Archive for April, 2009

Facebook Users Targeted In New Phishing Attacks

This afternoon, Facebook users began receiving emails appearing to be from Facebook carrying an invitation from a friend. Following the link though, takes the recipient to a phishing site.

Reports say the scam has been spreading quickly primarily because it all looks very legitimate. The email itself spoofs Facebook and features the name of the recipient’s actual friend, who appears to have sent them a message.

The body of the message itself says simply “Hello” in the subject line and provides a link that redirects to fbaction.net. That site spoofs Facebook’s login page, prompting users to enter their user name and password.

A short time later, users discover they’ve lost access to their Facebook account because hackers have changed the password and taken over. Once the hijack is complete, everybody on the victim’s friend list gets spammed as well and the process starts all over.

In a statement, Facebook says it has blocked the domain from being shared on the site, removing referring content, and resetting passwords of senders so attackers can no longer access Facebook accounts. In addition the company says they’ve asked Markmonitor to blacklist the domain and they’ve reached out to ISPs for information to file a civil suit or criminal case. 
 

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Internet-Connected TVs Gaining Popularity

Demand for Internet-connected television is growing rapidly, according to a new study by the Consumer Electronics Association.

The study, "Net-Enabled Video: Early Adopters Only?" found that about half of potential TV buyers say they are likely to purchase an Internet-connected TV.

There are numerous ways people would use an Internet-enabled TV. Almost half (48%) of U.S. online adults would use their Internet connected TV to find out more information on upcoming shows and identify a song that played during the show.

Forty-four percent would also use the Internet to find out more information about the actors on-screen. Having anytime-access to content via the Internet and television broadcasts together were the top benefits of an Internet connected TV, according to consumers.

Shawn DuBravac

"As we saw at the 2009 International CES, Internet-enabled devices are taking the consumer technology experience to the next level, and nowhere is this more pronounced than with television," said Shawn DuBravac, CEA’s economist and director of research.

"Consumers want more from their TV experience and marrying traditional television with Internet access is providing the next frontier of the television experience."

The study also found that most adults are already online while watching TV. Close to a third of online adults (30%) say they always or usually surf the Internet while watching television and another third (32%) say they sometimes do.

Consumers are increasingly willing to shift online activities to the TV. Watching online video has the highest potential conversion rate (62%) followed by weather updates (59%) and playing online games (57%).

"Consumers are already using the Internet while they watch TV. The next frontier is to create a seamless experience bringing the two together," said DuBravac.

"Consumers want a variety of content that they can access anytime. An Internet-enabled TV is perfectly positioned to provide consumers with exactly what they are looking for in their next television experience."

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Shopping.com Founder Killed in Plane Crash Near Greece

A report that has caught on like wildfire on Twitter is indicating that shopping.com Founder Nahum Sharfman has been killed in a plane crash in the sea near the Greek island of Zakynthos.

What looks to be the original source of this news is written in Hebrew, but according to the Jerusalem post, the bodies of "a couple" were discovered this morning. Though that article does not ID them, Sharfman and his wife were evidently the couple.

The plane reportedly had problems and landed temporarily before taking off again and sending out a distress signal an hour later. It didn’t take long for reporting and mourning to show up on Twitter. 

Shopping.com is a comparison shopping site that was originally called DealTime.com and founded by Sharfman and Amir Ashkenazi in Israel in 1998. It was acquired by eBay in June of 2005.

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AOL to Buy Back Google Stake, Break Away from Time Warner?

AOL is reportedly buying back a 5% stake owned by Google, and it has a new CEO in Tim Armstrong, formerly of Google. A spinoff from Time Warner is also anticipated. These ingredients may make for a bright future for the company. What does this mean for AOL and Google’s relationship?

"It remains to be seen whether Google’s repurchasing of its AOL stake also means it will discontinue partnering with AOL to deliver its search advertising," says John Letzing at MarketWatch. "According to a deal secured at the time of its investment, Google has been applying its expertise to serving up AOL’s search advertising and splitting the resulting revenue."

Nielsen has AOL listed as the number 4 parent company/division, and the number 5 web brand in the US.

In January, AOL launched its MediaGlow business unit consisting of a slew of sites. Many of these and other AOL sites are ranked among the top five in their respective categories in terms of unique visitors according to comScore. Just this week, they launched a new "old-school" political site.

