into a web-page or areas of your desktop operating system. They are used to display media, interesting content, news, product information, and just about anything else. If you really want to simplify things, you could compare them to pieces of flair on your Chatchski’s uniform. In other words, anything that you, or someone else, might find interesting or funny, can be quickly and easily pinned right on your site with levels of interactivity that blow the “Honky for Jesus” pin out of the water.
Widgets have been around for years, but with the increasing popularity of web apps and API’s for sharing data, compounded with the explosion of social networking sites (millions of new micro-webmasters), many people believe we are looking at the perfect storm. At first many of the mainstream social sites like MySpace were skeptical of opening their networks to the 3rd party intruders, but they are quickly learning that they must embrace them. This past spring, Facebook shifted their business to a more open platform in-order to encourage the building and integration of these widgets within their site.
While may of these widgets started as a way of sharing information, and consolidating the number of sites a web surfer must visit to fill their daily data appetite, they are quickly evolving into serious business models. Just ask Max Levchin, one of the co-founders of PayPal, and the mastermind behind one of the webs most popular widgets “Slide.”
“Call them bling for your blog. They’re all over the Internet — some 220 million people used widgets in May alone, according to ComScore — and their viral-like success has set off a frenzy over how to make money from them.” [money.cnn.com]
As the hypes builds, popularity grows, and companies figure out how to best monetize this new front, obviously everyone is going to want their cut. In fact, it was announced just this week that MySpace is looking at jumping into the mix as-well…
“MySpace is considering lifting a ban on commerce on the popular social networking site as a way to increase its own profits, according to a published report.” [money.cnn.com]
It will definitely take some time to determine the effectiveness of a widget based business models, supported by e-commerce, display advertising, and even lead generations, but the hype is there and soon we’ll surely find out.
So it seems like it is finally time for Google to start monetizing on its’ youTube investment. Google will begin displaying overlay advertisements through its very popular & extensive youTube content network. Ok, I can hear you groaning, “No, don’t pollute my videos with junky ads!”, but hopefully Google’s “Don’t be evil” motto will hold true. Apparently the ads will be relatively nonintrusive, as they will be targeted towards the video’s content, and users will be able to quickly close the ads if they please. With an attractive CPM and some creative flexibility, I am very curious to see where this will go.
“Advertisers will pay a flat rate of $20 per thousand consumer viewings. In addition to the overlay and click-to-play ad, they get an ad unit beside the video player.”
-CNNMoney.com (Article)
Interactive Advertising, Marketing and Multimedia Specialist
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