PageRank successful for images

PageRank is the algorithm that Google unveiled which has reconfigured the way we search the web. Recently Google hopes that this PageRank algorithm can be used to serach images online. Typically search engines search images based on the text around the image. PageRank for image search, which had been given the title of "VisualRank" is working to understand what is actual in a picture. This is expensive and time consuming. PageRank is computing a numerical weight assigned to each image. This will help users of Google image search to find relevant images to what they are looking for based on the actual image itself.

To find out more about this concept read Google trumpets PageRank for pics

MySpace Karaoke

It sounds like MySpace is trying to be more like their main social networking competitor Facebook. MySpace is now allowing users to do karaoke on the website through Ksolo. Ksolo is a karaoke site owned by Fox Interactive Media. This feature provides users with an opportunity to sing along as lyrics run across the screen. This sounds like MySpace is attempting to use the successful application method Facebook is using to allow companies to market to members.

To read more visit Now Sing Along with MySpace Karaoke!

Gaming on Macs

Mac is is refreshing its products to better prepare for gaming. Mac is attempting to reach experiential users by bettering the speed of their products with more efficient processors and offering larger monitors. As a lucrative market, Mac is making an effort to better serve the gaming market.

To read more visit Could Apple be preparing the way for Mac gaming?

Case #4 Yahoo

Yahoo.com is a website that offers its user the company’s primary goods and services free of charge to the user. Yahoo! offers its users with a search engine as well as the ability to customize their own MyYahoo! webpage. Along with these two features customers have access to an email service, messenger tool, radio, weather, local news, horoscopes, etc. all free of charge. This free service is not promotional; Yahoo! has always and will continue to offer their service to its users free of charge.

MyYahoo! allows users of Yahoo! to customize their homepage according to their personal interests. When creating a MyYahoo! webpage users are able to add content, change the appearance, as well as other options. Users are able to add modules which are like widgets for Mac or Google users. Also users can add RSS Feeds as part of their content that appears when they visit Yahoo!. As far as the appearance of the users MyYahoo!, a customer can select to change the color, layout, font size, and search box size. Finally users are offered additional options such as MyYahoo! Reader which allows users to read articles through Yahoo! without having to go to the publisher’s site. Also Yahoo! provides their users with Article Preview which gives a snippet of the article when the user rolls their mouse over the link and Article Timestamp shows users when articles they are viewing were published.

All of these features make for a better experience and contribute to the success of their free economy. The more features Yahoo! offers for free to their customer the more traffic the website will receive. The more traffic Yahoo! gets, the more advertisers will want to advertise using one of Yahoo!’s advertising solutions.

Yahoo! would fall under the advertising model as the principle of the free economy. As an advertising model, Yahoo!'s main form of generating income is through advertisers. Yahoo! offers free content to the users by allowing advertisers to advertise within the site and sponsor the website. Yahoo!'s advertising model offers four solutions for advertisers to use. The four options advertisers are given are search marketing, media solutions, publisher network and recruitment advertising. These solutions allow Yahoo! to continue to offer the company’s product for free while deriving sales and revenue through advertising.

Yahoo! could also be considered a "zero-marginal cost" business plan. Yahoo!'s product mostly consists of their search engine feature. This more commonly used feature is offered to customers at virtually no cost to Yahoo!. Yahoo! has a created a website that can search the web for content in a matter of seconds without the need of an employee to assist the process.

Yahoo! only offers the service to its users as free of charge. The only way Yahoo! draws in revenue is through advertising. The product that Yahoo! offers is not offered at different levels based on cost. There is one form of Yahoo!, which is free for everyone interested in using the product.

As a company that follows the advertising model for a free economy, Yahoo!’s primary source of revenue and profits come directly from advertising. Advertisers are interested in reaching users of Yahoo!’s free business model. Advertisers have options when advertising with Yahoo!.

One of the most common used forms of advertising with Yahoo! would be their sponsor results. Every time a Yahoo! user searches something Yahoo! provides a list of Sponsor Results that coordinate with the users search. Sponsor Results can appear at the top of the list of relevant links or along the side in a separate column designated for sponsored results.

Internet Marketing Trends

As popular as the internet has been you would think that people would be moree knowledgeable about how to use it to benefit them personally or for their business. According to recent internet news that is not the case. All of the headlines related to internet marketing are about support for internet marketing and companies offering assistance.

I think after the growth we've seen in the internet that more companies should be taking the intiative to learn marketing on the internet strategies for themselves. Instead of relying on companies to do it for them. With simple solutions to driving traffic, a little bit of research on how to optimize internet marketing might be all that small companies need. This would allow them to become more knowledgeable and save money rather then paying another company to do the research for them.

Articles offering help to companies include:
Online marketing for all web and e-business
Optimum7 Starts Offering Customized Internet Marketing Solutions
Internet Marketing Advertising - How To Do Business Online

Online Ordering

With the success of the Internet continuously growing, even restaurants have been able to capitalize. Many restaurants are now offering their menus to customers on their website, along with an opportunity to order from the menu. These restaurants have also incorporated online deals and delivery to add an incentive to placing the order through their computer.

Companies that have begun to implement this strategy include Dominos, Pizza Hut, etc

Other companies have capitalized on offering an ordering site to multiple restuarants, like a one stop shop. Campusfood.com allows students at campuses around the country to place orders online from restaurants local to their campus.

For more on the online ordering Diners turn to online menus

Case #3 Gap.com

The website I chose to look at was Gap.com. The website provides information about the company, as well as allowing viewers to shop their merchandise. The design of the website is directed toward task-oriented users. Task-oriented users are typically users who are looking to search the web. The task-oriented user is looking for a site that allows them to efficiently and effectively find what they are looking for. Most users of the Gap website are looking to purchase particular items such as gifts or personal clothing. The website is broken down into sections to allow fast retrieval of the content the user is looking for.

Upon entering the website the customer can choose which department they would like to shop: Men, Women, GapKids, babyGap, GapMaternity, and GapBody. Within each of the main departments the user’s selection can easily be narrowed down based on what the user is looking for. The user can look at new arrivals for the department or just select a type of clothing such as sweaters. The website is split up into these categories so that the customer knows where to look to find exactly what they want.

Gap.com uses effective navigation in the design of its website for its users. By including a navigation bar in the website’s format users can navigate to different departments without returning to the homepage and without going back a couple of pages. Also the entire time a user is searching a department a vertical bar of links is along the side allowing the customer to go to any of these categories with having to track back. This makes the shopping experience for the customer easier.

The Gap.com website also uses quality content to make purchasing items from the website easier for its users. While searching any particular clothing item on the website the user is given a description of each product which includes information about the fit and style of the clothing along with details about what the product is made out of. Also with each item a link for a size chart is included in the description. For the customer, this feature makes them more comfortable ordering an item from the website. The size chart pops up in a separate window which means that by clicking the link the customer is not navigated away from the item.

As far as traffic building strategies, Gap.com implements many different tactics to drive users to its website. The first noticeable strategy for Gap.com is that it part of a house of brands owned by Gap Inc. These means that Gap.com maintains a website separate from the Gap Inc. website and the other three brands, owned by Gap Inc. The website has an effective domain name, simply using the name of the brand as the URL. This is important because some customers may attempt to access the website without using a search engine. This domain name is simple and is what the customer would expect the URL for the website is. The domain name is not easily misspelled because of how short the domain name is. Also the website uses a .com ending which is the most common address and what a customer would anticipate the ending is.

Gap.com also uses search engine marketing to promote traffic to the website. The Gap.com website on Google comes up as both the one and only sponsored link as well as the number one organic search entry. As a sponsored link, Gap is paying Google to come up whenever a customer searches Gap. With Google’s click through rate, Gap is paying anytime a user clicks the sponsored link. Fortunately for Gap they are also the first indexed website which means customers may just use that link instead of the sponsored link. This drives traffic to the website for free instead of when the sponsored link, which costs Gap a certain amount per click. Gap has achieved its ultimate goal of coming up on the first page as well as being the number one indexed website when Gap is searched.

Gap.com uses an effective title tag to help the website to become indexed on major search engines such as Google and Yahoo. The title for the websites homepage is “Shop clothes for women, men, maternity, baby, and kids at gap.com. – Gap”. This is an effective title because it incorporates the basic idea of the website. When I first looked at the title I thought it was too long and descriptive, but for title tags it is important to be descriptive. The description included in the title tag will help the website to be indexed for on search engines for the keywords included in the title.

In terms of popularity, when I searched which websites had links to gap.com there were only five links that came up. One of the five was Gap’s own link to their site on the webpage. This means that not many people are linking to the Gap website. Apparently having the website linked on other sites is not an important aspect of traffic building strategies for gap.com.

