tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74268439546234473592023-11-15T10:37:18.406-08:00Web TrendsOpportunity Finderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928332760915710181noreply@blogger.comBlogger194125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426843954623447359.post-21800511774497141252009-12-02T20:56:00.001-08:002009-12-02T20:56:48.594-08:00Top 10 Semantic Web Products of 2009<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>2009 has seen a lot of Semantic Web and structured data activity. Much of it has been <a href='http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/linked_data_is_blooming_why_you_should_care.php'>driven by Linked Data</a>, a W3C project which gained momentum this year. According to Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web, Linked Data is a sea change akin to the invention of the WWW itself. We've gone from a Web of documents to a Web of data.<br/><a href='http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top_10_semantic_web_products_of_2009.php'><br/>Article Link</a><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=9f47cbad-1cac-8977-926c-4ebcd447b018' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Opportunity Finderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928332760915710181noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426843954623447359.post-1030295228091117012009-11-23T21:04:00.001-08:002009-11-23T21:04:32.805-08:00Google Acquires Teracent: Wants to Offer Smarter Display Ads<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>Google just <a href='http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/displaying-best-display-ad-with.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FMKuf+%28Official+Google+Blog%29&utm_content=Google+Reader'>announced</a> that it has acquired <a href='http://teracent.com'>Teracent</a>, a display ad company that specializes in creating customized display ads in real-time based on machine-learning algorithms. While regular display ads always look the same for every user, Teracent's ads are automatically created from multiple creative elements and can change according to factors like geographic location and language, as well as the content of the website, time of day, and the past performance of different ads. As Andy Beal <a href='http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2009/11/smart-move-google-acquires-intelligent-display-advertising-company-teracent.html'>describes it</a>, this is basically "multi-variate testing for your banner ads."<br/><br/><a href='http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_acquires_teracent_wants_to_make_display_ads.php'>Article Link</a><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=9b1ce6aa-b4bc-8da0-ba15-d85bfe520d8e' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Opportunity Finderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928332760915710181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426843954623447359.post-16582797757231532162009-11-17T19:34:00.001-08:002009-11-17T19:34:34.871-08:00Pearltrees: A Design Interface for Remapping the Web<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>It's rare to look at a bookmarking tool and feel convinced that it's going to win a design award. <a href='http://www.pearltrees.com/'>Pearltrees</a> is such a product. The French site offers us a new way to explore and contextualize the web. In what looks like a mind map structure, users collect "pearls" (links to articles, videos and web pages) and drag and drop them to form a body of knowledge that folds and expands upon itself. In an interview with Pearltrees CEO Patrice Lamothe, ReadWriteWeb found that company already has a loyal user base including our friends at <a href='http://fr.readwriteweb.com/'>ReadWriteFrance.</a> <br/><br/>Said Lamothe, "We wanted a type of game play that was playful to use and map the web...and the fact that you can group and ungroup content easily means that you can re-catalogue it and keep it current."<br/><br/><a href='http://www.readwriteweb.com/readwritestart/2009/11/pearltrees-reference-interface.php#more'>Article Link</a><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=f479f07a-938a-8459-99db-979cd43a3e6d' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Opportunity Finderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928332760915710181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426843954623447359.post-30439911179279912262009-11-09T20:49:00.001-08:002009-11-09T20:49:33.132-08:00AdMob Is “Approaching A $100 Million” Revenue Run-Rate. Google Thinks It Can Be Billions.<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p>When Google CEO Eric Schmidt <a href='http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/07/a-conversation-with-sergey-brin/'>mentioned</a> a few weeks ago that the M&A spigot is now back on at the search giant, he wasn’t talking about a trickle. Today’s announced deal to by mobile ad startup <a href='http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/09/google-acquires-admob/'>AdMob for $750 million</a> is Google’s largest acquisition since its $3.1 billion <a href='http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/04/13/google-spends-31-billion-for-doubleclick/'>purchase of DoubleClick</a> in March, 2008, and its third-largest ever after the $1.65 billion <a href='http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/10/09/google-has-acquired-youtube/'>YouTube acquisition</a> in 2006.</p> <p>Why such a big bet? Because Google is gunning hard to dominate mobile Web advertising and AdMob has an early foothold in the display side. By focusing on the needs of mobile app developers, AdMob has “built what is approaching a $100 million business in three years,” says Jim Goetz, the partner at Sequoia Capital who sits on AdMob’s board, referring to the annualized revenue run-rate of the company. Since AdMob splits its revenues 60/40 with publishers, that implies AdMob is on course to see $40 million of that $100 million gross. The company is also cash-flow positive, with 140 employees. <br/></p><p><a href='http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/09/admob-is-approaching-100-million-in-revenues-google-thinks-it-can-make-it-billions/'>Article Link</a><br/></p><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=717ad52a-c04e-8ab4-9bd4-720742bfb1e5' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Opportunity Finderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928332760915710181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426843954623447359.post-19908231374265891172009-11-09T20:47:00.001-08:002009-11-09T20:47:41.496-08:00Not Playing Around. EA Buys Playfish For $300 Million, Plus a $100 Million Earnout.<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>After lengthy negotiations, Electronic Arts closed it’s <a href='http://eu.techcrunch.com/2009/10/23/hold-everything-playfish-is-still-in-play/'>anticipated acquisition<img src='http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.15/t.gif' style='border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt ! important; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: "trebuchet ms",arial,helvetica,sans-serif; float: none; position: static; left: auto; top: auto; line-height: normal; background-image: url(http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.15/theme/silver/palette.gif); background-color: transparent; visibility: visible; width: 14px; height: 12px; background-position: -1128px 0pt; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;' class='snap_preview_icon' id='snap_com_shot_link_icon'/></a> of social gaming startup Playfish for $275 million in cash. An additional $25 million in stock will be set aside for retaining the top talent at the startup, and another $100 million in earnouts are part of the deal as well if the business hits certain milestones. So the total value of the deal could amount to as much as $400 million when all is said and done. Although, earnouts have a tendency to come up short (see Skype).<br/><br/><a href='http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/09/not-playing-around-electronic-arts-buys-playfish-for-275-million/'>Article Link</a><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=ccd80fca-fbdf-8e61-b743-b025f6e042b9' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Opportunity Finderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928332760915710181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426843954623447359.post-19120352574132646442009-11-08T18:54:00.001-08:002009-11-08T18:54:10.976-08:00Noticings: Geotagging Photo Game Powered by Flickr API<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p>One app we didn't find - and one that brilliantly appropriates the Flickr API in a delightful, infectious user experience - is <a href='http://noticin.gs'>Noticings</a>. Part game, part geotagging app, part photoblog, Noticings asks users to upload geotagged photos of interesting artifacts to Flickr. Users tag the photos "noticings;" those photos are then imported, analyzed, and scored, with extra points being awarded for those who post every day in a given week, who post photos of lost objects, or who post the first pic from a certain neighborhood. It is, as the site states, "a game of noticing the world around you."</p> <p>"Many of us are moving so fast through the urban landscape we don't take in the things around us," the site reads.</p><p><a href='http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/noticings_geotagging_photo_game_powered_by_flickr.php#more'>Article Link</a><br/></p><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=e3611ffb-595c-82bb-9007-7cd8723956e6' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Opportunity Finderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928332760915710181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426843954623447359.post-58747500237252106492009-10-18T20:33:00.001-07:002009-10-18T20:33:15.170-07:00Myth: Entrepreneurship Will Make You Rich<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p>One of the unfortunate side effects of all the publicity and hype surrounding startups is the idea that entrepreneurship is a guaranteed path to fame and riches. It isn’t. Building a startup is incredibly hard, stressful, chaotic and –- more often than not –- results in failure. That doesn’t mean it’s not a worthwhile thing to do, just that it’s not a good way to make money.<span id='more-74803'/></p> <p>A more rational career path for money-making is one that rewards effort, in the form of promotions, increased security, salary and status. Startups, unfortunately, punish effort that doesn’t yield results. In fact, the biggest source of waste in a startup is building something nobody wants. While in an academic R&D lab, creation for creation’s sake will often get you praise, in a startup, it will often put you out of business.</p><p><a href='http://gigaom.com/2009/10/18/myth-entrepreneurship-will-make-you-rich/#more-74803'>Article Link</a><br/></p><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=9c5e02b2-c517-8493-a683-991a20ba7519' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Opportunity Finderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928332760915710181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426843954623447359.post-36096450779084726442009-10-15T10:33:00.001-07:002009-10-15T10:33:17.595-07:00YouTube Integrates Promoted Videos With AdWords, Launches Them Abroad<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>As the most popular video site on the planet, YouTube has a <i>lot</i> of content to present to users at any given time (the site says that 20 hours of footage are uploaded every minute). That poses a challenge to premium content owners and other content creators looking to attract attention, which is why YouTube also offers a premium ‘Promoted Videos’ feature that lets you pay to expose your video to other users. And today, it’s making it easier to launch a Promoted Video campaign: users will now be able to manage their Promoted Videos directly from the AdWords platform.<br/><br/>The news comes soon after a number of other significant improvements to the Promoted Videos program, which has seen a 500% increase in clicks since the beginning of the year. In August, YouTube began <a href='http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/04/youtube-gets-its-own-version-of-adsense-with-promoted-video-upgrade/'>integrating</a> ads for Promoted Video directly into the site’s ‘Watch’ page (before that they would appear in search results, but not where users actually viewed content). And earlier this month the site began <a href='http://adsense.blogspot.com/2009/10/youtube-promoted-videos-to-appear-on.html'>allowing<img src='http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.11/t.gif' style='border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt ! important; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: "trebuchet ms",arial,helvetica,sans-serif; float: none; position: static; left: auto; top: auto; line-height: normal; background-image: url(http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.11/theme/silver/palette.gif); background-color: transparent; visibility: visible; width: 14px; height: 12px; background-position: -1128px 0pt; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;' class='snap_preview_icon' id='snap_com_shot_link_icon'/></a> the sponsored videos to appear in AdSense units across the web, where they compete in standard ad auctions. All of this is part of YouTube’s push to monetize the site, and to make it more appealing to its growing list of premium content providers.