Marketing Pilgrim

Google announced today that they have improved their flash indexing capabilities. Last year they announced an update to their flash indexing, and let’s just say it wasn’t well received. This time around, Google claims to be able to index external flash resources. For those non-Flash experts out there, SWF files use an external file to load content. This content can be in the form of HTML, XML  or even another SWF file. Google’s update analyzes and extracts the content in that file, and then they index it.

My initial reaction (which was confirmed by the screenshot they provided) was this will be horrible from a user’s perspective. Depending on what type of content lives in that external file, what Google extracts from it could look like jibberish. Here is the example screenshot they provided of a search result that utilizes this update:

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CNET announced today that AOL has purchased two local-oriented sites: Patch and Going.com. As CNET pointed out, the acquisition of Patch isn’t a big surprise, as newly appointed AOL CEO Tim Armstrong founded and invested in Patch while working as Google’s sales chief. Armstrong believes that “Local remains one of the most disaggregated experiences on the Web today—there’s a lot of information out there but simply no way for consumers to find it quickly and easily.”

He’s hoping that Going.com will give AOL another way to capitalize on that market. Going.com offers event and invitation services, along with ticketing and ways for locals to connect with one another. The goal of the acquisition is to build out AOL’s local services, but is it also insight into AOL’s new market strategy?

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Google claims we can expect to see at least 18 phones with the Android operating system by year’s end, possibly 20. Which phone carriers they will be on has yet to be determined, according to the New York Times. Currently T-Mobile’s G1 and a phone available in Europe called “Magic” by HTC are the only phones that give Google credit for using their Android OS.

If the Android phones can be released sooner rather than later, it should provide some interesting competition for the summer phone war against the iPhone and Blackberry, among others. The applications available for the Android will play a major factor in consumer’s buying decisions.

This is where there is still some confusion regarding the Android OS. According to the Times, there are three types of Android platforms. Each places different requirements on the handset manufacturers and wireless carriers. The Times broke each of these types out, here is a short summary of them:

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UPDATE: Looks like there won’t be a Twitter TV show.

In an effort to capitalize on its increased attention, Twitter has agreed to a TV deal with Reveille Productions and Brillstein Entertainment Partners. And not just any TV series, friends, a REALITY TV series (cue the hallelujah chorus). I think we’ve all had this void in our life, and in our TV lineups in particular, that was missing something . . . something AMAZING. The Twitter reality TV show is just that.

Who wouldn’t want to see people stalk celebrities via Twitter? What’s that you say? You can already see people stalking celebrities on Twitter by simply visiting twitter.com? Blasphemy! This has number one TV rankings written all over it.

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Some exciting news in the world of Twitter. According to Reuters, Twitter will be rolling out revenue-generating features by the year’s end. I know what you’re thinking: “Great, here come the ads.” Well you are wrong, my friend. Twitter believes they can stay ad-free by developing various add-on tools and services for the businesses and professional users of Twitter.

“There are a few reasons why we’re not pursuing advertising — one is it’s just not quite as interesting to us,” Twitter co-founder Biz Stone told the Reuters. “There are no people at Twitter who know anything about advertising or work in advertising. So we don’t have anyone there to make or take those calls.” How comforting.

Stone continued to reassure us all by saying that Twitter would remain free for consumer and businesses. Twitter plans on releasing new features to enhance Twitter’s user-experience, such as lightweight analytics and directories.

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It can be a huge pain to change your cell phone number. These days, it’s just as complicated as changing email addresses. Gmail is making it easier for us all. Google announced yesterday that Gmail now migrates email and contacts from other email providers, including Yahoo!, Hotmail, AOL, and many more. Taking it one step further, Gmail also gives you the option to forward your email messages for up to 30 days while you test it out.

To set this up, just head over to your Gmail settings, and you’ll see a new tab labeled “Accounts and Import.” While this feature is available for all new Gmail accounts, it is still being rolled out on existing accounts so be patient if you don’t see these options just yet. Businesses and schools using Google Apps won’t see these new migration options.

Will you be making the switch?

After 18 months on the job, current Ask.com chief executive, Jim Safka, will be leaving the company.

The decision to leave was difficult for Jim, and it came about under very unfortunate circumstances. Jim’s brother recently passed away, causing Jim to re-evaluate his life. Marketing Pilgrim wishes Jim best of luck in his future endeavors.

