Here's your chance to work for Google... Or rather, volunteer. Google recently unveiled a new service (if you can call it that) called Google Image Labeler, which pairs you up with one other random person on the internet to try and add labels to random images.

It goes a little something like this: You start each round with a new parter and 2:00 minutes on the clock; Google delivers the same picture to both of you. You both type in as many adjectives (labels) about that image that you can think of with seemingly unlimited guesses. When you and your partner both type the same description, you are awarded points and move on to the next picture. After the 2:00 minutes is up, you are given your points total and the ability to start a new round.

Google will undoubtedly use the results from these "trivia" games to enhance it's image search results. It never fails to amaze me just how innovative Google can be in coming up with creative ways to enhance the accuracy of their search results.

After all, why pay an army of programmers to come up with a near-impossible image-detection software when you can turn it into a trivia-game and have people all over the world participate for free?

A Federal Judge last week dismissed a motion by Google (GOOG) to dismiss a copyright infringement lawsuit brought on by American Airlines in August.

American Airlines is suing Google for letting competitors and internet marketers bid on trademarks owned by American Airlines in Google’s highly lucrative AdWords search advertising program.

Bidding on trademarked keywords means that competitors can show their own advertisements. What this means is that if someone did a search for “American Airlines” on Google, you will see competitors advertisements in the “sponsored results” portion of the page.

American Airlines says that buy allowing marketers to bid on their keywords, Google is in violation of trademarked terms, monetizing these keywords for themselves while taking business away from American Airlines.

Google had this to say in their request for dismissal:

"Advertisers and merchants in America regularly target their competitors' customers, seeking to capture their business for themselves," the company argued in its motion to dismiss. "Drugstores place their generic ibuprofen next to the Advil," the company added.

It should also be noted that Google does not currently allow competitors to use the actual name of the trademarked-term in the ad. For example, while a customer is allowed to bid on the phrase “American Airlines”, they may not actually use that phrase anywhere in the copy of the ad.

What could this mean for Google bottom line? Currently, 65% of Google’s revenues come from sponsored search results. We have no way of knowing for certain, however I would assume that a very large portion of that – upwards of 90% -- come from marketers competing on keywords that consumers associate with their competitors.

If AA is triumphant in its lawsuit, this will be devastating for Google, and will be a huge loss for everyone; Google, Consumers and Marketers.

It will be a loss for Google, obviously, because they will lose extraordinary amounts of revenue.

It will be a loss for Consumers because we will lose the ability to have easy access to alternative products, prices and market competition.

It will be a loss for Marketers because we will be stripped of our ability to be competitive in the marketplace and will lose the new customers that we wouldn’t otherwise have access to.

I can’t think of one good thing that can come from American Airlines winning this suit. Can you?

I meant to write about this a few weeks ago, but it slipped my mind.

A local company called Sierra Bravo is putting on a little "fun" raising event called the Overnight F1 Web Challenge, in which a bunch of Web designers and Developers will stay up all night putting together a Website for a non-profit or charity. From their Website:

One part geek Olympics, one part community service project and one part race-against-the-clock—Sierra Bravo’s F1 Overnight Website Challenge will partner deserving Minnesota non-profits with teams of talented web developers for 24 hours of fun collaboration culminating in a fully operational website for each participating non-profit.

I think this is a great idea on a few levels. First, it puts experienced Web dev people, who often cost quite a bit of money, right smack in front of non-profits, which are often strapped for cash. Second, it puts a bunch of Web geeks together in a room together, which is always a good time. Third, it's an opportunity for people to make some connections and do a little networking.

Accelerated Content Management

The first thing I would do is slap up a content management system (I'm a big fan of Drupal). This will allow the non-profit you're working for to easily maintain the Website after the challenge is over. Also, a content management system will allow the integratio of modules for advanced functionality and a custom theme in a relatively short amount of time. Using a well-known CMS will also make it easy for the non-profit to get technical assistance and help down the road.

One great thing about Drupal is that their are already a bunch of Modules built that work great for non-profits. I'll highlight a couple drupal modules that will help any non-profit here. These tools are freely available as open source tools that run on the widely-supported Drupal platform.

CivicCRM

CiviCRM is a powerful contact, fundraising and eCRM system that allows
you to record and manage information about your various constituents
including volunteers, activists, donors, employees, clients, vendors,
etc. Track and execute donations, transactions, conversations, events
or any type of correspondence with each constituent and store it all in
one, easily accessible and manageable source.

Find out more at: http://civicrm.org

Donation Module

This is a module for accepting donations via Paypal.

Paypal IPN is used to capture the donation information and store it in the database.

Donors and the amount donated are shown on a Donors page. If the
user is logged in while donating, a link to their profile is shown on
the donors page.

