On 2nd March, I had the opportunity to attend a huge DJ gig in Auckland, gathering Porter Robinson, the freaky Die Antwoord, the impressive 24-years-old-Grammy-Awards-winner Skrillex and last but not the least the legendary Fatboy Slim.

I don’t say that for his age, don’t take me wrong because although his “great” age, Fatboy Slim manages to use the most of the DJing technology extremely well and wisely.

In the video below, Fatboy Slim explains how DJing evolved since his debut in the 90’s with  software and hardware that allow DJs to ‘hang around’ without having to carry on a whole orchestra!  Fatboy Slim also tells us how he imagined DJing performance when he was a kid, with videos on big screens synchronised with the music.

This is now possible thanks to solutions such as Serato Video. Serato Video is a plug-in for Scratch Live and ITCH enabling you to mix video, just like music. This allows an augmented experience for the audience and for the DJ it is a better way to share their universe through music, video and light DJing.

The result is a crazy-hypnotised-dancing crowd, just like the one at the Fatboy Slim gig in Auckland!

First Rate is proud to work with Serato on their SEO, SEM and Analytics projects and we hope our contribution will make more gigs like Fatboy Slim’s one possible!

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Google recently announced that they are adding several interesting new ways to be able to initiate a search.

Google Voice

One is the ability to be able to speak your query. Now this has been available for quite a while on Google Mobile, but has only just now been added to the standard web search functionality. We can see this feature being very popular with people who aren’t great at typing, and also when searching for words that you are not really sure how to spell.

Google Search By Image

The other new search functionality that was announced is called Search by Image. This allows you to start your Google search by providing an image rather than typing in or speaking your search. There are several different ways that you can tell Google what image you want it to search with:

• Drag and drop a picture from a web page or your computer onto the search box.
• Upload an image from your computer.
• Copy and paste the URL of an image on the web.
• Or if you install one of the new Chrome or Firefox plugins, you can simply right click on a picture in your web browser and choose to search for that image.

I can see myself using this feature extensively for researching travel destinations. I’d love to hear your ideas for other interesting uses of Search by Image in the comments section below.

Both of these new search features can help to make it easier to find certain types of information, and it is interesting to note that they both were available on your cellphone before they made it to Google’s standard desktop search.

Our research clearly shows that the percentage of website visitors coming from mobile platforms such as the iPhone, iPad and Android phones is growing at an amazing rate. The future of the internet is clearly mobile. If you have a website, is it mobile ready?

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The newest major web browsers all seem to carry advanced Privacy Features designed to reduce a user’s Internet footprint by allowing them to tune down what websites can track.

Internet Explorer 9 provides Tracking Protection, while Mozilla Firefox 4 offers a Do Not Track feature and Google Chrome 10 allows users to add an Opt-Out extension to the browser.

While all three are similarly promoted as privacy features, they are massively different in how they work and how they impact the user experience.

Internet Explorer 9 – Tracking Protection

This privacy feature in IE9 requires the user to specifically opt out from a list (or lists) of ad networks. The browser will then watch for clickstream tracking and targeted ads coming from the sites/servers/networks in the opt-out list and simply block them. However, where this list(s) will come from is yet to be finalized.

The main concept is that users will have to create their own lists of ad networks they want blocked, or choose from lists compiled by privacy groups. And it will be left up to the users to continually update their IE9 browsers with the latest, most comprehensive lists.

Jonathan Mayer, a Stanford doctorate and law student who is also a research fellow at Stanford’s Center for Internet and Society, says that the IE9’s blocking lists “should at minimum cover the NAI companies and possibly more” – USA Today – Technology Live

Firefox 4 – Do Not Track Feature

When enabled by the user, Firefox’s Do Not Track feature works by inserting a Do Not Track HTTP Header into the request sent to every website you click to requesting no clickstream tracking. This header tells the receiving website(s) that the user would like to opt out of the Online Behavioral Advertising (OBA).

“The idea is to standardize a way of asking people to not track you, and then send that to everyone,” says Mayer. “You’re relying on the honor system for people not to track you.” The Firefox approach is “essentially a universal form of an opt-out cookie that goes along with every request to every ad network. Not just those on the NAI list or other lists.”

As opposed to actively managing opt-out lists, the user can simply turn the feature on to start sending the opt-out request to every server by default.

While this feature is the closest to being ideal in terms of comprehensiveness and ease-of-use, it may still take a few more Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rulings before the concept can work as intended, as the onus is now on the receiving servers to honour the opt-out request while there is still no clear FTC requirements as yet that defines which servers can and cannot track what.

Google Chrome 10 – Opt-Out Browser Extension

Google Chrome requires the user to install the Opt-Out browser extension as the privacy feature. This browser extension allows users to ask to opt out of being tracked by the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) members. The participating members then embed a cookie in the user’s browser noting that request.

Upon such request, some NAI members stop tracking the user’s clickstreams while some other members merely stop sending targeted ads to the user and carry on with clickstream tracking. Should the user ever delete his or her cookies — which is wise to do periodically, for security reasons — the NAI’s opt-out cookies get wiped out, too. The primary added functionality of Keep My Opt-Outs is designed to “prevent accidentally clearing those cookies,” says Mayer.