Jim’s departure won’t be easy for Ask, as they are already far behind competitors in the search engine realm (only a 2.1% market share in March). Jim was originally hired to replace Jim Lanzone as part of the company’s shake up back in January 2008.

In an e-mail to the company’s staff, InterActiveCorp CEO Barry Diller acknowledged Jim’s contributions to the company:

Jim has demonstrated tremendous leadership during his tenure at IAC, first at Match.com and most recently at Ask.com, where he helped the Ask Network become the 6th largest in the U.S. and created the foundation for a new growth strategy that is showing early positive traction.

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Someone is finally stepping up to the plate. I’ve been longing for Yahoo to care enough to challenge the Google empire, but it looks like Microsoft’s CEO is the one with the stones to do it. Steve Ballmer, in his speech at Stanford, says that Microsoft is going to have to become “more disruptive in search” in order to attempt to catch up to Google.

Ballmer realizes how big of an underdog Microsoft really is to Google. Microsoft doesn’t have the economies of scale or the money that Google that has helped keep them where they are in search.

“We’re not just a No. 2 or 3 player,” Ballmer said. “The No. 1 player is a lot bigger than us.”

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Remove prostitution or face criminal charges. That’s what South Carolina’s Attorney General, Henry McMaster, threatened in a letter to Craigslist’s CEO, Jim Buckmaster. McMaster believes that Craigslist is “being used to facilitate harmful activities in South Carolina,” pointing out prostitution and people’s safety as his primary concerns.

McMaster even went further to accuse Craigslist of knowingly allowing their site to be used for illegal and unlawful activity, even after warnings from law enforcement officials. Craigslist danced around the issue on their blog, and they plan on speaking to the SC AG directly about it.

Craigslist has until 5pm EST on Friday, May 15 to remove portion of the site which “contain categories for and functions allowing for the solicitation of prostitution and the dissemination and posting of graphic pornographic material.”

More than likely Craigslist will remove the section to avoid investigation and the lawsuit, but do you think the Attorney General is right to demand this?

A new form of email spam has surfaced, but this time with a recession twist. The email message focuses on the recession, but they are now including search engine links to trick your spam filters. According to MediaPost, the links included in the email don’t redirect to the spammer’s Web site, nor do the links perform a search in search engines using particular keywords in hopes of the spammer’s domain showing. Instead, the link performs a search for the spammer’s domain name. What’s worse, many of the sites the spammers lead unsuspecting users to is full of malware. To be honest, I’m surprised this hasn’t been done before.

The technique allows spammers to include a link in the email constructed from a search engine query. Eliminating the URL in the body of the email message makes it difficult for anti-spam applications to detect. Plus, the link leads the person to the spammer’s Web site.

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E-consultancy reports that a recent study conducted by the UK National Customer Satisfaction Index scored retailers, e-commerce reported a stunning score of 82 points for Q4 2008 (out of 100). Why is this news so interesting? Because the average retailer customer satisfaction score is 74.8.

Amazon and Play.com helped e-commerce separate itself from the rest by posting 85 and 87 satisfaction scores. I had a feeling Amazon would be ranked high on this list, but I’m really surprised to see Play.com achieve such a high customer satisfaction level. I haven’t personally played around with their site too much, but hopefully this will give them some much deserved attention in the conversion-world for their great work.

I must admit, when I saw Ticketmaster’s score of 74 a small part of me jumped for joy. I don’t think I’d rate their site that high, but I’m glad I’m not the only one. eBay also received a low score of 79. Sites like John Lewis and Tesco were not considered e-commerce Web sites, instead they were placed in an “other” category.

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A recent Nielsen study suggests that mobile Internet is no longer just a luxury, it’s a necessity. “The mobile platform is becoming more and more a part of people’s lives,” said Jeff Herrmann, vice president of mobile media for Nielsen. “The primary use of these services is communication and convenience.”

The study reports that 71% of U.S. consumers plan to use some sort of mobile data service daily. I’m actually really surprised that number is so high. Even more surprising is that 29% of  non-users plan to engage mobile Internet services over the next two years.

What exactly are users using mobile Internet for?

• 71% are using data services to connect to the Internet
• 61% are using data services for email
• 56% are using data services for multimedia messaging services

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