Still AOL’s ad revenue fell 17% in the first quarter according to MarketWatch, despite indications of strong performance of AOL homepage ads.

Also launched this week was Socialthing, a new platform that connects social networks with other sites. This allows for easy syndication of content through networks like AOL’s own Bebo, Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. This could be a popular service in the realm of social media.

But what about search?

"AOL has made moves which show that the company is getting very serious about search, and may one day step out of the shadow it has cast upon itself as being a "Google regurgitator," Loren Baker at Search Engine Journal said earlier this month. It is being run by a former Google executive keep in mind.

"Furthermore, AOL controls some rather interesting search technology, ranging from semantic search to multimedia search," adds Baker. He mentions social video network Truveo, Relegence, Yedda Semantic Search, and Quigo.

One more piece of interesting info that Baker points out is that AOL’s search share grew more than Microsoft or Yahoo’s after last year according to Nielsen Online stats. The point is, AOL’s as much of the conversation as either of those two. And it may be independent soon.

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Will Twitter Replace Google in Search?

Has Google’s model of spidering and indexing web pages in an ordered list become obsolete? Is the old static model of search about to be replaced? Does a real-time online conversation (a la Twitter) make for a more relevant and compelling search experience? These are the questions that I recently posed to a group of search and Internet experts. To say that these guys know their stuff would be a complete understatement. It’s more like these are the professionals that have defined the modern science of search and search marketing. You’ll see what I mean when you read the quotes below.

My premise started when I read a UK Techcrunch story about a Google / Twitter mashup. This was in February and there was a major snow event blanketing the UK. But if you were to try to get a satellite image of the snowfall in real time, you couldn’t. That’s because the cloud cover prevents the satellite from seeing the ground. So this genius named Ben Marsh comes up with the mashup. In brief, the idea was to get the general UK Twitter population to report on the snowfall at their location in the UK. Respondents reported their postcode and then selected a number from 1-10 to rate the snowfall amount. Ben’s mashup then graphically displayed the results on a UK Google map. Then it hit me – this Twitter data is yielding superior search results for the amount of snowfall in the UK than any other source. So will this type of real-time data stream become a rival to Google in search?

Daniel Foster is the co-founder of 34SP.com – the website hosting service that kept Ben Marsh’s mashup online during peak bandwidth usage during the February snowstorm. I asked Mr. Foster if he thought that Twitter could overtake Google in search, based on his experience with the Ben Marsh mashup site. Mr. Foster replied, "While this use of Twitter was certainly unique at the time and created a superior data set for UK snowfall for that time period, it is still a long way from a true search product. Google clearly has a corporate mission that drives search-related activities. Twitter just asks "What are you doing?". I don’t see Twitter search overtaking Google unless the business directives change."

Here is what a few of the other Internet and search experts I contacted had to say in answer to the question: "Will Twitter Replace Google in Search?".

Rand Fishkin is a legend in search marketing. As the founder and CEO of SEOmoz.com, Mr. Fishkin was recently included in Newsweek’s list of Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs 2009. His involvement in search marketing began in high school, and he is now generally regarded as one of the world’s authorities in search. Mr. Fishkin commented, "No. Twitter is not a search engine and cannot answer the vast majority of queries sent to an engine like Google, Yahoo! or Live. Twitter searches a single stream of user created data in 140 character slices. While searching this database of information can be fascinating and even relevant (particularly for those who are interested in what Twitter users are saying about a particular topic or person), it is not even an attempt to replicate the functionality or application Google provides. Google answers an inherent need that has existed since the web’s inception: users must navigate to web sites and pages that contain desired information. Twitter cannot achieve this function and therefore cannot be a replacement for Google in search."

Michael Gray is President of Atlas Web Service, a full service website and Internet marketing company. Michael has worked in website development and marketing for over 10 years, and shares his thoughts regularly on Graywolf’s SEO Blog. Mr. Gray opined, "Twitter is never going to replace Google for searches there simply isn’t the breadth of information available there. For example say you need to know: "Who was the 3rd Vice President of the United States?". Unless you happen to have a history buff in your stream – very few people are going to know it’s Aaron Burr off the top of their heads. It’s simple and easier for you and everyone else to type the question into Google and have it spit back the answer. However, if I have a tech related search like: "How do I backup my Firefox profile?" chances are I’ll get a few answers from my users. One way that Twitter is better than Google is if I know my followers and trust them. I might not trust Yelp or CitySearch when they tell me what a good seafood restaurant in San Francisco, but if someone who follows me gives me a recomendation, if I know who they are, I’m much more likely to trust their response. The one caveat is the trusted relationship of the person giving the response. 20 people I don’t know telling me someplace is good is never going to outweigh the 1 person I really trust telling me it’s bad."

