Yahoo's CEO Terry Semel told the Engage 2006 conference in London that estimates of the Internet advertising market do not account for the impact of ads outside of a PC.

The Internet Advertising Bureau UK brought Semel in to keynote their Engage 2006 gathering, and he provided an intriguing comment during his speech. Reuters noted how Semel declared the ad market for the Internet had been underestimated.

Estimates made to date have not accounted for mobile phones or online video. They have also missed the potential of social media as an advertising platform, as they have focused on paid search and display advertising.

"Video as you all know will become a major factor on the Internet," he told the Internet Advertising Bureau Engage 2006 conference.
"It will be ever present throughout the Internet and it will find its proper way to advertise.
"So whether it's mobile or whether it's video or whether it's more and more community (social networking sites), these factors have not gone into those numbers, so we think the actual growth potential of advertising online is really being understated."
The mobile potential for ads has received some validation from Yahoo's competitor, Google. CEO Eric Schmidt told Reuters in San Francisco he sees a future where free cellphones can flourish, supported by targeted advertising.

He justified this viewpoint by noting that cellphones are becoming more powerful, and the time people spend on them will increase along with the rise in their capabilities. As people begin to embrace mobiles in the US for more messaging and web usage, the opportunities for advertising will grow too.

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Tag: Internet advertising

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Users who participate in the Google Apps for Your Domain service from Google have a new option available, a custom start page for members of the organization.

This centralized start page shows the visitor their Gmail and Google Calendar information, plus customized content as provided by the administrator. Mike Horowitz, a product manager for Google Apps for Your Domain, wrote about the new service at Google's Official blog:

With this, organizations can provide a dynamic and unique-to-you central access point for essential information. Setting it up is quick and easy -- much like setting up a Google Personalized Homepage -- but with custom logos, colors and your organization's own content, in addition to modules from our gadget library. Then each of your users can take your organization's default page and change it up so it's just right for them.
Google combined Gmail, Calendar, Google Talk, and Page Creator to form the initial Apps offering in August. Some thought this would be the opening salvo in a full-fledged online productivity suite that would compete with Microsoft, but even with the combination of Google's Spreadsheets and the Writely word processor that has not materialized.

The newly-debuted customization option provides the Domain Apps administrator an Ajax interface for creating the start page. Organization logos and design, along with Google services, can be dragged and dropped onto the page.

Admins can further customize what users will see on the start page by adding more content, including text, images, HTML code, and RSS feeds. Modules and Google Gadgets can be placed as desired, and the admin can switch around content to suit changing needs.

Google said at the Domain Apps launch it was working on a premium version, with pricing and features to be announced. Also, since Google tends to roll out updates to its products roughly every couple of months, we expect to see Docs & Spreadsheets integrated into Apps at some point.

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Tag: Google

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The speculation over how YouTube will continue to operate and if any other web-based companies can compete with the web video giant is never ending. The comparisons to Napster are inevitable. They have had issues with copyright infringement and have been trying to work out licensing deals.

When Google purchased the popular site it impacted online video in a positive manner.
Smaller online video companies viewed it as an opportunity that they could be the next YouTube or at least compete in the same arena.

Their concept would be different than YouTube. Focusing mainly on original content that could be episodic in form or something that's entertaining in general. Smaller competitors generally want to stay away from the "Sword of Damocles" that copyright infringement has become for YouTube and Google.

YouTube has shown an increase of 3 million users in the last 3 months that puts them at 23.5 million visitors for October of this year according to comScore Media Metrix. With those kinds of numbers it would be a challenge for other web video sites to build that size of an audience.

YouTube has the traffic but will user's become burned out on the short clips and look else where for longer, better video content? With the push in the digital world to be able to watch anything, anytime there may exist room for a number of web video based sites. In an article by Jason Fry for the Wall Street Journal Online he writes:

"Digital technology has exploded the old paradigm of content being handed to us at a set time in a set format. We now increasingly repackage media to suit ourselves - time-shifting it with TiVo, clipping it with video-editing software or remixing it for other purposes, and posting it with YouTube"
As technology, quality and content continue to improve so will the options of the viewing audience. It is happening now and somewhere in the near future watching web video on your own living room TV will be the norm for the majority.

Tag: YouTube

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The speculation over how YouTube will continue to operate and if any other web-based companies can compete with the web video giant is never ending. The comparisons to Napster are inevitable. They have had issues with copyright infringement and have been trying to work out licensing deals.

When Google purchased the popular site it impacted online video in a positive manner.
Smaller online video companies viewed it as an opportunity that they could be the next YouTube or at least compete in the same arena.

