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Internet Fraud is Internet Fraud, Right?

posted on May 26, 2009

fraudAs online marketers most are concerned about click fraud. The endless battle to make sure that when you are buying a click it’s a real click and not something else. Marketers lose sleep over this every night but ht economy may have created a whole other category of fraud called “friendly fraud”.

First, I am not sure where we are headed when we can call fraud “friendly fraud” like we find in an article over at the Wall Street Journal. Sounds too much like “friendly fire” and there is nothing friendly about that. So what exactly is it? According to the article

Online merchants are fighting a surge in so-called friendly fraud, as more consumers try to get out of paying for their Internet purchases in the recession.

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OpenX Raises Another $10M to Help in Its Efforts to Bring Down Google

posted on May 26, 2009

It seems that OpenX CEO Tim Cadogan is doing something that he struggled to do at Yahoo–compete with Google.

The ad technology provider and marketplace has just announced a third round of venture capital with $10.4 million being added to the war chest, courtesy of DAG Ventures.

The company is certainly doing well to fend off Google’s own Ad Manager product–claiming an impressive 300 billion ads monthly on more than 150,000 websites across the web. The money will help OpenX further expand both the downloadable and hosted versions of its ad server, while continuing to grow its recently launched OpenX Market.

So, how is this small start-up able to stand head-to-head with the search giant? Simple. OpenX isn’t trying to fight Google on its strengths.

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Social Media Is Important to Everyone – Not!

posted on May 26, 2009

Ok, we have turned a corner. We are on the other side of a holiday weekend. The unofficial start of summer has come and gone. social-media-collageMany people have walked away from their computers for a few days and have actually continued to breathe. Many are coming back refreshed. And, in the case of Gene Marks over at BusinessWeek, coming off the weekend with a contrarian’s view to social media especially as it relates to small business.

What, you say? Someone who doesn’t think that social media will solve our communication issues, global warming and provide world peace? How dare he speak up and say something against the 140 character world makeover that is revolutionizing how we communicate? Here’s his points and, as always, your response, pro or con, is welcome.

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Why Microsoft Needs to Spend $100M to Make Us Doubt Google

posted on May 26, 2009

Are you sure you’re using the best search engine available?

What if I told you that you, your friends, and your family spend almost half their time looking at search results that aren’t relevant?

What if I could show you a brand new search engine that has better results than the one you are currently using?

Would you want to try it?

Those questions are exactly the ones I’d ask consumers if I were in control of the estimated $80 million to $100 million Microsoft plans to spend on marketing its, yet to be launched, search engine.

We’re just days away from Microsoft releasing “Kumo” (the current working name) into the wild and for once, mounting an honest-to-goodness challenge to Google’s dominance. But, Microsoft can’t possibly expect something flashy and new to convince Google users to make the switch, so it needs to play the only trump card that it has.

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In Honor of Memorial Day (2009)

posted on May 25, 2009

We probably won’t post anything today, other than this photo.

God Bless America

Without the sacrifices of those who died to protect our freedom, who knows if this blog would even exist.

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Google Maps Updates Just in Time for Holiday!

posted on May 22, 2009

If you are traveling for the long weekend you can use Google Maps in a new and improved way. The team at Google is announcing additional features to go along with their cool new logos. This is surely a watershed day in Google’s history.

Ok, so it’s not exactly a banner news day but at least this update has some practical value. Here’s what happens. Google maps will now show a main route when you request directions but will also show available alternate routes for you to consider. They appear under a suggested routes option that you can move between to get the details on the trip. It’s actually pretty cool.

Below is the example given on the LatLong blog

goole-map-update

So how do they do it?

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Google SearchWiki Gets Social—Kinda

posted on May 22, 2009

There was a minor uproar last November when Google introduced its SearchWiki feature, allowing users to personalize SERPs by moving results up or down, adding comments or blocking them altogether. When it became clear SearchWiki was here to stay, SEOs really had to wonder to what extent the data from individual users would be incorporated into Google’s 200+ ranking signals.

But now there’s a way to make sure your friends, family and neighbors can see your SearchWiki changes. SearchWiki just got more social—albeit in a really, really primitive way. Yes, now Google offers a link to your personalized SearchWiki results, so you can share those pages with friends.

Here’s how it works:
googwah1
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