<br/><br/><a href='http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/14/youtube-integrates-promoted-videos-with-adwords-launches-them-abroad/'>Article Link</a><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=6296a636-79c7-8201-bc0d-bc2b83021e53' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Opportunity Finderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928332760915710181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426843954623447359.post-46547034023979842762009-10-12T12:50:00.001-07:002009-10-12T12:50:20.800-07:00Half as many clickers in 2009 vs 2007<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><div class='zemanta-articles'><img height='308' width='500' class='alignnone size-full wp-image-2774' title='nbc' alt='nbc' src='http://www.asourceofinspiration.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/nbc.jpg'/><br/><a href='http://www.asourceofinspiration.com/2009/10/10/rethinking-cpm-and-display-advertising/'>Article Link</a><br/></div><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=a09d6872-a13d-8814-a0b1-24d8fb90cde0' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Opportunity Finderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928332760915710181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426843954623447359.post-3403298583989627362009-10-12T12:16:00.001-07:002009-10-12T12:16:10.768-07:00The Evolution Of Click Fraud: Massive Chinese Operation DormRing1 Uncovered<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><img src='http://cache0.techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Dormring1.jpg'/><br/>Anchor Intelligence identified a click fraud ring being run out of China which involved 200,000 different IP addresses and racked up more than $3 million worth of fraudulent clicks across 2,000 advertisers in a two-week period. That money was never paid out and the ring has now dissipated (or moved onto another scam), but who knows how long the ring was in operation before Anchor noticed. The operation was called DormRing1 because it was centered in dorms at technical universities in China such as the Shanghai Technology Institute.<br/><br/><a href='http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/08/the-evolution-of-click-fraud-massive-chinese-operation-dormring1-uncovered/'>Article Link</a><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=d1d9017f-63c0-8a90-b9ef-4a84e293f4fd' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Opportunity Finderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928332760915710181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426843954623447359.post-59113535937023969512009-10-12T11:18:00.001-07:002009-10-12T11:18:51.607-07:00Web Ads Hidden Under Cloak of Invisibility<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p>Kraft Foods, Greyhound Lines and Capital One Financial have bought some strange ads on the Internet lately. What's so strange about them is that they're invisible.</p> <p>The companies might not have known about their invisible display ads—the kind that are supposed to appear alongside content on Web pages—if not for Ben Edelman, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School who studies Internet advertising.</p> <p>Mr. Edelman says his research shows that all three marketers, and many others, have fallen victim to Web sites that use such ads as a way to sell more ad space than they have. </p> <p>The Web sites can get away with it, he says, because online advertisers don't always audit their campaigns for proof their ads are appearing. It isn't clear how common these ads are or how much they cost marketers. <br/></p><p>Verifying that ads appear is an issue that has long plagued traditional media, particularly commercials on local TV stations. But a single online ad campaign can appear on thousands of Web sites, making verification even harder.</p> <p>Advertisers often buy display ads based on the number of times they are loaded onto a page, rather than the number of clicks they get. Over the past, year, an increasing number of scams have sought to take advantage of that pricing system as advertisers have started buying more of their online ads via middlemen called ad networks, instead of directly from the Web sites themselves. These networks sell ad space at cheap rates across thousands of sites, and they don't always weed out illegitimate players.</p><p><a href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703298004574459864068290026.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_tech'>Article Link</a><br/></p><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-articles'>Related articles by Zemanta:<ul class='zemanta-articles'><li><a href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703298004574459864068290026.html'> Web Ads Hidden Under Cloak of Invisibility </a></li><li><a href='http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/09/30/harbinger-for-u-s-ad-spending-uk-online-ads-eclipse-tv/'> Harbinger for U.S. ad spending? UK online ads eclipse TV </a></li><li><a href='http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2009/09/google-displays-more-power.html'> Google Displays More Power </a></li></ul></div><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><a title='Reblog this post [with Zemanta]' href='http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/47f36d55-3b8b-4b41-a2ef-197deba81214/' class='zemanta-pixie-a'><img alt='Reblog this post [with Zemanta]' src='http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=47f36d55-3b8b-4b41-a2ef-197deba81214' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></a></div></div>Opportunity Finderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928332760915710181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426843954623447359.post-18527967925504156822009-10-08T20:52:00.001-07:002009-10-08T20:52:28.490-07:00Everything You Wanted To Know About Startup Building But Were Afraid To Ask<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><img alt='' class='border' src='http://cache0.techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/mint2.jpg'/><br/><p>Let’s say you have an idea for a startup. How do you begin the process of finding cofounders and employees, creating a corporation, handing investors, growing the company, etc.? There are lots of details about building a startyp that are usually a mystery to the newly initiated founder. Usually you have to learn this stuff on the job, making mistakes along the way.