Marketing Pilgrim

We all play the monthly search share game but it has become a bit more complicated as of late. We now have to pay attention to whose numbers are being considered and what they are using to measure this important metric. It used to be that we would take comScore at its word (which is admittedly a dangerous play) but other players like Chitika have raised the bar by at least playing in the same ballpark as comScore.

Now comScore is adjusting its measurement techniques. Both Chitika and comScore’s approaches are covered with the usual thoroughness that Danny Sullivan provides over at Search Engine Land. I recommend that you read both articles to get the big picture on the ‘new’ landscape of search share measurement.

Aol. (folks, that is not a typo that is the new logo!) has reached a milestone with its Patch hyperlocal service. Patch, which was purchased by Aol. (not a typo, really!) in June 2009 has created its 100th ‘Patch’ (congratulations, Morristown, NJ ,which is where I was born a real long time ago) and is getting ready for a major ‘patch push’ by the end of the year.

TechCrunch tells us some more

When AOL bought hyperlocal news site in June, 2009, it covered five towns in Connecticut and New Jersey. On Tuesday, it will open its 100th Patch, and by the end of the year it plans to open 400 more for a total of 500.

It looks like Wednesday is shaping up to be an interesting day for the Internet world. Facebook has sent out invites to the industry bigs like Kara Swisher of the Wall Street Journal’s BoomTown preparing for the announcement that is rumored to be about Facebook’s foray into the geolocation game.

Here is what Swisher had to say

Foursquare might want to stock up on the Mylanta on Wednesday.

That’s because a multitude of sources indicate that Facebook will finally be rolling out its own geo-location offering and the date now looks set for the day after tomorrow.

In fact, BoomTown was just ginning up a post on the likelihood that Facebook would be unveiling a check-in service this week when an invite dropped into my email box inviting me to a “news event” at the social networking powerhouse’s HQ in Silicon Valley.

Earlier today, we talked about how The Gap used a social media push to encourage people to step into their stores this past weekend. Now Best Buy is working on a similar idea with a decidedly “big brother” twist. Starting tomorrow, in 187 stores in major markets all over the US. They plan to follow this with an additional 70 stores by October 1.

The “shopkick” system is designed to detect and reward shoppers just for walking into a Best Buy store. In order to accomplish this feat, consumers must download an application to their smart phone. Right now the app is only available for iPhone but Android is coming soon. On the store’s end, there is a “shopkick Signal” which reaches out and talks to the application when they meet. The conversation includes information on who owns the phone that just walked in and that person gets rewards that they’re calling “kickbucks.” These bonus bucks can be collected and spent in the store as cash.

Over the weekend the Gap offered a 25% discount for your shopping just by checking in at a store. You didn’t need to be the mayor or the janitor or nothing. Jut check in then cash out at the check out. As they say here in the south “That dog’ll hunt!” DOn’t get too excited though because the promotion has already come and gone.

Mashable reported on this effort and makes an observation about foursquare’s potential advantages over the same offer given through Facebook or Twitter

The same discount is available to Twitter and Facebook users, but Facebook users have to print out a coupon and Twitter users have to offer up a discount code at the cashier. If you go the Foursquare route, you just have to check in at the store, though we’re not sure how the cashier knows about it; maybe he or she has to look up your user name, or maybe you actually have to show them your phone?

After months of development, I am delighted to reveal Trackur 2.0.

Along with a fresh new look, Trackur’s social media monitoring tools now include:

• Facebook, Digg, and Delicious monitoring
• Inline Influence Rank scores for news sites and blogs
• Klout scores for Twitter users
• Alexa data
• And behind the scenes the database has been upgraded and we’ve switch the user interface to HTML5 and CSS3

What’s more, we’re keeping the same low pricing AND adding all these features to the free plan!