Find out more at: http://drupal.org/project/donation

So, you've been wondering what Microsoft (MSFT) has been up to in order to stay competitive in today's tech arena. It has, in fact, been up to something: an online document storage service.

Microsoft recently announced the launch Office Live Workspace, which allows users to store, share and collaborate your offline Microsoft Office documents via their online service. (Yawn.)

Attention Microsoft: this isn't what users want or need. This service may have had some use a few years ago, but it is clear that we are rapidly moving toward a Web-based Office world. Adobe seems to understand this industry trend with their recent acquisition of Virtual Ubiquity.

What do users want, and how can Microsoft stay competitive in a rapidly changing industry? To answer that question, I think it's a good idea to understand that Microsoft is in many different industries; some it's excelling in, and some it's not doing so well in. Upon closer examination, it only makes sense that Microsoft should operate independently in the different sectors of the industry that it's currently in.

Microsoft's Hypothetical Future: Organizational Spin-offs

In order to maximize their effectiveness and effectively compensate shareholders, Microsoft should start spinning off its divisions into separate organizations. This type of break-out was rumored during the lawsuits in the late nineties, and I think it makes mores sense now than ever.

Here's a look at what these hypothetical spin-offs might look like:

Microsoft OS - Vista, Windows Server

The operating system has always been Microsoft's #1 flagship product behind the Microsoft Office suite. Vista will ultimately be their largest-selling operating system of all time... Within the next decade, however, we will begin to see a major pull away from desktop-based operating systems as Web-applications become richer, more fully-featured and more services are made available online.

Microsoft Gaming - Xbox Platform, Gaming, Xbox Live

The Xbox has been a tremendous success for Microsoft. Fueled by Blockbuster games such as the Halo series, which puts most block buster movies to shame (Halo3 did $170M in sales in the first 24 hours) this is a market which can only continue to grow.

Microsoft Network - Live, Search, Maps, Web Portal & Online Content

Microsoft should take all of it's online initiatives and put them here, consolidate MSN and Live into one brand, and then hire the best and the brightest to ramp it up. This is where Microsoft needs the biggest help; they are always a step behind here, playing catch-up every step of the way. Most of their online initiatives are laughable, and these are problems that money can't fix; they need to start looking at recruiting top-talent and innovation or they will always be another "Me Too" player in this arena.

Microsoft Applications - Microsoft Office (online and off), IIS, Encarta, Sharepoint, etc.

Microsoft Office is the most well done, successful office suite in the world, and while I don't think it's going away anytime soon, I do think it's days are numbered in its current form. Similar to the traditional Desktop OS, the Microsoft Office suite is not yet on life-support, but with web-based office applications gaining in popularity, Microsoft really needs to be putting more effort into porting their applications online if they want to survive. Microsoft should make it a major initiative to take a look at all of their current off-line software and begin figuring out what makes sense to move to the web, and what doesn't.

Microsoft Developers - Visual Studio, .NET Framework, SQL Server, etc.

Microsoft is very strong here. Thousands of companies rely on Microsoft's .NET development tools to build Websites, Web applications and off line desktop applications. This has been a successful product offering from Microsoft and has created tens of thousands of IT jobs around the world. As more companies build out more technical services, Website enhancements, etc., I can only see this sector getting bigger in the years to come.

Microsoft Business Services - Consulting Services

Technology Consulting and Support is another area of business that has done well for Microsoft, not only because they push Microsoft products but because their consultants are so well versed in bridging the tap between business and technology, which is a problem that all modern businesses face at one time or another.

Conclusion

In order for Microsoft to stay competitive, it needs to become more agile and able to adapt its business toward future trends. Microsoft's current cash cows, the Windows operation system and the Office suits, will no longer exist in their current form in 10 years. Some of Microsoft's other offerings will only continue to grow, and some will be on their way out their door unless some major progress is made soon.

I think many of Microsoft's lagging business units have accounted for their rather lack-luster performance in the last year. Analysts have been going crazy comparing Microsoft to Google without really examining what inside Microsoft Corp. is working, and what is not. If the market focused on what Microsoft has been doing right as an organization I think shareholders would be feeling a little better about their current situation.

Information Week has reported that a new startup Yield Software has launched a 'Google Optimization As a Service' Offering.

First, I must preface this by declaring myself a search-marketing 'expert'. I get the industry, very well. And, I find a lot of things wrong with this service. I don't believe SEO will ever be a 'service' as described.

I'll respond to the article on a few points:

1. First, there's the search engine optimization, where Yield scans your Web pages for keywords associated with content,
applies its library of best practices, recommends changes, and, if you
want, makes those changes.

Scanning web pages for keywords, after the keywords have already been applied, is sort of like saying 'Hey, I see you've already backed a Vanilla cake, but perhaps you should have gone with chocolate.