</p> <p>But not anymore. Last night I saw a 45 minute presentation by <a href='http://www.mint.com'>Mint<img src='http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.11/t.gif' style='border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt ! important; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: "trebuchet ms",arial,helvetica,sans-serif; float: none; position: static; left: auto; top: auto; line-height: normal; background-image: url(http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.11/theme/silver/palette.gif); background-color: transparent; visibility: visible; width: 14px; height: 12px; background-position: -1128px 0pt; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;' class='snap_preview_icon' id='snap_com_shot_link_icon'/></a> CEO <a href='http://crunchbase.com/person/aaron-patzer'>Aaron Patzer<img src='http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.11/t.gif' style='border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt ! important; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: "trebuchet ms",arial,helvetica,sans-serif; float: none; position: static; left: auto; top: auto; line-height: normal; background-image: url(http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.11/theme/silver/palette.gif); background-color: transparent; visibility: visible; width: 14px; height: 12px; background-position: -1128px 0pt; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;' class='snap_preview_icon' id='snap_com_shot_link_icon'/></a> at a startup competition event called Juice Pitcher on the Microsoft campus. The event, which is put on by <a href='http://www.thefunded.com'>TheFunded<img src='http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.11/t.gif' style='border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt ! important; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: "trebuchet ms",arial,helvetica,sans-serif; float: none; position: static; left: auto; top: auto; line-height: normal; background-image: url(http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.11/theme/silver/palette.gif); background-color: transparent; visibility: visible; width: 14px; height: 12px; background-position: -1128px 0pt; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;' class='snap_preview_icon' id='snap_com_shot_link_icon'/></a> and <a href='http://vator.tv'>Vator.tv<img src='http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.11/t.gif' style='border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt ! important; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: "trebuchet ms",arial,helvetica,sans-serif; float: none; position: static; left: auto; top: auto; line-height: normal; background-image: url(http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.11/theme/silver/palette.gif); background-color: transparent; visibility: visible; width: 14px; height: 12px; background-position: -1128px 0pt; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;' class='snap_preview_icon' id='snap_com_shot_link_icon'/></a>, put a handful of new startups on stage to show their stuff and compete for a top prize. Between pitches, Patzer took the stage and told the story of Mint, in detail. His company just <a href='http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/14/the-value-of-techcrunch50-mint-acquired-by-intuit-for-170m-two-years-after-winning-tc40/'>sold for $170 million to Intuit</a>.</p> <p>Patzer takes the audience (and now you) from the beginning of Mint, and gives some incredibly useful device. He talks about the early days of Mint, where he lived on $30,000/yr and hired engineers at just a little more salary by offering them significant equity. He also says that, as a rule of thumb, every engineer in a pre-revenue startup adds $500,000 in valuation. Every business guy lowers the valuation by $250,000, he half jokingly quipped. In its earliest days, Mint was burning $150,000/year, he says, for 2 founders and 1 engineer/contractor.</p><p><img alt='' class='border' src='http://cache0.techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/mint1.jpg'/></p><p>Patzer also spoke about financial modeling, keeping costs low throughout the life cycle of the company, and Mint’s revenue model. He also gives suggested goals and milestones for each successive funding round. One interesting fact – today Mint, which is free, generates $30/year/user from various offers and value added services.</p> <p>There are lots of additional details, including, for example, various hidden costs in financings (mostly legal).</p> <p>If you are a startup founder, you’ll want to bookmark this and refer back to it. It’s absolute gold.</p><p><a href='http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/07/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-startup-building-but-were-afraid-to-ask/'>Article Link</a><br/></p><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=5efd47f2-dd07-8f2e-8304-5c5ffb4d488f' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Opportunity Finderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928332760915710181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426843954623447359.post-8097531984303503502009-10-07T14:36:00.001-07:002009-10-07T14:36:37.897-07:00Uncovering Connections on Twitter Could Become Big Business<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>f there's a hard-to-reach person you want to meet, one of the best ways to do so is through their friends. That's true in the offline world and the increasingly social nature of the internet may make discovery of the social circles of key influencers a powerful business practice online. <p>A new class of tools intended to surface influencers and the people they are influenced by are focusing on a hub of rapid, connected conversation that's wide open for analysis - Twitter. Could analysis of individual behavior on Twitter become a valuable tool for business development and marketing? A growing number of startup companies are making a case that it could.</p> <p>Last week Twitter announced that it will soon allow users to <a href='http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/twitter_groups_and_lists.php'>create lists of friends</a> that they can share with others. It's an attempt to make user discovery easier and it's cute, but it looks pretty rudimentary at a time when some companies are building enterprise-scale software for real-time discovery and analysis of circles of Twitter users, their expertise, influence and sentiment on topics.</p> <p>On the margins of the developing Twitter-as-business tool ecosystem are startups building light-weight influencer discovery and analysis tools. Two of the most interesting yet have launched in the last 24 hours, in fact.