Urchin is Googlized

Google announced plans to acquire Urchin, the log analysis and tracking program company based in San Diego. Urchin offers great technology at a low price point. Its Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) works to defeat distortions from views in cache.

Google is expected to offer Urchin products and services to advertisers. The deal could be complete as soon as April.

For more on Urchin, visit www.Urchin.com

MSN's New Paid Search

Microsoft Unveiled some plans for its paid search product this week. Microsoft has sold some sponsored links within its network for some time - keywords on MSN for for more than $75k but with a low CPC, for example. This weeks news signals a more significant move into paid search...bad news for Yahoo Search which has a contract through June 2006 to provide paid listings for MSN.

In great coverage of the announcement, The SeattleTimes reported:

"Companies could buy ads that, for instance, appear when 25- to 30-year-old men in Seattle making $50,000 to $100,000 a year search for Mustang convertible on the MSN Web page. AdCenter uses information from customers who registered for services such as Hotmail or who tailored the MSN home page to their interests. It supplements that with data purchased from the Experian credit bureau. A version of Microsoft's AdCenter platform is being tested in Singapore and France."

Web Inventor Points the Way to Design for Mobile Web

Reuters quotes Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web arguing the designers must produce simpler sites that can be used on cell phones and other portable devices.

"(The mobile Internet) will be a huge enabler for the industry ... and for big profits," Tim Berners-Lee told a seminar on the future of the Web. "Web designers have learned to design for the visually impaired and for other people. They will learn in a few years how to make Web sites available for people with mobile devices too," he said.

For more from Berners-Lee see his W3C Page.

Open Source News Releases?

Open Press Inc writes: "All free press releases must comply with our press release guidelines. Our editors must approve all free press releases. We reject about 30% of free press releases submitted."

"In addition to our free press release wire service, every paid and free press release, article/op-ed, or news story, gets a free topic started in our community forum where everyone who wants to discuss them can do so."

Eyetracking Research Argues for Higher PPC Bids

Recent Eyetools' analysis of Google pages, as reported by Brian Livingston, editor of WindowsSecrets.com, indicates:

• Top sponsored links. Sponsored links at the top of the page, and above the first editorial listing, were seen by 80% to 100% of the visitors tested.

• Right-hand sponsored links in the first three positions in the right column were viewed by only 50%, 40%, and 30% of visitors, Eyetools says. The fourth ad was seen by only 20%, and the remaining four ads were noticed by just 10% of visitors.

Losing Your Cookies

A ClickZ article by Rob McGann cites a Jupiiter Research report indicating nearly 40% of internet users delete cookies at leasy monthly: "Based on a survey of 2,337 U.S. respondents, the study finds that 17 percent of Internet users delete cookies on a weekly basis. Approximately 12 percent do so on a monthly basis, and 10 percent make it a daily habit." The report said consumers seem to incorrectly identify cookies with Spyware and privacy threats.

Millions of dollars in affiliate program revenue is allocated almost entirely on cookie-based tracking. More advanced tracking uses multiple technologies, including session-based tracking.

Analytics Pros Lead New Association

The recently formed Web Analytics Association is led by two veteran internet tracking experts Jim Sterne, of Target Marketingand Bryan Eisenberg of Future Now Inc Sterne is the author of numerous books including the classic What Makes People Click: Advertising On the Web. Eisenberg firm also produces probably the best source of information on online conversion at GrokDotCom.

Yahoo is 10 Years Old

The Yahoo retrospective is fun...but I think the
Yahoo submission chant has been mostly forgotten.

Are you a lead, a target, prospect or a friend?

Always wow offers some great thoughts on wording that's always seemed weird - in marketing we talk about targets and leads. In public relations we talk about placements and circuits.

Can't we just be friends?