Their concept would be different than YouTube. Focusing mainly on original content that could be episodic in form or something that's entertaining in general. Smaller competitors generally want to stay away from the "Sword of Damocles" that copyright infringement has become for YouTube and Google.

YouTube has shown an increase of 3 million users in the last 3 months that puts them at 23.5 million visitors for October of this year according to comScore Media Metrix. With those kinds of numbers it would be a challenge for other web video sites to build that size of an audience.

YouTube has the traffic but will user's become burned out on the short clips and look else where for longer, better video content? With the push in the digital world to be able to watch anything, anytime there may exist room for a number of web video based sites. In an article by Jason Fry for the Wall Street Journal Online he writes "Digital technology has exploded the old paradigm of content being handed to us at a set time in a set format. We now increasingly repackage media to suit ourselves - time-shifting it with TiVo, clipping it with video-editing software or remixing it for other purposes, and posting it with YouTube"
As technology, quality and content continue to improve so will the options of the viewing audience. It is happening now and somewhere in the near future watching web video on your own living room TV will be the norm for the majority.

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Google is usually on the cutting edge, or at least near it. The company's latest "innovations" are intentionally out of date, though. Google Earth will now feature historical maps dating back as far as the 17th century.

Thanks to a partnership with National Geographic, this "Featured Content" can connect "users to information about the history of the world through one of the largest private map collections in the US." And according to the company, those maps "have been brought to life for the first time using advanced digitization techniques and innovative software tools in Google Earth."

David Rumsey provided the historical maps for the search engine company's use. "I am thrilled to be able to share maps from my collection with users worldwide in Google Earth," he said in a statement. "The cartographers who made these historical maps hundreds of years ago would be amazed and pleased to see their treasures in Google Earth."

There were other updates, as well, all scheduled in honor of Geography Awareness Week. Most of them mesh very neatly with "Spotlight on Africa," in which a "layer shows the flags of 53 African countries on top of the satellite imagery." Indeed, Google seemed proud to note that the "new Featured Content pays tribute to Africa."

The historical maps got the lion's share of the publicity, however, and spawned a number of headlines regarding Google Earth's new "4D" capabilities. Garett Rogers wisely warned his readers, "Don't expect detailed high resolution photography from days gone by, but it's still interesting to see old maps overlaid on the satellite imagery of today."

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Tag: Google

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Forget the much-hyped competition between Google and its corporate rivals. Microsoft and Yahoo may have deep pockets, but the search engine giant's newest enemy may have nukes. The Iranian government has taken issue with a film on Google Video that apparently calls the nation's borders into question.

"In a move tailor-made to hurt Iranians, the Azari provincial capital, Tabriz, was located ‘in southern Azerbaijan, currently in the territory of Iran' by Google," the Iran Daily reported. "In fact, Tabriz and Azerbaijan belonged to Iran for more than 6,000 years."

One fact escaped both the Iran Daily and the Iranian government, though: individual users, not the corporation, are responsible for the clips posted on Google Video. Danny Sullivan noted that Google Earth, which the company does actively manage, identifies Tabriz as an Iranian city.

The disputed video is available here, and the description of Tabriz still calls it a city "currently in the territory of Iran," but that hasn't stopped the Tehran-based Islamic Republic News Agency from declaring victory in the matter. In an article titled "Iranian Outrage Rectified Google Error," readers are told that "a blizzard of protest by Iranians compelled the US-based search engine Google to amend its provocative mistake."

The whole incident was not without precedent: The Guardian's Robert Tait drew a comparison to "a controversy two years ago when National Geographic magazine was swamped by protests after labeling the sea between southern Iran and neighbouring Arab states as the Arabian not the Persian Gulf." In that instance, "the magazine was banned in Iran and its reporters were barred from the country."

Google will surely be crushed if its employees are prevented from visiting this (in the words of The Register's Lester Haines) "fun-loving Islamic republic."

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Tag: Google

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Following six and seven figure monetization deals for MySpace, YouTube, and Facebook, everyone seems to want to capitalize on the online social-networking industry. Multiply.com is no exception; they want their piece of the monetary pie.

"Want to show your profile to millions of strangers? Use MySpace. Share your photos, video, music, blogs and more with the people you already know and love: Join Multiply." The previous statement is the greeting on the Multiply.com home page, which seems to be a little hostile.

Perhaps that is because Multiply.com is not one of the online social-networking sites that received monetization deals that were in the million, and sometimes billion-dollar range. What are the aforementioned social-networking sites doing differently from Multiply.com to receive such sizable monetization?

Multiply.com was launched in March 2004 and is the flagship website of Multiply, Inc., which is based in Boca Raton, Florida. The site claims itself to have "effectively defined the new field of social communications", yet it is not a household name in online social networking.

