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Yahoo! Gives Update on Home Page Testing
Yahoo! says they’re at the end of the first stage of testing their home page. As a result, they’re making 25 additional apps available for the “My Apps” section. Included are apps for Forbes.com and Wired.com.
In the works are ways to more easily access email and instant messaging. Also, the dark color that was initially used on the left sidebar didn’t test well, so now they’re testing other colors.
Testing for the new home page began last fall. Apps were actually added to the Yahoo! home page last September. An eBay app was made available last November.
Veoh Launches Slick Video Search Browser Plug-In for Firefox and Internet Explorer
Online video site Veoh has launched a nifty new video search browser plugin. The plugin is called the Veoh Video Compass and is available for Firefox and Internet Explorer.
Here’s how it works:
Once the plugin is installed, conduct a search. You can use Google, Yahoo, MSN Live and Live Search, Ask.com, AOL, Wikipedia and YouTube (pretty sneaky way to try and steal a little market share!).
The plugin will also work with searches on Amazon, BestBuy, Walmart and eBay. This is an awesome way to find a video review of a product you’re considering. (And as you’ll see in a minute, you never browse away from the original page.)
After your results come up, click on the Veoh button that’s newly installed in your toolbar area. (Sometimes it’s blue, sometimes it’s grey.)
The Veoh Video Compass will load and show you videos related to your search. You’ll also notice a horizontal bar of suggestions related to your search. Click the button in the toolbar area to hide the compass.
You can scroll for more videos by clicking the arrow on the left.
Once you’ve selected a video to watch, the video is pulled off, but a dark yet transparent background shows you haven’t navigated away from the search page.
What do you think of the plugin? Let us know in the comments.
Related Reading:
Judge Rejects Universal Music’s Arguments in Another Veoh Copyright Case
Judge Throws Out Copyright Infringement Suit Against Online Video Site Veoh
Internet TV Startup Veoh Networks Names ex-Yahoo Mitgang as CEO
Veoh Hires Sales Vets from Dow Jones and Google
Yahoo Gets Into the TV Business (Kinda), While TiVo Gets Into Search (Sorta)
The news coming out of this year’s CES is turning out to be a showcase for the way things are changing for the internet, which in turns affect how people use search (for both searching and marketing).
First, Microsoft had its major Live Search announcements. Then, we saw a device with Android to compete with the iPod Touch.
But another major topic is the merging of TV with the Internet. This isn’t anything new, it’s just getting cooler. You or your grandma may have used Web TV before. Remember those good ol’ days? But it’s online video sites like YouTube and now Hulu which are really driving the convergence.
Electronics companies such as LG and Samsung are debuting new televisions that are Internet connected. Yahoo is taking advantage of the opportunity.
Yahoo has developed a Widget Channel for these new devices. The channel is powered by their Widget Engine. Developers can create widgets to enhance a viewer’s TV watching experience.
Here’s what a Yahoo! weather widget looks like:
eBay, CBS and MySpace have widgets on the channel, with more expected soon from Netflix, Twitter, the New York Times and more.
“Yahoo! has combined key attributes of the Internet, including openness, community, and personalization, with the power of television,” said Patrick Barry, vice president, Connected TV, Yahoo!. “By creating this revolutionary new Internet experience, and combining our technology with the global distribution of major consumer electronics partners, we enable consumers to access the relevant information and content to enhance their television watching experience.”
Last but not least, TiVo has updated the search on their digital video recording service.
“What Google did for the Internet, TiVo is now doing for the TV, bringing people a combination of excellent search results and innovative discovery that can’t be found anywhere else,” said Tom Rogers, CEO and President of TiVo. “TiVo has always been known as the best way to watch what you want, when you want it. Now we’re taking that to a new level, using TiVo technology to find just the right program from hundreds of channels and thousands of broadband options, all in seconds. It is clear TiVo is leading the way in providing more choice, and also leading the way in finding content quickly. TiVo Search is a new way to find what you’ve been missing.”
With the marriage of TV and the internet, TiVo could rise as a player in search.
