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SOPA Slippery Slope – Millions Say Nope

Rick Noel — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 19:04:22 +0000

UPDATE – SOPA and PIPA were dropped by Congress today – 20 Jan 2012 – see Press Release below

STOP SOPA PIPA Internet censorship - Don't let corporations control traffic flow

Often times things in Washington begin with great intentions (i.e. stop theft of US content) but end up with terrible unintended consequences (i.e. letting companies regulate what we can access online). Anyone that has worked in hi-tech, Internet marketing in particular, knows that legislation always lags technology as technology evolves much faster than bureaucracy.

Below is a video from PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo providing a good opposition viewpoint overview which is a viewpoint shared by most in the Internet industry, especially online marketers.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

It is probably not surprising that yesterday large companies like Wikipedia and Reddit went dark to demonstrate their opposition to SOPA/PIPA while others like Google protested by blacking out their infamous logo and provided a link to a petition managed by Google. To illustrate the amount of support Google organized by this seemingly small act, that according to Forbes, 4.5 Million People Signed Google’s Anti-SOPA Petition. I was one of them. Also, I’ve personally signed the petition at American Censorship, and if you agree with the SOPA/PIPA opposition point of view and want to take action to stand up and be counted, please consider this option also.

It is clear why the mainstream media does not cover the SOPA/PIPA legislation opposition views or even cover SOPA/PIPA legislation at all, especially given its potential to impact so many US Internet users. To their credit, PBS did do a piece yesterday on the PBS News Hour called For SOPA , Websites Threaten a Midnight Blackout

Watch A World Without Wikipedia: For SOPA, Websites Threaten a Midnight Blackout on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

and then an article on PBS.org Need to Know How SOPA Would Change the Internet. This is a good and like most other PBS reporting, unbiased an informative article.

Most outside of the Internet industry had probably not even heard of SOPA/PIPA yesterday until they pointed their Internet browsers to Google or Wikipedia or any one of the myriad of others sites in opposition to SOPA, then scratched their heads saying what’s this? It’s not their fault as SOPA/PIPA media coverage has been limited for a piece of legislation of this magnitude. The reason that mainstream media is not adequately covering this regulation and related news story is that its opposition is counter to their financial interests since many of these media companies are owned by the very entertainment conglomerates that are lobbying Washington for passage of SOPA/PIPA.

The good news for US Internet users who enjoy the Internet in its current unfettered form is that Google, Wikipedia and other participants in the online SOPA/PIPA Protests have a combined reach and recency that can overshadow the mainstream media in many/most cases, especially with changing media consumption patterns.

Some countries, where the government has successfully censored the state-run media, are now struggling to suppress the massive, immediate reach and distribution of social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. In fact, some are trying to limit their domestic Internet access to a state sponsored/censored/controlled “Intranets.”

For instance, Iran is reported to be building a country-wide network as sort of a faux Internet for Iranian Internet users, effectively censoring and controlling ALL domestic Internet usage, especially around elections. Maybe they are concerned about the impact on free Internet usage and social media on domestic politics which has been credited for the success of multiple revolutions and resulting regime changes in the region. Maybe the US politicians are concerned as well!

“Tests for a countrywide network aimed at substituting services run through the world wide web have been carried out by Iran’s ministry of information and communication technology, according to a newspaper report. The move has prompted fears among its online community that Iran intends to withdraw from the global internet.”

For more on this, see Iran Clamps Down on Internet Use. By the way, the reference to what is going on in Iran is by no means a comparison of SOPA, the issue becomes, where do you draw the line when skiing down a slippery slope.

While many Americans would scoff at such measures in the US, they need to pay attention and get involved in order for this legislation (or its successor attempts assuming SOPA/PIPA are DOA), pushed by the entertainment lobby to fail passage. Passage of these kinds of legislation would have highly negative, albeit unintended, impacts to our recovering economy, where much of the growth is being driven by and through the Internet.

