October 31, 2005
On Web 2.0 and Destroying Business As Usual
The 'Web 2.0' train is rolling on and gaining steam, despite the fact that it's hard to describe or pin down. If it exists at all, then it's at least in part the progeny of another locomotive - The Cluetrain Manifesto.
Fittingly, one of the cluetrain authors provides us with The Naked Truth about Web 2.0.
August 15, 2005
Free Google WiFi + Location Based Ads = Smart
Bars give out pretzels and peanuts because they make you thirsty. What do you do?
Business 2.0 (via telecom wiz Om Malik is reporting that Google is putting the pieces together to offer free WiFi, at least in the major markets, and speculates that it isn't a benevolent act but rather a platform to serve location-based ads. (Via Buzzmachine)
I'll leave it to thousands of others to comment and discuss the 'omygawdgoogleisgoingto' aspects of this move.
I wish more online businesses would think this way. Not by laying out zillions of dollars to buy dark fiber, but by figuring out how to provide something very useful that their customers already want, which not-so-coincidentally puts them in a great position to buy whatever it is they're selling.
Google figured out two things that Free Wifi does for them: It puts users online more frequently (which generates more searches) and it provides them with info about where the person is (so they can serve relevant ads based on not just context but location.)
Finding online customers when they’re ‘ready to buy’ is getting more and more competitive. It’s a lot easier to find them when they’re ‘getting ready to buy’.
In future posts, I'll explore some specific ways to do just that.
August 13, 2005
Search: The Book
John Battelle the one true journalist amidst a huge list of pretenders in the SEO-blogosphere. That's crystal clear in the depth of this thinking, his editorial choices, and the quality of his writing, day-in and day-out. Now comes the book he's been working on, and two free excerpts have been put online.
Based on what we've seen at his blog over the past year and more, I'm sure this is going to be a lot more than just a fluffy 'quick history' of a market segment that happens to be hot. John's been diving on what it all means, where it's going, and how the pieces fit into place.
Living in the search world, the last thing I would generally want to do is read a book about search. But I can't wait to read this one.
July 9, 2005
It's as easy as 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8
The idea of 'doing what you love' as the road to success, riches, and happiness isn't new. But I found some expanded and interesting thoughts on the theory from an unknown author who goes by the name Spike, and related comments at How To Save The World.
Spike says you just gotta:
# Have Passion
# Work Hard
# Focus on One Thing
# Get Good At It (practice)
# Push Yourself (break barriers)
# Develop Ideas that solve problems
# Serve Something of Value.
# Persist through CRAP (critisim, rejection, assholes, pressure)
He's got a book coming out expanding these ideas, based on interviews with 500 of the uber-successful from which he developed his theory.
July 8, 2005
Gator Swallows Microsoft (or at least the last shred of their integrity)
MSFT's interest in acquiring the king of all scumware, Claria (formerly Gator), has been reported for a week or more. Many have posted thoughts on this.
Microsoft has subsequently reclassified Gator/Claria products as less dangerous forms of spyware (via BoingBoing).
That makes sense. In Microsoft's view things that are unethical when done by others are acceptable when done by them.
May 25, 2005
A Google Map
No, Not maps.google.com (which I love), but a nice slide that shows what hell Google has bolted onto their search engine in the last year or so.
This is from a slideshow Google recently presented at its headquarters. The middle 70%, btw, is 'search and ads'. It would be interesting to see how they broke those two little items apart in terms of internal mindshare. My sense is that the force is getting strong with the dark side...
May 11, 2005
Scumware 3.0: PersonalWeb from Claria (Gator)
Apparently people aren't dumb enough to download spyware polluted wallets and weather utilities anymore, so the renamed-but-unreformed clowns at Claria (formerly Gator) now want to enlist major website publishers to help them do their dirty work.
As the article reports, Claria wants to spy on more than 3x the 40M+ users it has already contaminated, and needs some help to do it. Let's hope there is a clear and loud cry against any publisher that colludes in this scheme.
February 25, 2005
Gator Now Guarding National Privacy Hen House
Years ago I read a book called "Who Will Tell The People" in which William Greider explained how the worst polluters in the world came to control the US 'SuperFund' that selected and targeted polluted sites for clean up. It was a sad story.
