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Archive for July, 2005

PH-S8000T, Microsoft SmartPhone

18 Jul 2005

Korean handset maker Pantech announced Monday that it has launched the PH-S8000T, the first Microsoft smartphone to be introduced to Korea.

Straight from [TelecomsKorea] :

“The new phone, which is equipped with the Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition and Intel Mobile Processor, and was developed in close partnership with Microsoft and Intel, will be initially aimed at mobile professionals – “knowledge workers” – and entertainment multimedia enthusiasts.” [...]

ph-s8000t 1

“The new Windows Mobile smartphone features Internet Explorer Mobile Version, which means that users can surf the Internet using the handset, while the Microsoft ActiveSync system allows users to synchronize information stored on their personal computers. Integration with Microsoft Outlook also means that users can access and update their personal email and schedules.”

ph-s8000t

450.000 KRW make this baby yours. [in dollars] [in euros].

via [Engadget]

 

The Future Of Search

17 Jul 2005

GoogleBlogoscoped reports that Google CEO Dr. Eric Schmidt discussed “Perspectives on the Information Industry” at the University of Washington. The 1-hour recording from May 26, 2005, is available as Windows Media or Quicktime file.

From the ResearchChannel :

“In this special colloquia, Dr. Eric Schmidt, chief executive officer of Google in Redwood City, California discusses the information industry and Google’s approach to innovation. Dr. Schmidt has a 25-year record of achievement as an Internet strategist, entrepreneur and developer of great technologies. Since taking the helm at Google, he has focused on building the corporate infrastructure needed to maintain Google’s rapid growth as a company and on ensuring that quality remains high while product development cycle times are kept to a minimum. Previously, Dr. Schmidt was chief executive and chairman of software maker Novell, and before that was chief technology officer at Sun Microsystems.”

Keynotes :

Each wave of technology creates a set of new companies that then become iconic. New companies represent the next wave, and each wave is bigger than the previous one.

IBM had its mainframes and solved data-processing problems for major corporations, Intel and Microsoft together brought PC’s to individuals and homes. Google is associated with the internet. And more specifically ‘what you can build on top’ of internet.

Eric Schmidt points to a satellite map from ‘earth by night’, but then with a global night. He points out lighted spots around the world and explains these lights are caused by ‘electricity’. The map that shows Google’s internet penetration is about the same. Google is wherever there is electrical current. So… If you’re wondering about places that don’t generate search queries etc, you should first check if there’s any electricity at all.

As for evolutions : The US nearly generates 1/3 of the search entries in Google, the rest is of foreign origin. The future belongs to China, the largest market yet to become fully integrated.

Funny remark : Google’s most entered keyword is ‘Britney Spears’, but it has 490 different ways of spelling. Google has a very complicated code that ’suggests’ the correct spelling. That’s a good thing to wonder about. The spelling corrector is a universal thing. For all supported languages. What a keen invention to always have the right answer at hand and to recognize misspelled entries. Excellent piece of code.

Google’s biggest problem is the heat caused by the many computers. The location of Google’s infoplexes are also in the places with the cheapest electricity. I think one day, Google will own a powerplant to generate it’s own electricity. Just in case the world didn’t produce enough to power the searches.

About Google Video :

(only) 10% is porn, leaving 90% of the uploads to be verified.
The biggest problem is the low/bad quality of the uploaded movies.
Only 10% (of the 90% remaining) is of a decent and usable quality.

Schmidt also points out the development direction of Google’s personalized homepage, possibly integrating video and imaging in the near future.

The Future of Search

Search goes beyond the web. It’s a market that includes movies, books, radio, television, everything printed or written, all the journals…

Yahoo! is cross integrating relatively propriatory content networks.
MSN isn’t a significant player yet, but Schmidt pointed out they’re planning to embed search in every single bit on a pc screen. Be aware.

Google plans to index the world. Pure search, large scale, no own content.

Interesting issue at : 54′50”

NYT is starting to charge for editorial content, …
“In a world where companies realise that they actually have a chance to make money from content, does Google then become middleman for that content and involved in the charging [...]?”