Danny Sullivan is often regarded as a true pioneer in search. His seminal 1995 work published as "A Webmaster’s Guide To Search Engines" laid the groundwork for his career as an often cited expert in search. Mr. Sullivan he has been quoted in all the major media outlets such as The Wall St. Journal, USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, Forbes, The New Yorker, Newsweek and ABC’s Nightline. Here are Mr. Sullivan’s comments, "No, Twitter won’t replace Google search because it simply doesn’t cover enough of the topics out there. It can be used for question answering, but that’s largely limited to the number and quality of your followers. I do think it’s an excellent additional search tool, however, http://searchengineland.com/how-we-search-with-twitter-16920 has much more on this."

Andy Beal is an online reputation management consultant, award-winning blogger, and professional speaker. Mr. Beal shares his expertise via his blog at www.andybeal.com, and he is also the founder and editor of Marketing Pilgrim, an award winning news publication that covers internet marketing news and trends. Mr. Beal added, "Twitter’s real time data certainly compliments Google’s search results, but I don’t see it ever replacing it. Twitter’s data stream should be looked at in the same way as Google News or Google Blog Search. There’s tremendous value in tapping into a fresh, up to the minute content, but people still rely on the structured, ranked data that Google’s web index provides."

Neil Patel’s email identifies him as a ‘professional web surfer’. I know him as an incredibly charismatic, smart and friendly Internet, social marketing and search expert. He has also been named a top 100 blogger by Technorati, and was also one of the top influencers on the web according to the Wall Street Journal. His current company is KISSmetrics, and Mr. Patel shares his insights in his blog – QuickSprout. Mr. Patel offered these thoughts on Twitter overtaking Google in search, "Twitter will not replace Google in search. You can use Twitter to find up to date information, but I doubt you will ever use Twitter to find products to buy or figure out how to fix a technical problem. Just the other day I had to search Google on how to program my router. I don’t think I will ever be able to do that on Twitter."

Todd Malicoat is a Marketing Consultant and on the SEO Faculty at MarketMotive.com. Mr. Malicoat is an Internet entrepreneur who has spent "near obsessive amounts of time on Webmasterworld.com, and Threadwatch.org. Here is Mr. Malicoat’s response, "I think Twitter definitely has an opportunity to swipe a bit of market share from Google on certain TYPES of terms. Anything very time sensitive, Twitter gives very good results for. I think Google will likely be a suitor, but they likely don’t want another youtube over-valuation debacle. Twitter has definitely raised some eyebrows, and what it does do is fill the need for ‘guided search’ that several companies including trexy.com, mahalo, and even yahoo answers (to an extent), and many others have been trying to do for years. Twitter has done this with a different model of getting the guides first with the critical mass of people, and the organization will come later. Most search results, however, don’t NEED a search guide or expert, so for now, Google is perfectly safe, but has the potential to lose out on some niche expert traffic to the new kid on the block."

By way of fairness, I did contact the PR department at Google requesting a comment for this piece. As of the writing of this article, they have not responded.

So there you have it. Practically no one thinks that Twitter will overtake Google in search. At best, in very time sensitive events – perhaps Twitter can be a good companion reference to Google. Of course things can change quickly – and if they do, I’m sure we can all check in with Twitter to learn about them. My thanks to all the experts who participated in this article.

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Men Want It Fast, Women Want It All

The following is based on research, not sexism or prejudice of any kind. Conclusions are by nature overly general, and there are many exceptions to the following “rules” of masculine and feminine behavior. Quite simply, there really are general and stark differences in the behaviors men and women, but this fact should never be used for discrimination or other types of abuse. Also, in the following, jokes and wisecracks abound. The author apologizes in advance if you don’t find him funny and reminds you they’re only jokes.

Do you know the main demographic using your website? Is it meant to attract women, men, or both? If targeted toward a specific sex, there are some things you might need to know about how men and women use websites and approach the buying process. So take the following information, gleaned from studies and surveys, and apply it how you think best.

