That’s going to be interesting … I mean …. this …. Google Is Taking Questions (Spoken, via iPhone); whatever you want to say about Google … they keep innovating Search - they just pushing the boundaries.  The other day they released data showing how Google Uses Searches to Track Flu’s Spread and just yesterday Google Exploring Old Rome Without Air (or Time) Travel.

I haven’t seen the iPhone application yet, it’s going to be available today.   It’s hard to say how much I’ll use it - but the fact they pulled something like Google Is Taking Questions on the iPhone is fantastic - beyond the scope of what anyone else could do.   Even the Google Earth for iPhone application is a stunning interface.   From The New York Times:

Users of the free application, which Apple is expected to make available as soon as Friday through its iTunes store, can place the phone to their ear and ask virtually any question, like “Where’s the nearest Starbucks?” or “How tall is Mount Everest?” The sound is converted to a digital file and sent to Google’s servers, which try to determine the words spoken and pass them along to the Google search engine.

The search results, which may be displayed in just seconds on a fast wireless network, will at times include local information, taking advantage of iPhone features that let it determine its location.

The ability to recognize just about any phrase from any person has long been the supreme goal of artificial intelligence researchers looking for ways to make man-machine interactions more natural. Systems that can do this have recently started making their way into commercial products.

And there’s been other innovations that I haven’t checked out yet, not so much from Google, but what Microsoft is doing where Microsoft Beats Yahoo and Google to Social Inbox 2.0

Thursday, Microsoft announced a complex new version of the Web sites and PC software that use the Windows Live brand. Over the next two months, the company will introduce dozens of upgraded features involving its e-mail, instant message, calendar, blogging and other services. It will also add some entirely new functions, including group collaboration and photo sharing.

A lot of the effort has gone into weaving the functions of social networks throughout many of these services. For example, the service has a “what’s new” feed, modeled after the Facebook news feed, that can publish short comments by users as well as links to when they take certain actions, like publish new photos. The feed will be displayed on the instant message client and on new profile pages for users. And after you send an e-mail to people who use the new feed, you will see their most recent updates.

Microsoft is also reaching out to draw in information from other sites.

I guess, what I’m saying is that Search is getting interesting again - no so much for the act of searching - but how one can search and also receive information - a lot of innovation happening - it’s almost like that innovation is coming in waves.

I see Facebook as the AIG of Web 2.0 - too big to fail - yet Facebook is running out of money, just like AIG did and Marketing Piligrim asks is Facebook Headed for Financial Ruin? According to TechCrunch:

“… Facebook’s growth, thanks to all these user-created translated versions of the site, has probably exceeded even their own internal projections. And running this engine isn’t cheap.

The company is likely spending well over a $1 million per month on electricity alone, say experts we’ve spoken with. Bandwidth is likely another $500,000 or more per month on top of that. The company has earmarked $100 million to buy 50,000 servers this year and next. And sources say they’ve been buying one NetApp 3070 storage system per week just to keep up with all this user generated content. At up to $2 million each, that adds up quickly - we’ve heard estimates that they may have spent as much as $30 million this year alone with the company. And the icing on the cake - earmark another $15 million per year in office and datacenter rent payments.

And don’t forget those human assets. With 750 employees and growing, Facebook is spending at least another $10 million per month on payroll.

It costs a couple of hundred million dollars a year just to keep the lights on at Facebook. But the real problem is keeping up with growth, particularly storage needs. Add another $100 million or more per year for capital expenditures, and you’ve got a company that’s doing exactly the opposite of printing money.”

But that’s my point - Facebook is too much a part of what is happening today to be left to fail - so I’m not worried about Facebook falling on it’s face - I’m more worried about the rest of the world falling into a financial depression, and what that is going to look like and be like, to live though.

I do think Facebook will need to become more profitable, though - and that means developing stuff people will buy more of - and at that, in an environment when people are spending less and less.

I had not planned on writing this post had it not been conceived while taking a walk in Prospect Park this morning with my friend and business partner in Blogspeedway.com, Sebastian, who writes www.Webanalyticsbook.com (He will be speaking at Emetrics DC next week in a panel titled Mobile Analytics is Calling You - Sebastian Wenzel).

