What does Google Chrome offer developers?

My first reaction to Google’s introduction of a beta version of its Chrome browser was: Do we really need another browser? So I decided to take Chrome for a test drive.

First impressions of Chrome

Google touts Chrome as an open source browser project, which means its main competitor seems to be Firefox and not Internet Explorer. The browser rendering engine was developed with the help of WebKit. Chrome is up and running after a painless download and install.

The first thing I noticed is the minimalist interface and its quick loading. The interface uses tabs (which most every browser does these days), but the tabs are located at the top of the window above the address bar. There is no bulky menu bar at the top and no status bar at the bottom, so it took a while to get accustomed to it. (This TechRepublic screenshot gallery offers a first look at Chrome.)

The following list outlines other Chrome features:

• As there should be, there is a big emphasis on security in Chrome. This new browser maintains phishing and malware lists and warns users when they attempt to visit known harmful sites.
• Google created a separate team to optimize the JavaScript engine used in Chrome. The result is the V8 JavaScript engine, which does show some improvements over its counterparts. (The various caveats of JavaScript performance are beyond this article, but there is a good discussion available online.)
• Each tab within the browser runs in its own process — a sort of sandbox within the browser. However, browser plug-ins are not covered in this security model. One interesting aspect of Chrome is its ActiveX support. I read many articles touting its lack of support for ActiveX, but it there is an ActiveX plug-in available.
• An interesting feature is the ability to browse in so-called incognito mode, which means the browser maintains no history or cookies of sites visited in this mode.
• Gears is a standard component. This is more a feature for developers, as it provides a platform for creating Web applications that can run offline.

Given the beta status of Chrome, it is no surprise to find a few bugs. The browser crashed quite a few times while browsing various sites. Maybe Google is taking a page from Microsoft in releasing software to the general public before it is ready.

What Chrome offers to developers

With Internet Explorer and Firefox capturing most users these days, why should a Web developer concern themselves with a new offering? First, given Google’s footprint on the Web, it is hard to ignore anything new from the company. Of course, Google Apps is supposed to take market share from Microsoft Office but that remains to be seen. Other offerings like Google Talk have failed to dominate its space, so the Google name doesn’t guarantee anything.

I like to use Firefox since it offers so many development tool plug-ins, but I still have to make sure my applications perform properly in Internet Explorer. From a developer viewpoint, Chrome provides a few tools for working with Web pages. The list includes Gears, as well as the following:

• Web Inspector: This allows you to take a closer look at any element on the currently open page. It is available by right-clicking on an element. It allows you to browse page elements and view object properties and style. This is a feature from the WebKit base.
• JavaScript console: This allows you to enter command-line JavaScript code that can access page elements. It opens within the Web Inspector window — located in the bottom portion.
• JavaScript debugger: A rudimentary command line JavaScript debugger. There is nothing intuitive about using this feature. (I did find a good tutorial online.)
• Task Manager: This allows you to view the current processes running within Chrome; it is analogous to the Task Manager available in Windows. It shows the system resources by a process. This includes memory, network, and CPU usage. A button is provided to end a process along with link to a report that breaks down memory usage for individual processes.

All in all, this is a less than impressive list of tools for the Web developer. It remains to be seen whether more tools will become available to rival what is available with Firefox or Internet Explorer 8. At this time, I will stick with Firefox while keeping an eye on Chrome.

Don’t ditch your current browser just yet

For developers, the current beta version of Chrome provides no reason to switch from Firefox or even the latest Internet Explorer version. As for everyday end users, they will stick with whatever comes with their machine (Internet Explorer) with no reason to switch. Maybe Chrome can carve out a small slice of the browser market.

But what if Google makes it necessary? The company has an overwhelming Web presence, so it would be easy to serve up pages that provide Chrome-specific features. This sounds far-fetched, but it is something to consider.

Have you used the current version of Chrome? If so, what are your impressions of Chrome? Share your thoughts in the Web Developer forum.

Additional TechRepublic resources about Chrome

• Google’s Chrome Web browser: Why IT should care
• The five best new browser features in Google Chrome
• Chrome has a convert, caveats notwithstanding
• The trouble with test versions
• Firefox Plays Chrome Catch-up. Or does it?

If Google was Iran

 Some days you think that Google is taking the piss on such as large scale that its primary goal is an entry for humor in the Guiness Book of Records. Then other days, the scope and might of Google is scary.

The latest Google everywhere news is plans to establish a Google Navy, floating data centers sitting offshore, harnessing wave power as they menace US cities. Earlier this month, it was Google in space with a Google labeled rocket (I’m not making this up) and exclusive commercial rights to all pictures from the latest GeoEye satellite. There’s talk that Google may acquire GeoEye, so Google would have the ability to make its own space hardware. Google already has an exclusive agreement with Digital Globe, GeoEye’s main competitor, so Google has high grade US commercial satellite imagery services nearly entirely to itself. Google is a partner in a move to bring Internet access to remote places from space, and has been named a partner on a number of undersea cable projects.

