Ok, well maybe not me but hopefully someone without a face for radio will be going video for me.
It's late on Friday so I'm going to keep this quick.
In the online media world there's a buzz around this data from the US Global Web Index which has been compiled into a market research report by Lightspeed Reaserch for Trendstream.
It all sounds very dull when I phrase it like that but preliminary statics of the US show that online video is more popular than blogging and social networking. In fact it shows that online video rivals traditional broadcasting and is the fastest growing media platform in history!
At Adfero we "predicted" this and earlier this year we launched our video news product where companies can get the latest bespoke news uniquely written and read out for them in a branded news room and published on to their website. But sticking to the original purpose of this blog, I will not be turning this into a sales forum so won't wax lyrical about Adfero Video News here (if you want to look at sales material see http://www.adfero.co.uk/products/news-videos/) .
Im also not going to go in to all the years of research we did about how and when Google will start to cache video and how to make it SEO effective.
I will however mention that we will be creating video blog pieces to support the Adfero blog!
Watch out for the announcement and link to YouTube coming soon and enjoy the weekend.
Friday, 29 May 2009
Thursday, 28 May 2009
Adfero: Google Wonder Wheel and keywords
Back to business, no more celebs. I have been playing around with some of Google’s new options when searching. In the blue bar just below the search box there is an option for “show options” -see below.
Clicking on this brings up a whole host of different search options that allow you to restrict your search and make it more relevant. I won’t go over what all of these do - Google will happily tell you - but I was particularly interested in the second from the bottom - Wonder Wheel.
When I searched for “renewable energy” it brought up a whole host of related topics, as the example below demonstrates.
When I clicked on one of the related topics - “types of renewable energy” it brought up the associated Wonder Wheel and the search results on the right changed to reflect the refined search topic – see below.
That is a simple explanation of how it works from a user's point of view. But how does Google select related topics? I can't find out. I must have read every blog and Google file available on the Wonder Wheel and no one wants to tell me!
I assume that if the wheel is automated by Google then the related content must be related to what people have previously searched for in the same Google session but I could be completely wrong.
If this is the case then surely this has a huge commercial benefit to people trying to launch new products, sites or even benchmark competition. Can it be used to generate related keywords to focus optimisation on?
Do you know? Can anybody tell me?
Clicking on this brings up a whole host of different search options that allow you to restrict your search and make it more relevant. I won’t go over what all of these do - Google will happily tell you - but I was particularly interested in the second from the bottom - Wonder Wheel.
When I searched for “renewable energy” it brought up a whole host of related topics, as the example below demonstrates.
When I clicked on one of the related topics - “types of renewable energy” it brought up the associated Wonder Wheel and the search results on the right changed to reflect the refined search topic – see below.
That is a simple explanation of how it works from a user's point of view. But how does Google select related topics? I can't find out. I must have read every blog and Google file available on the Wonder Wheel and no one wants to tell me!
I assume that if the wheel is automated by Google then the related content must be related to what people have previously searched for in the same Google session but I could be completely wrong.
If this is the case then surely this has a huge commercial benefit to people trying to launch new products, sites or even benchmark competition. Can it be used to generate related keywords to focus optimisation on?
Do you know? Can anybody tell me?
Wednesday, 27 May 2009
Genuine question, no advice given: Can Jordan be an asset to your business?
Apologies if the Adfero blog looks like it’s turning in to a celebrity blog given the last post involving Ricky Gervais; I can assure you it is not. That said, I found myself glued to the TV over the Bank Holiday watching an advert for the latest Katie and Peter reality show on ITV2. Having only seen the advert (honestly) I noticed it was sponsored/in association with http://www.kiddicare.com/ which caught my interest.
Kiddicare subscribe to our DirectNews product which was why it caught my attention. Adfero have worked with Kiddicare for many years and one of our early success case studies demonstrated that one article we wrote for them about Jordan directly resulted in a significant increase in traffic and product sales on their website. The team at Kiddicare are excellent and I am in no way suggesting that this played any part in their decision to sponsor this show BUT it merely started my cogs turning – well, once I had figured out that Katie Price is in fact Jordan!
The thoughts going through my mind were not whether Katie/Jordan or Peter are good role models for parents with young children (I will leave that to Kilroy and Trisha) but how did Kiddicare come to their decision to sponsor this particular show?
I understand the principles or PR, branding, advertising etc but is it risky to associate your brand with an individual – particularly one as controversial as Jordan? How does this work online? Typically this level of above-the-line advertising and brand association is for individual products as a source of endorsement, but you never see Gary Lineker having an argument with his family in a Walkers advert - he just eats crisps.
