Google plans to give its search engine a makeover by integrating semantic technology that will return results more similar to how humans view the world. Google Fellow Amit Singhal in Thursday's Google+ post explains how the company's ability to turn raw data into knowledge and deliver the most relevant information relies on its understanding of the questions. "And right now, our understanding is pretty darn limited," he wrote. Singhal admits queries typically return "decent results" based on keywords, but not necessarily because the engine understands the depth of the question. Rather than returning a list of links to Web sites, the changes will allow someone searching on Huntington Beach to also see average temperature, current wind and humidity readings or surf conditions. More complex questions, such as "What beach has the longest shoreline in California," might provide the answer. Google acquired Freebase in 2010, and since then grew its 12 million interconnected entities and attributes to more than 200 million. I's not clear how the changes will affect paid-search marketing and search engine optimization. Will integrating semantic technology into a search engine change the way that marketers optimize Web site content and pages? aimClear Founder Marty Weintraub said "the fundamentals of providing content to serve users' needs will never change. The meaning of great site structure may evolve a bit. Semantic stemming research tools, both predictive and at the live URL/site and competitive level, will evolve in exciting ways." The semantic technology is expected to give Google a better tool to retain or grow market share and expand on its voice search technology to compete with Apple's Siri. Despite an explanation of changes in The Wall Street Journal, Google did not describe the next logical step that will take the engine deeper into voice features. It did touch on ways it hopes to keep a lead in search engine market share. Google Sites led the U.S. explicit core search market in February with 66.4% market share, followed by Microsoft Sites with 15.3%, Yahoo with 13.8%, Ask Network with 3%, and AOL with 1.5%, according to comScore. Yahoo told MediaPost last month it continues to move toward building a "content index, rather than Web index," to gather information from every HTML page that exists. In a February interview, Yahoo SVP of products Shashi Seth described semantic technology and said Yahoo continues to build in new search features and tools that provide answers rather than links. Yahoo has begun to build a content index, instead of a Web index, for every HTML page that exists. With an update from Microsoft on the horizon, search marketers can expect to hear something similar from Bing.
BrightEdge announced funding Thursday from the venture capital arm of the largest microprocessor company. Intel's venture capital arm -- Intel Capital, along with supporting investment from existing investors Battery Ventures, Altos Ventures and Illuminate Ventures, infused $12.6 million in the search and social management company. The series C funding will support expansion plans and BrightEdge's goal to double the company's headcount from 74 in 2012. With a focus on enterprise support, the road map puts offices in New York and London later this year. BrightEdge's growth can be partly attributed to a focus on support for enterprise companies beginning in 2008, according to CEO and co-founder Jim Yu. The company began work on a cloud-based platform that showed how enterprises could grow their business and Web site traffic and revenue through organic search engine optimization. Since then, demand for BrightEdge S3 has been extensive, with more than 400% growth. The company says it serves more than 2,000 brands worldwide. BrightEdge serves seven of the top 10 retailers and eight of the top 10 digital agencies, along with Microsoft, Facebook, VMWare, Symantec, Intuit and Citrix. Building the company, Yu, a former Salesforce.com director and product manager, along with co-founder Lemuel Park, says he saw a need in the marketplace for one platform that could simplify and measure the ways online marketers connect with customers using organic search. They assembled a team with an expertise in search and enterprise software, similar to Salesforce.com.