Now we have the chief privacy officer from scumware/spyware kings Claria (aka Gator) on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee.
What's next? Jose Conseco on the Sports Ethics and Drug Abuse Council?
July 30, 2004
Google Gets Lousy InvestorRank
As Fred Wilson from A VC points out, Jim Cramer is 'not always right, but rarely totally wrong". Look what he has to say about the Google IPO.
As I mentioned three months ago, the Google-Guys set themselves up for a fall by promising to be saints. I listed four un-saintly things they'd already done, and now Cramer nails them with a fifth : "talk about shareholder democracy but then you do the single most anti-democratic thing possible: issue two classes of stock".
At least that move has some direct benefit - they keep unilateral control of their company. Heck, Wall St. could probably understand and begrudgingly respect greed and power. But each of these other moves appear to be part of the candidacy for sainthood. Looks like they need a new campaign manager.
July 21, 2004
Password = "Last Gasp For The Old World"
Boing Boing and Wired comment on the absurd trend of news sites to require passwords to read their web pages. Beyond the fact that they're cutting off users, the article describes the security risks they're creating.
July 18, 2004
I'm Not Scum
So Google bought Picasa, which is interesting. And smart. Picassa is the best photo organizing tool, and Hello is the best photo sharing tool. Now both of them are free.
Photos and Google? Not really. People and Google. The one thing the Goo-Folks screwed up on their ascent was failing to build any relationship with their customers. Anyone could have switched from Google to NewSearch.com in a second. But the toolbar, deskbar, Gmail account, RSS feeds from GoogleGroups2, and now software you use to organize and share your photos are all a lot more inconvenient to shake. So Google put a few million of their current and future billions over to Bill Gross and his Idealab, and gave the world (or at least everybody who didn't already fork over the $29.95) a gift. But it wasn't an altruistic gesture. They're buying friends and loyalty.
But all that was obvious. What's really interesting, is that on the Picasa home page, when they encourage you to get this great free software, they make the following statement:
The download itself contains only the Picasa software. Picasa will not uninstall other programs or add any non-Picasa programs or files to your computer.
So this is what it has come to. A piece of software has to EXPLICITLY STATE that it isn't going to pollute your computer with spyware, scumware, adware, or where-the-hell-did-this-come-from-ware. You can't assume that anymore. Just like every email sign up now has the obligatory 'No really, we won't sell you out' disclaimer. Now all software downloads needs that too.
I generally dislike regulation, and think the government should be the course of absolutely last resort. But we're there on scumware/adware. Thanks alot to Claria, Kazza, and everybody else that made this sad day a reality.
May 13, 2004
An Evil Business
It's been a good couple of years for the word evil because both the President of the United States, and the management team of the worlds' most visible company (Google) have put it in their respective mission statements. The word hasn't had this much press since the Salem Witch Trials.
For the President, idiology and hyperbole can work. It engergizes the base. But I think the guys at Google are going to regret saying it. Because they're going to be a business soon. And as evidenced by lots of recent decisions they've had to make, businesses have lots of factors to consider when making decisions. And usually the ones about 'what will make us more money?' wind up winning out over 'what would a hippie do?'.
Consider what they've done in just the last few weeks: * They've put Gmail into test, pissing off the privacy fear mongers. * They've stopped taking gambling ads in response to silly government pressure, pissing off the 14 guys who actually own those millions of gambling sites and the thousands of affiliates who earn good money from them. * They've removed perfectly good web pages from their listings at the behest of hollywood and other large and clearly oppressive business interests, pissing off anybody who still believes in freedom of speech. * They've started supporting banner ads via Adsense, pissing off those opposed to colored pixels and those who think that subtle commerce is somehow more acceptable than garish commerce.And clearly this is just the beginning. The point isn't that any of these moves are right or wrong. Clearly there are some of both :-) Mostly I'd say their moves, or more precisely their ability and willingness to move, have been quite impressive. If they can get all this done running on a few hundred $k, I can't wait to see what they do with $1.6 billion.
The point is that when you promise to be a saint everybody gets their own idea of what you mean, and it doesn't take too long before a great many people are disappointed. I'm afraid there's a backlash brewing here to the Google-love-fest that's been going on, and the boys themselves put the kettle on and turned up the heat. The press is going to love it. It'll be great for the blog-o-sphere. Too bad it largely didn't need to happen.
