Jordan McCollum News Archive

Facebook Headed for Financial Ruin?

Jordan McCollum — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 21:12:42 GMT

TechCrunch today has no treatsand no joy, no, not even Almond Joyfor Facebook in reporting about its projected financial woes . For a company once valued at $15 billion , things are looking grim as the cash supplies may dwindle long before Facebook is ready or willing to go to IPO. There's no denying that Facebook continues to enjoy incredible popularity worldwidebut that could be part of the problem. Facebook's worldwide growth has been strong over the last year,

Linky Goodness, October 30

Jordan McCollum — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:57:06 GMT

Wow, is it Thursday? I thought I felt that post-Wednesday, pre-Friday slump. It's been a year since Hulu launched ? While I know I joined in the universal berating of the company from its announcement last March , I join TechCrunch in saying, " I'm Glad You Guys Didn't Suck. " SoloSEO has some great ideas for improving stickiness and getting your visitors to come back every day and yes, the list does go beyond "post every day.

Video Search Getting Smarter

Jordan McCollum — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:12:30 GMT

Today the WSJ profiles a number of video search engines that actually seem to be getting smarter. Instead of relying on external meta data to determine the content of a clip, these engines are looking to data internal to the clip itselfincluding dialogue and people (or characters) appearing in the clip. And yep, one day YouTube might not be the #1 video search engine (although they may still be the #1 video hosting site).

Gmail IDs Become Open IDs

Jordan McCollum — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:53:08 GMT

I'll admit it. I've put off purposefully joining Open ID for no real reason. But now, whether we want to or not, you and I (well, I'm guessing you are, anyway) are being jumped in to the world of Open ID. Because not only are Yahoo Mail and Windows Live Mail (aka Hotmail) joining the Open ID ranks, allowing their logins to become Open ID logins, but so is Gmail. If you've forgotten/never learned what Open ID is, it's like a universal login for participating sites.

Social Network Advertising: Annoying or Effective?

Jordan McCollum — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:37:36 GMT

Social network advertising is not only not annoying but surprisingly effective in some segments, according to the results of a new survey by Razorfish. In FEED: the Razorfish Consumer Experience Report 2008 , Razorfish surveyed "connected consumers"1006 people with broadband access who spent at least $200 online in the past year, used a community site such as MySpace and consumed or made some type of digital media including videos and music. And of those people,

Linky Goodness, October 28

Jordan McCollum — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 21:51:50 GMT

All right!! The tremors can stop, we're back to the regularly scheduled LG that we all know and love! You know how you see a business finally bring their key, core aspect online, and you think "What took you so long?" Yeah, that's what MTV Music finally bringing music videos online is. But with the number of music videos on YouTube (not to mention the recent YouTube/Amazon/iTunes deal ), is it too late? Unless they buy Yahoo,

Google to Display Copyrighted Works (With Permission, of Course)

Jordan McCollum — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:30:58 GMT

Google, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) have reached an agreement, announced today , that will allow Google Book Search to display the text of in-copyright, out-of-print books. In addition to the fact that these copyrighted works will now be searchable and accessible to all with permission from copyright holders, it's also nice to see the three organizations getting alone, since last we heard they were suing up a storm.

Linky Goodness, October 27

Jordan McCollum — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:44:51 GMT

Because it's just been too long without a full-fledged linky goodness. MySpace gives up the good fightfor Holland. They're closing the Netherlands' office , citing too much competition from the Dutch social network Hyver. Don't like that YouTube clip's slow beginning? Link to it with a specified start time . And you can customize your YouTube homepage now. Facebook's showing off its open sourciness with revealing some internal code . It does . . . something.

