Posts tagged Google
What is the future of display advertising?
Sep 2nd
Google’s director of product management Jonathan Bellack looks at the tech giant’s efforts to help online publishers generate more advertising revenue without being intimidated by the pace of change in the industry.
“For millions of online publishers—from the smallest blogger to the largest entertainment, news, e-commerce and information sites—online advertising revenue is vital. When publishers can maximize their returns, everyone benefits from more vibrant online content and websites,” says Bellack.
But the pace of change in the industry can be intimidating—how can a publisher keep up with what’s new, let alone grow their business?
Google believes that the new technology it is currently developing to make display advertising work better will help to grow the display advertising pie for all publishers, by orders of magnitude.
Bellack says, “We shouldn’t be asking how publishers can eke another 5 or 10% out of display advertising in the next few years. We should be looking at how the industry can double or triple in size.”
Google has three core ad products for publishers: AdSense, DoubleClick for Publishers and DoubleClick Ad Exchange.
But what are the key principles guiding Google’s future product innovations for increasing online ad revenues for publishers? Here’s 5 points of explanation from the Google blog.
1. Making life more efficient
For most large publishers, directly sold ads (ads sold by their own sales force) comprise the vast majority of their ad revenues. But today, selling and managing these ads is frustrating, expensive and often involves tedious manual processes.
Imagine a TV network that receives TV commercials in 100 different formats, languages, lengths and video dimensions, and then has to manually convert, translate and edit them all, then manually count the number of TV sets on which the ad appeared before sending a bill.
Things like new standards for video ad serving and systems that connect buyers and sellers are helping publishers support the most engaging and creative ads across their sites. But there are quantum leaps to come in this area, for small and large publishers.
2. Total revenue management
AdSense selects the most valuable ad for publishers from a large number of ad networks, to maximize ad revenues every time a page loads.
New ad serving and “dynamic allocation” technology, like the DoubleClick Ad Exchange, is emerging that enables ad revenues to be maximized across both directly and indirectly sold ad space, ad impression by ad impression, using real-time prices. Second by second, across millions of ad impressions, this can meaningfully boost major publishers’ revenues. Using this technology, the average price that a publisher receives for ad space sold through the Ad Exchange is more than 130 percent higher than the average price of ad space sold directly to ad networks. In fact, without this type of dynamic allocation across sales channels, a publisher’s revenues can never truly be maximized.
3. More insight and control
Our vision is to provide all publishers the smartest possible advertising system that can give them knowledge and control of everything going on with their ad business. The vision is already becoming a reality: the upgraded DoubleClick for Publishers platform offers publishers 4,000 times more data than its predecessor. And in recent years, we’ve been constantly adding new reporting options for our AdSense partners.
4. Betting on openness
An open ecosystem drives meaningful results for publishers. When a wide range of buyers can bid for a publisher’s ad space, through an advertising exchange or network, this creates more competition for that ad space, while giving publishers choice over whose ads they want to appear. On the DoubleClick Ad Exchange, an enormous number of advertisers, belonging to over 50 ad networks, compete for publishers’ ad space. Of course, at the same time, we’re also providing publishers robust technologies and controls that can block any unwanted ads or networks.
Similarly, we believe that one of the best ways to encourage innovation is to open code to the web developer community. of better, more valuable ad innovations.
5. Everything is going to be “display”
Display advertising is about much more than ads in web browsers. People are watching video, reading newspapers, magazines, books and listening to digital music at an ever-increasing rate. They’re turning to a plethora of new devices—smartphones, tablets, e-readers and even video game consoles. We’ve designed our platform, and are continuing to invest in it, to give publishers a single base that can deliver ads into this expanding world—including streaming video, mobile ad delivery and more.
Google’s ‘streaming’ search engine – impressive but that’s about where it ends
Aug 25th
Google’s new streaming search engine will be well liked by users, but marketers are dubious of its benefits. Adam Bunn, head of SEO at Greenlight is one such marketer.
Google is supposedly testing a ‘streaming’ search engine which gives the searcher results even before they ask. Captured on video, the results pages can be seen to change according to the characters the enquirer types into the search box.
Google literally updates the results whilst the searcher is typing. According to Adam Bunn, Head of SEO at UK-based independent specialist search and social marketing agency Greenlight, although it is a very impressive demonstration of processing power, that’s about where it ends.
He said, “This is the second bizarre experiment we’ve seen Google try in the space of a few days, the first being the search engine results page (SERP) being dominated by one site. I’m dubious about the value it adds, and think if anything, people will be confused and turned off by it. Consequently, however Google is measuring success of this, the results probably won’t be positive enough to warrant rolling this out to all. In both cases I would be highly surprised if the experiment works.”
