In a really interesting move, Yahoo! has announced that BOSS (Build Your Own Search Service) is much more open than ever before.
The impact of this is that everyone can now access the Crawling and Indexing power of a major engine, meaning that the ability to bootstrap an extensive search experience is possible.
AdViking likes the fact that BOSS is very web2.0 in it’s proper definition.
AdViking believes that the opening of BOSS proves that Search needs to be an infrastructure/platform/service that is widely distributed to enable all the different potential applications that people cook up.
AdViking looks forward to seeing what the impact of this bold move will be and how Live Search and Google will respond.
It appears that AOL’s Platform-A may be on the march forward. The news is that that they have landed the inventory from the TMI display business which includes the Cartoon Network.
This might not be that major of a win (more of internal sale rather than new business) considering the association between the companies but AdViking has heard that Platform-A are out pitching the integrated story excellently. So regardless of the truth of the probable patchwork state of the platforms, they are out there making it tough in pitches for Google and Microsoft.
The AdViking scouts are hearing from unofficial but reliable sources in the field of battle that both Miva and Vibrant Media have made staff layoffs in Europe during Q2 2008. This is regrettable for the employees who are getting their pink slips (or P45s) and we hope that all good people find rewarding and fulfilling employment quickly. Alas, AdViking is not hiring for our latest adventure. At least it is summer and a good time for a bar-b-q and some strong ales.
We do want to note that we believe these layoffs are a sign of the general slow down due to the economy and perhaps the natural advertising cycle. However, we do not believe that the online ad spend is going down overall, only that the spend pattern will migrate to the bigger and better quality sites (like portals) or ad networks and rich media channels (ie, video) - all while we watch online advertising out pace TV advertising in the UK. And is predicted in general to grow around 20% or a bit less depending on what report you read. Those players further down the food chain and/or offering poor products (and traffic) will suffer. We fear that many established players as well as start-ups in the ad space or with ad funded models will be forced to trim back and some will perish. This is a time when it is going to be safer at the head of the long tail of advertising.
On a related note we were reading the UK NMA this week which is touting a story titled “Portals drop ad rates to fill space” (note: paid content, best save your money) and we don’t buy it yet - the idea that spend is shifting away from portals or that their is price pressure. The article goes on to imply that display (banners, brand advertising - which matters!) are being impacted first and that as spend tightens it is shifting to ROI or direct response products. AdViking thinks this is a poor strategy by media buyers as it will only drive up the cost of media or clicks on the likes of AdWords and that then pushes ROI down. Down a rat hole of DR chasing Google’s tail… All media buyers please re-think this strategy, try to get that right mix of spend and help prove the NMA story wrong. Anyway, digital is the king of advertising now. Long live The King!
Following on from Canada Day celebrations, AdViking came across the news this morning that Google snubbed their Great White North neighbours and didn’t have a specific logo to note that it was Canada Day. AdViking might suggest that this is a bit of hubris and could be just the thing for the Publishers to rally the Canadians around to stop using Google.
As part of the celebrations, AdViking noted that the throwaway comment about Yellow Pages books being recently distributed in the A Fuller View post about Local Internet Driving Tons of Traffic. And can ?happily? report that plenty of the books are lying around unopened just waiting to put in the bin (recycling hopefully).
Post-Script:
Thanks to D, the post-script on this one is that below is the 4th July 2008 holiday image Google went with…more bowfingers to the Canucks from the mighty Google?
An interesting interview over on Fastcompany.tv with the CEO of casual gaming ad network company Mochi Media. AdViking is not sure we even know what ‘casual gaming’ is all about, but even though it may sound a bit rude – its an interesting emerging area in the digital advertising ecosystem… Hey, we managed to get the words gaming, casual, emerging, ad network and ecosystem all into one short post. We would have included the video but wordpress is stripping out the embed code for some reason - so you can VIEW IT HERE.
AdViking has good days and bad days when pondering Social Media and sometime this means quitting Facebook and sometimes heavy use of Twitter. Generally, the main point is that we are in the early iteration of the what and how of Social Media and we’ve got a long way to go before it’s all pervasive and delivering true value to the user.
Recently came across Charlene Li’s deck on the Future of Social Networks on SlideShare and thought it was worth sharing as some solid consolidation of thoughts flying around the ether. i.e.:
The youth are all ready heavily into this stuff (e.g.: Club Penguin)
Your Universal ID has to be easier to use
AOL, Google, Microsoft will be coming hard into this space
Obscene Valuations?
Anyway, onto the main point and that is there’s a lot of debate if the valuations the Social Networks are getting ($15bill Facebook, $1bill LinkedIn, $850mill Bebo, $580 mill MySpace) are just crazy and more proof points that we are on the cusp of bubble2.0 or are just fair indications of value.
There have been some recent work in just this area that is useful to ponder.
The later piece is the real interesting one to digest, mainly as they start from looking at a wider set of networks, use comScore data for the traffic and also the recent PWC ad spend numbers. And though Arrington is the first to admit there’s some flaws in the model (e.g.: LinkedIn comes out low but the actual traffic could be considered high value), you can still take it as a starting point based on some data rather than just plain rhetoric.
At AdViking central, debate is encouraged. The knee-jerk response to the previous post and article in Precision Marketing from these quarters is: “I.T. aren’t they just there to take orders for sandwiches and make sure that things don’t go wrong?”
And, yet, we’ve all been in those meetings, where the Marketing Manager, or worse still, the M.D. has a bright idea. A fantastic idea that would make the business rule the world… if it were possible. Which it isn’t. And then a little cough from the corner, the I.T. Director suggests very gently that Marketing has lost its’ marbles and Marketing suggests that I.T. needs a shave… and then it all gets ugly again!
The problem is this: that although most Marketers know what they want to communicate, know what looks good and are pretty strong at getting a marketing strategy in place - and are definitely the best people to lead the process… but they don’t know the limitations of what is (or isn’t) possible and that’s where they fall down.
To solve this problem we need to work out what we need out of the Perfect Online Marketer:
Good at Marketing (obviously)
Experientially knowledgeable of the limitations of hardware and software
Instinctively aware of the importance of user experience
Plugged into all the metrics and analytics required to tell them whether they’re doing a good job
In short: they need to know what technology can do for them.
So, for us, the perfect online marketer would be Commercial but a bit of a Nerd! And, if you can’t get that type of person, then I guess make sure I.T. is stationed as a sanity check for the more ludicrous ideas.
My favourite was from a Corporate P.R. who was upset about a pressure group who was bad-mouthing a clients’ products:
“Can we just virus their site?”
Oh, yes. Why didn’t we think of that… get I.T. onto it right away!!
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Yahoo!, search | Tagged: search, strategy, Yahoo! | 
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Posted by simonbaptist
– its an interesting emerging area in the digital advertising ecosystem… Hey, we managed to get the words gaming, casual, emerging, ad network and ecosystem all into one short post. We would have included the video but wordpress is stripping out the embed code for some reason - so you can 
