Google has launched a series of 30-second spots on Web video sites to plug its core search functions. The spots attempt to portray Google as the complete A-to-Z planning tool for a range of activities, and tell a story as they roll. The spots are weaved in streams on Hulu.com, AOL Video and Google's own YouTube. They are also housed on a dedicated youtube.com/ searchstories hub. In one, a man begins searching how to study abroad in Paris -- then how to woo a French girl. Ultimately, he wants to find a church for matrimony. In another, a person has suffered car damage by hitting a pothole. A search for how to mount a petition drive complaining to the government follows, then one on how to run for office to combat the problem ... but not before finding some help mastering public speaking. No person is actually shown in the ads. The creative is mostly just typing into Google's iconic search bar with germane music playing. An exception is a montage of how Google Maps can assist in planning a Kerouac-oriented road trip. "Every Search is a quest, Every quest is a story" is a tagline. On its blog, Google wrote that "while we're proud of the innovations we're making in search, we're proudest of the things people use search to accomplish. In other words, the best search results don't show up on a Web page -- they show up in somebody's life." While people may encounter the spots on the video sites, they may also run across a banner ad on NYT.com and Digg.com directing them to the YouTube locale. Those ads carry a "Search Stories, Now Playing" appeal. Google declined to comment on spending details. A spokesman said the campaign is unrelated to any new challenge in search from Microsoft's Bing, which is in the midst of a heavily funded introduction campaign.
When a team of Pennsylvania State University researchers set out to discover the cognitive processes underlying search behavior, the team discovered that Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and other search engines have become part of the learning process for people who venture online. While the news should not come as a shock to those in the online advertising and marketing biz, the findings might comfort a few worried souls. Researchers found that rather than a simple source for information, search engines have become part of the learning process for everything from making purchases to verifying facts. Led by Pennsylvania State Associate Professor Jim Jansen, the team examined the search habits of 72 people who conducted 426 search tasks. The study is based on Bloom taxonomy, which Jansen explains has six well-known classifications -- or levels -- of cognitive learning, from basic to research. "If searching is a learning activity, you would think there would be different levels of search and behavior, and that's what I set out to investigate," he says. Many times, search is viewed as problem-solving or decision-making processes. Previously, when Jansen investigated the two, the findings never translated into better search techniques. In the past, people regarded the Web as a place for simple searching tasks and for verification of facts. So he was interested in modeling search behavior. Determining the motivational, cognitive and contextual aspects of why and how people use search engines could help search engines like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo create better designs for higher interaction or engagement with consumers. The findings provide information about how search engine use has evolved, as well as insight into how to design better search engines to address users' learning needs in the future. The study reveals a similarity between the basic levels of learning with higher levels of evaluation. The mega search engines, such as Google, represented more than 72% of all instances of use. Most participants used one information system to address searching scenarios, along with some destination Web site or page. More than 18% of the participants used two systems, with the remainder using between three and five information systems for a given scenario. The study notes that defining an information system is up for discussion. "Is Google an information system, an information portal, or a navigational aid or just a document?" the study asks. Based on the researchers' definition of "information system," the group included "general-purpose" search engines. Jansen says participants in the study, which the university conducted just prior to the launch of WolframAlpha, relied on a variety of sites -- Google, MSN, Ask, Yahoo, WebMD and others -- to determine the findings. "I don't know if WolframAlpha is ready for prime time yet," Jansen says. "If you look at Google Squared, that also is an interesting learning tool. It processes information for you and presents it in an integrated fashion."
Google has begun quietly shifting its monetization strategy to take better advantage of paid-search ad formats. At least one analyst firm describes the move as the "most significant changes" the search engine has made to monetizing traffic in years. The report, published Monday, analyzes product listing ads, product extensions, sitelink ads, comparison ads, and the extension of universal to sponsored search. It also examines the boost to click-through rates. In fact, Broadpoint AmTech Analyst Ben Schachter believes so strongly in Google's move that he raised the search engine's stock price target from $610 to $650. The Broadpoint AmTech report suggests that while Google believes the new ad formats improve the experience for both consumers and advertisers, Schachter expect that more tests will find the optimal formats. One key risk is that these improvements alienate users who have come to expect a 'clean' layout from Google. Images could make the search engine page too busy. The report suggests that the introduction of new business models (CPA, comparison ads) and much broader use of images, video, maps, and sitelinks should have a meaningful impact on revenue in the fourth quarter and beyond. These "richer search ads, coupled with ongoing strong query volume and share trends, make us incrementally more confident about the outlook" for the fourth quarter in 2010. Confident that execs continue to take Google in a positive direction, Broadpoint AmTech analysts increased the fourth-quarter net revenue and earnings-per-share (EPS) estimate by 2% and 3% to $4.913bn and $6.74, respectively. Contributing to the confidence is a Nov. 24 blog post on Google's Web site explaining the significant change in the way Google presents sponsored links. Schachter seems to think Google is fully committed to the idea that images can improve its monetization strategy, while also improving the user experience and return on investment (ROI) for advertisers. The simplest way to understand how this will increase sales is by noting that these new ad formats cover a much bigger portion of the SERP (search engine results page). Images tend to draw in people more than text-only ads, Schachter explains. This should raise click-through rates. The report suggests that Google's shift in ad formats, which should bring higher CTRs, is a direct response to numerous changes taking place at Amazon, eBay, Microsoft and Yahoo. "As we have been saying for months, we have now seen more changes to the search experience in the past few weeks than we have seen in the past five years, and we expect more to come," the report says.
