JayWeintraub.com - Internet Advertising Analysis and Growth Insights

When employees go bad

People don't always make the best decision. Easy money is attractive, and stories abound of such mistakes. It's just weird to read one about an ex-coworker! This is regarding someone in A/R from Advertising.com. For those that knew her, she's probably the last person you'd think would do this too.

Done Deal - Google YouTube

This morning, the WSJ announced Google Nears Deal With YouTube ($); now, CNNMoney among others report that Google to buy YouTube for $1.65 billion in an all stock deal. Fred Wilson said last week, the company deserved every penny. This is the first Web 2.0 deal to cross the billion dollar mark, and it has the company valued greater than Overture was when purchased by Yahoo, and Paypal when purchased by eBay. See Google's press release on its YouTube acquisition.

Geocities / BlueMountain Arts or genius? We'll see, but certainly a win for Google on many fronts.

Techcrunch has been following the story and rumors closely. See the site for more including notes from an investor call regarding the deal. From Techcrunch, "Google is hosting a conference call and webcast to discuss the deal. It is just starting now. You can hear it live at http://investor.google.com/webcast.html. If you miss it live, a replay of the call will be available until midnight Monday, October 16 at 888-203-1112 domestically and 719-457-0820 internationally. Confirmation code for the replay is 2260624."

Google Updates Advertiser Program T&C

Advertisers of Google's Adwords program were forced to accept new terms and conditions today. A colleague was nice enough to do the heavy lifting and point out the major differences between the new terms and the older one from May 23, 2006.

Here is a highlight of the more interesting points (emphasis added by me):

A) Section 2 - The Program
- Previously, the language said "Ads may be placed on (y) any content or property provied by Google ("Google Property"), and unless opted-out by Customer (z) any other content or property provided by a third party ("Partner") upon which Google places ads ("Partner Property").
- Now, the language says "Customer understands and agrees that ads may be placed..." and "unless Customer opts out of such placement in the manner specificed by Google..." As well as "Customer authorizes and consents to all such placements."

B) Section 5 - Disclaimer and Limitation of Liability
This section is where the meat of the changes occur.
i) - Previously, "Google disclaims all guarantees regarding positioning or the levels or timing of:"
- Now, "Google disclaims all guarantees regarding positioning, levels, quality, or timing of:"
ii) Brand new, "Customer understands that third parties may generate impressions or clicks on Customer's ads for prohibited or improper purposes, and Customer accepts the risk of any such impressions and clicks. Customer's exclusive remedy, and Google's exclusive liability, for suspected invalid impressions or clicks is for Customer to make a claim for a refund in the form of advertising credits for Google Properties within the time period required..."

One can guess this update is entirely driven by recent click and while nothing earth shattering simply spells out more clearly the policy driving their business.

LowerMyBills fan site & Online ed success

Having had three tradeshows in the past two weeks, I am behind on both my replies and my posts. Much of what I had is now old news, i.e. two days ago. I post them at the end mainly as an archive tool for myself. To begin, here are two things you might not have seen that are not time dependent.

Links for May 10, 2006

• Rob Deichert shares a great post that not only showcases a person for whom online education worked but provides incredible material for all the marketers trying to think up new landing page and banner themes
• LowerMyBills has finally made it you might say. See this quasi-fan blog dedicated to their ads
• Monday & Tuesday's links -
  
  • Scripps article regarding their online strategy (they own shopzilla and uswitch)
  • Valueclick / aQuantive almost merger (something I will write about in detail)- Motley Fool and Reuters
  • New Yahoo Search Platform to launch- expected to bring in $600 million. More than anything, I see this as a sign that auctions are inefficient to the advertiser but effecient to the one putting on the auction. I'm currently reading the Perfect Store which harps excessively on the eBay founder's belief that an auction creates a perfect marketplace where supply meets demand. I contest (although I'm not economist and have zero proof) that auctions skew high or low - they rarely meet where they should because human nature / psychology effectively push one of the curves unnaturally. People are irrational in auctions and that irrationality impacts the final price. With Yahoo, better relevance and optimization on RPM will help but the closed bidding will account for a large chunk of that increase.
  • With IE7 having an MSN search bar (bound to hurt Google), Bambi brings up a good point - MySpace should create a search engine. MySpace is this generation's AOL. It's a largely self-contained universe and its users would most likley perform a search through that site than going to an engine.