Please do add any comment. Do you sponsor a celebrity?
Kiddicare subscribe to our DirectNews product which was why it caught my attention. Adfero have worked with Kiddicare for many years and one of our early success case studies demonstrated that one article we wrote for them about Jordan directly resulted in a significant increase in traffic and product sales on their website. The team at Kiddicare are excellent and I am in no way suggesting that this played any part in their decision to sponsor this show BUT it merely started my cogs turning – well, once I had figured out that Katie Price is in fact Jordan!
The thoughts going through my mind were not whether Katie/Jordan or Peter are good role models for parents with young children (I will leave that to Kilroy and Trisha) but how did Kiddicare come to their decision to sponsor this particular show?
I understand the principles or PR, branding, advertising etc but is it risky to associate your brand with an individual – particularly one as controversial as Jordan? How does this work online? Typically this level of above-the-line advertising and brand association is for individual products as a source of endorsement, but you never see Gary Lineker having an argument with his family in a Walkers advert - he just eats crisps.
Please do add any comment. Do you sponsor a celebrity?
Thursday, 21 May 2009
Adfero thanks Ricky Gervais and apologies to Karl Plinkington
Following on from my rather extended and in-depth blog on Google News and the news agencies, I am happy to bring you a lighter, shorter and hopefully more entertaining piece today.
Thanks to Ricky Gervais who put a link to Adfero’s very own http://www.inthenews.co.uk/ website from his blog today. I’m sure we will return the favour Ricky. Cheers.
Apparently one of our Adfero reporters was the first person to ask Ricky a question following the movie at last night's premier of Night in the Museum Two.
When we asked if his XFM producer Karl Plinkington would be confused by the prospect of a museum coming alive, Gervais replied: "He'd just say: 'Bit weird, innit?’”
Ricky then wrote on his blog: “Karl is quite a phenomenon now and this could actually turn him into bald Manc world icon. The first question at the press conference for Night At The Museum 2 in Washington was about him. Unbelievable.”
Sorry Karl if we in anyway contributed to you being called bald.
For anyone who wants to read Ricky’s blog here’s the link: http://www.rickygervais.com/thissideofthetruth.php
Thanks to Ricky Gervais who put a link to Adfero’s very own http://www.inthenews.co.uk/ website from his blog today. I’m sure we will return the favour Ricky. Cheers.
Apparently one of our Adfero reporters was the first person to ask Ricky a question following the movie at last night's premier of Night in the Museum Two.
When we asked if his XFM producer Karl Plinkington would be confused by the prospect of a museum coming alive, Gervais replied: "He'd just say: 'Bit weird, innit?’”
Ricky then wrote on his blog: “Karl is quite a phenomenon now and this could actually turn him into bald Manc world icon. The first question at the press conference for Night At The Museum 2 in Washington was about him. Unbelievable.”
Sorry Karl if we in anyway contributed to you being called bald.
For anyone who wants to read Ricky’s blog here’s the link: http://www.rickygervais.com/thissideofthetruth.php
Wednesday, 20 May 2009
Adfero: Pride or publicity (well, traffic)?
Traditionally most news agencies, including Adfero, take pride in the speed at which they can break an article. The goal of improving speed and accuracy has caused many Adfero journalists sleepless nights, long hours and missed lunches. The sandwich-boarded youth of Victorian Britain shouting “read all about it” and the foundations of modern journalism are all based around the principle that the first to publish gets the readers.
So what has happened online? Has publishing news online using aggregator services such as Google and Yahoo allowed news agencies to publish faster? Well the obvious answer is yes, but will this continue or will the news agencies reach a Google News “stand off” and delay publishing their articles online?
Perhaps I should explain a little more. Over the past few years we have been tracking/working with and utilising Google News for a whole host of Adfero products. I recently attended a conference and got together with some other news agencies to specifically talk about Google News and how it affects the flow of traffic to news websites. Whilst everyone loved the fact that you could get upwards of 60,000 unique visits from one story, the issue comes when trying to predict the type of story and most importantly when to publish an article to ensure maximum Google News traffic from that article.
At a basic level Google News works like Google but for individual articles, not entire websites. The news sites accepted by Google are trawled much more frequently and by submitting dynamic site maps to Google News, this can allow Google News to monitor when an article is updated on a site. The position an article appears in the news ranking is based on relevancy (of course) but also publication time with the most recently published articles being top. This means that the first company to publish an article about a breaking topic will soon be pushed off the top spot by other agencies writing similar articles on the same issue more recently published. Generally it will take a few hours for the public to hear about the issue and start searching for it on the news section. This means some “traffic hungry” editors “sit on” breaking articles, watching Google Trends and Microsoft Xrank to find the exact time when the public is searching for the topic, while other agencies have already posted articles, so that their article will be at the top of Google News for the longest period when most people are searching for it.