Yesterday, Jeff Jarvis wrote a post on Google’s Third Quarter Results that were, again, as always, beyond Wall Street’s Expectations - defying all odds, and confirming that Google is a company that appears to defy normal physics (see my Google Recession post- when everyone else is suffering - they glide into a 3rd Quater Profit - but how? According to SeekingAlpha:

Market reaction: Wall Street was pleasantly surprised by the earnings release, rewarding the shares with almost a 12% markup in after hours trading. The shares saw nearly a $100 swing from their lows to their highs providing a nice selling opportunity for prudent traders. I think if you dig deeper into the report, you may detect some fool’s gold from within.

And now, according to Jeff Jarvis in a post on The Google economy, indeed

Google does indeed have its own economy. It’s latest results:

The Web search leader reported third-quarter earnings that far exceeded the expectations of analysts, especially those who thought the company might finally fall victim to the slumping economy. Thanks largely to having contained costs better than in previous quarters, Google reported on Oct. 16 that profit rose 26%, to $1.35 billion, significantly higher than analysts had predicted. Sales jumped 31%, to $5.54 billion.

The analysts are stumped because they are not judging Google as a new kind of company in a new kind of economy. It’s different.

Indeed - strange - until Sebastian woke me up to something about Google that no one talks about.

Ha, ha, ha, Google has “rigged” their system so it always pays out profitable …

Google is the will, the way and the word, Google controls almost 75% of Search in the United States according to a post in Web Analytics World Google Up 12 Percent Year Over Year and 80% of all the Paid Search Advertising Share according to the Rimm-Kaufman Group - look at this chart from Alan Rimm Kaufman’s blog:

Well, want to know the secret of why Google is profitable and always will be, even when the rest of the economy crashes?

Simple, with AdSence and AdWords - Publishers don’t know the actual money that Google is making on each ad .. no one does - except Google.

If Google were a European company, it would have been much more regulated, Europeans would not have allowed Google to create such a financial system.

And as we sit here and think about the implications - look what happened on Wall Street - all the “sub-prime” mortgages, and “credit swaps”. from Lehman Brothers amounted to almost $607 Billion dollars - I think that’s why the FED didn’t bail them out - they had simply too much unregulated Debt (I’m trying to find the article in the New York Times where I read about the over 600 Billion that Lehman lost .. and could not find it, but I’m sure I read it today)

All Google needs to do at any point, is manipulate the dials to pay out to publishers more or less, as they need to, to make whatever Quarterly Goal they want.

In other words, Google has total control over it’s own Economy - Google is it’s own Economy - and it can alter the payout on advertising to publishers in any way it feels like - without anyone ever knowing how much they actually made, and it can alter its PPC Ads to be easier or harder to click on, as it wants - all which end up controlling how much money it makes and how much money it reports.

Google is the ultimate “rigged” system - as much as I love wearing Google T-Shirts and Swag - as great as their products are - their 3Q08 results each quarter are as “unnatural” as George W. Bush’s winning the Presidential Elections of 2000 and 2004 - especially 2004 (Neocons are trying to do it again in 2008, but having a much harder time of it).

In fact, Google can almost, almost make as much money as it wants to make…. as long as people use Google to publish PPC Ads of any variety, and people click on them ….. Google will be profitable. How profitable?

As profitable as their CFO decides they need to be in any quarter. That’s Google’s Secret - they are their own Internet Economy. Microsoft and Yahoo simply can’t compete, they don’t have enough of a market share in Search to drive any real policies.

So the question may come up ….. should Google be regulated? And the answer is ….. Yes. Their quarterly results are …. well … whatever they want them to be …, and that’s unnatural.

But think of it this way - while Google is not a monopoly in name, it might as well be …. because they can set prices with no regulation - no one sees what Google really makes vs what they pay out.

But … I bet, with some sluthwork, large publishers could determine sublte changes in payouts earch month - I’m sure Google doesn’t make it easy but it seems like there’s enough data in publisher’s hands where they could notice the average payout per click in a specific position might vary slighly - and all Google needs is to make very subtle alterations to what they pay publishers OR how they position their ads, and presto … all the money the need.