</p><p><a href='http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/influencers_on_twitter.php'>Article Link</a><br/></p><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=8e440a31-504e-807c-9ea5-c91be577811b' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Opportunity Finderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928332760915710181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426843954623447359.post-56925172125248339332009-10-07T13:41:00.001-07:002009-10-07T13:41:55.436-07:00Mobile Advertising Is Shaping Up To Be All Search<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><img src='http://cache0.techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Mobile-ad-pie.png'/><br/></p><p>WIth the rise of Web phones like the iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and Palm (Verizon’s CEO says that <a href='http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/06/is-verizon-more-open-than-apple-new-android-phones-will-support-google-voice/'>40% of its new phone sales</a> are such smartphones), mobile advertising promises to be a huge growth area. The <a href='http://www.kelseygroup.com/'>Kelsey Group<img src='http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.10/t.gif' style='border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt ! important; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: "trebuchet ms",arial,helvetica,sans-serif; float: none; position: static; left: auto; top: auto; line-height: normal; background-image: url(http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.10/theme/silver/palette.gif); background-color: transparent; visibility: visible; width: 14px; height: 12px; background-position: -1128px 0pt; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;' class='snap_preview_icon' id='snap_com_shot_link_icon'/></a>, a market research firm, projects that the mobile advertising market will balloon from $160 million in 2008 to $3.1 billion in 2013.</p> <p>Of course, that is just an educated guess which will turn out wrong. But there is no doubt that mobile advertising will be much bigger in four years, perhaps even ten to 20 times bigger than it is today. Where will all of that mobile ad money go to? Here I think the Kelsey group is more on target. It projects that mobile search will go from 24 percent of the total mobile ad market last year to 73 percent of the much larger pie in 2013, according to a recent research note put out by Citi analyst Mark Mahaney, which is where I’m getting all of these numbers.</p><p><a href='http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/06/mobile-advertising-is-shaping-up-to-be-all-search/'>Article Link</a><br/> </p><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=33021208-b100-8b4c-94f8-59abec2ae019' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Opportunity Finderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928332760915710181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426843954623447359.post-59215459473061436752009-10-05T22:32:00.001-07:002009-10-05T22:32:57.416-07:00On the Internet, Everyone's a Critic But They're Not Very Critical<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><h2 class='subhead'>Average Review Is 4.3 Out of Five Stars; Jerkface Fights Back and Gets Bounced</h2>Mr. Luster is part of a movement on the Web that's taking aim at 4.3, a figure reported as the average by companies like Bazaarvoice Inc., which provides review software used by nearly 600 sites. <a class='companyRollover link11unvisited' href='http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=amzn'>Amazon.com</a> Inc. says its average is similar.<br/>Many companies have noticed serious grade inflation. <a class='companyRollover link11unvisited' href='http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=goog'>Google</a> Inc.'s YouTube says the videos on its site average 4.6 stars, because viewers use five-star ratings to "give props" to video makers. Buzzillions.com, which aggregates reviews from 3,000 sites, has tracked millions of reviews and has spotted particular exuberance for products such as printer paper (average: 4.4 stars), boots (4.4) and dog food (4.7).<br/><br/>Culture may play a role in the positivism: Ratings in the U.K. average an even higher 4.4, reports Bazaarvoice. But the largest contributor may be human nature. Marketing research firm Keller Fay Group surveys 100 consumers each week to ask them about what products they mentioned to friends in conversation. "There is an urban myth that people are far more likely to express negatives than positives," says Ed Keller, the company's chief executive. But on average, he finds that 65% of the word-of-mouth reviews are positive and only 8% are negative.<br/><br/>The vast majority of reviewers on Amazon "are a bunch of brown-nosing cheerleaders," says Mr. Schenker, who reviews under pseudonyms including Jerkface. "In an online store selling millions of items, there's bound to be many, many awful ones," he says.<br/><br/><a href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125470172872063071.html?mod=googlenews_wsj'>Article Link</a><br/><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=8537463d-78de-8faa-a300-81dcf399b0bd' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Opportunity Finderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928332760915710181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426843954623447359.post-53506811719284012802009-10-05T16:04:00.001-07:002009-10-05T16:04:25.937-07:00U.S. Internet Ad Revenues Decline 5.3% In First Half 2009<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>The IAB and PricewaterhouseCoopers released U.S. Internet advertising stats today for the first half of 2009. The tally – $10.9 billion total, a 5.3% decline from the same period in 2008. This is in line with the <a href='http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/31/the-online-ad-recession-continues-is-this-what-a-reset-looks-like/'>3.4 decline</a> in worldwide ad revenues among four largest Web companies during the same period. <p>Search continues to take nearly half of all Internet advertising, with 47% of the total ($5.1 billion). Display ads, classified listings, lead generation and email took 34%, 10%, 7% and 1%, respectively. Search took just 44% of total advertising revenue in the first half of 2008.</p> <p>Digital video jumped from 3% to 4% of the total in the first half of 2009, to $477 million.</p> <p>2008 was the peak year so far for Internet advertising in the U.S., with $23.4 billion in total revenues. That’s up from just $6 billion in 2002.</p> <p>Retail advertisers represented the largest category of spending, at 20%. Telecom (16%), Leisure Travel (6%), Financial Services (12%), Automotive (11%), Computing (10%), Consumer Packaged Goods/Food Products (6%), Entertainment (4%) and Media (4%) made up most of the rest.