Adams notes the SERPS being dominated by one domain would obviously be big news if it happens, making brands searches that are dominated by one site all but pointless to target with SEO. However, he also stresses that the likelihood of Google rolling out either of these tests is low, and points out that Google does lots of tests all the time in its quest to improve the search experience.
“Given the number of tests Google conducts there are always going to be some that miss the mark,” he concludes.
Why Apple TV will change everything
Aug 23rd
Apple TV, a new set-top box from Apple running iOS, will not only be out in September but will “change everything.”
They are the stern words from Digg founder Kevin Rose who earlier this year was also dropping rumours about Google working on a new social network project called ‘Google Me’.
Now he is saying that Apple TV will be renamed and that he expects an App Store for interactive TV apps that will eventually “destroy the TV side of the cable and satellite industry”.
He says your only requirement will be to access “on-demand stations” with an Internet connection. “Say goodbye to your monthly cable bill,” he proclaims. Apple’s product is rumoured to cost around $US99, which would be substantially less than Dish Network’s Google TV offering if a recent survey from the company is any indication.
At such a cheap price, everyone has the potential to afford iTV (another rumoured name).
“Sharing pictures/videos from your iPhone will happen with the push of a button. Imagine getting a notification of new family videos the next time you turn on your TV. My mom will love this feature,” says Rose. Who happens to have quite a lot of interest in the new up and coming product.
Rose also reckons the iPad will become one big remote.
It certainly looks like Google has its work cut out for it if it wants a chance of competing in this space. It’s already had trouble trying to get broadcasters and partners on board in time to launch a compelling offer.
However, users won’t have to give up the channels they like to use Google TV. They will get the best of both worlds - TV and internet/apps where as Apple is offering one or the other. Google TV will be integrated with Android, making a wide range of Android devices remote controls in a sense.
Furthermore, given that Android runs on so many devices, whereas iOS only runs on select Apple devices, the window for integration via TV would appear to be much greater for Google. The battle for the TV space lives on. But what do consumers want?
Just last week it was revealed that while the UK is a nation of ‘multitaskers’, Britons spend
almost one-fifth of their time watching TV - albeit accompanied by laptop or mobile activity.
To integrate the two seems to make sense, but as long as it is done properly. Advertisers and marketers will have to think carefully about how to integrate ads in a landscape where consumers are so used to skipping the ads. Lucky for broadcasters product placement is set to take off from next year. As for ads, they are about to change beyond recognition and I predict we’ll be seeing a lot more brands getting into sponsorships.
Why Google’s Android is our modern day Swiss Army Knife
Aug 13th
“An Android phone is a handheld computer, a music player, a notepad, a GPS navigation unit and more, all rolled into one sleek device that fits in your pocket”, says Google. But are we taking full advantage?
Google is a pioneer when it comes to the internet, and all things digital. However, in the smartphone sector is suffering in the reputation stakes thanks to the ‘cool’ factor Apple’s iPhone has delivered.
Yet Google’s Android mobile operating system will outpace Apple’s iPhone in number of smartphones in use worldwide by 2012, according to researcher iSuppli Corp. And Google is doing everything in its power to make sure that prediction becomes a reality.
Mobile phones today do so many things for us that sometimes we don’t even think about how we do them. Even though our phones do all these new things, the most natural way of interacting with a phone remains what it always has been: speaking.
With this in mind, Google has introduced Voice Actions for Android.
Voice Actions are a series of spoken commands that let users control their phone using voice. Android users will now be able to call contacts, send texts and email, listen to music, browse the web, and complete common tasks, all just by speaking into the phone.
And of course, users can still conduct a Google search using their voice too.
As always with Google, the product is the marketing itself. In this case, Google incorporated a new YouTube channel launched today called GoogleMobile, where Android users can see senior software engineer Mike LeBeau explaining how to use all the new features:
Androids are already outselling the iPhone in the US after the phones were adopted by Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Sprint Nextel, the three largest mobile-phone carriers, according to Nielsen.
Facebook is becoming the biggest advertising platform in the world
Aug 10th
Facebook is the second most visited website in the UK, accounting for 7.14% of all internet visits in July, according to Experian Hitwise.
Facebook is a never ending story of growth, with no sign of slowing. Well, no real fool-proof sign, anyway.
The social networking king also accounts for over half (54.48%) of all visits to social sites.
In terms of total visits, Facebook continues to trail Google UK, and recorded a 9.59% market share in July. However, using the measure of total page views rather than visits, Facebook is way ahead.
