Considering the Google brand in the popular vernacular and the launch of Chrome, I went to web marketing poster boy Seth Godin to get his perspective. Seth wasn't particularly loquacious (no doubt he's a bit busy) but here's the conversation:

Me: Would you be willing to take about 10 minutes to talk to us about your take on Google Chrome? While the tech is neat and pretty and awesome, I think you'll agree this is all about the brand. Where Firefox failed (sort of), Google has an honest shot. Once Chrome is out of beta (in 10 or less years) they are one Superbowl ad away from a true IE-killer. That's what I'm thinking, anyway.

Seth: 1. firefox is hardly a failure. 2. chrome is about web as operating system. not controlling ff is a huge risk for them going forward.

Later I explained what I meant by calling FF a "failure"

Me: I guess by "failure" I meant "failure to capture the average user's attention." There's no doubting they have gained market share against the IE juggernaut, but for the majority of users the Internet = Internet Explorer. Was wondering if you think Chrome has a shot at changing that perception, since people now think Internet Search = Google.

Seth: yep!

The American dream is alive and well -- on the internet. Whether you truly believe that anyone can grow up to be president, it's absolutely true that anyone can plaster their name on a couple of web sites and call themselves a candidate. If you're looking for a slightly more professional look, check out News3Online, a fake news website where you can create a video like the one above.

You can fill in your own information or play a little practical joke on a friend by changing the name. The whole thing is really just a viral marketing tool from the makers of PalTalk, an online chatroom service. But as viral marketing tools go, it's pretty fun, if not entirely original. Showtime created a similar fill-in-the-blanks style video to promote the TV show Dexter last year.

[via Calacanis.com]

AOL has announced plans to let users opt out of targeted advertising. Right now AOL (which happens to be this blog's parent company) and many other web sites place cookies in your browser allowing the site to serve up targeted ads every time you visit an AOL web site.

By the end of the year, AOL plans to offer you the ability to opt out of targeted advertising. You'll still see advertising, but AOL won't be tracking your personal data. The company will also launch a public service campaign letting people know about their right to opt-out by placing banner ads on various pages.

Advocates of targeted advertising say the cookies make it easier for web publishers to serve up ads that readers will be most interested in by tracking browsing habits. That doesn't do much to ease the privacy concerns of people who read 1984 as a work of non-fiction.

The opt-out technology was developed by behavioral marketing firm Tacoda, which AOL purchased earlier this year. Somehow we didn't think AOL was buying a behavioral advertising firm in order to serve up less targeted ads. But the New York Times reports that while AOL will let users opt out, it will try to convince them that they should opt in. After all, if you're going to get ads anyway, wouldn't you rather they be for sales on your favorite movies, music, and other items?

Of course, the only way for AOL to know which computer users have opted out of targeted advertising is to place a cookie in your browser.

Someone apparently thought there was plenty of room for innovation in the "Flash-driven creepy talking head ad" space, and Motion Portrait has certainly picked up the reigns. Since our screencap really can't do the video justice, check out the real deal at Motion Portrait's site, and be sure to move your mouse over her and ring the bell.

The obvious advantage here is a stunning aesthetic boost; this digital secretary moves in a way no other talking head presentation has, even while talking. Still, we hope to see this far more advanced tool used with restraint when it comes to advertising on the web (and let's face it: it will come to that). No matter how real or natural presentations like this may seem, they can still be a thorn in a site's experience and drive visitors away if they start blabbing immediately or simply won't shut up.

Motion Portrait, we tip our hat to the impressive work you've done in the creepy talking head space. Let's just hope you can recommend some equally impressive advice on restraining the use of these to the marketers who come a'knockin'.

"And we want to be on the first page of Google," another new client said matter-of-factly, as the after-thought of our Web design meeting. I nodded, inhaled, and began my spiel.

"What are your stats now?" I asked, although I knew the answer. Many small businesses don't review their site stats, don't know how to view them online and can't really interpret them, but all Web site rebuilding plans include being on the first page of Google results. Let's try to marry the want with some how-to and understand how this works.

KNOW YOUR STATS
Know what your Web stats are. Contact your Web firm and demand the link. Bookmark them. Look at them! Pay attention to the "search keyphrases" and "search keywords" that users enter into search engines and find your site.

