Archive for the ‘General SEM’ Category

AOL has launched a new website dedicated to PC gaming that also provides video games marketers with new advertising opportunities.

BigDownload.com has been developed in conjunction with Weblogs, whose Joystiq.com blog powers the site’s collection of news articles and reviews.

Users can take advantage of free game, demo and trailer downloads without going through a required sign-up process or queuing for free. The site also includes links to online stores where the full versions of demo games can be purchased.

Senior product manager for AOL Games and BigDownload.com John Benyamine commented on the website’s potential for those looking to expand their online advertising strategies.

"In addition to serving this niche fan base, BigDownload.com provides advertisers an opportunity to reach gaming enthusiasts directly and a chance to create interesting and exclusive campaigns surrounding content," he explained.

Other blogs managed by Weblogs include Engadget and Autoblog.

New research has revealed that British web users spent 2.6 billion minutes a month on MSN Messenger in the last year.

Compiled by Nielsen Online, the statistics also showed that 1.6 billion minutes were spent on eBay every month between June 2007 and May 2008, while Facebook saw 1.4 billion monthly user minutes.

Other popular applications and sites for British internet users during the period consisted of Google, Hotmail, Windows Media Player, YouTube, Bebo, iTunes and Yahoo! Mail.

Meanwhile, the greatest year-on-year growth was experienced by social media sites Facebook and YouTube.

"Whilst the social media wave continues to have the biggest impact on internet behaviour levels, it’s important not to forget that some of online’s more traditional sectors continue to perform," Nielsen Online’s Alex Burmaster remarked.

Google was the most used search engine in the UK during May, Hitwise figures recently revealed.

Targeted online ads provide significant advantages for all of the parties concerned, Nick Stringer of the Internet Advertising Bureau has claimed.

The expert told the Internet Service Providers Association Legal Forum that consumers, advertisers and businesses have much to gain from this type of advertising, despite the potential for problems when it comes to online privacy.

Mr Stringer noted that advertising helps to keep many essential web services, such as search and email, free of charge for internet users, while businesses can benefit from higher traffic levels as a result of ads being more relevant.

He added: "It’s also more beneficial for advertisers. They know that they are actually reaching users who have expressed an interest in the products or services they can offer."

Targeted ads are being taken up with a growing number of websites, with social networking site LinkedIn recently launching a new tool to allow advertisers to focus on specific segments of its user base, according to Search Engine Journal.

Microsoft has announced that it is acquiring Powerset, a search engine that makes use of natural language technology.

The confirmation on the company’s Live Search blog comes after days of speculation following a VentureBeat report that Microsoft is paying $100 million (£50.2 million) for the San Francisco start-up.

Powerset’s technology is capable of delving into the meaning behind search queries and other forms of web text and was first deployed in a Wikipedia search tool in May this year.

Satya Nadella, senior vice-president of search, portal and advertising at Microsoft, said: "Powerset brings with it natural language technology that nicely complements other natural language processing technologies we have in Microsoft Research."

Powerset will remain in San Francisco while becoming part of Microsoft’s Search Relevance team. According to Mark Johnson of Powerset, the deal means that the company will be able to bring its work to a significantly larger market.

Search giants Google and Yahoo! are working with Adobe to improve the way in which they index Flash content.

In an announcement today (July 1st), Adobe said that it is providing its Flash player technology to the two firms in a bid to make Flash pages and applications more visible in search rankings.

Google has already made use of the technology, with users able to see many Flash-related results in search listings at present, while Yahoo! will make similar changes to its own system in due course.

The news comes shortly after Adobe released Acrobat 9, which now offers native support for Flash.

David Wadhwani of Adobe commented: "We are initially working with Google and Yahoo! to significantly improve search of this rich content on the web and we intend to broaden the availability of this capability to benefit all content publishers, developers and end users."

Retailers would do well to boost their online operations by focusing on improving the customer experience, according to one expert.

Companies should take heed of research suggesting that consumers want e-tailers to do more to make the online shopping process easier and implement changes such as offering free shipping, detailed product information and multiple images, Jason Lee Miller of WebProNews said.

Other initiatives that retailers could consider include offering in-store pick-up services, as well as building highly relevant internet landing pages for those coming to the website via a search engine.

"If customers don’t prefer online shopping to brick-and-mortar shopping, it’s because retail sites haven’t done enough to make the online shopping experience a good one," Mr Miller noted.

According to IMRG’s David Smith, retailers must take a more customer-centric approach to e-commerce by making sure that special offers are marketed in the right way.

Google is to conduct a trial involving the distribution of online programming via its AdSense service.

The search engine giant has struck a deal with Seth MacFarlane, the man behind Family Guy, to distribute a series of 50 original two-minute cartoons, reports the New York Post.

Although the cartoons are for entertainment purposes only, Google hopes they will act as a vehicle to attract viewers in specific demographics.

Links to MacFarlane’s work will be placed on websites identified by Google’s AdSense as likely to be visited by the target audience of young males.

Those clicking to watch the cartoons will find they are accompanied by either television-style commercials or banner adverts, some of which MacFarlane has agreed to animate.

Although the service is not set to launch for several months, Google told the newspaper that it has already secured advertisers for many of the films, including some of the biggest deals in AdSense’s five-year history.

News of the service comes just weeks after Google announced it had agreed a deal which will see Yahoo! begin using Adsense technology.

AOL has launched a new website dedicated to PC gaming that also provides video games marketers with new advertising opportunities.

BigDownload.com has been developed in conjunction with Weblogs, whose Joystiq.com blog powers the site’s collection of news articles and reviews.

Users can take advantage of free game, demo and trailer downloads without going through a required sign-up process or queuing for free. The site also includes links to online stores where the full versions of demo games can be purchased.

Senior product manager for AOL Games and BigDownload.com John Benyamine commented on the website’s potential for those looking to expand their online advertising strategies.

"In addition to serving this niche fan base, BigDownload.com provides advertisers an opportunity to reach gaming enthusiasts directly and a chance to create interesting and exclusive campaigns surrounding content," he explained.

Other blogs managed by Weblogs include Engadget and Autoblog.

New research has revealed that British web users spent 2.6 billion minutes a month on MSN Messenger in the last year.

Compiled by Nielsen Online, the statistics also showed that 1.6 billion minutes were spent on eBay every month between June 2007 and May 2008, while Facebook saw 1.4 billion monthly user minutes.

Other popular applications and sites for British internet users during the period consisted of Google, Hotmail, Windows Media Player, YouTube, Bebo, iTunes and Yahoo! Mail.

Meanwhile, the greatest year-on-year growth was experienced by social media sites Facebook and YouTube.

"Whilst the social media wave continues to have the biggest impact on internet behaviour levels, it’s important not to forget that some of online’s more traditional sectors continue to perform," Nielsen Online’s Alex Burmaster remarked.

Google was the most used search engine in the UK during May, Hitwise figures recently revealed.

Targeted online ads provide significant advantages for all of the parties concerned, Nick Stringer of the Internet Advertising Bureau has claimed.

The expert told the Internet Service Providers Association Legal Forum that consumers, advertisers and businesses have much to gain from this type of advertising, despite the potential for problems when it comes to online privacy.

Mr Stringer noted that advertising helps to keep many essential web services, such as search and email, free of charge for internet users, while businesses can benefit from higher traffic levels as a result of ads being more relevant.

He added: "It’s also more beneficial for advertisers. They know that they are actually reaching users who have expressed an interest in the products or services they can offer."

Targeted ads are being taken up with a growing number of websites, with social networking site LinkedIn recently launching a new tool to allow advertisers to focus on specific segments of its user base, according to Search Engine Journal.