Google Resurecting Newspapers

Newspaper advertising drives online traffic and consumer purchasing.

The Google Print Ads program began in November 2006 with a test that included 50 newspapers and a small group of advertisers. Since then, the program has grown to include more than 750 newspapers representing 48 of the top 50 DMAs and covering 70 percent of U.S. paid circulation.

Of those who said they researched at least one product they saw in the newspaper, 67 percent said they conducted research online, compared with 48 percent who visited a store, 23 percent who called a store and 23 percent who asked a friend.

Source and more information: Newspaper Association of America NAA

Posted by Paul J. Bruemmer

8:26 AM 0 comments

My Starbucks Idea

http://mystarbucksidea.force.com

This site is interesting to me on a couple of different levels. According to the home page, the purpose of the site is to “shape the future of Starbucks—with your ideas”. Sounds feel-good enough, doesn’t it? The site is basically a Web 2.0 take on the good old fashioned suggestion box with a hint of digg.com. Being the somewhat cynical person that I am, to me, the site screams “our sales numbers are on the decline and we’ll try anything…”

This site is also interesting to me because rather than building a custom app, Starbucks chose to use force.com, a product of salesforce.com. According to SalesForce, “Force.com is the world’s first Platform as a Service (PaaS), enabling developers to create and deliver any kind of business application, entirely on-demand and without software.”

In any case, even if the site is an concealed ploy from a corporate giant looking to help struggling sales, I think the lesson learned is that all companies can benefit from listening more to the voice of the customer and more importantly, taking actions based on what the masses are saying. Now that they've put this out there, we'll see if Starbucks will walk the talk.

Posted by sandra

10:53 AM 0 comments

Universal Search is kickin-in

Out of 1.2 billion queries surveyed, 220 million (17 percent) contained a Universal search results. 87 million people searched during the measured period, and 58 percent saw a natural search placement. Within the Universal results, individual placements broke out this way:

Video 38%
News 34%
Images 19%
Multiple placements 15%
Maps/Stocks/Weather 10%

Source: Search Insider Rob Garner

Posted by Paul J. Bruemmer

9:56 AM 0 comments

Online Sales to Climb Despite Struggling Economy

Retailers report that search engine marketing continues to be the most effective way to reach new customers.

Online retail will continue to be a bright spot with retail sales rising 17 percent this year to $204 billion.

Apparel ($26.6 billion
Computers ($23.9 billion)
Autos ($19.3 billion)

Source: BusinessWire

Posted by Paul J. Bruemmer

7:46 PM 0 comments

Universal Search Reporting Traction

The upward trend in reporting activity with regards to changes in Universal Search are increasing testimony to an ongoing and expected change in SERP landscape. This includes all forms of Google's vertical blend; video, news, blogs, images, products etc..

Search Engine Roundtable reports "if you notice halfway down the page, you're seeing a whole brand new set of results that are pulled from a file built in C programming language."

MediaPost reports "Google, Yahoo and MSN are rapidly integrating multi-media results into their search engine results pages..."

Search Engine Land qualifies ongoing discussion and speculation about Universal Search impact...

Search Engine Journal reports "Google tweaks Universal Search with horizontal video results..."

Posted by Paul J. Bruemmer

11:48 AM 0 comments

11 Innovation Lessons

This article details eleven lessons in innovation by Blizzard Entertainment, maker of the highly successful World of Warcraft. While the article revolves around Blizzard's game products, these practices can be applied to almost any product or service.

Everyone has deadlines and launch dates. One point of frustration for many of Blizzard's fans is how frequently their products are delayed. Yet their emphasis on quality has proven a successful recipe. Boasting over 10 million paying subscribers, World of Warcraft has become the largest and most successful massive multi-player game to date. It raises the question, how important is launching on time versus launching a quality product?

Posted by Mai Krakauer

11:42 AM 1 comments

A More Open Wireless World

Spectrum bid: Cone of silence is lifted and Google admits "top priority heading into the auction was to make sure that bidding on the so-called "C Block" reached the $4.6 billion reserve price that would trigger the important "open applications" and "open handsets" license conditions. In other-words, their bid was a bluff to "helped ensure that the C Block met the reserve price."

This helped increase the revenues raised for the U.S. Treasury, while making sure that the openness conditions would be applied to the ultimate licensee.

Source Google Public Policy Blog

Posted by Paul J. Bruemmer

9:14 AM 0 comments