April 16, 2004
Don't Click(Z)
Is it a bad idea to include links off of your site? Apparently the folks at ClickZ think so. I find it mighty ironic that an internet marketing site, part of internet.com, is afraid of hyperlinks. I noticed this in a story today about the new BurgerKing site which got 46 million visits this week. Clickz explained it this way: "The site, at subservientchicken.com, features a chicken-suit-garbed human embodying the classic BK tagline, 'Have it your way.'" So if you wanted to go see the site which the story is about, they expected you to copy and paste, or retype the URL. I understand the idea of keeping users on your site where they read your copy and see your ads. I'm sure someone has tested and these links send people away who never come back. But somewhere there has to be a balance. Including links where they're natural and informative and helpful to the reader is a good, not bad, practice. People who work at internet.com should know this.April 15, 2004
Hysteria, Legislation, and Gmail
There used to be a software development joke about printing t-shirts before you even ship the product. The point was about getting priorities out of sequence. (Someone want to post the joke in comments?).
Now we have all kinds of hue and cry, (what is that) and even threats of legislation, about a beta version of a free product with 0% market-share which will only be used by people who sign up for it voluntarily. It won’t be long before all the napkins at coffee shops digitally transmit any doodles directly to the government for review so we can stop innovation right where it starts.
April 2, 2004
Slap The Gator
A German court has ruled against Clara (formerly Gator) stopping them from putting their spyware-driven advertising on the Hertz rental car site in that country.
The company, who most people know as Gator, tricks consumers into downloading and installing seemingly innocuous utility software - weather info, a clock, an online wallet, etc - and burries in the tiny scrolling terms and conditions the right to watch the consumer as they use the internet, compile information about them, and then display pop-ups or overlay ads. The company claims that users 'agree to receive advertising based on their actual online behavior'. From a legal standpoint they probably do. But in reality only a tiny fraction of users have any idea of what's going on - they just wanted to see the weather. So when the onslaught of pop-ups begin, most users don't know that it is their clock or weather utility causing it, so they have to buy spyware removers, live with harrassing pop-ups, or watch their computing experience generally deteriorate.
Of course, many people figured out what the company was up to, and IT dept's and techies everyware spend countless hours removing the Gator/Claria software and educating unsuspecting users. From a business perspective, the company has taken several amazingly irresponsible courses of action - they changed their name (hoping to leave their image behind), and they started suing people who were warning users about them.
I have no problem with their technology, only their tactics. If it was a true opt-in network it would be fabulous. It would also be 1/100th the size or less. I actually agree that consumers have the right to see ads from other sites triggered by their behaviour and the web sites they visit. I don't agree that publishers should control the environment when it is on my desktop. If I go to the Hertz counter at an airport, they are free to make sure no Avis ads play over their radios. If I browse to the Hertz site, and I've intentionally and knowingly installed some software to show me alternative offers, that's my right.
But as it is, consumers aren't playing along by choice. The FTC should require that their downloads carry extremely clear disclaimers that usability tests prove a strong majority of consumer understand: "By downloading and installing this software you're agreeing to have your behaviour monitored and that you will be forced to view additional advertisements which are based on the information we collect about you."
Anyone involved in online advertising should avoid spending money with this company on moral grounds. They're network is reportedly effective, but so is SPAM. Until they completely clean up their act, I hope more courts rule against them and more legal troubles come their way.
Update: SearchBlog reports the spyware kings are going public. Yes, we have a problem.
March 29, 2004
Try Something New
I've been forcing myself to try search engines other than Google, and the process makes it clear that getting all your search results from one place is no smarter than getting all your news from one source.
The recent outbreak of search competition, and lots of talk and activity concerning vertical search engines (shopping, business, etc.) suggests that lots of people would benefit from more diversity in their search diets - but kicking the Google habit can be tough. After all, the names Teoma, Kartoo, or Dogpile don't spring to mind very quickly do they? How are average netizens ever going to sample all the new flavors?