Google on your mobile phone isn’t just an Android handset or Apple distribution deal away either. Google is considering teaming up with Space Data to create a barrage of hot air balloons that will offer cell phone access and data from 20 miles up. A Google airforce.

Where do we start on the desktop? Google Chrome delivers a great browsing experience and is taking market share from established competitors. A near monopoly in search and search advertising sees the World Association of Newspapers among others calling for a stop to the Google/ Yahoo deal. The rest doesn’t need repeating, because chances are nearly every person reading this post would have used Google products or services this week, today, or even in the last hour.

Google is everywhere. Google knows everything. The humor of a Google Navy, Google Airforce, and Google in Space aside, what if Google decided to be evil?

Imagine if Google was Iran. Lets see: access to intercontinental ballistic missiles (aka rockets) and technology to develop space weapons: check. Considering putting ships off major American cities: check. Considering a constant presence in the sky above the United States: check. Ability to disrupt world communications and destroy stock markets: check (see what happened with United Airlines for a quick taste of what’s possible). Brilliant use of propaganda: check. Wouldn’t we be scared?

Anti-trust issues will be the main focus on Google in the coming years as Google’s dominance crawls to 100%, but the other things are worthy of watching as well. There has never been another company like Google in the history of mankind, and its ambition knows no bounds. One day we may just well wake up to find Google running the world, although some may argue now that they already do 

Google Nominated for 2008 Best Software Award

CompanionLink for Google Nominated for 2008 Best Software Award by Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine

CompanionLink for Google Allows Two-Way Synchronization Between Google and Productivity Software Like Microsoft Outlook, Palm Desktop and Handheld Devices

PORTLAND, OR, Sep 16, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- CompanionLink for Google, a software package developed by leading mobile synchronization solutions provider CompanionLink Software, is nominated for the 2008 Best Software Award by Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine. CompanionLink for Google was nominated by a team of 94 Windows Mobile experts from a pool of 5,292 applications.

CompanionLink for Google synchronizes contacts, calendar events, recurring appointments, notes, and tasks from software like Microsoft Outlook, Palm Desktop, and ACT! by Sage to Google and Google Apps accounts. The software can also synchronize Google data with handheld devices based on the Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Apple iPhone and Palm OS platforms.

"We're extremely thrilled to be nominated by an industry-leading publication like Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine," said Rushang Shah, Director of Marketing at CompanionLink Software. "We were the first and most robust synchronization solution for Google calendar and contacts. Our nomination affirms the great productivity and value Google users achieve by using our software."

CompanionLink for Google is available on the company's website for $29.95. For more information about synchronizing Google with Microsoft Outlook and the latest handheld devices, please visit: http://www.companionlink.com/google.

About CompanionLink Software

CompanionLink Software is a pioneering developer of data synchronization solutions for mobile phones, PDAs and CRM software. They are also a leading OEM synchronization and solutions provider for companies like Sage Software(R), NVIDIA(R), Google(R), and Royal Consumer Electronic Products(R). For over 15 years, CompanionLink has helped mobilize information across multiple devices, computers, and applications. For more information, please visit www.companionlink.com or call (503) 243-3400.

Newspapers The latest Attacking Yahoo-Google Ad Deal

Google and Yahoo's advertising partnership is under scrutiny by the Department of Justice, and it's been attacked by the Associatin of National Avertisers.

At least 11 states are conducting their own investigations, and the European Comission is examining whether the ad agreement beteween the two Internet giants is violating E.U. laws regarding restrictive business paractices.

Now joining the fray, the World Association of Newspapers is raising concerns about the agreement, saying it "will have a significant and adverse effect on all newspaper publishers worldwide." (And as I've been reporting for years now, the newspaper publishing industry has plenty of problems...) This Paris-based organization represents 77 national newspaper associaitons and 18,000 newspapers around the world.

The association argues that the deal would siginficantly impact European newspaper publishers even though Google [GOOG  440.00    6.14  (+1.42%)   ]says the deal "is limited to Yahoo's U.S. and Canadian websites, and it will not have any significant effect on Europe." The association points out that many European publishers have a presence in North America, and more importantly, could unofficially impact the European market.

• Newspapers say Google, Yahoo tie hurts competition

These newspaper publishers are concerned that the deal would disincentivizeYahoo[YHOO  18.95    0.10  (+0.53%)   ] to compete against Google in Europe, and that the two companies control nearly all of the market in Europe, so if they chose to set terms together, it could have a particularly detrimental impact.

The bottom line is that these newspapers absolutely rely on both Yahoo and Google, and they like having them operate as two separate entitites because it guarantees that prices are kept in check and that they each deliver on their promises. That said, Yahoo-Google's deal does specify that it's only referring to the U.S. and Canadian market. So we'll see what the U.S. and European justice departments decide.

• EU competition officials probing Google-Yahoo deal

                                                                                                                                                                                               -searchspiderz

Google offers cutting-edge Chrome, first update

 

The Google Chrome Channel Chooser lets people get the latest updates to Google's Web browser.

