My Five: Five things worth sharing from the last week (or so), brought to you by a different member of the Browser Media team every Friday.
This week’s My Five is by Joe.
1. Google Car Insurance
An interesting article on the Econsultancy blog about how Google has powered into the race for the very competitive ‘car insurance’ sector.
Please note that the post is about visibility for paid search rather than organic but it is interesting to see how agressively Google is targeting those phrases.
For me, it raises two interesting questions:
- is it fair for the other advertisers?
- how much advertising revenue will Google lose?
It is early days, but it will be interesting to see how it develops. Google hates affiliates (a bit strong, as they only really hate the thin / valueless affiliate sites) but is itself growing its affiliate offering.
2. Cookie Compliance
A good report from TRUSTe shows that the new cookie legislation is still faltering.
Only 63% of 231 sites examined had done anything to embrace the new laws and just 12% had implemented prominent privacy notices with robust cookie controls.
So far, no cases to show that it is being actively policed and there are some amusing efforts to taunt the ICO starting to surface. All in all, a bit of a mess in terms of legislation…
3. Fat Finger Syndrome
I have always been a bit of a mobile skeptic, so enjoyed reading a report released by Trademob that suggests that as much as 40% of paid-for clicks are completely worthless.
I know that I have accidentally ‘clicked’ on ads before so can believe the stats. How about you – can you honestly say that you haven’t suffered from fat finger syndrome at some point?
4. iPhone 5 mania
It’s that time of year again. Millions of sheep following each other and bleeting about the new amazing iPhone 5.
I am an Android man. I had a failed romance with an Ipad 2 before selling it in favour of a galaxy tab (7.7 if you are really geeky – an awesome piece of kit), so have never really understood the mania that surrounds the launch of each new iPhone but you have to admire the loyalty of the Apple fanboys.
The iPhone 5 is officially announced and Experian Hitwise reported that one in every 1,000 searches online last week by Britons was for the iPhone 5. Incredible stats, but backed up by an amazing graph from Google Insights for Search:
I have no doubt that the new iPhone launch will be the most successful in Apple’s history, despite the mass of opinion that the iPhone 5 doesn’t really deliver much and the insistence on using a smaller screen is going to bit Applie in the derrière.
To me, the iPhone is arguably the most potent evidence of brand loyalty and I admire Apple for having created it, even if I think you are a muppet for buying one.
5. The Olympics
That’s it folks, it’s all over and the focus now shifts to Rio.
I was planning on launching a campaign to kitesurf at the next olympics but a 2hr ‘training session’ a couple of weeks ago resulted in my knees protesting and it reminded me that I am too old and my olympic dreams were over before they really got started.
What fun it was this summer and I do hope that the legacy lasts. One of my sons was clearly inspired by Andy Murray’s success as he was up early in the morning hitting the swingball, so I hope that a generation is inspired to get active and do more sport.
A slightly old one, which you may have seen before, but this video has to be one of my favourites from the olympics:
Crank it up, enjoy and I hope you have a great weekend!