Gap.com implements mass media advertising on a regular basis. Although Gap has steered away from television advertising, which it is famous for, Gap is using print to advertise its products. The company is currently implementing a "Classics Redefined" print advertising campaign using celebrities to model their apparel. This advertising features their products and includes the company’s website URL to direct customers to the website to purchase products.

Although Gap sponsors the keyword Gap, when searching other related keywords Gap is not indexed or included as a sponsored link. I figured when entering clothing or shopping that Gap might be one of the number one indexed sites, but after looking through a couple of pages I still could not find Gap. Therefore, the keyword that they sponsor only works if Gap is exactly what the customer is looking for. I feel that Gap should use other keywords within their traffic building campaign to encourage customers to go to their website.

Also, while on the online, I have never seen as banner advertisements for the company. I think that this could also be a successful method for building traffic for the website. Websites such as social networks would be an effective place for Gap to begin advertising

Case #2 Gap Inc.

Gap Inc. began with a single store and brand called Gap. The founder of Gap Don Fisher found it difficult to find a pair of jeans that fit him properly and opened up the Gap store as a result. The original Gap store that was opened in San Francisco in 1969 sold jeans and records. Din Fisher’s principle goal was “to make it easier to find a pair of jeans”. Gap Inc. now is one of the largest specialty retailers in the world. The company has 3,100 stores that house their four brands; Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, and Piperlime. Gap Inc. reported revenues for 2006 of $15.9 billion.

Gap Inc. would be considered a house of brands. Gap Inc. is a house of brands because the company emphasizes product-specific marketing with few ties to the other company brands. One of the only ties between brands is the company credit card. Gap Inc. offers their customers credit cards to be used between all four brands. Gap Inc. still attempts to make this separate between brands by allowing the customer to open the credit card at the brand they spend the most money at. This way a customer can open a Banana Republic card that can be used at Gap, Old Navy, and Piperlime, but has a brand specific image on the card and offers rewards based on the brand credit card. Gap Inc. never ties to brands into a promotion, and attempts to keep each brand as a separate entity. As an employee of Gap, I find it shocking the number of customers that are unaware of Banana Republic and Old Navy being owned by Gap.

Gap Inc. also uses each of their brands to facilitate marketing segmentation. Each brand has their own style, quality and price range. These differences help meet the needs of different consumers interested in purchasing apparel. On the Gap Inc. website each brand is given an identity to give consumers an idea of which brand they would prefer. Gap is the “Iconic American Style” brand, Banana Republic is the “Accessible Luxury” brand, Old Navy is the “Great Fashions, Great Prices” brand, and Piperlime is the “Fresh Online Shoe Shop” brand. The price and quality of the apparel ranges from Old Navy being affordable because of the somewhat lower quality of their products to Banana Republic being high quality clothing for a higher price. Gap falls in the middle of these to while Piperlime focuses on shoes.

Finally Gap Inc. also demonstrates itself as a house of brands because of its dominance in product category. Gap Inc. has four of the most recognizable brands of apparel. With the range in price and quality of their brands, Gap Inc. works to maintain dominance in the product category of apparel. The range of brands allows consumer with different demographics to afford the fashion products they desire. Many of Gap Inc.’s consumers shop all or most of Gap Inc.’s brands.

Upon arrival at the Gap Inc. website, whose main purpose is for investors in the company, offers a description of the company, a break down of the brands, career opportunities and information for investors. Once the category for brands is selected the list of brands appears with a simple description. From there a customer can click a particular brand to learn more. The site that comes up provides a full description of the brand along with a link to the website. Also at the bottom of the template that Gap Inc. uses for the website there is a link that a customer can click to Shop the Brands. A separate window appears which provides the list of brands and an option to “shop online” or “find a store”. The option to shop the brands, because it is part of the website template employed, appears on the bottom of a page on the gapinc.com website.

Once a customer selects which brand they would like to visit they are taking to a separate website that is personalized based on the brand. On each of the brand websites the set up and format of the website is similar, but the colors used are centered on the personality of the brand. Although each brand has a separate website for the brand, at the top of each of the templates for the websites is a bar “Visit the other Gap Inc. Brands” which offers links to the three other Gap Inc. brands. That is the only connection and link to the other brands.