(Credit: CNET News)

Through a new developer program, Google is letting people try the latest versions of its Chrome Web browser, and the first update is available.

Those who want the newest Chrome versions can install the Google Chrome Channel Chooser software from Google's Chrome Dev Channel site. The switcher lets people choose whether they want the latest cutting-edge Chrome builds or the less frequent but more stable beta versions.

"Google Chrome now provides a way for people to get early-access releases automatically: the Dev channel," said Chrome Program Manager Mark Larson in a Chrome mailing list posting late Monday night. "The Dev channel lets you test the latest fixes and get access to new features as they're being developed. We will release new builds to the Dev channel about every week so that you can preview--and provide feedback on--what's coming in Google Chrome."

The 'About Google Chrome' dialog box lets people update to the latest version.

(Credit: CNET News)

The first update available through the program, build 1251, is geared more for programmers and willing guinea pigs than for those who merely are curious.

Build 1251 fixes bugs with areas including Microsoft's Silverlight software, tab behavior, video playback with YouTube and other Flash players, and scalable vector graphics, and it suppresses full-text indexing of sites accessed with encrypted Web connections, according to therelease notes. It also enables two switches that can be set when the software boots that let users activate two developmental features, new technology for networking and for managing Chrome windows.

How to update
After running the Google Chrome Channel Chooser software, users can find if there's a new version by clicking the wrench icon in the upper-right corner of the Chrome screen, then selecting "About Google Chrome." If a new version is available, users can update there, then reboot to enable the changes.

The newest Chrome version is 0.2.152.1.

(Credit: CNET News)

My update to version 0.2.152.1 went smoothly--but afterward, the browser couldn't figure out whether another version was available. Instead, it said "checking for updates..." for a few minutes until I closed the dialog box.

Chrome is an open-source project, meaning that Google may draw on other work from Firefox, WebKit, and Microsoft, and that others may help Google. Judging by a couple of "thank yous" in the release notes, outsiders are in fact starting to submit patches.

Such submissions require programmers to extend copyright to Google, which means Google can have its way with the Chrome code, for example changing the open-source license under which it's offered.

Also, either Google is still hiding details of security-related Chrome fixes in the release notes, or some of the links are missing in the release notes.

Originally posted at News - Business Tech 

                                                                                                                                                                                           -searchspiderz

Expert Systems for Google

Would-be Google AdSense rival Expert System launches its Cogito Semantic Advertiser tool, which discerns the meaning and context of words to provide more relevant ads. By leveraging semantic technologies, Expert System joins a cadre of search providers that includes Microsoft-owned Powerset, Hakia, Yedda and Zoomix.

Google has a new challenger to its AdSense platform, courtesy of semantic software maker Expert System.

Expert System, which makes software that interprets information in text, has launched Cogito Semantic Advertiser, a tool that, when paired with Expert's semantic search engine, processes the meaning of text to ensure that an ad's placement is relevant to its assigned Web pages.
Expert System is the latest vendor trying to nibble at Google's search advertising market share by offering an alternative to Google AdSense, which uses keyword frequency to place ads. Another upstart, Proximic, debuted earlier in 2008 to attack Google on this front, but Proximic leverages a contextual ad-based approach without semantics.

So, what problem is Expert System trying to solve? J. Brooke Aker, CEO of Italy-based Expert System's U.S. subsidiary, showed me in a demo how Google's AdSense program will occasionally place misleading or inappropriate ads for certain articles.

For example, next to a New York Times science story on a jaguar, the Google AdSense algorithm picked out ads for Jaguar automobiles. In another article on an airline disaster, AdSense showed ads about low airfare rates for vacations. The algorithm didn't intend to provide results in poor taste, of course, and neither did Google's human engineers.

The problem is that AdSense relies on keyword frequency but doesn't drill down into the semantics—the meaning in the words. Cogito Semantic Advertiser attempts to go further by using semantic intelligence to analyze the text on each page and ensure that ads are placed appropriately to increase click-through rates.

Semantic search, also used by now Microsoft-owned Powerset, Hakia, Zoomix and Yedda, looks at how words in a sentence relate to one another and tries to understand the context of keywords. Terms with several meanings require semantic analysis of the other words around them for context.

Asher told me Cogito Semantic Advertiser understands content based on four key methodologies: studying the morphology of words; looking at parts of speech; sentence logic, or the reduction of sentences to subject, verb and object; and disambiguation, which in the case of the jaguar story paired with the Jaguar car ad would determine whether or not the text referred to a car or an animal.

Cogito Semantic Advertiser also provides details on actual use of specific Web sites, so companies can tailor their messages and coordinate the timing of ad placements.

For example, if users are reading articles about fuel efficiency during a specific time frame, Cogito Semantic Advertiser can provide these details so a hybrid vehicle manufacturer can tailor its advertising budget accordingly.

