Pilgrim’s Picks for August 28 - Book Contest Winners Announced

Thursday, August 28th, 2008;
-- Andy Beal | 11 Comments » |

Thanks to everyone that entered to win a copy of "Always Be Testing." Our three winners are listed below today’s Picks.

Here are the contest winners:

Microsoft Throwing Ice Cream Cones at Google?

Thursday, August 28th, 2008;
-- Andy Beal | 19 Comments » |

There’s a classic comedy skit from Eddie Izzard about England getting taken by surprise by the Germans in World War II. He suggests that Germany had a head start on building weapons, and England? Well, I’ll let him explain:

"Get the tanks out! Get the…we haven’t got any tanks? Then get that ice cream van out there! Get it out there! Kill! All right, f*** it. ( mimes making ice cones and throwing them ) F*** off! Everything! Just throw everything at them! Just…that’s not…harder! Orange fruities! And Zooms! Throw the Zooms! F*** off, you b***ards! Pots and pans! Get pots…just throw the pots and pans at them!"

Breaking: Google Listens to Apps Customers, Improvements on the Way!

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008;
-- Andy Beal | 11 Comments » |

As a paying Google Apps customer, the lack of communication during recent outages left a bad taste in my mouth.

I’m pleased to report that I just received an email from Google with details of many improvements coming our way. These are much needed and welcomed.

We’re committed to making Google Apps Premier Edition a service on which your organization can depend. During the first half of August, we didn’t do this as well as we should have. We had three outages - on August 6, August 11, and August 15. The August 11 outage was experienced by nearly all Google Apps Premier users while the August 6 and 15 outages were minor and affected a very small number of Google Apps Premier users. As is typical of things associated with Google, these outages were the subject of much public commentary.

Blogging the Democratic Convention from the Big Tent

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008;
-- Janet Meiners | 4 Comments » |

Today I wish I were a political blogger. I supposedly had a ticket to the Democratic Convention, which fell through. Then I had the misfortune (in this situation) to live in a state that didn’t get a lot of tickets. Some lucky bloggers - one from each state - were also part of the State Blog Pool or Corps (here’s a list of the bloggers by state).

Pilgrim’s Picks for August 27 - Magnetic Cows Edition

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008;
-- Andy Beal | 13 Comments » |

Today’s Picks are just too good, so let’s jump right in.

The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority Needs a Chill Pill

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008;
-- Andy Beal | 7 Comments » |

Don’t mess with the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority! Pedantic is its middle name and it’s well versed in the ancient art of filament-slicing.

According to the Guardian, it took just two complaints about an Apple iPhone TV advertisement (watch it here) for the watchdog to take action and ban the ad.

The Advertising Standards Authority received two complaints that the claim was misleading because the iPhone did not support Flash or Java, which are both integral to many web pages.

Apple said the aim of the ad was to highlight how the iPhone can offer access to all websites…and that the line “all parts of the internet” meant website availability, “not every aspect of functionality”.

Google’s Experiments to Mess With Your Mind

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008;
-- Andy Beal | 11 Comments » |

Yesterday, we talked about the importance of A/B and multivariate testing. Google offers Website Optimizer (for free) and now we learn just how much the search engine eats its own dog food.

Here’s an A/B experiment that Google has conducted. See if you can spot the difference.

Page 1:

Page 2:

Yeah, I didn’t spot it either, but apparently there is slightly more white space around the first listing, in page 1.

Should you be that granular with your A/B testing? Maybe not, but Google explains just how subtly it’s messing with your mind testing your preferences each day.

Manage an Online Reputation Crisis in 7 Steps

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008;
-- Andy Beal | 10 Comments » |

In case you’ve not yet bought a copy of Radically Transparent, or perhaps you just need a reputation management refresher, you can check out an interview I did recently with MarketingSherpa.

Consider it a mini-guide to managing an online reputation crisis. In it, I discuss the following seven steps in detail:

  • Tip #1: Perform an honest self-analysis
  • Tip #2: Control communication
  • Tip #3: Monitor online conversations about your company
  • Tip #4: Analyze complaints before reacting
  • Tip #5: Strategize responses
  • Tip #6: Control the conversation
  • Tip #7: Don’t shoot yourself in the foot

Win Copies of Bryan Eisenberg’s New Book “Always Be Testing”

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008;
-- Andy Beal | 65 Comments » |

UPDATE: Winners announced here.

Usability guru and best-selling author Bryan Eisenberg is back with another great book. Always Be Testing: The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer sees Eisenberg team up with John Quarto-vonTivadar, and Lisa T. Davis to deliver the definitive guide to Google’s web page multivariate testing tool.

I’ve just finished reading Always Be Testing which finally opened my eyes to just how easy Website Optimizer is to use and just how valuable it is for any web site owner. Following Eisenberg’s advice, I’ve not only set up the perfect multivariate web page test, but I also know which variables to test.

Pilgrim’s Picks for August 26 - Who Stole the News Edition?

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008;
-- Andy Beal | 6 Comments » |

If you’re following me on Twitter, you’d have read my reaction to news that Google Suggest had finally made its way to Google’s homepage search box.

Turns out, that’s probably the biggest news of the day. Today really is a slow news day. I’ll keep digging for something worthy of your brilliant mind, but in the meantime consider these Picks an amuse-bouche for the day. ;-)

  • I’ve not checked the accuracy of the data, but you have to be impressed with Khalid’s attempt to provide the "Ultimate Rank" of SEO blogs. Yeah, it’s linkbait, yeah he’s massaging the egos of those on the list–wohoo, we’re #8 ;-) –but it looks like a lot of work went it to compiling the list.

NBC Gets a Bronze for Online Video Advertising During Olympics

Monday, August 25th, 2008;
-- Janet Meiners | 14 Comments » |

The Olympics is over and US advertisers should be pleased with the results. Not only did we take home a lot of gold from athletes, this Olympics brought record web site traffic - and an experiment in online video advertising. The two weeks long Olympics was a test in how video advertising would play out.

According to eMarketer - NBC - the lead sponsor of the games, gets a bronze for their work. They brought in $5.75 million for running video ads. The Wall Street Journal reported NBC made only a quarter of what CBS Sports made streaming a college basketball tournament earlier this year.

Pilgrim’s Picks for August 25

Monday, August 25th, 2008;
-- Andy Beal | 1 Comment » |

There’s only one thing on my mind: Football!

Yep, the college football season gets underway this week and I’m hoping NCSU can pull off an upset down at South Carolina on Thursday.

I need a distraction-to keep my mind off football–and these Picks will do nicely!

  • AdAge reports on rumors that Microsoft and WPP might do a deal that involves the exchange of Avenue A/Razorfish and 24/7 Real Media.
  • Want some creative ideas for your site’s "Add to Cart" button? Linda Bustos takes a look at a bunch of before and after designs for popular etailers.