BusinessWeek Online - Blogspotting 2008-09-05T13:03:11Z Read the latest technological advances in society and technology. Learn about the effects of technology on society and stay updated on corporate social media. Movable Type Copyright (c) 2008, stephen_baker Behavior targeting campaign for The Numerati: details 2008-09-05T13:03:11Z 2008-09-05T11:57:29Z tag:www.businessweek.com,2008:12.14714 2008-09-05T11:57:29Z The Numerati launches behavioral ad campaign over the next five weeks, targeting potential book buyers with some 8 million ads, some upbeat, others scary. stephen_baker bakerblogspotting@gmail.com advertising Over the next six weeks, you may run across some of these ads on your net wanderings. If you do, it will be because the patterns of your browsing, the sites you visit and the articles you read, rank you as a promising would-be reader of The Numerati.

As I explained a couple of weeks ago, Houghton Mifflin is doing a behavioral advertising campaign for the book with Platform-A, a division of AOL. (AOL last year bought Tacoda, whose work I describe in the introduction to the book) So, the idea is that we're using the tools and methods of the Numerati to promote the book.

Now I have some details. The campaign, by industry standards, is pretty small. It will deliver some 8 million targeted ads. The first stage, which starts in the next couple of days, will scatter them to a general audience, people in every sort of behavioral tribe imaginable. Some might be romantic movie lovers, others John Deere aficionados. Some may dwell at length on obituary postings. Platform-A will see if any of these groups seem especially interested in the book. They will also note which ads they click on. Some are cheerfully promotional, others much more scary. (One flashing ad says: Meet The Numerati... They've Already Met You.)

On Sept. 15, they will have the data to launch the targeted campaign. They start out with the hypothesis that the two interested groups will be readers of book reviews (the so-called "arts and literature" crowd. I think of them as New Yorker readers) and those interested in "business strategy." Unless the preliminary tests show that another group merits their attention, they'll divide the ads between those two. The business readers will get about 20% more, since they're a larger group.

]]> The person I spoke to at Platform-A told me that the campaign is a little more fractured than she'd choose. In other words, it's broken down into more categories than most campaigns of its size, with more ads and broader targeting. The reason: We're interested in generating lots of data. This is an experiment for us, a new form of advertising, and we want to learn from it.

I should add here, especially since some of the publicity focuses on the creepy and invasive nature of the Numerati, that neither we nor Platform-A will know details about the Web surfers we track. No names, no addresses, no professions. They're anonymous surfers, each defined only by the pattern of the pages he or she visits.

I'm going to post this on the book blog. I'll be covering this in more regular and lurid detail there. But I'll do round-ups on this one.

If you have time to take a look at the ads please leave your thoughts about them. Are some of them offensive? Exaggerated? Do any make you want to interrupt what you're doing and buy the book? Of course, if you supplement your views with information about yourself, that will give us even more data to work with...

]]>
Net Applications: Chrome At 1% Marketshare 2008-09-03T17:17:39Z 2008-09-03T16:33:41Z tag:www.businessweek.com,2008:12.14654 2008-09-03T16:33:41Z Ahh, the Internet and its metrics. Net Applications, which tracks browser marketshare, has a report up that's tracking Google hour by hour. So far, Google's a about 1% marketshare.... heather_green heather_green-blogs@businessweek.com CFT0903_1134110F4C5.gif

Ahh, the Internet and its metrics.

Net Applications, which tracks browser marketshare, has a report up that's tracking Google hour by hour.

So far, Google's a about 1% marketshare.

]]>
Privacy Implications of Google's Chrome? 2008-09-04T16:17:53Z 2008-09-03T15:49:38Z tag:www.businessweek.com,2008:12.14653 2008-09-03T15:49:38Z One of the things we wondered about Chrome was what kind of data would the company use the browser to collect. Afterall, Google's lifeblood is data. I know from talking to both Firefox and Opera that they don't track your... heather_green heather_green-blogs@businessweek.com privacy One of the things we wondered about Chrome was what kind of data would the company use the browser to collect. Afterall, Google's lifeblood is data. I know from talking to both Firefox and Opera that they don't track your movements.

So good to see Matt Cutts do a post, called When Does Google Chrome Talk to Google.com According to his analysis, so far, so benign.

Lauren Weinstein also did a quick analysis and he seems to agree, with one proviso.

