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INT Media Group's Largest
Search Engine Conference and Expo to be Held in Boston Next Month
New
York, NY - February 14, 2002 - INT Media Group, Incorporated today
announced that its Search Engine Strategies 2002 Conference & Expo, slated
for March 4-5 at the Boston Marriott Copley Place, will be its largest and most
comprehensive event to date in this successful series. Moderated by Search
Engine Expert Danny Sullivan, this two-day event features a variety of new
topics and tracks including the keynote - What Searchers Seek by Aaron Schatz,
Writer of the Lycos 50, Lycos - along with Understanding Paid Inclusion,
Purchasing Paid Placement Listings, Managing Paid Placement, Converting Visitors
Into Buyers, Writing for Search Engines, Search Engine Marketing Industry
Issues, Case Studies, Ask the Portals, Selecting a Search Engine Marketing Firm,
Search Engine Legal Issues, The Spam Police and other top-rated sessions that
have been updated from earlier events.
...Searchenginewatch.com |
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NFO Prognostics Enhances
Sun Microsystems' Customer Research Platform with Leading-Edge ASP Technology
SANTA CLARA and SAN
JOSE, CA - February 12, 2002 - NFO Prognostics a global leader in IT
customer research and consulting, and the Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Customer Advocacy Office announced today an ASP-enabled research program
designed to bring new levels of data-driven discipline to assessing real-world
impacts of Sun's Customer Loyalty programs. The effort is distinguished by
the deployment of leading-edge ASP technology to gather, analyze and report on
customer loyalty information.
Sun selected NFO Prognostics RAP (Research Analysis Program) System as
the most comprehensive research-technology package available and one that most
closely aligned with Sun's strategy to run its business on the Net. The
Prognostics RAP System includes an interactive portal designed to offer clients
real-time results using an intuitive, easy-to-use interface and navigation
layout that works on any platform at any time, anywhere in the world. Under
the relationship, Sun will access NFO Prognostics' servers over the Net via a
browser interface - eliminating the need to code HTML by hand or install new
software. In addition to the ASP technology application, Prognostics will also
provide Sun research expertise to support its customer data fielding and
qualitative interpretation efforts.
According to Rich Hegeman, Sun's senior manager for the Customer
Loyalty program, "One of the main objectives of Sun's Customer Advocacy
initiative is to build up Customer Loyalty into a recognized best practice at
Sun. To do this, we are going far beyond traditional seat-of-pants approaches
and basing our efforts on objective, data-driven methods. The NFO Prognostics
RAP System offers an outstanding solution for this purpose, and its status as an
ASP-based solution cuts costs, maximizes convenience and aligns with Sun's
overall philosophy of leveraging web-based services to boost real-world business
process productivity."
Sun will use the NFO Prognostics ASP technology to quickly assess how
customers feel about products, services, and account management. In addition to
real-time reporting, Sun managers can access customer loyalty data from
virtually any offsite location, including a customer's own site.
...NFO Prognostics |
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Netmining launches
HitsIntoMetrics for comparative click stream analysis across multiple websites
Leuven, Belgium - 12
February 2002 - Netmining, a Leuven-based developer of software for
e-Business Intelligence (e-BI), is proud to announce the launch of "HitsIntoMetrics".
The latter is a modular software solution whereby large companies can, from a
business perspective, analyse, comparatively, the visitor traffic or 'click
stream' its various websites are getting. Thanks to that analysis they enjoy
ready access to detailed statistics about the number of surfers that visit their
websites, and they're able to compare the analytical data from the different
sites on a consistent basis.
Lexmark, a leading supplier of printers, used HitsIntoMetrics
commercially on its worldwide websites, during the trial phase of the product.
HitsIntoMetrics is - after HitsIntoLeads - the second powerful solution, from
the Netmining stable, for customer-centric e-BI.
Large companies often possess a suite of websites with identical
content elements, which may be dotted over several countries. Valuable
information can be gleaned from pooling and comparing the flow of visitors to
those Internet addresses (URLs). This is because companies are able to ascertain
which pages of web content have a lot of hits and those that don't. They can
also measure the results of marketing campaigns and adapt them where necessary.
