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Greg Sterling's Thoughts on Online and Offline Media

E-Commerce: Flat as a PancakeYesterday

While some reports are still (mildly) bullish on e-commerce, its growth has rapidly slowed to a crawl with the bad economy. And as a percentage of overall retail sales it remains flat. We may not see e-commerce crack 5% of US retail for years at this rate:

Meanwhile, the IAB reported Q3 numbers for online advertising yesterday:

Internet advertising revenues reached almost $5.9 billion for the third quarter of 2008, representing an 11 percent increase over the same period in 2007. While double-digit annual growth continues, the quarter-to-quarter curve remains relatively flat compared to recent past performance. The Q3 2008 figures, publish

Another Way for Google to Get Location?Yesterday

I was playing around with some of the new Google “themes” (as with iGoogle) for GMail and discovered that location is part of the thing:

I wonder if Google will use this information (in addition to other methodologies it has) to influence content and/or adds it shows me. The answer right now is probably not. But it’s another place that Google is soliciting location information from users.

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Related: Google’s SearchWiki customized search tool/program may do something like this as well. Individuals using it, which will be a minority of Google users, may disambiguate local results themselves and give Google more feedback that will eventually improve the display and ranking of local information.

Relate

StreetView Comes to the iPhoneYesterday

Apple updated its iPhone software this morning. I’ve written more at LMS. Lots of coverage at Techmeme too.

      

WebVisible Buys Adapt SEMNovember 20

Local search marketing firm/platform WebVisible has acquired Adapt SEM, which provides a range of tools for automated management of search marketing. Here’s how the release characterizes the benefits of the deal for WebVisible:

Adapt SEM has developed versatile search marketing software that complements the WebVisible platform. Users will benefit from an expanded solution that gives additional controls over campaign management, optimization and analytics reporting, including: A high-end keyword intelligence and search query semantic engine that enhances the ability to generate and select the most relevant, long-tail keywords; robust ad copy and landing page testing; comprehensive cost-per-action (CPA) tracking for precise performance optimization; powerful sales tools that enable customers to perform detailed competitive analysis of keyword coverage, average search-rank position and market share; and algorithms to fortify WebVisible’s already strong and highly sophisticated campaign optimization capability.

This is probably about both analytics and scalable autom

YP Delisting Prospect, AT&T Ads GiveawayNovember 20

I was informed by someone this morning that Idearc faces delisting and RHD could soon face a similar fate. It’s a depressing state of affairs and comes at the worst possible time. 

Meanwhile AT&T is giving away $10K of YP advertising: