March 2005 - BPWrap

Cre8ting Links

Finding someone who is close to you physically using the Internet is far from easy. If they’re close to you in their ideas then that becomes easier. However if they’re writing in a different language, then again it can be difficult. As it happens, Isabelle Hontebeyrie wrote an interesting item recently, Quand les médias francophones ne respectent pas les standards Web. In other words, the francophone media are not always respecting Web standards. It’s directly related to a posting of mine, Trial By Firefox. It could well be that the root of the problem in both cases is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and its historical attitude towards standards.

So ideas may be close but do we live in the same neck of the woods, that’s more difficult. You could use Chandu Thota’s BlogMap to check. However there’s no trace of Ms. Hontebeyrie there. Another mapping of bloggers is provided by the Amsterdam based A2B and there you’ll find her. Apparently only 13 miles away from my home base.

Finding kindred spirits with similar thoughts is much easier via the Internet, particularly if you’re talking in the same language. One such kindred spirit has just been honoured on the Cre8asite Forums. Send2Paul has been nominated as the Cre8asite Example of the Year. That’s an honour richly deserved. We share many ideas in common and it’s amazing the way coincidences can happen. It’s a small world as they say. He recently had laser eye surgery and in consequence has set up a Laser Eye Surgery web page to help others. In fact my wife had laser eye surgery just 3 years ago and she still raves about how great it has been for her. My daughter also works for Lasik MD, which is the biggest laser eye surgery group in Canada.

An even stronger coincidence is that he was born in Middlesbrough in the North-East of England. I was born in Hartlepool. The two are only 7 miles apart. It’s a very small world. However I could never have found that out on the Internet.

Tags: Cre8asite, forum, BlogMap, Laser eye surgery, Lasik.

Cre8tive Moderation Cre8tes Community

Social networking on the Internet is tough. Even physical networking is not easy, given that modern life puts so many time pressures on all individuals. Google with Orkut tried to provide an infrastructure that would facilitate what I like to call InternetWorking, but most seem to say it doesn’t work for them. The only places that seem to function reasonably well are some of the Forums. I believe they only work well because of the moderation that works behind the scenes to keep things roughly on track.

I’m aware of, and visit from time to time, five of the major Forums in the Internet Marketing/Search Engine Marketing cyberspace. Each of them has different characteristics and it’s intriguing to observe the dynamics of such bodies. Four of them are very much the creatures of their creators. These creators are strong-minded individuals who have put enormous personal energy and time in creating each of their impressive entities. The fifth is somewhat different. I’m speaking of the Cre8asite Forums, of which I am a moderator.

As it happens, over the last two months, three of the five forums including Cre8asite have lost some significant moderators. In the other cases, I am not privy to what were the reasons but personality differences with the founders may have been part of it. Cre8asite displays different dynamics. It would not be at all appropriate for me to reveal what goes on behind the scenes, so I present my views solely as a member. Sadly there’ve been some moderator departures recently with the most prominent being Grumpus (Stockbridge Truswell). He is a tower of technical strength and his moderating skills will be sorely missed, although I’m sure he’ll still be visible as a member. Luckily another strong performer, RustyBrick (Barry Schwartz), has just joined the moderating team. So Cre8asite rolls forward with renewed vigour.

Many have commented that there is something different about the Cre8asite model. I believe it’s the strong sense of community, which was engendered right from the beginning by the character of the individuals involved. Three of the most prominent were Cre8pc (Kim Krause Berg), Bragadocchio (Bill Slawski) and Black_Knight (Ammon Johns). Although Bragadocchio outstrips all in the number of his posts (soon to exceed 10,000), he is only one, albeit important, member of a very thriving community.

That’s an important word, community. You might think something like the Cre8asite Forums requires a lot of energy on the part of the administration. Your mental picture might be like a theatre performance I remember from my youth. It’s called the spinning plates routine. It involves the performer getting 60 or more porcelain dinner plates spinning on the top of an array of flexible bamboo rods. If you can’t get the mental picture then Andrew Van Buren is still doing it. Keeping all those plates spinning in the air requires the performer to be ever vigilant for a plate that is losing momentum and requires a little twirl to get it going again. It’s an act that’s extremely tiring to watch.

The Cre8ative community is much more relaxing. The administration and moderators provide only a small part of the energy input. Most of it comes from the members of the community. There are many “big names” that stop by from time to time and chip in. There are even more who stop by and just watch what’s going on, without necessarily revealing themselves on that occasion. At any given time there will be three or more times as many ‘lurkers’ as there are those who have clocked in. Even allowing for the search engine spiders that visit frequently, it’s still a great crowd of interested and interesting folk. In consequence, that community spirit is almost self-perpetuating. It takes only a small amount of Cre8tive moderation to keep all those plates spinning, since everyone seems to get involved.

Tags: Cre8asite, forum, moderation, Internet marketing, community, spinning plates.

Me-Too In The Pay-Per-Click War Won't Work

It’s really stimulating to watch how the Search Engine War among the three majors (Google, Microsoft and Yahoo!) is developing. Poor Old Bill acknowledges that he didn’t appreciate how big Search would become. So Google ran with the ball when there really weren’t too many other players on the field. They got it so right that the only credible opponent decided to run with them rather than tackle them. So for a time, Yahoo! was using the Google search results.

Suddenly Microsoft has woken up to the potential of Search. They threw a great deal of money and resources at the problem. The Microsoft search robots were crawling as fast and as furiously as those of Google. So now that Microsoft Search has moved out of beta as of February 1st, its performance is certainly giving Google a run for its money.

Surprisingly Microsoft didn’t come out with their own way to monetarize Search immediately. It’s only this week that we hear about their own version of Search advertising. In some ways, we’re seeing each of the three majors trying to emulate what the others are doing. Me-Too seems to be the order of the day.

Unfortunately there’s a big stumbling block for Microsoft in the Pay-per-Click sector of the Search market place. You’ll find it referred to in a Forbes article, Microsoft Aims For More Paid Search Ads. So why exactly can’t this be a good clean combat among these fine companies. Well the reason is what’s called Intellectual Property.

Overture came up with the idea of an auction on the sponsored listing positions. Searchers looking at a Search Engine Report page are more likely to click on an ad that is nearer the top. So potential advertisers may well seek to outbid each other to get that top sponsored position. It’s a win-win situation for the bidders and the Search Engines. Google thought it was such a good idea that they copied it. However in so doing they were infringing on the Overture patent, or so it was alleged. Whether or not they were, they chose to give Yahoo!, the owner of Overture, a large amount of compensation in the form of shares.

So now how can Microsoft aim to match this. They could try to buy the right to use it from Yahoo!, but it is unlikely they could negotiate a meeting of the minds on this. The alternative is to go with a fixed price per click for sponsored listings. Although Microsoft likely has a loyal audience that can only be reached via Microsoft, there are limits on what an advertiser would want to pay for this channel. So Microsoft loses all the up-side potential for highly competitive terms if it stays with a fixed price per click. There are more complicated ways of setting different fixed prices but this may inhibit advertisers. All in all, it’s a problem Microsoft doesn’t need in its attempts to go toe-to-toe with the others.

Tip of the hat to Andrew Goodman for his post, Not So Fast, Butterfly, that spotted the Forbes article.

Tags: search, Microsoft, Google, Pay-per-Click, Overture, Yahoo!.

Gmail Fine-Tunes Its Viral Marketing

On the Google Weblog this morning, Aaron Swartz posts Get Gmail!
He notes:
It seems a lot of people are getting this message underneath the Google search box:

New! Get Gmail – Google’s free email service with 1000 MB of space.

The (underlined) link is to a page that says:
Since we launched Gmail in April 2004, we’ve been focused on improving the service, relying on our users to spread the word and invite others to try it out. The response has been great, and now we’re ready for some more Gmail users.

<...> As we make room for more Gmail users, we want to first extend invitations to Google users. We’re still working to make Gmail better, so for now, we’re just inviting a small number at random. Looks like that’s you! We’re really excited to share Gmail with you and we hope you like it.
That’s my bolding. That means Google can adjust the proportion of users who see this invitation and who may then subscribe to a Gmail account. Very clever. They don’t want to make a similar huge corporate blooper to what AOL did when it offered unlimited bandwidth. However Gmail is free so it’s not a question of getting sued.

To show how precise this targeting is, just try clicking on the link in the original Google Weblog posting. You’ll now get this message.
The Link Is All Used Up
The link you followed to create a Gmail account has already been used to create an account for [email protected] Now, its account creating powers are all gone. To create another Gmail account, you’ll need a shiny new account creation link. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Who knew viral marketing could be so finely tuned.

Tags: viral marketing, Google, Gmail.

Microsoft Defines The New Standard In Blogging

The oh-so-new Canute Business Blogging Barometer is hereby withdrawn, since it clearly has been overtaken by events. When the prestigious Harvard Business Review is naming Blogging as the #10 Breakthrough Idea for 2005, no one will want to get left behind as the bandwagon rolls forward. Well yes, but …

Two significant and informative blog posts this morning define another important dimension in blogging. I must admit I’ve been running with that scale defined in the IBM book on Customer-centric enterprises for some time. Ritz Carlton was a prime example of the right end of the scale, that is Customer-Centric. Poor old Microsoft was at the left hand end of the scale, that is Product-Driven. Of course, IBM was somewhere towards the right-hand end. That scale too may be overtaken by the new scale that is becoming so apparent.

Business Blogging has been defined as a way of opening up a dialogue with the market-place. So perhaps that should be the ultimate defining scale. At the right hand end we have Dialogue: at the left hand end we have Monologue. In other words at the right hand end, we have a true open dialogue through and around a blog between a company and its customers and potential customers. At the left hand end, we have a monologue from the company: one-way communication with no real interaction. Of course the company may “listen” and note reactions. But it’s as if they were in the next room with a glass held against the wall to better hear what customers may be saying.

