Marketing Pilgrim Published: “Google Faces Another Chinese Deadline” plus 5 more

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Google Faces Another Chinese Deadline
salesforce.com Acquiring Radian6; Social Media Monitoring No Longer a Cottage Industry
Was Google’s Priority Inbox Just a Testing Ground for New Gmail Ads?
Facebook Deals: Could Specialization be the Key to Success?
Twitter’s Dorsey Looks to Mainstream the Service
Hotmail Gets Interactive

Posted: 30 Mar 2011 07:43 AM PDT

Google is facing another high noon digital showdown with the Chinese government and it could serve to further remove the search giant from the giant market. The issue at hand now is about Google's mapping feature and if it will apply for the licensing required by the Chinese government. According to Bloomberg that deadline is imminent

Google Inc.'s defiance of China's censorship rules resulted in the world's most popular search engine being pulled out of the country 12 months ago. This year, the dispute may be spilling over to Gmail and maps.

As of yesterday, China's State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping hadn't received an application from Google to keep offering its service, as required under regulations announced in May, according to Kou Jingwei, the bureau's spokesman. Jessica Powell, a Google spokeswoman, declined to comment on whether the company has applied. The deadline is tomorrow.

There is quite a bit at stake for Google if they ever truly had eyes on China as a growth market. They have redirected Chinese searchers to a Hong Kong site after shutting down Google.cn in response to the Chinese government's stringent censorship policies. Now they stand to lose their mapping services as well. Gmail has been a bit of a pawn in this high stakes game as well as Google claims the Chinese government has blocked the service while the Chinese blamed its troubles on Google's technology.

All in all it's a tough position for Google to be in. The world watches to see if one of the most recognized brands on the planet will stand up and stick to its position that it won't do business the Chinese way. Meanwhile, shareholders in Google look at the mountain of money that might be had if they were to 'play along'. Add to this the fact that Baidu is the leading Chinese search engine by a considerable margin and you have a situation that Google is quite unaccustomed to. It's not in a dominant position. As a result, the world will watch how they react very closely.

Right now, it doesn't appear as if Google and the Chinese are going to see eye to eye anytime soon especially considering the use of the Internet to create revolution and unrest in many regions of the world. The business factors could just be an excuse to keep Google out of the country for what they might perceive as an even bigger threat.

The latest clash shows the government hasn't forgiven the Google's decision to halt compliance with censorship rules on Internet searches, said Christopher Tang, a professor of business administration at UCLA.

"Google faces major problems within China," Tang said. "Unless Google is going to change the way they operate, unless they are willing to apologize to the Chinese government, unless they are willing to cooperate with the Chinese government to impose censorship according to the wishes of the Chinese government. Otherwise, there's no deal."

It's not like Google needs the cash. But do they need the market to cement their position as the number one search option for the world or will they just need to walk away (or be forced to walk away) because they have taken the moral high ground?

This is going to be interesting to watch because it will be more of an examination of Google's heart vs. their business needs. Which one wins may tell us a lot about what Google really is.

salesforce.com Acquiring Radian6; Social Media Monitoring No Longer a Cottage Industry

Posted: 30 Mar 2011 06:58 AM PDT

Nothing makes me smile wider than waking up to find out that a social media monitoring vendor has just agreed to be acquired.

But Andy, I hear you ask, you’re happy that one of Trackur‘s competitors has been acquired? How so?

Well, it completely validates the social media monitoring industry and, when companies like Radian6 get acquired by companies like salesforce.com, you can’t get much more in the way of validation than that.

The deal is expected to close at the end of July and will be worth $276 million in cash and $50 million in stock. In addition, Radian6′s founders get another $14 million in cash and stock. I pause here to note that it’s interesting that the earnout for the founders is singled out. I also wonder just how much equity Radian6 had handed over to venture capital firms, to be earning a comparatively small percentage of the total sale price.

So, just how big is Radian6? Here’s a few of the facts I’ve pieced together–yes, I love keeping a close eye on Trackur’s competitors.