Yes, piracy is a huge problem for the entertainment and software industries both in the US and abroad, but lets not legislate our nose off to spite our face!

UPDATE: 20 Jan 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT

Fight for the Future
Tiffiniy Cheng
Holmes Wilson
press@fightforthefuture.org
(614) 465-6371
(508) 474-5248
January 20, 2012

Fight for the Future, which ran the largest organizing sites for the recent SOPA protests (sopastrike.com and americancensorship.org), applauds the announcement that the Senate and House have postponed action on the proposed web censorship bills.

“We sent the MPAA back to the drawing board,” said Fight for the Future Co-founder Holmes Wilson, “But any law that lets the copyright lobby block our websites, censor our search results, or cut off our Paypal accounts–without even going through a judge–will be soundly defeated.”

“This was the largest online protest in history,” said Fight for the Future Co-founder Tiffiniy Cheng, “The MPAA was trying to quietly force this bill through Congress, but when internet users started paying attention, real democracy happened. This is a watershed moment in the fight against lobbyists’ influence on politics.”

“The MPAA could have proposed a law to address copyright infringement,” said Holmes Wilson, “Instead, they proposed giving rightsholders veto power over online innovation and free expression. At that point, it was just a matter of getting the public involved.”

A timeline of the SOPA protests: http://sopastrike.com/timeline
Statistics from the January 18 protest: http://sopastrike.com/numbers
Statistics from the November 16 protest: http://americancensorship.org/infographic2.html

Original Press Release at: http://fightforthefuture.org

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SOPA Slippery Slope – Millions Say Nope is a post from: Internet Marketing Blog | Online Marketing Blog |

Social Network Sites Summoned in Delhi, India

Rick Noel — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 19:44:50 +0000

The building of Rohini Courts Complex

An Indian court in Delhi summoned 21 websites, including Facebook, Orkut, Google, YouTube and others this past Fri, 23 Dec, 2011, to answer to charges of criminal conspiracy. Other charges filed include “selling, publicly exhibiting and (circulating) obscene, lascivious content.”

See NewsX video below NewsX from India with news coverage on the 21 websites being summoned in Delhi:

Summary of NewsX Broadcast on Social Network Sites being charged in Delhi, India

The Delhi court order for the 21 named websites, including many popular social networks, came three days after a civil court ordered these same websites to remove content that " might offend religious sentiments." Only a subset the companies summons appear in the Rohini Court on Friday. Those present claimed they had not yet received a copy of the summons. According to the broadcast report, all 21 defendants have to submit a compliance report by Feb 6 in addition to being compelled to remove content deemed objectionable by the courts else face legal action.

The report includes a phone interview the Muslim Cleric Maulana Rashid who frames the issue in terms of "Freedom Vs. Responsibility" criticizing the named companies for using their resources to distribute offensive content. Websites in India are already restrained from webcasting "anti-religious" or "antisocial’ content".

The video also includes an interview with the Indian Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Kapil Sibal, who has warned Social Networking sites in the past that they are responsible for screening their content and maintaining compliance with current regulations on what is defined as allowable content. Kapil Sibal’s position is that defamatory content on social networking sites hurts public sentiment. In addition, obscene pictures and posts on politicians violates Indian law.

He states that the images and statements on the platforms naming "Google, Facebook and the like." the subject matter of which was so offensive.

Sibal’s four part justification for censorship of Social Networks in India:

May hurt religious sentiment
May Social Tension
Violent content on social media
Danger to National Security

Sibal goes on to say that he is concerned about peace and harmony in India.

Depending on the legal outcome of these actions, Social Networks operating in India and other countries outside of their homeland, these large companies will no doubt be required invest in further operational zing enforcement of country-specific content regulations and censorship on a global basis will be challenging. For India and China, given the large populations and market size, the stakes are huge!

