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JavaScript was 10 times slower, HTML5 support wasn’t yet an essential feature in modern browsers, and the idea of a sandboxed, multi-process browser was only a research project. All browsers have come a long way in the last two years and the web has become much more fun and useful.
Omnibox, and adjusted the color scheme of the browser to be easier on the eyes.
Sliding back into Doc Brown’s DeLorean and setting the dial ahead by a few months, we have more in store for Chrome. As always, we’re hard at work on making Chrome even faster, and working on ways to improve graphics performance in the browser through hardware acceleration. With the Chrome Web Store, we hope to make it much easier to find and use great applications on the web. We also ratcheted up the pace of our releases so that we can get new features and improvements to everyone more quickly.
If you haven’t tried Chrome recently, we invite you to download our new stable version today at google.com/chrome. For those of you who have been using Chrome, thanks for a great second year! We hope that Chrome has made your life on the web even better, and look forward to the next year.
Excerpt from:
Back to the future: two years of Google Chrome
Look at the latest moves by Amazon, Apple, and USA TODAY, all reported in the past week. They have a commonality that suggests traditional communications are being swept away by a digital tsunami of historic proportions.
Amazon is readying a web-based subscription service that will deliver content via a web browser or through new televisions with Internet connections, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. It will rival Netflix, the movie rental company that is increasingly moving its DVD mail order business to digital delivery.
Amazon would like to have the new service available by the holiday season, but it will depend on whether companies such as NBC Universal, News Corp., Time Warner, and Viacom agree to provide content. Amazon already sells individual television episodes, and it sells and rents digital movie downloads, but the subscription service would be a first for the leading online retailer.
Amazon has also been an early innovator in the e-book market with its Kindle e-book reader, which is now available in WiFi and 3G models. By the end of this year, according to Forrester Research, over 10 million people in the U.S. will own e-book readers and buy about 100 million e-books. Last year, under 4 million e-book readers and about 30 million e-books were sold.
Amazon has managed to transition its online business from once being a seller of traditional books to, today, being an all-purpose online superstore. With its digital initiatives, it looks like Amazon will again reinvent itself.
At the same time as the Amazon subscription service report surfaced, Apple unveiled an upgrade to its “Apple TV” device. The smaller $99 set-top device offers a lot more content – “the largest online selection of HDTV show episodes to rent from ABC, ABC Family, Fox, Disney Channel and BBC America for just 99 cents,” according to Apple. The device also streams content from Apple’s MobileMe service, Flickr, Netflix and YouTube. Not unlike Amazon, Apple sees the burgeoning opportunity in digital content delivery.
And now Apple is entering the social networking space with Ping, an iTunes add-on. The new service allows users to follow friends and see the music they have purchased, as well as music they’ve reviewed or concerts they attended.
Sound familiar? It should – think of MySpace, which has gravitated towards music in recent years, or Pandora and Zune Social. Apple is now squarely in the music-related social media game, and it could be meaningful. According to the New York Times:
“While other social networks have struggled in the shadow of Facebook, some analysts said that Apple had a chance to turn Ping into a success. The service will be instantly available to 160 million iTunes users, as long as they download the latest version of the software…”
Meanwhile, USA TODAY recently announced a major restructuring that basically acknowledges what we’ve discussed for some time on ReveNews that, in order to survive, newspapers must reinvent themselves into digital publications. The newspaper will reorganize its operations around “content rings,” consolidate and lay off staff, look into new licensing and business opportunities, and most importantly, focus the majority of its attention on providing web-based and mobile content.
The decision by USA TODAY is not particularly surprising, given the fact that print newspapers have been desperately seeking ways to maintain their circulation and protect profits, in light of being undercut by the wealth of free news and information available on the Internet. Some newspapers have gone out of business, while others, like Seattle’s Post-Intelligencer,
The USA TODAY announcement signals that Gannett, which owns 82 daily newspapers and 850 non-daily publications in addition to USA TODAY, is on the verge of throwing in the towel on print publications. (Gannett also owns 130 websites, 23 television stations, and Captivate, a service that delivers news, information, and ads to nearly 7,000 elevator screens).
Digital delivery of every kind of content has now reached mainstream importance. Taken together, these developments are strong evidence that we’ve been engulfed by a digital tsunami.