Founded in 2006
Around 300 employees
Will add $45-50 million in revenues to salesforce.com over the next year
Sale price estimated at 6-7 times annual revenue

So, yeah, a big congrats to Radian6 on a successful exit. The company will reportedly remain an independent company, but that tends to be the de-facto statement in acquisitions–to prevent clients from scattering in fear of being assimilated by the acquiring company.

As for Trackur? We’re going to keep on doing what we do. Trackur grew 110% in 2010. Trackur is now the largest social media monitoring tool with 32,000+ registered users. And, sneak peek here, we’re planning new features that will so severely shake up the pricing model in the industry, our competitors are going to be glad they sold when they did.

Disclaimer: Andy Beal is the CEO and founder of Trackur, the worlds best social media monitoring tool, so he’s obviously biased when it comes to this subject–even in his disclaimers!

Was Google’s Priority Inbox Just a Testing Ground for New Gmail Ads?

Posted: 29 Mar 2011 05:50 PM PDT

And you thought Google’s awesome Priority Inbox feature was an altruistic attempt to help Gmail users better manage their email.

Hah, the joke’s on you.

All along, it was just a sneaky way to get us all to help Google test a new algorithm that will ensure better quality ads in our inbox. All targeted based on the same technology used by Priority Inbox.

OK, so I may have given this a more sinister spin than it deserves, but Gmail users are hearing about new ads coming there way:

With features like Priority Inbox, we've been working hard to help sort through the 'bacn' in your messages — the unimportant messages that get in your way. Soon we're going to try a similar approach to ads: using some of the same signals that help predict which messages are likely to be important to you, Gmail will better predict which ads may be useful to you. For example, if you've recently received a lot of messages about photography or cameras, a deal from a local camera store might be interesting. On the other hand if you've reported these messages as spam, you probably don't want to see that deal.

I don’t use Gmail–I use Google Apps Mail–but I’m pretty sure you can just turn these ads off anyway. Still, if the thought of better ads in your inbox excites you, then you ~~need to seek medical help~~ can watch the video below for more details.

UPDATE: Apparently Google officials would like you to know…

…Priority Inbox definitely wasn’t conceived with the intention of serving better ads, and that we only recently realized that similar signals could help reduce the number of useless ads. The new ads have no effect on Priority Inbox.

So, now you know.

Facebook Deals: Could Specialization be the Key to Success?

Posted: 29 Mar 2011 02:42 PM PDT

Facebook is launching a deal site. Who isn’t? But according to Network Effect, Facebook is going to be specific about the kinds of deals they promote and that could be the key to success.

The word is that the deals on Facebook will only be for social activities that you can share with a friend. Half price movie tickets and lift freebies for a ski resort as opposed to discounts on teeth whitening and carpets for your home. Daily deal site KGB will be partnering with Facebook for a five-city test and they say their deal vouchers will be delivered in minutes. I take this to mean that I can sit down with friends on a Friday night, choose an activity and we can all be sharing that discounted fun later on that same evening.

By only offering deals on group activities, Facebook Deals is setting themselves up to be the go-to spot for social butterflies. It could easily become the dice roll for people who like to try something new every week. Bored? Check Facebook Deals. Bowling this week, a museum next week, the movies on a Wednesday night.

This niche strategy does mean they’ll have to turn down potential advertisers who don’t fit, but surely, there will be a dozen more lined up to take their place. The big question for advertisers is how much is Facebook going to take off the top? A somewhat related question is how is Facebook going to process the cash for these deals?

Facebook’s credit system is one available option but rumor has it that Facebook is working on becoming a financial institution like Paypal. If Facebook can deliver a monetary exchange system that handles “real” money, it will be a huge step toward turning the social network into a truly diversified internet powerhouse.

Facebook Deals is smart to stick with social activities that are made to be shared with friends and family. That is, after all, what Facebook is all about — connecting with others. And though the deals are seemingly aimed at groups of friends who gather together in the physical world, that’s not the only option. There’s a fun synergy about knowing that your friends in three different states are all participating in the same activity at the same time (thanks to the same deal). Add in the use of mobile Tweeting, photo and video sharing and even mobile webcams and they can all share in the experience in real-time. I suddenly feel like singing, “It’s a Small World After All.”