Perhaps SEO's, Bloggers, and other would-be influencials can use these cool little buttons (and the button-maker) to spare a few pixels in their gutters to recommend some new search options that they particularly like to their loyal followings. Beyond the community service, this can give the new and lessor-known engines more of a chance, and an even slightly spreading of market share will help nearly everyone. (So you have to do it without a PPC fee.)
When I see the same name in lots of blogrolls I give it a try. Maybe it will work for search engines too.
PS: The above are just a few samples. Someone with more skill might want to pick better colors, or design ready-to-use buttons for more engines.
March 25, 2004
Follow That Car
In yesterday’s post suggesting that Yahoo! buy Shopping.com, I mentioned that the new Yahoo Autos looks like an indication of things to come. John Battelle makes a similar point today when he says “If you want to track the commercialization of search, watch Yahoo.”
Just as in years gone by, the search engines (it used to be the portals) will find more and more ways to monetize their traffic, which generally means keeping people on the site longer and sending them off the site less. Sure the world is a better place in that now they get paid when people leave the site – at least part of the time – but still they know that there’s lots of margin left in those users. So one by one they’ll figure out ways to take the most profitable market segments and keep them in-house longer and longer.
Reminds me of a friend who’s in the shopping mall business – after years of seeing which businesses lasted, had the best margins, and were the least difficult operationally, he buys up those businesses. Own the building, get nice safe rent from the tough or money loosing businesses and keep all the high-profit low-risk ones for yourself. Nice way to make a living.
Expect the same from your favorite search engines. They’ll sell you a click for $0.50 if it’s only worth a few bucks, but if they see that you’re paying $0.50 (or even $5.00) for clicks that nets $50, it isn’t going to take long for someone in the organization to start writing white papers about getting a bigger piece of that action.
There are lots of complications that will come out of this, both for the engines, internet users, and independent businesses and web sites. Hang on – the ride’s going to get bumpy!
March 24, 2004
Checkbook Please
Shopping.com has filed for their IPO. They earned $6.9 million on revenue of $67.2 million this past year. Yahoo should buy them fast before the price goes up after the IPO. Or they could do even better and buy BizRate which has broader services and appears to be a higher class operation. Better yet they could buy both, just to keep them both from Google.
These companies are the pure-shopping side of Overture. Every click is paid for, and there are LOTs of clicks. Plus they both have scads of user opinions, the once and next driving force of commerce. And it's a great fit with Yahoo Stores, where they earn from both store rent and as a percent of sales. This adds a revenue stream for the big boys who don't run YahooStores, and who already have to buy Overture ads to get into regular search listings. Top this off with moves like the new Yahoo! Autos and you start to see where this is all going.
Update: Two days after writing this entry, it was reported that Yahoo! purchased Kelkoo, the european equivalent of Epinions.
Update: A post at SearchBlog about Shopping.com and their Google relationship.
March 9, 2004
How Many Insane Laws Can One Country Have, Before it...
This from Wired News: "Imagine doing a Google search for a phone number, weather report or sports score. The results page would be filled with links to various sources of information. But what if someone typed in keywords and no results came back? That's the scenario critics are painting of a new bill wending its way through Congress that would let certain companies own facts, and exact a fee to access them."
And I'm sure it's called the "Free Flow Of Information" act or some-such nonsense. Somewhere I think there's a game being played to see if it's possible to transfer all liberties from the many to the few in 10 laws or less. With the 'Patriot Act' and the 'Digital Millennium Copyright Act' plus recent rulings against DVD-XCopy and many others, it appears they'll hit their mark - in about 4.5 years. Coincidence?
In that rosy future everything your read, write, listen to, and see will require both a 'reasonable fee' and a permission slip from your local IAB ('Information Access Board').
I'm not a conspiracy theorist, nor am I generally against corporations large or small. I believe this is all worse than a conspiracy, it's a complete systemic malfunction. The so-called 'special interests' are so deeply ingrained in the process at every level and the players are so filtered by them (you can't move up the ladder without their help) and then controlled by them (you can't stay up the ladder without their help) and they're so much better at manipulating the press and PR machines than the L's are (Lefties, Liberals, Libertarians and Laymen) that complete lunacy passes and responsible public policy. One by one these laws and rulings are disgusting. All together, they're catastrophic.