VEVO Starts Off with a Bang; Over 35 Million Visitors the First Month
January 21, 2010 by admin
Filed under Search Engines
VEVO Starts Off with a Bang; Over 35 Million Visitors the First Month
VEVO is a new online entertainment network started by Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Abu Dhabi Media Company and powered by YouTube. The site launched December 8th.
And what a first month VEVO had. In December alone, VEVO saw 35,395,000 unique visitors according to comScore.
“We are thrilled that the VEVO Network, which is still in its infancy, has debuted at the top of the comScore rankings for unique visitors across the Entertainment-Music category in the U.S.,” said Rio Caraeff, President and CEO, VEVO.
Music videos from artists such as Beyonce, Justin Bieber, Drake, Lady Gaga, Jay Sean, Shakira, Britney Spears, Taylor Swift and Young Money appear on the site.
“The interest and enthusiasm our users have shown has been both gratifying and inspiring. We are also proud to deliver such strong traffic results straight out of the gate to our content and marketing partners, which solidify their early belief in the VEVO vision. We listen very closely to all of our partners and fans, and have been incorporating their feedback to continue to improve upon the VEVO experience,” concluded Caraeff.
The other networks in the top 5 for the entertainment-music category on comScore were MySpace Music, AOL Music, Warner Music and MTV Networks Music.
Google News keeps spreading as rapidly as kudzu
January 15, 2010 by admin
Filed under Search Engines
Google News keeps spreading as rapidly as kudzu
Image by SESConferenceSeries via Flickr
Google News is like kudzu, which is known as “the vine that ate the South” because of its out-of-control growth in the Southeastern United States. Although I’m from New England, friends like Stacy Williams of Prominent Placement, which is headquartered in Atlanta, tell me that kudzu is called the “mile-a-minute vine” in her neighborhood.
According to the Nielsen Company, there were 15,895,000 unique visitors to Google News U.S. in November 2009, and 4,817,000 to Google News France, 3,082,000 to Google News U.K., 2,727,000 to Google News Germany, 2,424,000 to Google News Spain, and 2,328,000 to Google News Italy that month.
According to comScore, there were 99,761,000 unique visitors to Google News worldwide in November 2009, and 21,216,000 to Google News U.S., 8,020,000 to Google News France, 5,567,000 to Google News U.K., 4,481,000 to Google News Canada, 4,461,000 to Google News Germany, 3,066,000 to Google News Spain, and 2,981,000 to Google News Italy.
Although they used different sample sizes and research methodologies, both market research firms report that the audience for Google News is huge.
According to Google News, “We have more than 40 regional editions of Google News in many different languages.” But when I count the full list of available editions, I find 71.
Well, 71 is “more than 40.” But you get the feeling that even the folks at Google News can’t keep up with its kudzu-like growth.
If you check Newsknife, you’ll see that the folks there are working overtime to keep up, as well. On January 2, 2010, Newsknife reported, “During 2009, we sighted 2501 sites there for the first time, bringing our total to 11,742 sites.” That’s a long, long way from the 4,000 news sources that Google News started with in September 2002.
We’ve reported on the advent of YouTube News, Google Fast Flip, and Living Stories at Google News.
Well, Fast Flip is now available on the Google News homepage. And five dozen publishers, including include Tribune Co. newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, McClatchy Company newspapers such as the Miami Herald and the Kansas City Star, the Huffington Post, Popular Science, Reuters, Public Radio International, POLITICO and U.S. News & World Report are included.
So, what does all this mean to marketers?
Like any rapidly changing field, the spread of Google News and its recent mutations represent an opportunity or a threat to marketers. If you want to know just how big an opportunity or threat it is, then ask your PR people, “What are you doing differently today than you were in September 2002 when Google News was launched?”
If they have a good answer, then ask, “What are you doing differently today than you were in May 2007 when Google launched universal search?”
And if they have a good answer, then ask, “What are you doing differently today than you were in June 2009 when Google News and YouTube teamed up to help news publishers build a bigger audience for their video content?”
I had to face similar questions last week as the special guest of Sam Whitmore’s Media Survey (SWMS). Whitmore knows all about press release optimization and universal search. He wanted to know if there was any “new news” to share with his subscribers, who are tech PR pros.
