If you were the folks at Twitter and you are talking about offering commercial level services that are going to eventually generate the mythical revenue that everyone is yapping about wouldn’t hate to hear about enterprise unrest among the ranks? The issue of Twitter account squatting is nothing new. There has also been little mention of it in the news as of late. I actually made the mistake to think that maybe Twitter took control and really started to crack down on the practice.

Apparently not. AdAge is reporting that Twitter is in the process of ticking off more than a few of the hands that might feed them in the future. Of course, Twitter may now be in the position to tell anyone, paying now or possibly later, for their services that they will just have to wait until Twitter is good and ready. While the argument exists that they are truly that powerful it would be a shame that if they used that power as an excuse to ignore the needs of corporate clients.

AdAge reports

On Twitter’s @Hyundai page, there is a collection of 140-character blasts in English and Korean about oysters, cellphones and the Yankees. Clicking on a profile photo reveals a collage of scantily clad ladies bearing cleavage and more, and a caption saying, “Have a Lustful Day.”

This kind of stuff leaves the folks at Hyundai Motor America less than thrilled

After having contacted the social-media site’s headquarters repeatedly to evict the squatter without success, the frustrated automaker has gone so far as to contemplate legal action. “They simply haven’t responded to requests,” said Chris Hosford, VP-corporate communications at Hyundai Motor America. “Our brand name is extremely important to us. … We’re very disappointed that Twitter has shown no interest in protecting brand names.” Unable to use the handle, the company has resorted to sending out official company tweets from @HyundaiNews.

Ughh. The L word. No not that one you sick person but L for “legal”. Last thing any start up needs is the fun and games of legal issues to get in the way of putting together a better service and offering.

The article talks in greater detail about how celebrities have been afforded special badges but the corporate side of the ledger (you remember, the one that could make money) is left to fend for themselves for now. Twitter’s policies are there but there is no guarantee of remedy in a timely fashion so some companies are left to get creative. Of course, one could argue that a big brand being late to the game and not securing these names years ago is on the company. There are two sides to every coin, after all.

So what is Twitter doing, if anything?

Twitter’s head of commercial products, Anamitra Banerji, said, “We understand brands’ frustration when it comes to account verification. We are working on ways to make the process easier and faster …. Given the volume of requests we receive, sometimes it might take a little while to close requests but we are trying to improve that too.” The social-media service, he said, is “[working] with business owners extensively to ensure that they own their trademarks/brand names on Twitter as our terms of service doesn’t allow name-squatting or impersonation.”

Ahh yes. The old volume of requests complaint. That one might have worked when Twitter was the little start up that could but the recent influx of investment takes the air right out of that argument. HIRE SOME PEOPLE, TWITTER!

So it’s interesting to see that not everyone is bent out of shape on this issue

Not all marketers are ruffled, though. Pfizer doesn’t own the handle @Pfizer, and a mystery tweeter is regularity tweeting updates about the company. Ray Kerins, VP-worldwide communications at Pfizer, told Ad Age that the company isn’t planning to take any action. “We are obviously watching any site that discusses our company or our products,” Mr. Kerins said. “We’re going to continue to watch. These social communities are actually very self-policing.”

Wow, now there is either great confidence in the ability of people to keep the street clean or a level of naiveté that will end up badly when the next brand firestorm comes up for Pfizer and the fake account is at the center of it. Maybe the folks who make Viagra are suffering from one of those side effects than impair judgment. Just a thought.

What’s your experience with getting Twitter to help in these situations? Should Twitter care? Happy Monday Pilgrims, let’s hear it!

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According to Technorati’s 2009 State of the Blogosphere report, 70% of bloggers talk about products or brands on their blogs, eMarketer reports. And obviously some of these mentions would be prompted by free sample products, etc.—a practice popular enough to draw the notice of the FTC, which now requires disclosure on such review products.

