Have We Entered The Era of The Functional Web?

The New York Times has an article on how the potential sale of Yahoo! to Microsoft could be bad for minnows, i.e. small Silicon Valley companies looking to be acquired. I think this is a short sighted viewpoint.

In the late 1990’s dot.com era, the web was slanted too much towards wall street involvement that led IPO’s that were questionable and in retrospect not advisable.

A force outside the web, namely Sarbanes-Oxley in the Enron aftermath, has made the IPO considerably more challenging to achieve and costly to navigate - even for highly legitimate ideas.

In the web 2.0 era, the slant often went way too far to the left in terms of engineering. Some ideas with little actual business purpose have received unwarranted acclaim and without artificial sources of acquisition, some might not even exist.

Before I go onto explain why that development might create an alignment that I’ll tentatively call the functional web, let me state that I think there are plenty of other companies out there that could emerge to pick up the slack such as Fox, Intuit, Apple or any of a number of traditional media companies who “get it”.

This web might emerge even if the Yahoo! acquisition does not take place. If the functional web emerges a place where engineering and business purpose mix in equally important parts instead of the excesses in one direction or another, who potentially gains and who potentially has something to lose?

Potential Gainers:

- Strong Internet business skill generalists with strong system architecture, product management and the ability to network with geeks and non-geeks alike and iterate from feedback will be in higher demand.

- Companies who would like to challenge the big three who would get an opening.

- People who understand how to create revenue models that could provide for great stand alone businesses.

- People pushing for Sarbanes-Oxley reform to reopen the IPO spiggot a tad. They will push even harder.

Potential Losers:

- Funding sources who either fund ideas in a me-too fashion or just because they’ve known the people since the dot.com era and/or those who can’t define and lead a path to monetization or bring strong execution partners to the table.

- Domain name squatters and sellers.

- Passive executive recruiters who will have to actually analyze comprehensive skill sets instead of simply poaching from a direct competitor.

Microsoft Launches Mobile Advertising on MSN Mobile

Microsoft just announced the launch of mobile advertising on MSN Mobile.

I wish they would have given more details about the release instead of pointing us back to overly dated speeches on the mobile advertising subject. I would have expected to see more examples than just movie tickets.

Microsoft has the potential to lead this market with it’s array of assets if they are integrated in the right manner - see my post on Web 2.0 was NEVER a business strategy for ideas.

Maybe they will start a larger conversation on this subject once they see this post? We’ll see.

Happy Thanksgiving 2007

As always Rustybrick has a great holiday logo summary.

My only add on is the following. Take a minute to read the full history of the holiday - it’s not about a day off and football.

Microsoft Hotmail Blocking Yahoo! Mail as Spam?

This is a joke. But all too real. Microsoft meet Yahoo!. Yahoo! meet Microsoft. Now play nice.

Remote host said: 550 SC-004 Mail rejected by Windows Live Hotmail for policy reasons. A block has been placed against your IP address because we have received complaints concerning mail coming from that IP address. If you are not an email/network admin please contact your — Below this line is a copy of the message. Received: from [68.142.237.90] by <A href=”http://n10.bullet.re3.yahoo.com” target=_blank>n10.bullet.re3.yahoo.com</A> with NNFMP; 05 Nov 2007 14:25:19 -0000 Received: from [69.147.75.182] by <A href=”http://t6.bullet.re3.yahoo.com” target=_blank>t6.bullet.re3.yahoo.com</A> with NNFMP; 05 Nov 2007 14:25:19 -0000 Received: from [127.0.0.1] by <A href=”http://omp103.mail.re1.yahoo.com” target=_blank>omp103.mail.re1.yahoo.com</A> with NNFMP; 05 Nov 2007 14:25:19 -0000 X-Yahoo-Newman-Property: ymail-3 X-Yahoo-Newman-Id: 3742.69458.bm@omp103.mail.re1.yahoo.com Received: (qmail 894 invoked by uid 60001); 5 Nov 2007 14:25:18 -0000 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=s1024; d=yahoo.com;

Will You Attend SMX Local & Mobile Denver Next Week

I’ll be attending the first ever SMX Local & Mobile conference next week in Denver!!! Chris Sherman, who talks about why he is excited about the event in this post, and Greg Sterling have both put in a tremendous amount of work into researching and programming this highly unique and special event.

