Can someone please buy AOL and ‘gut it like a fish’

Can someone please buy AOL and ‘gut it like a fish’?! I mean no disrepect to all the great people working at AOL – but this is a Web 1.0 company and its day is done. It can join a long line of great Internet companies that are really no more – Netscape, Alta Vista, Overture etc etc. Time to move on folks!

Off to the Beach – plus a few links to check

I am going on a holiday with the family to the beach in Portugal. Yeah! This means no posts for at least a week…

 Some links to check:

• Another example of why YPs are doomed
• Marchex report on local -worth downloading
• Second click debate at SES
• AOL re-org – looks like more stuff that creates opps for the likes of G, M and FIM

And this from Looksmart today – about time they got geo sorted!

LookSmart is excited to announce that Geo-Targeting is now available in the AdCenter. Login to your account now and take advantage of this new feature.

Targeting Down to the City-Level
Take your LookSmart camaigns further with a spectrum of Geo-Targeting options: Country, State/Province, Metropolitan Area, and City-level targeting help you hit your desired targets.

Reporting, Regardless
Whether or not you implement Geo-Targeting right away, you have the ability to see where your clicks are coming from in the AdCenter reports. Take advantage of these reports to gain valuable insight into your campaigns AND customers.

Geo-Targeting Explained
Geo-Targeting is a tool that allows advertisers to focus PPC advertising campaigns on the geographic location of their desired customers. Furthermore, advertisers who focus on local advertising can buy popular, head of the query stream keywords and have them displayed exclusively in the local regions they do business in.

Here’s Google’s logo for the 1st day of spring. In London today the wather sucks, so lets hope PT is better. Have a great Easter and Happy Spring!

Bits & Pieces to Checkout for 28 Feb 08

I disagree with Mr Blodget’s comments on SAI re: 20% time at Google. That just proves that Wall Street analysts don’t get tech innovation or how the Valley works. The 20% is great “life hacking” and I am sure Google still gets 125% from most staff… On a related note this over on Fast Company is cool and well worth read!

• Marissa Mayer’s 9 Principles of Innovation

Plus, worth checking this one on NYT:

• Yahoo Reveals (Some) Details About Its Ad Plans

I added some comments to yesterday’s post on AOL below.

Great video interview with Nicholas A. Christakis on The Edge about his research into social networks (and not just the online variety, but the real social networks offline).

This just in on TechCrunh a rumour that Google may try to buy 20% of Yahoo to block you-know-who. Totally wild.

Some Noises from AOL – cool stuff, CEO talks tough

 

AOL CEO Andy Falco was talking tough this week at the IAB meeting in Arizona:

“I hope they [Google & Microsoft] beat each other’s brains out over search and leave the display market to us,” he said to the Interactive Advertising Bureau annual conference. “I think it’s a mistake. But I think Napoleon said never interrupt your enemy when they’re in the middle of making a mistake.”

…

“Microsoft and Google can ignore us and leave us of charts if they want, but they do that at their peril,” this from AdAge.

Good stuff. Let the games begin. I would love to see more innovation and more dynamism from AOL. For that matter lets see more from all of the big 4 – GYMA.

I also like this video posted up by Mr Scoble about some cool tools from AOL – GO HERE  to view it.

Follow-up notes/comments: I would comment that actually Microsoft definitely gets display, just check out MSN’s ad offerings and the Aquantive acquisition last year as proof. Plus Yahoo is a BIG display player. Google too has made moves in the area with expansion of ad types for AdWords/AdSense and their attempt to buy DoubleClick. I agree that while GYM are distracted with each other that creates new opportunities for AOL – they just have to execute. Here’s a wild predication: Microsoft does buy Yahoo in the end and then Google buys AOL.

Über Clickers Distort Click-Rates

This PR about a display click rates from Starcom and others is very interesting. I will have to try to get a copy of the full study and report. Looks like the über clickers (or should be call them super clickers?) are distorting reality… Not sure this is good news for online advertising. My initial thought is we will likely need and see wider studies on general “conversion attribution” of online advertising – ie, you need a solid mix of ads (including display) as this helps drive conversion on your search both paid and natural, etc… Quoting directly from the PR:

Starcom, Tacoda and comScore’s “Natural Born Clickers” findings suggest “the click is dead” as go-to measurement of effectiveness for brand-building display advertising campaigns

The study illustrates that heavy clickers represent just 6% of the online population yet account for 50% of all display ad clicks. While many online media companies use click-through rate as an ad negotiation currency, the study shows that heavy clickers are not representative of the general public. In fact, heavy clickers skew towards Internet users between the ages of 25-44 and households with an income under $40,000. Heavy clickers behave very differently online than the typical Internet user, and while they spend four times more time online than non-clickers, their spending does not proportionately reflect this very heavy Internet usage. Heavy clickers are also relatively more likely to visit auctions, gambling, and career services sites – a markedly different surfing pattern than non-clickers.