</p><p><a href='http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/05/u-s-internet-ad-revenues-decline-5-3-in-first-half-2009/'>Article Link</a></p><p><br/></p><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=9db89dfa-3620-8aca-8341-bdbe6fcb9296' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Opportunity Finderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928332760915710181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426843954623447359.post-37985767817146103112009-09-24T18:36:00.001-07:002009-09-24T18:36:31.130-07:00AOL, Yahoo Face Off to Impress Madison Avenue<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p>The rivalry between AOL and <a class='companyRollover link11unvisited' href='http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=yhoo'>Yahoo</a> is on prominent display this week, as the two struggling Internet companies compete for advertising dollars on Madison Avenue.</p><br /><p>They are pouring on the glitz as they vie for the attention of<br />thousands of ad-industry professionals at the Advertising Week<br />conference in New York.</p><br /><p>Marketers typically don't negotiate specific deals to buy ad space<br />or time during the annual event. But media companies use it to tout<br />themselves to the many ad agencies and advertisers in attendance,<br />including <a class='companyRollover link11unvisited' href='http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=ko'>Coca-Cola</a>, Procter & Gamble, <a class='companyRollover link11unvisited' href='http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=vz'>Verizon Communications</a>, <a class='companyRollover link11unvisited' href='http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=BAC'>Bank of America</a> and MasterCard Worldwide. The aim is to establish relationships and secure business down the road.</p><p><a href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125374327728235471.html'>Article Link</a><br/></p></div>Opportunity Finderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928332760915710181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426843954623447359.post-39844527962034638912009-09-22T18:31:00.001-07:002009-09-22T18:31:16.836-07:00Facebook Sets Deal to Provide Ad Data to Nielsen<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>acebook Inc. plans to announce a deal with online measurement<br />company Nielsen Co., in a step to address advertisers' frustration with<br />measuring how ads perform on the social network.<br /><div class='insetCol3wide'><div class='insetContent embedType-videoThumb imageFormat-arbitrary'><div class='insetTree'><div id='articlevideo_1' class='insetType-video'><br /> <div id='videodiv_644841'><div class='videoTree'><div class='videoFrame'><a href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125356656635628897.html#'><span class='videoBug'><br/></span></a></div></div>Under<br />the partnership, Facebook will begin polling its users about some of<br />the display ads it runs on its site, such as a banner promoting a movie<br />release.</div></div></div></div></div><br /><p>Facebook will provide that data, including responses from those who<br />didn't see an ad, to Nielsen, which will package it for advertisers,<br />say the companies.</p><br /><p>Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is planning to<br />introduce the product, called Nielsen Brand Lift, in a keynote address<br />at an advertising conference Tuesday and to pitch it to marketers this<br />week in New York.</p><p>Facebook had a 9.1% share of display-ad views in the U.S. in July,<br />up from 6.8% in January, according to comScore Inc. That put it in<br />second place behind Yahoo and ahead of <a class='companyRollover link11unvisited' href='http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=msft'>Microsoft</a> Corp. and <a class='companyRollover link11unvisited' href='http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=twx'>Time Warner</a> Inc.'s AOL, comScore said.</p><br />The number of advertisers using Facebook's online system has also<br />tripled to tens of thousands in the past year, according to the<br />company. Advertisers say they are often spending more than $1 million<br />on campaigns on the Web site<br/><br/><p>In recent months, the site has launched new ad formats that prompt<br />people to take an action -- such as a forthcoming ad that allows people<br />to sign up to receive a free sample of what's being advertised.</p><br /><p>It has also overhauled a tool that allows brands to build pages to<br />communicate with their fans and has rolled out a targeted-ad feature<br />that gives advertisers more control and guarantees over who sees their<br />ads.</p><p><a href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125356656635628897.html'>Article Link</a><br/></p><p><br/></p></div>Opportunity Finderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928332760915710181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426843954623447359.post-74676108394884109602009-09-21T22:37:00.001-07:002009-09-21T22:37:31.221-07:00Case Study of Contexa at ReadWriteWeb: Context Improves CTR<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p>The preliminary aggregated statistics of the six participating<br />sponsors (excluding Hakia), covering a 40-day period, demonstrate that<br />the Contexa system has met ReadWriteWeb's objectives:</p><br /><br /><ul><li>The Contexa system increased ad clicks by 14% (i.e. advertiser received, on average, 14% more ad clicks).</li><li>The click-through rate (CTR) for Contexa was more than twice that of ReadWriteWeb's 125 x 125 banner ads.</li></ul><a href='http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/case_study_of_contexa_at_readwriteweb_context_improves_ctr.php#more'>Article Link</a><br/></div>Opportunity Finderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928332760915710181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426843954623447359.post-60848775280398688362009-09-21T22:35:00.001-07:002009-09-21T22:35:36.548-07:00Pricing Tensions Shake Up Web Display-Ad Market<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>The market for online display ads -- those with text and pictures that<br/>border a Web page -- has dwindled amid the ad recession to an estimated<br/>$20.8 billion in 2009 from $23 billion in 2008<br/><br/>Some big Internet companies, such as <a class='companyRollover link11unvisited' href='http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=goog'>Google</a>, <a class='companyRollover link11unvisited' href='http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=msft'>Microsoft</a> and <a class='companyRollover link11unvisited' href='http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=twx'>Time Warner</a>'s<br/>AOL and Yahoo, are looking to profit from the discord. They are trying<br/>to cut out the ad networks altogether by developing ad exchanges, which<br/>allow advertisers to bid directly on the ad space available on a large<br/>group of Web sites. Google unveiled its ad exchange Friday.