Well… I told ya so in Google Entering In Game Advertising? …. almost two years ago the sale of AdScape to Google was announced (Google AdScape - Gooble buys AdScape for 24 Million) - and, that once Google bought AdScape, they’d eventually run AdWords and AdSense in our online games, the one’s our kids play and sometimes, the one’s we play.   Mashable has a post on it too, One More Place You’ll Find Google: Games

I don’t know that’s a bad thing - I mean, it was inevitable - but it also highlights that saturation of our attention - where can we go now where we’re not going to be “sold” to, or “advertised” at?  Church (ops, I don’t think they’re totally free of ads, either).  However, running Ads in Games has it’s own unique set of challenges that don’t have parallels in other forms of advertising media:

“… Casual games publishers can display video, image and text ads in their online offerings. They can also define placements “such as interstitial frames before a game, after a level change, or when a game is over,” according to the AdSense blog.

AdWords team members will help market in-game ad space to relevant advertisers — but publishers can use ad filters to yank ads they find inappropriate.

Getting the Ad to work with the Games they’re shown in, so as not to be totally a detractor, will be interesting - I can see how it can be done - but I’m wondering what a typical conversation of a Google Sales Rep selling these In Game Units are going to sound like.  Oh well, I’m sure we’ll hear that, soon enough.

Anyway - here’s what Google AdSense for Games looks like and here’s the writeup in MarketingVox about the launch of Google AdSense for Games.

And here’s a movie where the Ads appear, at :50 seconds in.

BTW, soon enough, you’ll see the reports on In Game Ads in Google Analytics, just like Radio and TV Ads are showing up, another prediction of mine from early 2007 - I was just about two years early.

Incidentally, it’s interesting that 3D Worlds wasn’t added, Code4Software’s  Ad-Soft offering is the closest thing to what Google is offering, but for Virtual Worlds.

Better to be early ….  than late, especially on predictions.

In I.B.M. Posts Strong Preliminary Results 4Q results are up 18% from a year ago, largely due to the a weaker dollar.

"…IBM said the weaker dollar helped to push revenue up 10 percent."

"…International Business Machines Corp. said revenue grew 10 percent from the year-ago period, with 6 points of that growth related to the weaker dollar."

At the heart of it, Global companies, like IBM, can hedge their bets by investing all over the world (some part of the world can be doing better than others, like our own part of the world, the United States, which is moving towards or in Recession).

"…The broad scope of IBM's global business — led by strong operational performance in Asia, Europe and emerging countries — drove these outstanding results,'' said Samuel J. Palmisano, IBM chairman, president and chief executive.

For fiscal 2007, IBM reported earnings rose 18 percent to $7.18 per share, including a 5-cent gain on the sale of its printing systems division in the second quarter, on sales of $98.8 billion, representing 8 percent growth year-over-year."

I suppose, it can be said Global companies don't have put all their eggs in any one basket, which is why they can prosper in situations like the one we're in now.  Notice, however, not one word about operations in this country; and  I have to wonder what the loyalty of a company that is so global - do they still layoff people here, because US operations aren't doing as well, or do they use that Global Profit (surplus) to bolster US Operations?

I suppose, the same argument can be made for the United States - the dollar is very weak, yet due to it's inherit weakness, more tourists (record number of tourists in New York - just read about it this morning), more foreigners investing in US Properties, helps to keep the service economy running. 

It's hard to say anything is fully good or bad, it all depends on where you sit. 

ECommerce's future lies in Virtual Worlds according to ICANN CEO Paul Twomey and as reported in TechCrunch today - Virtual Worlds Are The Future Of Global Commerce: ICANN CEO.

"..Twomey used The Sims Online as an example of the sort of interface all companies in the future will be using, in fields including retail, client services, B2B and advertising. Twomey cited the interface behind Google Earth as another example of a “game-like interface” that has been put to real world use. Twomey said that geolocation services would also play an important role in the virtual Internet, suggesting that the way we will interact within next generation virtual Internet services would have a strong geographical focus."

According to WikiPedia - "Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or eCommerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown dramatically since the wide introduction of the Internet. "

Meanwhile ECommerceTimes has a story on Virtual Worlds: An Economist's Sandbox where "..On July 25, the company controlling Second Life announced that it would no longer allow gambling. Economic activity was cut by nearly half as gambling halls shut down. That's a recipe for disaster in any economy, but the online world stayed on an even keel."  

