Social Media | Internet Marketing Blog

OpenStreetMap lands first commercial partner

OpenStreetMap (OSM), the open source mapping project, has secured its first commercial partner by linking up with property search engine Nestoria.

The move will see Nestoria displaying OSM’s user generated maps alongside its property listings – a boost for the project as it seeks to gain popularity among third-party developers.

by Richard Maven 23 October 2006 17:25pm 3 comments

Torsten Jacobi on blogging and blog networks

Fresh back from a trip to Greenland, Torsten Jacobi answers some questions about his fast-growing blog network, Creative Weblogging.

The firm, which aggregates over 80 blogs, was founded in Hamburg in January 2004 by Torsten and Raik Hoffmann, and is now based in Palo Alto, California.

by Richard Maven 19 October 2006 13:29pm 0 comments

FeedRaider – creating personalised pages with RSS

Steve Rubel pointed out the joys of FeedRaider a couple of days ago, and it is well worth taking a look.

Ideal for those new to RSS, Feedraider allows you to create bespoke pages by adding RSS feeds and works a little like popurls, only you define where the content comes from.

If you want to set up a web-based RSS aggregator then it really couldn’t be simpler. It is also perfect for sharing news sources with friends and colleagues.

by Chris Lake 18 October 2006 16:59pm 3 comments

Top UK blogs, ranked by unique users and impressions

Last Friday I wrote a post called “Are inbound links the best way to measure a blog’s influence?”, where I challenged a study published by Edelman and Technorati.

That study ranked the top blogs in the UK by influence, but rankings were determined solely by links from other blogs. My big issue is that the quantity of links doesn’t tell you very much, not when many blogs listed in Technorati are spam blogs.

In any case, I don’t believe that PR professionals or media planners would subscribe to this link-based methodology to measure influence (or very much else for that matter).

So I promised a closer look at the top blogs in the UK, ranked by a more suitable metrics: unique users and page impressions.

After the jump, the results...

by Chris Lake 18 October 2006 12:20pm 2 comments

Bebo bags MSN's ad boss, embarks on major revenue push

Social networking outfit Bebo has recruited MSN’s regional sales boss Mark Charkin to help launch its much-awaited ad strategy.

by Richard Maven 18 October 2006 00:01am 0 comments

The Google algorithm, according to Rand Fishkin

Rand at SEOmoz is one of our favourite search marketing gurus and has just published a rough outline of the Google algorithm, using a combination of guesswork and reverse engineering.

by Chris Lake 17 October 2006 15:59pm 0 comments

The revenue model of user generated content?

Let’s face it shall we - no one creates something and then gives it away for free, expecting no return...

I mean, as much as we’d like to do stuff and give it away for free, in the interests of making the world a better place, the unfortunate reality is that we all have to earn our crust somehow, and if we throw our eggs into the user generated content basket, then you have to ask what the hell your revenue model is going to be?

by Gareth Knight 17 October 2006 12:58pm 4 comments

Online charities and Web 2.0 - interview with Dean Russell

In summer 2006 E-consultancy published a report called Online Charity Benchmarks, which was compiled by iConcertina, a London-based new media agency with a focus on the charity sector.

We talked to iConcertina's Dean Russell to further investigate the study and the drivers behind it...

by Chris Lake 17 October 2006 12:28pm 1 comment

Social networkers reject ads

Users of social networking sites are becoming impervious to traditional ads and turning instead to their friends and colleagues for information and product recommendations, according to a new study.

by Richard Maven 17 October 2006 08:55am 0 comments