Proper SEO strategies will analyze what you are trying to rank for before building a content around keywords. A better service would be to have the client/customer type in a few keywords that they would like to rank for, and then suggest a plethora of topics and related keywords.

2. Second, through graphic representations of
what's hot and what's not on your site, Yield helps you understand how
to organize content for increased effectiveness, i.e. page views.

You don't need graphics to show what's hot and what's not; simple analytics/metrics will do this for you. Also, more progressive internet-markters (myself included) will argue that more page views doesn't necessarily equal better experience; in fact, it can mean quite the opposite.

If people are on your site, clicking around for something that they can't find, you may have a poor UI or information architecture; while this may work well for information-based sites that sell advertisements based on page views (I hate this model) this could mean a lost-sale for Websites that are directly selling products/services.

Either way, this isn't SEO; it's Web Analytics. You can take Analytics metrics and apply them to your SEO strategies, but this isn't SEO.

3. Third, Yield automates the process of choosing
how to spend your marketing dollars on key words. Say you've got $5,000
a month to spend on pay-per-click key words. Yield will determine which
key words will give you the most bang for the buck and on which search
engines. A later version of this service will support pay-per-click
banner and video advertising placement.

 Here they are talking about Search Engine Marketing (SEM), or paid/sponsored results, which is different than SEO, which concentrates on organic results. The article states the Yield will give you the biggest bang for your buck, and will suggest where to allocate your marketing dollars. There are already several third-party solutions that do this, and I believe any mid-sized company with a PPC budget probably already uses such tools.

If they don't, or they are blindly spending PPC dollars without allocating them to their most successful keywords or ad groups, they really need a professional SEM.

Conclusion

On paper, Yield Software's offerings sound promising, but it's simply not realistic. For one, they don't seem to have any in-house SEO campaign of their own; I can't even tell what they're trying to rank for, aside from they keyword 'Yield Software'.

Second, they don't seem to have any sort of effective PPC campaign for their own services; none that I could find, anyway.

Third, they have no 'success stories' on their Websites of clients who have had success with their services. Who have they worked with, and who have they helped rank?

Fourth, no blog? Really, an internet marketing company that doesn't have a blog? Tsk Tsk...

My prediction: if they have a competent sales, team they make money, however their clients, unsatisfied with their results, will eventually leave them and go to search consultants who can actually help them.

Adobe (ADBE) has aquired Web-based office software company Virtual Ubiquity.

Virtual Ubiquity, based out Waltham, MA, the company behind Buzzword, and online word-processing collaboration tool. This acquisition throws Adobe in the same arena as Google and Microsoft, who have in recent years unrolled their own online office-like collaboration tools.

The news broke yesterday by Josh Catone of ReadWriteWeb, who had this positive feedback regarding Buzzword:

...after playing around with Buzzword for the past couple of days, I'm nearly ready to trade in Microsoft Word -- nearly. I've been long hesitant to trade in my faithful Microsoft Office suite for Zoho, ThinkFree, or Google offerings, but Buzzword addresses a number of my niggling concerns and even manages to do some things far better than Microsoft does.

What makes Buzzword different? It's the first online word processors written entirely in Adobe Flash, meaning that Buzzword can take advantage of the rich application tools and technologies that Flash offers. This always means that broad user-adoption is more likely, as the web-based application will more closely resemble the off-line products that consumers are more accustomed to using.

Josh always raises the question: is Adobe planning a larger push into the Web office space? My guess: Most definitely.

The real question is how will they monetize their new services? Will they bundle it with the rest of their Creative Suite? Will they offer it a free Web-based Ad-supported service?

At the time of this writing, Adobe's stock seems unmoved by this news which could potentially change the direction this company goes in the future in a big way.

Adobe's press release available here.

It's still a great time for those of us in Internet Advertising. eMarketer just released its latest US Advertising study, which compares overall advertising from the first half of 2006 to the first half 2007. The study found that total ad spending fell 0.3% in the last year to $72.59 Billion USD.

While it may be a depressing time for marketers and agencies in offline media, things are looking excellent for the online advertising industry.

Let's analyze the results:

Television Advertising is down 2.4%
No surprise here, really. Cable TV was up slightly, but overall brands are continuing to allocate less to traditional television ads.

Magazine Advertising is up 4.6%
Thanks in large part to a substantial increase in Hispanic, Spanish-language magazines, ad spending was up for magazine advertising as a whole.

Newspaper Advertising is down 5.8%
The major decline in newspaper ad spend continues to decline, which is probably a direct reflection of people moving away from tradition newspapers to online media.