No I can’t share my entire presentation, because you need to be a SWMS subscriber to see and hear that. But Whitmore, who was a colleague of mine at Ziff-Davis back in the 1990s, did agree to provide the last eight minutes of our editorial teleconference for free to Search Engine Watch Blog readers.
So, check it out for yourself. And if you think your PR people should know about this stuff, then email them a link to this post. Or, write about it in your own CMO blog. Or check out the chicklets below and Stumble It, Add to del.icio.us, or Tweet it on Twitter.
But make sure your PR people get the message. The times they are a-changin’ — and public relations need to change at the same rapid pace as Google News.
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Trulia Also Experiences Record Growth, Shift Towards Mobile in 2009
January 10, 2010 by admin
Filed under Search Engines
Trulia Also Experiences Record Growth, Shift Towards Mobile in 2009
Yesterday, we learned that despite the economic times, Zillow saw a record year at their real estate search site. Now, Trulia is reporting similar results for their real estate search offering.
“We dedicated 2009 to delivering a great consumer experience. Looking back on the engagement data makes me believe we are delivering on what the consumer wants. Consumers have told us over and over that they are looking for a real estate site that can deliver relevant and personalized results,” said Pete Flint, CEO and co-founder Trulia.com.
In 2009, Trulia experienced a total of 62.3 million unique visitors, their largest ever. Here’s what else happened:
- Visits grew by more than 45%
- Total page views grew by 105%
- Property views grew by more than 130%
- Consumer questions doubled over 2008 on Trulia Voices
- Nearly 1 million home buyer inquiries were sent to real estate agents
- Trulia became one of the Top 5 Real Estate sites on the web, according to Hitwise
Trulia also saw a shift towards mobile, something we keep hearing about from various retailers and sites. They updated their iPhone app, which thus far has been downloaded more than 300,000 times. Also, Trulia launched a mobile version of its web site, m.trulia.com, which can be accessed via any mobile browser.
“Mobile and local information will be two areas of focus for the coming year. The world is becoming more mobile and real estate information on the go is a very natural combination,” said Flint. “On the weekends, 5 to 10 percent of our overall traffic comes from mobile handsets. Deep local information, data and insights is also key to consumers interested in real estate and we will introduce more data and local knowledge during the next year.”
It’s anybody’s guess as to what the economy will bring this year, but sites like Trulia are finding ways to create a valuable experience no matter what.
Local.com Experiences Record Traffic in Q3 2009
October 18, 2009 by admin
Filed under Search Engines
Local.com Experiences Record Traffic in Q3 2009
Local search site Local.com saw record traffic in the third quarter of 2009. During the quarter, 66 million unique visitors checked out the site and network, up 5% from the 63 million uniques of the second quarter. The traffic was up 22% over the third quarter of 2008, which saw 54 million monthly uniques.
Organic traffic came in at over 28 million unique visitors for the quarter, up 4% from the same quarter in 2008.
September 2009 alone saw 23 million unique visitors, a record for Local.com and its network.
“Overall and organic traffic on our site and network are key performance indicators for our business, and we are pleased that we continue to make progress in these areas,” said Heath Clarke, Local.com chairman and CEO.
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Gmail Now Number Three Web-Mail Service in the US
August 18, 2009 by admin
Filed under Latest SEO News
Gmail Now Number Three Web-Mail Service in the US
According to comScore estimates, Google’s web-mail service is now the third most popular in the US. Gmail found itself knocking AOL out of the top-three recently with 37 million monthly unique visitors.
Google AdWords Launches New Traffic Model for Ad Planner
February 4, 2009 by admin
Filed under Search Engines
Google AdWords Launches New Traffic Model for Ad Planner
Last year, Google launched Ad Planner as a way to help media buyers plan their advertising campaigns. Now, they’ve updated their traffic models to improve planning.
Here are the updates:
- Added Unique Visitors (cookies), a new cookie-based metric, to help you cross-check and compare metrics, similar to Google Analytics unique visitor metrics.
- Changed Unique Visitors to Unique Visitors (users) so it’s clearer that you’re reviewing estimated numbers of real world visitors.
- Placed the Unique Visitors (cookies) and Unique Visitors (users) metrics on a site’s profile page so users will have a more comprehensive view of how a specific site can support their media planning.
- Added country demographics for Australia, Brazil, Japan, and Switzerland, which brings the demographics total to ten countries
- Created Pre-defined Audiences that represent commonly used audiences. Uers can experiment with various criteria without having to manually select them.
