Marketing Pilgrim

This is by no means a prediction about Google+.

In fact, if the initial reviews (which are mixed but with some heavy hitters buying in pretty big) then maybe, just maybe, this list won’t include the latest social effort from the search giant.

For now though, it is interesting to see just how much experimentation the Goog has done and they haven’t been afraid to fail! And to show the continued pace of product flameouts, just this past weekend Realtime Search was shelved (it is supposed to be back we just don’t know when) and now Wonder Wheel meeting a more permanent fate.

This infographic from our friends at Wordstream shows just what kind of product wreckage Google has experienced.

Continue Reading…

Google’s Realtime Search went offline this past weekend and it’s not because of integration into Google+ as a Google spokesperson apparently “misspoke”. Instead it’s due to the expiration of an agreement between the two companies.

Danny Sullivan reports at Search Engine Land

Google send us this explanation:

Since October of 2009, we have had an agreement with Twitter to include their updates in our search results through a special feed, and that agreement expired on July 2.

While we will not have access to this special feed from Twitter, information on Twitter that’s publicly available to our crawlers will still be searchable and discoverable on Google.

Google says that the service will relaunch at some yet to be determined future time and will be filled with Google+ updates (rather limited at this time for sure) and many other sources.

Have a happy and safe holiday as we celebrate our freedom here in the United States of America.

For those of you looking for your usual Saturday Cup of Joe you’ll have to wait another week. You see, Joe’s a pretty busy guy and I am filling in for him so he can have a little R & R for the 4th of July weekend following his usual busy work week. As the managing editor of Marketing Pilgrim, I have to be careful not to let my thoroughbreds run too hard without some rest .

So you’re stuck with me today and if you made it this far I hope you will stick around for the rest. I promise I will stay on point and keep it short.

People don’t give Justin Timberlake enough credit. One day after the announcement that he bought a stake in MySpace, the snark began. Some felt that he was taking his role in The Social Network too much to heart, while others just can’t get past his rep as a teen idol.

Yes, Timberlake rose to fame as a member of a boy band but don’t hold that against him. He’s a real smart cookie, who has reinvented himself as a solo artist, an actor and comedian. He’s also an entrepreneur with a clothing line and a restaurant, so buying a share of the ailing social media site isn’t that big of a reach for the pop star.

Timberlake said in a statement;

Zynga, the king of the social gaming platforms, filed a $1 billion dollar IPO on Friday and unlike other recent IPO announcements, those are coins you hear jingling in their pockets.

According to CNN Money, Zynga earned $11.8 million on sales of $235.4 million in the first three months of this year alone. With social gaming expected to rise to $1.1 billion this year alone, they’re sitting very, very pretty.

Zynga isn’t the only group cheering about the rise in social gaming, many brands have found marketing success with in-game advertising. P&G’s Bounty made a big splash (then they used one towel to clean it up!) in the Electronic Art’s game “Restaurant City.” In the game, players can unlock rolls of Bounty towels, or let loose a special Bounty janitor, both of which have the power to clean up faster. I haven’t played the game, but I assume that faster clean-up means your restaurant can serve more customers and earn you more virtual bucks.