The CFO of Google might as well have a dart board in his office and just sit there with and throw darts on the numbers they want to make and then just manipulate the dials of Google to pay out whatever they want.

Yep, Google must regulated at some point soon - they’re too powerful, too dangerous to be allowed to continue to operate this way, much longer - because they’re acting much as Government would, as a Federal Reserve would - except, they’re not accountable to anyone but their stakeholders - and that’s not right, especially as they’re a de-facto monopoly in search, both Paid and Organic, and that’s not right.

However, to be fair, SeekingAlpha has a more probing look at Google’s 3Q Results and sees signs of weakness - results that Google is probably trying to spin it’s own way - Google: 3Q Results Reveal Chinks in the Armor

“….On the surface, Google (GOOG) appeared to soundly beat analyst expectations of $4.76, by reporting diluted earnings per share of $4.92, on a top line of $ 4.04 billion (see conference call transcript). GOOG’s revenues were $20 million short of analyst expectations of $4.06 billion. This was the first time in GOOG’s trading history that they actually missed revenue estimates, and their sales gain amounted to a mere 4% sequential rise against second quarter results. The company’s growth rate is indeed in a declining phase, as the law of larger numbers, a dismal economy and a stronger US dollar are factors beginning to take their toll.

But not that much of a toll - in fact, I bet Google could have easily “erased” that $20 million decline by just “turning the dial” up a little.

Yes, it’s a rigged system - the problem is there’s no real competition to Google - nothing to keep them in line - they can, essentially, do whatever they want, and their profit will be, well … whatever they want or need it to be.

TechCrunch has a post on State of The Blogosphere: The More You Post, The Higher You Rank that stubles upon a truth I found out, by accident, a few years ago.  What I started posting to Webmetricsguru.com, I usually did 4 or 5 posts a day - and it’s really hard to do that many posts on Web Analytics.

I don’t think anyone posted as much as I did, but my subject matter often strayed into adjancent areas, along with some posts that didn’t relate at all - but I felt, belonged anyway.

And now, according to 2008 State of the Blogosphere along with Erick Schonfeld’s analysis - it’s revealed that bloggers who post more, rank higher.

“…Blogging is a volume game. The more you post, the more chances there are that someone else will link to one of your posts. (Technorati rank is based on the number of recent links to your blog). The majority of the Top 100 blogs tracked by Technorati post five or more times per day, and a full 43 percent post more than 10 times per day. Meanwhile, 64 percent of the 5,000 blogs ranked lower than 600 post two to four times a day, which is still a serious commitment.”

At the Disintermedia panel this morning with Joe Mandese, Nigel Morris, Edward Montes.  Here’s the session marketing notes:

PANEL: Disintermedia Westside Ballroom - North

In an era of 2.0 this and 2.0 that, the original zen masters of positioning are in the throes of repositioning themselves. Digital media units are usurping their big brothers, and Madison Avenue outsiders like Google, Spot Runner and, yes, even the consumer, are disintermediating the role of traditional agencies. Truth is, Madison Avenue has always been more than the sum of six big agency holding companies, but even the notion of that cozy club is being challenged when you consider that Microsoft, a software and technology company, is now the parent of Avenue A, while WPP, an agency holding company, owns 24/7 Real Media. Is Big Advertising being replaced by an army of smaller, nimbler, more flexible marketing services shops? Will we end up with a smaller advertising industry thanks to improvements in the science of marketing?

MODERATOR:
Joe Mandese, Editor-in-Chief, MediaPost Publications

SPEAKERS:
Nigel Morris, Worldwide CEO, Isobar
Sean Finnegan, Chief Digital Officer, Starcom MediaVest
Trevor Kaufman, CEO, Schematic
Edward Montes, EVP, Managing Director North America, Media Contacts
Matt Freeman, CEO, Go Fish

The main thing I got out of this panel is the perception Google (is / is not) a threat to Madison Avenue.

