ISM Signpost #3
SIGNPOST is the monthly executive summary of the
internet search marketing industry.
12.06 ISSUE 3
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*Google’s retro discovery
*A Really Simple Sale?
*Is splog the new spam?
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+++ Google’s retro discovery +++
Google is dabbling with pay-per-call
Google has discovered the electrical talking machine – the old-fashioned telephone. Hot on the heels of Thomson, Yahoo! and Miva, the search engine is testing pay-per-call services, a form of search advertising which captures customers through a phone call rather than a click-through to a website.
This approach aims to woo online customers who are reluctant to buy products or services through the internet. Around 70% of consumers search online but then make their purchase offline. This could be because of concerns about posting their credit card details online or because they prefer to speak to a real person over the phone.
Google’s new service, which it calls ‘click-to-call’, is being tested in the US, and enables consumers to speak directly to advertisers over the phone. By clicking on a phone icon next to a search result, Google users are asked to enter their phone number and ‘connect for free.’ Google then calls the consumer’s number and connects them with their chosen advertiser.
Google is footing the bill for the calls and has pledged not to share its customers’ telephone numbers with advertisers, ‘without consent’. It has also promised to delete the contact details from its servers. Currently, Google’s phone icon only appears in AdWords, its sponsored ads, rather than in the central search listings.
As reported a few months ago, Google is not the first search engine to rediscover the power of the telephone. Both Yahoo! and AOL are testing pay-per-call in the US using technology from a start up called Ingenio. In the UK, Miva and Thomson Directories are testing pay-per-call and Yahoo! launched a service for its shopping sites. Estimates from the Kelsey Group predict that pay-per-call advertising in the UK could exceed £600 million by 2009, and be worth US$4bn worldwide by the same year.
Ebay’s $2.6 billion acquisition of Skype, the internet telephony business, in September confirmed the online world’s fascination with voice communications. Because, anything that can remove barriers between online consumers and transactions will be valuable for advertisers; even if the solution comes from old school technology.
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+++ A Really Simple Sale? +++
The rise and rise of RSS
As consumers become more sophisticated internet users, the demand for simplifying and personalising services is increasing. Hence, the rise of RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, a technology which enables users to aggregate updates from their favourite websites into one location.
RSS feeds, as they are called, are especially popular for gathering personalised updates from news sites and blogs. The technology also offers an opportunity for savvy advertisers who want to target a specific audience.
Google has already signed up sites and blogs to run ads on their feeds and shares ad revenue with them. Yahoo! is also placing ads for its existing network of advertisers on the RSS feeds of some blogs.
However, RSS is a technology used by a very small number of savvy internet users. Only half of blog readers said they had heard of RSS and only 11% used the technology to monitor blogs according to research firm, Nielsen/NetRatings. Yet blog readers are widely regarded to be sophisticated web users.
RSS needs to move into the mainstream if it is to attract the attention of more advertisers. However, Microsoft’s next version of its web browser, Internet Explorer, will include a feature that enables users to subscribe and view RSS feeds, which should increase awareness of the technology.
The world’s digital library
Google invests $3m to help world’s libraries go online
Google’s ambition to become the online repository for knowledge was re-affirmed as the search engine donated $3 million towards a US-led project to put the world’s cultural memory online.
The Library of Congress plans to create digital copies of the reams of historical manuscripts, personal diaries, voice recordings and other cultural treasures held by national libraries around the world. Items to be included will be chosen based on recommendations from specialists in each of the countries concerned
The initiative known as the World Digital Library, is separate from Google’s own race to scan books from university libraries ahead of its rivals Microsoft and Yahoo!
The Library of Congress has focused on works that are either in the public domain or
for which it has secured permission. In contrast, Google’s book-scanning has attracted
criticism, and lawsuits, by including works that are still in copyright.
Since the 1990s, the Library of Congress has made around 10 million US works available online, including manuscripts of Abraham Lincoln, the Gettysburg Address and Civil War photographs, under a drive known as the American Memory initiative.
It views the World Digital Library project as a channel to tackle works related to cultures outside its home turf. One of its first agreements is with the National Library of Egypt to digitise documents from the 10th century. However, it remains to be seen whether the US leadership of a project about the cultural roots of other nations will prove popular.
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+++ Is splog the new spam? +++
Fake blogs are meddling with search engine listings
There is a highly technical battle being waged in the world of search. A new scam, which creates fake blogs called splogs, is polluting search engine results. While search engines, such as Google, are taking measures to block the splogs, their creators (the sploggers) are learning fast, in the same way that spammers rapidly adapt to anti-spam measures.
A splog is purposefully created to achieve a high rating in a search engine listing. The splogger makes money from advertising placed in the fake blog, or by directing surfers to e-commerce sites. Often ads on splogs link to genuine, well-known brands, something which is presently beyond a company’s control.
Blog tracking service Technorati has said that nearly 10% of the 70,000 blogs created every day are fake. Every week a website called splogspot.com publishes a list of fake blogs. A recent selection of the thousands listed included splogs about vitamins, weddings, babies, home improvement and injury lawyers.
Splogspot’s latest list shows 41,000, of which 34,000 are on Google’s free Blogspot hosting service. The irony, for a search engine like Google, is that its free Blogspot software is hosting fake blogs, while sploggers are generating cash from Google’s advertising service.
However, a number of fake blogs listed by splogspot.com were no longer being hosted on Blogspot, which suggests Google is deleting spam when it finds it. In fact, last month Google deleted 13,000 splogs and published the list of offenders.
The biggest issue is the fact that splogs undermine reliable search results and decrease their value, to both advertisers and online users seeking relevant information. Search engines need to battle hard to find a solution to block opportunistic fake blogs, before the industry’s reputation is knocked.
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 2005 Internet
Search Management Ltd. All rights reserved.
ENDS
