Networking

There’s a hilarious kerfuffle building over the internet standards governing body, the Word Wide Web Consortium, who’s members include pretty much anyone who’s anyone in the big league tech/web space, selling pagerank on this page.

What I want to know is, will Google ban the W3C from it’s index for this heinous crime against the Google biz model (as they would anyone else), or will they administer a slap on the wrist a la wordprsss, Financial Times or a host of other high profile “spammers” over the last few years?

Really, this shit just goes beyond funny…

For starters, getting links on a PR9 at W3C is nothing new. For a few years you were able to buy into the supporters (or maybe it was membership, don’t remember exact details) for about $5k i think, and grab a PR8/9 link, but it got so crowded on the page as word spread that people stopped bothering. (those with half an ounce of common sense anyway), and although this page does not appear to be the same one, and although the cost of getting on it is reduced to $1k, it confounds me as to why the hell should this be a problem?

Im sick to death, though clearly still amused and interested, in the whole “ooh oooh, she did something baaaad… Gooooogle, oh Goooooooogle.. ” shit going on. It’s always narked me, and this just annoys the hell out of me. Should the W3C put the ridiculous NoFollow on all their outbound links to supporters just becuase some arses at Google want to spend more time stamping on what’s bad than promoting what’s good?

Hell no, who made Google king of links anyway?

Oh wait, we did…

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Not for the first time I am confused what all the fuss is about with a Google service. This time it is Google Checkout.

What I was hoping for was a real alternative to paypal, preferably with the ability to use Adsense income to pay for Adwords without conversion into local currency. Maybe even micropayments. If I could be paid and buy with “Google money” that Adsense income might stretch a bit further.

The actual service is nothing like this, it is a desperate attempt to get more Adwords dollars through their door by targeting small merchants with a cut-down merchant service and the lure of free credit card transactions. For the consumer it is a circa 1998 “e-wallet”. So why are people saying this is a “paypal killer”?

Just putting the Google name to it seems to be enough for people to overlook the highly “web 1” whiff of this and for people to write-off the mighty eBay. That is just ludicrous. There are no person to person features in this at all yet, and there isn’t even a great deal in this for ecommerce transaction competitors such as Worldpay to be worried. Had any other company announced it, even Microsoft I think it would have been met with yawns.

If you want to sell digital products off your blog and you participate in Adwords advertising it will be worth giving the service a look over, transaction fees can take a bite out of your profits. Anyone else, well, this is not the service we were looking for.

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Surprise surprise, Google CPA ads are on their way… My first question is are they text, image, or a mixture?

I can see from the quoted email that GOOG want you to pretend they’re part of your content, Ooops, i mean blend them.. see the great adsense hypocricy and part 2 so one would presume text, at least to start.

Ads that blend in with the site and are placed prominently tend to perform better. Look to integrate the ad within the page.

Is it a Valueclick killer?

Probably not, most things Google do these days are pretty half baked. But then they are more serious about their ads than anything else so I’ll conceed that it does at least have the potential to eat CJ’s lunch…

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People are lapping it up.

Google launched Spreadsheet on Tuesday and it was promptly covered. There’s a rumour about Picasa coming as a Web-based version soon. Anything Google releases is a matter of hot contention. It is not a question to ponder whether the interest in the product will be sustained or will die off the very next day itself. As long as it exists in the minds of the people, it will always bring in the hits.

You may call me a Google-basher, if you wish, but it still baffles me why Google should churn out these services at such a high rate. There are so many better things to do! Like, for example, they could actually be fine tuning their Search algorithm or re-inventing it.

Maybe they are already doing it and these things are simply to throw the hounds off the scent. Or maybe, they don’t have a clue where they should be headed now. Whichever it is, the big picture is really hard to see right now.

In the last year, since the advent of Gmail, AJAX and Web 2.0, Google has been building up a veritable repository of Apps, sorry, FREE apps for the *public*. What they did not create, they bought. And what they could not buy, they bought the competition and gave it away for free.