Multiply CEO Peter Pezaris told internetnews.com his network is a place where adults can communicate with their offline network of friends. Perhaps the reason that it has not shared the success of MySpace or Facebook is because of the fact that the networking is based around people you already know, and is intended for an older demographic.

Online social-networking sites like MySpace and Facebook allow the users to actually network socially by requesting the friendship of a complete stranger, or someone who is a mutual friend. In that regard it would make sense that these sites are popular, because they are not strictly limited to people you know offline.

Also, it seems as though Multiply.com is centralized around the digital video, blogs, and photos of an individual rather than socially networking. The digital media found on a Multiply.com memeber's profile can only be viewed by members that they have approved.

MySpace focuses on digital aspects, as well as comedy, events, music, forums, groups, and even classifieds, and a completely personalized profile. It boasts over 100 million registered users, and some members have millions of people in their extended network alone. Whereas Facebook connects social networks such as universities, companies, and even geographic locations and has over 10 million registered users.

Multiply only has around 2 million registered users, but does continue to grow, and in July they received 468, 000 visitors from the US to their site. MySpace however, in the same month received 54.5 million visitors. MySpace effectively receives about 100 times more users per month than Multiply.

The consumer media company YouTube boasts an enormous 100 million views a day, again trumping Multiply. The popularity of the site YouTube is based upon the fact that it gives the freedom to share whatever digital media a user wants with the entire community, or any visitors to the site. Only the network of people that they approve, and not the general public may see media, which is added to the account of a Multiply user.

Even industry analysts, Emily Riley of Jupitermedia and Jessica Simpson of the Yankee Group, said they had never heard of it. Riley also states that Multiply might be trying to do too much.

Perhaps if Multiply branched out and allowed users of the site to actually network socially, they would reach the status of the sites that do.

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For every Matt Cutts and Danny Sullivan, there is John Q. Blogger who just can't seem to increase the readership of his blog. Opinions are a dime-a-dozen in cyberspace, but there are steps that bloggers can take to make their blogs more attractive to potential visitors.

Everyone wants his or her blog to become wildly popular, spurning comments galore and being linked to by the most influential names in the blogosphere. Sadly, some easily correctible but all-too-common mistakes doom many blogs to failure before the first entry is ever made.

To give bloggers a beginning point of reference, Jennifer Slegg outlines the things she looks for in a good blog:

Looks Count. Yes, call me vain, but looks count. You have to be writing some pretty spectacular blog entries for me to keep reading a blog that is supremely ugly, uses a design that breaks in certain browsers, uses a trendy but hard-to-read font face, or uses the "out-of-the-box" blog design with zero customization (if it still says "Just another WordPress blog," you are on shaky ground).
Jeremy Zawodny could change his background to migraine-inducing black, change the logo to some hideous dripping blood goth design, make the text lime green with hot pink links, and I'd still read it. But for some blogger who might post a single gem every other month? RSS exile it goes.

Don't Hit Me Over the Head with Ads. Yes, we all want to monetize our blogs. But I get easily annoyed when I see the blog entry title, then one (or even two!) 336 x 280 ad units before I see a single word of the actual entry. True, a placement that is in your face may get more clicks initially, but the drop in traffic from annoyed readers dumping your blog will result in lower ad impressions and earnings. If you have your heart set on that placement, change it to a banner instead, and save the large rectangle for the juicy spot after the entry but before the comments.
Use RSS Ads Smartly. If you use RSS ads, give the entire entry in the RSS feed, and not just a snippet. Or better yet, offer me a choice of either an ad-supported full entry feed or an ad-free snippet-only feed.
Write Regularly. We are all guilty of allowing a week or two go between entries. Sometimes there is nothing newsworthy to report, or we are busy with clients (or vacations!) But once you allow a couple weeks to go by without an entry, people start to wonder if maybe your blog has joined the thousands of other defunct blogs cluttering the net. So have a few entries ready to go for times when life interferes. And if you know you are going to be busy, have a few entries set to future publish every few days while you are away to give the illusion of an active blog even if you are really at Disneyland.
However, the key to a successful blog lies not only in understanding what common strategies are successful, but also in avoiding certain mistakes that may turn readers off to your site.

