flinky
Friday, February 29, 2008
comScore's interpretation of their Google click data
comScore has now released a blog post interpreting the data mentioned in the previous post. They seem to be supporting the idea that (1) it's deliberate and (2) Google has likely been successful in offsetting the (potential) revenue loss with a higher average CPC for fewer clicks. It would have been nice to see the data from the graph in the previous post plotted on the same graph that comScore shows in their post (the click rate over time). Maybe comScore doesn't have that kind of data.
In any case, the graph in the previous post also seems to show two regimes of change in the year where the average CPC increases. Eyeballing it, it looks like the time periods correspond roughly to the two regimes of change in the graph from the comScore post. But here they are together:
¶ Friday, February 29, 2008 0 comments
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In any case, the graph in the previous post also seems to show two regimes of change in the year where the average CPC increases. Eyeballing it, it looks like the time periods correspond roughly to the two regimes of change in the graph from the comScore post. But here they are together:
¶ Friday, February 29, 2008 0 comments
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Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Google data: clicks versus cost per click
The (further) fall in Google's stock today seems to have been triggered by a comScore report saying that growth in the number of sponsored clicks has decelerated a lot. See the post at Silicon Alley Insider for details.
However, on the other hand, consider recent trends in the average cost per click according to EfficientFrontier:
Google's average CPC certainly seems to be trending higher, so this could be a significant counterbalance to a drop in the number of clicks. I.e. if YoY sponsored click growth is indeed flat, this data would still put revenues up 20% or so, maybe more if you maintain the slope of the average CPC. Whether such revenue growth matches expectations, I don't know (I haven't looked it up and also there are other factors that play into that).
It may be a deliberate attempt on Google's part to reduce low value clicks (some of which they call "accidental"), with the idea that they can get the average CPC up. ¶ Tuesday, February 26, 2008 0 comments links to this post
However, on the other hand, consider recent trends in the average cost per click according to EfficientFrontier:
Google's average CPC certainly seems to be trending higher, so this could be a significant counterbalance to a drop in the number of clicks. I.e. if YoY sponsored click growth is indeed flat, this data would still put revenues up 20% or so, maybe more if you maintain the slope of the average CPC. Whether such revenue growth matches expectations, I don't know (I haven't looked it up and also there are other factors that play into that).
It may be a deliberate attempt on Google's part to reduce low value clicks (some of which they call "accidental"), with the idea that they can get the average CPC up. ¶ Tuesday, February 26, 2008 0 comments links to this post
Saturday, February 09, 2008
version 2: Reading The Wall Street Journal For Free (made easier)
Ok, playing around a bit more, here's another bookmarklet that appears to work for everything (that you can find without logging in) at the WSJ. It would be easy to prevent this behavior from working since it is more of a simple technical issue than fundamentally about segmenting the user base.
gWSJ.v2
(See this post for instructions on using a bookmarklet.) ¶ Saturday, February 09, 2008 0 comments links to this post
gWSJ.v2
(See this post for instructions on using a bookmarklet.) ¶ Saturday, February 09, 2008 0 comments links to this post
Reading The Wall Street Journal For Free (made easier)
Danny Sullivan points out on his blog that (at least for now), it is possible to get the full content of some Wall Street Journal stories if you find them via Google News. These same stories are not fully accessible when you get to them via the WSJ site itself.
It's not clear how sustainable this kind of customer segmentation/price discrimination is on the web.
For example, it took me about 15 minutes to write a little bookmarklet that makes it easier to see if a WSJ story is in fact available for free via Google News.
To try it,
1. just drag the link below labelled "gWSJ" to your browser links toolbar (it should work in Firefox and Internet Explorer).
2. go to a WSJ teaser page like this one
3. then just click on the "gWSJ" bookmarklet and see if it works for you
Here is the bookmarklet: gWSJ
It doesn't work on all teaser stories because it appears that not all stories are in fact indexed in Google News. ¶ Saturday, February 09, 2008 0 comments links to this post
It's not clear how sustainable this kind of customer segmentation/price discrimination is on the web.
For example, it took me about 15 minutes to write a little bookmarklet that makes it easier to see if a WSJ story is in fact available for free via Google News.
To try it,
1. just drag the link below labelled "gWSJ" to your browser links toolbar (it should work in Firefox and Internet Explorer).
2. go to a WSJ teaser page like this one
3. then just click on the "gWSJ" bookmarklet and see if it works for you
Here is the bookmarklet: gWSJ
It doesn't work on all teaser stories because it appears that not all stories are in fact indexed in Google News. ¶ Saturday, February 09, 2008 0 comments links to this post