Again, the concept of Contextual Text-Ads worked fine, but then other players have now entered the Market and they are slowly eating up into the marketshare. Not that it is going to affect Google’s ‘economy’ much, but yet, it is something Google cannot ignore for long.

Let’s take a look at the facts:

1. Google has built up a large user-base based on one single product – Search.
2. Google has introduced various offerings into the Webosphere, definitely keeping up with the trends. Yet, there has been no visible innovation seen in the recent times.
3. Every new Google product or offering has one result assured – Love it or hate it, you can’t ignore it.
4. And lastly, each of the newer Google products is *loosely* integrated with the other ones.

Take a look at the last one again. There are no links from any of the Google apps to the others, save for the standard footer (which is ignored most of the time). Except for a few isolated examples (Maps and Calendar in Gmail) there have been very few instances of product integration. Why hasn’t Google integrated attachments with Writely and Google Video? Or with Google Base for that matter? Surely, it is not unimaginable? Why are they ignoring/neglecting/forgetting/overlooking/whatever such simple points? Or are they doing it deliberately?

One fine day, if they choose to bring all services (the old ones, the current and the new ones) under one umbrella, then this is what your typical day might look like:

7 AM. Wake up. Ready yourself for your daily work. Breakfast.
8 AM. Check Google Mail. Add client appointment(s) directly into Google Calendar. Check Google Traffic* for driving conditions and consult Google Maps for best route. Drive to Work.
9 AM. Reach Work. Open Gtalk. Your Calendar settings have been imported and all your appointments have been sent automatic reminder mails/notices about your meetings. Check your Gmail. Collaborate on Software Requirement Specifications and make changes with your colleague in Australia and save it immediately.
10 AM. Create a presentation for your Client meet using GPres* along with the same colleague in Australia. Simultaneously tabulate all the requisite data, draw up some quick formulae with the help of your colleague in Europe. Voila! Google Spreadsheet is ready with a cost estimate instantly!
11 PM. Client is online. (Need we mention free WiFi, here?) Hold a webmeeting with your client using Gtalk and conduct a video conference simultaneously. Close the deal and send a link to the already drawn up MoU and NDA along with the cost estimate that you just ruffled up with your colleague in Australia
1 PM. Open Google Search. Look for birthday Gifts for kids under ten years with a special interest in Pokemon. Find appropriate Gift. Pay using GMoney* and get it delivered instantly to your Office.
2 PM. Lunch Break
3 PM. Repeat steps 3 to 5
6 PM. Check your Gmail. Check for Google Calendar reminders/notices. Check Google Traffic* and Google Maps again. Drive home.

(*Coming Soon to a Browser near you. Please submit your eMail address for a special beta preview invite.)

The keen reader may observe that I have touched upon barely a few of the current offerings of Google. I have merely implied the potential what Google could capture with its current offerings. Whay are they holding back then? Is it to be a surprise attack, a Blitz-Krieg of some kind? If suddenly Google chooses to generate revenue out of all the (currently) free services

Google is building isolated chunk of applications. For us, they seem like unseemly, strange shapes. But they might well turn out to be smaller pieces of a mastermind Jigsaw puzzle. Google could well be on its way to building the only competition to, and yet not compete against Micro$oft.

Confused? Picture this: The Google WebOS and the Google Office.

The world is moving towards the virtual. Google might well stand to gain from this movement. At the same time as Google builds a monopoly on the Web, Microsoft keeps its monopoly on the Desktop. This might sound like a random conspiracy theory, but it is supported by hard facts.

Note that Google has not pushed any independent standards with any of its Applications. Writely supports .doc format as well as other formats. Spreadsheet claims “Familiar desktop feel” and that you can “Upload spreadsheets or worksheets from CSV or XLS format – all your formulas and formatting will come across intact.”

Wouldn’t a company seeking to remove M$ out of the competition promote other standards so that they could force the users out of the habit?

Consider this: Of late, there have not been any major innovations and releases in Google desktop paraphernelia. Those that are released have a distinct web connotation, for instance, GDS 4. In the other corner. M$ seems to have slowed down its work on the web front. Ray Ozzie and his Live clipboard are being handled by tech enthusiasts, who realize the implications of the tool. But the man himself, (Ray) seems to have faded somewhere into the horizon. The first impression of this is each of them is sticking to known battlegrounds.