Facebook has convinced a federal judge to transfer a lawsuit about the sponsored stories program to a court in the company's home state of California. U.S. District Court Judge G. Patrick Murphy in the Southern District of Illinois ruled that Facebook's terms of service -- which are available via links at the bottom of the site's pages -- require users to litigate claims in the company's home state of California. "Plaintiffs are bound by Facebook’s TOS whether plaintiffs read them or not," Murphy wrote in a decision issued last week. The lawsuit -- brought last June on behalf of two teens who live in Illinois -- is one of two pending federal cases alleging that Facebook is misappropriating users' names and images with the sponsored stories program. That program displays people's names and photos in ads. The teens whose case was just transferred to California argue that Facebook is violating a state law that bans companies from using minors' names or images in ads without their parents' permission. A similar lawsuit challenging sponsored stories is already pending in front of U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh in the Northern District of California. Koh last year rejected Facebook's argument that the users had not been injured by the sponsored stories program and therefore, the case should be dismissed. That lawsuit was initially brought by six users -- four adults and two minors -- who sought to represent a class of all Facebook users. This week, Koh allowed two of the adults who sued -- Angel Fraley and Paul Wang -- to withdraw from the case. Wang had asked to drop the lawsuit because he had to travel for work and wouldn't be available for all of the pre-trial proceedings. Fraley sought to withdraw because she was concerned that her privacy could be compromised by Facebook's evidence-gathering methods -- which allegedly involved scrutinizing all of her prior activity on the service. "I did not expect that every single post I had ever made on Facebook would potentially be rehashed," she said in a motion seeking to withdraw. "At the time I made these posts, I intended for them to be shared with only a limited number of recipients to whom I am connected through Facebook's social network."
In a bid to regain its supremacy as the dominant medium for musicians to connect with fans, MTV is returning to its musical roots, albeit online. The move, unveiled late Thursday during a presentation at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, includes the launch of a new online destination -– www.artists.mtv.com -– which combines MTV-produced fan pages with ecommerce features that will enable everyone from headliners to garage bands to have an MTV-branded presence online. The effort effectively shifts MTV from a mainstream focused curator and promoter of top musicians to one that encompasses the long-tail, and in the process, it hopes to gain millions of new online user audience impressions that it will sell to advertisers, and will even split those revenues with the artist. “We’re building this for, and with, the artists,” says Shannon Connolly, vice president-digital music strategy for the MTV Music Group, who said it will expand MTV’s focus from about 10,000 mainstream artists to more than 1 million. “This is for garage bands as much as it is for Lady Gaga,” she says, adding that in some ways MTV is simply returning to its roots by leveraging the best current media technology to connect fans with musicians. But she also acknowledges that it is an effort to regain lost ground that went to other online media, especially social networks like Myspace and Facebook and commerce platforms like iTunes and Google Music -- and noted that it’s not simply a promotional platform, but a material “commercial partnership” between musicians and MTV. The commerce takes several forms, including merchandising, ad revenue sharing, and even some tacit licensing and representation. On the merchandising side, MTV is partnering with Top Spin, a major commerce platform that already has been used by bands for years to sell products directly to fans. Connolly says MTV still is working out terms of the deal, but that it would only take a portion of the 15% that Top Spin historically takes from the artists, because the goal is to create new revenue streams for the artists. She says the artists pages will also include a “tip jar,” with 100% of those revenues going to the artists. On the ad revenue side, Connolly says MTV is still figuring out what the proper “rev share” model is, but that once it is set, it will be a uniform cut applied to all artists, not just big or small ones. She says the goal is to also help bands make connections with brands, which could lead to music licensing deals and other brand-related content marketing. The main goal, however, is to help online users discover and connect with musician that go well beyond the kind of promotion MTV’s TV channels historically played in the past. Toward that end, the new artists’ site will also integrate with MTV’s TV channels, throwing their mass media weight behind one artist a month. That effort, dubbed “Full Frontal,” will turn over all of the useable “inventory” on MTV, VH1 and CMT networks to one band, including integrations with some of MTV’s most popular TV series. “The value of getting your song on ‘Jersey Shore’ is incredibly powerful,” she cites as an example. Connolly says MTV already has begun discussing sponsorship opportunities with a few advertisers, but that the real goal is to create a better online experience for musicians and their fans by providing one “comprehensive and centralized” place to find everything about the best established, new and up-and-coming performers. It all revolves around the individual artists pages, which she says “will be awesome, even if the artist doesn’t claim them.”