Cutting to the chase, it appears that -- with one exception that I'll discuss below -- Google's Chrome by and large is defined to behave in a conventional manner when it comes to handling of privacy-sensitive data, including the provision of a "private browsing" mode similar to that in the latest version of Internet Explorer.
The only really new privacy-related aspect that may concern some users in Google Chrome appears to be its "Google Suggest" feature tied into the URL address bar. By default this will send information to Google regarding the URLs that you enter directly, to enable URL suggestion data to be returned to the browser from Google. Note though that -- as described on the relevant Google pages -- virtually all of these related features can be disabled by users if they choose to do so.

Speaking with Danny Sullivan from Search Engine Land last night, he mentioned that of course this would change if you install the Google Toolbar, for instance. That does send data back to Google. Or search, as well.

]]>
Inside BW: personal brands versus SEO 2008-09-04T16:21:57Z 2008-09-03T10:38:34Z tag:www.businessweek.com,2008:12.14648 2008-09-03T10:38:34Z Ulli Muenker, Our search engine optimization expert visited my office last week. As we talked, she let drop that Blogspotting was a most search-engine-unfriendly name. Who, after all, sits down and decides to look for some "blogspotting?" Other bad SEO... stephen_baker bakerblogspotting@gmail.com BusinessWeek Ulli Muenker, Our search engine optimization expert visited my office last week. As we talked, she let drop that Blogspotting was a most search-engine-unfriendly name. Who, after all, sits down and decides to look for some "blogspotting?" Other bad SEO titles? Ones with the bloggers' names in them, like Fine On Media and Nussbaum on Design.

But, I said, those were my idea! I urged Bruce and Jon to use their own names in the blogs. It was a way to build their personal brands. Yes, but who looks for a Nussbaum or (tougher for Google) a Fine? Well, I said, I'd bet plenty of people look for NYT brands like Friedman and Dowd. It's in Nussbaum and Fine's interest to have their own brands, and not just be the interchangeable BusinessWeek person covering one thing or another.

But what happens to BW if they leave? she asked. They take their brands with them, I said, and BusinessWeek encourages others to build personal brands. We went back and forth. I never convinced her. But I think this branding battle, between the enterprise and its bloggers, will continue. David Armano, captures some of this dynamic with this illustration:

social_systems.gif

]]>
Amazon and B&N suggest wildly different books 2008-08-30T14:16:18Z 2008-08-30T13:44:33Z tag:www.businessweek.com,2008:12.14595 2008-08-30T13:44:33Z When I look at my book pages on Amazon and B&N, I find an enormous gap. B&N tells customers that people who buy The Numerati also purchase extremely heady books about math (which are way beyond me). They point them... stephen_baker bakerblogspotting@gmail.com Books When I look at my book pages on Amazon and B&N, I find an enormous gap. B&N tells customers that people who buy The Numerati also purchase extremely heady books about math (which are way beyond me). They point them to Conceptual Spaces: The Geometry of Thought, and Foundations of Measurement, Vol II, Geometrical, Threshhold and Probabilistic Representations!

Now, maybe there are people who bought my book and also bought those. I should alert them, and others, that anyone capable of reading those books will learn next to nothing about math in mine. It's written for a general interest audience. There's not one formula in the book, not one Greek letter. I issue a stark warning in my book blog. (My fear is that they'll buy my book expecting sophisticated math, be disappointed not to find any, and then trash it to their friends and on blogs.)

The Amazon recommendations
are entirely different. They point to popular books, like Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational Dan Roam's The Back of the Napkin.

What's the difference between the two approaches? I can only guess. Let's assume that they're being honest, and that buyers of my book actually purchase the ones they list. But which ones best represent the readership? It would seem to me that B&N has a set of key words associated with mine (mathematics, calculus, etc) and it links mine to books with similar tags. Amazon, by contrast, appears to pick the books that sell the best. (Irrational and Napkin are both best sellers.) It's not a sophisticated formula. But it makes more sense for me--and for Amazon.

]]>
What to tell journos about blogging? 2008-08-29T21:36:23Z 2008-08-29T21:22:46Z tag:www.businessweek.com,2008:12.14592 2008-08-29T21:22:46Z I've been asked to give BW colleagues a how-to on blogging next week. This is for the basic stuff that Jeff Jarvis zipped past when he tackled the more substantive issues here last spring. So, we'll go over: 1)... stephen_baker bakerblogspotting@gmail.com How To the-thinker4.jpg

I've been asked to give BW colleagues a how-to on blogging next week. This is for the basic stuff that Jeff Jarvis zipped past when he tackled the more substantive issues here last spring. So, we'll go over: 1) How to set up an aggregator page (and which ones to choose), 2) How to follow what others are writing about you, and 3)how to optimize a blog post for search engines. (I'm not the expert on that part.)

