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…

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