As the table below illustrates, the social network accounted for 16.73% of UK page views during July. In other words: last month, 1 in every 6 Internet pages viewed in the UK was a Facebook page.
There are 26 million British users already and Facebook’s market share of UK page views has trebled over the last five years. However, growth has slowed significantly over the past six months having grown around 1.7% since November last year, compared to a sizeable 5% growth between April and October last year.
As Facebook continues to grow around the world (last month it reached more than 500 million registered users, some are beginning to wonder when the site will reach saturation point.
Recent government statistics put the amount of adults online as 37.4 million, so the site still has a few more people to entice in with the thrills of Farmville. But it must also find a way to entice users to spend long amounts of time on the site if it wants to entice more advertisers.
The average session time on the site has leveled out to around 27.36 minutes in June/July, down from a seasonal peak of 30 minutes in December, says Experian Hitwise. This is still a good deal better than most other sites out there.
And there’s no doubt that big brand advertisers are getting on board. Facebook revenues are tipped to double to $1.4 billion (£885m) in 2010 as advertising fees continue to surge.
According to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, the biggest advertisers increased spending by as much as 20-fold in the past year. In an interview with Bloomberg she said: “Two years ago the big brands were experimenting with us. Now, they’re going big.”
Facebook is also improving its infrastructure to give more space and time to display advertisements and increasing user personal engagement with brands through social gaming and other features.
Facebook marketing has been used to improve reach for online clothing retailers, revive Buick Motor’s youthful spirit, inspire the electric car market, boost revenue for Old Spice and increase pizza delivery orders at Dominos Pizza.
Things won’t slow down either, as Facebook eyes expansion in developing BRIC countries that could double that ‘500 million’ figure.
There’s no denying that Facebook is on its way to being the biggest advertising platform in history…
Ever wondered how exactly Google works?
Aug 9th
The software behind Google’s search technology conducts a series of simultaneous calculations requiring only a fraction of a second.
Traditional search engines rely heavily on how often a word appears on a web page, but Google uses over 200 different signals. If you’ve ever been curious about what those ‘signals’ are, we hope this infographic helps you. (Click on the image to enlarge)
Infographic by the Pay Per Click Blog
Google is watching you…and sending ads your way
Jul 30th
Google has launched location-aware display advertisements for internet enabled mobile phones including the Android and iPhone handsets. Is it what we’ve all been waiting for?
Yes. It is what we’ve been waiting for, frankly. For years, I have visited companies and sat at press launches listening to announcements time and time again that tout ‘the year of mobile’ and go one about location based advertising.
Now it’s here and available to the masses. And best of all, Google will only charge advertisers when users tap to call the business or visit the advertiser’s mobile site.
Through Google’s “location extension” feature, advertisers can now include their location and phone numbers to appear in display ads on iPhone and Android mobile websites.
Announced on its Mobile Ads blog, Google said the feature – previously available only on search ads – will appear as banner text advertising and will pinpoint business locations on a small map as well as a “click-to-call” phone number. Consumers will also have the option for generate directions if needed.
Giving consumers the option of viewing businesses in their area increases Google’s chance that the consumer will call the business or click to its website, which are the two ways Google makes money on the service.
The move shows Google’s increased investment in mobile and display advertising – two areas that have traditionally played second-fiddle to regular search advertising.
The only catch is, rival Apple forbids application developers from collecting location data only for advertising purposes, which could set back some advertisers. Google faces massive competition from Apple’s iAds platform which has already generated $60 million. But the location extenstion feature at least launches Google onto the playing field finally.
To use the service, advertisers have to opt-in to the Google Ad Network and make sure they check the “Display Network” option. From there, the advertiser includes its number and address as well as the option to upload a logo. The last step is to check the box for iPhones and other mobile devices will full internet browsers.
Here’s some pointers to get you started from Google:
1. Ensure your campaigns are opted into the Google Display Network. As a best practice, we recommend setting up separate location extensions campaigns for Search and Display networks.
2. Set up location extensions and add your business phone number and address. Be sure to also upload your business logo or icon, or choose from the set of icons available. Your ad will display a default icon if none is chosen.
3. Check that you’ve chosen to show your ads on iPhones and other mobile devices with full Internet browsers.
That’s it! You don’t need any special programming skills to create the map, Google will automatically generate it for you based on your business location.
The new dawn of advertising is forcing change
Jul 12th
So what has the Allen & Co.’s annual conference for media moguls in the US resulted in? The promise of new advertising formats.
