The message, linked below (with part of the phone number toned out), says: “Hi Darren my name is Donald Burke. I’m calling on behalf of Google to talk with Adwords advertisers about the new proposed Google/Yahoo Advertising Agreement. If you have a couple of minutes to talk with me, my number is…Thanks very much. Take care.”

Darrin says he called the attorney back and was asked to make a public testimonial in support of the deal:

I received a voicemail from an attorney representing Google yesterday so of course I called back (voicemail attached). We spend about 100K a month on AdWords so we’d apparently been targeted because of that. He was looking for large advertisers who use both Google and Yahoo (we do) who would be willing to provide public testimonials in support of outsourcing Yahoo’s search ads to Google. I told him I’m a free-market competition kind of guy so he tried to address my concerns for about 15 minutes and then called it quits.

Darrin says the attorney was looking for advertisers that use both Google and Yahoo. It’s certainly possible that Google has gathered Yahoo advertiser information on their own, or that the lawyer is just making a guess that big Google advertisers also use Yahoo. What would be disconcerting is if Yahoo has handed over a list of their advertisers to Google for purposes of figuring out which ones are spending lots of money on both platforms.

Article Source techcrunch

By default the site is presenting quotes from US Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain, contrasting the things they’ve said on such issues as Iraq, marriage, abortion, and the economy. Users can click a “Spin” button to compare two randomly chosen quotes, or they can choose to cycle through them manually. All quotes are pulled from Google News stories that have appeared in the last few weeks. There are 20 political figures available in the United States version of the site, with other editions available for Canada, India, and the UK.

The site’s About page explains that the quotes are meant to reflect an unbiased view of the news, casting aside the analysis that is present in most reporting. This may be true, but the site doesn’t seem to be utilizing any algorithms to determine how each keyword is used - some of the “quotes” are paraphrased, while others are being attributed to someone who didn’t say them in the first place.

In any case, it’s still fun to play around with your own keywords. I’m partial to “lipstick”.

by Jason Kincaid

Article source Techcrunch

You can quickly see the prices for your area in a list or on Google Maps. Prices are updated twice daily during the week and once on Sundays by Motormouth’s scouts who report the prices from service station price boards.

Currently, over 50% of metropolitan service stations are covered, which hopefully include a few near you.

With the daily work of these petrol price scouts now accessible from your personalised iGoogle homepage, we hope this handy tool will go some way to keeping you informed and ensuring that you’re not over-paying at the pump (note that prices can change at any time, except in Perth where they’re locked for 24 hours).

Of course, the best way to reduce your fuel bill would be to walk, cycle or catch public transport to wherever you’re going. Google Maps and, in Perth, Google Transit, can help you with that.

Google Australia Blog

by Julian Sonego

The financial crisis on Wall Street will spill over into the world of online advertising as banks and brokerage firms cut spending

Online marketers are converging on New York for the ad industry’s annual conference, where they’ll hold discussions on everything from tracking online brand buzz to using humor to lure a Web-surfing audience. But perhaps the most pressing topic for attendees of the Advertising Week V conference in Manhattan is the financial crisis gripping Wall Street and what it means for their business, especially on the Web.

Companies dependent on Internet-based advertising are bracing for a slowdown as financial-service companies cut ad budgets. “The first six months of the next year will be slow,” says Russell Fradin, president of Adify, a company that helps firms set up online advertising networks.

When budgets are tight, advertisers tend to look for proven methods, such as ads placed alongside a Google (GOOG) or Yahoo (YHOO) search, and place less empasis on experimental venues, such as social networks, experts say. “Mobile and social networks will be hit,” Fradin says. It’s harder to prove that ads placed on a social network or embedded in a video are effective in luring Web surfers to a site or enticing them to make a purchase. Matt Sanchez, CEO of online video advertising network Video Egg, says he expects growth to slow in the coming 12 months. He expects that some smaller, less well-funded video ad and ad targeting firms will have difficulty sustaining their businesses. “The next 12 months will be tough,” he says.
“Real Measurement” of Ad Spending

Even before the financial market malaise took a turn for the worse with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, Bank of America’s (BAC) purchase of Merrill Lynch (MER), and the government bailout of AIG (AIG), researchers were cutting back online advertising forecasts. In August, research firm eMarketer cut projections for Internet ad spending this year to $24.9 billion, the second revision of estimates first released in October. The firm expects Internet advertising growth to slow to 17.4% this year fom 25.6% in 2007. Next year, growth will slow even more, to 14.5%. “Online advertising will not grow as fast because of the economic problems,” eMarketer senior analyst David Hallerman says.