I agreed to all this. And now I'm coming to grips with the sad fact that I sort of figured this stuff out about three years ago, and a lot of what I "know" dates from blogging's Pleistocene era.

So, any advice? What are your favorite aggregators? (I use Google Reader and Netvibes, and have a long-ignored MyYahoo page) Any good widgets for tracking links to blogs?... This reminds me, I chatted yesterday with our SEO guru--and she told me that Blogspotting was an absolutely miserable name for the Google world. Hurt my feelings a little.

]]>
Presidential Candidates Using Behavioral Targeting 2008-08-29T17:45:50Z 2008-08-29T17:42:14Z tag:www.businessweek.com,2008:12.14577 2008-08-29T17:42:14Z I did a story this week about how the presidential campaigns are getting on the behavioral targeting bandwagon. They're working with companies including Yahoo and Google, targeting persuasion ads as well as campaigns aimed at bringing in volunteers, donors, and... heather_green heather_green-blogs@businessweek.com advertising I did a story this week about how the presidential campaigns are getting on the behavioral targeting bandwagon. They're working with companies including Yahoo and Google, targeting persuasion ads as well as campaigns aimed at bringing in volunteers, donors, and voters.

It's the first election that they've done this. Still, what a doozy of a time to do it, with all the privacy issues hanging around.

]]>
Numerati book excerpt is BW cover 2008-08-28T23:39:15Z 2008-08-28T23:19:39Z tag:www.businessweek.com,2008:12.14555 2008-08-28T23:19:39Z The Numerati excerpt on workers is the BusinessWeek cover story this week. The piece looks at how IBM is trying to revamp the techniques they mastered a half century ago to optimize industrial process, and focusing them on their own... stephen_baker bakerblogspotting@gmail.com Numerati The Numerati excerpt on workers is the BusinessWeek cover story this week. The piece looks at how IBM is trying to revamp the techniques they mastered a half century ago to optimize industrial process, and focusing them on their own employees. In short, the mathematical modeling of the worker, a future most of us are likely to confront, in one form or another.

numerati cover.jpg

There's also an excerpt from the Introduction, essentially the first five pages of the book.

The package also includes a narrated slide show, where I try to connect the dots between F.W. Taylor, the pioneer in scientific management, and the current Numerati at IBM. Then there's the podcast, where I chat with Executive Editor John Byrne. More details on TheNumerati.net

]]>
YouTube--Big Home Page Ads. Not a Good Sign 2008-08-28T19:39:28Z 2008-08-28T19:33:45Z tag:www.businessweek.com,2008:12.14549 2008-08-28T19:33:45Z Shades of MySpace.....Silicon Alley Insider reports that YouTube is revamping its homepage and shopping around the opportunity for advertisers to put big ads there. This can't be good. Isn't that kind of approach basically the first thing you would think... heather_green heather_green-blogs@businessweek.com Shades of MySpace.....Silicon Alley Insider reports that YouTube is revamping its homepage and shopping around the opportunity for advertisers to put big ads there.

This can't be good. Isn't that kind of approach basically the first thing you would think of after taking over a company? But it's so obvious and so limited in how much it can wring out of the potential of the whole property that naturally you would think, oh hey, I need to focus on coming up with something else, something bigger, something more innovative.

So, after nearly two years (can it be that long?) of trying to come up with something else, they're back to this? Yikes....

]]>
MySpace, Mixi and Money 2008-08-28T19:19:48Z 2008-08-28T16:44:38Z tag:www.businessweek.com,2008:12.14544 2008-08-28T16:44:38Z Kenji Hall, a colleague of mine in Japan, wrote an interesting story about Mixi, the social network in Japan that's basically cleaning MySpace and Facebook's clocks in terms of popularity. It's popular because the founder was quick to spot the... heather_green heather_green-blogs@businessweek.com Kenji Hall, a colleague of mine in Japan, wrote an interesting story about Mixi, the social network in Japan that's basically cleaning MySpace and Facebook's clocks in terms of popularity. It's popular because the founder was quick to spot the social networking craze and because the service is a clean well lighted place. A commenter also notes that Boing Boing and TechCrunch have written about the success of its mobile strategy.

But what caught my attention was that the company's making pretty good money for its size. Hall writes that Mixi has 15 million total members. That's dwarfed of course by MySpace's 122 million.

But here's what's interesting. For the fiscal year ended March 2008, Mixi posted revenues of $88 million. By comparison, for the fiscal year ended June 2008, MySpace had sales of $606 million, estimates Goldman Sachs. So Mixi is making $5.87 a person, while MySpace is making $4.97. Not bad, for a company I frankly had never paid attention to.

