Biznology

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Microsoft is selling Razorfish, the search consultancy it acquired as part of the bigger aQuantive acquisition. Microsoft has been criticized for owning a search consultancy that manages clients’ paid search spending on search engines, including Microsoft’s own search engine, Bing. Google was similarly pilloried for being in the same position with Performics when it acquired DoubleClick. For more, check out my latest post on Internet Evolution, “Search Engine Conflicts We Don’t Accept.”

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The refreshing thing about search marketing is the way that the little guy was on equal footing with the big guy. Yes, I said “was” on equal footing. I am noticing a disturbing trend in search results, from Bing and others, that leads to big companies having a distinct advantage in search, just as they do in most other forms of marketing. To see what I mean, check out my latest blog post for Search Engine Guide, “Searching for profits more than answers.”

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by Frank Reed
I am going to write something that is likely to be unpopular. Today I experienced a “perfect storm” of sorts regarding the Internet and the idea of free is good. This apparent entitlement mentality that is pervasive among Internet users that everything should free is going to potentially ruin a lot of good opportunities. Of course, all of this is in my opinion so you can take it for what it’s worth. At least reading it is free, right?

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When I was a kid on Long Island (pronounced “Lon GUY-land”), I was one of those boys that was fraidy-scared a lot. Afraid of the bigger kids. Afraid of everyone realizing how unathletic I was. (OK, OK, of how unathletic I am.) So, I can sense fear when I see it, and I am seeing a lot of fraidy-scared marketers lately. They knew how to do their jobs in the old days but they don’t know what this Internet thing is all about. If you’re reading this post, you’re unlikely to be one of those fraidy-scared folks, but you might work with or (horrors) for someone filled with fear. What do you do?

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Image by Gauravonomics via Flickr

I was fortunate to be invited to do a Webinar today on Listening 2.0, along with Mark Kovscek of VivaKi and Pauline Ores of IBM, on what’s going on with all these conversation monitoring/mining/listening services that are suddenly popping up. As Chief Strategist for Converseon, I am kind of biased. I mean, we have the really good one, you see. But it was helpful to be part of a panel where we could talk about what kind of qualities make a good one and we got lots of great questions.

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