Give PC World some respect: the tech magazine is not afraid to bite the hands that feed. PC World has highlighted the "10 most annoying ads."

While most of the criticism is aimed at types of ads, they also name names and scrutinize ads that have run on their own site.

My least favorite are the expanding ads that look like a curled up page. If your cursor goes anywhere near the area of the ads, and they can stick to your cursor like mucous. What's yours?

Annoying is subjective (I think all telemarketing is annoying), but some ad formats do step over the line. I don't mind the video ads with people in them that do get my attention -- they are doing their job. Just give it some time -- in a few months you'll probably be able to surf right past them with hardly a notice.

View 1: The U.S. government and domestic companies started and successfully oversaw the expansion of the Internet to become today's reliable and relatively open marketplace for ideas and commerce. Therefore, the U.S. and ICANN should continue to see it expand into more of an international resource.

View 2: The Net continues to be dominated by the English language, and developing nations have not seen as great a participation in the benefits of the Internet because of U.S.-centric policies.

Which view is right?

At an international panel on the Internet, people from around the globe called for an end to the U.S.' internet hegemony, asking instead for a international oversight agency.

It is true that U.S. marketers have benefited more than others in the Internet's growth, but the world is catching up, and there are plenty of jobs and e-commerce taking place from Mumbai to Sao Paulo.

Perhaps the best solution would be more power sharing. Let ICANN remain in the U.S., but create an international delegation to handle the creation of new domain names for languages other than English. Having English as a common thread has been helpful. But allowing more domains in other languages will help developing nations to share more in the benefits to commerce and democracy.

According to Nielsen NetRatings MySpace had more unique users in October than the other social nets, but LinkedIn grew the fastest.

BizReport curiously reports that Facebook had the highest growth rate at 125%, so I guess they don't consider LinkedIn in the same category even though it grew by 189 percent.

If I were investing in one of these companies I'd go for LinkedIn because while they will never have the same volume of traffic, the more professional membership lends itself to much higher CPMs and to selling professional services, as the company has already done.

While Facebook has been getting most of the attention of developers, LinkedIn's involvement in OpenSocial with Google et al. will foster creation of new application to help business folk advance themselves and their companies.

Maybe it's my age (okay, yes it is my age), but I prefer to keep my social circle focused on people who I really know and do my socializing through email or on the phone with my expanded circle of friends and colleagues.

Video advertisements are in the middle of the pack in user acceptance but still lack originality in engage consumers, according to panels conducted at the OMMA Video conference.

Research by Dynamic Logic says that online video isn't as annoying to consumers as pop-ups, but banners and skyscrapers are seen as less invasive, according to Mediapost. This comes as no surprise because users have no choice but to sit through most videos ads if they want to enjoy the content, whereas most of us have trained our eyes to avoid ads that surround content.

That said video ads should be relevant to the online viewing experience by being short, interactive, and even fun. Online video ads are often repurposed TV content, which is part of the dissatisfaction. The pacing is different when you are expected to endure a 30 second commercial as part of possibly several hours of continuous TV watching. But the percentage of people who watch video online for several hours in a row is extremely small (get out of your parent's basement!). Video ads need to be short and immediately attention grabbing, not a rehash of ads folks may have already seen before.

The creative bar is higher for online ads, but the production costs are generally lower. Using animation or rapidly changing static images is much more acceptable and cheaper than TV ads shot in a studio, so creative agencies need to leverage the medium to its fullest.

Online video ads are doing better than pop-ups and pop-unders, with only 31% of those surveyed taking a strongly negative view of video versus 55% for the latter.
To put it in perspective, Manatt noted that only 18% of consumers have a strongly negative view of banner ads, 21% for skyscrapers and 27% for "advergames."
Significantly, the number of consumers taking a strongly negative view of online video ads has been increasing over the last few years,
ith 70% saying they'd rather see it at the beginning.

Amazon and Sony are trying to rekindle interest in e-books and digital readers with new hardware. Sony's PRS-505 Portable Reader System and the Amazon Kindle -- which is likely coming out next week -- are the latest attempts to popularize electronic books.

After two decades of trying, the market has said that paying a few hundred bucks to read a book digitally isn't a worthwhile investment for most people. Printed books are relatively cheap, more tactile to interact with, and if you drop or lose one, it only sets you back $25 or less.

Digital book readers need to be multifunction, and they should change the marketing strategy to focus on the environmental benefits. How much time per day does the average person spend reading a book? Less than one hour? But combining video and news reading would make these devices much more useful.

