Hiring The Internet

Hey, remember when a report from comScore caused a dip in Google’s stocks? Well, irony is a cruel maiden. This shouldn’t come as a shock: Google stepping into the web analytics industry is like a fat man flopping into a kiddie pool.

OK, all jokes aside, Google’s recent announcement of Ad Planner is an interesting development for online marketers. Obviously, there’s some business sense for Google, the most popular search engine, to offer up web analytics services.

Continue reading ‘How Google’s Ad Planner May Affect User Privacy’

Social networking has been well documented for the younger sets of online users. But what about those aged 40 or over?

The baby boomer generation has the most discretionary income, which would make them the most attractive demographic for online marketing. The only problem is… we may be getting ahead of ourselves. Continue reading ‘Baby Boomers and Social Networking’

For some time now, Microsoft has been making hints and/or threats about providing really serious competition for Google’s search engine. Its recent failed merger with Yahoo!, however, seemed to dull their prospects. But they’re bouncing back in unexpected ways. Continue reading ‘A Usurper to the Google Throne?’

In this postmodern age, almost everything is self-referential and knowingly ironic. Even in the advertising world, an approach can lead to “meta,” an ambiguous pop culture concept of self-reference. Think about selling out/merchandising jokes on The Simpsons. Or a Charlie Kaufman film with the screenwriter as the main character. Continue reading ‘Visible Shops Goes Meta’

Small and medium-sized businesses can learn something from the first quarter saga of Google, Inc. Despite a previous episode of preemptive panic and low expectations, Google smugly reported a profit increase of 42% compared to last year’s first quarter. Why did investors predict the worst? And how did Google bounce back?

To answer the first question, investors had become jumpy due to a report issued by Bear Stearns (PDF) on February 26. The investment firm’s report was an alert based on statistics from a web analytics firm, comScore, which claimed that the number of domestic paid clicks were down by 0.3 percent. That day on Wall Street, Google’s stocks started out down $25 a share and continued dropping before bouncing back a little. Continue reading ‘How Google Demonstrates E-Commerce Growth’