Bloggers as Local News Sources The New York Times is running an article looking at “hyperlocal” web sites as replacements to traditional newspapers. The catalyst for the concept is obviously the fact that some newspapers have been dying off, at least in print form. The piece looks at web startups EveryBlock, Placebologger, and Patch, which…
I hear it a lot. People say they know they should use Twitter for marketing purposes, but the idea of “Twittering” doesn’t sit well with them. On a personal level, I have no interest in letting the world know what I’m doing hour-to-hour, much less moment-to-moment. But Twittering on behalf of a company, ecommerce websites…
The AP is launching an all out assault on any use of its content that is not licensed (purchased) for use by Internet publishers and search engines. As I have said in the past, the AP is not just focusing on the blatant violators such as spam blogs or sites that quote paragraphs without attribution…
Assessing Gmail After Five Years The Past Google’s email service Gmail was launched to the public five years ago this week. Back then, the service turned the web email industry on its ear by offering an entire gigabyte of storage to users who were lucky enough to receive an invite. Small potatoes now, but that…
Our society has become saturated with traditional display advertising. Consumers have learned to tune out, or even pay to omit ads altogether. Product placement and sponsorship are appearing more than ever in radio, television and motion pictures. Each day the products and entertainment we love are becoming more entangled in each other’s success. Naturally, the…
Social media is all the buzz these days. Media outlets, marketers, TV and business magazines (including this one) tout the power of social media to reach the public, shape opinion and even change how we do business. And it’s true, social media has changed the way we operate as businesses and how we interact with…
It’s not all about traffic. It’s about conversions. But it’s hard to get conversions if you don’t have the traffic, and while Google is one of the best potential sources for traffic, Google has other search engines besides web search that people use all the time, and it will not hurt to rank in them…
Often with ecommerce sites success is not a matter of how good you are but rather how good you look. Consumers often judge how professional and how trustworthy an online store is by nothing more than its aesthetics. While many online retailers are experts in their field (i.e., apparel, tools, and toys), they are not…
Like a human life, an application’s lifecycle is demarcated by significant events. It begins with an idea that gets created. The next big event is deployment, and finally, when it no longer has business value, the application reaches end of life and is removed from service. http://whitepapers.zdnet.com/abstract.aspx?docid=928239&promo=590&tag=nl.e590
Google made several notable improvements to its AdWords display ad builder, with a focus on bringing richer content, interaction and tracking to display ads. http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2009/04/01/google-display-ad-builder-improves-with-rich-media-amp-video.aspx