Digital Marketing and Technological Insight

In what was no shock to anyone, Twitter officially announced their purchase of search engine Summize for roughly a few million in cash and Twitter stock (hearing different numbers from different sources). Rumors of the purchase have been floating around the internet for over a week now and most people were just waiting for the official announcement. Today we saw what was once Summize.com now direct you to Twitter Search (Search.Twitter.com),which is the same Summize user-interface but with Twitter branding.

Summize was always the best Twitter search application around, I regularly used it to not only monitor specific keywords but my own name. Summize gained a great deal of traction and traffic when Twitter was having their technical issues the past couple of months. Twitter users flocked to Summize and other search services to make sure they caught all of their @replies and friends messages. I, like many others, never stopped using it once Twitter (sort of) got their act together.

On the surface the purchase of Summize drastically improves the internal search functionality of Twitter. But, as I have discussed in previous Twitter Monetization posts, this acquisition is another step in bringing in actual revenue. How? First, they can sell ads on the Twitter Search results pages. This is the easiest and most logical immediate step as everyone would be up in arms over any sort of advertisements within the main Twitter interface and Tweets. Secondly, Twitter can license out the Summize API to other micro-blogging / Web 2.0 services to power their own internal site-search, in this scenario they can either get paid for the use or have a rev-share deal in place.

The great thing about this deal is that it is a win-win for Twitter. They have improved the user-experience, brought in some top engineers and maybe created a much needed revenue model.

Now if only they can get rid of the “Fail Whale”…

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.

AOL’s Truveo video search engine site / service has partnered with CBS Radio and its wide selection of local stations to provide searchable video conent. As part of the deal 35+ stations across the country will integrate Truveo’s online video search engine with more following in the coming weeks. Visitors to any of the CBS Radio sites with Truveo integration will be able to search, browse, share millions of videos from thousands of sources across the web…these sources include: YouTube, Dailymotion, CBS, ABC, BBC, Disney, MTV, NBC and many more.

 “CBS RADIO is one of the companies at the forefront of converging new and traditional media,” said Kevin Conroy, Executive Vice President of AOL. “By using Truveo to enhance their sites with videos from across the Web, CBS RADIO is giving its listeners a fuller and richer online experience. As CBS RADIO continues to expand the online features they offer to their listeners, we’re looking forward to working with them on this and many other projects.”   

 “With the boom in online video, incorporating this complementary content on our station websites makes perfect sense as a way to reach this ever growing audience,” said David Goodman, President of Marketing, CBS RADIO. “Truveo’s easy-to-use developer tools allowed us to quickly implement its video search engine so our listeners and website visitors can have a world-class video experience.”   

In the end this is a good deal for everyone around..but, how much traffic do these sites really generate? I am sure they have good numbers but nothing to brag about. The true value of the deal is Truveo’s ability to expand its brand to a new audience and hopefully start to gain overall traffic growth to Truveo.com

Ad Age just published their conversation with IAC head honcho Barry Diller, in the wake of the splitting / spinning IAC is doing with its properties (IAC is spinning off four divisions into separate publicly traded companies). Putting aside the series of softball questions and  cookie cutter answers the one real interesting part of the whole conversation revolved around Barry’s interest in AOL. Here is how the brief AOL exchange went down:

Ad Age: Are there sizes of acquisitions you’d rule out?

Mr. Diller: Never. We’d never rule anything out. … I don’t want to set the world up for surprises. We’ve tended to surprise people every year with something. So I hope there’ll be a few more, but hopefully not shock.

Ad Age: There’s still talk that Jeffrey Bewkes could break up Time Warner. Would you ever be interested in AOL?

Mr. Diller: We’ve talked over the years about our interest in AOL and never been able to get Time Warner to engage with us. I’ve always said AOL is great opportunity for somebody. When and if Warner doesn’t want it, I’ll certainly be at the door.

So why is this so interesting? Of course IAC, and any online focused company would be interested in AOL and in fact AOL’s deep list of properties combined with solid traffic and relatively efficient adverting models would fit perfectly into Mr. Diller’s future / current online plans. All IAC needs is a nice influx of cash in order to offer an amount Time Warner couldnt refuse to get AOL off their hands…oh wait isn’t that what IAC is planning? Mr. Diller has shown over the years that he loves brand names and what brand is bigger then AOL (well at least one he can afford to buy)?

Regardless of whether or not IAC buys AOL it is safe to say that someone, somewhere, will snap it up. AOL has been dragging down Time Warner for years and I am sure that sooner or later AOL will be sold off - my guess would be 2nd or 3rd quarter of 2008 at the latest.

In a story that was first reporting on by TechCrunch - Newsweek as officially confirmed that Tom Anderson, co-founder and everyone’s first friend on social networking leader MySpace lied about his age! He is actually about to turn 37, not 33 like his profile says. Read the full horrific article below for all the sketchy details: 

"Whether you’re a MySpace addict or a Luddite who logged on once to see what all the fuss was about, you’ve likely met Tom. As the public face of MySpace, cofounder Tom Anderson has become a celebrity since the site launched in 2003 because he’s every user’s first "friend": when you join MySpace, your profile is automatically linked to his. But it turns out that Tom, who, along with cofounder Chris DeWolfe, made a fortune when News Corp. bought MySpace for $580 million in 2005, may have a secret: his real age. According to public documents obtained by NEWSWEEK—including professional license information, voter registration and utility and telephone service applications—Anderson is five years older than he claims. His online profile currently lists his age as 32, but it appears he was actually born on Nov. 8, 1970, meaning he’ll turn 37 next week, not 33. (Happy birthday, Tom!)

Rumors about Anderson’s age began to spread last week, when the blog TechCrunch suggested that he was 36 or 37. Anderson and MySpace declined multiple requests for comment, and the company would not confirm his birth date. "I’m pretty bummed out about it," says 25-year-old Andrew Haynes, a Seattle comedian. "I’ve always taken MySpace with a grain of salt, but Tom was my first friend. It’s kind of messed up that he lied to me." Either way, he’s laughing all the way to the bank."