See the original post here:
The Digital Tsunami
It’s been 10 years since the first version of Google SketchUp was released, and there are more people modeling in SketchUp now that we ever could have imagined—over a million of you a week, in fact. That’s a pretty humbling number of 3D model makers.
People around the world are modeling everything—from a new design for their kitchen to entire cities in Google Earth. For our small part in this global phenomenon, I’m proud to announce that SketchUp 8, the next major version of our 3D modeling tool, is available for download today. We’ve added significant new geo-modeling capabilities that leverage Google’s vast collection of geo-spatial data to make it quicker, easier and more fun than ever to build models of the world around us.
Head on over to our website for the whole story, or just grab yourself a new build and get back to modeling.
You may have read on Revenews that Overstock was considering terminating its California affiliates and that it likely wouldn’t unless AB1625 passed (that is the bill that changes the definition of nexus, or presence in the State, to include any out-of-state store with online affiliates who are based in California).
Last year, Overstock terminated its relationship with all of us after the Governor vetoed the legislation. The Governor’s office called Overstock’s CEO and issued a statement that he would not let this bill pass. He is still governor. [Note that I think that the bill will become law if Jerry Brown wins the gubernatorial election in November but not if Meg Whitman wins.]
It happened. We just received an e-mail from Commission Junction, Overstock’s affiliate network, informing us that we have been terminated from its affiliate program (see below). Note that CJ’s policies require a one-week notice so I assume that Overstock is sending a message to state legislators that this is what will happen should they enact AB1625 into law. [Note: I cannot find any information that would show that AB1625 was passed by either house of the California Legislature.]
Dear Cashbaq,
We regret to inform you that the Commission Junction advertiser BizFilings has chosen to expire its affiliation with you effective 7-Sep-2010.
If you would like to locate another advertiser in the network to partner with, login to your Account Manager (http://www.cj.com/login.jsp) and visit the Get Links tab.
Best Regards,
Client Services
Commission Junction
It looks like Overstock is playing chicken with the California Senate:
If you are an affiliate manager, please wait until after the bill passes, the Governor vetoes it and the Legislature doesn’t have the votes to override the bill to terminate us. We’d really appreciate it.
Read more:
New Flash: Overstock Terminates Its California Affiliates
Yesterday Overstock announced its intention to terminate California affiliates should AB 1625 pass. In a letter to all of its affiliates, Overstock urge opposition to AB 1625 stating that:
There is a measure under consideration in California, likely to be voted on tomorrow, which, if it passes, will likely result in the termination of our business connection.
The letter goes on to urge California affiliates to oppose the passage of the legislation and specifically calls out Section 1 as being the point of contention.
In reading AB 1625 (PDF) the measure is essentially a motion by the Budget Committee to allow changes to the Budget Act of 2010. The section Overstock identifies as being problematic, Section 1, reads:
SECTION 1. It is the intent of the Legislature to enact statutory changes relating to the Budget Act of 2010.
In the bill itself there are no definitive statements as to the Legislature’s intentions. The only clues to what changes might be enacted are based on the political climate within California. AB 178 was only stopped by a veto from Governor Schwarzenegger. Odds are that proponents of that bill will use AB 1625 to enact measures supported in AB 178 including California’s version of the so-called Amazon Tax.
We queried Overstock as to its specific concerns over AB 1625 and received the following response from their PR department:
It is the end of the California legislative session and the budget isn’t done. We continue to learn that those who seek to impose this tax measure have some new strategy. Yesterday, we learned more new information (in regards to AB 1625) on which we acted. We don’t want to be forced to terminate our affiliates, and we are glad those most affected are responding and their voices are being heard by senators who need to understand the strong counterpoint to this unwise tax legislation.
So it would appear that Overstock is leveraging their affiliates to act as a counterpoint to a bill they see as threatening, even if the actual purpose of the bill is nebulous. Rebecca Madigan, Executive Director of the Performance Marketing Association, posted an excellent synopsis of the politics of the situation.
Although we don’t necessarily agree with Overstock’s tactics we do feel that any enactment by California of an Affiliate Nexus Tax is a terrible decision. There is still time for California affiliates to contact their representatives. The PMA has a great resource that provides a painless guide on how to find your representative including suggested email templates for you to use.