Such touted new formats will outperform current industry staples such as banner ads and search ads, but Google CEO Eric Schmidt isn’t worried, he’s instead championed “interactive video ads”.
There was a time when banners and search ads were the be all and end all of internet advertising. They are, of course, what made advertising all its money online in the first place. But not only is technology moving on, so is the competition and internet giants need to step up their game in order to continue to attract advertisers with their latest gadgetry and graphics.
Schmidt also talked up the idea of ads that act as mini webpages and allowed users to leave their comments as they would on social media.
Another idea touted at the conference was the idea of more localised ads. The idea of localizing ads (or location based advertising) comes on the back of the uptake of such social networking sites as Foursquared – which allow users to see each others exact location. This allows for targeted advertising too and has often been named “the next big thing in advertising”.
Whether that is true is yet to be seen. However, it certainly isn’t looking likely in the European ad market where internet users have constant voiced concerns over privacy. Facebook and Google have also constantly been in trouble with various regulators over privacy concerns in the region over various policies and practices.
The conference also talked about persuading media companies to change how they buy and sell online ads, hoping to expand the market by selling ads across a broader range of websites, or even media.
So things are about to change, that we already knew, but the question is, how much will the market and dampening economy allow the advertising market to change in the short-term?
Today’s Bellwether shows that confidence is down and marketing budgets have yet again been squeezed. So we do we have the capacity for a reinvigorated ad market with fancy new platforms?
With all the changes the media industry is currently undergoing in regards to paywalls, the iPad and various other new delivery platforms, the sector is bound to change sooner or later. One thing is for sure though, it’ll definitely be a long period of trial and error.
Google looks for the China alternatives…but comes up short
Jun 30th
Google is stirring up trouble in China, again. After Beijing voiced its objection to the way Google was diverting mainland internet users to a Hong Kong site, the company has now stopped the automatic redirect function and is asking China to renew its business licence in the country.
At present, users of Google in China are directed to Google.com.hk. This was the result of a lengthy battle between Google and China in January this year, a security scare being the catalyst for what turned out to be a debate over censorship.
But now Google is hoping China will agree to renew its licence as an Internet Content Provider - a precondition of keeping the China site open.
On its official blog, Google said that it has done its best to increase access to information while abiding by Chinese law.
Admitting that the task has “not been easy”, Google has now had several conversations with the Chinese government and says it maintains that it will not back down over censorship.
The Chinese government however, can now exercise the right not to renew the internet giant’s Internet Content Provider license (up for renewal on June 30), which could mean Google exiting China altogether.
And such threats should be taken seriously by Google. China is the most populous internet market in the world, which means advertising dollars times about 1.3 billion. Moreover, any other business that sets up in China has to abide by Chinese law so why not King Google?
Its decision to take on the government hasn’t exactly been looked on favourable either. In the first quarter of 2010, the company’s share of Chinese online search revenues slid from 35 to 30%, according to Analysys. People, especially the hardworking Chinese, don’t take too fondly to big greedy companies.
Google says that the prospect of leaving China is “dreaded by many of our Chinese users,” but adds that it has been looking at possible alternatives.
One such alternative could be that instead of automatically redirecting Google users, the site has started taking a small percentage of them to a landing page on Google.cn that links to Google.com.hk—where users can conduct web search or continue to use Google.cn services like music and text translate, which we can provide locally without filtering.
This approach ensures Google stays true to its commitment not to censor its results on Google.cn and gives users access to all of its services from one page.
Over the next few days Google will end the redirect entirely. The company has also re-submitted its ICP license renewal application based on the new approach.
The easiest thing for Google to do, and in order to remain in the lucrative Chinese market, would be for them to simply abide by Chinese law…unless that is, they have something to hide.
Apple, Google, Microsoft and the battle of the browsers
Jun 29th
There seems to be an all out war going on between the internet browsers at the moment. Internet users have a choice between Internet Explorer, Google’s Chrome, Safari and Firefox – and they’re just the big guys. But which is best for you, your computer and your browsing habits?
Here’s a cute video on what an internet browser actually is:
Each and every one of the browsers mentioned is on the marketing trail. They all promise to deliver the best browsing experience, the best visual elements of browsing, faster searches, etc, etc. But here’s the real breakdown:
Google Chrome
Google has just released Chrome 5.0.375.86 to the Stable channel on Linux, Mac, and Windows, with a fix for a number of security issues. More importantly, the integrated Flash Player has now been enabled by default. Built-in Flash was previously only available in the developer and beta releases of the speedy WebKit-based browser, and the release to the Stable channel means the integrated plug-in is now available in its mainstream version.