Pilgrim Picky Goodness, October 24

Jordan McCollum — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 20:39:56 GMT

So little good news, so much time. Erm, strike that. Reverse it. We have so much news that it's an uber edition of Pilgrim Picky GoodnessPilgrim's Picks and Linky Goodness all rolled into one. (And, happily, LG will be back in its same bat time, same bat channel next week!) Look out, spammers Google adds a fighter jet to their air fleet . Yeah, really. We'll keep an eye out to see if they start purchasing missiles. Lagging well behind Facebook in yet another feature,

Expanded Product View with Images in Google AdWords

Jordan McCollum — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:03:50 GMT

Google's been using plusboxes in its organic results for quite some time now, but only in the last few months have we begun seeing those in paid results as well. Back in March, we first started spotting video ads in similar Google AdWords plusboxes , and now Google's added expanded product results with images : Notice here that the opened plusbox actually consumes the entire window (and for specs' sake, this is on 1280×800, Firefox with four menu bars (menu, address,

Internet Marketing Video Central: IMBroadcast.com

Jordan McCollum — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:26:06 GMT

There's a treasure trove of Internet marketing wisdom in instructional videos (and, of course, funny ones, too) around the Internet. But that was kind of the problemthey were all around the Internet. Now, instead of scouring SEOmoz, Matt Cutts's archives and YouTube for all the good marketing knowledge, you can turn to one central source: IMBroadcast.com . IMBroadcast won't just be a collection of videos, either.

Word of Mouth, Online Reviews Most Influential in Purchase Decisions

Jordan McCollum — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:11:03 GMT

A new study by Rubicon Consulting states that word of mouth and online reviews are the most influential factors in consumer purchasing decisions. According to the study, the Internet is also important in providing customer support. The survey also looked at consumer's use and perceptions of different websites and categories of websites: The Web is the #2 resource for customer support information, after user manuals.

Pilgrim's Picks, October 22

Jordan McCollum — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:07:40 GMT

I know what you're thinking (for it is also in my mind): Andy, come back. We miss linky goodness! The first Gphone, the aptly named G1 , is available today. To celebrate, Android goes open source , as promised. Some mildly good news for Yahoo: their stock didn't fall as much as the market did after their disappointing Q3 results . MySpace strikes again: this time, a teacher gets fired over what sounds like pretty innocuous communications with his students .

Breaking: Major Upgrades Coming to Google Analyticsâ€"Videos of New Features

Jordan McCollum — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:26:47 GMT

If you saw the post from the Google Analytics Blog this morning announcing the updated user interface and thought that was all they had up their sleevesyou're wrong. The UI is just the updated wrapping to go with major upgrades coming to Google Analytics in the coming weeks. The upgrades are part of an enterprise-class bundle of features that will be available to all Google Analytics users. The new features are: custom reporting, advanced segmentation,

Yahoo Optimistic After Earnings Drop, Layoffs: Nowhere to Go But Up?

Jordan McCollum — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 12:52:31 GMT

Yahoo reported its Q3 earnings today, and it's not all good news. Well, on the positive side, Yahoo's revenues are up to $1.8 million. The bad news is that it's only 1% YOY. And the worse news is that their profits were $54.3 million in Q3compared to $151.3 million for Q3 2007. And possibly worst of all, Yahoo is trying to cut its annualized costs for this year from $3.9 billion down to $3.5 billion. Normally, cutting costs is a good idea,

Yahoo/Google Deal Drags onâ€"to its Death?

Jordan McCollum — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 20:31:07 GMT

Despite Google's headway inside the Beltway , the Yahoo/Google ad deal is still under government reviewor, more technically, stalled while the government considers reviewing the deal. Yesterday, CNET reported that Google and Yahoo extended the deadline for the government's review of their still-pending ad deal. The deadline was tomorrow, and that was already after one extension from October 8. The new deadline is set for sometime before Thanksgiving.

