Digital Marketing and Technological Insight

LinkedIn, the business social networking service, has decided to join Facebook in letting developers build applications for its site. The goal is to make the site more interactive and drive increased traffic - especially returning traffic. Opening up for developers is the biggest move LinkedIn is making but not the only one. LinkedIn is in the process of launching a beta version of a new home page, which includes expanded news and information relevant to the user. “When we look forward to 2008, we see people and professionals more and more going beyond the connections and actually using LinkedIn to make themselves more productive on a daily basis.” Adam Nash, senior product director, said earlier.

I say great to this - in theory. LinkedIn is a tremendous business resource and one that I use quite often, but not for features or content. I use LinkedIn for what it is meant for, networking with former and current business associates. I spend enough time on sites and blogs getting all the information I need. I go to LinkedIn to either add contacts or see what my current contacts are up to. So I am sure developers will add some cool new applications but in the end I hope that LinkedIn does not lose focus on what they are and try to compete with larger social networking sites.

Here is a link to the announcement on the LinkedIn blog.

Google’s Marissa Mayer announced the fastest rising search terms for 2007 yesterday and I have to say it is the most interesting one I have ever seen. The list truly contains a wide and varied mix of web properties, brands, technology, celebrities…here is the entire list:

1. iPhone
2. WebKinz
3. TMZ
4. Transfomers
5. YouTube
6. Club Penguin
7. MySpace
8. Hereos
9. Facebook
10. Anna Nicole Smith

iPhone being #1 does not surprise me, in fact I would have been more surprised if it wasnt #1. But Webkinz #2? Wow. Webkinz, along with #6, is a Second Life / Social Network type service for kids.  I knew that these type of sites had tremendous visit stats like time spent and repeat visitors but to be above terms like Facebook and MySpace? Amazing. The rest of the list is fairly expected..social networking sites, a couple of TV show / movies, YouTube and Celebrities.

The Guardian has a very interesting article where they asked Vint Cerf, chief evangelist at Google to ask true technology movers and shakers what the future holds for the web and technology. The article features in-depth conversations with Chris De Wolfe (co-founder MySpace), Chad Hurley (co-founder YouTube), Biz Stone (co-founder Twitter) and may others.

Microsoft announced today at Search Engine Strategies Chicago three new search tools, two for paid search and one for search engine optimization (SEO). On the paid side Microsoft launched the adCenter Add-in for Excel and the adExcellence accreditation program, on the organic side Microsoft launched a new and improved Webmaster Center. 

The adCenter Add-on for Excel, which should go live in early 2008, lets users conduct keyword research and strategy from within a Excel spreadsheet. The goal of the Add-on is to give marketers a clearer picture of trends, cost and opportunities. The adExcellence accreditation program follows in the footsteps of the similar Google and Yahoo programs in giving advertisers and agencies the recognition of being proficient in adCenter.

On the organic side, Microsoft’s new Webmaster Center (which was announced a month or so ago) is meant to give marketers a clearer pictures of how Microsoft search engine indexes and crawls sites, enhance sitemap creation / submission, more in-depth statistics and more content / community resources.

Microsoft has a long road ahead in terms of trying to catch up to Google and Yahoo but they are doing their best to offer search marketers every possible tool they need to do their job and get results. But, in the end you can have the best tools online but with search it comes down to volume and relevancy of search results - Microsoft is just not there on either.