• Ross Fadner, Apr 17, 2006, 10:47 AM
  • Return Path Bows Reputation Management Program DM News Return Path is now using a reputation management product that gives companies a "credit score" for their e-mail marketing efforts, according to DM News. Called the Sender Score Reputation Monitor, the new program analyzes more than 60 data points from 50 million e-mail inboxes around the New to quantify a mailer's reputation. These data points include: complaint rates, unknown user rates, security patches, identity stability, and unsubscribe functionality. The aggregated data comes from several Internet service providers and filtering companies, including Cloudmark, Lashback and Mailshell. The product is intended to aid e-mail marketers with their deliverability efforts, and to help ISPs with filtering. The product was unveiled last week, and comes in conjunction with the rest of the company's Delivery Assurance Solutions, which are now branded as Sender Score. Read the whole story...
  • Internet Weather Vanes To Report Earnings This Week Marketwatch Google, Yahoo, and eBay, three Internet industry bellwethers, are set to report first quarter earnings this week, setting the tone for the new media sector's performance for the first three months of the year. Marketwatch noted that analysts, for the most part, have suggested in their notes to clients that each of these giants will meet or beat Wall Street's first-quarter expectations. As usual, Yahoo kicks off earnings season tomorrow, expected to report sales growth above 30 percent with a year over year profit fall of 14 percent. eBay is expected to see a 34 percent rise in sales, and a 19 percent rise in year over year profit. Analysts peg Google's first quarter earnings at nearly 70 cents per share, or 53 percent, on 85 percent sales growth. One analyst said eBay is the most likely of the three to beat the Street's numbers, as its shares had been under pressure the last several quarters due to the company's significant investment in Voice over Internet Protocol provider Skype and eBay China. A positive earnings period for Google is contingent on the search provider spending less than it did in the fourth quarter on infrastructure and research and development. Read the whole story...
  • Nike Debuts Video Desktop App As Part Of Soccer Site ClickZ Nike has rolled out a software-based TV channel for Joga.com, a joint global social networking partnership with Google aimed at soccer fans. The video application is a downloadable through the global site, which users can join by invitation only. Features include Nike's TV spots for "Joga Bonito" (play beautiful), a rap song featuring a U.S. national team soccer player, and several other clips featuring Brazil's current and former FIFA World Players of the Year Ronaldinho and Ronaldo. The application automatically downloads new content each week, notifying end users when it's available. The desktop application was created by rich media vendor Maven Networks, in collaboration with Nike's ad shop, Wieden+Kennedy. The branded channel is being promoted by Nike through outreach to blogs and discussion forums, as well as via Nikesoccer.com and Joga.com. The soccer-specific site is one of many branded content projects developed recently by global shoe and apparel-maker. Branded video, in particular, underscores a trend, one Maven Systems exec said. "As internet video and television become mass-adopted communication vehicles, we'll see more companies doing more long-form advertising." Read the whole story...
  • Microsoft Looks To Social Search Business Week Microsoft is ramping up its search efforts on several fronts, having recently launched Windows Live Search Beta, a customized search system, a new academic search feature, as well as a whole new search advertising system for advertisers. Its latest search add-on, according to a Business Week report, is a question-and-answer tool that lets users direct questions to a specific group, such as a group of friends, rather than receive an automated list of results from a search engine. So-called social search is a method whose time has come, says one MSN exec. Companies like Google, MSN and Yahoo are trying to set themselves apart with such added search features, as upwards of 50 percent of Web search queries can't be answered, according to Microsoft internal research. No names were released, nor were any real details in the Business Week article, but rumor has it MSN may be interested in two-year old social search startup Eurekster. Eurekster combines generic Yahoo search results with the searching behavior of users' friends or other predefined groups in social networks like Friendster. Eurekster said it is in talks with several portals and media companies but declined to comment on the speculation. Analysts and industry execs agree that the next level for search will be integrating social behavior into results, which means Eurekster and others will likely be scooped up by a larger Internet firm. Read the whole story...
  • Sub-distributors Place Marketers' Ads On Spyware Programs Business Week Google and Yahoo affiliates are getting themselves into trouble with the firms' many national advertisers, according to a Business Week article. It works like this: the Web's biggest sellers of advertising space often sign up partners to distribute advertisers' ads on other sites in return for a small fee. Sometimes, those partners sign up other partners who sign up other partners whose business it is to show ads via programs that are surreptitiously installed on users' computers as they surf the Web. That's called spyware, and spyware companies make their money by showing contextual ads pop-ups and pop-unders gleaned from the surfing behavior of users, who are tracked by the spyware program. This is not stuff that either Google or Yahoo want to be related to, and it's definitely not something the Web's biggest advertisers--like eBay or AT&T--want to be involved with. Business Week points out that certain hacker sites are breeding grounds for these spyware programs: a user who installs an illegal copy of Windows XP would be asked to install software, usually ActiveX controls, in conjunction with the program. He might also unsuspectingly download several pieces of spyware, which would then show him several pop-ups or pop-unders per minute. Big advertisers who buy from various networks often have no idea where their ads end up. Ben Edelman, a noted spyware researcher, says he recently tracked a Vonage ad that went through as many as eight sub-distributors before popping up through one of the aforementioned spyware programs. Read the whole story...
  • Read the whole story...