Marketing Pilgrim

While I know complaints about Google Places complete lack of support to cut through its mess of duplicate listings, spam, misinformation etc falls on deaf ears at the Googleplex, it doesn’t mean that there is NO way to get in touch with someone about this critical component of local search.

In a blog post from yesterday Google Places Community Manager Vanessa Schneider responded to a request for a meeting with a Google rep in the latest market to get the Places treatment, San Diego. Her response read

Hey Sandi –

You can call our hotline to request a visit: (619) 928-9401

Thanks,

Vanessa, Places community manager

During Yahoo’s earnings report Carol Bartz tried to push the recent slide in Yahoo search revenue off on Microsoft. Danny Sullivan refuted that idea by saying that the real reason may be that Bing organic results are better thus making it less likely for a searcher to click on a paid ad.

Either way, there is no denying that Yahoo Search is having a rough go. Take a look at this chart from the Business Insider and the story is pretty obvious.

So is Yahoo ever going to be a real player in search? With continued distance growing between Yahoo and the real two horse race of Bing v. Google it almost seems strange to refer to Yahoo as a search engine anymore even though they still generate considerable revenue (albeit declining) from their search efforts.

Imagine if you could make a TV commercial “clickable.” IntoNow has taken the first step with their new feature which allows you to check-in to commercials in return for a prize.

First up is Pepsi MAX with their “Clubhouse in the Corn” commercial. When you see the commercial on TV, you activate the IntoNow app on your phone. The app uses SoundPrint technology to “listen” to the commercial, verifying that you are indeed watching it, then it rewards you with a coupon for a free Pepsi. Pretty nifty, huh? It’s like the video version of a QR code.

eBay is about to branch out into the geo-location and deal market with the acquisition of a company called Where. The “Where” phone app, helps you find the best places to eat, drink and be merry based on your current location. They also run an ad publishing network that specializes in hyper-local ads.

Where has been around since 2004, and is said to have 120,000 merchants and advertisers working with them and 4 million users. (Though I must admit, I’ve never heard of them, have you?)

As a number of outlets are reporting, it appears that the merger began with the concept of adding Paypal as a payment option for Where deals and snowballed from there. Going forward, Where will be under the Paypal umbrella which could be another step toward the development of that illusive digital wallet.

Today’s a big day for Facebook. President Obama will be doing some kind of town hall function at the Facebook headquarters as he seeks to reach into the pockets of the rich through more taxes. That in itself should be fun to watch since he is in the land of billionaires but what is getting more attention is a quote from a Wall Street Journal article from Facebook lobbyist Adam Conner as the social media giant looks to expand in areas where free speech is not the norm (China folks, it’s China).

Conner’s curious statement was

“Maybe we will block content in some countries, but not others,” Adam Conner, a Facebook lobbyist, told the Journal. “We are occasionally held in uncomfortable positions because now we’re allowing too much, maybe, free speech in countries that haven’t experienced it before,” he said.

Google sure knows how to make the best of a situation. While Internet Explorer continues to lose ground in the browser wars, Google has added features to their Toolbar 7 for Internet Explorer that can make an IE user’s Google experience look a lot like as The Next Web puts it, a mini-Chrome.

The biggest introduction to the toolbar is Google Instant. Here is Google’s video overview from their blog post

The bottom line here is that despite the once huge advantage that Microsoft had to make all of their IE users make Bing their search engine of choice, they are losing that battle as well as their browser market share continues to erode. Now, Google is making their toolbar act so much like Chrome that maybe people will want to give it a try. This does not bode well for Microsoft no matter how you try to spin it.