Google DoubleClick plans to roll out the next version of its search platform later this year. The company is testing it with select partners on Tuesday. The platform, now completely rebuilt on the Google technology stack, aims to improve workflow by simplifying navigation with an AdWords-like interface and refined reporting options. The technology stack supports mounds of data and quick processing power. Google built the front end on Gwt, which generates applications in minutes and looks and feels similar to those on a computer desktop, says Ariel Bardin, product manager and director at Google. "Data loads quickly into tables, so it's very fast," he says. U.S. ad spend should reach $18.84 billion in 2014 -- up from $12.37 billion in 2010, estimates eMarketer, although the numbers lump in paid search, contextual text links, paid inclusion and search engine optimization. Paid search will get the majority of the budgets. DoubleClick Search v3 allows large brands to manage campaigns with millions of keywords. It's not a new AdWords tool for all, but geared toward brands building out large campaigns across Google, Microsoft and Yahoo search engines that support volumes of data. The platform offers a more efficient workflow to easily raise bids, change budgets and monitor keywords to find the best and the worst-performing. And while the platform has been around since 2006, known originally as DART Search, it is the latest version in a long line of DoubleClick products Google will rebuild for advertisers and publishers. This version of DoubleClick Search also offers the ability to upload campaigns in spreadsheets with up to 1 million rows, and manage campaigns globally, supporting dozens of language and currency. New tools to view performance data across all major search engines and customize reporting look to improve optimization. Filters and labels allow better reporting features, enabling search marketers to highlight important keywords to manage where ads appear, and design bidding strategy to meet specific ROI goals. Building the search-engine marketing platform on Google's technology allows DoubleClick to pull in data across search engines between 30 minutes and two hours, and then process it much faster. Prior to the rebuild, the data would pull in between four hours and daily. Plus, it more closely integrates with AdWords. Integration with DoubleClick's display platform and DoubleClick for Advertisers allows marketers to monitor how campaigns perform across search and display through spotlight tags.
Social media monitoring firm Meltwater Group on Tuesday announced the acquisition of JitterJam. Marking its second such acquisition in just over a year, Meltwater is paying $6 million to buy the customer relationship management software maker. The JitterJam platform, which is built for consumer-facing companies looking to tap social, mobile and email engagement, will be integrated over time with Meltwater's Buzz product. "The Social CRM space is clearly experiencing fast growth and within three years, we aim to generate $100 million a year in social CRM solutions alone," said Jorn Lyseggen, founder and CEO of Meltwater Group. By delivering news and social media monitoring and search engine marketing tools, Meltwater claims to have already grown to a $100 million-a-year company. Per the deal, all of JitterJam's employees are expected to join Meltwater. Regarding social CRM's prospects, Gartner recently forecast that by 2013, spending on social software to support sales, marketing and customer service processes will exceed $1 billion worldwide. In addition, Gartner predicted that during the next two years, 30% of top companies will extend the goals of their online community activities to the design of enhanced service processes, including social CRM. In February 2010, Meltwater spent $4 million to buy BuzzGain. Going forward, Meltwater said it intends to acquire more businesses and technologies to further expand its product offerings.