Interestingly, corporate bloggers were least likely to blog about brands and products (lawsuit anyone?), and hobbyist bloggers were second least likely. Technorati defined hobbyist bloggers as those that blog for fun. They don’t make money (and only some of them want to, which I think is awesome). Instead of brands and products, they mostly share “personal musings” (53% of hobbyists), and 76% blog to speak their minds. 72% of bloggers fell into this category.

“Part-timers” were most likely to mention brands and products. They blog to supplement their main income. 15% of respondents, most part-timers blog to share their expertise or attract new clients.

“Self-employed” bloggers, 9% of the survey respondents, blog full time for their own company or organization. (Corporate bloggers, 4%, blog for someone else’s company/organization—including their employer.)

Despite the focus on products and brands, bloggers felt that the free goodies weren’t the most important benefits from their blogs—gaining visibility (individually or for their business) and bringing in new business were the top two benefits cited by bloggers surveyed.

What do you think? Do you blog about brands? What benefits have you seen from blogging? Which group do you fall into?

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It seems that around every corner on the web there is some one selling a get rich quick scheme or program. There’s always someone talking about a magic formula, or amazing tactic, that will make money fall from heaven. The truth is, there isn’t really one program or set of rules that are guaranteed to make anyone rich. The truth is, that some programs work for some and not for others. Some programs work for many and some don’t work for any at all. However, after a few years of building a business online, I have discovered that there is one tactic that most successful entrepreneurs use everyday.

This one tactic has helped millions of business leaders, public figures and even whole corporations see unprecedented wealth. It’s the same tactic that gets politicians elected and drives entire social movements. You can use this tactic to get a raise at work, or completely start your own empire. Sounds exciting doesn’t it?

Now don’t get me wrong this tactic can’t be practiced alone, you still have to work hard and produce good content, but if you can master this tactic it makes everything else so much easier.

So what the heck is this secret tactic??

Well, if I told you it wouldn’t be a secret would it? I hate when people say that! But, seriously this is the type of tactic that you can’t learn from a blog post. To truly understand how this works you have to experience it for yourself. To truly master this tactic you have to see it in action and try it out on your own. A silly blog post won’t do this lesson justice.

So I am going to offer you the opportunity to learn this tactic from me in person! You see, this coming week I will be in Las Vegas attending one of the most well known Internet Marketing events ever, Pubcon. If you can find me in Las Vegas, and ask me about this post, I will share with you everything I know about this tactic. I will point out people that use this tactic everyday, and I will give you tips on how you can get started using this gem instantly. And, for the rest of you that aren’t going, I will do my best to share with you my secret tactic next week in part 2 of this post. Then, I will point out examples of folks from Pubcon that used this tactic. So until then, have a great week, and I hope to see you in Vegas!

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About a year ago, Reframe It launched a product that allowed web users to add public (or private) comments on any part of any website, using a side pane in the browser. According to the users’ choice, the comments would be available for later visitors to that website to see and respond to.

Six weeks ago, Google launched SideWiki which . . . does the same thing (without the privacy options). A coincidence? Possibly. But Reframe It co-founder and CEO Bobby Fishkin believes the similarities extend beyond just the ideas for the products. He tells eWEEK that even the layout of the buttons of the two services is strikingly similar.

And the evidence he offers goes deeper:

A Reframe It board member recommended the service to a Google exec in July 2008Within a few months, at least six Google employees registered for the service.Days before Sidewiki’s launch, Google tried to hire Reframe It co-founder and lead engineer Ben Taitelbaum.

Of course, all we have for for all this is Fishkin’s word (though I assume Taitelbaum and the board member would testify as well). Fishkin says Reframe It has a patent pending—and the law says they can amend that application, including to specifically cover the aspects they think Google might be copying. Once the patent is officially issued, they can sue for infringement.

On Google Watch, eWEEK reporter Clint Boulton assembled the side-by-side comparison of the two services:

Reframe It Vs. Google Sidewiki –

Naturally, neither Reframe It nor Sidewiki can claim to be the first web annotation service. However, depending on exactly what their patent will cover, Reframe It may still be able to claim Google violates their patent. (However, at present Reframe It is focusing on launching its 2.0 version, and couldn’t take the distraction, Fishkin says.)