In Summary

To me, after analysing these features in more detail, what has lately generated much hype in the market seems to be a great concept that is currently lacking in execution due to no follow-up regulation to enforce the opt-out requests.  However, in the future this may be resolved to allow the features to function as intended.

What about Web Analytics?

I can see some concerns out there on how these Privacy Features (especially “Do Not Track”) will impact the web analytics tracking.

My estimation is that the above is a misconception and that there should not be any real impact at all to Web Analytics. Here is why:

1. Rate of usage: Early observations seem to indicate heavy user involvement in setting those features up properly, especially for the Google Chrome browser extension install and IE9’s opt-out list management. This would limit such usage to a minority rather than majority-by-default.
2. Blockage Target: All the three Privacy Features specifically target 3^rd party cookies, which is the type of cookie normally used by the ad networks. There is currently no indication that 1^st party cookies are going to be impacted. And since most web analytics (Google Analytics included) use 1^st party cookies, the data integrity will very likely remain unaffected by these do not track features.

OTHER SOURCES:

• http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2011/01/what-new-privacy-features-in-chrome-firefox-and-ie9-really-do/1
• http://firstpersoncookie.wordpress.com/2011/01/23/more-choice-and-control-over-online-tracking/
• http://donottrack.us/
• http://www.open-mike.org/entry/thoughts-on-do-not-track
• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2011/03/14/web-tracking-protection-minimum-standards-and-opportunities-to-innovate.aspx
• http://www.kaushik.net/

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Google has again evolved the personalised search feature to allow users to block domains from the main search results interface without having to install the Personal Blocklist Chrome extension to do so. The way to use this feature is that after a user clicks on one of the links in the search results then presses the back button, an option should appear next to the cached link to allow the user to block the whole domain from all results. This differs slightly from the old search wiki feature that allowed users to drop a page from one particular search query.

Now Google has publicly stated on it’s blog that it does not rely on the feedback it receives from the Personal Blocklist Chrome extension and we would assume this would be the same for feedback from this new feature. This statement was made after they had introduced an algorithm change to provide higher quality results by blocking a lot of the low quality content farms that were around. Google had also stated that they did do a comparison of the domains the new algorithm block to the feedback from the Chrome extension and there was an 84% correlation.

What does this all mean? Even though Google is not automatically using the blocked domain data to influence its search result, they are using it as an early detection system for domains that might be using highly aggressive ranking techniques that Google may deem as breaching its guidelines. So basically users who use personalised search are now part of a bigger quality control panel. Google is also using the blocked domain feedback data as a yardstick for its own algorithm.

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The bulk of the consultants here at First Rate are (or have been in their younger days) pretty keen gamers.

So what would our profession be if it was a computer game? I don’t think it’s as easy as having just one…

SEO – Space Invaders:

Let’s start off with a classic. In space invaders you need to keep on shooting those aliens to keep on getting points. You need to hit the guys down the bottom first, and move your way up to the guys up the top. If we think about each level of aliens as a stage in your SEO project. Without doing your Search phrase research, the bottom level, you can’t get the next level up, or the one after that.

Google AdWords – Duck Hunt

In Duck Hunt you need to aim carefully and shoot the ducks as they fly past. When you start out you are going to do a lot more shooting than hitting, but over time you refine your aim more and more, and end up with a higher success rate! Adwords is the same – when you first start out you target a lot, but as you learn from your results you end up refining your aim, better selecting the ducks you know you can hit, thus increasing the likelihood of getting a conversion every time you “pull the trigger”.

Conversion Rate Optimisation – Lemmings and Mortal Kombat

This one gets two games, as there are two major parts to it.

First of all, lemmings. Your website is just like a lemmings level, with the lemmings being the users (we mean this in the nicest possible way!). You have a start, where the user enters, and an end, the conversion point, and you are trying to guide as many as possible safely through the process. Do a poor job and too many will drop out, but do it right and more will make it to the safety of the portal!

So that’s why you do it, what about how?

In Mortal Kombat two go in, only one comes out! In A/B testing two pages run head to head, with only the winner living on to fight again. You have a range of “moves” and tactics you need to use to make sure your new page beats the old one!

Analytics – Mine Sweeper

Minesweeper is all about reading the numbers and picking the trends. Analytics is exactly the same!  We dig through the figures, identifying where to ‘click’ next, and what areas to avoid.

Other favourite suggestions from around the office:

• SEO Farmville – The internet is huge and you don’t get anywhere without connections
• SEO Pacman – Eat up market share before your competitors do
• Donkey Kong AdWords – Find your way to the top without getting hit with barrels – or high CPCs!
• CRO Tetris – Need to find the best way to fit all the page parts together.
• Multivariate CRO EVE Online – Multivariate conversion rate optimisation is much like configuring an arsenal of advanced spaceship weaponry (positive encouragement, testimonials, trust factors) and tactical defensive modules (purchase objections Q&A, Top queries FAQ) in just the right combination to have maximum conversion impact, hyper-charging conversion rates and thus maximising revenue.
• Online Marketing Chess – It’s all about strategy and achieving long term goals using tactical opportunities.

Any other favourites you can think of..?

Leave us a comment if you have a suggestion!

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