A basic device should be able to read e-mail, surf the web, display PDFs (including newspapers and magazines), read formatted books and play video. This is a supercharged handheld computer with built in wireless. Amazon seems to be heading in that direction, and offering access to formatted versions of content from say, the Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated and Newsweek, would make the device a must have for commuters and business travels. By pre-loading the content through the wireless connection and an RSS feed, you've got your morning papers ready for the train to work, and the latest thriller to accompany you on the way home or at the airport.

E-book device makers should also pitch saving trees to the small group of avid readers. Being green is hip, and digital bits are about as recyclable as it gets.

Startup social network eSnips is linking people based on their habits, hobbies, and hopes, which is good news for advertisers.

The company has added an extensive series of questionnaires that are used to find people who respond similarly. From music to politics to religion to professional interests, eSnips has informal questions about a variety of topics.

Users can local for like minded people across the globe or across the street, and it can be addictive seeing the profiles of people who respond similarly to you. The site also offers free content hosting (up to 5 GB).

Convincing people to abandon or compliment their existing social nets will be challenging for eSnips, but those who join will likely find themselves viewing ads that are much more relevant advertising. If eSnips can grow to a mass audience, the data collected will be a gold mine for advertisers who can target based on actual responses of individuals, not broad demographic surveys.

Facebook and other sites that are targeting on behaviors have been making headlines for their potential (including privacy concerns), but I've always beleived that people would much rather be asked questions about their preferences rather than be tracked. That eSnips exists is a testament to this principle -- people like to reveal many things about themselves if their is a payoff.

I would suggest that eSnips give some bonus for answering questions as incentive to continue participation -- perhaps earning bonus points that can be redeemend for gift cards. Also, when the advertising kicks in, the privacy policy should be prominently linked to on the home page to eliminate potential conflicts with consumers.

 

 

 

The European Union is considering forcing airline websites to fix pricing irregularities or go offline.

A report obtained by Reuters says more than half of airline sites "showed irregularities, in particular relating to price indications, contract terms and clarity of proposed conditions."

Possibly some U.S.-based ticketing agencies that also have sites in Europe could be caught up in this as well. Closure seems like a drastic action since so many bookings are done online and it would cripple an industry that is already under strain because of rising fuel prices. But levying harsh fines is not out of the question.

The EU report is coming out on Wednesday, so it will be interesting if Expedia or Travelocity are also named.

Between the recent FTC hearing and the new advertising initiatives from Google and Faceboon there has been considerable discussion lately about how to implement behavioral advertising while also protecting consumer privacy.

Some have called for a national "do not track list," but I agree with attorney Christopher Wolf that it would be very difficult to make well known, implement, and even more difficult to enforce.

Behavioral marketing doesn't have to be evil -- but it does have to be more transparent. Here are the rules that would make it easier for consumers to protect themselves while still being able to participate in advertising that is targeted to them:

• As part of registering for a website, the user agreement includes in the first section a description of the tracking technology with an opt out and explanation of the duration of the tracking and how to remove any cookies.
• The behavioral tracking description should then be reinforced with a follow up email that also provides an opt out.
• Any changes to the behavioral tracking technology should be followed by an email explaining the changes.
• Every website that stores cookies or otherwise tracks should be required to put a link on their home page labeled "Privacy" that describes the tracking policy and provides an opt out.

Behavioral advertising benefits everyone as long as privacy is respected. Making the existing rules clear is what needed, not another layer of complexity.

The CEO of mega-marketing group Publicis says the current valuation of Facebook and other social networking applications is crazy, and that online advertising is headed for fall soon.

Maurice Levy says despite the rise in online ads, there's not nearly enough dollars to support the aspirations of social nets. The bubble will burst; it's just a matter of when.

I couldn't be more in agreement. The sad reality for publishers is that the value that can be derived per page of web content -- especially when it is user generated -- will never support the business models that MySpace and Facebook are betting on. Targeted ads and interactive content will help raise the CPMs, but sustaining the current growth is not possible to reach the traffic levels that would be necessary.

Via: Mediapost

Using video to generate viral buzz and to attract customers who prefer interactive content works -- even when the recipient of the service has passed on.

Heartland Cremation & Burial Society says it tripled its online leads and rankings with a combination of video and SEO campaigns.

The company, which offers services in Kansas in Missouri, offers less expensive one-day memorial services, and is using YouTube, video advertisements, organic search optimization, and even RSS feeds to gain attention.

On the company's home page a small video overlay has a "Human Host" woman talking about the services. You can expect more marketers to use video overlays to tell their stories as most people will tend to watch a few seconds of videos when they happen upon a site. Services like cremation that require some explaining can benefit from putting a face on the company.