Such a comparative click stream analysis isn't that simple. The websites of
firms in different countries do, admittedly, as a rule, showcase the same
products and services but they're based, unfortunately, on dissimilar technical
standards and/or systems.
"Managers and communication specialists have a need for
statistical feedback about their websites and Internet initiatives that are
under way in different countries," said Maarten Van Laere, Netmining's CEO.
"In practice, however, that has proved difficult because websites are often
based on dissimilar technologies and/or subscribe to another URL classification
system. But now - thanks to HitsIntoMetrics - global analysis is 'pie in the
sky' no longer. Our open-system software has already found favour with several
multinationals."
...Netmining
Editor's
comments:- I talk to a lot of marketers who don't have the time or technology to
analyse their web site data. You can learn a helluva lot, and gain valuable
insights, but you do need the right tools to make it possible. I've recently
been looking at analysing data from merging the logfiles from our own various
portals, and that was very timeconsuming... The Netmining tools sounds
like a useful marketing aid for those of you for whom the web is not your
business and like shortcuts. |
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Search-Engines Can Link Via
Thumbnail Images - Says Court Ruling
NEW
YORK – February 11, 2002 – Sorceron, Inc., parent company of
Ditto.com, today announced support for the ruling made by the federal Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals in a landmark case regarding the use of copyrighted
images on the Internet. In the suit, Leslie A. Kelly v. Arriba Soft
Corporation (now Ditto.com, Inc.), the Court ruled in favor of the "fair
use" of thumbnail images under copyright law by Ditto.com, developer of the
world's leading visual search engine. Rather than text links, search criteria
entered on Ditto.com returns miniature "thumbnail" images which link
back to the original content. Mr. Kelly, a photographer, asserted that the
display of thumbnail images used in visual search technology infringes upon an
image's copyright and fails to protect artists' rights. Dismissing Kelly's
assertion, the Appeals Court—affirming the decision of the United States
District Court for the Central District of California—ruled in favor of
Ditto.com.
"We were aware of the existing lawsuit during negotiations over
the acquisition of Ditto.com, but it seemed to be of little merit—which the
courts proved today," said Jonathan Prince, CEO, Sorceron, Inc. "As an
inherently visual medium, it's essential that the Web and associated visual
Web-search technologies continue to flourish, while ensuring that the rights of
content creators and their works are appropriately protected." ...Sorceron
Editor's comment:- the
ruling shows that it's legal for a search-engine to link to your site via a
resized logo thumbnail. However, if your company is a VAR, this ruling does not
entitle you to fill your web pages with logos from manufacturers unless you
have their permission. Different law applies here, related to trademarks, and "passing
off". But for search-engines the ruling is a major milestone. |
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Avoid the "Dead
Company" Web Site Syndrome with Tactical News Content
February
7, 2002 - we all use hidden clues to judge prospective suppliers, but it's
important to realise that other people look at your web site differently to the
way that you do. As editor of some high volume computer portals the first thing
I do when checking a press release I want to run, is go to the original web site
to see if I can link to a full version of it over there. (That's useful for my
readers who may want to see more information than the few sentences or
paragraphs which I run.) You may or may not be surprised that when I go to those
web sites, the most up to date copy of any press release I can find is maybe 1,
2 or 3 years old.
Now... I know that the company is alive and well, or
at least well enough to be writing press releases. So, if your company of one of
the offenders you may reasonably ask:- "what's the point of paying a web
person to put all this news stuff on your web site?" The reason you wrote
it, is because you want people to see it in news sites and portals. All the
editors you care about have been sent a copy, so why waste money?
Well
there are lots of reasons, but I'll give you just one today.
Suppose a
potential customer finds your web site via a directory or search-engine. Before
wasting too much time contacting a person in a company which may or may not
still be alive and kicking behind that web site, they'll probably have a look at
your news page. If the latest news is 2 years out of date, it's reasonable for
them to assume that your company is dead, and there's no point in going any
further. So... onto the next site.