What do you, dear reader, think about these new developments? Share your thoughts on the convergence of TV and the internet in the comments.
Has eBay Hit The Wall Or Is The Economy The Reason
Motley Fool has reported that holiday spending at eBay this year is lower than last year, despite the fact that one would expect them to be a good source of lower priced gifts in these hard economic times.
Meanwhile Amazon has reported higher sales numbers over last year.
Are people forgoing secondhand for discounted new items? Or is there another reason eBay is being bypassed?
To truly see what is happening I would like to be able to track the number of sales being done through Craigslist. Given you have to generally pay for shipping when buying through eBay, is it possible people are going through Craigslist to save the shipping and increase the buying power of their total dollar spend?
If we had these numbers maybe they would give eBay a way to continue their growth potential.
Online spending did have a spurt for the last weekend before Christmas as we reported the other day.
Could eBay have another growth spurt if they made localization easier to organize? Right now they have hit a wall, but it could be one they can move by making the interface a little more intuitive for new users and add better access to local auctions.
If you guys over at eBay use these ideas don’t forget to drop a few bucks in my Paypal account.
Microsoft to Announce Second Quarter Earnings January 22, 2009
Microsoft will announce second quarter earnings (their fiscal year begins July 1) on January 22, 2009.
A live webcast will be available at 2:30pm PST at http://www.microsoft.com/msft.
It will be interesting to see if anything is said about Cashback and its affect on Live Search. In November came word that the program was working. But a glitch on Black Friday turned some Cashback customers sour.
Still, the program expanded to offer instant Cashback on eBay purchases made via PayPal.
Of course, Microsoft is much more than a search company, but with recent hires coming into the company from Yahoo, we’ll be looking for any statements made about search during the call.
Yahoo! Unveils Social Inbox and Open Features for Key Products
Following quite closely in the footsteps of AOL’s Bebo, Yahoo! has unveiled a new version of their email inbox, which incorporates social media. Starting with a limited beta release, Yahoo is opening Mail up to third-party applications such as Flixter, Wordpress, and Xoopit.
Continuing on the theme of opening up products, Yahoo also announced advancements in the following products:
- My Yahoo! – Starting today, My Yahoo! can be enhanced by adding applications created by third-party developers. The aps will range from productivity tools to games, and will infuse My Yahoo! with new social relevance. A new My Yahoo! Theme API lets third-party designers create themes for My Yahoo! pages
- Yahoo! Toolbar – Next year’s new toolbar will be available for a sneak preview later this week at toolbar.yahoo.com and will provide constant access to online tasks and news. Features include:
- Apps for checking new email from Yahoo! and other popular Web-based email providers, monitoring or searching for items on eBay, and finding local movie showtimes
- Alerts that notify a user about Updates from their personal connections – including their friends’ recent activity across the Yahoo! network and eventually, elsewhere on the Web.
- Personal search suggestions that surface the sites a user has visited and provide vertical search results directly from the Toolbar.
- Yahoo! Updates – This new feature will allow users to quickly check their updates across the Yahoo! network, such as a recently Buzzed article, a hotel review in Yahoo! Travel, adding a new app to My Yahoo!, or a rating on Yahoo! TV. Earlier this fall, Yahoo! has already begun displaying activity updates in Yahoo! Messenger and Yahoo! Buzz. Activity updates from other social sites across the Web will be included in the coming months. The Yahoo! Updates platform is also available as an open API.
What do you think of the Yahoo! announcements? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
Related Reading:
Will Social Networks Become the New Inbox?
Yahoo is Planning Home Page Redesign
Yahoo Launches Location-Based Open Source Application, Fire Eagle
Live Search Offers Instant Cashback, Responds to Black Friday Glitch
After a Black Friday blackout, Live Search is responding to the glitch and also offering a new update: Instant Cashback.
Cashback was down for about three hours last Friday and Live Search explained why with the following three reasons:
- A significant spike in traffic caused the system to go down for several hours on Friday
- The downtime was partly related to investigating the issue and partly to rebuilding and redeploying the databases and indexes that support Microsoft Live Search cashback.
