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Posts Tagged ‘Google’

Google can’t do it all: a call for content curators Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

I have been reading quite a bit of late about the concept of content curation, a term coined by marketing strategist and blogger Rohit Bhargava to describe the role of “someone who continually finds, groups, organizes and shares the best and most relevant content on a specific issue online. The most important component of this job is the word ‘continually.’…  (It is s)omeone whose job it is not to create more content, but to make sense of all the content that others are creating. To find the best and most relevant content and bring it forward.”

He writes that, “In the near future, experts predict that content on the web will double every 72 hours. The detached analysis of an algorithm will no longer be enough to find what we are looking for…. The future of the social web will be driven by these Content Curators, who take it upon themselves to collect and share the best content online for others to consume and take on the role of citizen editors, publishing highly valuable compilations of content created by others. In time, these curators will bring more utility and order to the social web. In doing so, they will help to add a voice and point of view to organizations and companies that can connect them with customers - creating an entirely new dialogue based on valued content rather than just brand created marketing messages.”

Robin Good writes on the Master New Media blog, “I think, that at least for now, curating content is the one thing that Google can’t take your place in doing. When it comes to researching, selecting, picking, editing, juxtaposing, illustrating, complementing, referencing, crediting, commenting and introducing, Google can just pack its stuff and go home.

“….Unless there is a growing number of active newsmasters, content curators and editors/publishers checking, digesting, filtering, grouping and organizing information inside vertical information silos you will be either submerged by information or you will be left behind when it comes to staying on top of the information you need to operate in your field.

“Business-wise, content curators could also offer an interesting marketing opportunity and a new business model that makes a lot of sense to me.”

Meanwhile, Australian digital recruiter David Jackson writes on the Digital Ministry website, “There are already a few people performing this task for companies, and it will only grow in importance. The problem I see with content curating is that most companies find it hard to place much value on the role. Although it requires a skill set that combines the sharp mind of a research analyst with the communications flair of a journalist and the commercial nous of a marketer, curating content, like creating content, often attracts a wage more akin to a junior administrator.”

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Search remains strong in a struggling Australian economy Thursday, February 5th, 2009

When Australians were trying to decide how to spend the Federal Government’s Christmas economic stimulus, it’s clear that their first stop was online.

Google search enquiries in Australia during the Christmas and new year period grew by more than 50% in some categories when compared to the same period in 2007/08, B&T has reported.

Searches for banks and financial institutions rose by a massive 74% from November 2007 to November 2008 and credit card searches achieved a 24% spike in December 2008 from the same period in 2007.

Google recorded growth of 36% in searches overall for shopping and Christmas-related categories in December compared to the same period in 2007 year, with food and drink searches growing by 48 per cent. Searches for apparel were also up by 46% on last year, followed by photo and video equipment searches (42%), mass merchants and department stores (41%) and computers and electronics (34%).

Real estate-related searches rose by 41% in December, while travel-related searches were up by more than 36% and automotive “deals” achieved 24% growth over 2007.

Google Australia general manager Karim Temsamani told B&T that brands need to be wary about not having an online presence. “The worst thing for a brand is to be talked about from a word of mouth perspective or to have an ad on TV or other media, and then for the consumer to go online to find that product and it’s not there.”

Google also revealed that search volumes for January are up 20% on last year.


Collaboration is the future Monday, November 3rd, 2008

Vin Crosbie has dug up some interesting history in a recent piece for ClickZ. He writes about how, 13 years ago, major media groups in the US attempted to get together and aggregate their stories into a (then huge) news search engine, so that people would come to one spot to look for news.

The consortium, called the New Century Nework (NCN), also planned to create a classified advertising search engine that would draw its content from all those dailies. And it planned to create a single advertising system that would allow advertisers to place banner ads to across any geographic or demographic strata of those newspapers’ Web sites.

As Crosbie writes, “Unfortunately, the nine major newspaper companies were more used to competing against each other than cooperating. With some exceptions, they didn’t loan their best new media personnel to this cooperative effort. They weren’t able to agree upon a CEO from among their own companies for the consortium, ultimately having to go outside and pick an executive without any background in either newspapers or online. Then, when the consortium began launching its services and earning some money, the companies argued with each about who should get what share, despite previous agreements about that. All the while, each of the companies was progressing with its own new media plan that would each compete with their cooperative effort.

So what happened? Within months of launching its first services, the NCN imploded. Within months, Google was started, and it soon launched Google News, which aggregates news stories from all over the world. Meanwhile, the local classifieds service Craigslist grew virally to the point where it now offers free classified advertising for tens of millions of users around the world.

As Crosbie writes, “Nothing today is causing more destruction in the media industries than the companies within each of its sectors failing to cooperate fully with each other. You don’t get to build the world of the future by competing tooth and nail.”

The community-based nature of the Internet and its agnostic approach to information mean that if you want to get ahead, you have to get along.


You can’t escape it Saturday, October 11th, 2008

Those recent predictions about the growth of the market for online advertising and marketing which said digital would continue double-digit growth despite recent financial turmoil have now gone the way of most US investment banks after the carnage of the past week.

Yahoo’s share price is tanking and earnings for all major digital companies have been revised downward.

As reported on Clickz, UBS bank slashed Google’s 2009 anticipated revenue by 4%, Yahoo’s by 9.1%, and ValueClick’s by a “stunning” 19.3 percent. Estimates for Q4 2008 were also lowered, though not as much.

Reuters, meanwhile, reports that another investment bank, Wachovia (which if I recall correctly was just taken over the other day to save it from going to the wall) is now predicting that Web ad spending will grow by 10% next year rather than the previously estimated 15 percent. As well, Lehman/Barclays shaved a full $3 billion from its 2008 U.S. online ad estimate, pegging growth for the year at 16.9% rather than 23.4 percent.

But at least they are predicting some growth. The one thing all news analyses agree on is that the overall advertising market is going to contract next year.

UBS analyst Ben Schachter said that “We see no business model based on advertising or consumer spending that will be immune to a downturn…As corporate profit forecasts come down, we expect planned advertising spending will be delayed and/or cut.”

The Los Angeles Times reports that venture capital firm Sequoia called their clients into an emergency meeting and when they came into the conference room they were confronted with a large tombstone which said “RIP, Good Times” on it. They were then subjected to a lecture about how bad things were likely to get and what they needed to do to retain Sequoia’s investment.

An executive who attended the meeting was quoted as saying it was not a “doom and gloom” message, but a serious one. “They basically said: ‘This is a business. This is not an excuse for you and a bunch of your friends to have a pool table and goof around with something you think is neat.’ I didn’t come away thinking that the sky is falling or that I have to move to Canada, just that these guys are taking this seriously.”

That’s a good takeaway - the sky is not falling, but it’s time to get sharp. And that can’t be a bad thing.