Site traffic is saved to logs and statistics programs display the data. Web stat programs are usually loaded on the server, so they have to be available from your hosting company. One of the most common stat packages is Webalizer, a fast and free log file analyzer. There are countless guides to help you interpret the numbers. And the mystery between "hits" and "visits" is explained here. Another common stat program is AWStats, an open source project at SourceForge There is a plethora of stat programs, many of which are free [see DLS for more info]

BUY BETTER STATS
You can buy access to better, more colorful stats with graphs and charts and circles and arrows. If you have a marketing department, they should take a look at WebTrends for small business, one of the older analytics, and check out the demos. WebTrends, like many other quality stat packages, is not free, so decide if the pretty pictures are worth the price.

I WANT TO BE ON THE FIRST PAGE OF GOOGLE!
You want higher ranking in the search engines' results? In the olden days, everyone played on the same field. Nowadays, it takes a village to raise your rankings. Try these suggestions, many of which are human-intensive.

Answering the challenge brought by sites such as Revver, Google's YouTube is looking to launch a revenue sharing model for top posters on the popular video sharing web site. While YouTube is still the most dominant force in online video sharing, sites like Revver have attracted top video posters by offering to share in revenue from advertising on the site. However, unlike Revver's service, YouTube's revenue sharing won't be available to all users - only those that Google feel are worthy of entering into deal with.

According to a post on the official YouTube blog, Google has already chosen top YouTube celebs such as LisaNova, renetto and HappySlip to share in the cash that's rolling in from advertising revenues on the site.

But while the number of posters that will share in the profits is currently small, YouTube says that new posters who create original material and build a substantial audience will get an invitation to the revenue sharing program. In other words: if you have a video camera and a good idea, now seems like a pretty good time to up your game.

A web 2.0-sized boatload of buzz has surrounded Twitter, the addictive service that allows its users to answer one simple question: what are you doing? The service has made appearances in everything from your friend's blog to the New York Times, and everyone seems jazzed about how fun tweeting is. While we're all having a good time, however, its creators, Obvious, keep hinting at how many practical uses they have up their sleeve for Twitter. Even though they haven't revealed any of their cards just yet, the rest of us are left wondering: how is such a seemingly frivolous service going to make money?

As a user who has taken the Twitter pill hook, line and sinker, I've been mulling this question for some time now. I came up with a few strategies, but then I figured: why not run them by the Twitter crew themselves? The least they could say was 'no comment,' but fortunately Evan Williams, one of Obvious and Twitter's founders, responded with a few of his own. Read on for my attempts at making Twitter some money (I'm waiting for my job offer Ev), as well as some choice words and ideas of his own from Evan.

Are you ready to be hit with ads on your mobile device?

The mobile advertising industry is expected to hit $3 billion in 2007. That figure includes a lot of advertising that we're due to be bombarded with on our devices. You can forget about SMS ads as well, the majority of that figure has been said to be focused on the advertising associated with mobile video, which will aid in the rise to $19 billion by 2011.

Mobile marketing is strong in Europe and Asia, but still extremely young in the U.S. So it's just a matter of time before we get hit nicely with different strategies and business models that attack mobile operators and advertisers.

[via cnet]

Viacom's strategy of providing an immersive entertainment experience will now be monetized throughout their portfolio of properties with Yahoo's new Panama ad platform.

In this ad deal, Yahoo's newly launched search marketing platform will be the exclusive provider of all contextual and sponsored search ads for a first run of 33 Viacom sites, with the strong potential to expand to another 140 additional Viacom sites under a multi year deal.

The current site roster that will be participating in the partnership includes MTV.com, VH1.com, Nickelodeon.com, comedycentral.com and BET.com. Viacom is the number one online entertainment destination with over 90 million unique viewers in February 2007.

Yahoo's Panama ad platform has only just been released, but its growing strong. Viacom has just jumped on board as a huge partner, who could be the next one to steal valuable space away from Google?