And if they continue to do so, is it not a precursor of the things to follow? Is it really a random conspiracy theory, then?

Technorati Tags: google, microsoft, conjecture, theory

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Last year, Darren wrote a great article on what he wants from an ad network, and I’ve been re-reading that post this morning as I jot down some ideas and fancies of my own. I’d like to revisit the topic today, and ask Performancing bloggers what they want from an ad network?

Its a difficult topic. It’s easy to grumble about adsense, or moan about blogads, but it’s quite another kettle of fish when it comes down to actually working out a better system….

Right now, there are two things that I really want out of a network. Actually there are lots of things, but these are the big ones:

1. For it to be a good earner
2. To be treated as a business partner, not another number in the system

Have a read through Darrens post above, it was written right at the start of Performancing and likely you haven’t seen it. Then, help me get this conversation started by telling me what it is YOU want from a network.

Sometimes it’s not just what you know, who you know (or get to know) can make a big difference. Have you considered networking to promote your blog?

The value of “other people” in your success depends on your own situation but for myself I have to say that communities and certain individuals have been instrumental in whatever success I have had.

You can’t just go up to people (or their blogs) and say “like me like me!”, you need to show your worth and engage people in discussion, perhaps even show you can be valuable to them.

Putting yourself out there and introducing yourself to people can be a scary prospect, plus the idea of “pimping” yourself might send a cold shiver down your spine. Luckily you do not need to go to these lengths!

Other bloggers

Get to know other bloggers. Comment (intelligently) on their own blogs. Link to your favorites regularly. Find out where bloggers hang out. There are conventions for real world rubbing shoulders and there are forums for virtual hob nobbing.

Forums

Forums often allow you to use signatures that contain a line of text and possibly a URL. Just by taking part then you are getting your blog address out there. Better though is to really take part and answer questions, put forward interesting thoughts and get known as someone to turn to for information and interesting dialog. If you do this before you launch, and you are well known and liked you might even have a chance to drop your URL more prominently.

Discussion Lists

Like forums, with discussion lists you can include your URL in your email signature and just like forums it’s even better if you make yourself known and heard.

To really drive traffic link through to posts that might be useful in the discussion. Often frowned upon in forums, dropping links in email discussions is more often allowed or even encouraged.

Summary

I am not talking about using people. People like to do friends favors, make more friends and you will get more favors! Even better if these friends you make are influential in your niche.

Tim Mayer must have been laughing his nuts off at SES this week when we had some coffee on Wednesday morning. I told him I’d recently switched to My Web2.0 (their version of del.icio.us) but had just switched back as it had no damn firefox extension! Now I see he had something up his sleeve all along. Yahoo! have just bought del.icio.us, and not only is it of course, totally in character with their other tag based trendy purchases this last year, it’s probably the best one of the lot, bar flickr.

Congratulations to Tim and Jeremy, who I know is going to be over the moon about this one. Also, dont forget, as I did for a moment, Joshua Schachter, delicious’ founder, who’s worked his arse off on that site and Fred who had the sense to give the boy some $$$’s. They deserve every penny of the rumoured $40M+ Yahoo! paid.

So What Happens as Delicious Leaves the Geekerati and Joins the Mainstream?

Your guess is as good as mine, but short term it won’t mean much to anyone im guessing. Medium to long, I think we’ll see one of two things:

1. Yahoo! destry it, and it becomes much less useful and fun
2. Yahoo! make it better, more integrated with Flickr and other services and we all get more traffic (and it gets spammed to oblivion as a result of THAT).

Let’s hope it’s the latter, minus the being spammed to hell bit eh?

B5Media have merged with About Weblogs. The merge will bring the total number of blogs under the B5 banner to 50.

Power, and safety in numbers? Yes, i think so. This puts B5 squarely in the center of the emerging blog network industry, which is quite an achievment considering the network is only a few months old.