Optimize & Prophesize

Category: Search

  • The New Google Era

    Something has been happening on the Google SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). It is the very thing that the FTC just closed the case on. It is the delivery on the promise that Larry and Sergey made from the beginning. That Google would organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible. The keywords (pun…

  • End of the CPM Experiment

    The flag bearer of display advertising was always Yahoo. Their massive sales force stoked 15 years of equity into “the web banner.” Yahoo arguably had the greatest hand in providing the economic foundation for the entire web for many of its formative years.  That is why nothing better symbolizes the collapse of that foundation better…

  • Defending the Future of Mobile Ads

    The first time I read Fred Wilson’s Mobile is Where the Growth Is I was disturbed. I commented. Not what I really wanted to say but I said something. The second time I read it I had to write a blog response. Now I agree there’s a shift happening. But… This is unknown. Foursquare hasn’t…

  • Taste Graphs and the Future of User Controlled Media

    My friend Andy Weissman posted some really interesting ideas last week on the future of branded media that got me thinking. “we are moving to a world where almost everything is available, basically on demand. The problem for users in this environment is no longer "what CAN I watch" (or read or listen to). Instead,…

  • Talkin’ 2011 Publisher Revenue Blues

    "Well, I finally started thinkin' straightWhen I run outta things to investigate." -Bob Dylan It’s been a while since I’ve posted here at Optimize and Prophesize and even longer since I posted regularly. As has been the tradition here  in all but my first year blogging in 2006, I provide a yearly recap of my…

  • Harvesting Networked Intent

      The keywords and links that we use as proxies for intent are the currency of the web. Search has shown how truly valuable they are but intent does not begin and end in Search. People don’t go to Google and figure out what their intent is – they arrive there with it. Often driven…

  • Ad Wars 2011: The Publisher Empire Strikes Back

    Intent is Timing When you mention the word intent in online advertising circles the first thought is invariably Search. Of course Search has thrived as a destination site for intent but intent is not generated in Search. Intent is generated many other places and is moved to Search. Most of all for advertisers, Search is…

  • Optimize and Prophesize 2010 Highlights

    2010 was my fifth year of blogging and my second year on Twitter. My number of blog posts have continued to trend down the past few years, though my posts these days tend to be more thought out and longer – so hopefully the quality has gone up. I looked back on my blog posts…

  • Algorithmic Search and Discovery

    When Rich Skrenta who has been a pioneer in Search with Topix (and just launched Blekko) writes the following, I take notice: “Algorithmic search is sinking. The only way to combat this and return trust and quality to search is by taking an editorial stand and having humans identify the best sites for every category.…

  • Search Vs. Social: A Game Over Before it Started

    I really like GigaOm but they fell prey yesterday at the end of a piece that was for the most part accurate about Search not being a demand-gen channel to the false prophet of Social Media advertising overtaking Search. They’re in good company underestimating the upside of Search. In 2003 Jupiter predicted paid search would grow to…

  • Ladies and Gentlemen: Search Has Your Attention

    "Google has become the remote control for the world; it's the first stop, not TV” – Will Margiloff, CEO of Innovation Interactive Nothing is more realtime than Search. Have a question? Search gets the answer for you right away. Need to find something right now? Search will track it down in less than half a…

  • CTR is the Web

    My friend Darren Herman has reinitiated a debate about the validity of Click Through Rate (CTR) as an online advertising metric. On his blog he posted a great collection of quotes he obtained on the subject from some brilliant industry people. It's an important read. Interesting to me, of the 9 people asked only 1 was…

  • Introducing the NML – The National Marketing League*

    Wouldn’t it be great if there were a professional marketing league? It could literally be the best media property in the world, NFL be damned. I know I would follow it very closely and even place a wager or two. Owners would form teams of digital marketers across different verticals. Team members could include marketers…

  • Unlocking the True Value of Digital with User Flows

    From 2003-2005 I spent a lot of time observing people of all ages and walks of life use the web across many different sites and verticals. I watched their facial expressions and body language as they surfed. I watched their mouse movements and the locations of their clicks.  I asked them to put their brains…

  • Search’s Long Tail Rising

      “When they kick out your front door, how you gonna come? With your hands on your head, or on the trigger of your gun?” Last week Google confirmed changes to their natural Search algorithm.  In short, by giving more weight to site authority in the algo, long tail Search traffic should begin to rise for…

  • Online Advertising is Not an Intent Generation Channel

    Chris Dixon posted yesterday about Facebook and the ad channel they are trying to create with the Like buttons. He thinks they are building for top of the funnel Brand advertisers. The day of the big FB “Like” announcement I tweeted that Facebook was going to use these buttons to go head-to-head with Google on direct-advertising. It…

  • Bounce Rates & Publisher Monetization from Search

    Bounce rate from natural search is a problem that has plagued publishers for a long time. It’s one of the problems we’re working on solving at Yieldbot. Many pubs spend a great amount of time and effort working on SEO to increase site visitors. The fruit of this labor is increased traffic to pages relevant…

  • Display’s Matching Problem

    Simply put, advertising is a matching problem. It is a puzzle of people and needs, demand and awareness, creativity and messaging, and most of importantly, timing and context. It works best when the shape of the consumer fits perfectly with the shape of the advertiser. While conceptually this idea is not new  - advertisers have…

  • The Value of Search Ads for Brand Keywords

    On Search Engine Land today I saw a nice post on understanding the dynamics of Paid vs. Organic (or Natural) search. As David Roth explains it: What keywords are we really talking about? Those that match exactly with your brand name or branded product name, where there is generally no competition. So if you are Acme Widget…

  • Digital Spaces That Excite Me for 2010

    Last year I was very fortunate to meet some incredible people involved in shaping the future of digital media. I enjoyed learning about what interests them, hearing their points of view and discovering what problems they were working on solving. Needless to say, digital media evolves at an astounding velocity so I thought this was…