Email Marketing Better than Social Network Marketing

Jordan McCollum — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 15:36:26 GMT

Is email marketing better than marketing through social networks? Yes, according to a new study from ExactTarget and Ball State University's Center for Media Design . The study reveals that: ". . . 18- to 34-year-olds claim they are more likely to be influenced to make purchases based on e-mail marketing messages and direct mail than marketing messages on social networks," said Mike Bloxham, director, insight and research,

Pilgrim's Picks, October 20

Jordan McCollum — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:26:48 GMT

Ha ha ! I usurp Pilgrim's Picks while Andy . . . relaxes on a beach in Hawaii. Hm. On second thought, I lose. You know you work in marketing when someone's complaining that there aren't enough ads to go around . Still attached to old media? Not to worry, they're not going away. Yet. PricewaterhouseCoopers gives them a good five years . ( via ) Microsoft's at it again: now they're rebranding Live Search as Windows Live Search .

Google Still Learning Lobbying Ropes

Jordan McCollum — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:26:48 GMT

Google and Microsoft are at each other's throats once again: this time for control of Washington. And what I"m about to tell you probably sounds like all the back-room dealing we've heard so much about during this campaign and we're all tired of hearing about lobbyistsbut that's exactly what this is. Sunday's New York Times featured an article about Google's presence in the nation's capital. Although Google has had a slow start at lobbying lawmakers,

Motorola Readies Its Gphone?

Jordan McCollum — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:45:48 GMT

Unless someone's better at keeping a secret than Motorola's being, the second Gphone to hit the market will be coming to the US in Q2 2009 (Europe, Q3 2009), according to a Business Week report . The phone is slated to cost about $150. Like the T-Mobile G1 , manufactured by HTC, Motorola's Gphone is slated to feature a touchscreen and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Of course, last week's reviews noted a few deficiencies in the first Gphone's design,

Linky Goodness, October 17

Jordan McCollum — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 00:18:17 GMT

Today we're mostly Googly in our linkiness. Let's get our obligatory nonGoogle story out of the way first: Facebook wants to offer music, but they don't want to tangle with labels , reports paidContent.org. MySpace recently launched its music service , which it owns jointly with participating music labels. Facebook, on teh other hand, has no desire to cede ownership in exchange for access.

Microsoft to Yahoo: Ignore Ballmer, He's Just a Flirt

Jordan McCollum — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 23:12:25 GMT

From proposal to almost-marriage to messy breakup, their love affair dominated tech news for the first half of the year. Now that the Yahoo/Google deal has supplanted the proposed Yahoo/Microsoft merger in the public attention, it looks like Steve Ballmer's getting a little lonely again. In a keynote earlier this week, the Microsoft CEO said: We offered $33 bucks (for Yahoo) and it's $11 today. It's clear Yahoo didn't want to sell.

Google Beats Q3 Estimates

Jordan McCollum — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 22:22:40 GMT

Google's had a tough time over the last couple years, with Wall Street Analysts expecting almost exponential growth. When they first missed estimates, growing only 58% in Q2 2007 (the losers) , some analysts thought it was the beginning of the end. While they've bounced back from time to time (such as Q1 2008 ), Google is probably pretty happy to finally be sticking it to the analysts where it hurts the mostthe bottom lineas they post an estimate-beating Q3 ,

G1 Gphone Reviews Are In: As Good As the iPhone, Or Not Quite Ready?

Jordan McCollum — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 22:05:49 GMT

The first reviews of T-Mobile's new G1 "Gphone" are inand it's at least as good as the iPhone, if the initial reviewers are to be believed. And considering who some of these reviewers are, it's probably true. What's the consensus? While it's not a bad little device, T-Mobile's 3G coverage sucks (20, soon to be 30 cities), the phone should have a better media player and a standard headphone jack, the keyboard is a nice feature but not the easiest to use,

Linky Goodness, October 15 - Name that LG Edition

Jordan McCollum — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:46:11 GMT

It's the ides of October, and today you get to give linky goodness its special name. It seems to me these links all have to do with a central theme, but I'm just not coming up with a cute name for it. See if you can do any better. After starting its own blog advertising network, Technorati Media , in June, now Technorati has acquired the network AdEngage . I guess what they're trying to say is, "Fo' rillz, yo.