AT&T Interactive wants to create a tech community in Los Angeles that solves online advertising problems across industries, says William Hsu. The chief product officer for the Glendale, Calif.-based subsidiary of the telecom giant plans to invite engineers from local Los Angeles offices of Google, Yahoo, eHarmony, Caltech, and others. Engineers working together across companies would benefit all companies taking part in the "hackathon," an event that provides the opportunity to do collaborative programming. Taking a cue from companies in Northern California, such as Facebook, the efforts will create a start-up community in the Los Angeles area to better the online advertising industry. The concept of sharing ideas across companies is the next step in the development of the online ad industry. For example, Twitter cofounder Biz Stone recently agreed to work with AOL as a social impact strategic adviser, as part of the company's broader integration with online news site Huffington Post. "We are approaching other companies in the L.A. area, trying to find the correct people to talk with," Hsu said. The grassroots movement to gather engineers and develop products from seeds of ideas takes a cue from efforts typically seen in Silicon Valley -- or as Hsu refers to it, "The Valley." Efforts to launch the first co-op hackathon are about three-quarters of the way done. Engineers from different companies would work together in teams to solve problems related to advertising. When asked how each company would use the product, based on sharing intellectual property, Hsu said: "Hackathons are meant to focus on innovation, and ironing out the IP issues comes later." Hackathons aren't necessarily designed to develop groundbreaking patentable work, but rather to create new ways to approach an existing problem. Hsu says those are the types of innovations that companies should share. Collectively, the companies will pick a "problem" in advance, so all agree on the theme. AT&T holds one hackathon per quarter. The new mapping search interface on YP.com originated as a prototype from one of the four the company has held. "We're in the middle of releasing an improvement to our search technology that came from a hackathon, as well," Hsu said. "It's a polygon-based search rather than radius-based type search function." That polygon-type search allows people to look for all the plumbers in a closer representation of the geographic mapping of Studio City, Calif., for example. Since the town isn't a perfect circle, the engine must pull in information by searching on a visual representation of a polygon. Hsu calls local search the easiest category to monetize because searches are based on intent. "I've seen about 10 to 20 start-ups trying to make local work on the Internet, and none have figured it out," he said. "Even Google, based on revenue estimates generated from local search, is between $400 million and $500 million, whereas we are at $1 billion." Part of what Hsu believes makes AT&T Interactive successful is access to information about small- and medium-size businesses, and having the sales team to support them. "Mom and Pop are too busy selling shoes to man the advertising app, so we can do it for them," he said. AT&T Interactive employs more than 500 engineers.
In its annual wireless report released today, consulting giant PwC noted that the number of North American carriers participating in the survey had shrunk from 18 in the early 2000s to 11 in 2010, due to consolidation. Following AT&T's announcement of a $39 billion agreement to acquire T-Mobile USA, of course, that figure could further contract to 10 wireless operators. The growing consumer demand for mobile data that partly drove AT&T's audacious bid is highlighted in the PwC report. It found that factors such as wider use of streaming video, the importance of service quality, and migration toward 4G network technologies have pushed carriers to invest more in infrastructure despite the still-sluggish economy. Declaring 2010 "the year of data," the report nevertheless warned that rising mobile content and messaging brings new challenges for carriers, as well as new revenue opportunities. "They will need to determine how best to monetize the additional data usage among price-sensitive customers and how to finance the network improvements necessary to keep pace with demand," stated Pierre-Alain Sur, U.S. wireless industry leader, at PwC. It's no surprise that smartphones played a major part in driving mobile data growth. As a percentage of revenue, smartphone sales increased to 38% for carriers with revenue over $5 billion last year, up from 19% in 2009. At the other end of the spectrum, prepaid plans geared toward feature phone users continued to make up a significant and growing proportion of revenue, averaging 22.5% of total service revenue among carriers. Internet and email access from mobile devices accounted for one-quarter of prepaid data revenue in the 2010, a dramatic spike from just 1% a year ago. To tap into the growing market for mobile apps, 91% of companies surveyed have launched their own mobile app stores. Seven in 10 said they recorded revenue from mobile advertising. Separate data released Tuesday by wireless trade group CTIA from its biannual survey showed that total capital investment in the industry rose 22% to $24.9 billion. Wireless annual service revenue increased 4.8% to nearly $160 million, while mobile data sales reached $50.1 billion, or nearly one-third (31.4%) of overall service revenue. When it comes to upgrading networks, the PwC study found three wireless operators had already begun shifting to 4G in 2010, up from one the prior year. Two others said they expect to begin rolling out next-generation service by 2011. Two more plan to do so by 2012. AT&T said Monday that its planned acquisition of T-Mobile would not delay its goal of completing the rollout of 4G coverage by 2013. Companies included in the PwC survey: AT&T Mobility, Clearwire, Leap Wireless, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA.