Also, Marshall Brain at HowStuffWorks.com explains ECommerce in several simple steps but I'd like to see it updated to include Virtual Worlds ECommerce.  Right now the examples given are:

"..

heard about all of the companies that offer e-commerce because you have been bombarded by their TV and radio ads

read all of the news stories about the shift to e-commerce and the hype that has developed around e-commerce companies

seen the huge valuations that Web companies get in the stock market, even when they don't make a profit

purchased something on the Web, so you have direct personal experience with e-commerce ."

According to TechCrunch:

"..It’s interesting that the head of the body that controls the Internet believes that the world of tomorrow is virtual; Twomey didn’t suggest that it may happen, he stated that it would be as a fact. Virtual worlds such as Second Life may not be the exact model used in the future, but there is little doubt that if Twomey is correct they are certainly heading in the right direction."

There…take that!  All the critics saying they're not convinced about Virtual Worlds  - they don't get it - but the head of by organization that runs the Internet does.  

I just follow my own opinion, and you know what it is.

I wonder how much Fed Cuts Lending Rate: Dow Closes Up 233 Points impacts the rate of New Home Construction that is Plunging :

"…The bottom isn’t here. It’s not even in sight yet,” said Richard F. Moody, chief economist with Mission Residential, a real estate investment firm in Austin, Tex.

Builders and developers are scaling back as Americans are finding it more difficult and more expensive to obtain mortgages. And as credit standards tighten across the entire lending industry, mortgage companies are finding it difficult to raise cash and to sell their loan portfolios."

That's not good news for the architects that I know - you don't sell many plans if no one can borrow money to build anything.

"…New-home construction fell everywhere except in the Northeast, where it increased 6.1 percent at a seasonally adjusted annual rate, compared with last July. On an unadjusted basis, however, construction in the Northeast fell.

In the Midwest, the adjusted rate of construction dropped 17.5 percent. In the South, it fell 26.3 percent; in the West, 21.5 percent.

Economists worry about a ripple effect if the credit market gets tighter, cutting off loans for more individuals and corporations. Stricter borrowing conditions could cause home sales to fall even more, which could in turn depress prices further. And the effect of falling home prices could cut into consumer spending, which would harm economic growth."

I looked at the visit count using the top 5 house plans sites in Google (query = "house plans") and this is what it shows traffic in visits is mostly static:

But what's more telling is the Engagement Score is way, way down for all the sites which implies sales are way down and interest is …down:

According to Compete the Attention Score is the total time spent on a domain as a percentage of the total time spent online by all U.S. internet users.
See Full Description.   In other words, the average internet visitor to houseplans.com, architectualdesigns.com, globalhouseplans.com, thehousedesigners.com or coolhouseplans.com is about about 45% less interested in Architectual House Plans than they were a year ago.

Interestingly, the traffic to top Bankruptcy Sites (that resolved to domains) was overall sharply up:

And Attention of the Average Visitor is way up from a year ago:

All while People Visits to Forclosure sites went up sharply from last year:

Overall, about 30% more visitors (people) are going to the top 5 Foreclosure Sites this year than the same time last year.

But let's try one more thing… if interest in "house plans" is really lower due to the market conditions than interest in "home builders" ought to be way down…right?

Well, take a look a this - I took the top 5 home builders from Google that Compete had data on and look what I found:

The interest of the average visitor to home plan builder sites is roughly half of what it was a year ago!  What does that tell us?

The Housing Market is weak….very weak.  It's going to take a lot more than traffic and even well designed websites that are search optimized to sell house plans.

That's why I have tried to point my clients in the direction of Social Networks and increasing the value they offer to potential buyers; but, it may be too late in some cases.

Counting Ads on a website  (The lack of standards in the ad-serving arena has been particularly frustrating.) is one way Comscore will determine how influential a site is (yet Yahoo And Google and other web advertisers Count Ad Revenue Differently.) according to an article in the New York Times titled ComScore Counts Ads and Plans to Count TV Viewers:

"…including this one, to be known as Ad-Metrics.