You may view the full agenda and you may still register for the event.

I arrive at Noon on Sunday (where is the Sunday pre-conference meetup - The Hyatt?) and hope to meet with as many attendees as possible before and during the event as I look forward to learning about people and seeing the demos in this soon to be revolutionary space.

See you in Denver! I’ll also have room for one or two on the way back to the airport as I’m renting a car while there.

SES San Jose 2007 Day 2 - Images & Search Engines

I was going to attend this session but I arrived late because I was having a great conversation about his new project.

After yesterday’s speech by Greg Jarboe during the Universal Search session I knew this session would be popular. I had no idea that I could not even get a seat in a really hot room!!! Wow!

Shari Thurow, who just wrote a new book on this subject, and Chris Smith from Netconcepts gave great talks before I escaped for fresh air in the exhibit hall.

Fortunately, other folks that got seats did some great write ups of the session.

Seattle - New Search Marketing Executive Mecca?

The land grab described in the Seattle Times seems to indicate this might be the truth. Seattle and the surrounding region is a wonderful place, I’d love to live there one day either in downtown Seattle or Bellevue. It’s interesting that they are moving locations to where the available talent is. They should explore Chicago once they’ve exploited Seattle’s talent markets fully.

University of Michigan Consumer Satisfaction Index Report 2007

The report is out. Greg Sterling has a great write up at Search Engine Land. Congrats to Yahoo! and Ask on their improvements!

However, the numbers are extremely fine and as Greg asked the authors, “Why the disconnect between the satisfaction data and market share?” The other thing that should be pointed out is that these numbers are not that granular in nature. My advice is to take these numbers with a grain of salt as they may of may not result in the market share changes they suggest over the next 12-24 months. Essentially the question is will this report cause people to talk about switching over dinner with family and friends tonight?

Search Engine Strategies San Jose - Silicon Valley August 19-23

I look forward to seeing all of my wonderful search engine, mobile search and mobile advertising friends next week at Search Engine Strategies (SES) San Jose! While I’ll definitely be in Mountain View for the Google Dance (hopefully they won’t run out of XL t-shirts in 2 minutes like last year), I’m unsure whether I’ll make it to Palo Alto, San Francisco, Sunnyvale, Oakland, Monterey or Santa Cruz to visit and see some other awesome things. I do hope to make it to Barcamp Block.

Who else will be there and what spontaneous events, product launches and parties are you looking most forward to? I’m getting very close to some of my goals! I look forward to seeing you.

adtech Chicago: Redefining Search to Realize Its Full Potential

August 1, 2007

MODERATOR:
Jeffrey Pruitt, President, SEMPO, and Executive VP, Search, iCrossing

PANELISTS:
Kelly Graziadei, Senior Director, Agency Development, Yahoo! Search Marketing

James Colborn, Group Marketing Manager, adCenter Communications Group, Microsoft

Kevin Willer, Central Region Development Manager, Google

James Colbourn, Microsoft

Kelly Graziadei, Yahoo!

Think about the many different faces of search.

- The Researcher – look at Yahoo! Buzz to create an audience pyramid. Look at other content. Miller Beer Run. Showed a campaign with getting the beer – Yahoo! created the game and got excellent results

- The Reputation Manager – geo-targeting, ad testing, etc. Jet Blue built a campaign to respond to negative news.

- The Brand Manager – 79% introduced to new brands in search and 61% expect brand leaders to be consistently in the top of search results.

- The Great Integrator – TV, web, games, mobile all at the same time.

- The Advocate – Searchers are advocates that build brands through social media - significant in the pre and post purchase mode.