Asher told me Expert System plans to sell Cogito Semantic Advertiser, priced between $100,000 and $200,000 depending on implementation size requirements, to big media houses and publications.

I like what Expert and others of its ilk are trying to do in terms of the technological approach. Indeed, finding AdSense ads on vacations next to articles on Hurricane Katrina has got to be unsettling.

However, the big question is whether or not big media houses and others that would buy Cogito Semantic Advertiser are sick enough of Google yet to go with an unproven company.

Like it or not, Google is to search keywords what Microsoft is to desktop operating systems. If you go for Google, you have to know that you're at the company's mercy. Are advertisers and publishers ready for an alternative? That remains to be seen.

9 Questions on Googleeeee

You got your East Coast news. You got your West Coast news. Something about the cratering US financial system going on out there on the isle of Manhattan, sources tell me. Meanwhile, here on the Left Coast, it's round 74 of Google (GOOG) and Yahoo (YHOO). GooglyHoo is giving lots of people a case of the hives, an itching reaction in search of a rash.

The latest scratcher is the World Association of Newspapers. Yesterday, it denounced the proposed Google/Yahoo search "cooperation" deal as anti-competitive. For good measure, its statement released lots of frustration about newspaper companies' diminished standing in this new world order in creation. In part, WAN points out that of the $48 billion in online advertising revenue that Google has collected since 2001, less than one-third of that has been shared with online publishers. Those big numbers are of course the ones that hurt, more than the cost-per-click impacts of GooglyHoo.

So nine quick questions on the boiling Google/Yahoo cauldron:

1. Who gave the pile-on signal? Now, according to Bloomberg, the EU is joining the fray, asking for a few Yahoo and Google documents (no, not Google Docs). That makes the Department of Justice, eleven states and the EU. No word yet from Bruce Sherman.

2. Why is the inquiry only about Google's search dominance? Yes, it controls 70%+ of the paid search market, but its goals are clearly global ad dominance. It has made forays into print newspaper, print magazine and broadcast advertising. It bought YouTube, becoming a major video ad player. It bought DoubleClick, planning a major move into the display market. So on the sell side, it will be able to offer integrated packages of advertising -- a little search, a little display, a little pre-roll -- to ad buyers.

While today, much of advertising buying is segmented by type, I've got no doubt that there's a Starship Enterprise console out there in the ad buyer's future, with audience targetable, using various types of advertising through a single interface. Without legal roadblocks, today, you'd have to bet that the console would be branded "Google." Shouldn't DOJ ask P & G (PG), GM (GM) and Walmart (WMT) (all companies that have criticized the Google/Yahoo proposed combo) about Google's wider ad role?

3. Didn't Joe Nocera nail it in his Saturday New York Times column, describing the experience of one company, Sourcetools, as it first won big and then lost big in the Google ad world? The AdSense/AdWords stuff makes so many heads hurt; telling the story (journalism!) through one company's experience is a great analgesic.

4. Does it help or hurt newspaper companies? That kind of depends on whether they are bigger buyers of AdWords or bigger displayers of AdSense. There's little doubt that the further monopolization of paid search will lead to higher pricing -- there's not sufficient alternative inventory to buy of significant scale. So if you are buying AdWords, they should cost more.

But if you're a big AdSense partner, like the New York Times, your share of the take should increase as well. We don't know the particulars of each affiliate deal, but would hope that newspaper companies could get a fair packaged deal from Google. And yes, having Yahoo out there as somewhat of a paid search competitor, has made the chances of getting a better deal better.

5. Will it make a big difference to Newspaper Consortium members? Apparently not much. The Consortium members, almost half of US papers by circulation, take Yahoo search as part of their wider participation. For their participation, they get a contracted minimum payment, and sources say that earned ad payments haven't reached the minimums yet, generally. So, if GooglyHoo does increase pricing of ads, earned revenue should increase, but wouldn't result in actual new dollars falling into newspaper company pockets, at least for awhile.

6. The US Newspaper Association of America is a WAN member, but has been so far quiet on GooglyHoo. Is that because some US publishers think they'll be winners out of a GooglyHoo tie-up, some think they'll be losers, and some just don't know?

7. Isn't this more about the transfer of ad wealth than pricing? If you look at the big numbers, the US news industry was down $3 billion in the first half of 2008 compared to 2007. You can make the big-picture case that that most of that money is going to Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL and a few other non-newspaper-owned places on the web. From my reading, it looks like newspaper companies used to pull in about 20% of the national ad pie in the US, pre-web, a percentage that of course is dropping annually. More significantly, newspaper company share of internet advertising is no more than 15%, and probably closer to 10%, if we were to untangle bundled ads. Yes, cpc pricing is at the base of this, but it's this larger transfer of wealth that's behind the current fuss.

8. How much of WAN's angst has been caused by Google's lukewarm response to ACAP? UK and European publishers have pushed ahead with their Automated Control Access Protocol, a program to better control and protect editorial content as it moves through the web ecosystem. In theory, publishers can express "terms and conditions" for use of their content by web bots. As with all such systems, they only work if they are near-universally used. And if the biggest search company in the world won't play, ACAP can't really catch on. Google keeps talking with ACAP, but won't commit.

