Webmaster News Roundup - from a Web Hosting Provider

Advertising news - from a Web Hosting Provider

Google is offering a new option for advertisers: pay-per-action (PPA). With this pricing model, currently in beta in the US only, advertisers pay only for completed actions that they specify. For example, advertisers will be able to define such actions as customers making purchases, filling out a lead form at their sites, or viewing a page as actions that they pay for when completed. Google conversion tracking will determine when the specified actions have been done.

Some people see PPA as a form of affiliate marketing. Google isn't just displaying ads; it's now getting into the business of helping convert consumers into customers. Will Google, giant that it is, grow to dominate affilate marketing? Also, will PPA reduce click fraud? For a discussion of the pros and cons of PPA, see the forum discussion Google Introduces Pay Per Action beta.

In addition to its new advertising model, Google has introduced a new advertising format: text link ads. These ads are embedded in web page text using JavaScript. For example, someone may write about web hosting, and the hyperlinked text may be an advertisement. To identify text link ads as ads, "Ads by Google" will appear when a mouse hovers over the link.

Testing for Google Audio Ads, in MP3 format for radio, began in December 2006. Google is now inviting more advertisers to take part in the beta testing.

Yahoo has stepped up its efforts against click fraud by promoting one of its staff attorneys to the position of VP of marketplace quality. A team will be hired that will focus on click fraud and other marketplace issues. Click fraud rate is currently estimated to be between nine and 12 percent, with some estimates going up to 15 percent.

Medio Systems, a mobile search provider, has launched its Medio MobileNow^TM Ad Network. The pay-per-click ads are targeted at mobile consumers based on geography, click-through history, and other factors. In addition, Medio has partnered with Ingenio to offer Ingenio Pay Per Call ads on its MobileNow ad network. Ingenio advertisers will pay when consumers use mobile phones to call business in response to advertisments.

Video news

Videos are increasingly becoming part of the online experience. One sign of their prominence is in About.com's 2007 move to provide an in-page video player. About.com has also added 500 new videos to its site.

How can one compete against a video site competitor such as YouTube? By partnering with big names in the business. NewsCorp and NBC have announced plans to create a new video distribution site with AOL, MSN, MySpace, and Yahoo as the initial distribution partners. TV shows and movies will be available to viewers, and the service will be supported by ads.

Meanwhile, Viacom has sued YouTube for copyright infringement. Viacom accuses Google of profiting from Viacom content and is suing for $1 billion.

Voice technology news

More on partnerships...Yahoo and AT&T have an ongoing business agreement. In addition to their advertising partnerships, they're discussing ways to "expand the partnership in the mobile arena."

Microsoft has announced that it's acquiring Tellme, a provider of services such as voice-enabled mobile search and nationwide directory assistance. Among the potential areas of development are voice-enabled customer service solutions and mobile phone search services.

Not unexpectedly, Google is also entering the mobile phone field. In January 2007, Google teamed up with Samsung to include its search engine, email service, and maps on Samsung phones. Earlier this month, rumors of a GPhone in progress were confirmed. The GPhone is expected to make searches via mobile handsets easy.

Other search engine news

In the days before Google was a household word, Lycos was one of the big players online. Lycos Europe is continuing as Lycos Europe but is rebranding as Jubii in the US (currently in beta) with hopes that it'll grow in new directions and become profitable. While providing search, email, file storage, and chat, it's also offering services such as blogging and VoIP. See Lycos re-brands itself for a crack at the US Web 2.0 market for more.

Microsoft has increased its potential marketplace share with its recent agreement with Lenovo. Lenovo will pre-load Windows Live^TM on ThinkPad notebooks, ThinkCentre desktops, and other Lenovo PCs sold worldwide. This deal is similar to Yahoo's partnership with HP to install the Yahoo toolbar and Google's partnership with Dell to pre-load Google's toolbar and desktop search.

Google has recently introduced a Blog Bar, which is similar to its News Bar and Video Bar. After entering the necessary code to their web pages, users can specify keywords, and then relevant blog links appear, fade out, and rotate, as in the example on this page.

As part of its Webmaster Tools, Google now shows full phrases used in anchor text rather than just individual words as before. To see this information, webmasters need to log into Google's Webmaster Tools and then go to Page Analysis under Statistics.