Be Careful Who You Call a Friend!!!

There have been a couple of instances recently which have made me consider whether we are giving away too much personal information on Facebook and other social networking sites.

The first was when I got an alert on my Facebook homepage with a little broken heart symbol next to it letting me know that somebody I knew had changed their status from “in a relationship” to “single”. Now the person in question was not somebody I am particularly close to, I know this person, but do not necessarily consider them a friend, and certainly not a close friend. It got me thinking, if I changed an element of my status as personal as whether I was in a relationship or not, or possibly something even something more so like whether I like men or women! (not that I am thinking about it!) then would I want it broadcast to my whole friend list? No is the answer.

There are certain things I want to keep to myself and a select group of close friends and family, and within my friend list I have old friends I have not spoken to for years, casual acquaintances, and friends of friends I have met once or twice. I don’t particularly want to reduce my friend list significantly to avoid this as there may come a point when I want to contact these people but I certainly don’t want to be broadcasting my private life to them. So what’s the answer to this conundrum? At the minute I don’t know, I’m hoping the people at Facebook might find a way to sort that out for me!

The second instance was on the long drive home from work when I was listening to the radio. There was a discussion about how it was possible to access other peoples Facebook accounts and a caller pointed out the amount of information that was contained within your profile and more specifically if you collected that information you could pretty much steal someone’s identity. I was a little dubious at first but then when I looked into it they were not far wrong. If you are a “friend” of somebody or they have a public profile you can pick up their full name, their date of birth, their town of birth, their partners name, and in some instances mobile number as well. Not a bad start if you want to try and pass yourself off as somebody else! Coupled with this is the fact that most peoples passwords to accounts are based on information such as this so if you try enough combinations you may be able to guess their current passwords as well!

I guess the moral of the story is, keep your profile private and be careful who you call a friend!

Google and MSN in bed together!?!

One for the conspiracy theorists amongst you!

Who appears top when you perform a search for the word “search” on google? Well surely its on of Google’s pages right? Wrong! MSN’s live search is the top ranked page for this phrase.

And what about when you perform the same search on the live platform? You guessed it, Google appears in position 1 with yahoo relying on a paid listing to gain some exposure.

Coincidence? Or a hint of an underlying alliance? Ill leave that up to you to decide!

NOSO - the anti-social social network

NOSO is an online group which which has been set up to provide "temporary disengagement from social networking environments. The NOSO experience offers a unique opportunity to create NO Connections by scheduling NO Events with other NO Friends."

On the platform you set up an account but you are listed simply as a number and without a picture. The NOSO team then arrange events called NOSOs, which take place in designated cafés, parks, libraries, bookstores, and other public spaces. Participants – whose identities remain unknown to one another – agree to arrive at an assigned time and remain alone, quiet and un-connected, while at the same time knowing that another “Friend” is present in the space.

By the very nature of the programme are these people however not participating in the phenomenon they seek to detach themselves from? Bunch of damn hypocrits!

check it out at: http://www.nosoproject.com/

In your face!-book

Computer geeks of the world rejoice today as it is announced that online gaming is more popular in the US than social networking sites.
As they don their headsets and log on to play another marathon session on Call of Duty or Medal of Honor, they shared a smug smile that they were for once in the majority group!

The research conducted by Parks Associates reports that 34% of US adults internet users play online games every week while 29% view videos online through YouTube and related sites and 19% visit social networking sites.

Good news then for the in-game advertising market which could be the next big phenomenon if the market continues to grow at such a rate (for the same quarter in 2006 the online gaming figures was 15%).

Static in game advertising has been around for a number of years now but the advent of online gaming allows for dynamic ad placements on different platforms and it is this form of in game advertising holds a provides the most appealing options for an advertiser.

According to the IAB in-game advertising “joins the dots between above and below the line marketing.” Utilising the ability to serve track and update ads which the internet allows whilst taking its execution and method from TV and outdoor.

It has moved on from the simple signage formats of the first in-game ads to the utilisation of 3d images, video, and more subtle product placement techniques. On top of the targeting options the different games and online profiles allow this gives it the potential for a highly effective medium.

I predict in-game advertising is going to take off in the next 12 months and the advertisers which come up with the most effective way to utilise its strength will reap the benefits.

Google Change Their Top Placement Algorithm

Google announced two weeks ago that they would be changing the algorithm for determining whether the top PPC listings appeared above the natural results or to the left of them.