9. How much of a competitor is Yahoo anyways? Jonathan Weber, who publishes the excellent New West site, makes a compelling case on Times Online today that Yahoo has long faded an as effective competitor.

-searchspiderz

Monetising Newspaper Content

Google has partnered with about 100 newspapers across the US to digitise them and make scanned copies available online, and to eventually cover newspapers worldwide.

NEWSPAPER sites around the world don’t make much money. With the exception of a few niche sites like the Wall Street Journal (WSJ.com), the overwhelming majority of newspaper sites give away the content for free.

This includes all the newspaper sites in Malaysia. Some considered charging in the early days but with the trend of “content wants to be free” pervading over the Internet, none has tried to charge a fee for news content.

Some newspapers do charge for archives but that doesn’t make much money. Few people bother to use the archives. Usually, the ones who pay for it are those who are looking for specific articles for research purposes.

Since this is not exactly mass consumer stuff, many newspapers find that it’s not really worthwhile to digitize their much older material. That typically requires either having people actually retype all the copy or using some scanning service to convert the printed articles into text. The problem with that is the converted text is never accurate and an editor will still have to clean it up to ensure accuracy.

Another innovation: Catering waiters working in front of a logo of Google at the Frankfurt Book Fair in this Oct 21, 2005 file photo. Its business model, as always, is to provide the service to consumers for free and for it to make money through its AdSense advertising service. — AFP

It’s a tedious process and the cost of doing so could never be recouped due to the relatively low demand for such archived materials. So, it often doesn’t get done, especially if it’s a newspaper that has a long history. Imagine doing this for a paper that dates back over 100 years or more.

Along comes Google with its “free” strategy supported by ads. Google’s business model all along has been to give all its products and offerings for free. And it is doing so again with this latest effort.

The search giant has partnered with about 100 newspapers across the US to digitise them and make scanned copies available online. Eventually it will cover other papers around the world.

“This effort will enable us to help you find an even greater range of material from newspapers large and small,” wrote Google product manager Punit Soni on the company blog. “This effort is just the beginning. As we work with more and more publishers, we’ll move closer towards our goal of making those billions of pages of newsprint from around the world searchable, discoverable and accessible online.”

Others from Google are lauding this as a real big deal. “This is huge,” said Google vice-president of search Marissa Mayer at the TechCrunch50 conference in San Francisco earlier this week. “We’re branching into a new form of content.” In her demonstration, Mayer showed off pages from the Rome News Tribune and called up a story covering an American moonwalk.

The way it’s done means users will see entire pages of the original newspaper as they were printed at the time. This kind of approach, of scanning whole pages, would actually make old content more interesting. It shows the relevant story and other headlines, adverts and promotions of the day giving a sense of what it was like at the time.

“The compelling part of the product for me is to get a sense of context and the importance of what else happened that day,” Mayer said.

You could easily imagine people looking up newspapers to find out how life was like and what happened on a particular day in time. Perhaps on their birthday. Many people would like to know about the significant events on their birthday.

The technology involved is not rocket science. In fact, it’s very similar to the scanning technology that is used for Google Books and it expands on an initial two-year effort by the firm to work with two leading American newspapers, the New York Times and Washington Post, to index old papers in Google News Archives.

Google, of course, is not doing this for charity. Its business model, as always, is to provide the service to consumers for free and for it to make money through its AdSense advertising service. Revenue earned will be shared with publishers.

Initially, the archives will be available through Google News, its popular news links aggregator site, but the company plans to give newspapers a way to make their archives available on their own sites. Will this be a new source of significant revenues for newspaper websites? I doubt it’d be a big income earner. But it’s one additional revenue stream.

And if a newspaper’s archives are being converted by Google for the newspapers for free, that’s not such a bad thing for the newspaper companies even if they don’t make a lot of money from it.

Oon Yeoh loves the idea of news archives. Check out his archives at www.oonyeoh.com.

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-searchspiderz

The Most Valuable Source for Leads

Would you like to tap into the most valuable source for leads? You might be surprised to discover that you are climbing over the low hanging fruit in an effort to get to the top of the tree. In your haste to shout your message to the masses, you could be shouting over the heads of the potential business that is already in a queue at your door. Slow down and reflect for just a moment. Then tap into the most valuable source for leads.

The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council has just completed a study of channel executives, distributors, resellers, and other channel representatives. The results of the surveys may not surprise you, but the contrasts of the responses provide a shocking insight into the sheer volume of missed opportunities. This is good news for you, because missed opportunities by others can create new opportunities for you. While you may agree with the initial results of the survey, consider how you can adjust your approach to the market and leverage these opportunities.

According to the survey results by the Chief Marketing Officer Council, most valued source of leads is from customer referrals.