The ad technology industry now has its own trade group: the Council for Accountable Advertising. "Advertising technology has continued to grow and get more complex," explains Stephen Messer, vice chairman of Cross Commerce Media and chairman of the new Council. "People have focused on the bells and whistles of the technology, but have forgotten the key themes, [they are] making buying decisions more complicated than they need to be." "In the market, many of the companies fighting to survive have to scream as loud as they can and create differentiators to stay alive," Messer says. "The council is about removing the FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) in the marketplace so that when a buyer chooses a council member, they know they are getting honest, clear information from the leaders in the marketplace." In addition to Cross Commerce, the CAA was formed by MediaMath and TARGUSinfo, with other members at launch including Admeld, AdSafe, AudienceScience, Peer39, Solve Media and TidalTV. Says Messer: "We spent a lot of time on formulating standards for membership that set the bar high enough to be a useful tool in distinguishing what's best of breed from fluff." Members are also discussing ways to work together, Messer said. "What that means is that if you decide to adopt Cross Commerce Media and then determine that you need TARGUSinfo for your data, MediaMath's trading platform or any of the other amazing technologies offered by our members, we are discussing ways to make implementation easier among council members." "We've made it hard on our customers," Messer admits, pointing to "something as simple as wanting data about how consumers are responding to your marketing efforts." He notes the complicated names, like analytics and real time data management, and categories -- platforms and data systems -- en route to a company's goals. "Our most profound initiative is to serve as an industry curator for the best the advertising technology sector has to offer," Messer says. While member companies can nominate publishers and advertisers to serve on CAA committees, Messer stressed that the organization is about leaders of ad tech companies "clarifying the market by simplifying how the market discusses itself." In addition to Messer, other CAA officers at launch include: chief research officer: Joanna O'Connell, senior analyst at Forrester Research; co-chief research officer: Colin Gillis, director of research at BGC Financial; chief academic officer: Evan Korth, clinical associate professor of computer science at NYU and co-founder of hackNY. O'Connell and Korth will establish research and academic committees, respectively. Forrester Research analyst Michael Greene will be part of the research committee, and Marianna Makri of the University of Miami's School of Business Administration will serve on the academic committee. "Just like Amazon made it easier for consumers to shop, and Apple made it easier for them to compute, the Council for Accountable Advertising's goal is to make it easier for marketers and publishers to manage and measure their resources," says Messer.
A San Francisco tour company has sued Groupon for false advertising for allegedly running misleading pay-per-click ads on Google. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that Groupon uses keywords relating to popular tourist attractions to trigger ads, but doesn't actually offer coupons related to those attractions. One effect, says San Francisco Comprehensive Tours, is that Groupon diverted consumers searching for touring companies to its own site. For instance, the touring company says that on March 15, Groupon ran a search ad which said it was selling tickets to Alcatraz at a discount of 50% to 90%. "On that day," the complaint says, "it was, in fact, featuring a coupon for discounted acting lessons." The touring company also makes a more complex false-advertising allegation: That it must pay more for top ad spots on Google's search results pages because Groupon wrongly drives up the price of search ads. Google determines the price-per-click based on a combination of factors, including quality score, or its assessment of the relevance of the ads. The tour company argues that Groupon's quality score is artificially high because the company is popular with consumers. "By falsely representing to users and consumers interested in 'San Francisco Tours' and 'Napa Wine Tours' ... that it provides access to such services, defendant Groupon induces users and consumers to click through to its landing page. This, in turn, artificially raises defendant Groupon's objective popularity score, further cementing its placement at or near the top of the paid placement ads." The San Francisco tour company also alleges that the URLs in Groupon's ads are inaccurate and "appear to be designed to enhance the 'relevance' of Groupon's ads by falsely representing that Groupon has a Web page addressing the search term in question." But whether the tour company can prove that its cost-per-click rose as a result of Groupon's ads will require additional information from Google regarding how it charges search marketers, says legal expert Martin Schwimmer, a partner in Leason Ellis. He adds that the touring company's argument -- that allegedly false advertising drove up its keyword costs -- appears to be a first. The plaintiff is seeking monetary damages and an injunction banning Groupon from using keywords or ad copy with terms like "Alcatraz tours" and "San Francisco tours."
