Google has taken another step that could send major ripples through the online advertising business and the ad industry in general. On its blog site, the company announced it was providing a free hosted “web analytics” service called Google Analytics, which is based on an earlier paid service called Urchin that Google acquired earlier this year. The service will be integrated with Google’s AdWords service.
In the New York Times, Bob Tedeschi explains:
Google Analytics will crunch numbers on behalf of users, telling them how often visitors who saw an ad associated with “automotive tools” clicked on the ad, versus those who searched for “hardware stores.” [It] will also allow publishers and marketers to analyze the performance of non-Google ad campaigns, like e-mail marketing, banner ads or search ads on Yahoo, MSN or any other search engine. That service is free even if companies do not advertise with AdWords, as long as their users do not view more than five million Web pages in a given month.
The new service will cause significant ripples in the analytics industry, said Eric T. Peterson, an analyst with Jupiter Research, an Internet consultant…Just 17 percent of the 250,000 or so companies with at least $1 million in annual revenue and a Web site now use analytical tools and services for those sites, Mr. Peterson said. The remaining 83 percent have been deterred by the cost of such tools, among other things. “And now here comes Google,” he said.
Comments by Paul Muret, a Google engineering director and one of Urchin’s founders, are reported by Elinor Mills of ZDNet:
Google Analytics will let Web site owners see exactly where visitors to their site are coming from, what links on the site are getting the most traffic, what pages visitors are viewing, how long people stay on the site, which products on merchant sites are being sold and where people give up in multistep checkout processes, said Paul Muret, an engineering director at Google and one of the founders of Urchin.
Google Analytics also includes a feature that automatically imports the cost data for return on investment reports into the Google Analytics program so advertisers can see how much they’re paying for keywords compared with how much money they’re making off them, Muret said.
There are three summary views, for executives, Web masters and marketing officials. Though in theory people who are using Google Analytics and competitive services to monitor their ad campaigns could be exposing information to Google on how those rival services work, Muret said Google would not get any competitive advantage from that. “We have very strict controls on the data. It is only used to provide reporting to customers and people using the analytics,” he said.
ClickZ’s Pamela Parker sheds some additional light on how Google Analytics will be integrated with AdWords and its potential implications:
In a move likely to attract even more people to sign up for AdWords accounts, Web site analytics will be free to AdWords advertisers. Google won’t require a minimum spend from users. The software is integrated into the AdWords service in several ways. Users will be able to access both Web site and AdWords analytics through a single interface. Additionally, Google Analytics enables automatic tagging of each keyword in a marketer’s portfolio so it can be easily tracked within the application. The automatic importation of keyword pricing data is also supported, enabling users to track ROI.
Though the company will incur costs associated with providing the service for free, Google believes providing the information will benefit AdWords in the long term. “We want the ROI for advertisers to be real,” said Muret. “Their long term sustainable advertising health is good for Google.”
Peterson believes the offering will entice many businesses to adopt analytics for the first time. “Urchin was good when Google bought them, and now it’s a little more complete package. All you have to do is ask for an account and put some JavaScript on your Web pages,” he said. “I think it’ll push more people along and really increase the interest in Web analytics.”Posted by Mitch Shapiro at 2:40 PM | Print | Comments (0)
The New York Times’ Saul Hansell provides some additional details on Warner Bros.’ and AOL’s plans for In2TV, a web-based service that will distribute ad-supported programs from more than 100 old TV series. He starts of by comparing In2TV’s revenue model with recent initiatives from CBS, NBC and ABC, working with Comcast, DirecTV and Apple.
Programs on In2TV will have one to two minutes of commercials for each half-hour episode, compared with eight minutes in a standard broadcast. The Internet commercials cannot be skipped…CBS programs to be sold on Comcast [for $0.99/episode ] include commercials, but viewers can skip them. The NBC programs on DirecTV [$0.99/episode] and the ABC programs from Apple [$1.99/episode] have no commercials.
Warner is also adding shorter segments and interactive features for users who do not want to watch entire episodes…These excerpts can be sent to friends by e-mail or instant message, and will eventually be offered on mobile phones…[Some] programs will be accompanied by interactive features that can be displayed side by side with the video, like trivia quizzes and video games related to the shows.
Hansell says “the move will give Warner a way to reap new advertising revenue from a huge trove of old programming that is not widely syndicated.” He quotes Eric Frankel, president of Warner Brothers’ domestic cable distribution division, on the benefits of online distribution for Time Warner’s syndication business:
Warner, with 800 television programs in its library, says it is the largest TV syndicator. It wants to use the Internet to reach viewers rather than depend on the whims of cable networks and local TV stations, said…Frankel…”We looked at the rise of broadband on Internet and said, ‘Let’s try to be the first to create a network that opens a new window of distribution for us rather than having to go hat in hand to a USA or a Nick at Night or a TBS,’” Mr. Frankel said…And in the future, when Warner negotiates with cable networks to syndicate popular programs, Mr. Frankel said, the price will be higher if the network wants it kept off the Internet.
