Search Engine Optimization News Blog

The Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy will premiere across Google’s AdSense network featuring two minute shorts that will hopefully lure consumers back to displaying sites again and again.

The series is not for broadcast or cable TV, and is acknowledged by producers to be ‘edgier’ than the controversial Family Guy ever was. Without the constraints of the FCC, McFarlane can feel free to go after the target audience – you guessed it, young males.

The 50 two-minute advertising spots cost millions, making this venture the most expensive original content deal to date. But is it a wise move?

Whether or not it will pay off is not really the question – surely there are enough Family Guy enthusiasts alone to make it worth while. Add to that the titillation that it will be raunchy and in bad taste and you have the deal in the bag. The time honored tradition of ‘not suitable for women and small children’ goes back past Mark Twain’s day, and the demographic in question is sure to lap it up.

The question really lies in how committed Google is to video based advertising opportunities. Many have wondered why YouTube lies unmonitored and seemingly forgotten – when there seem to be so many golden opportunities for monetizing this already booming and healthy video based behemoth.

YouTube at this point is a drain on Google’s resources, (it costs a million a day for the necessary bandwidth required to keep it up and running) and it doesn’t seem like Google is any closer to figuring out how to start making YouTube turn a profit than they were two years ago.

Part of the problem seems to be that Google has forgotten how to approach the average Joe. The AdSense reached out to anyone with a website, and the brains to sign up. So far, revenue possibilities on YouTube are directed at professionals, who make up less than 25% of the total sources for content on the video playground.

Maybe Google just needs to concentrate on a program similar to their original promotion of AdSense, and target the average video poster. People jumped at the chance to ad advertising to their websites – surely there is a way that this can translate across and make everyone some more moolah.

In the meantime, watch for the new McFarlane Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy. (Women and small children prohibited.)

We all know that social networking is the wave of the future. FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter, and a host of other social and networking sites have pushed to the forefront the nations insane need to know what everyone else is doing, thinking, saying.

We love to vote, to critique, to make fun of. We want to share our opinions, (and even hear what other people have to say!), spread the good word (or gossip), and we absolutely love pictures, videos and music. Mash-up, anyone?

With all this attention, it’s not surprising that Google has decided they need to step up the pace and get a little more into the game. The familiar iGoogle is expanding. The top-of-the-page tabbed navigation feature is shifting to a sidebar, and the gadgets will be getting an expanded interface, called ‘Canvas View’.

Canvas View is designed to show a broader range of information for your gadgets, from your friends and all their doings to your own faves and projects. The richer content value and functionality are expected to encourage more people to use the interface, and Google hopes it will come to rival some of its competitors.

Feed will also be available to track such things as Google Reader, Picasa WebAlbums, Google-Talk message statuses and shared themes and gadgets. The Canvas View should allow a seamless Google Reader-like interface, and later this summer the social site aspect should be completed as iGoogle becomes able to support the application.

Google passed on MySpace several years ago, and Microsoft snapped up FaceBook. Yahoo has its own version of A social site in Yahoo buzz, and Google seems to think it needs to ratchet up the competition.

Could this have anything to do with the growing trend towards social networking as a marketing tool? Certainly Google wants to keep their fingers in all the pies it can! A serious iGoogle social network could be a viable tool to keep advertising dollars ‘in house’, so to speak.

In the meantime, Google still has YouTube, which should work well with the proposed new Networking plan. Videos and pics are shared much more often as plain textual information, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see an added feature in the future allowing an easier interface to YouTube as well.

The Google APIs are not supporting quite all of the new gidgets and gadgets yet, but hang in there; we should be fully supported by the end of the year. OpenSocial promises to be quite a ride, so be prepared to spend some time exploring!

In a bold move, Yahoo has filed a patent for the idea of ‘meal searches’ on the web, which at first glance seems mildly preposterous.

The patent application reads:

“Method and system for searching for a meal using the Internet are disclosed. The method includes receiving a user request to search a meal on the Internet, presenting one or more pictures of food dishes to the user, where each picture of a food dish is associated with metadata describing characteristics of the food dish, receiving a user selection, analyzing the user selection according to the characteristics of each food dish presented, and providing additional information to the user according to the user selection.”

“Huh?” you say, confused.

Well, basically you could search by what you felt like eating, and pull up pictures of dishes offered. Info would be provided with the characteristics of each dish, possible sides, beverages and desserts, nutrition information, etc. Maybe even recipes could be included, or suggestions of food markets where you could find unusual ingredients.

OK, now you’re saying, “So what?”

Aha. Remember that pesky new thing called mobile search?