View original here:
News Brief: Statement from Overstock Regarding California Bill AB 1625
Now that I have your attention, Overstock may terminate its California affiliates tomorrow. The State Legislature is once again considering a bill that would make the Affiliate Nexus Tax law in California. If you are not familiar with this legislation, it defines affiliates as salespeople in order to establish nexus (the legal word for presence in the state) to out of state retailers (namely Amazon and Overstock).
We’ve been through this before. It started out as AB178 a couple of years ago. Kerri Pollard and I went to Sacramento to testify before the Budget and Finance sub-committee. As my cab pulled up at the State Capitol, I received an e-mail that the bill was pulled by its sponsor. It turns out that there weren’t enough votes to get it out of even the sub-committee.
Now its here… again. Last year it was passed under the cover of darkness and the Governor vetoed it. Overstock terminated us last year as part of the process. Only after the Governor vetoed the bill and issued a statement that he would not allow the Affiliate Nexus Tax to become law did Overstock reinstate all of us. Fortunately, CJ’s policies give us all a week before the termination takes effect so we would have time for the Governor to use his veto stamp (can’t you just picture it in slow motion… the stamp dropping onto parchment on the Governator’s desk…. cigar in his mouth (yes, it would be in the tent outside the Capitol)).
If you are a California publisher in the Overstock program, contact your state senator… NOW. Forward Overstock’s letter and explain how AB1625 (the current form of the Affiliate Nexus Tax) will hurt small businesses in your senator’s district. If you need more information or drafts of similar letters, take a look at the Performance Marketing Association’s website.
Also, there was a good op-ed piece by Loren Bendele in today’s LA Business Journal.
If you didn’t get Overstock’s letter, here it is. Remember not to beat up Overstock for this. This is a bad law that will hurt California’s small businesses and will not generate any revenue.
OVERSTOCK.COM, INC.
6350 SOUTH 3000 EAST
SALT LAKE CITY, UT 84121
PHONE: (801) 947-3100
FACSIMILE: (801) 947-3144August 30, 2010
Dear Cashbaq:
Overstock.com values your advertising efforts, and hopes to be in a position to continue our business connection for years to come. However, as we notified you in February, there is a measure under consideration in California, likely to be voted on tomorrow, which, if it passes, will likely result in the termination of our business connection. We are urging you to contact your Senator in the California Legislature immediately to oppose the affiliate nexus tax.
By tomorrow the California Senate will have to consider the new tax, which appeared in the Assembly’s final budget proposal as AB 1625 (Section 1), or it will die for this year. In order to pass, AB 1625 needs a 2/3 majority vote. Its chances of passage are unclear; consequently, your efforts in opposition will be highly effective.
Last year the Governor vetoed a similar measure, and we are told that the Governor has not altered his position on this new tax; however, despite this, we are concerned about last minute political compromises.
You will find information on how to contact your State Senator at this location on the Performance Marketing Association’s website.
Please waste no time in contacting your Senator today to oppose the affiliate nexus tax.
Respectfully,
Jonathan E. Johnson III
President Overstock.com, Inc.
Here is the original post:
Overstock to Terminate California Affiliates Again Tomorrow
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Attending the yearly conference circuit makes me sometimes feel like conference organizers learned their trade by watching ranchers herd sheep. Rather like little “woolies” shuttled from pasture to pasture, each attendee is branded with the conference tag then guided to a designated corral where people cluster about in glassy-eyed clumps while the conference speakers drone on, unheard, about their heads until it’s time to break for the food trough or the after party. It’s irritating that even the after party inevitably involves more milling about and speeches which could be borne if it was felt that organizers actually gave a damn about attendees.
Because of this I, for one, will miss Gnomedex. Now that Chris Pirillo has announced that after a decade, Gnomedex as a conference has come to end. As a community we are the poorer for it, since few conferences are smart enough to understand that the show is about the attendees.
Year after year Chris has put on events that not only highlighted cutting edge trends, but featured speakers you wouldn’t hear elsewhere, and did it all while erasing the perceived gap between star and attendee. As Dave Winer put it, this was the kind of show you wanted to pay for,
personal loyalty to Chris and Ponzi, or knowing that it’s not a big corporation putting on the show, not sure what it is but it never occurs to me to ask for a comp.”
From someone like Dave Winer, who has made his name on harsh, opinionated critique, this is high praise indeed.