Previously in the top ad placement formula, your Quality Score and your actual CPC, which is determined in part by the bids of advertisers below you, where considered to determine where you should appear. Even if you have a high quality ad, if advertisers below you are not bidding very much, your actual CPC may not be high enough to qualify your ad to appear in a top position.
Your actual CPC will continue to be determined by the auction, but subject to a minimum price for top spots. You have to achieve a threshold set by Google to get promoted to the box - previously this was calculated by your (QS * Actual CPC). As the actual CPC is partly determined by the bid of the advertiser below, in some cases you were held back from promotion by a low bid from the ad below. The calculation for promotion is now (QS * Max CPC), if this exceeds the threshold then you jump to the box, and your actual CPCs would be unaffected.
This model appears to be now in use, with a lot of changes taking place in the PPC market, most notably money supermarket dropping form first position on the term “car insurance” for the first time in months.
Is this actually google trying to help us out? Yeah right. It is just another way for them to bump up the CPCs paid by the top advertisers and increase their revenues. Think about it, top position is now determined by the people who have the highest ceiling CPCs! By applying the new formula advertisers trying to achieve this position will end up paying their maximium and we are back into the old basic auction model.

Google are basically saying, “Tell us how much you want top spot!” and then ultimately making you pay it.

If you have PPC ads knocking around top position for high volume terms, Id keep an eye on my CPC if I were you!

First the Earth Now the Universe!

As reported on the BBC new website:

Google Earth given celestial view
By Jonathan Fildes Science and technology reporter, BBC News

The constellations of Andromeda, Hydra and Vulpecula are now just a mouse click away for amateur star-gazers, following the launch of Google Sky. The tool is an add-on to Google Earth, a program that allows users to search a 3D rendition of our planet's surface. Sky will allow astronomers a chance to glide through images of more than one million stars and 200 million galaxies. Optional layers allow users to explore images from the Hubble Space Telescope as well as animations of lunar cycles.

"The basic idea is to take Google Earth and turn it on its head," Ed Parsons, Geospatial technologist at Google told the BBC News website. "So rather than using it to view imagery of the Earth, use it to view imagery of space."

Dr John Mason of the British Astronomical Association, Britain's largest body for amateur astronomers said: "Light pollution and air pollution is now so bad in many areas that all you can see when you look up is a few dozen stars. "If this helps people to realise just what they are missing, it is a jolly good thing."

To use the new system, users will need to have Google Earth installed on their computer.
Digital astronomers can then zoom into an area from which they want to view the night sky.

"Click a button and the world flips round and you see the sky from that particular location," explained Mr Parsons. "[The view] would be the constellations that you would see oriented in the sky on that particular day at that particular time."
Users can overlay the night sky with other information such as galaxies, constellations and detailed images from the Hubble Space Telescope.
Imagery for the system came from six research institutions including the Digital Sky Survey Consortium, the Palomar Observatory in California and the United Kingdom Astronomy Technology Centre.
Much of the imagery can be found through searches on the internet but Google hope the add-on will be simpler and more fun.
Mr Parsons said: "The sky you will be seeing will be a completely clear and you will be able to see objects which are very faint indeed - that you can only see with very large telescopes."
Virtual tour
Sky is not the first time Google has ventured into space.
In March 2006, the company launched Google Mars which allows users to explore the surface of the Red Planet.

Another service, Google Moon, lets users view the sites of the Apollo moon landings.
Both services use data from the US Space Agency Nasa, with which Google signed an agreement in December 2006.
The Space Agreement Act was intended to put "the most useful of Nasa's information on the internet".
At the time, Nasa administrator Michael Griffin said the agreement would soon allow "every American to experience a virtual flight over the surface of the moon or through the canyons of Mars".
The two organisations also said they would collaborate in a variety of areas including adding data collected by Nasa to Google Earth.
However, Mr Parsons said the latest tool was not a product of the partnership.
Mass market
Google Sky is not the only tool that allows astronomers to explore the night sky from their computer.

For example, Stellarium is a free open source tool that gives people a chance to access more than 210 million stars, in addition to planets and moons.
The software is the brainchild of Fabien Chereau, a Research Engineer at the Paris Astronomical Observatory, and is used in many planetariums.
Like the suite of Google applications, it allows people to explore places of interest on Earth, as well as mission sites on the Moon and Mars.
Commercial alternatives also exist, such as Imaginova's Starry Night, that offers a range of software packages aimed at beginners to "the serious astronomer".
Apple Mac users can download a Starry Night widget that will allow them to see the night sky from any location on Earth.
"The other astronomy packages are designed for maybe the more professional amateur market," said Mr Parsons. "We are aiming this more at the mass market. If people get hooked and interested they may migrate to these other packages."