The new service will allow advertisers to compare sites and understand how much each site is bombarding viewers with ads. It will at first include only ad impressions per page as a metric, but comScore is also developing an ad-views-per-minute measure.

From a technological standpoint, Mr. Abraham said it was difficult to detect ads on Web sites. “There are a lot of display elements on the page - how do you know that’s an ad?” he said. ComScore developed a way to count them up by combining elements of the ads’ colors, requests from Web sites for ads and the links inside ads.

Ad executives said the new comScore data will be welcomed. "

So… let me get this straight … Comscore is going to figure out how much a site is bombarding me with ads per minute and decide, based largely on that metric, how influential the site is based, partly, on that.  Ok, that works if your an advertiser - you may want to know something along those lines when you buy advertising on a site or set of websites - but for anyone else, I don't think you'd want to measure influence by how many ads you can be bombarded with per minute (on average).

"….Perhaps most intriguing, he said comScore is planning a new service that will measure television viewership, putting it in competition with Nielsen’s lifeblood.

If that happens, the competition will become far more interesting than a debate about how to measure audience engagement. "

Competition might be good here - I have no love lost on Nielsen and competition may force them to re-examine and improve how they measure television viewership.

Well….it's been said by the New York Times as Online Sales Lose Steam as Buyers Grow Web-Weary that "Online stores have continued to give shoppers a blasé experience"… which is partly why online retail sales are not growing as fast this year and ongoing as they have been.

"…Growth in online sales has also dropped dramatically in diverse categories like health and beauty products, computer peripherals and pet supplies. Analysts say it is a turning point and growth will continue to slow through the decade."

"…slowing down in numerous other segments as well, including appliances, sporting goods, auto parts, computer peripherals, and even music and videos. Forrester says that sales growth is pulling back in 18 of the 24 categories it measures."

Part of it, perhaps unforeseen, was physical, brink and mortar stores getting better.

"…retailers have livened up their stores to be more alluring.

They’re working a lot harder,” he said as he shopped at Book Passage in downtown San Francisco. “They’re not as stuffy. The lighting is better. You don’t get someone behind the counter who’s been there 40 years. They’re younger and hipper and much more with it.”

And a lot more of the reasons are traced back to lousy website experiences (earlier today I mentioned that Marketing and Branding are much more important than SEO, for example, as a generator of online sales).

"…Nancy F. Koehn, a professor at Harvard Business School who studies retailing and consumer habits, said that the leveling off of e-commerce reflected the practical and psychological limitations of shopping online."

"….online stores have continued to give shoppers a blasé experience. In addition, online shopping, because it involves a computer, feels like work."

The hybrid strategy of allowing consumers to research online and then buy in the store is something that I'm doing myself.  I researched almost everything I buy at Best Buy, Circuit City or CompUSA ahead of time on the web, and I'm not alone….and I like going over to the store in NYC and picking up what I bought …I'd much rather do that than order it (because I live in NYC …. if I lived somewhere else, maybe it would be different).

"…The bookseller Borders, for example, recently revamped its Web site to allow users to reserve books online and pick them up in the store. Similar services were started by companies like Best Buy and Sears. Other retailers are working to follow suit.

“You don’t realize how powerful of a phenomenon this new strategy has become,” Mr. Whaley said. “Nearly every big box retailer is opening it up.”

I think it all boils down to people moving past just going to a website - the online audience has evolved, become more sophisticated, if you will, and just having a website, even a well built one, is not enough.  The Game has changed, and people want a "frictionless" experience, which they are more likely to get, believe it or not, in a brick and mortar store, than on a website. People want re-assurance and some emotional context to happen before the hand over their cash…and that makes sense to me, because I want that too.  If the site can't give it (and it often doesn't) then I'd much rather deal with someone in person. 

With Web Analytics, I think it's becoming more important now to qualify the part Web Experience plays in driving people to the physical store (because in the majority of cases…that's where they're going when they buy … that want to talk to someone, see that person).  

If you want more sales online, you have to follow what the Eisenbergs are saying and lower the friction visitors feel on a site when they're interested in what your selling or offering (even if it's information or a free service) …and right now, it's hard to find good metrics for that, or how to measure the online experience - it's probably more likely to be Survey Data than anything else that you'd get that information.