PINFO » Technology

Deal averts Internet showdown

16 Nov 2005 from CNN.com - Technology | Read the full story» A summit focusing on narrowing the digital divide between the rich and poor residents and countries opened Wednesday with an agreement of sorts on who will maintain ultimate oversight of the Internet and the flow of information,... [MORE]

Senior bloggers defy stereotypes

10 Nov 2005 from CNN.com - Technology | Read the full story» Web logs, more often the domain of alienated adolescents and middle-aged pundits, are gaining a foothold as a new leisure-time option for senior citizens.... [MORE]

Content Commerce Firm Navio Close $24.5 Million Funding

: Updated from last week: The correct amount is $24.5 million second round round of equity funding led by WK Technology Fund, the leading VC firm in Taiwan, and joined by VantagePoint Venture Partners, with participation by existing investor Add Partners. The investment will be used to add operational... [MORE]

YaWhere?

Why do Yahoo's blog search results pile up in a column on the right where they look like advertising?Here are the same first-pass search results at Feedster, IceRocket, Google Blogsearch and Technorati.The results are so different that I don't see how anybody can call RSS (or Live Web) search... [MORE]

On Google And TV Ads

It is inevitable, to my mind, that Google will get into brokering television ads. But the rumors running around the web (BB has a good round up) feel a bit premature. My guess is we'll see a test in the next few quarters...... [MORE]

Pointroll/Eyeblaster beef up their agency services

As people start figuring out that these special "rich media formats" aren't really anything special (code/implementation-wise, at least), companies like Pointroll, Eyeblaster and Klipmart are scrambling to add services and tools to motivate agencies to keep them around:

Rich media technology vendors such as Viewpoint, PointRoll, EyeWonder, Klipmart, Eyeblaster and United Virtualities are transforming themselves into creative services firms as a result of the standardization of rich media formats and agencies' eagerness to outsource the production of increasingly larger and more complex display campaigns for agencies and clients without the resources to do the work themselves, writes ClickZ.

Agencies Get Creative with Rich Media Ventures [MarketingVOX]

Claria Has Search Plans

Claria plans to test a behavior-based search engine as part of an effort to revamp its business, according to the adware company.

Under its Vista Labs unit, Claria is testing a search engine that will use the Web habits of its pool of 40 million users to reorder search results. Category giants Yahoo and Google are both trying to make search results more personalized by tapping into prior search behavior. Claria asserts its platform will yield more relevant results by also taking into account Web site behavior.

Claria accomplishes this by examining user search behavior through its tracking software installed on about 50 million computers. Its technology ranks Web pages based on the behavior of its pool of users, including the results' click-through rate, how many pages were viewed and the time spent on the site. An information button next to each Web search listing shows the information for each result, along with where the Web page ranks on Google, Yahoo and MSN.

Continue to Adweek

Omniture Gets $40 Mil. in Funding

Web analytics provider Omniture said it has received $40 million in financing, bringing its total backing to more than $65 million.

BA Venture Partners led the round of funding, which Omniture said would be used to increase customer training programs, technology development and marketing. As part of the financing, BA Venture Partners' managing director Rory O'Driscoll has joined Omniture's board.

Omniture closed a $14.5 million venture round in May 2004, led by Hummer Winblad Venture Partners.

Orem, Utah-based Omniture provides businesses with Web site analysis software that helps track marketing programs and online visitors. The data collected can be used to make adjustments to marketing and site design to better convert visitors into customers, the company said. AOL, eBay and Microsoft are among Omniture's more than 400 customers.

Web site analytics has grown in importance as more companies funnel visitors to their Web sites through their online and offline marketing programs.

CheetahMail Acquires Leading Web Analytics Company Harvest Solutions

CheetahMail Enhances Industry-Leading Emarketing Solutions Suite with Integration of Web Site Analytics

CheetahMail, an Experian Company, announced today the acquisition of Harvest Solutions, a premier provider of web site analytics. Through this acquisition, CheetahMail will seamlessly integrate Harvest's innovative web analysis and reporting software, now called SiteClarity, with its email platform to help companies effectively manage customer communication delivered through the internet.

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"Harvest Solutions' highly scalable and innovative technology is a natural extension to CheetahMail's industry leading email platform," said Matthew Seeley, president of CheetahMail. "As one of the first companies to bring a fully integrated email marketing and web site analytics solution to market, CheetahMail now enables clients to gain real-time access to actionable insight about customer behaviors and interests."

According to a recent JupiterResearch report, "The ROI of Email Relevance," 41% of marketers plan to deploy tools to incorporate clickstream into their e-mail targeting tactics in the next 12 months.

CheetahMail will offer its email marketing and SiteClarity web analytics solution as a fully integrated offering as well as distinct products. In addition to offering SiteClarity, CheetahMail will continue to maintain its existing partnerships with other leading web site analytic companies, helping clients to achieve greater online success.

The acquisition is consistent with Experian's strategy to acquire complementary technology businesses that add further depth to Experian's broad product reach. Terms of the acquisition were not announced.

About CheetahMail

CheetahMail, http://www.cheetahmail.com a leading global online marketing solutions firm specializing in email marketing and site analytics, serves category-leading clients in a variety of industry verticals including retail, technology, financial, entertainment, B2B and travel. CheetahMail's technology and service offerings are designed for companies that want to increase their brand equity through customer retention and acquisition management. CheetahMail, a subsidiary of Experian (http://www.experian.com) was founded in 1998 and has offices in New York City, Los Angeles and London.