Internet Display Advertising is up 17.7%
The upward trend in allocating more ad dollars towards online advertisements continues. This number includes only display (banner) ads and actually excludes paid search advertising, which is obviously a huge budget allocation for advertisers as well. This enormous jump only further the point that brands are finding potential, value and a positive ROI from online display advertising.

Radio Advertising is down 2.7%
I personally attribute this decrease to a shrinking traditional radio audience; as people become more savvy, listening to podcasts/digital audio will become more commonplace in the car or on the go. In the home and office, Internet radio will continue to draw people away from traditional radio.

In summary, the general theme of this report is while the overall advertising economy may be pulling back, we are making substantial gains in the Internet/New Media arena. A notable citation:

"For the first time since 2001, media advertising expenditures have declined for two consecutive quarters," said Steven Fredericks, CEO of TNS Media Intelligence."

This trend will not only continue, but will become more rapid over the next few years. While I believe that traditional television is safe for the foreseeable future, Newspaper and traditional Radio advertising will plummet at even faster rates.

Yes, it's an exciting time to be in Internet Marketing.

For years, Google's AdWords advertising program has been the de-facto standard for a contextual advertising platform. Getting setup with AdWords is a snap: Name your camapgin, name your ad groups, select your keywords and Wah Lah! -- You're advertising to a very highly targeted audience via the Keywords you selected for your campaign.

Other big players, including Microsoft with their adCenter platform and Yahoo! Search Marketing have been making strides, however nobody has created a contextual advertising platform to rival Google's; until now.

Facebook Flyers

Enter Facebook's Flyers Pro program. Flyers Pro is Facebooks new in-house, contextual CPC program. While it doesn't have quite the number of features AdWords does, it does have something AdWords does not: the ability to target not only by keywords but by users interest, hobbies, careers, workplaces, colleges, etc.

Take a look at a sample screen:

That is some pretty phenomenal targeting if you ask me. Previously, targeting down to this level was limited to the huge ad platforms such as DoubleClick or BlueLithium and was dismal at best, because these technologies attempt to build your profile around browsing behavior; Facebook's targeting technology is superior because it's far more accurate as users voluntarily edit their own profiles to include information such as interests, hobbies, places of employment, etc.

An added benefit to advertising on Facebook; the extremely minimal amount of competition (currently). You're CTR is almost certain to be lower on Facebook's Flyers platform than AdWords, however the clicks cost much less and from experience, Facebook users are converting at slightly higher rates than AdWords.

I plan on doing a follow-up post on the Flyers program after I have more empirical data. For now, this platform looks to be extremely lucrative and a very-welcomed addition to the arsenal.

I know it's not a big thing, but I just noticed that Google actually utilizes some .NET pages, which is a Microsoft Technology. I just think it's kind of funny. Here's a link to a busted .NET application:

https://survey.google.com/Default.aspx

And just for fun, an IIS 404 error page on the Google domain:

https://survey.google.com/wix/404.htm

Perhaps the title to this entry would better read "Free Internet Services, brought to you by Google's Advertisers."

I've had several interesting conversations over the last couple of weeks regarding Google's future. With all of the buzz circulating about the Google Phone and Google's intention to bid on FCC's 700mhz spectrum January 17th, Google, more than ever, seems to be positioning itself as the worlds gateway to fast, free, anywhere, any time information.

Google hopes to dominate the mobile search industry as they have the in
the traditional/desktop search world. With Google search, comes Google
Advertising. Yesterday, Google announced that AdWords advertisements
will begin appearing on mobile search results, which will eventually be great for advertisers, but the amount of people using mobile search vs. traditional search is minuscule.

How can Google go about getting more people to use adopt internet-enabled mobile phones and utilize Google search?

Simple: Give people free internet.

The Free Mobile, Advertising-Supported Internet

Is a free, Google AdWords supported mobile internet a possible reality? Of course it is.

Let's take a look at traditional television. Network television is a free service distributed over airwaves to people all over the country, monetarily supported by advertising dollars.

Think of Google Internet as broadcast television from 60 years ago. Google has done it's homework and has realized that by building a large, free internet service, the uptake of it's new service by consumers will be so huge that they will ultimately make more via advertising dollars.

Is There A Down Side?

There is, of course, a potential downside to a free internet service. In this model, Google controls when and where those advertisements are seen. I think that there is a real possibility that Google could/would insert advertisements into every facet of your internet experience.

What if Google began injecting AdWords advertisements into Web pages that didn't have any advertising to begin with? This is an interesting concept and one worth discussing.

Hurry Up and Wait

Of course, all of this is speculation at this point. Google has yet to confirm anything other than the fact of their intention to bid on the spectrum. They have made no official statements on their intended use of the spectrum. They have not publicly confirmed the existence of the Google Phone, although at this point there is too much evidence that such a phone is in production.