Facebook Messages: “It’s not email”

I posted last week about the possible launch of a new Facebook email service, complete with @facebook.com addresses for all. Well, if you want the @facebook address it looks like you’ll be able to get one if you really want, but Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg described the the launch of Facebook Messages as a new “modern messaging system,” and said : “It’s Not E-mail”

CEO Zuckerberg said at the much anticipated press event today in San Francisco that more than four billion messages are currently sent through Facebook each day. He also shared Facebook’s belief that modern messaging is seamless, informal, immediate, personal, simple and minimal. He discussed conversations with high school students who told him e-mail is too slow and that they prefer SMS and Facebook to sending e-mails. Conversations which helped prompt Facebook’s decision to create their new messaging ‘experience’.

This new system has three parts: seamless messaging, cross-platform conversation history and a social inbox. The latter is an inbox for filtering the messages you want, organised by the people you care about, and designed to highlight conversations with your real friends and be spam free.

The system is also designed to be platform-agnostic, so users can send and receive messages via mobile, IM or Facebook. It’s designed to make it simpler for users to communicate in real-time with their real friends, wherever they are. According to the Facebook blog post, “Messages is not email. There are no subject lines, no cc, no bcc, and you can send a message by hitting the Enter key.”

The system will be rolled out slowly over the next few months using an invite-only process.

For more go to: http://goo.gl/Y6Fte

Who wants a facebook email address?

Rumours abound that Facebook will announce personal @facebook.com email addresses for users during their special event this coming Monday.

It’s widely believed that Facebook’s secret ‘Project Titan’ is a web-based email client and is even allegedly unofficially referred to internally as its “Gmail killer”. Industry sources expect Monday’s announcement to be more more than just a refresh of Facebook’s existing messaging service, with speculation that Facebook is building a fully-fledged webmail client, and while this may only be in its early stages, there would appear to be huge potential for Facebook in this space.

According to TechCrunch, Facebook already has the world’s most popular photos product, the most popular events product, and soon will have a very popular local deals product as well. It’s fair to assume Facebook can tweak the design of its webmail client to display content from each of these in a seamless fashion (and don’t forget messages from games, or payments via Facebook Credits). And of course there’s also the social element: Facebook knows who your friends are and how closely you’re connected to them; it can probably do a pretty good job figuring out which personal emails you want to read most and prioritise them.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/11/facebook-gmail-titan/

Instant Previews: The Preview

I posted yesterday that Google have announced another new search enhancement: “Instant Previews”

Well now you can try it yourself at http://www.google.com/landing/instantpreviews/

First Google Instant – now Instant Previews

Fast on the heels of Google Instant, Google have announced another new search enhancement: “Instant Previews”

Instant Previews is a new kind of visual search result using image-based snapshots, which Google say will make it even quicker for users to choose the most relevant search result.

Instant Previews provides a graphic overview of a search result with the most relevant sections highlighted, which Google say will make finding the right page as quick and easy as flipping through a magazine. Users will need to click on a magnifying glass icon next to the title of each search result and a visual overview of the page will appear. After this users just need to hover the mouse over any other result to see a preview. The newly customised results should be delivered in under a tenth of a second.

Google’s testing found that searchers using Instant Previews are about 5% more likely to be satisfied with the results they click. They say that previews provide a new way to evaluate search results, letting users see the layout of a webpage before clicking the search result – making users more likely to find what they’re looking for.

At the time of writing I haven’t actually seen Instant Previews in action, but Google believe that this new visual comparison of search results will help users not only compare results quicker, but also more easily pinpoint relevant content. So, watch this space!

NB: Previews only show on natural results – not ppc ads.

Google AdWords Changing from Sponsored Links To Ads

A short while ago, Google began testing labelling AdWords ads as “ads”. Previously these AdWords ads were headed as “sponsored links”.  Google have confirmed this rollout to Search Engine Land, the search industry’s leading online publication for the latest search news, research and anaylsis, commentary and expert advice.

A Google spokesperson said: “Yes, I can confirm this rollout. We are always experimenting with the look and feel of our search result pages, including the delivery of relevant advertising. This is on English language domains now and rolling out to all languages and domains”

Will this make a difference to ppc click rates? My first guess is no, whilst the cynic inside me thinks that it’s unlikely to happen (or last) if it proves to have any kind of negative impact on Google’s revenues.