Facebook Fighting Predators, Fostering Startups

Jordan McCollum — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:12:33 GMT

Facebook, Facebook. A year ago, it seemed we could hardly go a day without some newsworthy tidbit from the sweetheart of the social networking scene. These days, positive headlinesor any at all, since "ink is ink"are much fewer and further between. But today, Facebook has two reasons to make the news: they've endorsed the new KIDS Act from the US federal government and they're finally disbursing the fbFund for startups.

Linky Goodness, October 14

Jordan McCollum — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 20:05:42 GMT

What a momentous daythree years ago today, I joined Facebook. Sounds like a good excuse to party to me! Speaking of joining thingswonderful news! Lisa Barone has joined We Build Pages . WBP is based in Troy, NY. I love Troy. Never been there. But I killed a man there once. Only it was a woman. And it was nine years before I was born. And oh yeah, it was in a work of fiction.

New Yahoo Ads Tout Safety, Ease of Use

Jordan McCollum — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:48:47 GMT

Yahoo's unveiling a new display and radio ad campaign today. The campaign, which is targeted to fight Google, touts Yahoo's safe results and easy-to-use interface. One banner ad adjures us: "Don't get lost in all the links": two caps from an animated banner ad A radio ad advertises the SafeSearch feature, which uses McAfee to indicate which sites in a SERP might contain potentially dangerous downloads: The SafeSearch feature is nice, but again, if you have that info,

Linky Goodness, October 13

Jordan McCollum — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 20:23:58 GMT

Linkety linky goodnessit's like "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" only for marketing news links! Perhaps all is not well with Hulu, the NBC- and Fox-owned video site. Apparently Saturday Night Live, an NBC show, is planning a standalone site . HBO is, too. Will Google AdWords be using Twitter? InsideAdWords is now a Twitter user However, Twitter is giving up on its current IM capability However, they're adding IM capabilities to their "Things to Build" list.

All Your Phone Are Belong to Google: iPhone Ads and G1s Coming

Jordan McCollum — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:27:45 GMT

As Andy mentioned this morning, the G1 Gphone sold out, but for a lot more units than we initially thought . Instead of half a million this quarter, apparently, they sold 1.5M in the presell alone. Previous reports said that the order from the manufacturer, HTC, was for 1.5 to 2 million phones. The G1s are slated to arrive next Wednesday. Of course, the G1 isn't the only way Google is taking over your phones. They're also gearing up ads specifically for the iPhone ,

Linky Goodness, October 10

Jordan McCollum — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:42:46 GMT

Hey, it's 10/10. Awesome. I know you're wondering where I come up with all this cleverness, aren't you. Another content deal for the video giant as YouTube starts running full length CBS shows . Hey, as long as we can get them somewhere, right? Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg has had a lot to say this week. CNET reports that Facebook's working on opening up , though it'll take time, and it's is all about growth . Then I have good news and bad news.

More Google Changes: Content Attributes in SERPs

Jordan McCollum — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 20:55:11 GMT

I guess it's just been one of those weeks: Google is innovating all over this week. The latest changes that have been spotted come in Google's bread and butter: the SERPs. Both Barry Schwartz and Michael Gray posted about a new development in the SERPs: content attributes listed between the title and the snippet of results. The information provided there included the number of posts from the blog,

Google Premieres Text Ads in Maps; Audio Comment Preview in YouTube

Jordan McCollum — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 21:25:09 GMT

Google is launching plenty of new features this week, and now they have even more. As spotted by CNET , Google Maps are now sporting text ads below the map results. Check out this result for [copies near san francisco, ca]: Like the snippets above emails in Gmail, these are one-line link and description ads appear on a green background with additional ads available via < and > buttons (because who doesn't want to look at more ads?).