You may think that's unfair. But
hey, these buyers have wasted enough time already on other moribund sites and
companies. There are zillions of dead computer sites on the web, and in some
cases I know of, even the web hosting companies have lost track of who the dead
ones are when they get acquired by an even bigger web hosting company. And if
the original web master did one of those 5 to 10 year registration deals which
Network Solutions was offering a few years back (I've got the T-Shirts from that
promotion) those dead web sites could linger for a very long time.
The
solution to the problem is simple. Even if you only have a tiny web budget,
update the news page at least once every 6 months. If you do nothing else on
your web site, showing that the company is alive will increase your conversion
rate from the web. But if your home page still has all that Y2K stuff on it,
then maybe your company is beyond redemption. |
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2 Years Ago This Month - HP
Spins off DeepCanyon
February 6, 2002 - In the first week of
February 2000, HP spun off its dull web marketing resource site DeepCanyon. By October that year it
sank. But if you go to their web site today, you'll see a great cartoon titled "I
can't believe how much money it takes to fill that thing!"
For
copyright reasons, we don't reproduce it here. But it'll bring a smile to your
face, and the DeepCanyon home page also lists a bunch of market research
resources.
Of course the real reason for most dotcom failures during
2000/2001 was that their costs were too high. The lowest cost or most efficient
producer in any market always has an advantage. That applies to web sites as
much as it does to computers and everything else... |
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Reasons to Advertise in the
Battered Sun Market
February 5, 2002 - the Sun Microsystems market
has been better... and could take 2 years to get back to its peak revenue. So
why is now a very good time to look at
advertising in the
SPARC Product Directory?
Well, the market could grow 10% this
year, but some segments were growing faster than that all through last year.
Also Sun buyers are doing more supplier research than ever before (measured by 6
year peak pageviews) and that benefits advertisers.
Here's something
to think about:- during the US IT recession starting from September 2000 right
upto today (a 16 month period of doom and gloom for most IT vendors) our
advertisers, as a group, performed significantly better than the market as a
whole. In fact during all that time, only one of our advertisers went bust (that
was a dotcom startup whose plug was pulled by their VCs at the start of last
year). That's not a bad record, and is just one of the many reasons to look at
web advertising in the current market conditions which I discuss in our updated
SPARC advertiser page. |
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AltaVista Desktop Search
Can Unlock Mission-Critical Data in Your Email
PALO ALTO, Calif. -
February 04, 2002 - AltaVista Software, a division of AltaVista Company
today announced the general availability of AltaVista Desktop Search.
AltaVista Desktop Search is an advanced productivity application that drives
user efficiency by providing fast, highly relevant search solutions for
individual desktop and laptop computers in the enterprise-computing environment.
Available immediately, AltaVista Desktop Search enables maximum utilization of
information stored on personal computers by offering a collection of user-driven
controls that deliver broad search and retrieval capabilities and deep email
crawler functionality while supporting the navigation of more than 225 different
business file types.
Acknowledging the mission-critical nature of email as a dominant form
of business communication, AltaVista Desktop Search delivers superior email
crawler functionality, empowering users to find important data and potential
business opportunities buried within thousands of email messages and discussion
threads. The email browser function of AltaVista Desktop Search delivers
requested information sorted by content keywords or by attributes such as "cc",
"to", "from", folder and date range. AltaVista Desktop
Search is available through www.solutions.altavista.com
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When's the Best Day to
Issue a Press Release?
February 4, 2002 - A new
article on MarketingViews looks at the best day in the week to issue a
press release, from the viewpoint of an editor of a high volume B2B portal.
