Marketing Pilgrim

In the tenuous world of new world online giant vs old world media giant (Google vs. the New York Times) there appears to be some attempts to make peace of sorts. The Business Insider at the Silicon Valley Insider is reporting that talks between the two companies are still going. The subject matter, however, is not a sale but rather options to help the NYT garner some revenue through Google. The Insider says

We’re not aware of any definite plans coming out of those meetings, only what one source called “one or two different models that people are curious about.”

To some people, it was the first sign of the apocalypse: Google was down. Yes, the Google and yes, actually down. (You can see why this might look like the beginning of the end.)

As with many end-of-days scares, however, this one proved to be a false alarm. Yes, Google was actually down, but the world did not end, as was supposed . Google explained and apologized for the failure in a blog post. Unfortunately, their analogy used some slightly apocalyptic imagery:

Imagine if you were trying to fly from New York to San Francisco, but your plane was routed through an airport in Asia. And a bunch of other planes were sent that way too . . .

Am I the only one picturing a mid-air crash now?

It can be a huge pain to change your cell phone number. These days, it’s just as complicated as changing email addresses. Gmail is making it easier for us all. Google announced yesterday that Gmail now migrates email and contacts from other email providers, including Yahoo!, Hotmail, AOL, and many more. Taking it one step further, Gmail also gives you the option to forward your email messages for up to 30 days while you test it out.

To set this up, just head over to your Gmail settings, and you’ll see a new tab labeled “Accounts and Import.” While this feature is available for all new Gmail accounts, it is still being rolled out on existing accounts so be patient if you don’t see these options just yet. Businesses and schools using Google Apps won’t see these new migration options.

For regular Pilgrim readers you know that I pay attention to the Wall Street Journal. I suspect many of you do as well. In today’s Editor & Publisher we get a peak into what the WSJ is doing to keep their editorial folks ‘in check’ when it comes to social media and their work.

Staffers at The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday were given a newly compiled list of rules for “professional conduct,” which included a lengthy guide for use of online outlets, noting cautions for activities on social networking sites.

In an e-mail to employees, Deputy Managing Editor Alix Freedman wrote, “We’ve pulled together into one document the policies that guide appropriate professional conduct for all of us in the News Departments of the Journal, Newswires and MarketWatch. Many of these will be familiar.”

If you’ve not stopped popping champagne since we published Forrester’s predictions for social media marketing, you might need the Alka-Seltzer after you see eMarketer’s contrary estimates.

Not good with tables? Bottom line, eMarketer is predicting a 3% decline in social network ad spending in 2009. That decline comes after a 129% increase in 2007 and a 33% increase in 2008.

Why the contrast to Forrester? Two things to note. eMarketer has revised its data based on the gloomy prediction from MySpace parent News Corp. Also, we’re not quite comparing apples with apples here. This decline is for social media advertising–we assume Forrester’s prediction includes other marketing and PR efforts that utilize social media.

I’ve honestly lost track of the number of trademark lawsuits brought against Google, but how about we add one more to the pile?

Firepond is stepping up to the plate, but what’s interesting about its approach is not its claim that AdWords allows competitors to bid on its trademarks–although that is in there–but that the company is seeking class-action status.

In papers filed this week in federal court in the eastern district of Texas, software development company Firepond seeks class-action status on behalf of all Texas trademark holders whose names have been used to trigger search ads…this appears to mark the first time [Google] has faced a potential class-action suit about the issue.