<br/><br/><p>"Advertising networks are big aggregators. We have to emphasize that<br/>we are premium," says Nada Stirratt, executive vice president of<br/>digital ad sales for <a class='companyRollover link11unvisited' href='http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=VIA'>Viacom</a>'s MTV Networks. "We produce original content and attract fans, not just fly-by-night users."</p><br/><p>In a bid to appeal more to advertisers and visitors, Web sites have<br/>added pages of news or entertainment during the current downturn,<br/>expanding their ad space and thus their reliance on ad networks.</p><br/><p>At the same time, many big advertisers, eager to save money, have<br/>shifted more online business to the networks. Ford now buys about 40%<br/>of its display ads through ad networks, up from about 5% three years<br/>ago, in part because it is "more efficient," says Scott Kelly, Ford's<br/>digital marketing manager.</p><p><a href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125348067086625949.html'>Article Link</a><br/></p><br/></div>Opportunity Finderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928332760915710181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426843954623447359.post-7935997771826262812009-09-17T13:40:00.001-07:002009-09-17T13:40:04.112-07:00The Dirty Little Secret About the "Wisdom of the Crowds" - There is No Crowd<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>Recent research by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) professor Vassilis<br />Kostakos pokes a big hole in the prevailing wisdom that the "wisdom of<br />crowds" is a trustworthy force on today's web. His research focused on<br />studying the voting patterns across several sites featuring<br />user-generated reviews including <a href='http://www.amazon.com/'>Amazon</a>, <a href='http://www.imdb.com/'>IMDb</a>, and <a href='http://www.bookcrossing.com/'>BookCrossing</a>.<br />The findings showed that a small group of users accounted for a large<br />number of ratings. In other words, as many have already begun to<br />suspect, small but powerful groups can easily distort what the "crowd"<br />really thinks, leading online reviews to often end up appearing<br />extremely positive or extremely negative.<br/><br/><a href='http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_dirty_little_secret_about_the_wisdom_of_the_crowds.php#more'>Article Link</a><br/></div>Opportunity Finderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928332760915710181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426843954623447359.post-48959382492308167872009-09-17T10:41:00.001-07:002009-09-17T10:41:58.188-07:00The Dirty Little Secret About the "Wisdom of the Crowds" - There is No Crowd<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>Recent research by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) professor Vassilis<br />Kostakos pokes a big hole in the prevailing wisdom that the "wisdom of<br />crowds" is a trustworthy force on today's web. His research focused on<br />studying the voting patterns across several sites featuring<br />user-generated reviews including <a href='http://www.amazon.com/'>Amazon</a>, <a href='http://www.imdb.com/'>IMDb</a>, and <a href='http://www.bookcrossing.com/'>BookCrossing</a>.<br />The findings showed that a small group of users accounted for a large<br />number of ratings. In other words, as many have already begun to<br />suspect, small but powerful groups can easily distort what the "crowd"<br />really thinks, leading online reviews to often end up appearing<br />extremely positive or extremely negative.</div>Opportunity Finderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928332760915710181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426843954623447359.post-79444439263819016022009-09-15T13:49:00.001-07:002009-09-15T13:49:15.491-07:005to1 Lets Publishers Regain Control Over Unsold Ad Inventory<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><a href='http://www.5to1.com/'>5to1<img src='http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.7/t.gif' style='border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt ! important; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: "trebuchet ms",arial,helvetica,sans-serif; float: none; position: static; left: auto; top: auto; line-height: normal; background-image: url(http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.7/theme/silver/palette.gif); background-color: transparent; visibility: visible; width: 14px; height: 12px; background-position: -1128px 0pt; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;' class='snap_preview_icon' id='snap_com_shot_link_icon'/></a>, a startup with a <a href='http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/17/stealth-startup-5to1-raises-45-million-with-all-star-founding-team/'>high-profile founding team</a> that includes former Fox Interactive execs <a href='http://www.crunchbase.com/person/jim-heckman'>Jim Heckman<img src='http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.7/t.gif' style='border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt ! important; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: "trebuchet ms",arial,helvetica,sans-serif; float: none; position: static; left: auto; top: auto; line-height: normal; background-image: url(http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.7/theme/silver/palette.gif); background-color: transparent; visibility: visible; width: 14px; height: 12px; background-position: -1128px 0pt; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;' class='snap_preview_icon' id='snap_com_shot_link_icon'/></a> and <a href='http://www.crunchbase.com/person/ross-levinsohn'>Ross Levinsohn<img src='http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.7/t.gif' style='border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt ! important; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: "trebuchet ms",arial,helvetica,sans-serif; float: none; position: static; left: auto; top: auto; line-height: normal; background-image: url(http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.7/theme/silver/palette.gif); background-color: transparent; visibility: visible; width: 14px; height: 12px; background-position: -1128px 0pt; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;' class='snap_preview_icon' id='snap_com_shot_link_icon'/></a>, has raised <a href='http://www.crunchbase.com/company/5to1-com'>$4.5 million<img src='http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.7/t.gif' style='border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt ! important; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: "trebuchet ms",arial,helvetica,sans-serif; float: none; position: static; left: auto; top: auto; line-height: normal; background-image: url(http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.7/theme/silver/palette.gif); background-color: transparent; visibility: visible; width: 14px; height: 