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My 2 featured articles for the week ending June 30, 2006:

Archived blogs for the week of Jun. 26, 2006

1192 - June 29, 2006 - 6.47 AM EST

Yahoo makes good with Checkmate

Yahoo announces that it has reached an important click fraud settlement agreement with Checkmate Strategic Group that will clarify its click fraud protection efforts, and offer more transparency to its advertisers in the future.

Yahoo knows that its customers and the industry as a whole have many questions and concerns about click fraud, as it relates to the litigation that Yahoo itself and other search engines have been engaged in over the past few years. The company says it is pleased to take a leading role in addressing this issue.

When Yahoo Search Marketing (formerly Overture) created the PPC (pay-per-click) search advertising model in 1998, one of the very first challenges it identified was the potential for users with bad intentions to click on specific listings with the sole purpose of generating a charge to the advertiser, better known as click fraud.

To better address this challenge, Yahoo quickly established a system of proprietary technologies and committed its people in protecting its advertisers from click fraud and other traffic quality-related issues.

Since 1998, Yahoo's Clickthrough Protection (CTP) system has run 24 hours a day, using search and click stream data to identify suspicious clicks and remove them from its billing system. During that period, Yahoo's system has identified and has successfully prevented billing advertisers for literally billions of clicks.

This includes click fraud as well as other clicks that Yahoo believes shouldn't be billed to advertisers. For example, blocked IP addresses, double-clicks, back browser clicks, etc.

Yahoo's settlement with Checkmate Strategic Group
Yahoo and Checkmate Strategic Group have been engaged in a class action click fraud lawsuit since June of last year. To help the Plaintiff's counsel and their experts better understand what Yahoo does to protect its advertisers, the company invited them to its headquarters to analyze firsthand Yahoo's proprietary Clickthrough Protection system in action.

The visit to Yahoo's premises also allowed to interview its team members, review Yahoo's filtering data and determine for themselves whether the company is truly meeting that commitment.

After this thorough review, the Plaintiff's counsel and their experts determined that Yahoo has in the past and continues to operate a click protection system that goes above and beyond what is necessary to address recent industry estimates about click fraud. Continue...

Posted on Businessblog™

1191 - June 28, 2006 - 10.59 AM EST

Dell uses Google's technology

In its quest to further expand its lucrative business of maintaining companies' pc's and computers, Dell is to launch a new service plan today that will integrate mapping technology from Google Labs. Dell will call its new service "Platinum Plus" and it will allow its customers to use the 3-D mapping solution from Google Earth Pro.

Dell's new service will offer in real-time how the computer manufacturer is responding to specific technical support issues around the world.

"Dell's idea is to make it simpler and easier for medium to large businesses using Dell computers to maintain their systems", said Steve Meyer, vice president of Dell Services.

Posted on Businessblog™

1190 - June 27, 2006 - 12.09 PM EST

Google expands in the Middle East

Google is expected to open a new marketing office in Egypt. The company already has a R&D Lab based in Israel.

Overall, the Arab world had expected Google to open its regional office in the area of Dubai, but the company finally opted on Egypt.

According to familiar sources, Google Egypt hired Sherif Iskander as a Country Manager. Iskander will also serve as a regional manager and will be looking around for suitable candidates to fill the posts of Associate Product Marketing Manager.

Posted on Businessblog™

1189 - June 26, 2006 - 4.55 PM EST

Internet users avoid viewing banner ads

A new survey done by the Nielsen/Norman Group reveals that Internet users avoid viewing banner ads on websites. Surprisingly, text ads are read more often than display ads, according to Nielsen.

Internet marketing experts say banner blindness means users focus on the specific content on a Web page and totally ignore the advertisements on that page. According to Nielsen, this is especially true for bright, flashing ads and other similar banners that are not relevant to what the user is interested in reading.

"Internet users aren't looking at the typical graphical ads," said Nielsen Norman Group Director of Research Kara Pernice Coyne. "They are simply not taking enough time to absorb a complex ad or branding message."

However, there's still some kind of hope for Internet banner ads. Pernice Coyne said graphical ads with text and contrasting colors, like white text on red, is less likely to be disregarded. "They're looking at them if they're text," she said. "I hate to sound boring, but it is best if you can make sure your banner ad is something simple, text or a recognized logo, and it needs to be very relevant to the page."

Pernice Coyne suggests the behavior may be due to experience with ads that direct users to sites with malicious code or other undesirable results. "There are too many unscrupulous advertisers," she said. "Users are not going to click on something they think will annoy them or hurt their system."

While the study's finding would seem to threaten the rising Internet ad spend, the IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) at least, isn't concerned.

Posted on Businessblog™

1188 - June 26, 2006 - 1.54 PM EST

New York politician drops suit against Google

A New York politician has dropped a lawsuit against Google that had claimed the search engine company profited from child pornography.

A member of the Nassau County Legislature named Jeffrey Toback had filed a lawsuit in May claiming that Google had "paid links" to certain websites that contained child pornography. "They take money from these sites," he said at the time.

A Google spokesman at the time denied the allegations and said the company takes numerous steps to prevent access to child pornography.

"When we find or are made aware of any child pornography, we remove it from our products, including our search engine," spokesman Steve Langdon said. "We also report it to the appropriate law enforcement officials and fully cooperate with the law enforcement community to combat child pornography."

Posted on Businessblog™

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