What do you think? Should Reframe It sue Google once it’s patent is issued? Or is this just a coincidence?

via

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You know that $3.40 you make in Google AdSense each month? Well, Google is about to make it a lot easier to see just how badly your blog sucks at using AdSense.

A new AdSense interface design will start rolling to users over the coming weeks:

For those of you making more than enough AdSense revenue to buy a Big Mac, you’ll enjoy these enhanced features:

Detailed metrics including the amount you’ve earned from various ad, targeting and bid typesMore options to manage the ads that appear on your siteSimplify common tasks, such as making a change to several ad units simultaneouslyMore help options, tips, and alerts

Google will start rolling out the beta in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Japanese today. Don’t go stampeding to your AdSense account, looking for the update. Google will email you, if you’re one of the lucky ones chosen for the beta.

Aside: I wonder if this new interface is designed to prevent the mass migration away from AdSense by bloggers?

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If you’re into smartphones or mobile advertising, you’ve probably heard of AdMob, a popular mobile display advertising company. And apparently Google’s heard of them, too—Google announced today that they have acquired AdMob for $750M in stock.

Google reports some mobile ad stats:

iPhone and Android users browse the Internet more often than anyone else [Morgan Stanley], contributing to Google’s 5x mobile search growth over the past two yearsAnd a quarter of these same iPhone and Android users spend nearly 90 minutes per day using applications on their devices [AdMob]

As noted in the stats, Google is doing well in mobile search (though there’s still plenty of competition). But, Google says, they’re not the only ones who’ll benefit from this acquisition. Publishers will get better products, tools and monetization. Advertisers will get greater reach and “better, more relevant ads” for users engaged with mobile content. Users will get more mobile content and more useful mobile ads.

I’m not sure I buy all that—the deal might make it easier to target ads, for example, but it’s not automatically going to make advertisers’ ads better.

What do you think? Who’s really going to benefit most from this deal?

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Welcome to this Friday’s version of surveys, research and statistics to ponder. Of course, how and what you ponder always has more to do with the source of the statistics and your mood which makes the numbers kinda funky but ‘Hey!’, if we didn’t have stats what would we do with our days?

This latest statistical ‘he said / she said’ consists of different numbers regarding the state of e-commerce. Today’s particpants are, “In the red corner”, comScore. They are in the red corner because they are reporting that e-commerce is slipping for the first time in the history of the world (you get it right?). “In the blue corner” is Forrester who tells everyone to not get our knickers in a twist because even in the cruddy economy e-commerce is the light on the hill or a veritable economic ‘beacon o’ hope’. Today’s match is brought to you by the Wall Street Journal.

On Thursday, comScore reported that U.S. online spending in the third quarter slipped 2% to $29.6 billion versus last year. That represents the first time since comScore began tracking the figures that online spending has shrunk for two quarters in a row. (Online shopping was flat in the first quarter, and slipped 1% in the second quarter.) ComScore was slightly more upbeat about the potential of growth in the fourth quarter, if only because we’ll be comparing it to last year’s dismal fourth quarter.

But on Monday, Forrester Research put out a report that reached a different conclusion: online sales in November and December are likely to grow 8% compared to last year. Moreover, a survey Forrester conducted with the National Retail Foundation found that online retailers reported sales in the third quarter grew 16%.

Geesh, can’t we all just get along? Let’s just say this. The rest of the article is the two researchers pointing fingers at each other saying that how they collect data is better than the other guy and having a researchers equivalent of a “my dad can beat up your dad” argument.

How about we do this? How about we look at what has happened and then work toward getting better. Then we assess if we did or did not get better after we actually DID SOMETHING! What a concept.

Aren’t rosy predictions and unfettered prognostications how we got into this mess in the first place? Isn’t predicting the future that never was a mistake? If the Internet truly is a better way to do things then why can’t we find a better way to assess things rather than act like we have some magic 8-ball or crystal ball that tells the future as well. We don’t.