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Social Network Sites Summoned in Delhi, India is a post from: Internet Marketing Blog | Online Marketing Blog |

Cyber Monday 2011 on Pace to Best Record Set on Cyber Monday 2010

Rick Noel — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 04:30:18 +0000

Online Shopping Experts predict Cyber Monday to Smash Existing Record by 20%

Cyber Monday shoppers trading convenience over crowds by shopping online

According to a report on Reuters, ChannelAdvisor said clients saw same-store sales via Amazon.com surge 51.4 percent during the first half of Cyber Monday, compared to a year earlier. ChannelAdvisor clients saw same-store sales via eBay’s online marketplace climb 17.1 percent during the first half of Cyber Monday, versus the same period last year. Given the dominant roles of Amazon and eBay in eComerce, merchant figures samples such as these are strong growth indicators for new Cyber Monday 2011 record sales.

Online sales in the US increased 15 percent as of 6 p.m. New York time Cyber Monday 2011 as compared with a Cyber Monday sales year earlier, according to Benchmark, a unit of International Business Machines. IBM Benchmark also reported that 7.4 percent of Cyber Monday shopping as of mid-day was done on Internet-linked mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. This means that shopping online is no longer mean confined to a desktop or laptop, possibly blocking access to the largest online shopping destinations by corporate firewalls in an effort to maximize productivity. Experts expect Cyber Monday 2011 spending to reach $1.2 billion from $1.03 billion last year, according to comScore.

Cyber Monday 2011 on pace to beat previous online sales record by 20%

By Coremetrics’s estimate, online sales on Cyber Monday 2011 were up 15% through 2:25 p.m. EST from Cyber Monday sales from a year earlier. Department stores’ online sales are up 39% and apparel retailers’ are 24% higher according to Coremetrics. Despite more buyers purchasing online, eMarketer, a well-known analyst firm specializing in eCommerce and eMarketing and Internet Advertising, believes overall US retail sales for the year would see “meager growth” of about three percent thanks to sales this holiday season.

Akamai, a leading cloud platform for helping enterprises provide secure, high-performing user experiences, saw 58% retail traffic growth between the hours of midnight and 9:00 AM EST on Black Friday, with the peak during that time period just after midnight. According to Akamai, shoppers continued strong through 2:00 AM, with the 1:00 AM hour alone showing 86% traffic growth year over year. Online sales were strong even over the weekend. Thirty-eight percent of all purchases were made online this year, up from 31 -32 % last year, says Sherif Mityas, partner in the retail practice of A.T. Kearney.

For retailers with a strong online channel, these early sales reports for the long holiday weekend, culminating in Cyber Monday are encouraging figures indeed and are likely driven by at least 3 factors:

Strong proliferation of mobile devices – smartphones and tablets,
Free shipping and no sales tax in many cases,
The price of gas which is, on average, $1/gal higher than this time last year.

The convenience of shopping at home and the bonus of not having to fight over Black Friday deals in brick and mortar stores make online shopping a more compelling experience.

Trust in online shopping has never been higher. Besides, comparison shopping, a survival skill today, is just a few clicks (or scans) away. If you missed your bargain on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, no worries as the deals are sure to be promoted both online and off over the coming weeks. As many watchful economists hope, a new Cyber Monday 2011 sales record could signal a spark of economic optimism amidst a sea of global economic uncertainty.

Cyber Monday 2011 on Pace to Best Record Set on Cyber Monday 2010 is a post from: Internet Marketing Blog | Online Marketing Blog |

Internet Trends by Mary Meeker at Web 2.0 Summit 2011

Rick Noel — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 20:42:00 +0000

Internet Trends presentation at Web 2.0 Summit 2011 by Mary Meeker

Internet trends: growth fueled by smartphone adoption

Mary Meeker is a KPCB Partner and technology investment expert and a wonderful presenter delivering a very fast-paced presentation the Web 2.0 Summit 2011 in San Francisco on 18 October 2011. Mary’s presentation is packed with global data on social media, mobile Internet, smartphone penetration, advertising relative to media consumption by technology and much more.