You should listen to Schmidt’s full reply for this one, it’s in the last minutes of the event, but it’s a very good point. Essentially it comes down to this :

The NYT has the right to use the traffic Google is sending to its site for ‘upselling’. There’s no harm done in that. Schmidt points to the example of the WSJ, of which Google publishes enough content to make you interested, and then refers you to the WSJ where you have to sign up and become a member. That’s the process of upselling.

via [GoogleBlogoscoped]

link to the video on the [ResearchChannel]

 
No Comments

Posted in Search

 

Comparison Shopping With MSN Shopping Beta

16 Jul 2005

MSN Shopping BETA officially launched today increasing the number of stores by 60x, the number of items by 5x, and the number of offers by millions and millions. The full rollout will take place over the weekend.

Brian Smith talks with Chris Jolley, Group Programming Manager of MSN Shopping about the launch.

“Today is the day Microsoft has entered the comparison shopping space. We’ve put a ton of investment into building a better shopping comparison tool. [The site] is our recognition that this is how consumers want to shop. Microsoft has always been good at building great technology. A great selection without a good way to find a product is bad. A great tool with no selection doesn’t help either. We’ve coupled technology with a broad selection of products and merchants. This is a case where 1 + 1 = 3.”

“Right now we are using Pricegrabber, but we have also increased the number of merchants we’re working with directly. The long term the strategy is to explore and investigate ways to bring in relevant offers to consumers. We are launching with Pricegrabber because of the number of merchants they have and the ratings they have. Our relationship gives us a jumpstart in terms of ratings and reviews so we aren’t starting from scratch. We are also taking feeds directly from our own merchants.”

What makes MSN Shopping different?
“The combination of great technology with a new comparison shopping engine coupled with expanded selection. [The 'great technology' refers to PriceGrabber as well as the comparison shopping tool that MSN Shopping built internally, which brings in the various data feeds]. Search refinements are also a huge feature. Consumers can refine the searches by relevant criteria and details and are able to sort by price, rating, popularity, names, etc. This enables them to find what they are looking for quickly and easily with confidence.”

“Another thing that sets us apart is the time and effort we put into merchandising some of the key categories of the site. Great examples of this is are our Seasonal Guides & Shops and our Gift Center. These are especially helpful for people who know that they want to buy something but don’t know exactly what.”

Try out the Beta [MSN Shopping]
via [SearchEngineWatch] and through [ComparisonEngines]

 

WinMobile Torrent For PocketPC

16 Jul 2005

WinMobile Torrent is a sophisticated and easy-to-use BitTorrent client that allows you to leech and/or seed multiple torrent files.

A very special feature in WinMobile Torrent is the capability to view the progress of an individual file within the torrent and extract it when it is completed without having to wait for the torrent to be fully downloaded.

It supports multiple simultaneous downloads with various functions to manage downloads and peers in a very user-friendly interface.

  • Easily open, copy or paste a torrent file from Windows Mobile file explorer or open it from Pocket Internet Explorer’’s download dialog.
  • Organize all torrents that have been processed into one single directory.
  • Display over all and individual leeching/seeding graphics.
  • Expand download item to view all its peers and their connection status.
  • Log view and file to track download activities.
  • Add, connect, disconnect or delete peers.
  • Pause and resume download.
  • Check tracker’s scape information.
  • Display individual torrent’s block status within any file in the torrent.
WinMobile Torrent

From [GeekZone]

More product details, a list of compatible devices and a price? [Here]

 

Claria, Behavioral Search & RelevancyRank

16 Jul 2005

Claria, the company formerly known as Gator, is getting into the search game with a forthcoming site that will use searcher behavior rather than link analysis as a primary measure of relevance. Claria recently came in the news because of the buyer’s interest Microsoft was showing for the company.

From the press release :

“The technology incorporates basic metrics such as click rates, as well as critical post-click metrics of consumer behavior – such as time spent viewing a site, number of pages viewed at a site, number of return visits to a destination Web site, historical interests based on Web-wide surfing habits, and conversion behavior. While in the past Claria utilized RelevancyRank technology solely to benchmark and evaluate other search engine results, this alpha release marks the first time this technology has been incorporated into a search engine platform.”