Don't hesitate to contact me blog(at)jayweintraub.com or jay(at)oversee.net if you have questions, ideas, or simply want to bounce an idea my way.

MSN, Facebook, Domains and more

Links for May 2, 2006

• Facebook trying to break into Corporate America
• MSN snags amazon/alexa as partner; deals blow to Google
• Google and MSN - the battle intensifies
• Domain name industry back in the news - Seattle Times and WSJ (sub req); Additionally, I'm writing an article on this topic
• Business Weeks talks about good employees
• Red Herring reports on Ad:Tech SF
  
• Cliff Kurtzman's M&A presentation during Ad:Tech SF (mentioned in the Red Herring piece above)
  

Mashable MySpace, Facebook, DRod and more

Links for April 19, 2006

• Mashable discusses why MySpace is like EBay
• Cliff Kurtzman updates his excellent M&A watch
• Facebook turned down $750 million but took in $25mm more at $550 valuation
• Shop wiki debuts trying to prove their is still room in 2005's  M&A category - run by doubleclick founders including Kevin Ryan
• David Rodnitzsky shares 10 things you can do in 10 minutes 
• SEO coverage by the other guys

Weekend Readng - Acquisitions, Domains and more

Links for April 14 - April 16, 2006

• David Rodnitzsky’s great lead gen article on why as a model it will survive this current bubble
• Domain name business - thrust into the mainstream press. USA Today's article on the hot price of cyber real-estate. For some insight into the insular world of domain name owners, see this (lengthy) article from domain industry journal on the ever changing question of monetize a domain for traffic or develop it for sale.
• YouTube's has done better than others. Is it the interface as Mediapost suggest?
• Ever acquiring Think Partnership has made an offer for Mark Cuban's Technorati competitor. I don't really get this one; who is still lending money to Think, and how did these two company's get hooked up? Acquisition news covered the The Alarm Clock and MediaPost.

Have a great weekend. Up next, internet arbitrage article on a Google defrauder.

MyPoints swaps a vowel and other links

Most Internet Advertising News for Apri 11, 200

• United Online buys MyPoints - meets criteria of seller UAL that buyer must start with “United" going from UAL to UOL
• Bots taking the fun out of online journalism – NYTimes (sub req) explores the impact of having to write not just for people but engines
• Mazda Dealer Lead Generation program – press release from the technology provider chosen by Mazda and an interesting look from a dealer-centric company versus lead generation company one.
• Microsoft’s Direct Navigation Play – Strider URL Tracer. Cleaning up the net or just getting back at Yahoo / Google for their profits?
  

Links for April 10, 2006 - Disney, Revver, Phil

Links - April 10, 2006

• Revver 8.7 mil in funding - "Competitors include YouTube, TagWorld, LiveDigital, and many others" (interesting news but also self-serving; I was glad to see the validation for our digital lifestyle site, LiveDigital)
• The Jobs Effect? Disney / ABC showing they get the web – On the web at MSNBC, Washington Post, and The Street.  On the blogosphere with Fred Wilson and Jeff Jarvis (among others).    (Respect to Tech Memorandum for being able to cull such info automatically.)
• CNN Money article on Old Media and its love / hate / obsession with New Media
• Phil Mickelson – Two Drivers, Two Coaches, and now Two Masters

MetaReward Layoffs

MetaReward Layoffs?

People have come looking for information on possible MetaReward layoffs. In short, it appears as though Experian Interactive, who purchased MetaReward in December of 2003, will shutter the unit as early as May 1, 2006. I cannot comment on how many of its employees will relocate to other Experian Interactive business units and how many will be laid off.  Fortunately, it's a strong market - for people, publishers, and advertisers.

MetaReward saw strong results in calendar year 2004 and through the first half of 2005 but, assuming this rumor true, either that has changed or Experian Interactive has extracted what it needed from the unit and/or has determined the unit does not fit with long term plans. Those waiting on payment or expecting payment should not worry.

Time permitting, I'll put together a history of the unit and the segment of online advertising that in which it operates to understand better this decision by Experian Interactive.