Just received my copy of BtoB Media Business today and saw the article “Room for Vertical Search” in which I have a quote. (OK, maybe it’s a little vain to look for my own quotes in a magazine, but don’t tell me you wouldn’t do it too!) It’s the same article that I wrote about in a previous post on my blog which contains my full quote. There was an ommission in the print article that I’m sure was just because of space limitations, but that I feel is critical to the point I was trying to make. In the article I’m quoted, “Is there an opportunity for...

Marie Griffin of B-to-B Media Business (and an awesome person), asked me today for my thoughts on the recent Convera Professional Search Study. She passed along the followng data points from the study: Although 89% of respondents sometimes (46%) or always (43%) find what they want after several attempts, only 11% said they always find what they want on the first attempt. Fifty-nine percent will spend 15 minutes or less on a single search before giving up, but 24% will search for 16 to 30 minutes and 17% are willing to search for more than half an hour. On average, 47% of respondents reported they...

It’s been a really busy Fall with the recent sale of Penton. I have no doubt that 2007 will prove to be a very exciting year … and probably just as busy. But I’m taking advantage of this time between Christmas and New Year’s to reflect a bit and lay out my list of Seven New Year’s Resolutions for 2007. Update my blog regularly … no, really … this time I mean it! Lose that extra 20 pounds I’ve been meaning to for a couple years Not use the word “monetize” in a sentence ever again Make the move to HDTV (finally) when we move into our new...

Just saw a post at Techdirt, “Advertisers Thrilled About New Ways To Irritate Readers” Though the rise of pop-up blockers is a clear indication that users don’t like intrusive advertising, publishers haven’t stopped looking for ways to annoy their readers. The trade magazines tend to be chief offenders as they often employ the dreaded dog-ear pullback and other intrusive flash-based ads that take over the screen. Then of course there are the embedded text ads delivered by Intellitxt and others. When you scroll your mouse over certain words, a small ad pops up on the screen....

I’ve seen a lot of tricks of the trade publishers will use to make their web site look bigger to the market than it actually is and how many people visit their site. Sometimes the claims may truly be out of ignorance of how the web really works, but more often than not, it’s a very crafty publisher trying to impress a marketer on how big they are and what a market leader they are. Here are some of my favorites: 1. Reporting how many hits they get I can’t believe that some sites still try to tell advertisers how many hits their web site gets a month, but it happens every day. A...

Vertical search is a very big topic right now for B2B publishers. It’s been covered in the business media press, covered in special sessions at media events like the DeSilva + Phillips 2006 Media Dealmakers Summit, the ABM Spring Meeting in Scottsdale, (sorry y’all, really wish I would have been able to come to that, but had a prior family committment), and several others. ABM is even hosting a full day meeting on the topic May 15th in New York. Is it really the next big revenue opportunity for publishers? I personally don’t believe it. Hear me out… It’s very...