To be honest, and I am not an expert here, that the panel is in denial about Google, beginning to disintermediate Madison Avenue with it’s nimbler marketing services.

It seems to me, under the circumstances, a representative from Google ought to have been on this panel, as well.

Freenimum, as a term, is also coming up, a lot,in this discussion. Reason? In the new rules of media disintermedia, you need to give stuff away.

And what happened to Yahoo? Is Yahoo now totally unimportant in this discussion now?

Yes, more or less, they have been paralyzed over the last 9 months with everything we have been reading about, but there are new signs of life (semantic search) and they should not be totally counted out.

It is challanging for agencies to be set up to fully meet the all needs of their clients, and can’t even afford to take on very small clients.

Also, agencies are beginning to be asked to take an advisory role of harvesting clients data and provide insight.

In other words, agencies are beginning to take over some of the roles of an in house site analytics / marketing analytics group.

Ha! I knew I’d get something out of this otherwise, boring panel.

There’s so many good things to write about today, but by the time I get a moment to sit down and think, it no longer seems as important or interesting - like the story about Google’s Figured Out Better Ways to Know About You in Johnon.com

Apparently Google has proven internally that it doesn’t need that raw log (IP) data as much as it used to think, because it has figured out good enough use-based data reduction techniques, and redefined the term anonymized along the way.

This issue of privacy of data that Google holds on all of us (who use Search in some form) becomes almost non-relevant when they improved the way data is stored, but many are suspicious; like Johnon.

Nothing amazing in this announcement, just not a simple “wow they gave in and granted us more privacy” like some are suggesting.

If you’re about to comment that I’m a conspiracy theorist, or trying desperately to make another Google good deed look evil, please have a cigarette or take a walk or something. This blog is not for you.

Andy Beal brings up another point in a post about  Google, Google Everywhere – Even In The Air?

Now it is getting involved, albeit indirectly through investment, in getting internet connectivity to the under developed areas of the world. The company that is behind the latest effort to help make the internet truly global is 03b Networks which was founded and is run by Greg Wyler who is described in today’s WSJ as a 38 year old telecommunications entrepreneur. The ultimate goal of the company is to put as many as 16 satellites in the sky that would work to provide internet service to Africa, the Middle East and parts of Latin America by the end of 2010.

I have to go back and ask, if we are using all the free products that Google offers, which truly  make life easier for us, and hide the cost of procurement (if we could buy them anywhere), is it worth the hidden cost?

Ok, maybe Live is getting better just as the issue of Google Competitors is a mute point - but have seen the new Mircosoft Live Search page yet?  I love looking at this picture - I think it might change every day, not sure since this is the first time I looked at Microsoft Live Search page in a while:

Even as Google has won the Search Wars (ha, ha, I’m reminded of one of my earlier paintings featured in a post titled  The Search Engine Wars”

Right now, MSN is hardly in the picture and Yahoo is the “Y” in the upper left of my painting - I created this picture tonight because I wanted to paint about my life and world I live in - the world of information where the big players are the search engines.

This has been my first SES in San Jose and my first GooglePlex Party, but the GoogleDance Party at the GooglePlex is one of the main attractions and reasons for going to San Jose Search Engine Strategies, in the first place.

Naturally, I got plenty of t-shirts, 3 to be exact - the GoogleDance 2008 black t-shirts had a mosaic or crossword puzzle on them, but Brett Crosby says what is really on that shirt is ………….. a face, but you need to look view the shirt in black light to see it.

I also got a GetFlipped image of me taken at one of the exhibits - it’s from www.getflippedsanfrancisco.com and I liked it - though someone said it’s just a glorified baggage tag - though the one you’d always wanted to put on your bag (like a photo id that changes as you look at it).

It was nice to see Sebastian Wenzel, my partner in the BlogSpeedway.com Blog Network and his friend stop by - and it was great hanging at with Rick Wehrle who was my boss at Monster.com, till recently.

I got on the SearchEngineWatch bus by mistake - but it was OK - packed it was - and the party at the GooglePlex was pretty cool - lots of food and drink and entertainment.

