Tag: advertising

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New Pew Surveys: Online Video & Web Use Among Teens

Breaking from South America debriefing to let loose on some encouraging data released in the past month by the Pew Internet & American Life Project

Lee Rainie’s latest Online Activities & Pursuits survey (d/l .pdf) spotlights increased use of video-sharing sites. Interesting to see this data as it coincides with renewed interest in online video endeavors thanks to the writers strike. Another Pew Survey released six months ago had the percentage of adults (with Internet) who watch video online at 57%. In the end, it’s not about percentages but quality minutes spent viewing online video programming both original and otherwise.

I missed the report on Teen Content Creators (d/l .pdf), released before the holidays, until I caught mention of it on David Weinberger’s blog Friday morning. But a preliminary look at the report shows positive trends in the ways in which teens are engaging in social networks and online activities. Nearly twice as many girls blog than boys, however, that ratio is reversed when it comes to posting online video. 89% of teens who post photos online (47%) say their photos occasionally get commented on.

Previous posts about Pew Internet:
* Is MySpace the Teenage Parking Lot of Today?
* Future of the Internet: Liberty + Privacy
* Pew: Nearly 50 Million Create Own Web Content

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Google Buys DoubleClick: More Context, Less Banners?

One could only hope.

Everyone wondered if they’d ever really pull the trigger on this, or stick to their adsense guns while DoubleClick ambled along — and the day has come. $3.1B later, Google is now the king of all Internet advertising (although Yahoo! remains no slouch, most recently expanding it’s one-stop online news ad shop to include McClatchy).

Sergey Brin once hinted at DoubleClick being the “life preserver” as John Battelle mentions in The Search (and as Biz2.0 reminds today), but the metaphor was baswed on Adwords going under. While Adsense is doing fine, Google apparently seized on this opportunity to box out Microsoft and go large.

Rafat at PaidContent reports that the $3.1 billion cash offer is “much more than the rumored $2 billion that Microsoft was intending to pay.” It’s also 10 times DCLK (private since 2005)’s revenue.

How will this work out? Here’s Google’s Presser. Battelle’s analysis forthcoming at his blog.

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Is Amazon’s Omakase Ad-Link System TOO Invasive?

I’ve been using Amazon’s beta “Omakase” ad banner in the sidebar of my blog for a couple months now. I became an “Amazon Associate” primarily to get an extra 4 or 5 percent off when I enter the store via the banner.

But no doubt these ads freak the SHIT out of some people (especially those who’ve been searching for KY and butt-plugs).

Amazon’s Omakase links (Omakase is Japanese for [roughly] “it’s totally up to you.”) “show an Associate’s visitors what they’re most likely to buy based on Amazon’s unique understanding of the site, the user, and the page itself.”

How well does this work? See for yourself and let me know in the comments below.

Check the sidebar here: http://netzoo.net/…

Most reviews of Omakase (and Dave Taylor has an extensive one here relate the product as Amazon’s answer to Google’s Adsense. But my understanding is that Adsense content is based on the context on a particular PAGE, where as Omakase links are unique to the USER. Gigantic difference, no?

Plus, only the Associate knows what’s going on since you have to BE an associate (anyone can, I believe) to read the FAQ.

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I did make my first Amazon Associate cent (yes – exactly $.01) recently off some blog visitor who apparently purchased A Pilgrim in the Ruins: A Life of Walker Percy — which, it turns out was purchased for only ONE PENNY (hardcover even). I mostly think it’s cool to post images of books / CDs of interest (and from my experience in the record industry — labels and artists often stand to make more money via an Amazon order than a direct-from-label’s site order).

Originally posted November 9 2006 at Set-Top Cop blog.