Who Owns What v2.1 – a useful map of GYM, AOL, IAC & News Corp

This is a great resource – from mydigimedia.com - that outlines who own who and gives a nice tiddy summary of M&A by the big Internet players – Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, IAC and News Corp. There is also a handy PDF version you can down load.

Interesting Stuff, Links to Review – 7 Jan 2008

Nothing new here, just some pieces and links that are interesting:

• Prediction markets at Google – Battelle post and PDF report link
• AltSearch piece on Google
• New UGC Local site in the UK from Greg Sterling
• AOL stuff – history (SEL), brand strategy (GS), how to fix/sell to YHOO (Silicon Alley Insider)
• CNET in trouble (TechCrunch)?
• Australia censorship (Scoble)
• 2nd Click post by Tacoda founder (AOL) and related 3rd page/2nd Click on Evan’s Ink

Various Things from the Past Few Weeks

Nothing new in this post. This is just a list of some of the interesting things I noticed over the past couple of weeks and want to dig into when I get some down time over the X-Mas holiday…

Ask release 2007 search data:

Ask.com’s Top Real Deal Searches of 2007
1. MySpace 6. Cars
2. Dictionary 7. Weather
3. Google 8. Games
4. Themes 9. Song Lyrics
5. Area Codes 10. Movies

Greg Sterling has a summary from GYM, Ask and AOL… Also on GS a guest piece from UK based We Love Local guy. The power or power searchers at JB’s searchblog. Facebook v. Newspapers.

Apparently total measurable ad spend is slowing, this is interesting has having spent time blogging and exploring the social media side of the Web over the past couple of months I can see that smart advertisers and marketers will be doing other types of activities that support advertising. This is meme that ties into the global microbrand idea and what Buzzmachine posted as well. This requires some digestion.

More about the Quigo AOL Deal

A friend of mine pointed me this piece about the Quigo team sticking around or not – it is an interesting article (he could only find a Hebrew version) in today’s Israeli business press (on a site called The Marker IT). Talks about the great ‘exit’ made by the founders and investors of Quigo. Here’s a rough translation of part of it below [many thanks to my anonymous friend for the translation as being a WASP, I sadly don't speak or read Hebrew]

… Yaron Galai [Co-founder & SVP of Product]: “The feeling after the exit is fantastic”

… On the question of why sell the company and not continue to turn it into a large Internet player Yaron Galai answers: “In the Macro level, the consolidation in the market would have happened with or without us. These process just happen and therefore the game becomes one where the big players have the advantage. We thought that together [with AOL] we will succeed.” In the last few months Yaron is working only part time at Quigo. He is cooking up another start-up,,,,, “…The feeling after the exit is fantastic. I’m pleased that I was able to bring the company to the next level. To arrive with the ship safely to its home port.” he said …

… Oded Izhak [Co-Founder] ” We’re all very excited about the deal. But we weren’t surprised as in recent years Quigo has won deals against Google and Yahoo. This is a company that was built over 7 years with serious revenues. Anticipated revenues for 2007 will reach $100 million. If AOL wouldn’t have bought Quigo it would have been listed. The Board decided to approve the sale, because with a listing there is a 6-month period during which the sale of shares is not permitted” …

… Oded Izhak has started work on his own start-up company as well …

AOL to Buy Quigo for $300 Million – oh my god

Well, this is great news for Quigo investors for sure and mixed news for me personally (more on that another day). So, what does AOL do with all these 2nd and 3rd tier advertising companies they keep buying? I am not sure anyone knows? Maybe they need some consulting – call me.

Warning here’s my rant: that’s more $ than FindWhat paid for Espotting, which I know was back in 2003/4 but that company had significant revenue. And a really big network. Deals are all about market timing and hype. Does anyone know the revenue of Quigo? The only thing I can find estimated $100 million over 3 years for AOL on the deal… My buddy over at GalaxyD has crunched some numbers on the deal – worth a read. Hmmm… I smell a bubble?