In class work

GOAL(S): Explain why this site was created. What is/are the goal(s)? Look for such goals as providing customer support, selling, providing and/or collecting information, advertising, building a community, entertainment, brand building, awareness, driving buyers offline, and the like.

GOAL PAGE: What is the site’s goal page? Describe it and explain why it is/is not effective.

EFFECTIVENESS: How effectively does the site accomplish the goal(s)? Provide specific examples to support your analysis.

INCENTIVES: What incentives are there for visitors to return to this site? Are the incentives effective? What makes them effective

PRIVACY: Is there a privacy statement on the site? Is it effective? What makes it effective?

SECURITY: Is there a security statement? Is one needed?

TARGET MARKETS: Who are the target markets for the site? Are they consumers, businesses, both, or others? Identify as many characteristics as possible.

VALUE: How does the site deliver value for the target markets? Does the site effectively communicate with them?

CONTROLS: What methods are used to measure site usage and obtain feedback? Are they effective?

OFFER: What is the offer? What products (goods, services, etc.) are offered (if any)?

Online Research Drives Offline Sales

Online product research is driving more in-store sales than online sales, says eMarketer's Jennifer Grau.

Last year, eMarketer estimated that store sales influenced by online research totaled $471 billion. Comparatively, retail e-commerce sales were only $136 billion.

Looked at another way, for every $1 in online sales, the Internet influenced $3.45 of store sales.

Read the eMarketer article here.

Google Health Records Set Off Privacy Alarms

Google today unveiled a pilot program that enables people to store and share information about their medical conditions online. Google today unveiled a pilot program that enables people to store and share information about their medical conditions online. Read this story here.

Integrating images in search algorithms

This blog presents a test of image inclusion in searches from the top 4 search engines (Google, Yahoo!, Micosoft and AskJeeves). 10 different search terms were tried out. One of the search terms ended with the word “pics”, four ended with “pictures” and five ended with the word “images”. Conclusions favor Microsoft and put Google at disadvantage. Draw your own conclusions from the results...

A YouTube for How To

A New York City startup called Howcast is launching today that wants to be the YouTube of instructional videos. In fact, the three founders—Jason Liebman, Daniel Blackman and Sanjay Raman—are ex-Google employees who worked on Google Video and YouTube before they left eight months ago. They actually are going for a little more polish than YouTube, trying to bring some production values to the world of Web video.

Howcast is also announcing an $8 million series A financing, led by Tudor Investment Corp. In addition to their own site, they already have a Youtube channel (where they split advertising revenues with their former employer). The Howcast team also has signed distribution deals with Myspace, Verizon for its Vcast phones and FiOS TV, Joost, and ROO. JetBlue is the launch advertiser. Read the entire story here.