The Good NET Guide

Posts Tagged ‘trending-topics’

Last year, OneRiot ventured into the advertising world with RiotWise, an ad format which places content in an emphasized position in their realtime feed. The search engine also launched a pilot program of RiotWise Trending Ads, a stream of ads that correspond to trending topics as they emerge across the social web, that has since been integrated into the search engine’s API. Today, the realtime search startup is improving upon its advertising product by offering Trending Ad unit that automatically updates in realtime corresponding to the the most popular trending topics at the time.

The ability to update in realtime allows OneRiot to show advertiser content that is relevant to trending topics as they emerge on networks like Twitter, Facebook and the web. The ads are available via standard-size IAB Ad Units and is enabled by OneRiot’s realtime search technology and PulseRank relevancy algorithm. And previously, OneRiot’s “Trending Ads” were available only via OneRiot’s API. This meant that developers had to integrate the raw feed into their applications, and create their own UI. The new ad unit allows any website currently monetizing with standard static ad units to display RiotWise Trending Ads.

In order to implement he new ad unit, publishers need to integrate Trending Ad Units in the same way they would call standard ad units. The ads will then link to realtime and relevant content from OneRiot’s network of media partners. One Riot claims that the realtime relevance of the ads leads to click through rates at four times the average rates.

Currently OneRiot’s trending ads have been used on Twitter apps (ÜberTwitter) and desktop clients (Digsby). OneRiot shares revenue with the application developer. As we’ve written in the past, OneRiot runs the risk of surfacing irrelevant or spammy content with realtime ads, especially is the ads are refreshing constantly to match trending topics. But as a realtime search engine, OneRiot has invested heavily in spam prevention and is constantly sorting through millions of pieces of content to determine what is relevant and what isn’t. Regardless, it seems like a viable monetization tool for developers.

The startup, which just raised $7 million in funding, has been steadily innovating its product and is gathering up partners quickly. The realtime stream ramped up this year with all the big players adding functionality to their search offerings and OneRiot was smart to get in the game early.

Google is already taking a page out of Twitter’s playbook with the recent launch of Buzz, which lets everyone on Gmail broadcast public status updates, share links, blog posts, photos, videos, and more. But Google, which tried and failed to buy Twitter last year, is still studying its various features and building some of them into its own services. The next one it might borrow from Twitter is trending topics. Twitter exposes the keywords people are using the most or growing fastest at any given time under Trending Topics in the sidebar or in Twitter search.

Now some people are noticing similar trending topics in the left sidebar of Google News when they are logged in. Joe Hobot captured the screenshot at left on his blog. Some of the trending topics earlier today were “Greece” (which is considering an economic austerity plan) “Iran” (which is facing U.N. sanctions over its nuclear program), “Mobile Technology” and “smartphones” (no doubt due to the Mobile World Congress kicking off in Barcelona today). Google already shows the relative popularity of news topics in Google Trends, but showing them in Google News is probably more helpful.

The trending topics, though, appear to be part of a larger redesign. We’ve been getting other reports and images of a Google News redesign bucket test. (See image below). The redesign also has personalization options which let you customize Google News by location or category (business, world, etc.).

Of course, MyYahoo did this ten years ago, but it’s good to see Google News finally getting around to letting people personalize their news pages.

Mobile question and answer startup ChaCha has been able to turnaround its model, possibly achieve profitability, and raise boatloads of money, much to our surprise. Today, ChaCha is rolling out a Facebook application allows users open access to questions and answers from both ChaCha and all of their friends.

With ChaCha’s Facebook App, when individuals pose a question to any friends within their social network, the question is also automatically submitted to ChaCha. ChaCha returns an answer from its database of hundreds of millions of answers. Users can also select “add to profile” to get a permanent “Ask ChaCha” prompt on their profile pages.

Additionally, users can select “share” when they submit a question, and the question and answers will post to their friends’ Facebook walls that they select. Individuals receive points for questions they answer for pure recognition and fun, and based on points attainment, users receive different titles which are displayed on a leader board. ChaCha has also recently launched an iPhone App and Twitter integration via @chacha, so people can ask questions on the microblogging platform.

ChaCha has rolled out its API, allowing developers to tap into the startup’s database with of questions and answers. ChaCha offers developers three variations of its API’s: Quick ChaCha Answer (query the API with a specific question, get an answer instantly); Top ChaCha Answers (query the API with a general topic or keyword(s) and get a list of the most popular answers); and ChaCha Trends (query the API to find out what the world is asking about).

Launched in 2007, ChaCha started as a human powered search engine – meaning a human found you answers when you typed in a query. ChaCha encountered the high cost of hiring humans to basically do Google searches and return results to people but then evolved into a mobile version of the service that lets users ask questions via SMS. The site also archives questions and answers on their website, with 500 million of them currently listed on the ChaCha site. ChaCha is answering one million questions a day via SMS, passing Google as the no. 1 SMS search service according to Nielsen Mobile.

