Adam’s Blog

Address Book Integration

This month we introduced integration with Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo e-mail address books into the AddThis menu. When sending an e-mail, there is now an option to use your address book. To do this, click “Use Your Address Book”, select your e-mail provider, put in your credentials, and you’ll be presented with your address book. Just select the name and e-mail address of the person you want to share with and they’ll get put in the To: field of the e-mail.

Check out our blog post on address book integration for more information.

Redesigned More Menu

We’ve also launched a redesign of our more menu. The list of destinations that we were displaying was getting longer and longer so we wanted to create a more usable interface for looking through the list. This will also work nicely as we look to add more services in the future.

Read the blog post on the redesign of the more menu for more information.

The AddThis Firefox Plug-in

This month we were excited to announce AddThis for Firefox. It’s a plug-in which will put the orange plus sign that you’ve all come to know and love right at the top of your browser. So… whenever you see a Web site that you think is rad and want to bookmark it or share it with your friends, you can share it with just a couple of clicks.

If you’re a power sharer, like me, you’ll find yourself using this thing all the time. Oh… and the best part is that the plug-in works with any of the over 40 different destinations that AddThis can share with. Try it out and let us know what you think.

Download the plug-in today.

Establishing an Agreement with the Federal Government

This month, we established a terms of services agreement with the US General Services Administration (GSA). This will provide federal agencies with the ability to more freely use AddThis on their Web sites. The government provides so much great content on the Web. By using AddThis and making their content shareable, the federal government can make it easy for their existing users to help get the content disseminated to every corner of the Social Web and into the hands of United States citizens.

Read the blog post announcing the agreement for more info.

Featured Implementation: American Institute of Architects (AIA)

Every month, we want to feature one of our friends that have recently implemented AddThis. This month, we’ll take a look at the American Institute of Architects (AIA). The AIA is "the leading professional membership association for licensed architects, emerging professionals, and allied partners since 1857." They have a lot of great content on their Web site about the profession. It’s now all shareable with AddThis.

Here’s an example. It’s a page with resources on managing your architecture practice. With just a couple of clicks in AddThis, you can share this resource to every corner of the Social Web.

Meet our friend the blog search engine Lijit

Previously we highlighted JS-Kit and their powerful commenting system, this month we wanted to point you to our friends at the Lijit. They provide search-powered applications to individual online publishers and online publisher networks that increase page views and reader engagement, while optimizing search ad revenue. Put them on your Web site or blog.

Looks like cybercriminals have turned social networking into a minefield of threats where one wrong move may have very serious consequences. Long gone are the days when you could avoid being scammed simply by using antivirus software. The more aware we are the harder bad guys are working on fooling us. And let me tell you, their techniques are getting more and more sophisticated! Have a look at some examples of the latest cyber criminals’ creations and how to avoid them.

1. Koobface (social networking worm). It gains access to Facebook profile pages and directs you to view a video that then encourages you to update your Flash player. Malicious files such as flash_update.exe and bloivar29.exe are being downloaded and installed which results in a range of visible problems, including modifications to your Facebook profile, with the immediate result being an error message to contact support. There is also the very real potential for your identity and finances to be compromised!
2. Picture files carrying malware are “planted” on social networking websites and instant messaging programs. Hackers try to convince you that your friend has sent you a message or IM to view pictures. Legitimate looking URL when clicked on sends you to an illegitimate website hosting malicious files and executables, which have been modified to appear to be genuine picture files (jpg, gif or bmp). When you download and open those “pictures”; the malware unknowingly runs on your computer. It allows hacker to take control over your operating system as well as the information in it and exposes you to identity fraud and financial loss!
3. UPS Delivery Threat, also known as Zbot. It delivers an illegitimate file when you are visiting a counterfeit UPS delivery site. Zbot has been known to distribute via email phishing and instant messenger.  Upon informing you that you have missed a UPS delivery, the message urges you to view the invoice online, which in fact sends you to the counterfeit website which downloads a malicious program designed to bypass the firewall and then steal banking and personal information.

So how do we protect ourselves against all this and more?

1. Be wary of unexpected IM messages and emails urging you to open or run an attachment or download
2. Run up-to-date anti-virus and anti-spyware software with behavioural protection – such as Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus. Keep it running in the background at all times.
3. Ensure you run Smart Updates and Microsoft updates regularly.
4. If you are asked to update to a new version of a flash player or any other program go to producers’ website and download the update directly from it.
5. Organisations usually contact you by phone or mail, so when you get an email call them back instead of clicking on any links or attachments.
6. Never let your guard down, it’s better to be too cautious then sorry.

Hi,
We’re writing to let you know about the upcoming launch of interest-based advertising, which will require you to review and make any necessary changes to your site’s privacy policies. You’ll also see some new options on your Account Settings page.
Interest-based advertising will allow advertisers to show ads based on a user’s previous interactions with them, such as visits to advertiser website and also to reach users based on their interests (e.g. "sports enthusiast").  To develop interest categories, we will recognize the types of web pages users visit throughout the Google content network.  As an example, if they visit a number of sports pages, we will add them to the "sports enthusiast" interest category.  To learn more about your associated account settings, please visit the AdSense Help Center at http://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/topic.py?topic=20310.
As a result of this announcement, your privacy policy will now need to reflect the use of interest-based advertising. Please review the information at https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=100557 to ensure that your site’s privacy policies are up-to-date, and make any necessary changes by April 8, 2009.  Because publisher sites and laws vary across countries, we’re unfortunately unable to suggest specific privacy policy language.
For more information about interest-based advertising, you can also visit the Inside AdSense Blog at http://adsense.blogspot.com/2009/03/driving-monetization-with-ads-that.html.
We appreciate your participation and look forward to this upcoming enhancement.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
Email preferences: You have received this mandatory email service announcement to update you about important changes to your AdSense product or account.
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

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Mobile Analytics: Benefits and Challenges

Mobile marketing is still in its infancy, and if it’s ever to grow up, marketers will need metrics. The ability to measure and segment site visitors who are using mobile devices lags far behind the ability to slice and dice visitors using PCs.