In the past when colleagues have asked me about Gnomedex I found myself saying it was a conference where no business happened; almost as a way to discourage them from attending if all they wanted to do was the usual “conference thing”. Then I would quickly add that unlike SXSW, which is a sort of Spring Break for Geeks, Gnomedex was more than simply a social event. Instead, this was a conference with a strong creative streak that always left me feeling re-energized, brimming with new ideas. While session topics may not have been related directly to business they provided the type of fuel that feeds the spirit, entrepreneurial or metaphysical.
I attended every Gnomedex since 2007, four in all. As a small thank you to Chris, here are my top five examples of sessions that made Gnomedex great:
1) I Want to Drive the Mars Rover Robot
Geeks have a fascination with space, and I am no exception. When Scott Maxwell, Mars Rover Driver Team Lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, stepped on stage he had the audience in the palm of his hands. Scott playfully informed the audience that NASA simply doesn’t have enough mathematicians and that through the use of social media it hopes to engage enthusiasts who literally wanted to help solve NASA’s problems. When he asked who wanted to help him drive the Mars Rover robot, the audience nearly raised the roof.
Click here to view the embedded video.
2) At Derek K. Miller’s Bedside
As a society we are not good at talking about illness. Often, either consciously or not, those who are ill become sequestered by those who are because people are unsure how to talk around the elephant in the living room. Which is why when Chris Pirillo, after informing the audience that long time attendee Derek K. Miller was too ill in his fight with cancer to attend, turned to the big screen, and transported everyone to Derek’s bedside live, it was just an amazing moment. Watching Derek interact with the audience and the audience with him was the kind of intimacy most conferences are too self-conscious or unaware of to attempt.
Click here to view the embedded video.
3) The Calacanis and Winer Tango
Prior to attending Gnomedex I was used to audiences being overly polite to speakers, even if they feel a speaker is feeding them a load of bull. Which is why it was so refreshing to witness Dave Winer pick up on the audience sentiment and yell out at Jason Calacanis, who was simultaneously denouncing spammers on one hand and pitching his product with the other, “Jason what about conference spam, aren’t you spamming us?” (Watch below at about the 7:45 mark) This incident lead to a variety of drama online but it was thrilling to witness the audience not just sit there passively while the speaker broke the tenant of Gnomedex “don’t pitch”.
Click here to view the embedded video.
4) Invisible People in the Auditorium
It is easy to dismiss Mark Horvath as a hustler. Perhaps there is a little bit of him that still feels like he is still panhandling, albeit with a larger audience, and occasionally some jive slips in. It is easy to judge Mark, but I dare anyone to deny the efforts he has gone through to help the homeless find a voice. It’s a daunting task, making people sitting in cushy chairs sipping Starbucks and feeding off of wifi, think about the plight of the homeless, even for a moment. So, in 2009, when Mark introduced James, a homeless man who lived in Nicklesville, Seattle’s homeless “tent city” (video below of Mark’s interview with James at the camp for InvisiblePeople.tv). Mark did what he does very well which is wake up the audience and get them to re-evaluate what’s important.
Click here to view the embedded video.
5) I Like Cyborgs with My Cultural Anthropology
There have been so many great geek moments at Gnomedex, like Nathan Wade’s Serial Cyborg project, that I was hard pressed to round out the top 5. But Amber Case’s look at prosthetic culture and cyborg anthropology was simply a lot of nerdy fun. She won me over with her comparison between trilobites shedding their eyes to the way we shed computer screens as part of our visual input.
Fond Farewell
For my part I am as proud that ReveNews was able to provide coverage for Gnomedex 2008 as well as be a sponsor of Gnomedex 10. I am also honored that in 2009 I got a brief unforgettable 10 minutes to discuss the impact of the Amazon Tax.
I hope that Gnomedex as a conference isn’t gone forever but morphs into something that we the audience can continue to plug into.
To Chris Pirillo (featured to the right sporting the latest in geek fashion) and the dedicated staff of Gnomedex, I say thanks for the memories.
Go here to read the rest:
A Fond Farewell: Five Reasons Gnomedex Will Be Missed
When it comes to revenue, some statements are not only worth thinking about, but are worth re-reading several times. The first quote came a few days ago from Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, who said,
“Trust me that revenue is large enough to pay for all of the Android activities and a whole bunch more.”
That “whole bunch more” should lead readers to take a closer look at the mobile ad market. Of the four largest smart phone OS providers: RIM (Blackberry), Google, Apple, and Nokia, Blackberry appears to be the only one without a clear profit plan in mobile advertising. It’s no surprise then that Blackberry is looking to buy their way in, as reported in the Wall Street Journal here.