My prediction? People will go out and do their very best to make something happen in Q4 regardless of these predictions and then they will live in the world of reality of whether things are good or bad, not in the fantasy land of what they may or may not be in the future. This research is for the big boys and not the rest of the world and even then it’s dicey at best. One man’s opinion. Have a fun Friday!

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I think every single one of us could share a frustrating online shopping experience, especially one about trying to find a product you know a retailer offers, but doesn’t show up in their search results. Google wants to make it easier for all of us with their new enterprise offering, Google Commerce Search.

To participate, you submit all your data to Google Merchant Center and Google Product Search (via data feeds, direct uploads or the API), and then customize the look and feel of your search engine with Google. Although Google doesn’t mention this in the documentation, I can only assume you have to do something to incorporate the Commerce Search into your site (probably replacing your old search engine). (Oh, and PS, it starts at $50k/yr.)

And, now, isn’t that awfully handy? Just in time for the holidays, Google has come out with a solution for you that entails you adding your entire inventory to Google Product Search. They warn us that, on average, a user takes 8 seconds to decide whether to stay on a site (although several other studies have shown that people judge sites in less than a second). If we don’t have our products indexed with Google, in those eight seconds, we’ll lose all our potential customers!

Wait, why, again?

(To be realistic, this isn’t even close to being “in time for the holidays.” That would have probably been in June so they could get past the ramp up stage.)

And once again, for the visual learners:

Obviously, I’m all for better usability on eCommerce sites. But somehow, I don’t think Google really has us in mind as they rolled this out.

What do you think? Is this something Google is doing out of the goodness of their hearts, or out of interest for the bottom line?

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You know that domain name that you don’t want anyone to know that you own? The one that you’re either testing out some SEO stuff that’s in the “gray hat” area? The one you don’t want your competitors to know that you own? The one you’ve been considering for sending spam emails?

Yeah, that one.

Well, the Ninth Circuit court of appeals just ruled that using any kind of domain privacy service could get you into legal trouble:

[P]rivate registration is a service that allows registration of a domain name in a manner that conceals the actual registrant’s identity from the public absent a subpoena. We fail to perceive any vagueness on this point. Based on the plain meaning of the relevant terms discussed above, private registration for the purpose of concealing the actual registrant’s identity would constitute “material falsification.” Defendants assert that many innocent people who privately register without the requisite intent may be subject to investigation for violation of § 1037 until their intent can be determined, allowing for abuse by enforcement authorities. This may be so, but it does not make the statute unconstitutionally vague.

Simply using a domain privacy service doesn’t make you a criminal, but the ruling appears to suggest that the use of such a service–especially in the use of sending spam emails–could be interpreted as trying to evade identification.

You probably don’t have to worry about the local sheriff knocking on your door, but as far as this ruling goes, no matter what your intentions, concealing your ownership of a domain is–by the letter of the law–material falsification.

Legal eagles, feel free to weigh in with your expert opinions!

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There’s a growing interest in online reputation management. Over at Wildfire Marketing, I answered some reputation management questions for their Thought Leader Thursday series.

Here’s a taster…

What are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve seen people make when it comes to responding to a reputation management crisis, and how someone salvage the situation if they’ve already made one of these mistakes?

The biggest mistake is simply not having official channels in place to allow your customers to complain. Most disgruntled customers post to blogs and Twitter because they feel like they are not being heard by your company. They get frustrated with your lack of customer service and they think to themselves, “I’ll show them, I’ll post a negative review on Yelp/Twitter/Blog.” If companies would simply look at how they’re listening to their customers, and how they escalate and resolve customer service complaints, many of the reputation problems you see would never make it to the web.

Perhaps the second biggest mistake is not apologizing soon enough. We tend to get too defensive, when we screw-up. We want to try and resolve the problem without accepting blame and without putting our hands in our pockets. When your business faces a legitimate complaint, move quickly to resolve it. Don’t think about the few dollars in refund demanded by the customer, instead think about the thousands of dollars in lost revenue, if the customer creates a reputation headache for your business!

Head on over there for the full interview.

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