US advertisers measure phone calls from search marketing

Google are extending their AdWords call metrics product to more US advertisers, with plans to extend it further in the future.

Google’s call metrics enables advertisers to measure the phone calls that their Google AdWords campaigns generate. Using the technology behind Google Voice, call metrics assigns each campaign a unique phone number which is automatically inserted into ads on both desktop and high-end mobile devices, where the number is clickable.

When a user calls the number in the ad, the call is automatically routed to the client and AdWords notes that the call took place. AdWords reports then show the number of calls generated by each campaign, call duration, and in the near future, caller area code.

Once advertisers know where their calls are coming from, they can refine their marketing strategy – testing different ad text variations to see which drives the most calls or reallocate budget to campaigns that bring the highest ROI.

For now advertisers still only pay for clicks on ads, but Google intend to charge for call metrics in the future.

Love your Iphone? Then you’ll love this

Love your Iphone? Then you’ll love this…..

Facebook becomes second biggest source of UK online traffic

Social networking sites accounted for 11.6% of all UK Internet visits in September 2010 with 1 in 10 visits to every website coming after a visit to Facebook – up from 1 in 13 visits a year ago.

According to Experian Hitwise, the online competitive intelligence service, Facebook accounts for 55% of all visits to social networking sites, making it by far the biggest social network in the UK. It is also the second biggest source of traffic to all websites after Google. In total, social networks sent nearly 13% more traffic to online retailers this year than last year. The three dominant players are Facebook, YouTube and Twitter which account for 75% of all visits to the the social networks and forums category.

This analysis shows more than ever before the need for businesses to get to grips with Social Media as consumers spend more and more time on social networking sites. A well concieved, and expertly implemented social media strategy will help businesses tap into the power of social media to drive online traffic and sales.

Check out http://goo.gl/kwuxx for more

Online retailers gear up for ‘Cyber Monday’

Are you already geared up for ‘Cyber Monday’?

Cyber Monday falls on Monday 6th December this year with research predicting that Britons plan to buy more gifts online than ever before. A survey by Peer 1 Hosting predicts the biggest ever peak in online shopping this Christmas, with £8.1bn to be spent online, with survey results showing that 88% of respondents in the United Kingdom will spend more online this year.

Cyber Monday is a term used to describe the first Monday in December, the peak of the Christmas shopping season, during which consumers generally spend more money on online purchases than they do any other time of the year. Consumers are likely to have searched for goods on the high street over the weekend and then used their high speed broadband connection at work to find and make cheaper purchases. Interestingly over half of the survey respondents said they actually found it easier to shop for Christmas gifts online compared to physically going to the shops in one of Britain’s high streets.

So if you haven’t done so already, you should be getting your search, media and social network campaigns tuned up and ready to go.

Last year, in a display of confidence against the recession, consumers spent more online on Cyber Monday than they did on the same day in the previous year. With the recession still biting Britain’s consumers, there had been heated speculation about how Cyber Monday 2009 would compare to that of 2008. Cyber Monday 2009, according to the IMRG (the trade body for online retailers) brought in sales of £417 million, with total sales for December over £5 billion, a 14% increase on 2008. Meanwhile Google reported that searches for “Christmas gifts” rose by 22%.

However Cyber Monday wasn’t the biggest online shopping day. Last year, according to Experian Hitwise, Boxing Day beat Cyber Monday to be the busiest online shopping day during 2009.

The second busiest day for online shopping was 27 December, followed by pre-Christmas shopping peaks such as Cyber Monday on 7 December. In 2008 Christmas Day itself was the seventh busiest online shopping day, but Experian Hitwise found it had dropped to 30th in 2009. Sales over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day increased by 36% last year, compared with 39% in 2008.

The top retailers to benefit from increased traffic after Christmas were mainly high street brands including Next, Currys, Debenhams, Tesco Direct and Comet. The week ending 26 December 2009 was the busiest week for high street retailers online, while pure-play retailers saw a decrease in visits.

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