PubCon 2009 in Photos
As you may, or may not, know, I’m somewhat of a photography addict. I don’t claim to be a professional–just addicted!
Anyway, I had my trusty Nikon D80 at PubCon and snapped over 100 photos. You can see all of my PubCon Las Vegas photos here.
In the meantime, here’s a selection of my favorites:
Matt Cutts knows Bing is getting closer behind Google. 
Look what I found on my way to the MGM Grand Tweetup!
Brett Tabke hosts another excellent PubCon
The Trackur party was a big hit!
Just about every session room was packed!
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Yahoo Search Experiments with Real Time Offering
It looks like Yahoo isn’t going to be left behind in the real time search race that was kicked off last month as bing and Google both announced deals with Twitter. As we saw last week, Yahoo is partnering with OneRiot for real time results. I’m glad that they are throwing their hat in the ring actually. Why? Well, I actually needed the reminder that Yahoo! is still a standalone search engine. While I have never used Yahoo search personally other than to gather up prospecting data I keep forgetting that the marriage of bing and Yahoo is still off on the horizon. Until then all we can do is combine their numbers with bing to see if there will be any impact at all felt by Google when the dust settles on the bingahoo deal-ahoo.
Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O), looking to match rivals in providing up-to-the-minute Internet search results, is running tests with several real-time search partners, sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
Among the companies providing real-time results to Yahoo on a trial basis is OneRiot, whose data will be available initially to about 10 percent of Yahoo’s users, said a person familiar with the matter, who was not authorized to speak about the deal and asked for anonymity.
A representative from OneRiot said she could not comment on the matter.
OneRiot is new to me but since I don’t claim to know everything that’s OK. What I do know now is that they have VC backing so someone knows a lot about them for sure. Yahoo appears to be avoiding the direct to Twitter technique that its new search ‘partner’ bing went after. OneRiot has a slightly different approach to the real-time world which is interesting.
One Riot, based in Boulder, Colorado, collects real-time Internet information from various sources, including Twitter, Digg and its own network of 3 million users that use the company’s software. The company has raised $27 million in funding to date.
So as not to make the bingahoo union any less confusing as to how it will eventually look the article tells us
Yahoo signed a separate 10-year search deal with Microsoft in July, which is expected to close next year. Under the terms of that deal, any data Microsoft’s search engine has access to also would be accessible to Yahoo, Yahoo Chief Technology Officer Ari Balogh said last month.
Huh? Will this still be two entities working in co-opetition? Will Yahoo be building out its search offerings up until the time of the unholy alliance and just try to look a little different but not actually be different? Yahoo is trying out the real time search results in a separate box at the top of the SERPs to see if people are really interested in real time results. If they are not interested then will Yahoo just accept that bing does it and have to work with something they may have tossed in the past? Probably not even worth fretting over but it does make one wonder just what this bingahoo thingy will look like when it is ‘official’.
Honestly, I can’t wait until bing and Yahoo officially join forces. I suspect there will be a considerable amount of blogger fodder that is produced by the ‘final’ product. Seeing that they can’t even get the contract in order yet I’m willing to bet the union of these two search entities will be more like co-habitation than a true marriage.
Is This Recession Over Yet?
We appear to be caught in a rut as of late. No one wants to make a definitive statement as to whether or not the recession / slow down / depression / aberration or whatever we call this thing is over or not. Depending on who you talk to we can either be on the edge of a recovery or the edge of a cliff. Is there a way to tell if this dark economic time is seeing some light at the end of the tunnel?
We at Marketing Pilgrim are not analysts and we don’t claim to be. What we can do, however, is tell you about reports that are out there that can provide some insight or at least help us think differently. As marketers we tend to land on the hopeful / optimistic side of news because we want people to buy our stuff, right? Well, if the folks at Millward Brown Optimor which is owned by WPP are right with their BrandZ Portfolio study then there may be indications that at least the strongest of the strong, brandwise, are showing signs of life.
The analysis shows the top 100 brands, which Millward Brown refers to as the BrandZ Portfolio and includes many technology companies like Apple, Vodafone, Microsoft, Nokia, BlackBerry, Intel and others, are recovering from the recession at a faster pace than the market. As the chart above shows, the most valuable global brands have been outperforming the S&P 500 for a number of years now but show a much faster recovery from the recession than the market in recent months.
As noted by Robin Wauters of TechCrunch it’s a relief of sorts to at least see both of the performance indicators showing movement in the positive direction.
So why would big brands show a quicker recovery than the S&P as a whole? Well, who really knows? While this data is interesting it may be a stretch to make this kind of comparison since the ranking of the Top Brands is something that needed to be ‘crafted’. Here is some of the criteria.
The ranking is calculated using a methodology called “Economic Use”, taking into account the role that brands play in purchase decisions and identifying what proportion of the business value can be attributed purely to the brand. Besides inputs from the BrandZ study, the ranking uses financial data from Bloomberg and market and product data from Datamonitor. The ranking takes into account regional variations since even for truly global brands measures of brand contribution might differ substantially across countries.
So we need your thoughts again Pilgrims. Putting aside a larger worldview for a minute what is happening in your neck of the woods? Are you seeing signs of recovery or signs of ‘more of the same’? While it’s interesting to look at studies like this what is really happening at the street level. I see some more activity but I think the activity is more around preparing to spend more at some point in the future rather than getting back into the game right now. What about you?
Europe Says Google Has a “Pecuniary Interest” in AdWords Trademark Infringement
Google’s not unafraid of the legal action it often faces from France, but there’s an interesting twist in an ongoing saga over trademark infringement–and Google should be concerned.
While a European Union court advisor has submitted an opinion that mostly exonerates Google from accepting and displaying bids for trademarked keywords, apparently there’s an interesting loophole–at least one the European Court of Justice can consider.
Apparently advocate General Miguel Poiares Maduro did not accept that Google’s AdWords system is a neutral platform and exempt from legal action.
Google has "a direct pecuniary interest in Internet users clicking on the ads’ links," said a statement from the court’s press service, which means it can’t claim the same immunity as a search engine which EU law sees as a neutral information vehicle.
In other words, Google has a motive for displaying trademark infringing ads–euros! Lots of them!
If trademark holders can prove that the actual ad content–displayed by Google–damages their brand, they could have a case for damages–and include Google as a defendant. Of course, Google rejects this, but I hope it has a more compelling defense up its sleeve–should it go to court–than this:
Google’s senior litigation counsel for Europe, Harjinder Obhi, said the company also believes that "consumers are smart and are not confused when they see a variety of ads displayed in response to their search queries."
Here’s a news flash Mr. Obhi not only are consumers not very smart, but advertisers are very conniving. Trust me, there will be confusion and you will be back in a French court very soon.