54% Customer Referrals

14% E-Mail or Direct Marketing

8% Internet

7% Events

7% Leads from Vendors

3% Third Party Lead Generation Organizations

8% Other

Would you agree that the best leads come from the referrals of satisfied customers? Is it surprising that customer referrals were ranked as four times more powerful and valuable than E-Mail or Direct Marketing campaigns? Customer referrals were ranked nearly seven times more likely to result in sales and new business than leads derived the Internet.

Customer referrals are a means of providing immediate credibility. With the increasing ability for consumers to share personal expression on the Internet, Blogs, E-mail, and word of mouth, the ability to communicate has enhanced the voice of the customer. In business-to-business transactions, a customer referral is more likely to lead to an appropriate contact with a relevant message, which is far more powerful and likely to result in success than a cold call from a third party lead generation. Events and trade shows can be a powerful platform to market a brand, but fall short in delivering valuable leads.

With all of this insight, how did the same channel executives, distributors, resellers, and channel representatives respond to the survey by Chief Marketing Officer Council with regards to tactics for generating new leads in the coming year?

14% Plan to use Direct Marketing and E-mail campaigns

13% Plan to use Sales Brochures and collateral

10% Plan to focus on Tradeshows for lead generation

8% Will use Seminars to generate leads

7% Will rely on Print Advertising

7% Plan to use Public Relations and Article Placement

7% Plan to use the Internet and Online Advertising

6% Will revert to Telemarketing

6% Plan to invest in Internet Search Engine Marketing

5% Plan to engage customers in User Group Gatherings

4% Plan to rely on Yellow Page Advertising

4% Will experiment on the Internet with Blogs and Social Networking

3% Will use Online Directories

3% Will create Webcasts

1% Plan to use Content Syndication

2% Will try something completely different

The results of the survey regarding lead generation tactics for new business acquisition are hardly surprising. Very little has changed in the planning and tactics as conveyed by the survey response, and yet, the contrast in comparison to the most effective and valued leads is staggering. Even though 54% of respondents acknowledged that the most valued leads are based on customer referrals, the first mention of leveraging this goldmine occurs in the 4% of respondents that plan to engage customers in user group gatherings.

Fortunately, it would appear relatively that fourteen percent of respondents believe the most valuable lead generation comes from Direct Marketing or E-mail, and fourteen percent plan to use this tactic for lead generation in the coming year. However, even though only seven percent believe that the best leads come from trade shows, there are ten percent planning to take this tactic, and another eight percent who will augment this activity with seminars.

Although only eight percent believe that the highest chance for success comes from leads acquired by the Internet, there is a staggering number of diverse plans to leverage this channel of communication. The tactics include seven percent Internet and Online Advertising, six percent investing in search engine marketing, four percent using blogs and social networking, three percent using Online Directories, and another three percent experimenting with webcasts. The Internet provides an exciting vehicle to be creative, showcase the brand, and communicate to a very large audience. However, is it targeting the most valuable audience by engaging the most valuable leads that come from customer referrals?

As you can see, the tactics are not groundbreaking or unusual. On the contrary, the approach to market is contrived on establishing a brand, shouting a message to the masses, and hoping that the merit is recognized by the appropriate lead. The Internet, Trade Shows, Brochures, and Advertising, provide effective, if not innovative vehicles for spreading the slogan. While it may be necessary to invest in these channels of communication to maintain competitive placement, there remains untapped opportunity for higher rates of success when tactics engage customer referrals.

Stop what you are doing right now and imagine how referrals from satisfied customers could generate valuable leads and grow your business. It does not matter what kind of business you are in, or what responsibilities you have in the organization. Every member of an organization contributes directly, or indirectly, to customer satisfaction. Your actions may results in testimonials, endorsements, or positive word of mouth. If you could harness the power of customer referrals, your sales force would blossom with representation from independent trusted advocates.

So, how do you encourage and empower customers to grow this incredible pipeline of valued referrals? You ask them, of course. However, before you make such a bold request, your customers must know that you are fully engaged and obligated to their aspirations. When customers are assured that you are a trusted advocate, committed to customer satisfaction, they have the confidence to share referrals and recommendations.

Once customer confidence is established and the relationship is mutually rewarding, then it is just a matter of creating the appropriate opportunity for referrals to occur. This can be as simple as asking for referrals, or as formal as creating gatherings for existing clients and potential prospects to meet and exchange experiences. Introducing existing clients to potential prospects demonstrates immense confidence in your own relationship with your customers, because you are not fearful of losing the mutually rewarding relationship. Group gatherings and communications creates a unique opportunity to endorse your customers, grow their circle of influence, and for them to provide a third party endorsement of your efforts.

There are many ways to empower customer referrals by engaging individuals in group gathering or discussions, leveraging the Internet or Advertising, or by collecting a powerful collage of testimonials. The tactics for getting the most out of this goldmine pipeline are as diverse as the markets and customers in them. It all begins with recognizing the most valuable source for leads, acknowledging the value of these resources, and creating specific action items in a plan to unleash these untapped opportunities. Actively and effectively mining the most valuable source for leads will give you an advantage over 95% of your competition.