Mary’s thoughts on the economy are summarized as “Often darkest before dawn. At least we know what the problems are. Now we need the resolve to fix them. Across-the-board sacrifice needed.” She shares her sense of optimism in her presentation and the subsequent Q&A, with John, the moderator. Mary’s slides conclude with a quote from Rudyard Kipling that “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs” stating that she feels that we are currently in unprecedented times in the technology industry and that America is in a fortunate position to be able to capitalize on it’s smartphone leadership as a huge growth opportunity, where the US currently leads in smartphone OS market share.

The delivery is followed by a Q&A where Mary answers questions from John on her view of the economy, specific Internet technology companies which she covers, what we (government, individuals, companies) need to do improve our current economic situation and shares her optimism about our continued recovery and future prospects. The video below is well worth the 30 minutes to watch her speak not to mention entertaining.

Video of Internet Trends Presentation with Q&A

KPCB Internet Trends (2011) Slides

Download the Internet trends slides presented by Mary Meeker, KPCB Partner and technology investment expert. (Requires a Scribd account which is free).

Of particular interest from an Internet marketing/Internet advertising standpoint were following slides:

Noteworthy Takeaways (for eBiz ROI at Least)

Slide 14 – Despite tremendous ramp so far, smartphone usage still has huge upside – 835 MM smartphone users versus 5.6 B – demonstrating the growth opportunity as smartphone adoption increases
Slide 21 – Global mobile app + advertising revenue = $12B in 2011 (estimated) revenue, Up 17x in 3 Years – this is huge growth (153% CAGR) – these numbers show the acceleration of the mobile advertising opportunity
Slide 22 of ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ revisited – an adaption of Maslow’s needs hierarchy that made me chuckle
Slide 33 In a Mobile-ized / Transparent World = Pricing Matters A LOT!; So true with the supporting data from comScore to back it up (i.e. reasons for in store purchase abandonment among US smartphone users with the top two reasons cited as: 52% found desired item online for a better price; 51% found the desired item at another store for a better price; I can confirm that my personal buying experience/smartphone usage jives with this
Slide 36 Media time spent versus advertising spend out of balance with an estimated $20 B upside for Internet / Mobile mostly at the expense of print. The premise here is that advertiser spend will naturally follow media consumption – spend where your customer eyeballs are. Very compelling.
Slide 39In June 2011, for the first time ever in the US time spent on social networking sites surpassed portals
As of August 2011, according to comScore, social media spend reach a 30% share of online display ad units; can you say facebook!

The presentation also contains economic data including Wall Street Volatility and other data demonstrating how connected and interdependent the global has become.

I hoped that you found Mary’s Internet trends presentation on disruptive, growth technologies as compelling as eBiz ROI did.

Internet Trends by Mary Meeker at Web 2.0 Summit 2011 is a post from: Internet Marketing Blog | Online Marketing Blog |

Apples Steve Jobs Dies at age 56

Rick Noel — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 01:07:12 +0000

iSad

Apples-Steve Jobs Dies at age 56

Today Apples Steve Jobs Dies at age 56 from pancreatic cancer. The loss of Steve Jobs is almost immeasurable. It’s nearly impossible to imagine a world without Macs, iPods, iTunes, iPhones and more recently, the hugely popular iPad. Its hard to think of anyone else how could have transformed the music and movie industries the way Steve Jobs did. There are few who could transform the world for some many in such a short time. As one friend posted on her facebook status from her iPhone, “major distirbance in the force” or the more concise status update from another friend “iSad.” RIP Steve Jobs, the man with the gift of knowing what people wanted and creating it before anyone ever knew about something that once they had, they felt as though they could not live wihtout.

Visionary, Innovator, Tranforming of the Way Millions Live: Reflections

After the announcement that he was resigning his CEO post and handing the job over to Tim Cook in August, Ray Suarez examined Jobs’ lasting impact on innovation and what comes next for Apple and the tech world with Walter Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal and Charles Golvin of Forrester Research.