The URL protocol for Gap Inc. and their brands is simple. Gap Inc. makes it easier for their customers to find their brands by simply using the brands names as the URL. Gap Inc. also uses .com instead of other ending such as .net because it is the most used URL ending. Gap Inc. websites are gapinc.com for the company page, and gap.com, bananarepublic.com, oldnavy.com and piperlime.com.

The strengths in the online branding approaches Gap Inc. uses for their brands are that the websites are very similar in appearance and layout of the brand sites. Although the websites incorporate their own personal color schemes the layout and the method of shopping online are identical. This makes it easier for customers to shop each of their brands, by keeping the brands similar. The bar at the top of each of the brand website pages is, I feel, very effective. When I shop online I typically will just go from site to site before I place any orders. With the links to each of the other brands right there, I am likely to shop these four brands based on shopping online on just one of the brand sites. Also once a customer clicks on a link to one of the other Gap Inc. brands, the website pops up in a new window. Although a simple strategy, this allows a customer to look at the other brands, but also keeps the window from the previous brand.

Another effective strategy of Gap Inc.’s online shopping experience is that once a customer adds an item into their online “shopping bag” the website remembers the IP address of the computer and recalls the shopping bag each time a customer returns to the site. The products will stay in the shopping bag until the product is no longer available or until the customer removes it from their shopping bag.

I also believe that Gap Inc.’s credit card system is effective. Customers are able to apply for a Gap Inc. brand credit cards, as well as use the card at each of the brands. They also separate the credit card by brand to allow customers to receive rewards to a particular store. The brand credit cards earn rewards when they are used at any of the four brands but come to the customer for one of the specific brands. This allows an additional incentive for the customers, because of the flexibility to use the card at any of the four brands and earn rewards.

The weaknesses of the Gap Inc. online branding approach are that the bar of links on each of the brand sites is small, and hard to notice at times.

Also, I think it is an enormous weakness that the customers of each of the brands do not recognize the connection and the fact that each of the brands is owned by Gap Inc. I think that the knowledge of the connection allows customers to recall Old Navy and Banana Republic while shopping the Gap. Also the fact that they are all owned by the same company means that the product lines are similar and will work together well. This way if a customer’s purchases a pair of pants on the Gap site, they might think to look on the Banana Republic site or Old Navy site for a top, or the Piperlime site for a pair of shoes to go with the pants.

Finally I believe that Gap should allow their customers to open one account that is used on all four brand sites. This way the customer only has to sign up once for the brands. This would also allow Gap Inc. to better trace purchases by customers across all four of their apparel brands.

Case #1: Puma vs. Nike

As personalization has become more and more important to consumers, many companies are trying alternative methods to convince customers to purchase their products. One of the most popular of these alternative methods is customization. The idea of customization, although not a new concept, has become one of the biggest trends implemented by companies. Previously suits, dresses, and other fashions were customizable along with some features in automobiles, but this concept has completely changed. Two companies that have embraced customization are competing shoe and apparel retailers, Nike and Puma. Nike and Puma both offer customers a web based program that allows the customer to design and purchase their own product. Puma offers its customers the opportunity to customize certain styles of sneakers through its Mongolian Shoe BBQ. Nike offers the customization of just about any product the company sells through its program called NikeiD.

NikeiD is another strategy started by Nike to satisfy their customer. As mass-customization becomes a standard for companies, Nike is ahead of the game. Nike already offers a version of most of its products for customers to customize. Once one Nike.com and selecting a language and country, Nike clearly marks its customization feature, by using the simple phrase “Customize your gear”. Once the customer selects this option, NikeiD opens with a separate link. The site includes tabs for the customer to choose their gender. Based on the gender selected NikeiD logs images of the products available for customization. The products that Nike currently offers for customization include shoes for any sport, watches, bags, and some apparel. Each product is offered in a decent variety of colors. Customers can adjust the color to practically any part of the product. Along with the color options Nike allows customers to add their personal ID if they wish. As the customer adjusts and customizes their product, they are able to see the product from different angles as well as with different backgrounds. The customer is then prompted to confirm the gender and select shoe sizes. Shoe sizes because Nike let’s the customer choose a size for the left and right foot separately. Once finished designing the product Nike gives the customer the ability to save their creation, email it, print it, or purchase it.