One thing I noticed was the branding message of Google is really aligned with the way their campus, the Googleplex, is structured. Google has figured out what it’s good at, and has really built a branding message that is consistant - down to the details, at the GooglePlex.

I’m wondering if Microsoft and Yahoo are as good at merging the branding message with the actual layout of their campuses as Google has been.

By the way, I’m having lunch with Avinash Kaushik at the GooglePlex on Thursday (tomorrow).

More about that meeting, later on - after it’s happened.

Well, you name it, but I’ll take some work, digging, if you will, and you won’t find many sites, but the ones you do find might be really relevant and helpful, especially in terms of Social media, Engagement, etc.

I have a client who runs a OCD site (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and while I had used Radian6 and SEOElite to come up with a list of sites, overall, SeoElite’s list was not geo-targeted, was based on Google, and wasn’t too useful for advertising.

Radian6’s result on a profile for “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder + OCD” and a few related keywords, came up with a lot of forums and sites that didn’t seem obviously connected, yet had some relevancy at some point during the last month (topics, comments, unique IP addresses, etc).

However, I found this technique while trying to answer a question I posed to myself - as I had seen one of the urls Radian6 pulled up was a search of YouTube for “Obsessive  Compulsive Disorder + OCD“.

So, I started looking at the videos and focused on those viewed between 10,000-80,000 times (it’s a niche subject, after all) and got the top 5 links for each (YouTube publishes this info for each video) and was able to find a few more sites that were highly relevant.

Here’s the thing - depending on the subject, you’ll have to spend a few hours on this - but you might uncover some blogs and communities where that are very targeted, very relevant to what your trying to get attention for - and I think, that, may ultimately yield the best results - since the needs to be a human being to interpret what your looking at.

Just go ahead and try it - if your into this kind of thing.   And, btw, I did look at Google Insigtht, but it wasn’t all that helpful for this kind of thing because it didn’t identify sites, just other keywords.

In the end, I could always fall back on ComScore Media Metrix, and get top sites for a country/segment, etc - but the problem is here, again, what’s the demographic/age/sex of the target audience, what is the target income?

Unless you know that - it’s hard to get the best results - usually people don’t rattle off that information - though you’d think, they’d know it (esp a clinic, for example - they know the breakdown of their patients who come in - and if you step back to think about it - it’s a great place to start with ad targeting, based on what you can already pull in from “house” files.

So… just looking, just letting your curiosity lead you - is the best way - and yes, I still have technique and analysis to back me up.

BTW, I’ll be in California most of next week at Semphonic XChange and Search Engine Strategies - home to see some of you there - my twitter handle is …. webmetricsguru in case anyone is into Twitter.

The last day has been intense - getting redirect issues (hopefully most of those are solved) with posts and categories was a learning experience and I hired Lara Leavitt, who used to work for Know More Media, to help us with the transition issues.

I’m sure Sebastian Wenzel and I could have eventually solved these problems but neither her or I have the bandwidth to do so, right now. I also hired a Web Designer to create a new template for this blog, Krissy S, and I’m very optimistic that she’ll come up with a really unique, different looking design for this blog - something that combines my love for Art with Web Analytics - I hope to have that in place before traveling to California next week, but I don’t actually know how long it will take. I have been delegating more responsibilities to others- I’ve had to, I’m getting too busy and I don’t have the actual skill set needed to fix many of the problems I came across (though I’m sure I could pick the knowledge up, if I were so inclined). Among other things today, I had an pelimanary meeting with some of my committee members to discuss a new proposal for how the Web Analytics Association may operate with Social Media in the future.

I also attended the local Web Analytics Wednesday at BARNA tonight and ran into Dennis Mortensen, who now works at Yahoo! and who sold IndexTools to Yahoo! (which is now called Yahoo! Analytics). And on another piece of news - I’ll be attending Virtual Worlds 2008 in Los Angeles on September 3rd and 4th working with Code4Software.com to present new Virtual World Metrics. And then, a Web Analytics Association Board of Directors Retreat near Boston on September 5th - 7th… will be interesting - esp since we have a new Board Member, but the name of that member hasn’t been announced yet. More later.