Read it in the [Claria News Room]
[SearchEngineWatch] also has more info on the RelevancyRank.
From [SearchEngineRoundtable] :

“RelevancyRank is a revolutionary search capability that ranks Web pages based on consumer surfing behavior. The technology incorporates basic metrics such as click rates, as well as critical post-click metrics of consumer behavior – such as time spent viewing a site, number of pages viewed at a site, number of return visits to a destination Web site, historical interests based on Web-wide surfing habits, and conversion behavior.”

Microsoft should have taken this bet. There’s a lot of usable technology here they missed out on by passing on taking over Claria. It could have been a revolution for MSN, and there could have been a lot of tools that Microsoft could have used to complete it’s service platform. Especially from a marketeer’s view, Claria has a lot of ‘research’ possibilities that could gather a lot of crucial consumer information.

If Microsoft passes on Claria, will their apps become marked as ‘hostile’ again by Microsoft’s AntiSpy? Will the downgrade become undone?

Related Stories :
MICROSOFT PLANNING TO TAKE OVER CLARIA
WHENU IS LEGAL
SECTOR SPYWARE : BEN EDELMAN VS WHENU ETC
TAKING ON A $6 BILLION MARKET WITH BEHAVIORAL ADVERTISING
HOW GOOGLE TURNED TO BEHAVIORAL MARKETING

 

Pixsy, Extraterrestrial Image Search

15 Jul 2005

Spiders crawl the web to find photos. Pixsy, however, accesses special collections of images on the Internet that cannot be crawled by spiders. Pixsy searches blogs, mobile blogs (“moblogs”), social networks, and other sites that have unique content. The result: photos not found anywhere else on the web.

Pixsy.

“Find the unique photos the other search engines miss” – [Pixsy].

via [GoogleBlogoscoped]

 
No Comments

Posted in Search

 

BlogStorm Ogilvy – Roundup

15 Jul 2005

About the blogstorm. Personally I think it’s a great and daring idea from an interactive marketing bureau to take the step and interact in real life with bloggers about how to approach a target group through a medium that’s new and unclaimed by marketeers. It shows of(f) great respect for the blogging community and its active writing members. I for one was glad to have participated, and I really hope this was just the beginning of cool things to come.

It’s the best marketing related infotalks I went to ever. The unique concept, the warm welcome… Ogilvy, you talk the talk, and you walk the walk. This must be a great company to work in. If you get the freedom to set up a brainstorm like this with such a moderator… I tip my hat off. Really. Respect for your attempts to try to merge a decent campaign with a new trend. This is how it’s done. Let all marketing companies worldwide that want to use blogs as a marketing tool in the mix take an example of your approach, because this is the way to do it.

Marco, I have enjoyed your moderation of the brainstorm very much. The presentation was really interesting, and I’m going to blog some more articles about some facts and statistics from it. There’s a lot of useful and valuable information in it that I can use for further spin-offs. Thanks a lot for a great time. It’s so cool when you learn stuff while having fun. I was a reader of your marketingfacts already, but now I’ve become a fan.

Same goes for Hans. I think there’s a lot of things we could change thoughts about, and that could lead us to some pretty farfetched but realistic predictions. I look forward to meeting you again. It’ll be sweet. Meanwhile, I’ve signed up on your rss. Feed me knowledge.

Thanks to Franky for hosting the event. Good presentation. Really liked the topics you took us through before noon. Very nifty. I picked up some things that I missed one way or the other, and it kind-of-completed some stories and events I couldn’t connect to each other before. Thanks for the insights. Very good deskresearch.

I’ll have to add a lot of links in the sidebar, but that’s for the next update. I’m thinking of a full-feed to please Bart.
I’ve dropped the caps in the RSS to please Cindy and Luc, and possibly many others who didn’t ask me about it. Okay. I was just lazy. I’ll confess. It’s better now, I think.

The Who Was There List – with urls where possible.

Other Ogilvy members that have attended the talks :

Geerlinde (OgilvyInteractive Brussel),
Wouter (OgilvyInteractive Brussel),
Wim (OgilvyInteractive Brussel),
Philip (Ogilvy Brussel),
Bas (OgilvyInteractive Brussel),
Rutger (Ogilvy Amsterdam),
Niels (Ogilvy Amsterdam).