]]>
Numerati in the workplace 2008-08-27T19:59:58Z 2008-08-27T19:55:43Z tag:www.businessweek.com,2008:12.14520 2008-08-27T19:55:43Z Video interview of BusinessWeek's Stephen Baker about his book, The Numerati stephen_baker bakerblogspotting@gmail.com Books

Here's a video I did with Peter Elstrom about the book. It focuses on a group of Numerati at IBM, who are busy trying to build mathematical models of their colleagues.

]]>
Merlin on what makes a good blog 2008-08-28T21:39:16Z 2008-08-25T16:52:47Z tag:www.businessweek.com,2008:12.14446 2008-08-25T16:52:47Z Merlin Mann provides useful and humorous advice on how to write good blog posts. stephen_baker bakerblogspotting@gmail.com How To Excuse me forbeing so late linking to this list on What Makes for a Good Blog from Merlin Mann. (I like just about everything I find from him, including his popular Twitterstream).

I'm quite sure I don't follow all of the advice, but it's all interesting. My favorite passage:

"Blog posts are written, not defecated. They show some level of craft, thinking, and continuity beyond the word count mandated by the Owner of Your Plantation."

]]>
This Week's Digital Dish 2008-08-22T17:59:30Z 2008-08-22T17:58:16Z tag:www.businessweek.com,2008:12.14421 2008-08-22T17:58:16Z This week, we examine HP’s earnings, Comcast’s reaction to the FCC, and whether Microsoft’s new ads starring Jerry Seinfeld will solve Vista’s perception problems... heather_green heather_green-blogs@businessweek.com BusinessWeek

This week, we examine HP’s earnings, Comcast’s reaction to the FCC, and whether Microsoft’s new ads starring Jerry Seinfeld will solve Vista’s perception problems

]]>
How does NewsCred measure cred? 2008-08-26T11:39:12Z 2008-08-22T13:28:42Z tag:www.businessweek.com,2008:12.14415 2008-08-22T13:28:42Z If you haven't seen NewsCred yet, by all means have a look. It's a very cool news site with applications that will become more interesting and powerful as more people visit and click. But I think its premise if faulty.... stephen_baker bakerblogspotting@gmail.com mainstream media If you haven't seen NewsCred yet, by all means have a look. It's a very cool news site with applications that will become more interesting and powerful as more people visit and click. But I think its premise if faulty.

The idea of Newscred is that the community will rank the credibility of a whole host of news sources, both mainstream and blogs, and that the cream--the honest, believable and accurate stories--will rise to the top. One trouble is that in a politically polarized society, at least some people will trash the publications they disagree with. People who hate Rupert or the Wall Street Journal editorial page, to pick one example, are likely to pummel the WSJ. The New York Times will also suffer, partly from the same polarization, and partly because readers remember recent scandals there, from the Jason Blair fiasco to credulous pre-Iraq war coverage. But are there more rigorous and thoroughly edited papers in the U.S than those two? If so, I don't know of them.

So the result, it seems to me, will be that the big famous papers, whose gaffes create headlines and whose choices for columnists stir outrage, will sink to the middle of the pack, or lower. Media outlets we barely know will rise. Are NewsCred's algorithms going to adjust for that?

UPDATE: Following a couple of complaints, I changed the headline from "Why NewsCred lacks Cred." The headline was not fair, given that I only posed questions about their methods. I'm sorry I didn't choose my words better.

]]>
Behavioral advertising to track book-buyers 2008-08-21T19:11:21Z 2008-08-21T18:55:31Z tag:www.businessweek.com,2008:12.14408 2008-08-21T18:55:31Z I came up with this idea a few months ago. Since my book, The Numerati, covers the tracking and targeting of people through their data, we could use the same approach--behavioral advertising--to target potential buyers of the book. I go... stephen_baker bakerblogspotting@gmail.com Numerati I came up with this idea a few months ago. Since my book, The Numerati, covers the tracking and targeting of people through their data, we could use the same approach--behavioral advertising--to target potential buyers of the book. I go in much more detail on my book blog.

As Jeff Jarvis notes, we're eating our own dogfood. One fellow twitterer this morning called it "creepy and invasive."

Well, we'll see if that's the case--and also if it works as well as advertised. I'll be blogging about the campaign day by day as we try to figure out which types of Web surfers appear to be interested in the book, and which types of ads they click. I'm planning to cover the bare bones on this blog, and go into far more detail on the other one. If you think it's creepy or scary, or if you have advice on how we should target readers, I'd love to hear your thoughts, either here or there.

]]>