It also looks at the best and worst days in the year. |
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| today's news etc from
MarketingViews | |
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Other news on this page
INT
Media Group's Largest Search Engine Conference and Expo to be Held in Boston
Next Month
NFO Prognostics Enhances Sun Microsystems' Customer
Research Platform with Leading-Edge ASP Technology
Netmining launches
HitsIntoMetrics for comparative click stream analysis across multiple websites
Search-Engines Can Link Via Thumbnail Images - Says Court Ruling
Avoid
the "Dead Company" Web Site Syndrome with Tactical News Content
2
Years Ago This Month - HP Spins off DeepCanyon
Reasons to Advertise in
the Battered Sun Market
AltaVista Desktop Search Can Unlock
Mission-Critical Data in Your Email
When's the Best Day to Issue a
Press Release?
earlier news (archive) |
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View From the Hill:- Differentiating Storage Appliances
with Software and Services
How many different ways can you sell a
box with disk drives and a bunch of interfaces?
The future of most
storage manufacturers depends on answering this question.
As the
storage market gets bigger and standardisation sets in, many of the industry's
pioneers risk being displaced by new entrants using consumer marketing
techniques to commoditise products which were once seen as being specialised
solutions. As we've seen in other markets, commoditization increases the size of
the market by lowering prices for end users and making solutions affordable to
more people (CDs being just one example), but along the way strong competition
and learning curve pricing tactics mean that few vendors will make any profit.
One
doomsday scenario for the storage market is that it will segment into
about a dozen companies.
In this vision there will be one major
company which dominates each major segment:- portable systems, desktop, and
rackmount systems. Within each segment the market leader will have a dominant
market share, and their competitors will have to fight it out for small niches
such as higher performance, ruggedisation, or style factors like color...
Another
view is that it will be like the PC market, with thousands of small
manufacturers and a handful of big ones, and almost no one making any money.
You
might ask the question:- How can you differentiate a storage appliance and make
your product unique? (while being compatible with every relevant standard) and
at the same time persuade a customer that it's worth spending more money on your
box rather than Brand X which is 10% cheaper this week?
The answer to
that lies in software and customer service.
Let's fast forward to 2004.
I want to buy a home entertainment system which will replace my
current household mish-mash collection of Dell PC (through which I currently
watch satellite TV, videos and DVD, and which has better speakers than my so
called "hi-fi"). The new system also has to replace or work with
various generations of Sony gadgets and MP3 players...
I'm busy and
don't have much time, so I go to the web site of the Rodent Consumer Storage Box
Company which lets me select whatever movies and music I want factory preloaded
onto the box when I get it.
Click - maybe individual
selections from the current top 100 DVDs and CDs - or maybe just an entire group
like Arnold Schwarzenneger movies since Conan The Barbarian, or just a set of
Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals. I'm running out of space to store individual CDs
and books and DVDs in my house, and one day I'd like to reclaim my garage, so if
I can buy a preloaded collection at a web discounted price of 50% then I
probably won't bother looking for my favourite CD in my car, or my wife's car,
or the office. I'll just click to get another copy on the new system. After a
few clicks on the shopping trolley, I realise that the price of the 1 terabyte
home entertainment storage box is just a small part of my total order. But then
I think of all the money I saved by waiting another year before buying my plasma
TV monitor, and hey, the recession ended last year... so what the heck!
Now
you may think this is a little far fetched. And if you're the kind of person who
buys PCs today without the operating system pre-installed, then this may not be
for you. But think about the advantages for the rest of us...
- the box company gains because their adverage selling price
is 2 to 3 times higher than just the hardware on its own
- the software companies gain because selling factory
installed software reduces their losses from piracy, and has very little
incremental cost
- the customer gains, because they get most of what they
really need in one go, and don't need to waste any time shopping around or
installing software.
The same goes for NAS, SAN and other storage systems. In
fact, if your company's backup is via iSCSI - you should probably be able to buy
your new storage systems with your company data and applications already
preloaded...The company which lets you do that first - will have all your
attention.
A future in which diverse storage companies thrive while
saving their customers money is indeed possible. The lowest cost hardware box
may not be the winner in this particular race, if the marketing department can
get their act together in time. This may even be a a good time to talk up that
dotcom experience in your resumé. And as for the terabyte storage box
in the home? Well maybe 2004 is a little too early, but it's coming..
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