The post that I think typifies the right hand end, Dialogue, of the scale is in the IEBlog. As anyone reasonably proficient in web design knows this is the big hot potato that Microsoft needs to resolve. That is Cross-browser compatibility, with Internet Explorer being the one that is really out-of-step. It’s not an easy problem staying true to the legacy but doing the best in the present. Even King Solomon would have a problem with this one. Yet here is a blog post on IE and Standards that very sensibly defines the problems and encourages the dialogue. Here is a sample:
We pay a lot of attention to this kind of thoughtful insight into the biggest problems web developers face today. Wed like to encourage those facing real-world problems with the IE platform to participate in these kinds of efforts, so we can use this to help prioritize our development. … Microsoft does respond to customer demand; web developers are our customers.
Some of the comments show that some people are pretty sceptical about this. However the two-way channels are open and let’s remember, the legacy/compatibility problem is almost logically impossible to solve. At least if there’s good will on both sides, true Dialogue will be the only way to find a solution.

The post that typifies the left hand end of the scale, Monologue, is perhaps surprising. It’s a post by that eminence gris of the search world, John Battelle, in his post, “As Someone Who’s Been There…” . He points out in talking about Google that:
It’s hard being number one. But it’s easier if you are in conversation with those that put you there.
It’s unfortunate. Many of us have a great affection for Google but it really seems to be true. On so many issues, they’re up on the Mountain, and the rest of us are down in the Plains.

So I take my hat off to you, Microsoft. On my old favourite scale you were the defining point at the left hand end, Product-Driven. On this new scale, I nominate you as the defining point of the right hand end, Dialogue. I know we’ll all be better for that.

Tags: Microsoft, IE, standards, monologue, dialogue, Google.

International Womens Day, 8th March 2005

Tomorrow is an important 10 year anniversary. We all should promote the sentiments expressed in UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Message for International Womens Day. Here is a short extract:
This year marks a milestone in the movement for gender equality and the advancement of women — the 10-year review of the Beijing Conference and Platform for Action. In 1995, women gathered in Beijing and took a giant step forward on behalf of humankind. As a result, the world recognized explicitly, as never before, that gender equality is critical to the development and peace of every nation. Ten years on, women are not only more aware of their rights; they are more able to exercise them.

Tags: International Womens Day, gender equality.

Geo-positioning lives – check out the BlogMap

Life is sometimes full of the strangest coincidences. On March 2nd, a SMM Newsletter was issued with the title, “Search Engine Optimization, Montreal, 2005“. One of the themes there was the slow pace at which Local Search is being effectively developed. In particular, the way geo-cordinates for web pages are not used widely seems to be a serious oversight.

Now today I become aware of the work of Chandu Thota. He has been working on a BlogMap that will allow any blogger to identify other bloggers in their vicinity. He had noted in his Blog that geo-coordinates for a blog can now be handled within the BlogMap. As I write, he has 732 Blogs within his database. It may be a very small fraction of all those blogs out there but it’s enough to show how it works.

The Internet has no national boundaries, but it means that all web pages and blogs are in a sense everywhere and in a sense nowhere physically. The BlogMap seems an excellent initiative to help bring blogs down to earth.

Tags: blogging, BlogMap, Blogosphere, geo-positioning, Chandu Thota.

The new J Walter Thompson – JWT

February 28th marked the appearance of what was billed as a billion dollar start-up. The 144 year old advertising company, J. Walter Thompson, said that it was reinventing itself and changing its name to JWT. You can check out what this means at the JWT website. The following quote from the home page will give you an idea of what it’s all about.
We passionately believe advertising has a future, but only if we stop interrupting what people are interested in and be what people are interested in.
They say they’re pioneers who are trail-blazing. I found this all slightly amusing for two reasons. Some decades ago, I used to work for J. Walter Thompson in its London office on Berkeley Square in the West End. We all knew it then as JWT so what’s all this noise about now.

More importantly, the realization as typified in the quote seems a few years late in coming. We’re now in 2005. Seth Godin published his book, “Permission Marketing”, in May 1999. How come JWT only now understands that the customer is in the driving seat. I would assume most of its clients have been aware of this for some time.

Tags: business, advertising, JWT, permission marketing, Seth Godin, time.

We All Need A Different Point Of View

It’s surprising how many folk visit this Blog using a search for a ‘different point of view’, where we’re currently #1. Alfred Sloan of GM would have heartily agreed. If everyone’s agreeing too quickly then you should wait a little to make sure you’re not just rubber-stamping something or jumping aboard the band-waggon.

Perhaps that’s why BPWrap has done so well recently in the Carnival of the Capitalists. This travelling road show should be on your Newsfeed list. By my count it’s now been running weekly for 73 weeks and every week you can open your eyes to 40 or so new selected blog possibilities. It’s called a weekly sampler of economics and business blogging from around the web. BPWrap has been selected 5 times in the last 5 weeks. This week we’re the first quoted blog so we must be doing something right. That’s for the entry last week on the Canute Business Blogging Barometer.

We’re most pleased to be included and wish to give a big thanks also to Warren Meyer of Coyote Blog, this week’s host, for his efforts.

Tags: business, blogging, Carnival, Capitalists.