12px; background-position: -1128px 0pt; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;' class='snap_preview_icon' id='snap_com_shot_link_icon'/></a><br />in seed funding to work on a solution that can turn remnant advertising<br />into premium advertising. The company’s breaking out of stealth mode<br />today at <a href='http://techcrunch50.com/'>TechCrunch50<img src='http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.7/t.gif' style='border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt ! important; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: "trebuchet ms",arial,helvetica,sans-serif; float: none; position: static; left: auto; top: auto; line-height: normal; background-image: url(http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.7/theme/silver/palette.gif); background-color: transparent; visibility: visible; width: 14px; height: 12px; background-position: -1128px 0pt; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;' class='snap_preview_icon' id='snap_com_shot_link_icon'/></a> with a service that could rid both publishers and advertisers of the <a href='http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/24203.imc'>extremely ineffective<img src='http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.7/t.gif' style='border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt ! important; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: "trebuchet ms",arial,helvetica,sans-serif; float: none; position: static; left: auto; top: auto; line-height: normal; background-image: url(http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.7/theme/silver/palette.gif); background-color: transparent; visibility: visible; width: 14px; height: 12px; background-position: -1128px 0pt; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;' class='snap_preview_icon' id='snap_com_shot_link_icon'/></a> ad campaigns that are basically only beneficial to the networks selling them.<br/><br/><p>The 5to1 system allows publishers to get in between the remnant<br />networks and the ad inventory to give them more control over what will<br />appear on the site, where and when. The company’s founder and CEO Jim<br />Heckman dubs it a “Match.com meets iTunes for advertising” because it<br />allows publishers to dynamically create ‘playlists’ of ad units of<br />sorts and easily run both proper ads and potentially placeable remnant<br />ads on variable places on their website(s). </p><br /><p>Ultimately, the goal is to make it easier for content publishers to<br />increase the quality of – and with it, the revenue that comes from –<br />the ads that appear on unsold inventory without too much hassle. And if<br />it takes off we’ll see a lot less of these horrible screaming ads that<br />you’d never click on even if they held you at gunpoint.</p><p>Q – Paul Graham: Humans can only do worse than the best optimization, right?</p><br /><p>A: Pages are dynamic. What we found is that a vast majority of ads are not contextual, and we can fix that.</p><p><br/></p><br/></div>Opportunity Finderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928332760915710181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426843954623447359.post-18396710264754200152009-09-15T13:42:00.001-07:002009-09-15T13:42:37.650-07:00DataXu Optimizes Ad Bidding, Buying Across Exchange Platforms In Real-Time<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>The DataXu platform values, bid manages and buys ads on an<br />impression-by-impression basis, across the major ad exchanges and based<br />on smart algorithms. The platform is said to be capable of processing<br />hundreds of thousands of “ad decisions” a second, each returned in<br />under 100 milliseconds, through automated, campaign-specific algorithms. <br/><br/><p><strong>Expert panel Q&A:</strong></p><br /><p>Q – Marissa Mayer: On a technology level, it looks impressive. My questions is: are you targetting people?</p><br /><p>Ad buyers can build their own data profiles, so you can tweak it to<br />fit your core audience. The Internet is becoming more dynamic, and what<br />we’re doing fundamentally is make decisions quickly, change campaigns<br />in real-time and learn from past behavior.</p><br /><p>Q – Paul Graham: What’s the rocket science behind it, the core engine?</p><br /><p>A: Our system is designed to find the features that matters for<br />brand, really custom. Advertising is not a one-size-fits-all, you need<br />dynamic, intelligent algorithms.</p><br /><p>Q – Tony Hsieh: We’ve dealt with third-party pixels at Zappos, and it causes problems. How do you deal with that?</p><br /><p>A: As soon as we can tie data together, we can work, so it doesn’t have to be pixel ads.</p><br /><p>Q – Marc Andreessen: What’s your sales model?</p><br /><p>A: we can paid on a CPM basis, like an ad server, but a percentage on the lift.</p><p><a href='http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/14/tc50-dataxu-optimizes-ad-bidding-buying-across-exchange-platforms-in-real-time/'>Article Link</a><br/></p><br/></div>Opportunity Finderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928332760915710181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426843954623447359.post-26110548818765284892009-09-15T13:22:00.001-07:002009-09-15T13:22:46.390-07:00The Internet Is Killing Itself Softly With Remnant Ads<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><img src='http://cache0.techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/IMG_0059.JPG'/><br/><p><strong>Ross Levinhson</strong>: AT Fox Sports, 70% of the inventory<br />was sold. If we sold out all the remaining inventory, I think in 2003,<br />it meant only $250,000 in revenues. We made a determination that a<br />quarter of a million dollars at that time wasn’t worth the hassle of<br />policing it.</p><br /><p>On MySpace, we had to create scarcity where there was no scarcity.<br />So we had the homepage, ad networks were arbitraging. Tom shut that<br />down, no more ad networks on that inventory. If you have a site like<br />Hi5 or MySpace or Facebook, creating billions of impressions a month,<br />you have to find a way to create some scarce inventory so you can talk<br />to the Best Buys. They don’t want to be next to [remnant ads]</p><br /><p>In many ways I think the Internet has killed itself to a degree<br />because there was a notion that I will just add another page without<br />maximizing the premium spots.</p><p><br/></p><p><a href='%3Cembed%20flashvars=%22autoplay=false%22%20width=%22480%22%20height=%22386%22%20allowfullscreen=%22true%22%20allowscriptaccess=%22always%22%20src=%22http://www.ustream.tv/flash/video/2162945%22%20type=%22application/x-shockwave-flash%22%20/%3E'>Video</a><br/></p><br/></div>Opportunity Finderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928332760915710181noreply@blogger.com0