Linky Goodness, October 8 - Deluxe Edition

Jordan McCollum — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:31:47 GMT

What's so deluxe about today's linky goodness? It's not the quantity, it's the quality. Rumors have flown for more than a year, and now it's really true: Yahoo Web Analytics Officially Launches Want to get into in-game advertising? Google AdSense is doing video game advertising now . And because I know you really want to get in there, Wikia Search has released a third party search enhancement platform . I'm guessing that's like Search Monkey.

YouTube Unveils Click-to-Buy

Jordan McCollum — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:10:25 GMT

Yet another monetization tactic from YouTube: click-to-buy . Through partnerships with companies like EMI and Electronic Arts, YouTube is adding links to iTunes and Amazon (DRM free) to download music and video games, with more options to come. The links appear below videos from participating partners (such as this perennial classic from OK Go): And Google says there's lots more to come: This is just the beginning of building a broad,

Linky Goodness, 7 October

Jordan McCollum — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:37:09 GMT

We bring you some linky goodness We bring you some linky goodness We bring you some linky goodness So you'll have the news! All hope is not lost for Yahoo! As long rumored , they're in merger talks with AOL . Oh, wait. That probably does mean all is lost. Oh that's what it's forFacebook's Sheryl Sandberg points out that the social utility network is a big opportunity for branding online . And more Facebook newsas promised ,

Gmail "Goggles" to Prevent Drunken Emails. Seriously.

Jordan McCollum — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:19:52 GMT

I'm pretty sure this is one idea that started as an April Fool's joke, but new in Gmail Labs is a filter to prevent you from sending out drunken, late-night or otherwise ill-advised emails. When you send an email during your specified time, it prompts you with various mathematical equations which you have to solve before it will send out your email. If you're too out of it to fire up the calculator, your email will have to wait till another day. Oh,

Linky Goodness, October 6

Jordan McCollum — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 21:14:21 GMT

Linky linky goodness, readers, dear Linky links will come to you all year If I had one wish, then it would be A post full of good links to you from me. Oh, look, my wish came true! Do text ads still work online? Oh yeah. In fact, simple text ads are still the most clicked ad type online . Far less popular? Banner and video ads. More commercials are coming to online television . I love Ad Age's opening here: Want more ads with your free web video?

Hakia Redesigns: Is It Enough?

Jordan McCollum — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 20:11:22 GMT

Hot on Ask's heels , the semantic search engine Hakia launches a redesign today, too. Aside from the new SERP layout, Hakia is testing the use of peer-reviewed "credible sites" and a personal start page. As a tab on the redesigned SERP, Hakia offers an option to refine your results to sites that have been peer-reviewed to meet strict noncommerciality and credibility standards. The results from credible sites , however,

Friendster to Add Facebook App Compatibility

Jordan McCollum — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 19:53:36 GMT

I have a little song for you today. It's to the tune of "Oh Shenandoah." O-pen Social, you long to give us A-a-apps, all open source O-pen Social, you long to serve us A-a-away you're bound to go 'Cause Facebook's stealing your lunch Okay, the last line might not fit so well in the song, but it looks to be happening in the real world.

Linky Goodness, October 3

Jordan McCollum — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 19:53:35 GMT

Another song for the day, yes? "I'm Gonna Buy Me a Dog." It's what's playing now on my computer. Yahoo's been testing a new design for site explorer, and now it's officially live . Slick. Barry needs the links. So here's one to one of his posts on SEL. Oh, and you might find it interesting, too: Google Adds Geographic Data To AdWords Quality Score . Too many old people clicking your ads? Too bad. Rumors of wars and layoffs: Will Yahoo cut its workforce? Oh,

Gphone Sold Out; More iPhone Killers to Come?

Jordan McCollum — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 20:30:13 GMT

It's been just over a week since T-Mobile premiered the G1, the first cell phone with Google's Android OS . Although the phone won't be available for three more weeks, T-Mobile has already sold all of its preorder units . That's right, folks. The Gphone is sold out. Of course, T-Mobile most likely set aside a significant number of G1s to be sold direct in stores.