What's Wrong With E-Commerce Websites?

What is going on with e-commerce websites? It appears that online entrepreneurs spend so much time worrying about website traffic that they ignore the customers who actually want to buy something.

Recently, I tried to order a product we spotted at a trade show. It was perfect for our application so we did a Google search to find the manufacturer and a líst of dealers who sold the item.

Almost all the websites that distributed the product had proper contact information and invited people to call, which we did. After six frustrating phone calls to dealers we still hadn't found anyone willing to answer the telephone. Since we had to leave a message almost everywhere we called, we decided to try California even though we are located in the east, and it was far too early for any reasonable person to be at work.

We finally got in touch with a friendly salesperson in Boston, who was very helpful but unfortunately the company was out of stock. Despite not being able to fill the order, we kept their information on file because they were friendly, accommodating, and dealt with all our questions. They tried their best to meet our needs but if we would have ordered using their online system and found out later that the product was back-ordered we would have been very upset since we had a deadline to meet.

Next we reached the manufacturer who told us he was too busy to check if he had any stock, and maybe he could get back to us by four o'clock. Just as we were ready to give up, the phone rang; it was the owner of the California dealer, who had the product in stock, took the order, and shipped it out the same day.

Businesses, especially website businesses cannot run on autopilot; customers are people and they expect to be treated like human beings. Now it is not always possible to answer every phone call the minute someone calls, or to have every product in stock when people need it, but the more human interaction you can build into your website the better your sales will be. To paraphrase that old saying about horses, "you can lead search traffic to your website, but you can't make them order."

Why Should Anybody Buy From You?

Ask yourself this simple question: why should anybody buy anything from you? You probably aren't the only company that sells your product or service, and even if you are, there are most likely substitutes available from competitors.

When potential customers find you on Google they are also finding all your competitors. So unless you sell a totally unique, non-fungible (non substitutable) product, service or brand that is also the lowest priced on the market, then you best give people some compelling reason to buy from you.

The product we were looking for was available from a dozen different website businesses, spread all over the United States and they all sold the same product at the same price. In the final analysis we purchased from the supplier that was the furthest distance away in a time zone three hours earlier than us; but we purchased from that supplier because we were able to talk to a someone who answered all our questions in a friendly, intelligent, and engaging manner.

It's what used to be called customer service before businesses were turned over to database programmers, number crunchers, and search savants who think of human interaction as something to be avoided.

The Human Touch Creates Confidence and Sales

Websites are a very efficient method of lead generation and potential sales as long as you engage your audience with a presentation delivered by a real person who explains as much as possible about the things you sell, and how you sell them. And that includes things like delivery, which is one of the major complaints and points-of-contention that online customers have. Nobody likes surprises, especially when they cost time and money.

Web sales success has little to do with features, benefits, or technical advancements, in fact a barrage of features and specifications is just as likely to confuse visitors, and paralyze their purchase decision. The one tactic that overcomes this problem, that inspires confidence in your advice, trust in your ability to deliver, and convinces people to purchase, is information presented by a real human being.

You Can't Always Handle Things Personally

Understanding you cannot always be available, the next best thing is Web video. A video provides a complete, consistent, error-free, professional presentation of the information you want customers to receive. Hiring, training, and managing staff is expensive, and their handling of customers is often unreliable, resulting in a negative impression of your company.

Lest We Forget Tricky Dick

And that brings me to the Web entrepreneur who thinks that they are so charming and persuasive that they are going to be their own Web-video host.

Anybody who studies audience behavior is familiar with the classic case of the 1960 Presidential debate between Nixon and Kennedy. Most people who listened to the debate on the radio thought Nixon won, while the people who watched on television thought Kennedy won. This was a seminal example of how auditory and visual performance influences content, impression and response.

This lesson has been well learned by politicians but has somehow escaped the attention of business leaders and Web entrepreneurs.

Human Motivational Optimization

Web entrepreneurs' obsession with search optimization, and their fascination with technical solutions to human problems, has created an e-commerce environment that is decidedly remote and unfriendly. Sales are a motivational exercise in people-problem solving: people buy things that fulfill physical, emotional, and psychological needs. The answer is to adopt a Human Motivational Optimization approach to the presentation of your website material.

What is Human Motivational Optimization? It is a mindset used for designing Web experiences for human beings, not just search engine spiders.

Human Motivational Optimization For E-commerce

Let's say you have an online business that sells clothing. The best way to display clothing is on a model who twists and turns so the audience can see the item from all sides, as well as how it hangs or drapes on a real person. A garment displayed flat looks like a rag, and just doesn't do the product justice.

Even quality still photography doesn't show how a garment looks when someone moves; and high quality fashion photography is more expensive than short fifteen to twenty second Web videos.

You can also add some professional voice-over narration that explains all the fabric details, design features and options available. A Web video fashion catalog is the most effective way to sell clothes online.