Not only is Google giving Adobe’s Flash technology another vote of confidence (Flash Player 10.1 for Mobile will be rolled out on Android 2.2 phones first), but the integration also means any updates to Flash Player will be delivered directly via Google Chrome’s updating system, ultimately minimizing security risks that tend to surface when one uses outdated software and components.
Chrome is light weight, colorful, has an easy browse facility, contains its own task manager and a great bookmark facility.
The main advantage of this browser is default searching facility. If you type text in the link bar, the browser automatically shows corresponding search results. If you type website address in the link bar if it is available, the browser will find the site and display it. Otherwise it will search related information.
Chrome also interoperates Java Script super fast and of course, is compatible with all other Google products including Google Docs.
Disadvantages are that as Chrome was developed in 2008, it is available with beta versions as usual. But at the end of the day, Chrome is under a brand name that most internet users have come to love and trust: Google.
Another disadvantage of Google chrome is its history search box will fetch all types of data - even text from HTTPS-protected financial sites.
Internet Explorer
Many internet users have grown up with Internet Explorer (IE). It is the simple, pre-installed easy to use web browser that has never really posed any real problems for internet surfers. However, in an era where everyone is clamoring for a slice of the internet/tech brand pie, IE has become too boring for some internet users.
IE is actually a very typical Microsoft brand. Microsoft was or is the dawn of the internet. When I think of computers I think of Microsoft, but the brand can’t rest on those sorts of laurels when someone like Google is out there waving the ‘cool’ flag.
IE has recently release version 8 of its browser, which is selling itself on the grounds that it helps protect users from evolving online threats. The new SmartScreen filter and other built-in security features help users stay safe by protecting against deceptive and malicious websites which can compromise your data, privacy, and identity.
The Microsoft browser also comes with parental controls, so safety is a big selling point of this browser. Its usability should also win over families that have one main desktop computer. However, my main issue with IE is that it tends to be quiet slow, perhaps it’s too busy with all those security checks.
Firefox
I downloaded Firefox 3.6 this morning, and I must admit, I really love it. I’m not being bias though, on my MAC desktop computer at home I have Safari. I use Firefox on my laptop and at work I switch between Firefox and IE. I tried Chrome once and to be honest, it kept asking me to update it so I became annoyed and uninstalled it – to give Google credit though, this was Chrome beta. But back to Firefox…
This morning I downloaded the new version and it asked me to pick a theme, a persona. So now the top of my browser has a nice green design with the Firefox logo. It looks cool, and I can change it. At the moment I can have FIFA logos, Harry Potter themes, Snoopy cartoons or a nice picture of a sunset. I love that sort of personalization…and wasn’t it just last week that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the web was moving towards personalisation?
On the technical side, I’ve always found Firefox extreme quick. I also love the brand, it’s not too flashy and overdone and so ‘in your face’. It’s very subtle which is less intrusive, it’s a browser after all, it doesn’t have to therefore penetrate every aspect of your internet life (as Google often does).
Firefox calls itself a “global community”. It’s a public benefit organization “dedicated not to making money but to improving the way people everywhere experience the internet”.
The browser is also an open source software project whose code has been used as a platform for some of the internet’s most innovative projects.
Firefox is super fast and it’s the ideal browser for watching TV online. What is also brilliant about Firefox is that if your computer crashes or your internet restarts, Firefox can restore your browsing sessions. It also is able to remember your tabs so if you cross out of Firefox, it’ll ask you if you want it to remember those tabs for the next time you launch the browser.
The browser also allows you to store your favourites as tabs on the actually browser interface, as does IE, for easy access.
So what are the disadvantages? Firefox’s tendency to crash with Flash downloads.
Safari
Apple’s Safari browser was mad especially for MAC OS. Safari is a graphical web browser Safari is also the native browser for the iOS. A version of Safari for the Microsoft Windows operating system supports Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. The latest stable release of the browser is 5.0. Apple and Google are neck and neck with their browsers, however Safari’s disadvantages are that it is compatible with all MAC programs, leading users to think it is only really worthwhile on MACs.
But some cool features include bookmarking links to particular pages as “Web Clip” icons on the Home screen, opening specially-designed pages in full-screen mode, pressing on an image for 3 seconds to save it to the photo album and it supports HTML5 new input types…not Flash though, a sore point with Apple.
Somewhat sneakily, Apple uses software updates to make it easy and convenient for both Mac and Windows users to get the latest Safari updates, which kind of makes Safari the default regardless of users preferences and borders on malware distribution practices.
So there you have it, which browser do you prefer?
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