Yahoo! Search Marketing Launches Sponsored Results

Advertising, Internet, Search, Websites

Yahoo! have been in the search engine and search marketing game for a long time. Recently, Yahoo! Search Marketing increased their offering to match those of Google by allowing sponsored search results.

Using Yahoo! Search Marketing, you’re now able to have your advertisements listed along side the normal Yahoo! search results. In a similar fashion to that of Google, you have two general positions where your advertisements can be placed:

  • Directly above to search results in a wide banner style
  • On the right hand side of the search results, stacked in a tall skyscraper shape

Yahoo! have also included one more advertising position:

  • Directly below the search results in a wide banner style

Its interesting that Yahoo! have included the advertising space below the main results. Typically, the lower section of a web site is under developed. There is significant amounts of research which describes the benefits you can receive by optimising the lower section of your web site. If the price of that advertising space is right, I think it might turn out to be a fantastic value proposition for advertisers.

Without signing up for Yahoo! Search Marketing, it seems reasonable that you’ll be paying more for the advertising space directly above the search results; as they are more visually prominent and look similar to natural search listings. Second will probably be the sponsored search results on the right and the cheapest will probably be the advertising at the bottom.

There are a couple of things I don’t like about Yahoo! search results:

  • There sponsored advertising isn’t always clearly marked. As an example, the right hand side advertising is quite clearly marked, however the above and below is not.
  • Yahoo! seem to always present a lot of other stuff in search results. For example, you are likely to see alternative search suggestions, the top advertising block, some Yahoo! shortcut links and finally the actual natural search results.
  • As a derivative of point #2, the search results page feels cluttered and busy

To the defense of Yahoo!, they do place little icons beside each block in an attempt to separate them. For a savvy internet user, they will probably notice and associate the icons and realise there is something different about those results. Unfortunately, I expect that an average user probably won’t; at which point they are clicking on advertising without knowing it.

Mezzoblue Redesigned

Websites

After two and a half years, Dave Shea has redesigned Mezzoblue and launched his site back into the lime light.

A few quick points of interest of the redesign:

  • Its sporting a 1024px based design, up from the more traditional 800px design
  • The familiar blue colour of Mezzoblue is gone
  • Posts are organised into collections, where a collection is just a bunch of posts revolving around some arbitrary period of time.
  • The designs colours are adaptive and change based on a photo which represents the time period. As an example, Dave has assigned a photo of the Madrid Airport to the time period between 1 July and 30 September. All posts during that time period will carry that photo as their imagery and the theme of the site will reflect the colours within the photo.

I really like the new design, its good to see that Dave has changed it up. The familiar blue which has adorned Mezzoblue for so long was nice but it was about time to move onto something a little different to freshen it up. The navigation around the site is simple and the typeface is easy to read. I would personally prefer a slightly larger sized font but the size that it currently uses certainly achieves a particular look and feel.

Google, Yahoo! & Microsoft Collaborate For The Greater Good

Internet, Search, Websites

Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft have collaborated for the greater good and are all going to support a standardised XML sitemap protocol.

Google was the first to implement the XML sitemaps in June 2005 as a beta product. After a few months of public testing, the beta tag was removed and the service was ready for general consumption. Since that time, Google Sitemaps gained a significant amount of momentum.

Its wonderful to see that Yahoo! and Microsoft didn’t implement another format specific to their own search engines and have collaborated with Google. With the standardised XML format, its now possible for content publishers to feed Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft search engines off the same physical file. That point alone is a huge bonus for the publishing community though I think even more significant is that the standardised format will have the same semantic meaning to all search engines as well.

Wordie: Like Flickr But Without The Photos

Websites

Stumbled onto a new social networking site, this one is named Wordie. The Wordie site touts it as being like Flickr but without the photos. That might seem like a strange concept, since Flickr is all about the photos; however once you realise that Wordie is all about the words and language, it makes a whole lot more sense.

After creating an account on Wordie, you can start adding words into your profile. You might add in words that you like, dislike or new words you heard used that day at work. Once you’ve added the words into your profile, you can see how many other people consider those words significant enough to have them linked into their profile. Of course, being a social networking site – you have the ability to browse the sites content by various mechanisms such as user, most popular word and so on.

What I think might be a pretty sweet idea for the site going forward it to offer it in a multilingual version. That way you could end up with a huge mass of words on the site, where you could theoretically allow the users of the site to link various word together that are the same or similar in different languages.

The idea behind Wordie is different, quirky, strange, useless and cool all at the same time. I don’t think I’ll be using it for anything but as the author said, it was just a strange idea that popped into his head that he decided to whip up for some fun!

John Butler Trio, Funky Tonight

General, Music, Photos

John Butler Trio: Live At The Empire Theatre 3rd December 2006The John Butler Trio are currently on their Funky Tonight Tour throughout Australia from the 19th November until the 10th December.

On Sunday, the Empire Theatre in Toowoomba had the privilege of hosting the John Butler Trio once more. The allure of the John Butler Trio’s blues and roots music was in effect as nearly all of the 2400 seats were in use for the concert. The Empire is a grand old theatre, originally opened in 1911 and used primarily to show silent movies. Unfortunately, the theatre was destroyed by fire in 1933. For many years the Empire Theatre remained unused until it was refurbished and reopened in 1993 where it established itself as the premiere theatre for performing arts in the Darling Downs region.

I have now had the pleasure of listening to the John Butler Trio perform three times in person:

  • December 3rd 2006, Funky Tonight Tour
  • December 11th 2005, Homeward Bound Tour
  • May 25th 2004, Sunrise Over Sea Tour

John Butler Trio: The Start Of The Concert, Live At The Empire Theatre 3rd December 2006The first encounter with John Butler in 2004 was the most amazing live concert experience I had ever been involved with. The exceptional guitar skills of John and the beautiful timbre the band creates, solidified me as a John Butler Trio fan in the same concert. The outdoor concert held at the Brisbane Riverstage in 2005 was a spectacle to behold with thousands of fans soaking up the wonderful music and great atmosphere. After having such an excellent experience at the Empire Theatre in Toowoomba two years earlier, I was eager to hear the John Butler Trio perform there again and they didn’t disappoint. Its the true sign of a quality band when they deliver consistently high standard performances live; not all bands can do it – but the John Butler Trio certainly can.

Below are some (rather ordinary) photos snapped throughout the concert on a little Canon Ixus 400:

I tell everyone about the John Butler Trio that cares to listen as I believe them to be one of the most unique bands that have come out of Australia. The guitar skills of John Butler will surpass everyone’s expectations, setting a new watermark for all other guitarists to strive for. With his unique style, you’ll walk away from the concert wondering how he manages to create the sounds, rhythms and where required incredible speed with his guitar. The John Butler Trio percussionist, Michael Barker, also brings a raft of wonderful sounds to the band. Due to the pace that a lot of the John Butler Trio music is played at, Michael would have to be the hardest working man on the stage; regularly wiping himself down after a song with a towel. In some of the fast songs, I don’t know how he keeps up; keeping different beats on either leg and his arms are going in every direction at once. Shannon Birchall on the bass is also great, the deep mellow sounds of the bass really add a special element to their music and when he busts out the solos, the audience really appreciates what they are hearing.

If you ever get the opportunity to get tickets to see the John Butler Trio, you really must treat yourself. The band really do deliver masterful performances which you’ll be sure to remember.