What do you think of the update? Let us know in the comments.
Related Reading:
Google Wants Feedback on Ad Planner
Google Ad Planner Now Available to Everyone
How Will Google Ad Planner Promote Network Inventory?
Big Music Companies in Negotiations to Form Hulu-Like Site
December 26, 2008 by admin
Filed under Search Engines
Big Music Companies in Negotiations to Form Hulu-Like Site
The Music Companies versus YouTube debacle continues to unravel one bit at at time. Now, Silicon Alley Insider is reporting that Warner, Universal, Sony and others are in talks to create their own Hulu-like site for music videos.
The music labels are “only” making a max of $25,000 per month off of ad revenues from YouTube. But that’s only half the story. The real money is made from a pay-per-play licensing deal.
To be making this kind of direct money off of music videos, which have only been used as a marketing tool up to this point, is a big shift in the music industry.
Universal makes tens of millions on YouTube and they expect to make even more next year. Overall, they expect to make $100 million next year from all of their agreements with various sites.
Since Hulu keeps NBC content on just two sites - Hulu and NBC.com, why would Universal want to restrict their offering to just one site?
Pulling from the world’s largest online video site means less exposure to millions of people. YouTube had 100 million unique visitors in October. Those visitors are concert-goers and merchandise-buyers.
Another factor is how YouTube is no longer just a video streaming site, but a bonafied search engine. YouTube is starting to pass Yahoo in searches conducted. On an anecdotal note, my son conducts searches via YouTube frequently. He hates reading; watching video is a much easier way for him to learn.
Bailing on YouTube would be pulling an entire, effective marketing channel. So, here’s my final warning to the music companies. The numbers speak for themselves.
AOL.com Homepage Ad, Traffic, and Time Spent on Site Stats Up Since Relaunch
December 17, 2008 by admin
Filed under Search Engines
AOL.com Homepage Ad, Traffic, and Time Spent on Site Stats Up Since Relaunch
AOL has some good news regarding their homepage since they relaunched in late October.
The click-through rate for the primary 300×250 ad banner increased 30% in November. Unique visitors and daily visitors grew by 13% and the minutes spent on the page increased by 29%.
“This week, the new homepage was rolled out to all AOL.com users, so we anticipate that our consumer usage numbers will continue to grow in the coming year,” said Lynda Clarizio, President of Platform-A. “Even in a tough economy, advertisers are finding ways to maximize their returns on investment, and our AOL.com homepage ad units have proven that consumers will respond positively to brand messaging within a new, highly customized consumer environment.”
Preparing for the Worst: Bad Online Economic Data Just in Time for Black Friday
December 2, 2008 by admin
Filed under Search Engines
Preparing for the Worst: Bad Online Economic Data Just in Time for Black Friday
It’s the day before Thanksgiving, where you show up at the office, but you’re really thinking about tomorrow’s good meal. You’ve worked hard to set up those search marketing campaigns to run strong on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
So, I really hate to bring you the bad news, but keeping it from you would be a disservice.
Let’s just rip off the bandaid.
First up, eMarketer has lowered its projections for online advertising spending for 2009. The new growth number is 8.9%, down from 14.5% projected in August. They’re also expecting a long recovery, projecting 2010 growth to be just 10.9%. In five years, things will still be slower on the uptake (than in recent years). Projections for 2013 growth are at 13.5%. Silver lining: some of the tapering off is likely due to market saturation and not just the economy.
Next, eBay’s traffic is declining. In January of 2007, eBay saw 62 million unique visitors. Last month, they saw just 49 million. Sure, not all of that was due to the economy, but dipping below 50 million can’t be good for eBay.
I saved the worst for last. comScore has released data showing that online consumer spending for the first 23 days of November was down 4% from last year. That’s not a slow down in growth people, that’s flat out shrinkage.
But I’m not a total Scrooge. Unemployment numbers were better than expected this week. And at least one Slate columnist explains why fears of another Great Depression could be overblown (let’s hope he’s right!).
As we overdose on turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie, let us not forget the ultimate strategy for marketing, business and life in general: Hope for the best but prepare for the worst.
Related Reading:
Selling SEO During an Economic Downturn
E-commerce Growth Slows to Just 1% in October 2008
Online Advertising Networks Struggle As Industry Growth Slows
