Philip Sheldrake

Archives (page 38 of 43)

22 May 2008 / 1 Comment

Buying market share – when all else fails, get your wallet out

Six searches are conducted via Google for every two on Yahoo and one on Microsoft Live. That's not how Microsoft would like it. So the news from Microsoft last night (well, by British Summer Time anyway), CASHBACK!

Here's how it's worked so far.  The search engines deliver paid-for results alongside so-called organic (not paid for) search results.  When someone clicks on one of these paid-for results / aka "sponsored links" / aka "ads", the search engine charges the advertiser.  If these ads were served on an affiliate site, the affiliate site owner gets a share of that revenue.

So everyone is a winner.  The search engine makes serious revenue (Google made $1.31 billion on revenues of $5.19 billion in the last quarter, the majority from search related ads), searchers see ads relevant to their search query, and the advertisers attract relevant visitors to their websites. Read more

16 May 2008 / 0 Comments

A Rolling Stone gathers no location based information

Ron Wood - Guitar Player - The Rolling Stones....
Image via Wikipedia

I met Ronnie Wood this week. He sat down next to me in a bar and bought me a drink. That ranks him in my book as a very nice chap. And I got a 90 minute window into living life as a globally famous rock star, an insight that confirmed my relief, as if the situation could be otherwise, that I'm not a 'celebrity'...

  • "Is that Ronnie Wood? Ronnie Wood? Rolling Stones? Ronnie Wood?"
  • "I don't believe it... is that really you? We're big fans of......"
  • "I've got all your albums."
  • "Could I have your autograph and a picture with you?"
  • "I don't believe it, is it really you?"

Although Ronnie has had four decades to come up with witty ripostes, I particularly liked his response to the last one... "Actually, I only came fifth in a Ronnie Wood lookalike competition." From what I saw, he has a lovely way in dealing with the countless people that approach him; what the rest of us would call invading our space.

We got talking about my line of work having danced through the ages of music technology, from the vinyl and 8-track of the mid-60s, through compact cassette and CD to mp3. Not unexpectedly, Ronnie mourns the passing of the physical format, but loves the idea that music has returned to the 60s notion that it's all about the music, having been distracted in between times by the huge music marketing machine. The 80s and 90s were all about shifting massive volumes of records and CDs, and gigging was just a distraction. Read more

9 May 2008 / 0 Comments

Online, offline, up a tree, down a cellar – effective networking is all in the mix

Being so fascinated by and engrossed in social networking, and digital media relations more widely, I'm asked on a regular basis "What's the point of spending so much time online?".

The very basis of the question betrays the fact that the questioner still, like the majority of people to be fair, feels it necessary to divide their life up into "offline" and "online" portions. Yet they don't distinguish "time eating / not eating", "time talking / listening", "time with new people / with old acquaintances", "time on the phone / not on the phone".

Like eating, listening and telephones, digital media simply exists.  It is part of life.  Sure it may have its unique characteristics, but then what doesn't?  I am living, working, having fun, exploring, innovating, learning... some of which just happens to be online and some offline. Read more

5 May 2008 / 0 Comments

Zattoo… live content TV broadcast on your PC

I'm at RIPE56 today and tomorrow. RIPE (Réseaux IP Européens) is a collaborative forum open to all parties interested in wide area IP networks in Europe and beyond, and RIPE56 is, you've guess it, the 56th meeting.

This week-long event brings together the best minds on IP networks, and I'm here working predominantly on the issues of IPv4 depletion and IPv6 uptake. This is a complex issue requiring some deft communications.

Right now however, I'm in a very interesting presentation by Thomas Billeter and Fredy Kuenzler of Zattoo. From their website: Read more

1 May 2008 / 0 Comments

Social Web Analytics – my upcoming ebook and a case of cobblers' shoes

Two weeks ago, I posted about the fast paced field of Social Web Analytics. I presented a definition of these tools, expressed my intent to write an ebook on the technology and the main vendors, and listed the vendors I intend to cover...

I also invited anyone with experience of wielding these tools to get in touch so I can include comment and insight from them.  This invitation is still open. Read more

17 April 2008 / 0 Comments

Listen. The Science of Social.

I have been invited to no less than a dozen seminars, training courses and conferences about social media in the last month or so. In case you didn't know, social media marketing is quite hot at the moment! Having presented on blogging for business since 2002, before this stuff got its own shows, and even mooted the death of market research in 2006, it's fascinating to see how quickly people cut and paste together their own position on this stuff.

One glaring betrayal of the 'social media practices' that have only recently assembled their facade is their ignorance of the power of listening. They will tell you just how they will be your voice on the social Web, but too rarely do they volunteer to proxy your ears.

Listening to one person isn't easy; active listening is a discipline. Imagine then trying to find, tap into and track one hundred conversations, a thousand, ten thousand; and interpretting this information... turning it into knowledge that informs your marketing strategy and tactics.

Social Web Analytics

This forms a large part of what we call social Web analytics. We define this as the application of search, indexing, semantic analysis and business intelligence technologies to the task of identifying, tracking (listening) and participating in the distributed conversations about a particular brand, product or issue, with emphasis on quantifying the trend in each conversation's sentiment and influence. Read more

11 April 2008 / 0 Comments

Internet Best Practice Challenge – recognition for your Internet leadership

Nominet is running their Best Practice Challenge for the second year.  The awards recognise organisations, groups or individuals that have worked to deliver a safer, more accessible, diverse and open Internet experience.

The six award categories for 2008 are:

  • Best development project
  • Best security initiative
  • Raising industry standards
  • Personal safety online
  • Internet for all
  • Open Internet

If you think your organisation, or your client's, should be recognised for leadership in any of these categories, you have until 25th April 2008 to get your entry in!  Winners and runners-up get some significant international exposure feeding in to the UN's Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and the newly formed UKIGF.

The 2007 winners included Computer Aid International, Netcraft, Childnet, mySociety, CEOP and Internet Watch Foundation.

3 April 2008 / 0 Comments

Twingly in private beta – "a next-generation blog search engine"

I've signed up and will let you know what I find when I'm allowed in! From their press release today...

Today we launch a next-generation blog search engine at Twingly.com. Participate in the invite-only beta by getting invited or signing up at beta.twingly.com. So what’s cool with the new Twingly.com?

Spam free, social search

Twingly takes a zero-spam approach to blog search using an algorithmically expanding white list instead of the traditional blacklist. Powerful moderation tools allows us to win the fight against spam by one-click removal of clusters of tens of thousands of spam blogs. Fat tail manual moderation yields quality input to long tail algorithmic filtering.

Social search features allows users to share quality content with each other and the community as a whole.

Powerful search language and tech plan Digg

Twingly provides the world’s most powerful search language for blogs, where search filters can be combined in new ways.

But we’re not done by far! Participate in voting on our tech plan by signing up for the beta. JSON api? OPML import or APML export? Help us decide what’s next!

UPDATE

Well I've got my invite and I've logged in to take a look. Read more

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