January 9, 2007
The Search Continues for Steve Arnold
Steve Arnold weighs in on search in the government sector.
Steven Arnold, a search engine consultant with a government focus, discusses how to get enterprise search to work and the benefits of FirstGov’s approach to indexing. Steven Arnold got an early start on search engines. In 1971, his employer, Halliburton Co., assigned him to digitize the company’s technical reports in order to make them searchable. He has worked in the field ever since. In the past decade, he has moved over to consultancy, starting his own practice, Arnold IT. In 2000, he helped generate the technical plan for the first iteration of the General Services Administration’s FirstGov government search engine. (His son, Erik Arnold, currently works on FirstGov.) More recently, he launched the Google Government Report, a newsletter and electronic information service offering tips on how to be better recognized by Google. We caught up with Arnold to get his views on what is happening with both enterprise and Web search.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 5:32 PM
December 19, 2006
Interview: How Taunton Press Built ROI, Customer Loyalty With Video, Slideshow for Sub Site
The Taunton Press' magazines, such as Fine Cooking, Fine Woodworking and Fine Gardening, have had an online presence for a number of years, with articles of past issues archived and for sale. And, they have an online store with more than 500 SKUs.
But in the last few years, company execs realized they had "a large body of great content that our subscribers and customers will consume in a lot of different media," says Interactive Marketing Director Michelle Rutkowski.
One way to offer readers more value while increasing Taunton’s revenues would be to create online paid products -- sites that offered some free content but that required subscriptions to access the rest.
The company created such a site with FineWoodworking.com, which rolled out in November 2005. "We built a big model and projected where we thought we would be, and we're pleased that we're where we think we should be in terms of a business," Rutkowski says.
An interesting case study, and I played a part in the development of FineWoodworking.com, working with Really Strategies and the Taunton folks to develop the requirements, write the RFP, and help choose the vendor, Ektron.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 1:31 PM
December 14, 2006
IBM, Yahoo Partner on Free Enterprise Search for SMBs
This strikes me as an interesting challenge to Google appliance, and a nice way for Yahoo to penetrate the enterprise with a well-regarded partner.
The free search package allows small and midsize businesses to search corporate file servers and databases as well as the public Web.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 10:35 AM | TrackBack
November 21, 2006
Web Analytics Packages
A client is looking at web analytics software for a fairly complicated operation. They would like to track behavior from a number of domains (~40), and produce custom reports for both internal audiences and for advertisers. To complicate things, of course, the systems are heterogeneous (mainly Windows and Linux, but some Macintosh sprinkled in). They will be migrating to a common platform (TBD) in the foreseeable future, but may want to put the new analytics package in place before the migration.
They have started with the following list of packages to examine:
ClickTracks
CoreMetrics
WebSideStory
Sage Analytics
WebTrends
Omniture
Does this look the right list? Any others they should be looking at?
Any and all comments welcome, and feel free to contact me off the list as well (though no sales calls please).
Posted by Bill Trippe at 11:04 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
October 2, 2006
There's Fraud in Online Advertising?
Over at MarketingProfs, John Jantsch wonders if the click fraud problem is overhyped. Especially since the current issue of Business "Week screams across its cover" Click Fraud - The Dark Side of Online Advertising....
I enjoy this kind of perspective--Jantsch discusses the "analog" analogue to pay-per-click and wisely suggests people not overreact. At the same time, I think the democratization of PPC advertising puts more people at risk than, say, the phantom billboard example Jantsch suggests. Hence the need for the key parties to be vigilant, and also provide open, accountable, and measurable ways for buyers to know that their investment is being well spent.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 12:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 15, 2006
Functional Web Analytics
Writing at iMedia Connection, SEMphonics CEO Gary Angel asks some refreshingly direct questions about what companies actually do with web analytics:
Can you answer yes to all of these questions?
- Are the changes my web design team makes actually in response to measured web behavior?
- Has my web measurement ever suggested directions, products, services or systems that significantly changed my business approach?
- Do findings about visitor behavior on the website ever influence other media strategies and messages?
- Does anyone really read or do anything with the web measurement reports they receive?
I especially like the last one. This is not to say I think people are lazy, but that if a report isn't relevant or actionable, people will simply discared or ignore them.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 9:31 AM | TrackBack
September 14, 2006
MarketingSherpa Publishes Two New Search Marketing Buyer's Guides
Warren RI -- September 14, 2006 -- MarketingSherpa, a research firm publishing Case Studies and benchmark data for marketers, released today two new reports for 2007: the Buyer's Guide to Paid Search Advertising (PPC) Agencies and the Buyer's Guide to …
Posted by Bill Trippe at 7:31 PM
August 22, 2006
SEO and Content Management
Writing for CMS Watch, Randy Woods and Julie Batten offer some excellent, detailed advice about SEO and content technology.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 1:54 AM
SEO and Content Management
Writing for CMS Watch, Randy Woods and Julie Batten offer some excellent, detailed advice about SEO and content technology.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 1:54 AM
