Youtube: The bleeding artery of Google.com ( A love story)

* What would be your course of action if you purchased a company for 1.65 billion dollars and it only brought in 240 million this year and grows deeper in debt everyday? I would say what a tragic mishap! I would sell it and try my best to cut my further losses and never make that mistake again. But that’s just me and that’s definitely not Google.com. Who made this decision three years ago when they purchased the number one video site search engine Youtube.com

So let’s dwell further into Google’s love story with Youtube. Like I said; Youtube is lying like a lame horse right now, any farm owner would have taken that horse outside and put it down. But Google has many plans to revive Youtube and make it the forerunner as the premier search engine site.

There are a few problems with the site. One is that the video sharing site has failed to attract quality programming

While Google doesn’t break out exact company expenses, what is known is that Youtube is the largest video platform in the world. Users upload 20 hours of video to it each minute, at tremendous cost to Google (That’s a lot of server space and maintenance on a monthly basis…I’d say in the tens of millions)

Youtube remains a repository for long tail content that appeals to a niche audience: clips of cats chasing dogs or the newest death defying stunt (they do have mass audience viewings like Michael Jackson, Susan Boyle which attracted millions)

But despite Google repeated efforts Youtube has failed to create an environment for professional video content where many advertisers are clamoring to put their money right now.

* However Hulu- A joint venture from GE’s NBC, News Corp’s Fox and now Disney’s ABC has catapulted to success among advertisers and consumers. With it sharp media player and a very comfortable and easy to use interface that feels like a traditional television.

Hulu has become the second most watched video site after….you guessed it, Youtube.

Launched in March 2008 it began hosting episodes of “Saturday night live” and “The Office”

A visit to Youtube showed it was airing original series like “Bewitched” (Although my favorite series “firefly” is aired in sections by users of the site)

So with the success of Hulu and the clear and visible mistake of the cash guzzling purchase of Youtube, you would think Google would back down and give this site up. But in fact the parent company is doubling down. A report in fortune magazine says that Google has moved some of its brightest executives to Youtube offices in hope of turning it around. Tech Guru’s are also tweaking the technology that sorts and spits out Youtube content to make it easier for marketers to buy sponsored search links and simultaneously run advertising, as of now the site is now able to make money on 13% of its content up from 3% last year.

Google’s very cost conscious finance chief was also quoted as being very upbeat on recent earnings call saying “soon we’ll actually see a very profitable and good business.

* From my perspective Google ambitions for Youtube have nothing to do with cute cat clips or viral web video, and everything to do with data. Video is still in its teenage years on the web, but it is growing up quickly. Laptops and iphones now have quality webcams and teenagers increasingly use video instead of email to send each other messages, posting the clips on their Facebook walls.

So while Google aims (and prays!) to profit from the video on the site today, it ultimately is more interested in making sure that the company becomes the primary platform use to generate, store, sort and view all their video content and communications. (This, by the way, is exactly the kind of wide-reaching power that concerns privacy and antitrust advocates)

*So how do you stop the bleeding and make a profit?

That’s the question for Jawed Karim who joined the Google team in 2005. His quest is to make money from Youtube. Karim was the one at Google who came up with Adwords, Google biggest revenue, which lets advertisers pay a fee each time user’s click on their links. Google hopes he can work that same magic again.

His first move was to create different types of ads such as small ads that pop up inside videos; it has also added click-to-buy options to some videos(Watch Michael Jackson’s “Billie jean” on the site and you have the option to buy the song from Amazon)

Either way you cut it, Youtube is far from fixed and in my opinion losing ground against the competition. Looking at Youtube as a whole, how much content is produced by network studios? The stuff that is most easily monetized today. And if Google merely wanted to sell ads against its inventory of online videos, that might be a problem since it costs the company way more to host and deliver videos that it currently makes on video ads (A credit Suisse report suggests that the site spends $375 million a year on network infrastructure alone; a recent study by strategic outsourcing adviser Ramp Rate puts the annual costs at closer to $83 million)

Well for all of Google’s Youtube woes. Earlier this year Youtube quietly became the second biggest search engine on the web; only Google.com is larger

 If video online becomes pervasive and consumers first gravitate to video searches rather than look for articles or websites it may be only a matter of time before the long tail wags the dog

* In my opinion, while I am not a tech guru and can’t fully fathom the risks that are involved with paying billions of dollars for a company only to make chump change in profit. I can say that I am a fan of Youtube and of course want to see it succeed, but like any pioneer Youtube was the first to do what they did. They gave any one and everyone a place to show their face(not necessarily talent) and when other companies or groups stand outside the box and analyze what they like and dislike about there competition you can always find better ways to do it and profit from it. Google (Youtube of course) need to step out of there singular box and reassess what works and doesn’t work. And while Youtube will never be the money giant Google is, there is always a chance it can change the playing field in terms of advertisement and how people asses how they market or advertise themselves!