OneRiot’s recently ventured into the advertising world with RiotWise, an ad format which places content in an emphasized position in their realtime feed. A few weeks ago, the realtime search engine launched a pilot program of RiotWise Trending Ads, a stream of ads that correspond to trending topics as they emerge across the social web. And today, after partnering with select iPhone Apps, Twitter Clients and Search Engines (Including UberTwitter and Digsby), OneRiot’s Realtime Ad Network, RiotWise, is now available to all developers.

RiotWise’s ads are comprised of content that similar to within Google, are served up via keywords being searched for. But unlike Google, advertisers aren’t bidding on keywords. Instead, content producers strike a deal with OneRiot to place their content in an emphasized (but clearly labeled) place in their realtime feed within the search engine. In the end, OneRiot’s ambitions are to help the content producer improve click-through rates by sending highly-targeted readers whose intent is to find specific content.

RiotWise’s Trending Ads will match trending topics with display ads that are highly relevant to the same topics within an application such as a Twitter client or iPhone app. Similar to the ads displayed alongside search engine results, OneRiot says the realtime relevance results in a higher click through rate on the ads. The system is enabled by OneRiot’s realtime search technology and PulseRank relevancy algorithm. OneRiot helps developers monetize social web applications such as Twitter apps, IM clients and iPhone apps and shares advertiser revenue with the application developer.

Now OneRiot is reporting that RiotWise ads have been performing at 3 to 4 times the average industry standard click through rates (CTR) for ads in realtime web apps (Twitter clients, iPhone apps, etc.). Developers also have flexibility to display RiotWise ads in the stream or correlating to trending topics.

Of course with these realtime ads, OneRiot runs the risk of surfacing irrelevant or spammy content. But as a realtime search engine, OneRiot has invested heavily in spam prevention and is constantly sorting through millions of pieces of content to determine what is relevant and what isn’t. As long as OneRiot produces quality advertising content, the new ad format looks to be a viable and profitable monetization tool for both publishers and developers.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Bing just keeps on gaining market share, and is now growing faster than ever before. In December, Microsoft’s search engine gained another 0.4 percent to capture 10.7 percent of U.S. search queries, according to the latest comScore qSearch numbers. That makes five straight months of steady share gains for Bing since it launched—Bing’s share is up 2.7 percent in total since May, 2009. Google gained only 0.2 percent to end the month with 65.7 percent market share. Meanwhile, Yahoo lost as much as Google gained (0.2 percent) to end the year at 17.3 percent (see table above, courtesy of Barclays Capital, click to enlarge).

What is even more interesting is if you look at year-over-year query growth rates for each search engine. Bing’s growth is actually accelerating. Its growth rate in query volume was 49.4 percent in December, compared to 20.6 percent growth for Google (which was also above the average), and a 1.9 percent decline for Yahoo. Here are the year-over-year query growth rates for Bing for the past few months:

• December, 2009: 49.4%
• November, 2009: 46.0%
• October, 2009: 30.8%
• September, 2009: 30.7%
• August, 2009: 31.8%
• July, 2009: 15.6%
• June, 2009: 11.6%

Barclays Capital analyst Douglas Anmuth attributes Bing’s gains to “advertising, OEM partnerships and toolbars, & Bing cashback.” He also notes that Yahoo’s decline was due “almost entirely” to the loss of some toolbar deals, specifically HP to Bing and Acer to Google, which weren’t particularly profitable anyway. But Yahoo’s core search volume growth is decelerating, which is a concern for investors.

And while Yahoo lost 0.2 percent share, that is less than the 0.5 to 0.8 percent losses it incurred in each of the previous three months. He notes that since Bing’s launch, Yahoo has lost almost as much share (2.8 percent) as Bing has gained (2.7 percent), a trend we’ve seen from the very beginning.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

We recently wrote about OneRiot’s foray into the advertising word, RiotWise, which places content in an emphasized position in their realtime feed. Because people are becoming more and more interested in realtime search and getting access to information that is going on right now, OneRiot believes in the strong potential of serving relevant ads beside results. Today, the realtime search engine is launching RiotWise Trending Ads, a stream of ads that correspond to trending topics as they emerge across the social web.

RiotWise will match Trending Ads display ads that are highly relevant to the same trending topics within an application. OneRiot says says the “realtime relevance” result in a higher click through rate on the ads. The system is enabled by OneRiot’s realtime search technology and PulseRank relevancy algorithm.

OneRiot says the Trending Ads offering is a perfect fit for monetizing social web applications such as Twitter apps, IM clients and iPhone apps. The third-party Twitter client makes particular sense considering how many of these clients incorporate trending topics as a feature within their apps. OneRiot will share advertiser revenue with the application developer. OneRiot has already signed up an IM application developer, Digsby, to feature Trending ads on its application.

