MarketingInsideOut.com

A couple months ago, I stumbled on Zuula and tonight I realized I am using it more and more as my main search tool NOT only when I want to get a quick feel for how much traction a client’s marketing effort is getting online, but for most searches. Rather than needing to go to lots of sources to query results, Zuula is a fast way for me to get a snapshot overview of buzz volume and intensity. I can easily use the same advanced syntax I use regularly, but do it on all major engines, plus blogs, video, images and more…at one time and right from one common interface on Zuula.

Zuula is a meta search, which isn’t anything new because others like Dogpile and Mamma have been around a while. Some might call it an aggregator, but technically it’s not, because it provides results from each search engine separately. And that’s what I really like about it. Unlike Dogpile that mashes all the results from various sources together on one page, Zuula presents the results in tabbed format. So I can just click on each of the tabs and get the results I need. And it does blogs, video, images, news and jobs as well as web. To me the advantage of Zuula’s tabs vs Dogpile’s mashup is that I can quickly discern potential volume and reach because at a glance I can tell if Google results are heavier than MSN or vice versa.

Other things I like are:

• It keeps a history of my recent searches which helps with tracking.
• All ads are pushed to the right to clearly distinguish paid results from organic. It doesn’t have the sponsored in-line results like most aggregators.
• If you are looking for images, the image search lets you see thumbnails directly from the image searches on Google, Yahoo, Live, Photobucket, Picasa, Flickr and more.
• It is simple, and I really like the interface.

And most of all….tonight I did in 15 minutes what it use to take me 90 minutes to do. Which rocks!

The only downside is Zuula is harder to type than Google.

It’s been rumored for a couple weeks that Google will acquire Feedburner. This post says the deal is confirmed, but I can’t find any official press releases or reports. One rumor puts the deal at around $100 million, which wouldn’t be bad, considering Feedburner only raised $10 million from Ventures.

With Feedburners’ more than 700,000 feeds, this seems like a logical move and two synergies of the deal become evident right away.

1. Feed monetization – Google wants to put AdSense in feeds, and FeedBurner already puts ads in feeds.
2. Feed analytics – Google recently updated its web analytics offering, and Feedburner provides feed analytics.

Some may question this move given that Google already does RSS ads with AdSense for feeds, but I’d bet the move is for the same reason they bought Urchin way back when. FeedBurner has an outstanding feed-based analytics solutions. Acquiring Feedburner would allow Google to improve Google Analytics and Google Reader.

In Mid May Google unveiled its latest search enhancement, appropriately titled “Universal Search”. This is a major update which integrates all the Google search verticals such as Google Maps, Google Images, Google Video, Google Blog Search, Google News and more into one results page. So now when you search, relevant results from the other Google search categories will appear above the main results.

From Google’s perspective the vision for universal search is to enable a way to easily “search across all its content sources, compare and rank all the information in real time, and deliver a single, integrated set of search results that offers users precisely what they are looking for.”

From a searcher’s point of view, it makes the main Google results page more intuitive and user-centric. Through Universal Search you don’t have to go to multiple sources or different pages to find “all” relevant content. Whether you’re looking for a local business map or phone number, or trying to find a new video, it can all be done from the one place.

From a marketers perspective it has made the process of achieving high rankings more complex. By integrating all their various search options into one results area, Google has also expanded the focus of search engine marketing. Where many have focused primarily on Organic Search Engine Marketing (Search Engine Submission and Search Engine Optimization) and Paid Advertising (Pay-per-click sponsored listings), now it’s equally important to focus on other search verticals like Google Maps (Google Local), Google Images, Google Video, Google Blog Search as significant improvements in exposure will be much easier in these less competitive verticals.

It may mean more work, but with the integration of other search content at the top of the results page, it also presents you with the opportunity of getting that top ranking that might have eluded you in normal organic search engine marketing.

Universal Search is here to stay, and rest assured that the other search engines are likely to follow.
For more details, watch this Searchology press conference.

It’s been three weeks since I’ve written. Just too many other priorities that demanded full time attention day and night, but hopefully the sand is starting to settle and I can get back to some semblance of a normal schedule.

I missed writing. But what I discovered I missed most…was forcing myself to take some time every day to step back a bit from the daily grind and learn something new or analyze what this or that might mean for marketing.

It’s amazing how much changes so quickly. At the end of March it really looked like Microsoft would buy DoubleClick. But by mid April Google announced its $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick. That’s a chunk of change. Talk about creating an even stronger powerhouse. It’s cool to think of being able to see reports for search, display and rich-media banners, and any click-based media vehicles (such as newsletters, text links, etc.) all in one place.

Yet the ever larger reach, depth, breadth and overall hold of Google makes me a bit nervous. And it sounds like consumer and privacy groups are asking the Federal Trade Commission to probe the privacy implications of Google’s deal for DoubleClick. The Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Center for Digital Democracy and a coalition of state public-interest groups said Google’s collection of consumers’ search information violates FTC fairness requirements and that combining it with DoubleClick’s tracking information is an invasion of a consumer’s privacy. So apparently I’m not the only one feeling nervous.

Other things that I found interesting…

Last month there were reports, but I guess it’s official now. Nike moved some of it’s business from Wieden & Kennedy to Crispin. It sounds like its the creative work for the running-shoe business, as well as the Nike Plus. Pretty sad…I always felt Wieden’s work for Nike was exceptional and I admired the long-lived relationship. But at least they are not out altogether.