Even as some financial-services companies, including AIG, have cut back on or pulled television ads, some in the sector have stepped up campaigns in recent weeks to quell concerns they’re burdened with bad debt or are otherwise at risk, Hallerman adds.

Some major brands are also likely to deal with the dour economic outlook by increasing spending in highly measurable online areas that are tied directly to sales, such as search ads. The expectation is that search advertising won’t suffer as much as so-called display advertising, which includes banner ads emblazoned on a page. This form of advertising is often designed to increase brand awareness or change perceptions, rather than drive sales directly. “In difficult economic times, marketers and advertisers want to have real measurement of the dollars they are spending,” says David Doty, senior vice-president of marketing at the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Read More

T-Mobile is set to unveil its HTC-built G1, the first mobile phone based on software from the Google-led Open Handset Alliance:

In the most anticipated mobile-phone launch since the release of Apple’s iPhone, the T-Mobile G1 is due to be unveiled Sept. 23.

Like the iPhone, unveiled in June 2007, the G1 is the brainchild of one of tech’s most innovative companies; it’s the first phone boasting the Android software created by a Google (GOOG)-led consortium. Like Apple’s music-playing handset, the G1 features a full Web browser and connects to the Internet with Wi-Fi technology. G1 similarly boasts a large touchscreen and lets users download games and tools from an online bazaar akin to the Apple App Store.

That’s about where the similarities end. The G1 is to follow a different path from the Apple (AAPL) iPhone in some crucial ways, notably volume growth. G1 is expected to do well, though it may not replicate the iPhone’s early successes.
Fewer T-Mobile Subscribers

Analysts predict that manufacturer HTC will sell 200,000 to 400,000 units this year, assuming the device becomes available in late October or early November and sells for $199 with a two-year contract. At the high end of that estimate, the first Android device would gain almost 4% of the U.S. smartphone market in the fourth quarter, expected by wireless researcher Strategy Analytics to total 10.5 million. If the handset makes it onto shelves sooner, say at the beginning of October, the number is likely be considerably higher, says Chris Ambrosio, an executive director of wireless research at Strategy Analytics. Tina Teng, an analyst at research firm iSuppli, believes Android-based devices will sell 2 million to 3 million units globally in 2009.

Still, the original iPhone sold 1 million units in its first 1½ months on the market—and that was during what is usually a slow sales season, compared with end-of-year holidays. Apple expects to sell 10 million units of the next-generation device, the iPhone 3G, this year.

Sales expectations are lower for Android partly because G1 will be carried by T-Mobile USA, which has 30 million subscribers, compared with Apple’s iPhone partner, AT&T (T), which has more than 70 million.

Another strike against Android is that T-Mobile’s high-speed wireless network isn’t as extensive as AT&T’s. “Consumers still choose the carrier first,” says Ross Rubin, an analyst at consumer electronics research firm NPD Group. “For early adopters, they’d need to contend with T-Mobile’s embryonic 3G network for at least a few months,” Rubin says. What’s more, G1 buyers will likely have to buy an additional calling plan to use G1’s built-in Wi-Fi more extensively; iPhone users can freely use their device’s Wi-Fi capability.

Some analysts who have seen versions of G1 also say it’s not quite as stylish as the comparable Apple device. “It does not feel as luxurious as the iPhone,” says Moe Tanabian, senior principal at IBB Consulting who has seen a late prototype of the device and says it’s a cross between the iPhone and a Sidekick, an earlier T-Mobile phone that also boasts Web access and was a favorite of hip cell-phone users. Andy Rubin, who heads Google’s Android effort, helped develop the Sidekick.

Read More

Selection of the right banner

A flashy banner can be useful for a gaming site but would not work for a health related product. If you wish to make use of the available marketing strategies, you need to use a banner which suits your product the most. Web banner advertising gives you a wide ample of choices.

Strengthen the brand value of your company

If you wish to strengthen the name of your company, you need to make use of web banner advertising. When people click on attractive banners, they realize the true worth of your company.

Join banner networks

This kind of advertising allows young and upcoming authors to make money by joining various banner networks. Over here, you are paid to display ads through banners. For the business, it is a good way of generating quality traffic.

Avoid the use of audios and videos

If you want to retain potential customers; you need to ensure that you do not include audios and videos in your banner advertisement. Such acts of publicity repulse most customers and cause trouble in the longer run.

Cost Per Click

Web banner advertising is based on the concept of cost per clicks. If you want to ensure that your campaign is profitable, you need to maintain a balance between money earned through CPC and money spent. If the balance is healthy, you are bound to increase website traffic.

Fabian Tan is a well-known Internet Marketing expert and the author of the popular 45-page Report:

“Murder Your Job: How To Build Cash Sucking Autopilot Businesses In 30 Days Or Less!”

