Ask.com jumps on the bargain hunting bandwagon
Everyone loves a deal and that's especially true when times are tough. So it's no surprise that bargain hunting online has become an even more popular pastime for consumers. From coupon sites to cashback sites, consumers looking to spend money have plenty of ways to get more bang for the buck.
Helping them get that bang for the buck is something naturally suited to search engines. And Ask.com is joining the fray with a new service called Ask Deals.
Toolbars, pop-ups and parasites in Affiliate Marketing
Parasitic affiliate behavior has been a long-standing problem. The issue is frequently being raised on affiliate marketing blogs and forums, but not by wider communities of e-marketers.
It should be, because in many instances it affects multiple channels of online marketing, and not the affiliate one only.
Price comparison sites need to work on usability
Some of the UK's leading financial comparison sites need to work hard at improving the user experience on their websites, according to a new study.
According to Webcredible's Future Comparisons white paper (pdf), presentation of search results, and the ability to manipulate and sort was one major area for improvement, while customer trust issues were often not addressed adequately.
The report looks at the five main financial comparison sites in the UK: Moneysupermarket.com, Gocompare.com, Comparethemarket.com, Confused.com, and uSwitch.com.
Foundem vs Google: a case study in SEO fail
The Guardian is one of the best mainstream media publishers when it comes to technology. Not only does it do a lot of things right, as far as its website goes, but it has some excellent tech-savvy writers.
However, sometimes it gets things wrong, and an article today by Richard Wray on the search engine optimisation woes of price comparison engine Foundem is badly misguided.
I read the article on the tube, so wasn’t immediately able to check the website in question, but normally when firms blame Google for their problems it is related entirely to their web strategy (or lack of it), as opposed to some outlandish flaw with Google's algorithm. As such I reckoned there would be a problem with the Foundem website, and probably relating to unique content, technology, and a lack of quality links.
It turns out that there are problems in all of these areas...
Q&A: Tom Harrow on childcare search site Findababysitter.com
Findababysitter.com has been going for around two years now, and recently relaunched the site after receiving a second round of funding.
The site works allows parents to search for nannies and childminders in their local area, and to advertise on the site when they require childminding services. I've been talking to owner Tom Harrow, who runs the website with his wife Vanessa...
Tesco opens up its DB, offers affiliates lifetime commissions
A move by Tesco may provide some hints about the state of affiliate marketing and its future.
Earlier this month, Tesco sent the 150 developers who have been working with Tesco.com's Grocery API an email detailing that the company was opening up its database to them and giving them the ability to build applications that could potentially generate lifelong affiliate commissions.
Wolfram Alpha - Thank You
Wolfram Alpha is disruptive revolutionary technology. I envision the next step to be simple: a web enabled and wireless carrier supported scientific calculator. This will hyper-drive math and science education and will open up science and discovery.
Site review: Bill Monitor
Developed by mathematicians from Oxford University, Bill Monitor allows consumers to compare phones and tariffs and find the best price plan from the five network operators.
It has also received accreditation from Ofcom, meaning the site can place a nice logo on the homepage which should help reassure customers using the website to select their next mobile phone contract. I've been tying it out...
Q&A: Kelkoo's UK MD Bruce Fair
Kelkoo was offloaded by Yahoo to UK private equity firm Jamplant at the end of last year for a figure reported to be in the region of €100m, a good deal less than the €475m paid for the shopping comparison site in 2004.
I've been talking to Kelkoo's UK MD Bruce Fair about the company's plans now it is under new ownership...
Can IMShopping bring a little bit of the in-store shopping experience online?
As much as I love buying things online, there's a lot to like about the in-store shopping experience. Being able to see, touch and try a product in person can play a major role in a purchasing decision. It also helps to have a member of the sales staff handy to answer questions.
But a startup that launched today is hoping to make the online shopping experience a little bit more like the offline one.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
