Blogging

The best research tells you not only what’s happening, but why. Check out these posts, more of the best so far in 2008, on web marketing and Internet research to sate your curiosity, make better marketing decisions, and arm yourself with online trivia knowledge.

Which blogs do reporters read? What are the top uses of the Internet after email and search? What type of online advertising is growing while banners and PPC ads flatline? What’s the next big trend in blogging? Which information sources have the greatest influence on consumer purchasing decisions? Read on to learn all of this and more.

Top Blogs Used by Reporters & Journalists by Mequoda Daily

There are lots of “top” blog lists out there, but which blogs really have influence with traditional media? This article reports on a study of the blogs read by more than 450 reporters in technology, lifestyle, health care, travel, and politics. It would have been nice to see more than a handful of results in each category, but the results are interesting nevertheless.

Pew/Internet Search Engine Use Report by MIT Technology Review

A high-level overview of a recent study of search engine use conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Search engines are now used on daily basis by half of all Internet users. Search is the second-most common use of the Internet after email. More than twice as many people said they checked the weather on the Internet daily as reported visiting a social networking site (weird). There’s lots more here for data junkies.

18 Ways to Power Search Google by The Inquisitr

Blogging evangelist Duncan Riley provides an excellent list of tricks for searching out specific types of information on Google, such as specific types of documents, backlinks, phone listings, movie times and metric conversions. Highly bookmarkable.

Is online advertising losing its luster? by iMedia Connection

Neal Leavitt reports on a recent study by market research firm Borrell Associates which contends that while spending on online display ads and search advertising will soon peak then begin falling, expenditures on online promotions (e.g., contests, giveaways, coupons, sales of half-price gift certificates) will triple over the next five years to become the biggest category in online marketing. Others (such as Rob Enderle) aren’t so sure; promotions may be easy to measure, but without advertising support, they can lose a lot of effectiveness.

Porn passed over as Web users become social: author by Reuters

Reporter Belinda Goldsmith summarizes a few of the key findings revealed by author Bill Tancer in his new book Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why it Matters. Among the findings: ceiling fans are on the list of people’s top fears alongside social intimacy and rejection; there’s an annual spike in searches for anti-depression drugs around Thanksgiving time in the United States; and surfing for porn has dropped in teh last decade from 20% of searches to about 10%. The hottest Internet searches now are for social networking sites, and the biggest drop in porn interest is among 18-24 year olds.

What’s Next In Blogging? by Search For Blogging

Über blogger Mert Erkal reports some interesting stats on the continued growth and evolution of the Internet, and predicts that mobile blogging will be one of the hot new trends.

What causes webinar attendees to bail? by B2B Lead Generation Blog

In this concise but helpful post, b2b lead gen guru Brian Carroll summarizes the findings of a MarketingSherpa report on the top reasons that attendees bail out of webinars, including such common presentation faux pas as reading directly from the slides and starting the webinar with a sales pitch.

State of the Blogosphere 2008 by Technorati

Fascinating details about blogging, advertising and income. Driving home the point that blogging is a great hobby but a tough way to make a living, the median annual advertising income for all bloggers is about $200. The average annual revenue for the top 10% of bloggers is just $19,000.

Why do some companies choose to ignore social media? by Britopian

85% of Americans using social media think companies should have an active presence in the social media universe, yet only 74 of the Fortune 500 companies maintain active blogs. Michael Brito examines why this yawning disconnect persists between corporations and their customers.

Word of Mouth, Online Reviews Most Influential in Purchase Decisions by Marketing Pilgrim

Jordan McCollum summarizes a recent study by Rubicon Consulting which explores the biggest influences on purchasing decisions and consumer perceptions of various websites. Reading this post, you’ll discover that Yahoo is the second-most valued website by consumers, Second Life and Twitter still reach only a few percent of Internet users, and lots of other interesting web trivia.

Search Engine Marketing Trumps Yellow Pages by NewSunSEO Blog

A study conducted in July of this year by TMP Directional Marketing revealed that in 2008, for the first time ever, consumers reported that they were more likely to use the Internet than the yellow pages to find information on local businesses. As someone who hasn’t touched a yellow pages directory in years, other than to start a campfire or toss the old one into the recycling bin, the biggest surprise in this study is that it took until 2008 to reach this point.

Previous posts in this series:

Best of 2008 (So Far) - SEO Guidance, Part 1
Best of 2008 (So Far) - SEO Guidance, Part 2
Best of 2008 (So Far) - Search Engine Marketing, Part 1
Best of 2008 (So Far) - Cool Web Tools, Part 1
Best of 2008 (So Far) - Social Media Optimization, Part 1
Best of 2008 (So Far) - Blogging for Business, Part 1
Best of 2008 (So Far) - Web Marketing Research, Part 1
Best of 2008 (So Far) - Website Design, Part 1
Best of 2008 (So Far) - SEO Link Building
Best of 2008 (So Far) - Search Engine Marketing, Part 2
Best of 2008 (So Far) - Social Media Optimization, Part 2
Best of 2008 (So Far) - SEO Guidance, Part 3
Best of 2008 (So Far) - Cool Web Tools, Part 2
Best of 2008 (So Far) - Blogging for Business, Part 2

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Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

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Best of 2008 (So Far) - Web Marketing Research, Part 2

The International Herald Tribune reported Thursday that Facebook attempted to acquire a look-alike German social network before finally suing it in a federal court last month.