I had a chance to talk to Danny Sullivan about the blunders he comes across in many blogs. Danny, of course, is no stranger to blogosphere success, and according to him, these are some the most common mistakes committed by novice bloggers:

Ignoring email. Places like FeedBurner make it super easy for people to get posts by email. Many use email, so don't forget that group and think a feed is enough.
Lack of About page. Too many blogs fail to tell me who is behind them.
Failure to control your domain. Don't, DON'T!, put your blog up on someone else's domain. Yes, Blogger, WordPress, TypePad make it easy to get going. But if you're successful, some day you might want to move to your own domain -- and you might not be able to move. From day one, use a service that allows you to host using your own domain, not theirs. And also ensure the feed goes out in your own domain. I love FeedBurner, but it's cheap to pay a bit and make sure the domain stays in your own domain -- very useful if for some reason you ever move on.
Use descriptive titles and descriptions. Even if you send out a full feed, plenty of people will either summarize your posts with only titles or tiles and descriptions. Make sure what you provide is compelling, to encourage clickthrough.
As the platform of social media continues to skyrocket, the practice blogging is transitioning from downtime hobby into a serious business practice. For those looking to capitalize on the blogging boom, it will be crucial to avoid the mistakes that relegate most blogs to the RSS trash can and capitalize on strategies that cater to the wants and needs of one's potential readership.

If you can carve out a relevant niche, stick to what works, and avoid what doesn't… you could find yourself with a hit blog on your hands.

Tags: Blogs, Blogging

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In an effort to reinvent itself as an online entertainment portal, Lycos has launched a new service that combines streaming video and real-time chat. Lycos Cinema will allow users to simultaneously watch and comment on films in the confines of a virtual screening room.

Directors, artists and content managers can release content to general or specifically targeted audiences by providing screening and sampling opportunities, as well as marketing and promotion opportunities for new revenue streams.

The video content is secured by Microsoft's DRM technology provided by Windows Media Rights Manager, in order to protect artists' rights.

Lycos Cinema will engage in partnership with content providers and consumers by offering the following benefits:

• Film studios can leverage the proprietary watch and chat technology for new promotions, distributions and focus group opportunities. For the first time, movie producers and fan clubs can host online screenings with live chat.

• Independent filmmakers will have a powerful, cost-effective, new platform to introduce their work to millions of viewers. They can create communities of like-minded fans on Lycos Cinema.

• Advertisers can reach specific segments of consumers in the 18-35 demographic with sticky, compelling high-quality content and applications, being able to monetize content that is not user-generated in nature.
Lycos CEO Brian Kalinowski comments, "Lycos Cinema capitalizes on the convergence of the fastest-growing Web categories - social networking and online video."

Lycos Cinema lets users host their own screening rooms and invite others to simultaneously view the video content. Screening room hosts can pause, rewind and fast-forward video streams, and chat with other viewers.

The company only has about 1,000 licensed titles available to view right now, so the library is somewhat limited. The real promise of Lycos Cinema will most likely lie in the proprietary software that the company has developed for this venture, as other video services will likely want to take advantage of the real-time social networking possibilities for which the software is designed.

One can only hope this will pave the way for Lycos to bring Mystery Science Theater 3000 to a whole new Web 2.0 audience.

Tags: Lycos, Lycos Cinema

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Completely perplexed when it comes to the gifts you will be giving this holiday season? Don't worry, you aren't the only one. Gifts.com's ingenious design is sure to make everyone's quest for the perfect holiday gifts a simple one.

The holiday season is literally right around the corner, but before you go dashing through the snow in a one horse open sleigh to grandmother's house , you have to find the perfect gifts for your loved ones. Gifts.com, the Internet's only gift-suggestion service, customizes a gift for any recipient on your list.

Gifts.com was launched in 2005 by InterActiveCorp with the intent to assist users of the site in the selection of the perfect gift for any recipient or occasion. Many merchants, such as Ticket Master and CitySearch, are featured in the searches as well as department stores and online specialty stores.

The website itself is has a completely simplistic design which just about any consumer should be capable of using. First of all there is a list of basic recipients, which are men, women, teen guys, teen girls, kids, and babies. Simply select a recipient and an entirely new list of sub-categories, such as movie buff, bookworm, and fashion shopper, can be selected to narrow the search results further.

Once a sub-category has been selected, the search may be further narrowed by variants such as age, occasion, and price. Upon selecting the characteristics which best describe the recipient of the gift, a number of gift suggestions appear.

Each suggestion has a description, price, and where it can be procured, as well as similarly related items. The product of your choosing may then either be purchased online or, if it is sold in a local store, may be purchased the old-fashioned way.

Other than simply just searching and buying gifts on the site, there are several other features. The editors of the site "find and review the Web's best online stores to hand-select gifts for your recipient or occasion". The prices of search items may also be compared among the site's merchants to insure that the consumer receives the best possible deal.

Do not worry about forgetting a birthday, anniversary, or holiday again because you can set Personal and Holiday Reminders for gift-giving occasions, and a list of gift suggestion will be sent via email of gift suggestions. Gifts.com even goes so far as to allow you save a recipient's profile for future gift buying.

With the resources at Gifts.com, no one should ever have to give a gift certificate out of frustration again.

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