ChangeThis :: ChangeThis
released a fresh batch of manifestos today, including Thomas R. Clifford's manifesto on using video to bring your brand to life, and several manifestos about careering that should be interesting to students in my MGT337 classes.

Labels: Change.This, PDF, tools, video

Buy.com hopes Garage Sale lures eBayers - Yahoo! News

Yahoo reports that Buy.com will power a new Facebook application that will allow users to offer products for sale on the popular social networking site, with Buy.com handling the credit card transactions for a flat 5% commission fee. Sellers receive funds either via a check from Buy.com or through PayPal. (I wonder if that will last, or if Google Payments will be considered as an option for sellers to receive funds.)

This is an idea with big potential, especially given increasing eBay and PayPal fees that can eat up profits quickly, particularly for smaller sellers.

Unlike eBay, Garage Sale does not offer auction-type bidding for products, although suggests that haggling can be done via e-mail. Right now, fixed price sales are supported.

The Buy.com Garage Sale option is among the latest results of the trend toward widget-type applications that interact with popular social networking sites to offer a variety of functionality via the networking interface. Expanding the range of sites where sellers could use the service to sell products could be a huge boost to its success. In particular, this application appears as though it would be attractive to users of MySpace, a social network with user numbers rivaling those of eBay in the US.

Looking forward to trying the Garage Sale. The flat fee model without transaction fees should be attractive to sellers, especially those with active relationships on social networking sites.

Labels: Buy.com, eBay, facebook, Garage Sale, PayPal, Phoenix.Social.Media.Club social.networks, social.media

Search Insider - Blog Archive - How Serious is Google About No Behavioral Targeting?

Media post discusses Google's use of search behavior to target specific results and offers. According to the post, Google's product management vice president, Susan Wojcicki's announcement last week that nothing is stored or remembered beyond a single session is not likely to be the last word on whether the search giant will use search data stored beyond a single session to target ad offers and organic search results in the future.


Mark Simon notes several reasons why the possibility may become a reality, including Google's pending DoubleClick acquisition. Additionally, Simon noted that Wojcicki did not specifically rule out the possibility, only that Google had not engaged in what it calls traditional behavioral targeting in the future.

Finally, a 2005 patent application filed by Google outlines a process similar to "traditional" behavioral targeting processes.

Given the AOL leak of search data, privacy issues are likely to be a user concern. Google does have a reputation for valuing relevance, which, hopefully will not change. There is value in using session data to hone in on relevant results. Storing and using prior session data to target offers, or to manipulate organic search results may be a little more difficult to sell to users, although DoubleClick is very good at selling its benefits to businesses.

Labels: AOL, Doubleclick, Google, privacy, relevance