Small business owners and hopefuls have a full schedule ahead of them next week, as the Microsoft Small Business Summit kicks off Monday with online and in-person sessions at Microsoft's Redmond, WA campus. Among the speaking lineup that includes Kevin Turner (Microsoft's own COO) is the venerable Guy Kawasaki, a venture capitalist, author on and evangelist of all things technology and small business that our own sister site TUAW had a chance to interview back in January.

This Small Business Summit appears to cover the gamut of topics on a small business' table, and we aren't just talking about which version of Vista is best for your garage full of Mountain Dew-infused employees. Guy's session is titled The Art of Innovation, while other speakers will cover everything from the importance of branding to whether you need a server and even how to build a solid marketing strategy.

If these topics haven't caught the attention of the small business owner in you, there has to be something else in the 5 days of sessions that can tickle your bottom line. Besides, every session, whether online or in person, is powered by the best word of all in the business world: free.

For those who have mastered their narrative skills with a camera and don't feel like waiting for YouTube to start sharing revenue, Zooppa (pronounced: zoo-pa) just might be your ticket to fame and fortune. As a new startup that's been stirring some buzz for a little while now, Zooppa melds user generated video with advertising for a unique business model. Businesses supply advertising briefs - what their product is, who they're targeting, any brand-specific design elements, etc. - and users create advertisements for the company, uploading them for Zooppa users to vote on. After voting closes, the winning video scores a cash prize, though we aren't sure exactly how large of a prize that is just yet.

This looks like a fantastic idea for both aspiring marketers and small businesses on little to nonexistent budgets. Who knows: could we see one of next year's Super Bowl ads come out of a Zooppa contest later this year?

Imagine a time when advertisers actually had to pay you for spamming you with adverts and deals. Okay, that time is here! Liz Gannes breaks the news on an interesting new email services called Boxbe. The service, which charges marketers to email its users, launched this week. Users simply sign up and use the email to sign up for "junk" emails like contests, forms, newsletters, etc. Then when companies try to contact you, Boxbe contacts them and gives them the option of paying a fee to deliver the email to your Boxbe account. Both Boxbe and the email user will share the profit. What do you think? Would you use it?

I love the title of this Advertising Age article: Wal-Mart Tries to Be MySpace-Seriously. Because it's so apropos. If you were asked to name 50 companies poised to capture the hearts and minds of hip, young Americans, I doubt Wal-Mart would be on, or even anywhere near, your list. But that doesn't stop it from trying: The HUB (School Your Way) is Wal-Mart's answer to MySpace, and it's worth partial credit at best. The HUB allows young Wal-Mart shoppers-the site seems aimed mostly at tweens-to put together their own personalized page with the opportunity to "win some fab prizes." They can also upload a video of themselves, but all content is rigidly controlled by Wal-Mart, so don't expect to see much in the way of free expression (oh, and the only teens featured on the site's front page are paid actors and models). In the end, Wal-Mart's HUB is-as thought it's not obvious-much less a social networking site (in fact, social networking features are all but absent) and much more an attempt by Wal-Mart to get kids to run its advertising campaign for it, and from the sounds of the Advertising Age article, kids aren't too interested, and I can see why.

I can't believe I forgot to follow up with this one: Remember WeblogWire, the experiment by entrepreneurs Jason Baptiste and Brian Breslin to get a profitable startup running from scratch in one week and on $500? Well, they didn't quite make their deadline, but they did do it for under half a grand. Yesterday WeblogWire made a "soft launch," with its official launch today, about a week behind schedule. Even at two weeks, it's an impressive feat, but what exactly is WeblogWire? Well, it's a gateway between bloggers and PM firms, allowing press releases to much more quickly make their way onto blogs, a steadily more influential corner of the media. The service is free for bloggers to join, and PR folks can submit press releases for an introductory $49 fee ($99 after this week). Right now there's already quite a few press releases on the service, which currenly only has a Technology category (which suits me just fine).

The Seattles PI is running a Bloomberg report about Microsoft's new ad campaign designed to combat its image as a "huge American company." The $120 million TV, print, and Internet compaign features actor William H. Macy and "highlights Microsoft's education and economic development projects in 32 countries, including France and Taiwan." To me there's nothing about "$120 million ad campaign" that doesn't scream "huge American company," but I can't blame Microsoft's marketing department for having a different perspective.