Bloggers :

Marco W.J. Derksen from [Marketingfacts] – » [Marco's presentation]
Hans Mestrum from [Tulip] | [Hans on Experience]
Bertrand Weegenaar from [Blogmania]
Steve Stiffbone & Henry from [VK-Mag]
Stephan Fellinger [Blogo]
Hilde Van Dijk [Blog]

Bart de Waele from [Netlash]
Luc Van Braekel [Blog]
Frédéric from [Druppels]
Polskaya [Blog] + [Moblog]
Maarten Schenk from [SixApart] | [LiveFromBrussels] + [Blogologie]
Cain from [ZatteVrienden]
Clo Willaerts from [Bnox] + [Wilt]
Cindy De Smet from [Doppler] | [Gent.blogt] + [Smetty]

Technorati tag : Blogstorm.

Flickr Tag : Blogstorm.

BlogStorm

 

BlogStorm Ogilvy – Ethics, Marketing, Blogs

14 Jul 2005

The second issue on the Ogilvy BlogStorm was concerning the ethical approach of blogging and the blogophere. What can companies do? Should they do it, and if so how should they do it? What shouldn’t they do? Are there rules? Who sets these rules? What’s the position of marketing and how can marketeers use this new channel in order to reach out to their consumers in an acceptable way? How can you deal with ‘the blogosphere’ if people are writing about you? Let’s line up some different opinions.

First we must clearly state that there are four players in this field. The blogger, the company, the marketeer and the consumer/reader. Each player has its own system of values, of opinions and rules. A consensus must be found between these four in order to determine the right direction to guide your project into.

Consensus is very difficult to achieve, because there will always be people who dislike something because others like it. Criticism will always exist. A golden rule is to keep your readers close, but your critics closer. ALWAYS perform ego-searches to find out what others are saying about you, about your products or services.

The discussion at Ogilvy’s pointed out to me that there are as many opinions about advertising or marketing through blogs as there are bloggers. Therefor, what Bart from [Netlash] pointed out has some serious value : Basically, you’re going back to one-to-one marketing. Direct Marketing. If you’re planning to get involved, do it in a very personal way. Honesty is the only way to harvest respect.

Another confronting conclusion for marketeers is that with the growth of the blogosphere, the changes in the field of marketing fundamentally mark the relocation of ‘power’ from the marketeer to the consumer.

So let’s line up some different ideas :

I’m a company, I have a product and I want to ‘do something’ with blogs. How does that work? First of all, try to predict the outcome of your actions. The blogosphere is a place of open communication. Blogs are means to communicate. But the big difference with regular websites is that with blogs, communication goes both ways. Communication becomes interaction.

Ask yourself :

- Is this product worth interacting about?
- Will it generate additional values for my brand/product(s)?
- Will those values help accelerate my product’s growth cycle?
- What is the target group I want to reach, and do they surf?
- Are there ‘other but likewise’ projects online from competitors?
- What was the blogosphere’s reaction to these blogs?
- Is this what I’m aiming for? What can I learn from this ?

Verify for yourself, if you’re about to blog :

- Is my product ok ? Is it working ? Are there problems ?
( be sure bloggers will discover it, sooner than expected )
- Am I honest ? Do people know I’m marketing a poduct ?
- Is there a way to interact ? Can it be moderated ?
- Is the content original ? Make sure you’re not imitating too hard.
- Is the concept structurized enough? Anticipate ! Think ahead.
( don’t start a marketing blog if you don’t know where it’s heading for )

Learn to use things like Technorati, del.icio.us and Google (or Yahoo) to track info about yourself or competitive companies. It’s a must !

I’m a marketeer, I don’t have a blog but hey, I can pay others to blog my content. How does that work? It doesn’t if you don’t come clean with it. People will find out and your brand will suffer from it. But there’s no shame in sponsoring a blog. As long as you do it legit.
Provide the blogger with correct information and materials, but never send in preformatted text, unless it’s an official press-release the blogger can quote from. Authenticity is very much appreciated, so is freedom of speech. If there’s something wrong with your product, than it’s not the bloggers fault, and you can’t keep him from blogging the thruth. Isn’t it normal that you need to deliver a product that’s flawless? I think it is. Sure, there can be some problems, and then you can use the blogosphere to help you fix them. That is called beta-testing. There’s absolutely no shame in that. Just be honest about it.

