Archive for August, 2008

Video-sharing website YouTube is to see more of its homepage given over to advertising, according to a report on the Silicon Alley Insider (SAI) blog.

The Google-owned site is already experimenting with a variety of ads attached to its video clips in an effort to generate more revenue from the property’s popularity with web users.

Now advertising sources have told SAI that YouTube’s homepage is set to be redesigned to include a new banner ad that will stretch across the whole width of the page. When asked about the news, YouTube refused to comment.

"The YouTube homepage has until now had pretty minimal advertising, just the window in the upper right corner of the site. But it should be the easiest part of the site to sell," said SAI’s Michael Learmonth.

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt recently told CNBC’s Mad Money show that the search engine’s homepage is unlikely to carry ads as users would not like the notion.

Google and Mozilla have renewed an agreement that makes the former the default search service in the Firefox browser.

The original agreement saw the deal continue until 2006, when it was extended to 2008 and now to November 2011.

Mitchell Baker, Mozilla chairperson, claimed on his blog that the new deal will offer continued "stability in income", with TechCrunch noting that the agreement helped to generate 85 per cent of Mozilla’s revenues in 2006.

"We’re very, very happy about our relationship with Google and this makes sure that Mozilla will be sustainable and thrive for quite a long time to come," remarked John Lilly, chief executive of Mozilla, to TechCrunch.

The move could mark another twist in the ongoing browser wars, with Microsoft recently releasing the second test version of Internet Explorer 8 - which has a raft of new features - earlier this week.

Marketers can greatly improve their website optimisation efforts through the use of Microsoft adCenter’s new entry and exit reports, according to Mel Carson of the adCenter Analytics blog.

Web users have a habit of using entry and exit points that marketers do not expect them to use, meaning that the data taken from detailed traffic reports can do much to help them to analyse what they are doing right and wrong, Mr Carson said.

The new adCenter reports can provide data on the most popular entry and exit pages, as well as the length of time spent on each of these.

Mr Carson said that marketers should look into why certain pages seem to be particularly common entry points.

He asked: "Is it ranking well in the search engines for that product query? Has someone written a favourable review? Have you checked your pay-per-click account recently to make sure you’re not bidding too much?"

Users of adCenter can also make use of new features such as at-a-glance marketing campaign details on the central dashboard and figures relating to visitor age and gender.

Microsoft has added a number of enhanced search features to its forthcoming Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) browser.

Unveiling the launch of IE8 Beta 2, the company said on its IE blog that the new browser offers a new smart address bar, visual search capabilities and search suggestions.

Other features include a private web browsing mode, improved security, enhanced tabbing and a unique Web Slices option that allows users to take parts of web pages to other sites.

The private browsing mode has caused some disquiet in the online community, however, as fears have been raised that the feature - which deletes cookies and other private data during a specified session - could hinder the advertising operations of organisations like Google that depend on cookies to target their ads.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Ovum information technology analyst David Mitchell said: "If the hype around privacy gains more credibility, more people will hit the private button. There is a potential threat here to click-through [display] advertising."

User-generated content (UGC) holds much promise for those involved in online marketing, according to British Airways digital marketing manager Chris Davies.

Speaking to E-consultancy, the expert noted that UGC enables marketers to "fish where the fish are" and stressed that the channel is best for raising brand awareness rather than extracting solid financial gain at present.

He urged businesses to only move into the UGC arena if the medium is a good fit for the brand and if they believe users will derive significant benefit from their activities, however.

"Most UGC site users are wary of big brands coming into what they consider to be ‘their space’. But if you are giving them something that helps them, some sort of social currency, then they’ll likely thank you for it," Mr Davies remarked.

According to David Schatsky of JupiterResearch, social media has been shown to have little effect on direct sales and so should only be used for branding purposes.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies can be successful if they focus on producing unique website content, Chris Lake of E-consultancy has said.

The editor-in-chief of the e-marketing site explained that search engines favour unique content to the extent that websites featuring a wide range of such pages will generally place higher in listings than those that do not.

This is evidenced by a Google policy stating that websites found to be using duplicate content for the intention of manipulating search rankings could see their positioning downgraded.

Mr Lake also highlighted the fact that Google is including more multimedia in its search results, indicating that enriching content with images and videos may also be helpful for SEO.

"It’s crucial to produce exclusive content as it will not only help you to retain the visitors that come to your website; it will also raise your site’s profile in the eyes of Google," he commented.

The internet will become the third most popular advertising medium for businesses around the world by the end of the year, according to a new study.

Conducted by communications agency Carat, the research suggested that while traditional advertising channels remain stagnant, online media is proving increasingly popular across a number of regions.

It predicted that the internet will account for 8.6 per cent of all advertising spending this year, rising to 9.8 per cent in 2009.

"With search now central to the planning and execution of any campaign, online media brings a greater level of accountability not just to itself but to TV, print and other forms of advertising," said Jerry Buhlmann, chief executive of Aegis Media.

"This is why we are predicting further strong growth for internet."

According to IDC, keyword ads will remain the most used form of online advertising over the next three years.

Marketers can give their search engine rankings a significant boost by ensuring that website content is of as high a quality as possible.

This is according to advice offered by Mark Jackson of Search Engine Watch, who explained that search engines favour sites containing a wealth of authoritative content rather than those that aim to play the system by devoting a single page to one keyword.

To this end, businesses would do well to ensure they have a range of engaging and keyword-rich pages covering a number of aspects of their business area present on their website, he said.

"It’s no mystery. Google wants to give their users a quality experience when they search. You must strive to deliver a high quality user experience when people visit your website," Mr Jackson stated.

Conversational text that is short and compelling can do much to keep web users on a particular site, according to comments made by writer Jon Wuebben to the Macon Daily last month.

Semantic search will dominate the search engine sector over the next 12 months, a new study has suggested.

StrategyEye Digital Media polled more than 200 decision-makers at a range of companies operating in the digital industry, with almost 80 per cent those working in search pointing to the semantic web as a key area of focus for search companies.

The semantic web has been targeted by companies such as Microsoft - which acquired natural language technology provider Powerset earlier this year - looking to make search results more relevant for users.

However, the medium could come with its challenges in the short-term, StrategyEye warned.

"Over the longer-term, semantic search technologies will become a reality if the trade off between the cost of scaling the platform and the monetisation potential can be balanced," it added.

According to Microsoft, irrelevant search results can occur when there are differences between users’ search queries and the way in which these concepts are expressed on web pages, a problem that could be overcome with semantic technology.

Spending on online video ads on the NBC Olympics website reached $5.75 million (£3.12 million) in total, according to new figures.

Compiled by eMarketer, the statistics showed that video ad expenditure for the event in the US was equivalent to just 1.1 per cent of the $505 million predicted to be spent on the medium overall this year.

The organisation said that the figure was "passable" considering the relatively short duration of the Games and pointed to NBC website visitors being forced to download Microsoft’s Silverlight player to access video content as one possible reason for the fact that most of the site’s traffic was not made up of video viewers.

However, eMarketer senior analyst David Hallerman said that the Olympics showed there is potential in the video ad market.

"As a signifier for future online events, the games set a high bar for the competition - establishing that major sports events, tournaments and professional leagues ought to offer an abundance of video content online, not just snippets," he remarked.

According to comScore, the official Beijing Olympics website saw 16.5 million unique visitors between August 8th and 17th.