Nike’s version of customer customization through NikeiD was very easy to navigate. It seems that any customer, regardless of how computer and design savvy they are, would be able to manage designing their own Nike products. The one down fall to Nike’s customization is the number of products offered for customization. Upon arriving to the site I felt a little overwhelmed choosing a product to design. There are tons of different products and it wasn’t until later that I realized that each of the genders had a drop down that separated the products into more manageable categories. Along with being able to customize your own shoe, Nike offers already designed shoes for inspiration. A customer can use these models to tweak or change accordingly. For people that find it difficulty to design from a blank canvas this inspiration is helpful.
Puma’s customization program called Mongolian Shoe BBQ was very different from NikeiD. First of all, the customization feature on Puma’s website was difficult to find because of its title. It took a little time and a few wrong turns to realize that the Mongolian Shoe BBQ was the link to get to the customized section. Once the site launches the customer enters into a site that is set up like a restaurant. At first I was slightly confused by this, but considering the site is called Mongolian Shoe BBQ I went along with it. The customer then must select a shoe from the menu. Puma only offers two unisex shoes to customize. After the style is selected the customer chooses their gender and their shoe size. The customer then is given the choice of method to create their sneaker quickly in the Express Line or spend more time on it by Dining In.

The Dine In method lets the customer choose a blank canvas or they can choose from pre-created designs. Once the customer selects which sneaker they would like to design they are able to customize every piece of it. Every piece of the shoe is separated and seemingly laid flat on a tray. The screen shows an image of buffet were the customer is able to pick and choose colors and materials for each individual part of the shoe. The customer must first select the portion of the shoe they wish to design and then they are presented with any array of options to choose from as far as color and materials. As the customer makes their choice they are asked if they accepted or declined the material. Throughout the process the customer is unable to view the shoe they are creating unless they use the “Preview” link. As the customer creates their shoe they are made aware of the number of components that the customer must make selections on before the shoe is complete. To select the different varieties for each part of the sneaker, the customer uses must move the mouse, which appears as a hang with tongs, on the screen to make selections. Once the customer completes their selections they then view the finished product. Puma only offers two different view of the sneaker. Like Nike, Puma allows their customer to save, in a doggie bag, or purchase the shoes they designed.

Although the concept is extremely creative, I feel that this is not a very practical way of customizing a shoe. I think many people would agree that having clear color selections and categories along with being able to watch the shoe change as they design it is much more satisfying. Also there were so many different pieces to the shoe to customize, that by the tenth piece I found myself annoyed and hurrying to finish, thus why I chose to design and display a Nike shoe. The hand was difficult to maneuver and once I decided which material I wanted it was difficult to click the material. Puma must understand that it’s difficult because otherwise it would be unnecessary to ask the customer if they accepted or declined the material. Along with how long the process was, I felt that the end result was a complete surprise. I thought I was designing one shoe and upon completion it was completely different from what I would have expected.

The Express Line method allows the customer to view pre-designed shoes that they may edit or a blank canvas. This option allows customers to use pre-designed ideas and change them to become a shoe that satisfy their personal taste. Following along with the restaurant idea this allows customers to use these existing shoe recipes and allows them to spice them up using their own personal taste. While loading the image shown is of the buffet, but allows the customer to see the entire set up. Once the Express Line loads the customer is shown the shoe they selected. This method is very similar to Nike’s. The method allows the customer to change the colors and materials while an image of the shoe on the left depicts the changes. This method makes it clear which aspect of the shoe the customer is adjusting and allows them to know what they are changing.

After experimenting on both the Nike and Puma’s customization websites, I felt that NikeiD and Puma’s Mongolian Shoe BBQ Express Line were extremely similar. Both were what I expected from a site that offers customization. An image of the shoe that the customer is customizing is shown on one side and on the other the customer is given color options for each part of the shoe. I actually preferred Puma’s Express Line because of the variety of colors and materials available. I also liked that Puma offered a limited amount of products to customize. I don’t think it would hurt them to have a couple more options, but Nike with 47 products to customize for women alone, to me, seem to be overwhelming their customer. Nike offered less color variety, which was another downfall. As I was designing my shoe I was imaging what I might want and was not exactly able to create that image, which I think should be the point of allowing a customer to customize their shoe. Although Puma’s Express Line and NikeiD were similar, Puma’s Dine In option was completely different. Although the restaurant idea is an interesting concept the execution of the idea is a definite miss. The Dine In section was difficult to navigate and made it difficult for the customer to make selections, without a preview after each change.