StudiVZ, a German site geared toward college students, is ten times the size of Facebook’s user base in Germany. It also looks just like Facebook with a different color scheme, which is what ticked off the site’s legal team. The court complaint called StudiVZ “a knockoff,” and says that it “a year and a half after the debut of Facebook’s Web site, (it) was built by copying the look, feel, and features of Facebook.com.”

The complaint continued: “Facebook is concerned that, because StudiVZ looks like Facebook and incorporates similar features and functionality to Facebook, users will incorrectly believe that StudiVZ is associated with Facebook.”

But according to sources who spoke to the IHT, Facebook first tried to acquire StudiVZ, which would have not only quelled the problem but also bought Facebook some major inroads in the German market. Parent company Holtzbrinck Gruppe, however, wasn’t satisfied with what Facebook was willing to pay. The German publishing company had acquired StudiVZ for the equivalent of $134 million early in 2007 and reportedly wanted significantly more than that in a hypothetical sale to Facebook.

Intellectual property lawsuits are nothing unfamiliar at Facebook, which was sued years ago by the creators of onetime rival ConnectU when they alleged that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had swiped their code and business plan. Facebook settled the lawsuit by effectively acquiring ConnectU for a combination of cash and stock,

But in this case, Facebook is the one crying foul. The IHT noted that because of international borders, it’s unclear where this case will be tried. But it’s more clear that this case has some foundation: StudiVZ’s similarities to Facebook go right on down to the “poke.” On the German site, that’s called “gruscheln.”

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Report: Facebook tried to buy German rival before suing

The International Herald Tribune reported on Thursday that Facebook attempted to acquire a look-alike German social network before finally suing it in a federal court last month.

StudiVZ, a German site geared toward college students, is 10 times the size of Facebook’s user base in Germany. It also looks just like Facebook, with a different color scheme, which is what ticked off the site’s legal team. The court complaint, which called StudiVZ “a knockoff,” says “a year and a half after the debut of Facebook’s Web site, (it) was built by copying the look, feel, and features of Facebook.com.”

The complaint continued: “Facebook is concerned that, because StudiVZ looks like Facebook, and incorporates similar features and functionality to Facebook, users will incorrectly believe that StudiVZ is associated with Facebook.”

But according to sources who spoke to the IHT, Facebook first tried to acquire StudiVZ, which would have not only quelled the problem but also bought Facebook some major inroads in the German market. Parent company Georg von Holtzbrinck, however, wasn’t satisfied with what Facebook was willing to pay. The German publishing company had acquired StudiVZ for the equivalent of $134 million early in 2007 and reportedly wanted significantly more than that in a hypothetical sale to Facebook.

Intellectual-property lawsuits are nothing unfamiliar at Facebook, which was sued years ago by the creators of onetime rival ConnectU, when they alleged that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had swiped their code and business plan. Facebook settled the lawsuit by effectively acquiring ConnectU for a combination of cash and stock.

But in this case, Facebook is the one crying foul. The IHT noted that because of international borders, it’s unclear where this case will be tried. But it’s more clear that this case has some foundation: StudiVZ’s similarities to Facebook go right on down to the “poke.” On the German site, that’s called “gruscheln.”

Report: Facebook tried to buy StudiVZ

Women’s e-newsletter start-up DailyCandy seems like a better fit for Conde Nast than Comcast, but Silicon Alley Insider is reporting that the cable company has acquired it for $125 million. It seems to have beaten out Viacom in the bidding, driving up the price in the process.

DailyCandy’s demographic of trendy urban women is a niche that advertisers love, but it’s still a higher price tag than many observers expected.

The company had already been acquired once, by former AOL exec Bob Pittman’s Pilot Group investment firm. That was for about $3 million five years ago; DailyCandy now employs about 60 people and has published two books. It’s the second e-newsletter that the Pilot Group has flipped this year, having sold the much younger “eco” publication Ideal Bite to Disney for around $15 million; the firm still owns a majority stake in slacker-dude list Thrillist.

Comcast has recently acquired Movies.com and contacts management company Plaxo.

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Report: Comcast eats up DailyCandy

On Monday we heard that Facebook was allowing current employees to sell a delineated portion of their common stock, something that the company confirmed on Tuesday.

Now, VentureBeat’s Eric Eldon, who also originally reported the Facebook tidbit, says that LinkedIn employees are going to have the option of doing the same. The business social network, Eldon wrote, is allowing current employees to sell 20% of their equity in the company at a $500 million valuation. That’s quite a bit lower than the billion-dollar valuation reportedly bestowed upon the company after its recent $53 million Series D funding round.

LinkedIn declined comment on the report.

For both companies, it’s probably a response to the fact that these Silicon Valley high-flyers are still independently run, with neither willing to cave to a buyout but with the likelihood of an IPO still less than concrete. According to VentureBeat, banks aren’t willing to take the companies public unless they pull in higher profits.

Facebook more or less acknowledged in its confirmation statement Tuesday that the plan is a way for employees to “sit tight” while the company works on the “growth over profits” mantra that COO Sheryl Sandberg encapsulated in a talk at the F8 Conference last month. “To provide employees with a financial cushion while we continue to build the company, Facebook has designed a one-time program to enable employees to realize some liquidity,” the statement read.

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Employees unloading stock options? It’s the hot new thing