So, ok. I’m an honest marketeer (heheh), and I have a product I want some people to blog about. Now what? Aha. You have an interesting product? Great. Contact me and I’ll check it out. But don’t spam it around. Don’t send it to 10.000 people at once. That’s not how it goes. Then you’ll get bad publicity from the start. Here’s some rules :

- Select a limited number of blogs you want to ‘leak’ the news to.
- Contact those bloggers, one by one.
- Ask them if they want to receive mail about your new products.
- Be polite, think of it as communicating with your clients.
- Be aware that you’re opening communicative channels. Act like it.
- Provide correct data. Bloggers hate liars and cheaters.
- Provide NEW things. Things to come. Make it worth blogging about.
- Don’t go around positively commenting on posted items. We’ll know.
- Stand back and enjoy the ride. If you’re product’s fine, you’re all set.

I’m a blogger, and I hate marketing blogs. I hate those stupid characterblogs. It’s fake, it doesn’t feel right. I’ll protest against it. How to deal with this attitude ? What if your brand is blogging and some hate-comments pop-up in your search queries? Pretty easy. Either you don’t react, if the situation doesn’t call for it. People have the right to differ from opinion. If the blogger is spreading false thruth (read lies) it’s recommended to react. Do it corporately. Be brief, direct and to the point. Counter the lies with facts and leave your best regards. Express your feelings of sympathy for his point of view, but clearly state he’s wrong and prove it. Ask him to communicate, to interact. Start a dialog. Invite him to explain is griefs personally. Leave the name of a representative, with an email address. That’s all. Never EVER engage in emotional backfiring. That’s not done. Do not post false replies in the comments as anonymous user or guest or with a nickname. If the IP gets tracked to you, you’ll hang, even if you’re right. Honesty, transparency, devotion. Keywords to cherish. Counter the lies with the truth. It can’t be more simple.

If the blogger is right, don’t hold back. Interact. Express your feelings, do something about it. Customer Service is the your greatest concern now. The faster you help this blogger, the better your company’ll look. Mistakes are inherent to mankind. It’s in our nature. Dealing with those mistakes in a proper way however, makes all the difference. Mistakes are opportunities to improve yourself, your products, your business. State clearly you appreciate the fact this blogger pointed out the error, flaw, shortcoming of whichever nature. If his language was aggressive, find out why. Don’t make the same mistake twice. Dig this out, and straighten it out. With the highest priority.

To the hater/blogger : It’s just like with the websites in the beginning of the internet. The select few always feel endangered by ‘the others’. This sort of technology-egoism should be gone by now, you’d think. But it isn’t. With what right do those bloggers claim the blogospere to be theirs? If marketing is done in a good way, there is absolutely no reason to be hostile against it. I agree with you that spamlogs aren’t ok. That unethical blogs should be removed. But surely, there can’t be any harm found in trying to use a popular medium to reach out to your consumers in a trendy, original way. It’s up to the marketeer to make it work. And if you don’t like it, disney.com is just six characters and a ctrl-enter away.

To the marketeer : A good tip : If you want to release a product and are thinking of promoting or supporting it with a blog, it’s a big advantage to have a blog already. It gives the new blog backup and very needed credit.

Never hide the fact that you’re doing marketing things. There’s no shame in that. How else will people find out about your product? It has always been a tendency of marketing to follow technology very closely. Whenever new means of communication are discovered, very shortly after it marketeers will have found a way to use this technology for promotional benefits.

The only thing the blogosphere is afraid of is the pushing, overtaking personality marketeers tend to have. Bloggers fear the blogosphere will become saturated with marketeers who try to trick the readers into buying things or signing up for things.

Never forget
blogs are meant to be informative, interactive and user-aimed. You’re dealing with an audience that is very sure of what it doesn’t want. Make sure you have things they want. Info. Fresh, relevant info they can comment on. Keep your audience happy.

How about editorial advertisement? What with content-placement? Be warned and very, very careful. Inform yourself about the audience, the blogger, the blogosphere. Never get into this if you don’t have a clue of how things work in blogoland. You need to fully comprehend how to interact how to react, how to prevent. Otherwise consequences might be hard and merciless.