About Harvest Solutions

Harvest Solutions, Inc., http://www.harvestsolutions.com headquartered in Los Angeles, California, develops innovative web analysis and reporting software, offering the most complete and flexible reporting solution available. Harvest's Enterprise Reporting Solution (ERS) specifically meets the needs of large and complex multi-property websites to measure visitor activity around key site metrics: Traffic Analysis, Search Engine & Campaign Marketing, Commerce, Site Usability, and Customer Acquisition & Retention. Information provided by Harvest allows decision makers to effectively analyze website traffic, and make critical business decisions to improve ROI.

About Experian

Experian is the global leader in providing value-added information solutions to organizations and consumers. It has an unrivaled understanding of individuals, markets and economies around the world.

Experian provides information, analytics, decision-making solutions and processing services. It assists organizations in understanding their markets and customers and helps them find, develop and manage profitable customer relationships to make their businesses more profitable.

Experian promotes greater financial health among consumers by enabling them to understand, manage and protect their personal information and helping them control financial aspects of key life events.

Experian works with more than 50,000 clients across diverse industries, including financial services, telecommunications, health care, insurance, retail and catalog, automotive, manufacturing, leisure, utilities, e-commerce, property and government. A subsidiary of GUS plc with headquarters in Nottingham, UK, and Costa Mesa, Calif., Experian's 12,000 people in 28 countries support clients in more than 60 countries. Annual sales exceed $2.5 billion.

For more information, visit the company's Web site at http://www.experian.com.

The word "Experian" is a registered trademark in the EU and other countries and is owned by Experian Ltd. and/or its associated companies.

Harvest Solutions Bought buy Experian's CheetahMail

CheetahMail, the e-mail marketing arm of database marketer Experian, bought Web site analytics firm Harvest Solutions, it was announced today.

The deal lets CheetahMail integrate its e-mail platform with Harvest's Web analysis and reporting software. Harvest Solutions' offerings now will be offered under the SiteClarity name either separately or bundled with CheetahMail's e-mail services.

"A lot of our customers are looking to buy this as a one-stop solution, and these are the two things -- Web analytics and e-mail services -- that customers logically can buy together," said Matthew Seeley, president of CheetahMail, New York.

Terms of the deal were not announced. Nor were the clients who are using or plan to use SiteClarity with or without CheetahMail's e-mail services. The acquisition is part of the $2.5 billion Experian's strategy to buy complementary technology firms that add to the Schaumburg, IL-based database giant's offerings.

Harvest's purchase also keeps Experian and CheetahMail in line with market trends. An April 25 JupiterResearch report, "The ROI of E-Mail Relevance," said 41 percent of marketers plan to use tools incorporating click-stream data into their e-mail marketing tactics in the next 12 months.

CheetahMail will offer SiteClarity as an ASP solution or in a software version. The Harvest Solutions staff will stay intact in its Los Angeles office. In fact, more people will be hired in that office.

Also, CheetahMail will continue to maintain partnerships with other Web site analytics firms like Coremetrics, Omniture and Digital River's Fireclick.

"We're agnostic if a certain e-mail client wants to work with a Web analytics vendor," Seeley said. "We're happy to work with them."

CheetahMail Gets Harvest Solutions - Thanks to Experian

Email marketing firm CheetahMail has acquired web analytics provider Harvest Solutions, in a bid to integrate the email and web analytics and reporting solutions of the firms and offer them to customers separately or bundled, DM News reports. "A lot of our customers are looking to buy this as a one-stop solution, and these are the two things - web analytics and email services - that customers logically can buy together," Matthew Seeley, president of Database marketer Experian's CheetahMail, is quoted as saying.

In April, a Jupiter Research report noted that 41 percent of marketers plan to use tools incorporating click-stream data into their email marketing efforts. Harvest Solutions' offerings now will be offered under the SiteClarity name. Terms of the deal were not announced. The purchase is part of a $2.5 billion Experian strategy to buy complementary technology firms.

Disney Adds to iTunes Podcasts

Three content providers within the Disney media conglomerate, ABC News, Disney Online and ESPN.com, have each added their lineups of podcasting programming to the iTunes Podcast Directory.

As part of the distribution arrangement, iTunes users can now discover Disney content within the directory, while current subscribers to Disney podcasts will automatically have new episodes downloaded onto both their computers and their iPod devices through iTunes.

Continue to Mediaweek

Podcasts Get Easier to Find

With the number of both amateur and professional podcasts growing, new distribution methods are appearing to make the files easier to find.

Apple and multimedia search engine Blinkx.tv said they would begin offering users the ability to find free podcasts, Internet audio files that can be downloaded to MP3 players like Apple's iPod. Blinkx will allow podcast creators to submit their content for inclusion in the search index.

Apple has added over 3,000 audio files to its iTunes Music store, ranging from amateur podcasters to programs from established media outlets like the BBC, ABC News and Clear Channel. Blinkx added about 10,000 podcast feeds to its search engine.

Suranga Chandratillake, San Francisco-based Blinkx's CEO, said the search engine has seen a surge of user-generated multimedia content, primarily audio but also video. Unlike other search engines, Blinkx uses voice-recognition software to transcribe audio from files into text that is then matched to queries.

"It's like the Web in the early days—people are podcasting about everything," Chandratillake said.

According to survey of 2,200 U.S. adults conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, about 6 million said they downloaded a podcast.

Up until now, Blinkx has concentrated on striking deals with major video producers, like CNN and the BBC. Along with podcasts, Blinkx will also now include user-generated video clips it finds online, although Chandratillake said they would represent only 5 percent of the new content.

Blinkx is competing with Google, Yahoo and AOL to build multimedia search engines. Google added user-generated free video to its video search engine earlier this week. Yahoo and AOL have licensing deals with several major video producers for its content. AOL also owns Singingfish, a search engine for finding video and audio online.