10 practices for successful blogging!

Being a fellow blogger myself and the owner of a social media marketing company I have been going over the do’s and dont’s of successful blogging! What works and what doesnt work and how to market you blog . You can have the most interesting blog in the world, but if you dont market it, then who knows it exist? Or why are people not reading my blog? maybe it isnt that interesting or maybe you are not reaching the people you want to reach with the content you have!  Below are 10 important rules for blogging! 

With Blogger, WordPress, MySpace, and Facebook, its easier than ever to start your own blog. However, there’s nothing easy about creating a GOOD blog. It takes time and effort but I’ve come up with 10 rules that should make it just a bit easier.

1. Update frequently – Look, nothing is worse than having a great blog and then abandoning it. You lose momentum, any buzz you might have generated and most importantly, you lose readers. Its not easy (and to be honest I need to follow this rule more often) but a lame post every now and then is much easier to recover from than going two months without posting.
2. Cite your sources – Everybody and their dog has a site now. No seriously look. So, linking out to a few authoritative sources to help support your claims might not be a bad idea. It gives you more credibility with your audience and shows that you actually put a little bit of work into the post.
3. Be controversial – There’s nothing like a little controversy to help promote your site. Take a stand on a controversial issue, and then write intelligently about it. People who agree with you will link to you to in support of their arguments, and people who disagree with you will link to you as they attack your position. Just remember not to take disagreements too personally.
4. Include images – We live in a society of over stimulation. We’ve got flashing billboards, instant information at our fingertips, and about 15 different forms of media on our phones. So, if you can break up your posts with a picture or two, you might be able to retain those of us with shorter than average attention spa…
5. Stay on Topic – Along the same lines as the previous point, nothing is worse than trying to wade through a rambling post. On a website, it’s not exactly like you’ve got a captive audience. Most people will click the back button as soon as you start to bore them. (See that? I probably just lost 6 readers right there)
6. Link to other sites – This one is pretty simple, the more you link to other blogs or sites, the more likely they will be to link back to you.
7. Be original – As we talked about in point 2, there are a ton of blogs out there. Don’t just rehash the same stuff that every other blog in your area is talking about. If there is a major news story, don’t just post the news; post your take on it. Take a different angle. Do something to set yourself apart from the mass of other blogs. Be original.
8. Grab them with the headline – Just like a newspaper, the headlines are critical. If it’s interesting, people will check out your post. If it’s not, they’ll ignore it. It’s as simple as that. And, just like in newspapers, there are some words and phrases that are attention grabbers. “Top 10…”, “How To…”, “Warning:”, or any other alarming words work great in headlines.
9. Remember that its public – Have you ever heard the saying “Say it words but not in writing?” That holds true on the internet. Always remember that whatever you write is instantly public information. So, it might be unwise to slam your boss, badmouth your company, or hit on someone else’s wife via your blog (or any other internet medium for that matter).
10. Tell people – So you’ve got a great blog post. Now what? The last rule for blogging is to tell people about it. Mention it to your friends and family, ping sites such as pingomatic.com, and submit it to social sites such as digg.com, reddit.com, fark.com, or any other appropriate site. Sure it’s a bit of self promotion but if you wait around for someone else to do it for you, you’ll probably end up blogging to yourself.

If you need any help getting your message across then stop by our site at www.businessinmotion.weebly.com or email us at businessinmotion@att.net

or visit www.seorefugees.com they are one of the true sites who know what they are doing!

Watching out for social bookmarking!

While I am a huge fan of social bookmarking ( you can find me on digg, stumbleupon as well as delicious) I to have recgonized the trouble that comes with these sites. The tampering and the “gangs” that inhabit the sites.

 

Below I have listed a few points that I think you the reader should be aware of. Let me thanks google for helping me put this together. Research, research and more research ( and some personal experiences) have brought this together.