RiotWise Trending Ads are available via OneRiot’s API, as well as a new Mobile Ad Unit. OneRiot syndicates its search results and realtime advertising across a partner network of over 90 applications, websites and search engines that are utilizing the OneRiot Realtime Search API, including Yahoo and Microsoft.

We’re bullish on RiotWise’s ad platform in general and this new offering seems like a compelling product as well. Trending Ads could be a useful way for third-party Twitter apps to advertise contextually relevant and dynamic content. As long as the OneRiot produces quality advertising content, the new ad format may work.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Twitter Search is great — except when 99.9% of the results are from people you could care less about. While Twitter has been working on relevancy, one easy fix that should have been in place a while ago is just a way to search the tweets of the people you follow. Before FriendFeed more or less died post-Facebook sale, it offered such a feature with its search. Now a new service, Flocking.me, brings the same thing to Twitter.

Flocking.me works exactly as you’d expect. Once you authenticate yourself via OAuth, you’re taken to your customized Flocking.me screen where the tweets of the people you follow are displayed. Front and center is a big search box where you can search and yes, it will return results of just the people you follow. Better still, you can change the view of the results from straight stream, to stacks of tweets to fit more on the screen. And you can even turn on a map view to see where those tweets originated from. You can also filter search further using your Twitter Lists.

Another thing that Flocking.me offers is a Trending Topics list restricted to just your friends. So rather than having “#musicmonday” or “itslove” nonsense popular Trending Topics, I get things like “@erickschonfeld” (since a bunch of the people I follow responded to something Erick tweeted). Like Twitter itself, Flocking.me also lets you know when new tweets are available to see. And it pulls in your Twitter design and avatar so it will feel like home.

I know other services in the past have offered this, but Flocking.me keeps it very simple, while giving you some powerful options. I’ll use it.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Back in August, Twitter announced that it was getting ready to roll out an ambitious new project: Geolocation. The idea was to be able to attach a location to every tweet. Today, the API is officially turned on, but it’s not on the main site — yet.

This means that applications that have been buit using the APIs — such as Birdfeed, which we previewed recently — will be able to use location features. As Twitter notes, Seesmic Web, Foursquare, Gowalla, Twidroid, Twittelator Pro and a few others are also supporting location right now.

As you can see in the screenshot, there is a new “Enable geotagging” option in the Settings menu on Twitter. It’s important to note that this feature is entirely opt-in. There is also a button to delete all your location data if you feel the need to do that. The process apparently takes 30 minutes to complete.

Location appears to be a big part of Twitter’s strategy going forward. Not only do they have the Geolocation API, but they have a new API to serve up better Trending Topics based on location.

In his blog post, Twitter Platform Director Ryan Sarver notes, “This release is unique in that it’s API-only which means you won’t see any changes on twitter.com, yet.” “Yet” is the key word there. Given the extensive UI changes Twitter has undergone in the past few weeks with features like Lists and now Retweets being added, it shouldn’t be that surprising that Twitter is choosing not to roll this out on the main site right now. But you can be sure it will be a part of the experience eventually.

Developers interested in Geolocation should also look at the notes left today in the Twitter API Google Group.

Twitter has a good sense of timing with this rollout as our Realtime Crunchup is taking place tomorrow in San Francisco, and Sarver will be a part of our panel talking about geolocation. It’s good that he now has something to talk about.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

If you’re addicted to Techmeme, like we are, you’re probably addicted to reading it on your mobile phone too. The problem is that the experience hasn’t been great. There was a mobile version of the site, called Mini-Techmeme, but no one seemed to know about it. More importantly, it didn’t give the full Techmeme experience because it didn’t include discussion items. Today, Techmeme has launched a new version of its site optimized for smart phones.

If you visit the regular Techmeme site now on devices like an iPhone, a Palm Pre, or the new Verizon Droid, you’ll see a site optimized for touchscreen phones. The site include three main tabs, “Top, ” More,” and “New.” These represent the three key areas of Techmeme’s main site. This tabbed navigation allows you to easily jump through the sections. Each section contains the main headlines and a right pointing arrow which you click on to see the discussion items.

As you’d expect, clicking on any headline opens that story (in a new browser window). Thumbnail pictures are also pulled in for main headlines. And there’s a ‘back’ button to make navigation easy.

Even if you don’t have an officially supported device, anyone can access the new site by visiting techmeme.com/m/. But why not do a native application, such as an iPhone app? “We might make a native app in the future, but with Android phones multiplying and capable browsers appearing on so many devices, it just made sense to start with something with broader support,” founder Gabe Rivera tells us.

Just yesterday, Techmeme announced that it had doubled it staff to 6 people.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Velcome, darling! Look what we have for you! Sergey Brin wearing VFF KSOs, CrunchGear’s favorite - as Greg calls them - “crazy monkey shoes.” He wore them to the ChromeOS event and Michael took a few candid shots of him. I’m personally a VFF convert and I’m very impressed that Sergey is willing to walk around in these.

Embiggen after the jump.