Suppose you are out with your cousin from Cleveland. Your friends call and want to grab lunch. They suggest a certain type of ethnic food, and you all search on your phones for a centrally located restaurant that provides the type of food desired, but doesn’t use a particular type of oil your cousin happens to be violently allergic to.

Maria is counting carbs, so she wants to be sure they offer weight watcher portions, while Josie wants to know what kind of dessert they have! Ben can only make it for an hour, and wants everyone to decide what they want ahead of time so that you can order right when you sit down and not waste time with menus. You promised Chuck to bring home something for dinner, so you call him too and tell him to pick what he wants.

Normally, you would have to roll the dice, pick a restaurant and take your chances. You wouldn’t actually know how it was going to play out until you got there, had the menus in your hands and got to see the selection for yourself. You might have to cross your fingers as cousin George took that first bite, hoping that he doesn’t swell up and fall over.

First option sounds better, doesn’t it?

This could all be possible if Yahoo could pull it together.

Now I’m hungry…

Jerry Yang is still Yahoo’s CEO, although the rest of the company is fast becoming unrecognizable. A major realignment of the company is underway, with President Sue Decker solidly in the driver’s seat.

The plan to restructure along three main vertical lines was announced yesterday. The broad platform of divisions supporting each specific product will be replaced by:

The Audience Products Division will be geared towards product management, and will take on the responsibility for product strategy companywide as well. Ash Patel from the former Products and Infrastructure division will head it up.

A US region with accountability for all go-to-market US activity will focus on bringing products to market for users, advertisers and publishers. Hilary Schneider, who ran the company’s Global Partners Solutions group, will be piloting it.

The Insight Strategy Team will plan and execute a strategy for the use of all data and analysis. The leader for this division has not yet been named, and it is unknown if Google will fill the position internally or bring someone in from the outside to manage it.

The Technology sector of the company is also getting a facelift; Yahoo will be attempting to wire into common platforms, and strengthen the bond between product and engineering teams.

Another new division is the Cloud Computing and Data Infrastructure group, to balance scalability with cost effectiveness. Venkat Panchapakesan will be leading the Audience Technology group, which will now include all consumer-facing platform teams.

Prabhakar Raghavan will continue to run Yahoo Research, and add to his duties the command of Search Strategy. Tuoc Luong (leader of Search Engineering) will also move in behind Yahoo’s search group, expanding his own responsibilities as he serves as interim leader of the search product team. David Ku will lead the Advertising Technology Group within Search.

It seems that the shake up will settle down with most of the change being internal. The board meeting will be almost irrelevant, and is expected to end in only a few board members being replaced. In all, it seems to have been a long term plan, and the whole Microsoft / Icahn debacle was just a momentary distraction.

“The changes we’re making today will help deliver superior global products for users and enable faster and better decision-making,” said President Sue Decker. “This is a logical next step in light of our success last year in moving to a more centralized approach to developing world-class marketing products. We have planned these changes deliberately over the past several months to clarify responsibilities and to capitalize on the scale advantages while allowing for fine tuning to meet local market needs.”

Not just any internet access; high speed access. Broadband access. The organization spearheading this movement claims that Americans pay too much for too little, compared to other countries, and that the country as a whole suffers.Internet search is rapidly replacing many other modes of information sharing.

As we move forward towards the year 2010, several big names in the internet biz have voiced their opinions of how the shift to all things web based will continue; Steve Ballmer of Microsoft believes all media will be fully electronic in ten years.

The question remains: is internet access a basic human right? In 2007, the country of Burma was the site of major controversy over an inoperable cable. Nepal was cut off entirely from access during a period of martial tumult, and various countries have fought a bitter war over governments’ censorship and restrictions on the internet usage of their citizens.

There seems to be little doubt among most that internet is a form of media and communication, and should not be banned or restricted. Americans are jealous of their free speech, and the courts seem inclined to uphold that right. The UN is leaning in the same direction.

Does the government have to provide internet? Ahh, this is a tricky area. Many municipalities are considering whether or not to add internet access to their cities’ basic services such as water, sewer and trash collection. Libraries, however, often offer limited internet access, and many cities already have WiFi hotspots.

Should the internet providers offer free access? Google has hooked various municipalities up, and sets the standard for free WiFi. A hilarious spoof exists online as well, offering free internet installable by flushing one end of a cable down your toilet, or by employing nanobots to carry it through the sewer system.

Really, the main reason for the high price of internet in the US is the same reason everything else is so expensive here – a little thing called free trade. Yeah, maybe it means not everyone has internet, television, or phone service (or medical care!), but there are still concerns over what happens when you start demanding the government to provide for all your needs. The care of Big Brother often comes with a price tag not many are willing to pay.