Sounds like the fumble of the month went to Blackberry. You would think a company that pretty much started the rapid-fire messaging game would have done a much better job of letting its 8 million customers know about something as big as a RIM shutdown.

In the “not the least bit surprising” category…ABC wins the clutter award. That’s why I TIVO Grey’s Anatomy. ABC was the leader of MindShare’s annual clutter report, which says the alphabet network logged 15 minutes and 38 seconds in total non-program minutes per hour in 2006.

Rosie O’Donnel plans to leave The View. Contract problems. Anyone surprised? I rarely saw the show, but admit it was fun to watch Rosie vs the classy Barbara Walters.

I missed a lot, so I best get busy in my quest to catch up.

Great story in the current Wired about how, Terry Semel Yahoo CEO and famed Hollywood deal maker (a guy who didn’t even use email), brought in back in ’01 to fix Yahoo, just doesn’t get it. All the marketing muscle in the world doesn’t stack up to the Google boys’ engineering saavy, no-muss/no-fuss, quick-to-decide/quick-to-move machine. And Yahoo’s paying the price — both in terms of declining market share and sluggish stock price. Worth a read.

Let’s face it, as Americans we love the underdog…the uplifting story of little guy made good (like that of YouTube)…we’re enthralled with the rags-to-riches concept.

Today’s purchase of YouTube by Google for $1.65 billion IS a rags to riches story for YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen…right???

Why is it then that my stomache got a bit quezy when I heard the rumors this morning and the official news this afternoon? After all, I’m a fan of Google. I have a great deal of respect for a company whose corporate motto is “Don’t be Evil”.

Maybe my feeling of unease is because they’ve gotten so enormous and plan on getting even bigger, (they do plan to expand their empire to all four corners) … or because they become so powerful and so connected/interwoven to everything worldwide.

It must be that good ole distrust of the Goliath.

There’s been chatter for a long time about the concept of a browser-based office suite and now it’s closer to reality with the announcement of Google’s purchase of Writely.

According to a story today in PC World’s Techlog:

What Google is going to do with Writely isn’t entirely clear–it says there are no plans to embed advertising in the service–but it’s yet another recent example (along with Google Base, the new Google Desktop, and Google Page Creator) of Google doing something involving being a repository for information, not just an indexer of it. (They’ve always said that their mission was to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”–maybe it’s time to add “and store it, too” to that statement.

And from Search Engine Lowdown:

What will this mean for marketers? Ad buys on the tools – besides email – that people use all day. The fragmentation of search – now we’ll be optimizing client sites so their white papers and case studies appear on the budgeting spreadsheets people are working on.

Lately, it seems like several times a week there’s an announcement of yet another Google acquisition or new product.  I don’t know how they keep it all straight.  Seems they are making significant inroads towards their goal.  But, frankly, I’m starting to get a tad bit heebie jeebie about just how far Google’s going to go.  They’re certainly not the “little” guy anymore.  “Google it” is taking on a whole new meaning…search it, write it, store it, advertise it,  measure it, buy it….it…it….it….

But you’ve got to admit, the folks at Writely sound like they’re on cloud nine — this from their blog.

Here are our “top 10″ reasons why being part of Google is fantastic for Writely and the Writely team:

10. Writely is like a caterpillar that we hope to make into a beautiful butterfly at Google!
9. We love Google’s philosophy and values — especially “Focus on the user.”
8. We’re as passionate as Google is about respecting users’ privacy.
7. Many of our users are already Google fans using other Google services.
6. Being at Google will help us do more great things faster.
5. Some people didn’t feel comfortable trusting a tiny startup with their documents…and we’re no longer a tiny startup.
4. We like lava lamps and they’re pretty much standard decor at Google.
3. Three words: Free Googleplex lunches
2. As fun as it’s been to launch a popular, global, 24×7 Web service, it’ll be nice to take a vacation once in a while!
…and the number one reason???
1. We’ll be able to bring Writely to not just thousands but millions of users — the more, the merrier 

Generally Google acts.  Others react.  So I find it intriguing to watch Google in reactive mode to rival Microsoft.

I discovered today that Google has added demographic targeting to AdWords in response to Microsoft U.S. beta launch last year of adCenter which received an A grade preview from Search Engine Lowdown (and is getting some good reviews from the pilot).  adCenter is reported to have fairly good demographic targeting abilities — with geo-targeting capability (allowing advertisers to focus efforts down to the local, city level); demographic targeting (by age and gender); time targeting (e.g., bidding a bit more during business hours); and bid matching (on exact, phrase and broad keyword matches). Two of the negatives: no content targeting, lack of Firefox compatibility.

Now, according to the AdWords help site, you can now “pick your preferences in up to three different demographic categories. The system will analyze your preferences and create a list of available Google Network sites that are popular with that audience.” Demographic site selection is currently available only for site-targeted accounts. Google is getting the data from comScore Media Metrix and is currently only available for targeting the U.S.

Hummm.   I guess we’ll have to watch the stats to see what happens.  According to Nielsen/NetRatings, as of December 05, Google controlled 48.8 percent of the search market, followed by Yahoo at 21.4 percent and MSN at 10.9 percent.  But I bet MSN is hoping adCenter will help it gain ground on Google and Yahoo.

Yahoo Search Marketing has informed advertisers that it has altered its trademark policy and will no longer allow competitor bids for keywords containing trademarks, starting March 1, 2006. To this point, as long as your competitive comparison was at least somewhat objective and informative, your ads would be approved. If your competitive comparison had false or misleading information, they would not be approved.  Competitive trademark bidding has been a bit of a gray area, but that’s now changed.