What do you think? Is Facebook’s idea of presenting only social deals a smart one or is that niche too narrow for flash deal success?

Twitter’s Dorsey Looks to Mainstream the Service

Posted: 29 Mar 2011 01:31 PM PDT

Jack Dorsey is back at Twitter and he is there for a very specific reason. The reason is to get the service firmly planted in the mainstream. He wants Twitter to work for the average Joe. Right now, there is plenty of debate as to how it works for anyone. The original users have seen it go from a cool hideout to a busy and noisy town square. Marketers are trying to figure out how to peddle their wares without looking like peddlers. While social media gurus and experts pat each other on the virtual back 24/7 for any variety of reasons.

Dorsey sees where he needs to go. In a report from the Wall Street Journal he says

"We have a lot of mainstream awareness, but mainstream relevancy is still a challenge," he said during a discussion at Columbia University's Journalism School Tuesday. Mr. Dorsey, who came up with the idea for Twitter, said Monday that he is returning to be product chief of the company; on Tuesday he outlined more about his plans for the next few months.

Mr. Dorsey said Twitter could make it easier for people to navigate the technology and do a better job of catering to people who use Twitter to get information rather than relay their own thoughts.

Amen to that. While relaying ones' own thoughts can be interesting at times it is a lot less interesting most of the time. And with Twitter's limited capabilities to archive and search much of what has been tweeted it can be a frustrating experience to get what you need from the service.

Dorsey has already created a stir amongst the TweetDeck and other Twitter client creators by telling folks to get beyond that kind of service. Is it because Twitter is going to do something on its own? Maybe. What Dorsey had to say about what could really be of interest was, well, interesting.

What does he want to see from Twitter developers? Mr. Dorsey says he has "no idea," but that more tools that combine information from Twitter with other services would be a good place to start.

"The interesting products out on the Internet aren't building significantly new technologies. They're combining technologies," he said.

That's not the first person I have heard that theory from (Bing!) and it seems to be right on target.

So what could Dorsey do to improve upon Twitter and make it accessible to the rest of the world? And, if more people get comfortable with the service will it continue to be the inane rantings of the masses or could it be even more of the kind of life enhancing tool that so many feel it already is?

What's your take?

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Hotmail Gets Interactive

Posted: 29 Mar 2011 12:59 PM PDT

Did you know that Hotmail is the second most used web-mail client, beating Gmail by over 94%? Gotta wonder how many of those accounts are throw aways for junk mail, but I digress before I even get started.

Microsoft is looking to strengthen its bid to make Hotmail the leading web-mail client by making it more interactive.

Right now, email is either text or HTML based which means your only real option for hooking people up is to include a link in your email. Microsoft wants to take that link and deliver that information right inside the email blank.

Imagine getting that YouTube video of a cat eating spaghetti right in your email client. No need to click! Even better, is the ability to add real time information in an email such as this example from Netflix.

Here, the customer is able to view instant movie choices, read pop-up reviews and add items to his queue without leaving the email client.

The ability to interactive with email on the same screen is even more important now that people are using tablets and smartphones to access their mail. Studies have shown that people prefer to stay inside their current application when completing a task and this is how you get that done.

Adding interactivity to email also gives the marketer a behavioral edge. We’re highly suggestible creatures, so “click this one button to add this movie to your queue” is going to be much more effective than “click here to open a browser, login, pick the movie, add to queue, now close browser and go back to your email.”

I’m a busy email user and I routinely give up on offers because they require too many steps to complete or the link to the email is broken, or I can’t remember my login to the website. If I was given the opportunity to complete a task without leaving the email message, I’d guess that my conversion rate would rise at least 30%.

The downside to this miracle of efficiency is security and that’s why Microsoft is only offering the option to a few trusted clients at the start. Interactive emails come with the kind of coding that makes mail services nervous. It’s too easy to hide a malicious code in the script which means every piece has to be checked before it’s delivered.

Sounds like there are still a few chinks in the system, but it’s without a doubt, the future of email and for marketers, it’s a good thing.

What would you do if you could make your marketing emails interactive?