Head over to http://www.MurderYourJob.com to get your FREE copy now!

We  Recommend

Also, quickly download his FREE “Explosive Traffic System” report that shows you how to generate 10,000+ targeted visitors per month at no cost! => http://www.ExplosiveTrafficSystem.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Fabian_Tan

If you’ve got a short advertisement, testimonial or any other type of video there are a number of ways you should be promoting the video online. In this post I’ll cover off some simple video SEO tips to get your content out there.

Submission
There are a growing number of video sharing websites which you should submit your videos to. I’ve included a short list of my top 10 which should be on your hit list:

1. YouTube
2. MySpaceTV
3. Google Video
4. Yahoo! Video
5. MetaCafe
6. Daily Motion
7. Veoh
8. Blinkx
9. Break
10. Revver

Video SEO: Tagging, Linking etc.

Aside from submission, there are also a number of other techniques you can use to maximize your video exposure. These include:

• Title Optimization - Potentially the most important and easiest way to optimize your video is to give it a catchy title. Instead of “Example Company Advertisement” try writing an interesting title that includes key phrases related to your product or brand.
• Tag it up - Most video sharing sites offer a keyword or tags section. This is chance to optimize the video for your most important phrases, so don’t miss out!
• Description - Again, similar to the tags, write a detailed description of the video targeting your major key phrases.
• Inbound Linking - Another tip often overlooked is making sure you link back to your website or product page. Some sites have a dedicated section for this; while for others you may have to include the link in the description. If this is the case, make sure to include the URL early on so that it shows in the first few lines of the description before its truncated.
• Thumbnail Optimization - If you’re able to select a thumbnail for your video, make sure to choose something that’s going to draw users in. An easy way to do this is try and include images of people if possible.
• Commenting - If users comment about your product or brand, make sure to respond so you can answer their questions and lead them to your website if they’re lost

Now there are many more advanced video marketing techniques, but hopefully this list should give you the foundation to increase your video exposure online. If you’ve got any other suggestions or comments, feel free to leave them below!

Ineedhits

by Matthew Elshaw

Well, Website Magazine has made it easier for you to get your news syndicated in Google News with a detailed checklist of rules. Below are a few of the most important tips:

1. Original Content: Simply reproducing news from other websites will not work. You need to have original content on your website.

2. Multiple Authors: Simple blogs with good content will not get included in Google News. This is because Google News wants multiple authors to “qualify” a website as a news source.

3. Article URL: Each article URL should be unique and contain a unique number consisting of at least three digits. The Google News crawler cannot index an article with this URL: http://www.website.com/news01.html. It can, however, crawl an article with this URL: http://www.website.com/news001.html. Google News cannot crawl an article URL with four digits, which resembles a year (http://www.website.com/news2008.html).

4. About Us and Contact Pages: Make these pages prominent on your website and one click away from the home page. A “Contact” page should have your organization’s name and contact information. You should also have a URL that is a directory of contributors and provide names of all your authors and editors, preferably with their email addresses. Try to give more information about your company and what it does in the “About Us” page.

To check out the additional rules, click here.

So there you have it, a comprehensive checklist of the factors you need to consider when trying to get your news heard.

Ineedhits

by Courtney Mills

Advertisers may now utilize our recruiting features (Publishers > Recruiting) to retrieve lists of Rising Stars and Affiliate VIPs in their program, or those with whom they do not yet have a relationship. As a reminder, if you are a publisher and want to be “found” by advertisers looking for new publishers, be sure to update your communications preferences (existing publishers may click here, or navigate to Settings > Communication Preferences) and opt in to “Non Joined Advertiser Opportunities”.

We have also released improvements to the features publishers use to retrieve ads from our interface. We have had a new UI available in beta for a little over six months; during this time we’ve heard from users that it was much easier and faster to find and publish links than in our old interface. Based on feedback from the beta period, we have added some functionality and improved response times. Publisher users can now:

• View ads for multiple advertisers at a time by showing recently published ads from all advertisers or only approved advertisers
• Filter the multi-advertiser page by advertiser category
• Filter the multi-advertiser page by hiding specific advertisers from view
• View a list of all ads for each of their joined advertisers
• Filter single and multi-advertiser lists by ad type (banner or text), size, promotion type and expiration
• All pages include an export feature that will enable the user to save the list, including any applied filters, to a csv file

Bookmarks to the old versions of “get links” pages will be redirected to the new UI. If you have written scripts to retrieve links from the old pages they will no longer work; instead, you should sign up to receive daily automated feeds of new ads for all your advertisers by navigating to Get Links > OrangeLinks.    Read More

by Larry Adams

As you can see from this graph of the popularity of related searches from past years, we have reason to believe that this might be a timely addition:

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