Despite modest advances, brands still have a lot to learn about Web site design and execution. From 2010 to 2012, just 1% of brand sites were given a user experience score of “very good” -- while just 17% were deemed “good,” according to Forrester. Since 1999, Forrester has used its Website User Experience Review methodology to evaluate the user experience of 1,500 sites spanning business-to-consumer and business-to-business, and across disparate industries and geographies. To gauge site quality, Forrester employs a type of methodology known as a “heuristic” or “scenario” review across 25 distinct criteria. However, what’s good for one brand’s Web site isn’t necessarily good for another. “Web sites aren’t inherently good or bad,” according to Forrester analyst Adele Sage. “They can only be judged by how effectively they meet specific users’ needs. For example, “when buying a TV online, a recent college grad on a shoestring budget living in a tiny first apartment has different needs than a 45-year-old setting up a state-of-the-art in-home theater.” In general terms, however, brand sites seem to be making the most progress in the key categories of value and consumer trust. These improvements have been achieved by a greater focus on privacy policies in the context of requests for personal information, along with clearer error messages, site reliability and simple location cues. Where sites most often go wrong is with illegible text, inefficient task flows, poor use of space, and missing links to privacy and security policies in context. “Two of those -- illegible text and inefficient task flows -- have been the top two problems for almost five years,” according to Sage. Luckily, many common design flaws are understood -- as are the ways to fix or even avoid them, according to Forrester. Text legibility problems boil down to type that’s too small, too low in contrast, or both -- and the definitions of “too small” and “too low in contrast” are backed by years of scientific studies. That said, some design flaws can’t be fixed just by following universal guidelines. The right information architecture depends on what information is being architected and for whom. But even though these specific problems are unique to each site, human-factor specialists have developed standard methods for resolving them with a high degree of certainty. To find and fix the problems on their Web sites, Forrester suggests applying a four-step process beginning with the identification of target users and their goals. Once brands have goals in mind, they should test them, evaluate their site experience against Forrester’s 25 criteria, and finally, fix any problems.
Pushing the boundaries to where its young TV viewers are, as well as helping its TV advertising sponsors, The CW will launch a new mobile app where full episodes of its TV shows can be viewed the next day. Previously, CW viewers could watch TV episodes digitally three days after airing episodes aired on the network. “With the launch of The CW’s new mobile app and moving to next day streaming on all platforms, we remain in perfect sync with our young audience who want to watch and connect with our shows whenever and wherever they are,” stated Rick Haskins, executive vice president of marketing and digital programs, The CW. The CW says full episodes of its prime-time shows will now be available on the app and on cwtv.com at approximately 6:00 a.m. EST on the morning after broadcast on the network. Plus, as on CWTV.com, the most recently aired five episodes are available on the app. The app is available on iPad, iPhone, and Android platforms. Two years ago during the TV upfront ad selling market, the CW was the first network to offer combined seamless advertising packages of traditional TV commercials with spots in shows running on its digital platforms. As is the case with young TV viewers -- CW viewers in particular -- the network has found that many people watch their shows online, via various devices. The new app allows viewers to share photos and video links with their friends via Facebook and Twitter, and also connects fans to The CW’s Facebook pages, as well as the Twitter feeds for The CW, actors and producers.