It’s old news that Google paid $750 million to acquire AdMob and that Apple scooped up Quattro Wireless Mobile for $275M. But few know that Nokia launched its own mobile network back in 2008. Although Nokia may be in the game it has not had the same smartphone success in the United States, the hottest mobile advertising market.
AdMob, acquired by Google, is currently the largest mobile ad network, estimated by International Data Corporation (IDC) to control 21 percent of the market, with Millennial Media, the apparent target of Blackberry mobile ad growth plans at 12 percent. Yahoo and Microsoft are in the game, but trail at 10 percent and 8 percent respectively. AOL, which bought former market leader Third Screen Media in 2007, is no longer a factor.
If there is any trend, it’s that mobile advertising is less of a web portal game, and more of a mobile OS game.
One key reason that mobile OS providers are more relevant in this market is that they can change the economics of the carrier phone relationships. What if, instead of carriers paying a subsidy for phones on their networks, the carriers were paid, not once, but over and over again for the life of that phone on their network? Wouldn’t that be more attractive? That’s exactly how Google has changed the game - by sharing revenue with carriers.
This could be lucrative for carriers and could easily influence device selection and promotion. Who has the most to lose, is Nokia and RIM as they dominate smart phone unit sales, but Nokia already owns an ad network, they just have to execute. Blackberry, then, better get its act together, and soon. Not only do they risk missing out in revenue, but their distribution channel with the carriers could be negatively impacted.To put the opportunity into perspective, I’ll close with the second quote made on CNBC’s Mad Money, where in 2008 Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that,
“Mobile computing alone will bring in more money than the company’s desktop business.”
If he meant what he was saying, Schmidt sees mobile advertising as larger than the approximately $6 billion a quarter that Google currently earns from web-based advertising. Now that’s a quote worth thinking about.
Excerpted from:
Mobile Ads: Fad Or The Next Big Revenue Opportunity?
In this session, web developer Justin Sainton set out to cover three areas: (1) WordPress 3.0, (2) Ecommerce Trends, and (3) the WP e-Commerce plugin. Justin has 3 years of experience developing with WordPress. Everything that follows this italicized paragraph is based on Justin’s presentation, and not my own ideas.
WordPress 3.0
Justin started out with an overview of WordPress 3.0, and what advantages and opportunities it offers publishers. Essentially, there are many new features and functions that can help publishers integrate ecommerce into their WordPress site.
For starters, the default username after you install it is no longer “admin”. Rather, you can select your default admin username. This gives it added security because it’s harder for hackers to guess your admin username.
Another benefit is that the default theme, 2010, is a very strong parent theme — meaning that publishers can build better “child themes” off of WordPress 3.0 right out of the box. WordPress 3.0 also offers a lot of custom post types and taxonomies that give publishers more flexibility in creating custom front-end user-experiences.
Ecommerce Trends & Improving Conversion Rates
This part of Justin’s explored ecommerce data, analysis, statistics and making money with WordPress sites. Specifically, he focused on conversion rates, and addressed how, on average, 80 percent of traffic on most sites are new users, and new users are the hardest to convert.
One of the things that improves conversion rates is if users can easily return products. So a return policy is something that any ecommerce site should have.
Another conversion improvement method is product search. Forty percent of users coming to ecommerce sites are looking to search. So ecommerce sites should offer an easily accessible product search.
Product recommendations or cross selling are another way to improve conversions. Amazon does a great job of this — e.g. XX percent of people who bought this also bought that.
Most online consumers also like to see some kind of security logo. So such a logo should be prominent through the shopping and check-out process.
And don’t forget SEO. 20-25 percent of Google searches are new search queries. So don’t assume that the market is too competitive or too saturated. Chances are you’ll be able to attract targeted new users on a variety of long-tail search terms.
Also, a toll free number helps increase conversions. It reassures users that they can reach someone for assistance if they need it.
Finally, requiring pre-registration will deter 40 percent of user from completing the check-out process. So allow the user to fill out a shopping cart and proceed to check-out without having to set-up a profile with you.
Similarly, almost half of users will abandon the check-out process if the page takes more than 2 seconds to load. To address load times, Justin recommends using either the W3 Cache and WP Super Cache plugin.