Kevin Willer, Google
- Information silos in the past. You almost needed a search engine for the search engines. Now all the silos are in one universal search.

Google Promotion – search for Bourne – showed how the site with Youtube

Search for PR. – You need to be ready to answer those searches

Search the New Performance Link – showed Motorola example and Presidential campaign data for Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama, Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney (He said the

We want to start thinking about search in different ways.

James Colbourn, Microsoft
Search Today: A Performance Tool
- To increase brand awareness
- To Sell Products
- To Generate Leads
- To Drive Traffic To Company Website

How do advertisers measure success?
- Traffic
- Conversions
- Impressions
- ROI

Brand, Awareness, Acquisition Tool and Lead Generator

Search as a research tool is a leading indicator for:
- A Business
- An Industry

Beyond Search
- Media Buying
- Budget Allocation
- PR Activity

The potential for search is higher than current usage…

Skype Follow Up

I was contacted this morning by Chaim Haas, VP of PR at Kaplow, the PR firm that represents Skype regarding my previous post on Skype and Microsoft Outlook interaction.

After sifting through what occurred, we figured this to be the current state:

1) Skype appears to now install as the default setting integration of your Microsoft Outlook.

2) This only displays and you only have the option to change this when you have Microsoft Outlook open.

We discussed my preference for this to be an opt-in with a large text encouraging the opt-in. Chaim said he would pass this onto the Product Management team and get back to me at some point in the future. He also said that Skype has had over 5 million downloads on Windows Mobile platform! That’s alot. We also talked about the N800, if you haven’t checked out my interview with the Nokia N800 product manager Victor Brilon please do so.

Google Accused of Conducting Smear Campaign Against Privacy International

Privacy International is using strong words like “Google has embarked on a smear campaign within the media to discredit both PI and the report”. It says more to follow. We’ll see if there is any substance to this. One thing is for sure, there is plenty of discussion out there. Thought provoking posts by Danny Sullivan and Donna Bogatin with considerable dirt.

One thing is certain, Privacy International doesn’t think it’s important enough to put out a full reply on a weekend, that means it loses some credibility in my eyes.

The conversation runs 24/7 out there not M-F 9-5.

UPDATE: I take that back, Privacy International just published the new letter which is addressed to Eric Schmidt.

So who is this Microsoft employee? And why wasn’t this person removed from the process before the report was created?

UPDATE #2: Matt Cutts has weighed in on the issues in a thoughtful way.

Building Chinese Walls for Search Engines and Advertising Agencies

Danny Sullivan has been steadily beating a drum about the potential conflicts of interest in regards to Google, and now Microsoft, owning the search engine while owning a firm that provides SEO and SEM services.

In yet another area where my expertise from BlackRock would prove to be extremely valuable for immediate consulting or leadership roles at search engines, it is in the building of policies and management controls to build effective Chinese Walls. STOP - read that previous Chinese Walls link completely so that you don’t confuse it with the China Search Marketing Tour)!

If Google and Microsoft are to retain these services fully, they will immediately need to bring in people experienced in working in these Chinese Wall environments and who also understand the Internet space. This is a rare and highly valuable combination! Only this select group is capable of to be able to develop policy and have a Board of Director’s mandate and resources to make it a reality.

I look forward to continuing this conversation, there is much work to be done here to ensure the integrity of the marketplace and it needs to happen quickly!

Initial Thoughts on Microsoft Aquiring Aquantive

Techcrunch had an earlier article. At $6 Billion or $66.50, an ~85% premium over the previous days selling price that creates a price to earning rating of around 52, many people would consider this to be overpayment. With approximately $26 Billion in the bank that shareholders consistently complain is underutilized, it is more likely insurance to prevent a bidding war and a break up of the deal as apparently happened behind the scenes when Microsoft originally tried to acquire Doubleclick.

