Marketing Pilgrim

Facebook was onboard with Google’s new Friend Connect - until they looked a little closer at how the technology works. Then they suspended Google’s access to Facebook.

On the Facebook Developer’s blog post “Thoughts on Privacy” it says:

We’ve found that it [Google Friend Connect] redistributes user information from Facebook to other developers without users’ knowledge, which doesn’t respect the privacy standards our users have come to expect and is a violation of our Terms of Service.

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Sanford Wallace, aka “Spam King,” or “Spamford” - a notorious spam king - is finally paying for all that spam. Wallace is president of Cyber Promotions and now he and his partner have the distinction of getting one of largest anti-spam judgments. The court has ruled that they owe MySpace about $230 million in damages.

U.S. District Judge Audrey B. Collins in Los Angeles ruled in MySpace’s favor Monday. Sanford Wallace and Walter Rines did not show up for the court hearing.

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First MySpace announced data portability, then Facebook announced Connect, and now Google has Friend Connect. Each is making it easier to share profile information from one social networking site to other web sites (and hoping to be place you go to do that). Google’s Friend Connect was announced today.

To add social networking features to any web site, you can get code from Google (although, unfortunately, the site does not work until tonight) and pick which features you want to add. The code will allow people register on your site, invite other people, import friends lists, see who else is on the site, and post messages and reviews.

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Facebook is borrowing $100 million to accommodate growth on the site. The money, from venture loan firm TriplePoint, brings the amount raised to around $350 million.

The site has grown quickly and needs around 50,000 more servers to handle the load. Facebook has over 70 million active users and around 109 million monthly visitors.

According to Business Week, Google and Microsoft need a lot of server space. Google has at least a million servers and adds 500,000 per year. Microsoft is adding 200,000 servers per year.

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Yesterday MySpace announced that you can use your MySpace profile on other sites. Not to be outdone, today Facebook announced their version. It’s called Facebook Connect and it’s a good sign that data portability is catching on. Especially because Facebook usually doesn’t follow suit when it comes to sharing data (unless it’s for advertising).

Facebook Connect was announced on the company’s developer blog.

Privacy is a big concern as it always is with social networks. Free means you give up personal information so you can be on the site. If you change your mind, getting the information off could be tricky. Also, each site has its own privacy policies.

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Each time you sign up for a new site you create a profile which is unique to that site. You’ve got to upload a picture and fill everything out. It’s a pain to keep up with it all, which is why I haven’t yet added my picture to my Digg or LinkedIn profile.

MySpace has launched the Data Availability initiative which can make MySpace your home base for profiles. With this new initiative you’ll be able to integrate elements of your MySpace profile on partner sites that so far include Twitter, eBay, Yahoo! Instant Messenger, and Photobucket.

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Another Google exec has decided to leave Google to join Facebook. This time it’s Elliot Schrage, VP of global communications and public affairs. He’ll become the VP of communications and public policy at Facebook. He was at Google for two years.

The funny part is how quickly he got on Facebook and started sharing the news. Like the COO hire, this is a strategic hire for Facebook as they try to follow in Google’s stock price footsteps. If enough early stage Google employees go to Facebook they just might be able to recreate that early Google startup feel.

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I feel like I’m trying to sell something, but it’s true. Google is running a promotion to encourage people to try Google TV Ads. Details below…

Google TV Ads is out of beta after almost a year. As part of Google AdWords, you can run and track the results of television ads. At first glance the two concepts seem incongruent - online advertising and tv ads.

However, people watch tv and then go online to search, edit Wikipedia articles, go to web sites, and yes, buy products. An iProspect study said 37% of TV watchers go to search engines based on what they see in an ad. It’s also important because your online marketing and offline marketing campaigns should complement each other.

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In recent interview with CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo, Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt spoke out about his biggest concerns. Most pressing issue is the possible merger of Microsoft and Yahoo - which could happen as early as next week. Then there’s the problem of how to make money off YouTube – which is costing the company millions a year in hosting costs.

First, the tale of good (Google) and evil (Microsoft) and the fight over struggling Yahoo. In the interview, Schmidt talks up Yahoo’s strengths and warns about Microsoft’s evilness.

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If you read Marketing Pilgrim, or if you read online marketing blogs, you’ve probably heard of Twitter. It’s the rage at tech conferences and in certain communities. Outside of these circles, almost no one has heard of it. But while it may not have reached critical mass, the growth is pretty impressive.

I’ve noticed that people either haven’t heard of Twitter, have a mad crush on it, or HATE it. I asked a room full of paid search managers if they tweet, and one did. Out of the total number of people I work with (most of us do SEO or PPC) my guess is there are about 5 people on Twitter.

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An Google vanity search launched a movie idea for a filmmaker named Jim Killeen. He searched Google on his name to see what came up. This was two years ago and Killeen’s life was feeling empty. He was 38 and single. So after taking interest in the other Jim Killeen’s of the world, he decided to contact them and make a movie about what he learned.

He put everything on the line to make documentary about his journey which is now showing on YouTube and called, “Google Me The Movie.” Killeen doesn’t say how much he spent traveling and filming the documentary, only that he almost went bankrupt doing it. Making money doesn’t seem to be the point anyway.

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Google AdWords advertisers who want to show ads on mobile phones had just one choice - text ads. Now they can also run banner ads - or as Google calls them “mobile image ads.” They are like regular banner ads but smaller.

All of the mobile image ads are keyword-targeted. You pay only when someone clicks on the ad (unlike many others that charge per impression or how many times your ad is viewed). There are four sizes of banners to choose from: (305 x 64), (215 x 34), (192 x 53), (167 x 30). The ads display the URL that they go to and the links must go to a mobile web page.

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