1. Men want to complete the task and get on to the next task. Women want to experience the task. Guys, I know that sounds stupid, like forming a relationship with pain, but this is why women are good at taking care of you. Generally, they seem to be more thorough, which is why she’s never ready when you’re jingling your keys at the door and why you might survive getting stuck in a blizzard once you finally get out the door. (That’s a poor example. She’ll likely know there’s a blizzard coming and will protest leaving at all. Men believe they will defeat the blizzard. Women, I know this sounds stupid, but this is why men are good at killing mammoths, and why they’re good at protecting you. In the end, it’s all about taking down the beast.)
2. On the Web, both genders agree that ease of use is the most important aspect of usability. Pose as a visitor. How easy it is to upload/download/view/purchase? However, men prize download speed over easy navigation, while women place both easy navigation and accessibility ahead of download speed. Customization was the least important to both. 



3. Women are more holistic when shopping. They want to see and weigh all the options, want to be advised, and want to take their time making a decision. One explanation of this is that women tend to think more long term about their purchases: Will this still work in six months? Will I be able to wear this next year?
4. Men want to get in, buy it, get out. They don’t want help unless it involves help at the checkout to speed their exit. They think of immediate need more than long-term need. It’s a very simple thought process: I want to grill some meat. My grill is old and doesn’t cook meat well anymore. I need a new grill to cook meat with, one that makes it easier to cook meat than this old one. I’ll buy a new grill, take it home, grill some meat. Meat grilling problem solved. Women want to know if the grill is easy to clean, if the buttons still work when summer rolls around again, if it looks good in the yard, if you can steam vegetables in it. 



5. Men like coupons because it narrows the choices and provides clear-cut incentive to buy one particular thing they can go in, buy, and get out with. (Think: There is animal. Animal is dead. Now go home, show female, eat animal.)
6. Women prefer sales for exactly the opposite reasons. Sales present many options with many different benefits to many different people other than the woman shopping and the right product is its own reward. They form relationships with the products and then decide which relationship works out best. (Think: There are lots of different berries, nuts, herbs. Some are poisonous. Some make the baby sick. Some go bad quickly. Some are at the top of the mountain and are dangerous to get. Some cost a goat. But this one is good for everybody, is safe to eat and gather, doesn’t cost a goat, and will last through winter.)
7. When it comes to photos, women focus on faces and pay special attention to pictures of couples entwined. Men, as in real life, focus on, well, other parts and don’t give any special attention to couples. Depending on hormone levels, though, women may also focus on, well, other parts.
8. Here’s something men and women generally agree: the color blue. In one survey, 42 percent of people (35 percent of women, 57 percent of men) listed blue as their favorite color. Women’s other favorite color was purple, which actually factored significantly on men’s least favorite color list, right up there with brown and orange, the least favorite colors of everyone. In a fascinating twist, people seem to like more blue and less green as they get older. Green seems to be a young person’s color.

How can you use this information when designing your website? Hold on to that question. The first question is about identifying your target market. Is it young men? Your site should fast, simple, easy to understand, and whatever other usability concern one needs to address to make using the site as quick and painless as possible.

Don’t worry too much about relationships. Men want just as much relationship as is required to successfully complete a transaction. (You don’t want to be friends with the mammoth or think about mammoth orphans when you kill it, you know?) Men like blue, and prefer objects over people, unless the people are naked. A naked girl flipping burgers on a grill against a blue sky and green grass backdrop? Perfect. Now add verbiage emphasizing how quick and easy the check out process is.

This may be why women make 85 percent of purchase decisions. (This is also why women think men are insensitive Neanderthals and don’t believe us when we say we were thinking about nothing. Ladies, it is possible to think about nothing at all, I promise. But it’s not insensitivity. We just have no task before us, and without a task our brains shut down. It’s an efficiency thing, which we’re sure you wouldn’t understand, either. ;-D) 

It’s also why, unless your website is very niche, that when you design a site for general use, you’re really designing a site for women. If you can make it fast and easy, and leave out the purple, men will like it, too. Mint.com grew by 20 percent just by making the site more women-friendly. 

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Rough Personnel Day At Google, Yahoo

Although the two developments are taking place for different reasons and on very dissimilar scales, both Google and Yahoo were affected by headcount reductions today.  Google’s going to lose an important exec, while Yahoo’s laying off hundreds of employees.

David Rosenblatt is "President, Global Display Advertising & Vice President, Google," according to his entry on an official page listing key executives.  Before that, he was DoubleClick’s CEO; he joined Google during the $3.1 billion acquisition in April of last year.