Research firm IDC projects China will overtake the U.S. this year as the leading market for smartphone shipments, with low-cost Android devices driving uptake there. Looking further ahead, India and Brazil will join the top five country markets for smartphone shipments by 2016. “Due to their sheer size, strong demand and healthy replacement rates, emerging markets are quickly becoming the engines of the worldwide smartphone market," stated Ramon Llamas, a senior research analyst at IDC. While mature markets like Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. will see continued growth in smartphone adoption, the volumes will not keep up with those in emerging regions. In China, Android phones priced under $200 were especially hot sellers last year; that trend is likely to continue as devices become even more affordable. Domestic manufacturers like ZTE, Huawei and Lenovo are also expected to ramp up production. China is expected to capture 20.7% of the smartphone market in 2012 among countries, just ahead of the U.S.’s 20.6% share. By 2016, China will claim 20.2% of the market and the U.S., 15.3%. India is projected to make the biggest leap, going from a 2.2% share in 2011 to 9.3% in five years, when it will rank third behind China and the U.S. in receiving smartphone shipments. IDC predicts carriers in India will aggressively roll out 3G networks and data plans, while domestic operators, such as Micromax, Spice, Karbonn and Lava have begun introducing low-cost smartphones. Top-tier brands Samsung and HTC accounted for most growth last year. "Demand for smartphones will also grow as urban and enterprise users mature in their handset preferences and usage," says G. Rajeev, senior market analyst for mobile devices with IDC India. "Consumers are growing accustomed to higher data usage and using handsets for entertainment and other content, instead of just as a communication device." Propelled by a booming economy and low inflation, Brazil is also poised to see growing demand for smartphones. By 2016, the country is expected to surpass the U.K. as the fourth-largest smartphone market with a 4.7% share, up from a projected 2.3% this year. IDC said the shift from feature phones to smartphones there is already underway, with prices for the latter falling below $300. Local carriers have also expanded prepaid data plans to include smartphones, putting high-end devices within reach of many more consumers. About 80% of Brazilian mobile customers use prepaid lines.
It’s almost that time of year again – time for television upfronts. As viewers continue to shift more of their time to Web and mobile, the TV ad-buying season gets a bit more complicated. Media buyers know how challenging it can be to accurately allocate budget to TV vs. online video and other emerging channels. While there is no universally agreed way to determine exact allocation budgets, there is a “crystal ball” media buyers can use to determine where to spend their dollars this year: the Super Bowl. New audience data from the Super Bowl 2012 shows some surprising audience trends that can help brands decide where to spend their video ad dollars this upfront season. In other words, the Super Bowl is arguably the biggest television event of the year, making it the perfect “upfront lab.” According to recent data collected by Rocket Fuel, via an in-banner questionnaire a day after the Super Bowl across the U.S. online population, the Super Bowl has become a multi-device viewing experience. People are no longer just turning on the TV, plunking down on the couch with a huge tray of nachos, and watching the game from start to finish. The shift toward multi-device viewing has big implications for media buyers accustomed to allocating a fixed amount of spend to network and cable commercials. From our research, 17% of Super Bowl viewers surveyed said they used more than one media device to follow the game. Of those multi-device users, 61% used a TV and a computer, while 18% used three devices: a TV, computer, and a smartphone/tablet. Women were also slightly more likely than men to follow the Super Bowl using a smartphone/tablet or the radio vs. men who were more likely to follow the game on a television or computer. What does all this mean in light of upcoming upfronts season? For one, TV viewership is more fractured than ever, and media buys need to reflect this. A big commercial buy during a new season of a popular show may still be worth it to acquire prime-time eyeballs, but it will be worth exponentially more if the brand also buys digital, addressable advertising to capture brand share on multiple devices. Of course, paid advertising is no longer the endgame in and of itself. Consumers also expect viral video, social contests, Facebook pages, live Twitter updates, and brand currency through other earned or owned content assets. Brand can’t just buy television and digital media, they must create and distribute associated earned media content around each campaign, too. That necessarily means a weight shift from heavy TV to multiscreen marketing, a trend that should accelerate in the near future. The Super Bowl is a harbinger of how consumers are shifting their TV viewing habits -- a sort of ‘future lab’ for media -- and brands that embrace a multi-device media-buying strategy now will be ahead of the pack. Whether someone’s a fan of the Super Bowl – or Breaking Bad, Downton Abbey, or “Gossip Girl,” they will increasingly turn to their smartphones, social networks and video-sharing sites to engage with their favorite TV programs and other fans. Brands need to be “everywhere at once” -- because consumers already are.