Essentially, there are 3 keys to improving conversions, and they come down to testing:
- Analyze: Dive into your analytics, and determine where the bottlenecks are.
- Modify: Once you identify your bottlenecks, try changing stuff. For instance, if you’re losing most users at the check-out page, try adding a security logo, reducing the check-out steps, or even adding bigger product pictures (might reassure users that they’re getting what they’re paying for).
- Evaluate: Now, once you’ve made some changes, keep monitoring the funnel. Conduct A/B testing and determine what kinds of changes are driving conversions and which ones are not.
WordPress Ecommerce Plugin
Justin recommends use the WP e-Commerce Plugin. Although the plugin has had some issues in the past, version 3.8 (not yet released) is said to address many of these bugs. In the meantime, the latest branches of 3.7 are said to be very stable.
For starters, the admin and user-interface are completely new. The tax system is also more customizable so that merchants can manage different kinds of tax rates in different regions.
Version 3.8 will also offers advanced control over search, cross-sales, and social media sharing. And on the data side, it will offer analytics on conversion funnel trends, such as shopping cart and profile abandonment rates.
Read more here: 
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Brands and marketers are always looking for the magic bullet that turns a normal campaign into an overnight success. So it’s no surprise that $11 million in revenue from a single merchandise promotion generates a lot of interest in a company. It’s the kind of success story that gets marketers talking.
That success story belongs to Groupon whose national promotion for Gap last week resulted in income of $11 million from sales of a $25 coupon worth $50 of store merchandise to over 440,000 shoppers, according to AdAge. While Gap has yet to see how many coupons are actually redeemed, Rob Solomon, Groupon’s president said,
“I’m pretty sure if they ran a national TV campaign, they wouldn’t have gotten nearly 500,000 paying buyers in the store.”
Less than two years old Groupon began as a locally-oriented service offering a “deal a day” to subscribers in particular cities who give Groupon their email addresses. The twist is that an offer is only redeemable if enough people express interest in it. With redemption rates exceeding 80 percent on average, Groupon’s growth is easy to understand since it often splits the value of the offer as part of its revenue. It is the local focus that got Groupon to where it is today. The company is obviously unafraid to think beyond localization. “There’s a lot of room to remain hyper-local,” Solomon tells Reuters, “but to introduce super-specials, like for the Gap. Gap is a testament to demand for the big guys.”
Such success is necessary for Groupon to show its model cannot only attract large brands, but that it can retain its position of dominance within its own model now that a slew of copycats have followed on the heels of its success.
Groupon has already spawned several look-alikes – LivingSocial and ScoutMob are competitors. Yelp just launched a similar service, as did Travelzoo. But as with Facebook in social networking and Foursquare in location-based services, Groupon has first-mover status – something it will clearly take advantage of as it grows.
In the last five months, according to AdAge, Groupon has grown from 3 million to more than 15 million subscribers, has gone from 300 to more than 1,500 employees, and has expanded from the U.S. to 28 other countries. The week following the Gap promotion, an additional 750,000 subscribers signed on. Solomon says Groupon expects to have over 20 million subscribers by the end of this year and generate some $400 million in gross sales. The company is well funded by venture capital and shares in the revenue it generates for retailers.
Groupon currently makes localized offers in 29 countries in Europe, Japan, Latin America, North America, and Russia. According to Reuters, Groupon expects to expand from 85 markets to 200 in North America by the end of 2011.
There is no question that Groupon’s model can generate a successful crowd effect driving a glut of conversions based on a coupon. However even though the model is obviously a hit among advertisers, there is legitimate concern among brands that are worried about “training” consumers to only wait for, or buy with, an offer. Not all case studies of the model have had positive results.
- Advertisers have experienced product shortages that have created customer service nightmares.
- When examining the buyers often it was discovered that Groupon did not generate new-to-file customers.
- Poor customer service from Groupon itself.
As Augustine Fou, the chief digital officer at Omnicom’s Healthcare Consultancy Group, is quoted by Mashable in saying that stores like The Gap are exactly the type of advertiser who shouldn’t be using Groupon. He estimates that their loss on such a campaign $7.5 million revenue which is a hefty expense for publicity.