- The issues that caused Friday’s problem have been resolved. We’re confident we won’t have further problems.
Contact Live Search support if you want to recoup your Cashback monies.
The new Instant Cashback is available via PayPal for eBay purchases. It will not be available for all users and you’ll only know if you’re one of the lucky ones after you make a purchase. If you’re not, then you’ll still get your Cashback deal in 60 days per the original plan.
Related Reading:
Incentives Work: Microsoft Seeing Positive Results from Cashback Program; Partners with Shopping Cart Providers
Live Search Cashback Launches Back-to-School Rebates
Live Search Cashback Now Available for ebay “But It Now” Products
Preparing for the Worst: Bad Online Economic Data Just in Time for Black Friday
It’s the day before Thanksgiving, where you show up at the office, but you’re really thinking about tomorrow’s good meal. You’ve worked hard to set up those search marketing campaigns to run strong on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
So, I really hate to bring you the bad news, but keeping it from you would be a disservice.
Let’s just rip off the bandaid.
First up, eMarketer has lowered its projections for online advertising spending for 2009. The new growth number is 8.9%, down from 14.5% projected in August. They’re also expecting a long recovery, projecting 2010 growth to be just 10.9%. In five years, things will still be slower on the uptake (than in recent years). Projections for 2013 growth are at 13.5%. Silver lining: some of the tapering off is likely due to market saturation and not just the economy.
Next, eBay’s traffic is declining. In January of 2007, eBay saw 62 million unique visitors. Last month, they saw just 49 million. Sure, not all of that was due to the economy, but dipping below 50 million can’t be good for eBay.
I saved the worst for last. comScore has released data showing that online consumer spending for the first 23 days of November was down 4% from last year. That’s not a slow down in growth people, that’s flat out shrinkage.
But I’m not a total Scrooge. Unemployment numbers were better than expected this week. And at least one Slate columnist explains why fears of another Great Depression could be overblown (let’s hope he’s right!).
As we overdose on turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie, let us not forget the ultimate strategy for marketing, business and life in general: Hope for the best but prepare for the worst.
Related Reading:
Selling SEO During an Economic Downturn
E-commerce Growth Slows to Just 1% in October 2008
Online Advertising Networks Struggle As Industry Growth Slows
Yahoo! Adds eBay Application to Home Page Test
Yahoo! has been testing a new home page design. Last week, we saw images and learned more about the user interface.
This week, Yahoo! has announced the addition of an eBay application to the home page test. The app is included on the left hand sidebar along with tabs for stocks, movies, local events, etc.
Check it out:
Incentives Work: Microsoft Seeing Positive Results from Cashback Program; Partners with Shopping Cart Providers
It’s easy to pick on Microsoft. It’s practically a national pastime at this point. So when they announced their Cashback program to help grow Live Search, the snears came fast and furious.
“You have to pay people to search?” they said.
Turn your laughter into claps, people. It turns out that Cashback is working. Microsoft is seeing positive results on three goals it said it would report. They are:
- Number of offers in the system
- Advertiser return on investment (ROI)
- Percentage of commercial search queries as measured by comScore
There’s been a 30% increase in the number of products offered via Cashback. 4.5 million unique users per month are generating 68 million commercial queries. eBay has seen an increase of 50% on their ROI.
“We believe this early traction speaks to the differentiated and unique value proposition of Microsoft Live Search cashback for both consumers and advertisers, especially in these tough economic times,” said Brad Goldberg, general manager of Microsoft Live Search.
Is it really any surprise that incentives work? No. Have you ever been listening to the radio and they’re having a $1,000 giveaway? You have to be listening at the right times to call in.
Incentives are nothing new. Microsoft was smart to implement them into Live Search. People don’t necessarily use Google because it’s any better but because it’s familiar. Live Search needs a way to get people searching, and Cashback is working to help accomplish those goals.
That may be why Microsoft is expanding Cashback by partnering with shopping cart providers Miva Merchant, Early Impact Inc. (ProductCart) and 3DCart. Through the agreement, merchants who use the shopping carts are eligible for Cashback.
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