Octavianworld

Surf Canyon: A Publisher-Friendly Search Reformulation Alternative

A while back, I wrote a post suggesting that Google's AdSense business was less profitable than its direct search business.  Some folks I know in the business have confirmed this.  Yesterday, the New York Times carried an article about how Google is trying to keep people on Google.com longer, and making publishers and retailers mad in the process.  But what can they do about it?

The Revolution Will Be Televised (It Just May Not Be A Revolution)

I wrote in an earlier post about the logical math that would drive ad budgets away from "traditional" TV (broadcast, cable) toward online videos.  Here's a great article by Alan Schulman in yesterday's Online Video Insider on how traditional agencies are co-opting the online video ad buy in a way that may limit the evolution of the medium, and illustrates how my earlier post missed the point. 

Compete: A One-Eyed King Gets Crowned

TNS  bought Compete today for what could turn out to be $150M in cash.  Not bad for an eight-year-old company reportedly doing $15M in revenue and burning $5M a year.  Here's a very interesting study on the SEOMoz blog that looks at the traffic estimation/ prediction accuracy of a number of services like Compete.  Technorati did well by SEOMoz's method; I've added a couple of Technorati-provided services in the left-hand sidebar of this blog for reference.