This my first blog on bookmarking and like I said previously I am a huge fan of bookmarking and have seen this social trend rise and now become a dominat force online and groups such as  Yahoo! are clearly convinced that social bookmarking is the way of the future with their purchase of Flickr, Upcoming, del.icio.us and now *maybe* Digg, all along side their own “MY Web” that “moves beyond bookmarks”.

Add to that the comments made by Yahoo! Director of Search (france), Olivier Parriche, who said, “Yahoo is going to change in the following months and years. We’re going towards “social-search”. We’re going to use users behaviors, comments, users choices and the communities where they evolve to improve our engine.”

Google is also experimenting with this, though in a reverse sort of way. Instead of adding bookmarks users can now remove results from their SERPs. (search engine result page)

It’s clear the search engines are looking to give users what they want, but this may come at the cost of relevancy.

I have a list of more than 20 or so SB sites now. Many are obscure but some have sprung to life in just a few weeks. There’s big traffic to be had here, and where there’s traffic *someone* will find a way to make money.

Expect more to come. The applications are nearly limitless and marketing gurus and data miners can do a lot with the information garnered by SB users. Imagine knowing what sites appeal to your customers. You could build a design and include content based on factors that are similar accross your user-base.

But!

With all the hype and popularity of these new SB communities there are some dangers to watch out for:

1. SB Users are prone to peer presure. Some SB users vote for sites because everyone else voted for it! Depending on the site, popular URLs may get promoted based on the fact that they are getting promoted. Put another way, if a user sees an article is shooting up they may mark that article so they have it to look at later – this vote does not mean the article is any good.

2. SB Users are not experts. As I have come to see articles that sound convincing may get voted up even when they are not accurate. This can do a lot of harm to any industry. Imagine a bogus article about disease-ridden cattle making it’s way to another country. That country may block the passage of cattle hurting the rancher’s proffits. And once cattle is blocked from crossing a border, especially if a disease is attached to it, it becomes news. At this point the stock market is affected…

This may sound far-fetched but I really dont think it is.

3. Some SB sites influence the SEs already, some don’t. Del.icio.us does not give link-pop but Digg and Furl do. The rest I’m not sure about… yet!

4. SB Sites are easy to tamper with. Simply by creating multiple accounts you can give your links multiple votes. Another phenominon is SB “gangs” where groups get together formaly or informaly in forums and other places just to vote each others sites up.

5. SB Users are trendy, not loyal. Most SB Users prefer FireFox over IE but use Windows XP over Mac or Linux. This shows that they are technical to some degree but more likely following the trend of FireFox popularity. Also, FireFox has plug-ins for most SB sites making tagging more convenient.

6. SB Sites give spikes of traffic, not steady growth. Depending on your strategy this could be important. “Link Bait” sites may pick up additional backlinks from SB Users that helps them long-term, but the average link submitted will get a few hundred hits in the first day and dwindle fast after that.

7. Some SB Users are weekend warriors. I’ve noticed that links submitted on the weekend outperform links submitted during the work week.

8. SB Users have a lot of pride. While this may be the most practical and useful post I’ve made about it just the fact that it mentions negative aspects of social bookmarking would get it panned in the SB Sites. Go figure.

9. Social bookmarking is getting competitive without competitive differentiation. While more and more sites spring up the benefits and differences between the sites remain cosmetic. Some have different social customs or likes but the only way to find out what those are is by testing them out yourself. We should soon start seeing SB Communities spring up around niche markets instead of the general “news” categories that exists so far.

There’s more information about social bookmarking at 14th Colony including other things to watch out for and specific site reviews.

The in’s & Out’s of Google.com

Common Forum Questions & Answers:

1) Q: What is the ‘Google Dance’

A: The ‘Google Dance’ is what the monthly update is commonly called. It refers to the update process that is visible in the index. The update takes about a week to complete and during that time you will see the listings vary wildly from new data to old while positions will jump up and down (and sometimes completely out) in a SERP as well.

2) Q: When does Google update?

A: Google has a standard monthly update which generally occurs at the end of every month. The data for this update is gathered during the preceding weeks. Google has been known to delay updates (or process them sooner than expected) when the mood strikes. Chances are delays are due to new algorithms being implemented and tested.