Groupon is, of course, all about driving traffic – and what it did in terms of traffic generation for Gap is now generating a lot of interest among retailers. Advertisers seem enamored with Groupon and many will be lining up to try the service this holiday season. The experience with Gap has proven that Groupon can sustain its business model with a national as well as a local audience. Solomon tells AdAge that he expects Groupon to hold another national promotion “pretty soon,” and that there will be more to come in the last quarter of this year.
Read more from the original source: Tweet This Post
Attention all Bloggers! We know many of you use AdSense to monetize your blog, and we wanted to be sure you didn’t miss out on the invitation to Blogger’s 11th Birthday party. Using Meetup Everywhere, you can find a party in your area that will be filled with local bloggers like you. We hope you’ll take advantage of this great opportunity to swap stories about your readers, learn about some new sites, share tips about earning with AdSense, and get to know other passionate bloggers. Details are highlighted below, but check out the official Blogger post for more information.
- What: Blogger’s 11th birthday celebration!
- How: Sign up for a Meetup near you or get one going in your town.
- Where: Anywhere you are.
- Who: Everyone! You never know who might show up.
- When: Any time on Tuesday, August 31, 2010
- RSVP: www.meetup.com/bloggerfiesta
See original here: Tweet This Post
It would be easy to dismiss Places as Facebook’s attempt to simply keep up with the Foursquares and Gowallas of the world. But the recent announcement that Places will incorporate a directory of 14 million businesses proves Facebook has other ideas, and they’re all about business.
Localeze, the largest business listings identity management company for local search, announced that its 14 million record “Enhanced Business Registry” will be featured on Facebook Places. Facebook will use Localeze’s premium business content, including nearly 600,000 business-verified and managed listings, which have been enhanced directly by local businesses, to offer accurate data for people to easily share where they are with friends on Facebook, find friends who are nearby, and discover new places from a mobile device.
Earlier this month, Localeze signed an agreement with TomTom to provide the same local information to TomTom GPS users starting in 2011. According to PC Magazine, “the combination will undoubtedly help TomTom compete against companies like Google, which already has a database of local POIs [Points Of Interest] and a free Google Maps Navigation app for smartphones, to boot.”
Indeed, if you read into it, the same competitive positioning could be true of Facebook, who more and more seems to be gearing up for head-to-head combat with Google.
Jeff Beard, president of Localeze, said that by using its listings,
“Facebook will provide an unsurpassed user experience, limiting the possibility of people entering an incorrect or incomplete business name, address of phone number when checking in.”
Beard adds that he views Facebook as “an important piece of a local business’ footprint giving them more visibility for current and potential customers.”
Already, social networking experts are recognizing the business applications of Facebook Places. For example, David All, writing in The Huffington Post, says a business can “claim its Place” on Facebook Places now “so that you can manage how it’s being read by those who are checking-in or are curious because they’re seeing their friends check-in at your Place.” He advises businesses to “keep tabs on the way your competition is using Places and be ready to make counter-offers via advertising.” All recommends being proactive by asking visitors and staff to participate by checking in, and asking clients or top customers to “give a review of your place.”
The Facebook Places and Localeze connection is yet another piece of solid evidence that Facebook is aligning itself with the interests and needs of local businesses. Facebook is creating a valuable business-oriented utility that goes far beyond the original casual friend-to-friend connections. The bottom line is Facebook Places isn’t just for fun; it’s very much about driving people to local businesses, and for Facebook that’s big business.
Read more here:
Facebook Places Means Business
In an effort to expand the availability of sensitive category blocking (also known as category filtering) worldwide, we’re happy to announce that sensitive category blocking has now officially launched in Japanese, Chinese, Polish, and Portuguese. As you might know, this feature is also available in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, and Arabic with testing being done for Russian.
With sensitive category blocking, you can prevent ads from up to 11 specific categories from appearing on your pages. Ads in these categories will be blocked if they’re in any of the supported languages, regardless of how they’ve been targeted to your pages.
If you’d like to set up sensitive category blocking, please sign in to your AdSense account and visit the Ad Review Center, located under the ‘AdSense Setup’ tab. Once you click ‘change,’ you’ll be able to view the full list of categories you can block. In addition, to help you understand the impact of applying these filters, we’ll show you the percentage of revenue and ad impressions you’ve been receiving from each category in the last 30 days.
For more information about sensitive category blocking, we encourage you to visit our Help Center.
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Sensitive category blocking now available for Japanese, Chinese, Polish, and Portuguese
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