One of the biggest barriers to getting effective mobile analytics is the mobile carriers–the massive companies that provide mobile phone service. They control much of the information that can be used to identify and track individual mobile Web surfers, and that information is not publicly available.

Below, find out more about mobile Web analytics, whether you need them, the challenges they present, and the value they can provide.

Do you need a WAP site?

Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is an open standard for bringing the Internet to mobile phones and PDAs. Having a well designed WAP site gives mobile visitors an experience tailored to their device. Without them, mobile visitors are stuck with websites designed for PCs, which can be hard to navigate and use on a phone.

One way to determine if you need a WAP site is to analyze your website’s traffic. If a significant portion is coming from mobile users, then you might want to consider building them a better experience.

“If 10% of your traffic is actually people from mobile phones and they’re having a terrible experience, then that means that you’re wasting 10% of your online usage. Considering how much marketers spend building that traffic and building that brand online, that is a real waste,” says Adam Kerr, VP North America, Bango, a mobile analytics provider.

How Can I Measure It?

Website metrics are invaluable. They can point out problems with websites, measure the success of campaigns, and help guide investments in technology and advertising. Mobile website metrics have the potential to be equally valuable, but they work a little differently.

Challenges

> Cookies aren’t effective

Web cookies–or tracking cookies–are a way for a visitors’ Web browser and an analytics system to communicate. Cookies are often used by marketers to track their site visitors’ behavior.

How cookies work for PC users Unique visitors receive a cookie when first arriving to a website to have their clicking behavior tracked. When the visitors return to the website, the cookie will identify them as repeat visitors. If a visitor deletes his cookies, he receives a new cookie when returning to the website and is marked as a “unique visitor.”

Cookies for mobile visitors Cookies do not work as well on mobile browsers as they do for PCs. Some mobile browsers do not support cookies at all. Others will delete cookies when the phone is shut off. This makes cookies less-reliable when tracking mobile site traffic.

> IP addresses aren’t specific

IP addresses can reveal the location of individual PC visitors. The IP addresses of mobile visitors are much more general. The carriers do not reveal IP addresses down to an individual level, but instead release addresses that could represent millions of users.

The Undeletable Cookie

Some mobile analytics companies have avoided using cookies and IP addresses to track mobile browsers. They pool multiple sources of information and build partnerships with mobile carriers to track mobile visitors individually. Mobile analytics provider Bango uses such a strategy, Kerr says.

These systems can provide a much more long-term and accurate view of a visitors’ behavior. Marketers using them get a much better picture of who is truly a unique visitor, who is a returning visitor and what their long-term behavior is like. It’s like an undeletable tracking cookie.

Carrier partnerships required It would be very difficult to build a continuous, long-term file of a mobile visitor’s behavior without partnering with mobile carriers, says Mike Wehrs, President and CEO, Mobile Marketing Association. “[The information] is not generally accessible and it would take a tremendous amount of technical prowess to figure it out,” he says.

Touchy legal issue Mobile analytics providers that handle information that could personally identify mobile users could be in uncertain legal territory. “You’re now in the realm of personally identifiable information as soon as you start doing that type of stuff. And now you have a whole different level of legislative and regulatory oversight.” “As recently as [February], the Federal Trade Commission re-released and further specified how private information needs to be handled. So it’s definitely getting the attention of some of the civil groups, and it’s gotten the attention of the FTC.” (FTC report linked below.)

Metrics Available

Mobile analytics systems can provide basic metrics such as unique visitor counts, page view counts and conversion rates. Here are two unique metrics that aren’t used to track visitors from PCs and are specific to mobile:

Carrier – visitor can be segmented by which company provides their mobile service. The top four US Mobile Carriers and their approximate number of subscribers, according to CNET News: 1. Verizon: Over 80 million 2. AT&T: About 77 million 3. Sprint Nextel: About 52.8 million in May 2008 4. T-Mobile About 32.8 million (according to a press release) Verizon recently overtook AT&T in 2008 by acquiring Alltel, formerly the fifth largest U.S. carrier.

Device – segmenting by the type of phone Segmenting visitors by their device can provide exceptional insights. Phone capabilities vary greatly, and their pricing and features can provide insights into a customer’s lifestyle. This can be useful for targeting offers. Here are the top 10 most-used mobile handsets in the US in Q3 2008, according to Nielsen. Motorola RAZR V3 series: 9.3% Motorola MotoKRZR series: 2.0% LG VX8300 series: 1.6% Apple iPhone: 1.5% LG VX8500 series: 1.2% RIM BlackBerry 8100 series: 1.2% Nokia 6101 series: 1.1% LG VX8350: 1.0% Motorola V325 series: 0.9% Nokia 6010 series: 0.9% “If you’re dealing with lots of users who have high-end handsets, you can design your sites so it has better pages, more video content, it’s got more music content, if that’s appropriate. Whereas if you have lots of users who have basic hands sets then you’ll probably want to keep the site relatively simple and low on graphics so they can load the site quickly on their cell phone,” Kerr says.