Perhaps you sell cosmetics. Another product ideally suited for Web video. Teaching visitors what products look best together based on particular facial features and coloring as well as different makeup styles for work, play, and evening are ideal opportunities to up-sell and build confidence in you and your products. Customer education is one of the best Web marketing tactics you can employ in order to distinguish yourself from the competition.

Not Every Product Is Sexy

Clothing and cosmetics are both high profile products, but let's say you sell something that is not quite so sexy, something like sandpaper. Sandpaper is boring but, if you need an abrasive product, you better pick the right one or you'll make a mess of whatever you are trying to build.

Teaching customers what products to use turns one-time buyers into long-term customers. When customers buy the wrong thing, they invariably blame the supplier, while suppliers that provide valuable purchase advice create a significant barrier to competition.

Even major box store retailers have learned that they cannot afford to have a bunch of part-timers helping customers. Best Buy has their Geek Squad and Apple Stores have their Geniuses.

Returns on electronics and computer equipment are too costly, and that goes double for online businesses where shipping is a factor. And that doesn't take into account customer ill will created by the aggravation and frustration of being sold the wrong thing. Rather than being an expense, a professionally produced Web-video e-commerce catalog is actually a tactic that saves time and money, both in the sales process, and customer relations.

Web video engages audience attention; informs viewers of product advantages, details and options; and explains who should purchase, as well as who shouldn't. It educates people on how to get the most out of what you sell, and it does it in the most compelling and memorable manner. It establishes a trust-based relationship with clients and that is something competitors cannot overcome with high pressure, price-slashing tactics.

The Geeks are Killing Your Business

Today we have a generation of entrepreneurs trained in highly specialized technical areas like search engine optimization, database development, statistical analysis, and Web-based programming. All of these disciplines view business, even marketing, advertising and public relations as if they are somehow quantifiable, scientific disciplines that can be measured and managed without consideration of that messy notion called human nature.

The biggest problem in business is dealing with people, and just because your business is Web-based, doesn't mean people no longer count.

We know 'if you build it, they will come' is not a viable marketing strategy, and the idea 'if they find you, they will buy' is just as wrong. Start thinking in terms of Human Motivational Optimization: start designing websites for people, not search engines.

-searchspiderz

Google Shines Up Chrome Web Browser

Article :-2

As America returns to work after the Labor Day holiday weekend, crusty eyes are abuzz about Google Chrome, the company's own surprise open source Web browser in beta. Bloggers on the scene European ones and those who apparently don't take holidays let the Chrome cat out of the bag a day early.

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Editor's Note: Microsoft killer or not, Chrome has our attention. Be sure to read the rest of the article, which details what this development means to SEO. Chrome will suggest Webpages based on search rank or popularity. Thoughts? Let us know in the comments section.

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On the Google Blog, Sundar Pichai and Linus Upson acknowledge they pressed the send button a day early, tipping off Philipp Lenssen in Germany, who set the fuse on the worldwide blog bomb. At the same time, Google coined a new PR move: announcements in e-comic book form.

You can check that out for in-depth descriptions, explanations, and philosophy behind Google's new browser but fair warning it will take a while. Bloggers immediately labeled it an assault on Microsoft, both on the browser level and, in an interesting stretch, the OS level. They wonder, too, about how this will affect Google's relationship with Mozilla.

It’ll launch at some point today at Google.com/chrome


First the specs:

• Like Android, Google Chrome is based on, built from the ground up with, open source application framework WebKit; it is intended to be next-generation built for handling Web applications rather than Web pages. It includes Google Gears built-in.
• To that end, Google built its own JavaScript engine, V8, to power web applications with multi-threaded efficiency.
• Browser tabs get their own process rather than tabs sharing processes to solve the ever-dreaded freeze-and-crash problem by freeing up memory and reducing memory fragmentation.
• Each tab has its own URL box, effectively making each tab a browser window
• No about:blank pages. Chrome defaults to a page featuring the four most used search engines and the user's nine most visited Web pages.
• Similar to IE 8, Chrome has an Incognito mode to erase browser history when the browser is closed something Firefox 3 didn't include.
• Chrome can be streamlined so that the toolbar and URL box are hidden and only the webpage is shown on the screen.
• Chrome features browser extensions allowing it to make hybrid apps similar to Adobe AIR
• An Opera-like dashboard start page and auto-completion.
• It's pretty strong on the security front. Chrome sandboxes Webpages, preventing drive-by downloads and installations. It continuously makes contact with Google to update a list of known malware sites in order to warn the user.

No word yet on how much the browser actually communicates with Google. Given Google's history of watching everything its product users do, it wouldn't be surprising if Google would gather browsing information to use for its search and ad-serving algorithms.

The browser will launch in more than 100 countries today. The company says the launch will add value for the user while driving innovation on the Web. Available only for Windows for now, Google plans to release versions for Mac and Linux as well.

-searchspiderz