Marketing Pilgrim

Another song for the day, yes? “I’m Gonna Buy Me a Dog.” It’s what’s playing now on my computer.

• Yahoo’s been testing a new design for site explorer, and now it’s officially live. Slick.
• Barry needs the links. So here’s one to one of his posts on SEL. Oh, and you might find it interesting, too: Google Adds Geographic Data To AdWords Quality Score. Too many old people clicking your ads? Too bad.
• Rumors of wars and layoffs: Will Yahoo cut its workforce?

Oh, and how can you beat this—now playing: “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Salute me. I’m about to rock. I know you’re jealous.

I have a little song for you today. It’s to the tune of “Oh Shenandoah.”

O-pen Social, you long to give us
A-a-apps, all open source
O-pen Social, you long to serve us
A-a-away you’re bound to go
‘Cause Facebook’s stealing your lunch

Okay, the last line might not fit so well in the song, but it looks to be happening in the real world. Yet another social network that had pledged its support to Open Social is adding compatibility with Facebook’s application language. Yes, first it was Bebo (in December) and now it’s Friendster.

Click here to continue reading...

It’s been just over a week since T-Mobile premiered the G1, the first cell phone with Google’s Android OS. Although the phone won’t be available for three more weeks, T-Mobile has already sold all of its preorder units.

That’s right, folks. The Gphone is sold out.

Of course, T-Mobile most likely set aside a significant number of G1s to be sold direct in stores. One report cited by Business Week said that T-Mobile expects to sell up to half a million G1s this quarter. Their order with the phone’s maker, HTC, naturally, is for a much higher number: 1.5 to 2 million.

Click here to continue reading...

Maybe the big change coming for StumbleUpon last month wasn’t a change in ownership after all. While rumors of eBay’s planned sale of the website-discovery toolbar have yet to be confirmed, StumbleUpon has come out with a few big changes this week.

Originally designed as a toolbar that delivers recommended pages in your specified areas of interest, StumbleUpon has seen great popularity. It even had a decent revenue model: selling some of those pageviews for a nickel a pop. ClickZ reports that one out of every 20 to 30 pages stumbled is a paid inclusion. But the toolbar may soon be a thing of the past for all users.

Click here to continue reading...

There’s always something bittersweet about the last linky goodness of the month, don’t you think?

• The launch of the G1 Gphone generated instant interest—almost enough to match that of the iPhone (at the time). In searches, anyway, as Hitwise reports.
• I’m sure you’re all experts at Google Webmaster Tools, but just in case you’re not, the Google Webmaster Central blog today gives some tips for getting Advanced Website Diagnostics with GWT.
• Maybe I’ve got corporate blogging on the brain; who knows? But I was excited to see the Top 5 corporate blogging mistakes and how to avoid them from David Meerman Scott.

Click here to continue reading...

Last night, my husband was logging in to Facebook when he noticed something was different. He asked me if I’d seen this before:

Nope. Conspicuously absent from the redesign, of course, is the phrase “social utility,” Facebook’s high-falutin’ euphemism for “social network.” (I swear I noticed that before I read the TechCrunch post, too.)

I’m guessing the new homepage is not the harbinger of major changes at Facebook—rather, it’s probably the last step in the extremely long roll out of their latest redesign.

Click here to continue reading...

Do the Linky Goodness Dance! It’s a bit like the Safety Dance, but longer: L-l-l-l I-i-i-i N-n-n-n K-k—you get the picture.

• Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the best online mapping service of them all? Google Maps, of course, who’s spent the last year innovating while their rivals “stagnate.”
• And Danny Sullivan explains exactly how that innovation works in The Google Hive Mind. Freaky.
• Last week’s reports of Yahoo Answers’ death have been greatly exaggerated, because Yahoo is NOT selling Yahoo Answers.

Click here to continue reading...

Almost three weeks ago, Yahoo defended the Google ad deal with executive vice president Heather Schneider. Maybe it’s just a postmortem twitch of the old competitiveness, but now that Google’s stepping up its defense of the deal, so is Yahoo, this time bringing in President Sue Decker.

Friday’s post on the Yahoo Anecdotal blog, entitled “Myth-Busting and the Yahoo!-Google Agreement,” highlights the reasons why Yahoo wants in on the deal:

• Yahoo! will use this agreement to help us become a stronger competitor in all aspects of online advertising; and

Click here to continue reading...

Oh, it’s linky, and it’s good.

• Are you using Facebook to make yourself look good—like really good? Do you have the most friends, the coolest connections, the most photos, etc., etc., etc.? Guess what: we know you love yourself.
• RWW reports problems with FeedBurner hearing pings. Anybody else seeing this?
• Google’s overseas maps continue to improve, this time with real time traffic info for England’s major roads.
• I know, I know. You’re in a panic because you now know that consumers want to interact with your company via social media—but you don’t have any idea what to do. Check outSEOmoz’s Corporate Blogging Tips in video form.

I have to say that this one came as a bit of a shocker for me: apparently 93% of American consumers want businesses on social media sites, according to the aptly-named 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study. Odd, I thought when most Facebook users rebelled against Beacon, this was exactly what they didn’t want.

When asked whether businesses should interact with consumers on social media sites, 85% said yes (I guess the other 8% either subscribed to a “seen and not heard” school of thought).

Specifically, Americans believe:

• Companies should use social networks to solve my problems (43%)

Click here to continue reading...

[Let's all pretend I've said something clever and laugh appropriately, eh?]

Now on to the links!

• Just when you thought Google and Yahoo had said all they could possibly say to defend their pending ad deal, Google launches a Yahoo-Google facts site (via)
• Is Microsoft jealous of the legal threats Google’s received over Street View? Because they’re launching “richer” bird’s eye and street-level CG imagery, along with a number of other improvements, including better mobile offerings, to their maps.
• Pew finds that most of the Internet use in the workplace is rudimentary and distracting, according to Search Engine Land and ReadWriteWeb

Click here to continue reading...

Incredible, I know, but for the third time in two days, MySpace does something newsworthy. Today, they topped them all, and they just might have revolutionized music online—little, if any, exaggeration.

How do you listen to music online now? A dollar a download? A limited number of song plays a month? A stream of music with a limited number of “skip this track”s? And your music videos—YouTube, maybe even bootlegs, right?

Just shy of six months after the announcement of an iTunes rival, MySpace Music launches, falling into none of the above categories. Add tracks to your profile, public, and private playlists and play them as many times as you want for free. (Okay, the dollar download, this time from Amazon, is still in effect.)

Click here to continue reading...