3) Q: What is “Everflux, Freshbot, Freshcrawl”

A: Everflux is when the SERPs appear to change (sites move up and down) while the update is NOT in effect. This is brought about by the Freshbot (or Freshcrawl) and is Googles way of ensuring that their data is the ‘freshest’ on the web. When the phenomena first occurred it was identifiable by the word ‘Fresh!’ and a date appearing on the last line of your listing between the URL and the ‘Cached’ link. The addition of ‘Fresh!’ the word was misleading to the public at large as it appeared to be a comment on the quality of the data not the recency of the crawl (which was what it was) so the word was quickly removed but the date remains. When you see this date attached to your listing you know that it is the product of a ‘Fresh crawl’ or ‘Everflux’. What does this do for you? This enables Google to present the most recent version of your site in their listings and can cause your listing to move up or down in the SERPs. This is not a permanent change of your information within their database and if your site is not re-crawled by the ‘freshbot’ any changes associated with this crawl will fall out in approximately 48hrs. If your site is new to Google and is crawled by the ‘freshbot’ Note: there is no official bot called ‘freshbot’ it is a term used in forums to describe the googlebot that affects these specific changes within SERPs so don’t email them for information regarding the ‘freshbot’ as they will respond that it doesn’t exist! (because it doesn’t)

4) Q: When will Google spider my site and how can I tell?
Q: What is googlebot?

A: Googlebot (Google’s spider) finds sites by following links from other sites. The more links to your site they find the the chance of Googlebot finding you. They also follow links from their addurl form, but prefer to find links to you instead. You can check to see if/when Googlebot has visited by reviewing your site’s logs located on your server. When Googlebot visits you will see a reference to ‘The little robot that google.com sends out to spider website content GoogleBot’ or ‘crawler12.googlebot.com’ or something similar. They announce who they are. For more on locating and viewing your server logs you need to speak to your hosting company. Many common website statistics (site stats) programs will gather this information and present an easy to read report for you.

5) Q: What is PageRank?

A: PageRank is Google’s method of ranking web pages. Google basically counts the number of incoming links to your web PAGE and (considers various other factors) to determine the importance of your web page and where it should rank. Keep in mind that this is only one factor in ranking.

6) Q: Will Google index my (asp, php, html, xml, etc) site?

A: Probably. Here is a list of what Google indexes as of 9/12/02 (from Google.com):
http://www.google.com/corporate/facts.html
http://www.google.com/webmasters/facts.html

HyperText Markup Language (html, pdf, asp, jsp, hdml, shtml, xml, cfml)
Adobe Portable Document Format (pdf)
Adobe PostScript (ps)
Lotus 1-2-3 (wk1, wk2, wk3, wk4, wk5, wki, wks, wku)
Lotus WordPro (lwp)
MacWrite (mw)
Microsoft Excel (xls)
Microsoft PowerPoint (ppt)
Microsoft Word (doc)
Microsoft Works (wks, wps, wdb)
Microsoft Write (wri)
Rich Text Format (rtf)
Text (ans, txt)
Images
Usenet messages

7) Q: I reported spam I found in Google, why is it still there?

A: Google does not remove spam just because it was reported. They review the report as soon as they can to determine if it really is spam (imagine, what would you do if it was that easy and your competitor got you removed). If it is particularly bad they may manually remove the offensive site or page but they do try and avoid this when ever possible. If it is not then the site or page will most likely become test material for new filter tweaks. Google always prefer to adjust their filters and algorithms to catch spam.

8) [Common listing description questions]
– Can I change my description?
– What is my description?
– That’s not the description I wanted!

A: The description Google provides with your listing is comprised of what they call Snippets. Snippets are created by taking the searched term and pulling that, along with the surrounding text, from your text data on your page. This Snippet is variable and changes with the search term.

If your site/url has an ODP/DMOZ listing then Google will list the ODP description below the Snippet, indicated by the word ‘Description:’ preceding it. The only way to alter this is by getting your ODP description altered.

9) What are internal links, external links, backlinks?

A: Internal links are links to your own site from withing your own site. External links are links to your site from someone else’s site. Backlinks describes the links that Google shows as counting towards your site. Via the Google ToolBar there is a button that states “Backward Links” which when clicked is supposed to show you sites linking to the page your browser is currently viewing. Note that this button does not show all links indexed or credited to your site. Common belief is that it only shows links with a PR4 or above and that it also only shows 1/2 of the links credited to your site/page.

10) What do links have to do with Google?

A: Links, internal and external, help Googlebot find the pages within your site so that it can index them. Links also count, to various degrees depending on the link, towards your PageRank.

11) What is proxy.google.com ?

A: Google offers wireless services for several devices and go so far as to convert your html site for viewers using wireless appliances (such as cell phones and pda’s). Google Wireless, wireless user guide.