Are these “traffic hungry” agencies swallowing their pride in place of money? Or simply providing the best results for their advertisers? What would happen if all agencies started doing this? Would we reach a Google News stand off with everyone being afraid to be the first to publish online and therefore slowing news delivery?
At Adfero we are still striving for speed and accuracy. As proven yesterday when I spoke to a very stressed Matt West (Adfero consumer news editor) who was desperately trying to hold of one of our political correspondents in Westminster to leave the G8 select committee and get over to the Michael Martin resignation to make sure we had all the information first and were among the first to publish the article.
Comments please
So what has happened online? Has publishing news online using aggregator services such as Google and Yahoo allowed news agencies to publish faster? Well the obvious answer is yes, but will this continue or will the news agencies reach a Google News “stand off” and delay publishing their articles online?
Perhaps I should explain a little more. Over the past few years we have been tracking/working with and utilising Google News for a whole host of Adfero products. I recently attended a conference and got together with some other news agencies to specifically talk about Google News and how it affects the flow of traffic to news websites. Whilst everyone loved the fact that you could get upwards of 60,000 unique visits from one story, the issue comes when trying to predict the type of story and most importantly when to publish an article to ensure maximum Google News traffic from that article.
At a basic level Google News works like Google but for individual articles, not entire websites. The news sites accepted by Google are trawled much more frequently and by submitting dynamic site maps to Google News, this can allow Google News to monitor when an article is updated on a site. The position an article appears in the news ranking is based on relevancy (of course) but also publication time with the most recently published articles being top. This means that the first company to publish an article about a breaking topic will soon be pushed off the top spot by other agencies writing similar articles on the same issue more recently published. Generally it will take a few hours for the public to hear about the issue and start searching for it on the news section. This means some “traffic hungry” editors “sit on” breaking articles, watching Google Trends and Microsoft Xrank to find the exact time when the public is searching for the topic, while other agencies have already posted articles, so that their article will be at the top of Google News for the longest period when most people are searching for it.
Are these “traffic hungry” agencies swallowing their pride in place of money? Or simply providing the best results for their advertisers? What would happen if all agencies started doing this? Would we reach a Google News stand off with everyone being afraid to be the first to publish online and therefore slowing news delivery?
At Adfero we are still striving for speed and accuracy. As proven yesterday when I spoke to a very stressed Matt West (Adfero consumer news editor) who was desperately trying to hold of one of our political correspondents in Westminster to leave the G8 select committee and get over to the Michael Martin resignation to make sure we had all the information first and were among the first to publish the article.
Comments please
Introduction to the Adfero Blog
Welcome to the Adfero blog.
The purpose of this blog is to inform Adfero clients, employees and other interested parties of what we’re currently up to and hopefully offer some interesting information about the developments in the news and online arena.
Unlike other blogs, this is not a shameless opportunity for us to plug the Adfero products. However, if you do want to get a better understanding of these then please visit http://www.adfero.co.uk/.
Worth a disclaimer here: despite the fact that we employ a whole host of very talented and clever journalists, I am not one of them – as you can probably tell already from the first few lines of this blog. We are sticking to the original blog philosophy: creating an open forum where even semi-illiterate people such as myself should not feel intimidated to give there two penneth worth. If you would like to see well-written, informative news then please see the Adfero consumer news websites at the bottom or http://www.inthenews.co.uk/ .
If you would like to contribute to this or any other future posting then please feel free to add comment.
The purpose of this blog is to inform Adfero clients, employees and other interested parties of what we’re currently up to and hopefully offer some interesting information about the developments in the news and online arena.
Unlike other blogs, this is not a shameless opportunity for us to plug the Adfero products. However, if you do want to get a better understanding of these then please visit http://www.adfero.co.uk/.
Worth a disclaimer here: despite the fact that we employ a whole host of very talented and clever journalists, I am not one of them – as you can probably tell already from the first few lines of this blog. We are sticking to the original blog philosophy: creating an open forum where even semi-illiterate people such as myself should not feel intimidated to give there two penneth worth. If you would like to see well-written, informative news then please see the Adfero consumer news websites at the bottom or http://www.inthenews.co.uk/ .
If you would like to contribute to this or any other future posting then please feel free to add comment.
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