ISM Signpost #20
SIGNPOST is the monthly executive summary of the
internet search marketing industry.
07.07 ISSUE 20
To request further copies or to stop receiving
SIGNPOST, please email m.daly@isearchm.com
*** The Human Touch
*** Biggest Brother
*** The Power of the Widget
*** Radio Stars
*** And Finally…….
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+++ The Human Touch +++
Human-powered search engine launches
A human-powered search engine has launched to help navigate the deluge of information available on the web. Mahalo, Hawaiian for “thank you” is backed by Sequoia Capital, the Silicon Valley firm that invested in Google.
Mahalo employs 40 people in Los Angeles to collate relevant links on results pages for popular search queries. So far, they have built 4,000 results pages and hope to have 25,000 by the end of the year, a small fraction of Google’s capacity but covering a third of all search queries according to Jason Calacanis, the founder.
Calacanis believes that his approach will help eliminate spam from search results. He told journalists that 80-90% of the information on the web is spam and that websites are purposefully built to appeal to the machines that select search results rather than to humans.
Mahalo’s approach to search draws on the strategy of websites like Wikipedia which uses human experts. Mahalo’s pages can also integrate different elements like RSS news feeds and videos.
Mahalo is a fascinating back-to-basics development in the world of search. It would be almost impossible to beat Google in its own game of automated search. But Google’s weakness lies in the number of unwanted results that it throws up and also in the way those results can be manipulated by outsiders. Mahalo can offer a more selective and useful alternative for consumers.
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+++ Biggest Brother +++
Google slated for privacy practices
Google has been slammed for invading its users’ privacy by a UK-based human rights group, Privacy International. The group said Google had “an entrenched hostility to privacy” and ranked it the worst of the 23 sites it studied over six months.
While none of the online companies analysed, including Microsoft, Apple, eBay and Yahoo, were commended for their privacy policy, Google was placed at the bottom of the ranking.
Meanwhile, European Union privacy officials are in the process of scrutinising Google’s data policies and are increasing pressure on the search engine to improve its data protection measures. Google has offered to reduce the amount of time it keeps search data from two years to 18 months and to set cookies to expire after two, rather than 30, years.
However, the EU has signalled that these concessions are not enough. It is concerned that Google’s retained information on individuals’ searching habits could be used to identify individuals or create profiles of their private preferences.
It is the second time in four months that Google has changed its privacy policies in response to pressure from the European Union. And it may not be the last. It increasingly looks as if privacy has become Google’s achilles heel.
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+++ The Power of the Widget +++
Widgets offer new channel for advertisers
New data suggests that web tools, commonly known as widgets, draw big audiences and could therefore offer new opportunities for advertisers. Nearly 177.8 million people worldwide viewed web content in April made with online tools that enable users post photos, video and music on other websites, according to comScore inc. That’s nearly 21% of the worldwide Internet audience.
Widgets are applications that consumers can use to produce videos, photo slideshows and music playlists. These pieces of content can then be posted onto blogs or social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace. To put the data in perspective, 105 million people visited MySpace in April and 38.8 million visited Facebook.
However, to date social networking sites have been reluctant to allow third party companies include ads on their content. MySpace doesn’t allow widget makers to sell items or advertise and Facebook prevents them from embedding in ads on profile pages. Some are warming to the idea. BeBo plans to start using ads with widgets displayed on profile pages and elsewhere.
While widget traffic booms, appropriate search mechanisms seem to be lagging behind. To date it’s difficult to actually search widget content. Presumably this will improve as the industry gets better at searching more sophisticated content. However, these figures show that searching through widget content is a growing user need. There’s undoubtedly an opportunity here for search engines and their advertisers.
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+++ Radio Stars +++
Google and eBay grapple over radio advertising
Both Google and eBay are ramping up their radio advertising capabilities. After testing its audio ads for months, Google will now be offering radio advertising to its AdWords advertisers across the US. Meanwhile, eBay will let over 2,300 radio stations auction airtime to advertisers through the eBay Media Marketplace website.
Google is offering $400 in credits to encourage its advertisers to dabble in radio advertising. To get the credit, advertisers must use Google’s Ad Creation marketplace, a directory of specialists who help create the 30 second radio spots and launch a campaign by June 30.
Google’s expansion into radio follows its $100m acquisition of dMarc Broadcasting last year, an automated ad purchasing system for radio stations and a deal with Clear Channel to sell ad inventory across 675 stations.
Google and eBay are increasingly stepping on each other’s toes. Google Checkout is a remarkably similar business to eBay’s Paypal and the online auctioneer is not impressed. When Google Checkout attempted to hold a party at the same time as eBay’s annual conference, the auctioneer threatened to pull all advertising from Google across the US, worth around $25m. Google cancelled the party. Watch out for more battles between the two over the coming months.
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+++ And finally…
Search has undoubtedly come of age; the sector has even spawned its very own satirical search engine – acrappysearchengine.com. As the name implies, it returns rubbish results. “We can’t all be Google,” it points out, on a familiar-looking home page featuring a cracked magnifying glass logo.
SIGNPOST is published monthly by Internet Search Management Ltd.
The opinions expressed are those of the Editor and not necessarily those of Internet Search Management Ltd.
All material Copyright 2007 Internet Search Management Ltd. All rights reserved.
ENDS
