Online Advertising Up 25%

As Microsoft contemplates the purchase of Yahoo, industry analysts say whatever the outcome of the proposed deal, online advertising will continue to grow at breakneck speed.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau indicates internet advertising through September 2007 grew 25% over the same period in 2006.

What's more, growth for the online market has not peaked. The broadcast and cable TV markets combine for about 40% of media consumption and about the same share of advertising. However, online advertising still only accounts for about 10% of total advertising in the US, though the share of internet usage by Americans is closer to 20% of all media consumption. Clearly, there is much more room for online advertising to continue it's record pace of growth.

(Source: Wired)

The Internet by Any Other Name

The trend-setting technology magazine Wired has decided to drop the capital "I" in the word "Internet." Gone, too, are capital letters for "Web" and "Net."

Why? Well, the editors at Wired (or is it now "wired"?) say the Internet has become as mainstream as "television" and "radio." Hard to argue that point.

Whether this change will trickle-down to mainstream use is yet to be seen, though it seems it should eventually. Was Wired too quick to make the change? Perhaps, but then maybe it's appropriate to make an early change considering the fast rate of change in the world of the internet.

Internet Advertising Passes Radio Advertising; Rivals TV, and Print Markets

For the first time, spending on Internet advertising was greater in the first quarter of 2007 than for radio advertising, according to a recent report by TNS Media Intelligence. Ad spending as a whole was down for the period, but this did not affect the steep upward trend of Internet ad spending.

This marks a major milestone for Internet advertising as two traditional media outlets now have smaller market-shares than online advertising. The Internet first passed outdoor advertising (billboards and the like) a few years back and has since grown to three times its size.

What's more, these numbers only cover display advertising. The Google Adwords service alone brings in about as many dollars as the entire Internet display ad market. And Google is not the only company to offer search advertising.

With search advertising figures taken into account, Internet advertising already rivals the newspaper, magazine, and even network television markets. Yes, we said that correctly: online advertising now brings in about as many dollars as any single traditional advertising outlet.

So what does all this mean? Well, hype aside, the Internet is not—and never will be—the only form of advertising. We wouldn't recommend Internet advertising exclusively, any more than we would recommend TV or radio campaigns exclusively.

But, if you aren't running any Internet advertising—and most small/mid-size businesses still do not—it's probably time to start considering this untapped market. Programs like Google Adwords are extremely affordable, and unlike most forms of advertising, you only pay when people actually respond to your ads (by clicking them and visiting your website).

Further, the Internet (even more than traditional media outlets) requires innovative approaches to advertising. More than ever before, you must find ways to differentiate your products and services.

Internet Advertising Firm Sold to Microsoft for $6 Billion

Following Google's recent purchase of online advertising giant DoubleClick, Inc., Microsoft made a clear statement today that it seeks to stay in the hunt for a share of the Internet advertising market. The software company laid out $6 billion dollars cash to purchase DoubleClick rival aQuantive, Inc.

While many businesses still don't even consider advertising online, Internet advertising now rivals some traditional advertising channels in size. Online advertising is now a $25 billion-a-year industry growing at an estimated 17% a year.

This year, in fact, online advertising will eclipse all radio advertising with 7.2% of the market. And online advertising growth is out-pacing nearly every form of advertising—including TV advertising—at a rate of 3 to 1.

Read more at Wired.

TV Viewers Disappearing (Sort of)

A look at the latest TV viewing trends and you'll find something missing: TV Viewers. But it's not because they're not watching TV. New data from Nielson shows more TV viewers are watching shows when they want watch them. And when they want to watch is not necessarily when advertisers want them to watch.

Some shows (like NBC's "The Office") see as much as a 30% jump in viewership if you include users who record the show on a DVR and watch it later. This has serious implications for advertisers. What happens if you advertise your Friday sale on Thursday's ER, but 30% of the market doesn't watch ER until Saturday? Or worse, what happens if they skip past all the ads when they do get around to watching?

This paradigm shift from network-scheduled viewing to user-scheduled viewing is moving so fast, nobody has even assembled data on viewers who watch shows on their iPods or PCs.

Advertisers must be savvy and diversify their choice of outlets to reach consumers. Furthermore, ads must be more effective than ever before to compete for viewers' time. Read more about these trends here:

CNN
Nielson

Beware of DROA

Recently a client of ours received a bill in the mail for their domain name renewal. They sent a check for $50 because the bill said their domain would expire in short order if they didn't pay.

This was a deceitful payment request from the Domain Registry of America (DROA). Fortunately, the hosting company was able to block the transfer. Be careful if you are solicited for renewal of your domain name. Contact your hosting provider if you have any doubts about the authenticity of a bill.

Sadly, the DROA was ruled against by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) just 3 years ago but seems to still be up to their old tricks: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2003/12/domainreg.htm

Not surprisingly, the "Domain Registry of America" is actually a Canadian company. Even their name is dishonest, it would appear.

If you are attacked by the DROA, or any other scammer you can file a complaint on the FTC website. And do not pay any bill unless you are 100% certain you have a prior relationship with the company. Contact us if you have any questions and we'll be happy to help.

Sometimes Web 1.0 is Better than Web 2.0

We at Stage 2 sing the praises of Web 2.0 all the time. But with any technology that brings enhanced interactivity to the interface (think Flash) comes an inherent danger of employing interactivity for interactivity's sake. When that happens, the user experience suffers.

Take for example Google. The search giant's image database is enormous and hugely useful. But do a Google image search and you'll see a recent "upgrade" to the service brings JavaScript rollovers to the image results. However, what Google engineers have done is hide information that once was easily viewed. Now, if you wish to view image details like size, dimensions, or source, you must physically point your mouse cursor at each individual image in the results. This is horribly inefficient.

Sadly, there's no upside besides aesthetics; the page is cleaner on first glance, but only because they've removed useful information. Rollovers are trendy and visually interesting, but this implementation diminishes the user experience.

Another trendy feature popping up lately is image slide shows (see: NFL or NASA). Variations of this technique allow sites to cycle between photos for several lead stories. While this adds some Flash-like animation to the site, and allows for pushing multiple headlines at the user in the same space, it violates the integrity of the user interface.

In most implementations of these slide shows, the user has no indication of when the image will rotate. A user may find themselves halfway through reading a headline when it disappears and is replaced by the next headline. Or worse, they may try to click a link and have it change to another link out from under them. This will push the user to a page they were not requesting.

There are numerous other examples (some more egregious) of Web 2.0 going astray. The bottom line is content providers and developers must take great care to examine when and why they employ Web 2.0. Including trendy features purely for the sake of introducing interactivity often results in a handicapped user experience.

As an aside, I use a little extension for the Firefox browser called QuickJava that toggles Java and JavaScript usage. It's a great tool for blocking unnecessary scripts as well as for testing.