When it comes to choosing their next phone, mobile users would opt for Android phones over the iPhone by a two-to-one margin, according to a new global survey. The study commissioned by multiplatform app store GetJar found that about 40% of respondents would switch to Android when they buy their next handset, compared to 18% that want the iPhone. The findings appear to underscore the growing popularity of the Google mobile operating system -- which pushed ahead of BlackBerry in January to become the top smartphone platform in the U.S., with 31.2% market share, according to comScore. A separate survey by ChangeWave last fall found that a growing proportion of consumers wanted an Android phone as their next device -- about the same share that wanted an iPhone (37% versus 38%). The iPhone had a 24.7% share. Recent data from ABI Research, however, showed the Apple device still dominates app downloads, racking up 5.6 billion in 2010 against 7.9 billion total from all app stores. "The survey results make it clear that all eyes are on Android, as well as the importance of brand equity in the increasingly competitive mobile app space," stated Patrick Mork, CMO of GetJar, which has 1.5 billion downloads to date. In landing $25 million in venture funding last month, the company said it aimed to "aggressively expand" its offerings for Android devices to serve as an alternative to Google's own Android Market. Considering that the survey results fit neatly with that strategy, don't take the findings favoring Android by a wide margin literally. GetJar isn't alone in trying to capitalize on Android's rapid growth. Amazon today unveiled its own Android-focused app store, launching with 3,800 titles, including a pair of exclusive apps from "Angry Birds" creator Rovio. In addition to Android, GetJar provides apps for other platforms, including iOS, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Symbian. But there are limits to its openness. Earlier this month, Getjar booted the Opera Mini browser app from its storefront after Opera Software launched its own cross-platform app store within the browser. Beyond device selection, the GetJar study also found that 58% of mobile users use apps more than once a day, and 23% spend 31 minutes to an hour a day with apps. Eight in 10 said the quality of a company's app makes that brand more trustworthy, while 72% were more likely to engage with a brand if it had a good app. (Doesn't using the app already qualify as "engaging" with the brand?) Looking at attitudes toward advertising, 73% have downloaded an app with advertising in it, and almost 60% said they'd do it again. Despite the growing number of app storefronts, only one-quarter of survey participants found the app they were looking for through an actual app store. Nearly half discovered apps while browsing online and almost 17% found them through friends or social media. Among other findings, gaming titles are the most popular category, followed closely by social-networking apps. Cost is the biggest factor in deciding whether to buy an app, and likewise, free apps and ease of search are the two features that consumers rate highest in an app store.
Still taking shape under Comcast's umbrella, NBC Universal on Tuesday promoted both Cameron Blanchard and Tony Cardinale to the position of executive vice president of NBCUniversal Entertainment & Digital Networks and Integrated Media. In addition, Margaret Lazo has been appointed executive vice president for the new division. "I know their leadership will be key to the continued growth of this newly expanded division," Lauren Zalaznick, chairman of NBC Universal Entertainment & Digital Networks & Integrated Media, said of the three appointments. Blanchard -- previously senior vice president of communications, NBC Universal Women & Lifestyle Entertainment Networks -- has been tapped as executive vice president, communications for NBCU's E&DN/IM, and will continue to serve as lead spokesperson for the division. She will oversee strategic communications and media relations for each of the portfolio's businesses. Cardinale, previously senior vice president of strategic insights for the Women & Lifestyle Entertainment Networks, has been promoted to executive vice president, brand planning and strategic insights. He is responsible for translating consumer intelligence into brand and business strategy for NBCU's E&DN/IM portfolio and its ad partners. Lazo retains her title of executive vice president, human resources, and will expand her responsibilities to include oversight for all the businesses within the E&DN/IM division. Earlier this month, NBC Universal named Nicholas Lehman as its new president of digital of E&DN/IM, where he is overseeing the pure-play digital businesses within the division's portfolio, including iVillage, DailyCandy, Swirl and Fandango. Lehman is also working closely with the leaders of each of the TV network's online platforms, including the sites for Telemundo, Bravo Media, Oxygen Media, Style and mun2. NBC Universal's various online properties continue to explore new ways to connect with audiences. In early March, iVillage unveiled a series of mobile applications aimed squarely at its adult female audience. Following its successful bid to buy NBC Universal, Comcast was not required to sell any assets, although it did agree to give up NBC's management role in streaming media hub Hulu.