Hansell also considers In2TV from AOL’s perspective:
For AOL, the In2TV deal is part of a broad strategy to create a range of video offerings to attract people to its free AOL.com portal. It already offers some video news and sports programs from CBS News, ABC and CNN…[and] is creating programming aimed at women and young people…
[M]ost of AOL’s programming effort, so far, have been built largely around short video segments, reflecting the conventional view that Internet users are less likely to want to watch full-length programs on a computer screen. Yet a recent survey by the Points North Group of 1,098 Internet users found that 28 percent said they wanted to watch regular television shows on their PC’s or laptops…
AOL will offer a version of the service meant to be watched on a television set connected to a Windows Media Center PC, and it is exploring a similar arrangement to link the Internet programming to television through TiVo video recorders. For those who want to watch on a big screen, AOL is introducing optional technology that it says will produce a DVD-quality picture…The new option, called AOL Hi-Q, will require the downloading once of [Kontiki] software, and the program may not start for several minutes, depending on the speed of the users’ connection.Posted by Mitch Shapiro at 2:05 PM | Print | Comments (0)
The VOD craze is in full flower — you’d think that television programmers just got wind of this option, which has been around for at least five years. In any event, the latest networks to jump on the VOD bandwagon are Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, according to this Wall Street Journal item.
But in a move that’s bound to doom this specific set of VOD efforts to the interactive TV rubbish heap, the shows will be available for $1.99/pop only on Hasbro’s iPod-wannabe VuGo portable media player. The player is priced at $100 and is heavier and less capable than the iPod.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 12:06 PM | Print | Comments (0)
David Carr has an article in today’s New York Times that examines the professional resposibilities of bloggers — he essentially advocates they take on more journalistic responsibilities when it comes to sensitive material. Using the recent titillating incident of a fashion industry-oriented journalist (this may explain why this excellent piece is relegated to the Arts section) accused (at least in the blogosphere) of a bizarre scenario of setting a fire to dress up as a fireman in order to repeatedly rape a woman, Carr examines the unrestrained coverage of this copy-inducing situation, particularly coverage by Gawker. (Carr may be getting his own back with his article — Gawker once ran a nasty rumor about Carr).
Blogs can be serious enough and conventional enough in execution to fit in with mainstream media (as will be the case when Time.com will begin running AndrewSullivan.com in January). But because blogs can be amended or erased, the people who write them tend not to be held to account. The expectation is that bloggers will transgress lines in terms of efficacy and tone and anybody who complains is viewed as a weenie.
A generation of Web writers - many of them excellent and genuinely hilarious - sees the world and its travails through a hail of nasty e-mail messages, tips and other blogs. That’s a different job than leaving the computer screen to interview the mother of an eight-year-old who has been run over by a car. Ms. Coen of Gawker and some of her fellow bloggers are fond off pointing out that they are not reporters, which explains everything and excuses nothing.Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 11:44 AM | Print | Comments (0)
A stealth venture backed by blue-chip investors, named Stoke, is going to come out from behind its veil today, according to this Reuters piece. Mountain View, CA-based Stoke has a plan to bridge the gap between fixed and mobile telephony and has bankrolled its efforts with $10 million from Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital.
The company is going to announce today a $20 million B-round with backing from Kleiner, Sequoia and new investors Pilot House Ventures, Integral Capital Partners and Presidio Venture Partners. The 75-employee Stoke is hoping to achieve a magic trick — it wants to create a platform over which any number of different communications technologies can handle voice or data calls.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 9:49 AM | Print | Comments (0)
Ed Rothstein has an essay in today’s New York Times on the implications of Google’s move to make books searchable online. What’s valuable about what Rothstein is saying is the context — he outlines the historical conflicts between writers and technological innovation.
In the end, he comes down on Google’s side.
Google, which is engaged in a project that was sci-fi fantasy two decades ago, is essentially being accused of piracy, creating copies of protected works without prior permission. But these are new kinds of copies, with very different uses; only books out of copyright will be fully available online.
What’s also valuable about Rothstein’s piece is his notification of a truly cool event for those who happen to be in New York City on Thursday.
The controversy promises to erupt on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the New York Public Library’s Celeste Bartos Forum, when the debate will be joined by members of the guild, the publishers’ association and Google. Also in the fray will be Lawrence Lessig of Stanford Law School, Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired Magazine, and Paul LeClerc and David Ferriero from the library (which is participating in Google Print).Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 9:40 AM | Print | Comments (0)
While the telcos threaten to enter the multichannel video business in competition with cable, cable operators entered the phone business years ago, but really picked up steam with the industry’s launch of VoIP services last year. And according to the most recent analysis by Emerging Media Dynamics (disclosure: my company), the U.S. cable industry topped the four million telephony customer mark at the end of Q3 05, with the seven largest cable companies serving a collective 4.5 million voice customers.
Not all of these voice customers are VoIP — Comcast and Cox, in particular, have substantial legacy circuit-switched telephony customers.
These 4.5 million telephony customers represent 9.1% of the total homes capable of buying cable-delivered voice services, a base of nearly 50 million homes or almost half of all cable homes passed in the U.S. (For more details, see this week’s issue of IP Media Monitor.)
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 9:21 AM | Print | Comments (0)
Blogs We Read