Black Friday online sales rose to the challenge, surpassing those at brick-and-mortar locations, but Shop.org expects sales to surpass expectations on Cyber Monday, which folllows Thanksgiving. About 195 million shoppers visited stores and Web sites during Black Friday weekend -- up from 172 million last year, according to the National Retail Federation survey conducted during the weekend by BIGresearch. Consumers spent on average less during the weekend -- about $343.31 per person from $372.57 in the prior year ago. Total spending reached an estimated $41.2 billion. Consumers spent an estimated $41.2 billion, the survey shows. The average online order on Black Friday reached $170.19 -- up from $126.04 in 2008, recorded Coremetrics, a data collection and analysis firm. People spent more time online and bought more items per purchase, but spent less time browsing. Browsing sessions dropped 5.4%. That could mean people know what they want to buy and the price they are willing to pay. On the other hand, bounce rates rose. The number of people who left a site after viewing only one page climbed 39.4%. Page views per session declined by 30.4%, according to Coremetrics, San Mateo, Calif. Coremetrics President and CEO Joe Davis says that in September and October, the company began to see a 22% increase in the average online order size, compared to last year. In November, "conversions rose 50%, compared with last year," he says, defining "conversion" as the number of people who come to the Web site and make a purchase. About 60% of Coremetrics' business comes from retail; 10% from hospitality; 10% from retail banking and brokerage; and 20% from content sites, such as Kraft Foods. The company focuses on email conversion rates and data collection and analysis that track individual visitors to a Web site. Coremetrics aggregates retail data from Abercrombie & Fitch, Bath & Body Works, Bloomingdale's, Coldwater Creek, Macy's and Nordstrom, among others. The ability to track keyword campaigns can provide retail marketers with insight into what gets consumers to part with their money. Some retailers show special deals or codes based on the traffic source, even for offline use. These provide marketers with insight into whether their pay-per-click (PPC) campaign or search engine optimization (SEO) campaign contributed to the sale, according to Kevin Lee, Didit CEO. This year. Tom Tom GPS systems, Kodak digital cameras and the Nintendo Wii took the No. 1, 2, and 3 spot, respectively, as the hottest items online Black Friday, according to credit card fraud prevention company Retail Decisions. The company reported that the busiest minute for sales Friday peaked at 12:59 p.m. EST, when $5.6 million in products were sold --up 131% from the same time last year. Consumers spent $183 million in one hour between noon and 1 p.m. at U.S. online retail stores on Black Friday, according to Retail Decisions. The company reported that by the end of Black Friday, online retail sales had reached $3 billion -- up 52% compared with last year. Searches for "black friday" on Thanksgiving and Black Friday rose more than 20%, year-over-year, according to Google. Searches for "black friday sales" on Thanksgiving and Black Friday were up by more than 50%, compared with the prior year. Leading up to Black Friday, as of Thursday, Nov., 26, the top 10 searches for products in the United States on Google included boots, shoes, nike, black Friday, dress, watches, watch, necklace, dresses and jeans, according to Google Insights for Search. The better-than-expected online retail sales experienced on Black Friday should continue through Cyber Monday. A survey conducted for Shop.org by BIGresearch suggests that 96.5 million Americans plan to shop on Cyber Monday this year, up from 85 million in 2008.
My job has lately had me producing a lot of video content for the Web, and I suppose my timing couldn't be better. Google just decided to roll out auto-captioning, which will vastly improve the accessibility of video files to search engines. And while Web videos are hardly a novelty, they're starting to influence conversations more and more. Here, then, are a few observations about what (and what not) to do when producing video for the Web. Videos Rank! One of the biggest surprises I found after producing a few videos was how quickly they ranked on Google's Video Search. While everybody and his brother have spent years optimizing their pages for Google Web search, a far fewer number have deployed video assets. While it's an overstatement to say that Video Search is virgin terrain, there's clearly an opportunity here if you have something to say -- and a way to say it with video. Does the fact that we decided to host these videos on Google-owned YouTube influence their rankings? Well, it clearly doesn't hurt. Short is Better Numerous studies have shown that Web video watchers prefer short over long-form video content. So what do you do if you've shot a 30-minute interview? Cutting it into four or five topic-themed segments, from roughly four to five minutes in length, is labor-intensive, but it's worth your while to do so, because each segment can be titled with a unique topic name, which will boost your rankings. Once you've created the clips, you can easily organize them on YouTube using its playlist system, which lets you control the running sequence of each clip. Traffic Spikes Are Great, But Plan For The "Slow Tail" There's nothing better than having a video "go viral," but this doesn't happen often. However, over time, a video that starts out with a middling performance can rack up many thousands of views over a period of weeks or months. Keep this long time horizon in mind and make sure your videos are date-stamped. Somebody watching your video a year from now won't mind if it's old, as long as you forewarn them of the recording date. Your first Web video may not nail a prospect in its first month, but a year from now may land a big fish. Think of each video you make as another "hook" in the water that may be nibbled on next week, or many months in the future. Inexpensive Productions Don't Have To Look Cheap As someone with an extensive A/V background, I'm still amazed at how powerful today's NLE (Non-Linear Editing) systems are. Adobe Premiere is preferred by many digital video professionals, but has a fairly steep learning curve. Unless your production needs are particularly fancy, you can probably achieve equivalent results with less expensive software such as Sony Vegas. There are tons of great online video production resources on the Web that can help you set up temporary or permanent video production environments. In my view, the biggest mistakes that people make when doing Web videos is failing to light properly and to produce quality audio.