With headquarters both in Seattle, these partners likely know each other well from the tightly woven Seattle networking community so there is likely a known cultural fit. It is likely clearly friendly due to this and how quickly it came together so quickly after losing the bidding for 24/7 real media. The major question is can Microsoft quickly integrate and leverage these systems with its’ own, some of which have overlap and the graphical side. The other risk is can Microsoft tie up the critical thought leadership staff in an appealing way that maintains the creative culture? Time will tell.

Much like Google’s acquisition of Doubleclick there are conflicts of interest to be resolved. In Doubleclick’s case they own Performics, a search marketing and optimization firm. The Avenue A | Razorfish division performs a significant search marketing and search optimization function just like Performics. Google has yet to state how they will resolve this. Microsoft could score points by stating a plan to deal with this before Google does.

Aquantive has spent $200 Million in the 2004-2006 acquiring Accipiter, iFRONTIER, Franchise Gator, DNA, Amneisa, e-Crusade, GOTOAST, Neue Digitale, NetConversions, Technology Brokers/Media and SBI.Razorfish. While the impacts of these businesses are not yet fully known, Aquantitive prides itself on buying and integrating emerging businesses. Some of these are creating a media exchange like Right Media recently acquired by Yahoo!. Some of the value of this transaction likely lies hidden in these small business lines.

While the integration risk is not insignificant, Aquantive was one of the last premium players available and Microsoft can certainly afford the premium.

Mother’s Day 2007: A Search Engine View

Fresh from having a nice breakfast with my Mom on this Mother’s Day, I decided to take a look at the search engine offerings.

Live.com - no offering visible upon my visit.

Ask.com - real nice offering of a heart with a tattoo looking thing that says “Mom”

Google -

Yahoo! - Nice crayon coloring the logo with a nice note. See the full animation by clicking this link.

Winner: Yahoo! who got the meaning of the day put into full action! Congrats Yahoo!

Happy Mother’s Day Mom!!!

Microsoft Strategic Account Summit 2007 - Post 2 SAS

Search Engine Land has a nice summary of the events yesterday. Barry pointed to a paidcontent.org write up that I had not seen that summarizes things well especially in the online, advertising and video arena. A Media Circus also has a detailed raw summary of the Bill Gates speech.

Again, If you were in attendance, I’d like to hear form you, please drop me a line.

Microsoft Strategic Account Summit 2007

The main parts of the Microsoft Strategic Account Summit are today and Wednesday, here is the schedule. My initial thoughts:

1) I wish it were broadcast online, even the Chris Cornell concert, this is a lost opportunity for exposure to those who can’t be at the summit and build positive PR.

2) We’re going to hear another round of Yahoo! and Microsoft merger talk. Much like Charlene Li, I do not think this is the best path. They would be better off hiring teams of people with experience innovating products and services in different industries. This get past the limiting beliefs of continually hiring passive candidates who demonstrate no loyalty or passion for their present companies.

3) Why is John Battelle the only person at the summit blogging his thoughts? His post is the only one I could find about the opening night’s festivities.

4) I’m interested in information about the people shaping mobile search at the summit, please contact me.

Google Testing New Search Results Layout

As apparently first explained on Google Blogoscoped and then elsewhere, Google seems to be testing new home page results. If I were designing it I’d move the selector bar a bit to the left as my eye is drawn to it a bit too much, I’d also like to see blogs above news or with the ability to show both results at once.

This “Microsoft” version is interesting as well… http://www.google.com/microsoft#

Hugh Griffiths Joins Microsoft as Director of Mobile

Mobile Entertainment reports that “Griffiths will be responsible for the overall strategy and direction of the mobile division within the Online Services Group division.”

It’s interesting to see Microsoft bringing in outside talent for this type of role, we’ll see how this develops. Hugh sounds like someone I’d like to get to know.

Earth Day 2007 - A Search Engine View

Yahoo! - The Y is a spinning windmill and the exclamation point as CFL light bulb. Speaking of those, the site 18seconds.org redirects to green.yahoo.com, a list of activities are listed here.

Google has a floating iceberg logo, if you click on it it leads to a list of relevant links.