Google Phonebook - Get your name in lights!

I stumbled across this result on Google today. On a search for boxer Ricky Hatton up popped a result I had never seen before, a phonebook listing for somebody in the US named Ricky Coil along with his phone number and address. I had heard they were planning a phonebook tool but this is the first time I have witnessed it for myself.

On clicking through the link you are taken to the Google Phonebook page which includes the option to view the persons address on Google Maps. On further investigation though the tool doesn’t appear to work yet, further searches for common names return no results and also a direct search for the initial result under the persons exact name also brought no results back. Looks like another case of Google doing some selective testing on a new product prior to full launch.

Obviously it will take Google a while to build a full directory, unless they do so through purchasing one, so it may be a while till this becomes common place. Not sure Id want my details plastered all over Google but I suppose if it is a purely opt in service then there should be no complaints.

What does personalisation mean for advertisers?

The personalisation of search results is well documented and evidence of its arrival is clear to see particularly in the Google results. I have blogged in the past about the differing search results based on search history, the listings of site visits and also the use of IP information as a targeting tool.

But what does this all mean to advertisers? What impact is this going to have on your search marketing activity?

Position Variances

If the search engines are going to begin giving prominence to previously visited sites then you can expect variance in positions with then search engine results. For a user who has visited your site before you could be ranked top where as to a new user you could be lower down the results. This effectively is the same model as is used in the PPC listings with the metric click through rate (CTR) however this would occur at the individual level rather than the keyword.

If this begins to occur it will create confusion with advertisers as you will there will be no accurate measure of what position you are actually ranking in. This will make the performance metric of position redundant.

We are seeing this already in the PPC market with one user seeing an ad in a completely different position to another based on their search history. This makes managing a campaign much more complicated and needs to be fully considered when devising strategies.

Advance Targeting

On the positive note, this could, if used intelligently, allow advertisers to target their natural search campaigns to their key demographic. Although the basics of SEO will be needed to achieve a decent position in the first place once this is in place effective use of creative and website copy could lead to a increased performance for a particular segment and so increased positions. This will be dependant on the extent personalisation takes effect and will need a very clever implementation but should be possible.

I’m sure there will be more effects which come about as a result of the continued personalisation of results with in the search engines but for now these are the key two. What this space, it’s going to get increasingly complicated!

More evidence of personalisation

On a Google search yesterday I spotted something I had never seen before which is further evidence of the increasing personalisation of search results. On a search result for the AdWords help centre Google told me how many times I had visited the page and when I last visited (see screenshot). At the time I was signed in to my Google homepage and so it would be linked to my session I am sure but it is a further indication we are on our way to a fully personalised SERP. It will be interesting to see if they begin to use this as a CTR metric as with the PPC model and use it to rank the results in the same way.

Universal search beginning to take effect

Google's Universal Search project has been well documented and for a while now it has been integrating its other properties (i.e. maps, product search etc) into the standard SERP. But whilst searching this week I noticed that once a search is completed which produces maps results Google are now limiting the natural search results to 7 listings for page 1. This has huge implications for search engine optimisers as it makes it even more difficult to get front page exposure. It is also safe to assume that as other types of results are integrated into Universal Search that this number could easily reduce further.

We have seen this with Ask as well with their new platform. Due to their inclusion of images video and definitions into their SERP they are now only showing 8 paid search listings. Google could easily follow suit as this can be used (as it has been by Ask) to free up real estate on the right hand side of the page. they will need to be careful how they go about doing this however as the paid listings are their main revenue driver and any reduction or change in their format could reduce earnings significantly.

It will be interesting to see how universal search pans out and if it has the desired effect. Personally if I want to search for an image I am more than happy to visit the image search page directly and likewise with video, but maybe for the less educated user a one stop search shop this would be more appealing.

Something new in Google results?

Something I have just spotted in the Google results which I have never seen before. On a search for nike the result for the official nike website was showing a plus symbol accompanied by the phrase Stock quote for Nike and one clicking it the result expanded down to show the Google finance result for the Nike sports company.

I have never seen this in the search results before and to me it shows a new level of interaction in the SERP. The ability to expand and minimise sections of the page to show and remove certain information. Although there has long been the option to see similar page results this has always been through a new search page and involved having to navigate away from the original results. With the ability to expand down results there would be the option to see the top 10 pages for a website or other similar information without losing your original search. I think we could see further usages of this button in the future.