As a tribute to Steve Job’s many accomplishments in his short 56 years here on earth, the video below has been provided for those who wish to reflect on the genuis that was Steve Jobs.

Watch the full episode. See more PBS NewsHour.

Steve Jobs transformed electronics, music & movie industries, enhancing the way we live. Today, the world lost one of its most prolific visionaries. RIP Steve Jobs. The world will miss you for a long time. Our hearts go out to your beloved family who no doubt has expeirenced the biggest loss.

Apples Steve Jobs Dies at age 56 is a post from: Internet Marketing Blog | Online Marketing Blog |

IAB Reports Record Internet Advertising in 2011

Rick Noel — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 05:36:55 +0000

The IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) released its report for the Internet advertising expenditures for the first half of 2011 which totaled nearly $15B. According the report released today by the IAB in conjunction with PricewaterhouseCoopers(PwC US), “The rate of growth more than doubled year-over-year, as last year’s first-half ad revenues of $12.1 billion had represented an 11.3 percent increase over 2009.”

Internet Advertising H1 Spend over the last 15 years

As you can see from the figure below, Internet advertising spend has continued to climb steadily in the first half of each of the last 15 years as measured and tracked by the IAB.

Internet advertising spend by H1 year as repoprted by IAB PwC 1996-2011

One of the Interesting things to note from the is the rapid acceleration of growth of Internet advertising from the H1 2010 to H1 2011 based on this latest IAB report. This can be seen in the figure below showing H1 growth rates of year over year growth rates for Internet advertising.

Growth Rate of H1 2011 More than Double Growth Rate of H1 2010

First half Internet advertising growth rate by year as reported by IAB, PwC for 1996-2011

We can see from the above growth rates that the first half of 2011 grew at a rate of 23% as opposed to 11% growth rate for the first half of 2010 relative to the first half of 2009. This is a good sign for the health of the Internet advertising industry in what most see as very difficult economic times.

Slight Shift in Internet Advertising Distribution from H1 2010 to H1 2011

Internet advertising spend by category for H1 2010

Internet advertising spend by category for H1 2011

As we can see from the distributions of Internet advertising spend in H1 2010 to H1 2011, the winners were search (35% –> 36%) and sponsorships (1% –> 2%) at the expense of classifieds (7% –> 6%) and rich media (4% –> 3%). The interesting thing is that since sponsorships are such a small piece of the Internet advertising pie, a 1% change doubled their share and with sponsorships losing 1%, representing a decline of 25% as compared to their 4% share in H1 2010.

Internet Advertising Purchasing Models Continue to Shift Away from Impressions Towards Performance

The trend for Internet advertising to be bought and sold on performance models versus purely CPM (cost per 1000 impressions) continues, shifting the performance risk away from the advertiser and onto the publishers and ad networks.

Internet advertising percentage by purchase model 2010

Internet advertising percentage by purchase model 2011

We can see that from the first half of 2010 to the first half of 2011, a 3% increase in performance-based Internet advertising has occurred. Hybrid models combining performance and impression-based models grew 25% from 4% to 5% while CPM models declined from 35% to 31%, putting more pressure on publishers to sell their inventory on a performance basis, thus requiring publishers and ad networks to take on a bigger stake in an ad campaigns success.

IAB Reports Record Internet Advertising in 2011 is a post from: Internet Marketing Blog | Online Marketing Blog |

eBiz ROI, Inc. – In the News – January 2010 Issue of Saratoga Business Journal

Rick Noel — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:32:55 +0000

eBiz ROI, Inc. feature article - Saratoga Business Journal - Jan 2010

eBiz ROI, Inc. was recently reatured in the January 2010 issue of the Saratoga Business Journal. The Title of the Article is eBiz ROI Provides Clients with Internet Marketing Services, written by Val Albert. The article provides a good overview of the eBiz ROI business focus and differentiators within the Internet Services Market.

eBiz ROI, Inc. – In the News – January 2010 Issue of Saratoga Business Journal is a post from: Internet Marketing Blog | Online Marketing Blog |