StumbleUpon Changes: No Toolbar, Partners, Better Ads

Jordan McCollum — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:40:11 GMT

Maybe the big change coming for StumbleUpon last month wasn't a change in ownership after all. While rumors of eBay's planned sale of the website-discovery toolbar have yet to be confirmed, StumbleUpon has come out with a few big changes this week. Originally designed as a toolbar that delivers recommended pages in your specified areas of interest, StumbleUpon has seen great popularity. It even had a decent revenue model: selling some of those pageviews for a nickel a pop.

Facebook Redesigns Homepage

Jordan McCollum — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 20:44:39 GMT

Last night, my husband was logging in to Facebook when he noticed something was different. He asked me if I'd seen this before: Nope. Conspicuously absent from the redesign, of course, is the phrase "social utility," Facebook's high-falutin' euphemism for "social network." (I swear I noticed that before I read the TechCrunch post, too.) I'm guessing the new homepage is not the harbinger of major changes at Facebookrather,

Linky Goodness, September 30

Jordan McCollum — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 20:44:38 GMT

There's always something bittersweet about the last linky goodness of the month, don't you think? The launch of the G1 Gphone generated instant interestalmost enough to match that of the iPhone (at the time). In searches, anyway, as Hitwise reports . I'm sure you're all experts at Google Webmaster Tools, but just in case you're not, the Google Webmaster Central blog today gives some tips for getting Advanced Website Diagnostics with GWT .

Yahoo Defends Google Ad Deal, Too (And Again)

Jordan McCollum — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:12:47 GMT

Almost three weeks ago, Yahoo defended the Google ad deal with executive vice president Heather Schneider. Maybe it's just a postmortem twitch of the old competitiveness, but now that Google's stepping up its defense of the deal, so is Yahoo, this time bringing in President Sue Decker. Friday's post on the Yahoo Anecdotal blog, entitled " Myth-Busting and the Yahoo!-Google Agreement ," highlights the reasons why Yahoo wants in on the deal: Yahoo!

Linky Goodness, September 29

Jordan McCollum — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:12:45 GMT

Do the Linky Goodness Dance! It's a bit like the Safety Dance, but longer: L-l-l-l I-i-i-i N-n-n-n K-kyou get the picture. Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the best online mapping service of them all? Google Maps, of course, who's spent the last year innovating while their rivals "stagnate ." And Danny Sullivan explains exactly how that innovation works in The Google Hive Mind . Freaky. Last week's reports of Yahoo Answers' death have been greatly exaggerated,

Consumers Want Businesses on Social Networks

Jordan McCollum — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 23:17:11 GMT

I have to say that this one came as a bit of a shocker for me: apparently 93% of American consumers want businesses on social media sites , according to the aptly-named 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study . Odd, I thought when most Facebook users rebelled against Beacon, this was exactly what they didn't want. When asked whether businesses should interact with consumers on social media sites,

Linky Goodness, September 26

Jordan McCollum — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 23:17:10 GMT

Oh, it's linky, and it's good. Are you using Facebook to make yourself look goodlike really good? Do you have the most friends, the coolest connections, the most photos, etc., etc., etc.? Guess what: we know you love yourself . RWW reports problems with FeedBurner hearing pings . Anybody else seeing this? Google's overseas maps continue to improve, this time with real time traffic info for England's major roads. I know, I know.

Linky Goodness, September 25

Jordan McCollum — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 21:08:41 GMT

[Let's all pretend I've said something clever and laugh appropriately, eh?] Now on to the links! Just when you thought Google and Yahoo had said all they could possibly say to defend their pending ad deal, Google launches a Yahoo-Google facts site ( via ) Is Microsoft jealous of the legal threats Google's received over Street View? Because they're launching "richer" bird's eye and street-level CG imagery , along with a number of other improvements,