 

Rosenblatt’s departure (to destinations unknown) means that Google’s going to lose an advertising expert.  Stop a moment to consider Rosenblatt’s timing – he’s only spent about 12 months at Google – and you’ll see that his departure also doesn’t bode well for the company’s ability to retain top talent without signed contracts and/or financial incentives.

Meanwhile, Yahoo may have shown around 600 workers the door.  Sean Percival wrote, "Most of the affected are being notified during the day, Wednesday April 29th, while some traveling employees have already recieved [sic] notice while still on the road."

Since Yahoo announced during its first quarter report that it would make about 680 layoffs within two weeks, this doesn’t come as too much of a surprise, but the move is still likely to hurt morale.

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Google Nabs Number Two Spot In Harris Reputation Study

The results of the 10th annual Harris Interactive Reputation Quotient Study have been released, and – thank you, automotive and financial sectors – 88 percent of respondents apparently feel the reputation of corporate America is either "not good" or "terrible."  However, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are still well-regarded.

Google got the number two spot overall, coming behind only Johnson & Johnson in terms of individual companies’ scores.  Considering that match-up pits a faceless search engine against the "no more tears" shampoo intended for people’s children, you might say Google did all right.

 

Next of the corporations we usually cover was Amazon, at number six.  Amazon scored particularly well in terms of emotional appeal and vision and leadership, and Harris judged its reputation quotient, like Google’s, to be excellent.

Microsoft came in seventh place, and fell a bit below the cutoff for that compliment, but after its commercial wars with Apple and some antitrust issues are taken into account, this company, too, probably deserves some applause.

Finally, just in case you’re curious, Apple’s reputation quotient earned it fourteenth place, and for better or for worse, Yahoo’s name wasn’t mentioned once in the 32-page Harris report.

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YouTube To Live Stream Obama News Conference

YouTube said today that it will offer a live stream of President Barack Obama’s press conference discussing his first 100 days in office.

"As citizens and pundits from all political perspectives analyze the President’s first 100 days in office today, Obama himself will address the nation tonight on the 100-day anniversary of his inauguration — and we’re going to carry a live stream of the conference from the White House YouTube channel. Be sure to tune in at 8pm EDT to watch it live," wrote Steve Grove, YouTube’s director of new and politics on the company blog.

The YouTube homepage is also featuring political commentary and analysis from major news organizations.

YouTube is encouraging users to upload a video about the Obama’s administration’s first 100 days.

"You can join in the conversation by making a video: How is the Obama Administration doing, and what advice would you give the President moving forward?" writes Grove.

"Upload your thoughts to YouTube and add them as a video response to this Citizentube video, and we’ll feature some of them on our News page tomorrow."
 

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YouTube Makes Analytics Data Easier to Mess Around With

YouTube has continuously been improving its video analytics program YouTube Insight since its launch last year.

"Whether you want to know how old your audience is, how many times your most-viewed video was rated last week, or which minute of your clip is most engaging, YouTube Insight can give you the answer. As we add functionality, we’re careful to preserve YouTube Insight’s clean and easy-to-use look and feel," says YouTube.

Last month, YouTube Insight got more focused on how viewers interact with videos. They added a community tab, which lets you view numbers related to ratings, comments, favorites, or all three.

Now you can take any information obtained through YouTube Insight a step further. A YouTube spokesperson tells WebProNews that they have added a feature that lets you export information as a CSV file, which means you can open it up in Google Docs, Microsoft Excel, or other spreadsheet programs.

"It basically means that from now on there is no limit to what users can do with their data!" the spokesperson says.

Examples YouTube gives of ways that this new feature might be useful include comparing view counts for different videos side by side, mapping out where viewers are coming from over time, or comparing discovery sources by country. Some others the spokesperson shared include:

- Combine data from all your Channels: That way, you can see how your content as a whole is doing on YouTube. This is especially useful for big partners with thousands of Channels.

- Discovery: Before, you could see whether YouTube Search or embedding drives most traffic. But what if you want to see whether the #2 search term drives more traffic than the top embed? Exporting your data allows you to do that.

As online video popularity continues to grow both in terms of content and advertising, video analytics are going to become increasingly important for getting the most out of your videos. The more freedom you have to analyze your data, the better chance you’re going to have of improving performance.

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