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Design and Tech News

New mobile ad formats extend to the smartphone

Saturday, June 11th, 2011

Google introduced two new ad formats that are an extension of two regular (computer) ad types to smartphones: Product Extension Ads and Product Local Ads.

The new ad extensions give marketers a way to include product images and other related data within ads displayed to mobile devices. One example of such an extension is inventory. If enabled, a user searching on a smartphone (iPhone, Android, etc) would be shown regional, inventory information for a product they are searching for. This new Google ad format, Product Extension Ads, are intended to drive eCommerce from mobile devices. Their counterpart, Product Local Ads, are intended to effectively do the opposite, drive foot traffic into local stores--by using the smartphone's GPS feature to put purchasing into a regional context.

Facebook cross-domain receiver file help

Wednesday, June 8th, 2011

Over the past couple days, the Facebook cross-domain receiver file listed on the Facebook Developers Website has been offline--not available for download. There are other sources for this file, but we will list it's contents here--it's easy to set up since it is a simple HTML file.

<script src=
"http://static.ak.connect.facebook.com/js/api_lib/v0.4/FeatureLoader.js.php"
type="text/javascript"></script>

<fb:comments></fb:comments>

<script type="text/javascript">
FB.init("YOUR_API_KEY_HERE", "<path from web root>/xd_receiver.htm");
</script>

This block will be placed on your display web page. This sample posting application is a great place to get started. You will need to set up your application on the developers.facebook.com website. From there, go to your application preferences and provide the domain and URL of your website, where you wish to host the application.

cross-domain receiver file

Additionally, you will need the cross-domain receiver file, which you can name and place in your directory as: /xd_receiver.htm.

The contents of this file are simple:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
<head>
    <title>cross domain receiver page</title>
</head>
<body>
    <script src="http://static.ak.facebook.com/js/api_lib/v0.4/XdCommReceiver.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
</body>
</html>

Google launches +1 buttons for websites

Wednesday, June 8th, 2011

Google has launched the +1 buttons that can be placed on any web page using a simple code snippet.

The activity from +1 will only show up on English language search results on Google.com, although the code snippet is supported by 44 languages. There are plans to expand the tool worldwide.

Google has also launched a self-service code generator to help with the construction of the button. This is Google's attempt to complete with Facebook's ubiquitous “Like” button.

Ironpaper launches a new NYSDEA.org

Friday, May 20th, 2011

Ironpaper has been working with The New York State Dance Education Association to launch a new nysdea.org website. The website offers a new look and feel, a new jobs database, and an expanded calendar to provide information on workshops, conferences and performances. The jobs database will become a resource for dance education jobs in New York State--as it is a free service for both submitting jobs and researching available dance education jobs.

NYSDEA - dance education new york state

Sale dimension to improve consumer experience for Product Search

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011

There will be three new types of required product data for Google Product Search Listings, which are supposed to improve customer and user experience for product search. A forth type of data is merely recommended but not required--sale price and effective dates for the sale. Together, this new meta data for product search should create a more robust and friendlier way to search for products online using Google databases.

Part of the new required data includes Unique Product Identifiers (brand name and model number). Unique Product Identifiers will help tie data together which will allow Google to create product listings.

Counterfeiters plague PPC; Google tries clean house

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011

Counterfeiters plague Adwords PPC. They seem to love that advertising service. Google is intent on both removing all offenders and creating reassurance in the business community. In the past six months alone, Google deleted 50,000 accounts that were selling counterfeit products. This is bad for business with legitimate sellers in are forced to contend with the fake or illegitimate products.

The search giant recently announced a new protocol for dealing with counterfeiters.

  1. Investigate new complaints from legitimate brand owners within 24 hours
  2. Increase  reviews of AdWords creative in order to find more violators
  3. Launched a new help page for reporting issues with counterfeits

This new review and identification process will also help the search giant create new (and maybe automated) ways of dealing with counterfeits within their PPC system.  Google has invested approx. $60 million in anti-counterfeit measures in 2010. Currently the company relies on it's own detection systems for removing the majority of offenders--rather than from outside reporting.

Significant update to Google Apps Billing announced

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011

Drawing upon user and web developer feedback, Google plans on launching a significant update to the Google Apps billing API later this year. The billing API helps to make subscription payments and management of user licenses possible. From a user standpoint, the billing API allows for seamless and easy payment options from within their domain tool.

The updates should help make integration for developers much easier. Users will experience the benefits as well--usability improvements will also be introduced.

Among the updates will be:

  • Expanded country support
  • Increased payment options

The current version will continue to be supported until the launch of the new billing API later this year.

A disconnected broadband nation

Saturday, February 19th, 2011

US broadband internet access nationwideA new website was released by the The National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Federal Communications Commission to show broadband connectivity across the US. Surprisingly, the web map documents how much of the US is not broadband connected. The map was constructed from approximately 25 million documents that outline connection data across the country.

The areas that have the best connection to the broadband web are the Eastern Seaboard, Pacific Northwest, Bay Area, Chicago and surrounding areas, and Southland. Much of the Mountain West and Southwest (including large parts of Northern California are large disconnected spaces.

Web designers and developers can connect to the map data through an API.

An open, world-class video codec brought to the web

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011

The WebM Project was launched last year as an attempt to bring an open top-notch video codec to the web. It was thought that an open development model would ultimately create a more perfect product.

Chrome's HTML 5 support for video will focus on codecs already supported by the Chromium project--WebM (VP8) and Theora video codecs.

In the next few months, the H.264 codec will be cease to be supported. As a result, web designers using the HTML <video> tag may need to make changes to their sites for Chrome.

Easy ways to save money and get better ROI for PPC marketing campaigns

Monday, December 27th, 2010

Many small businesses use Pay Per Click advertising to reach millions of prospective customers every day. Google is by far the most notorious and successful PPC advertising channel for small and large businesses alike, because the search giant successful allows for long tail distributions in advertising online, which places a premium on quality. Google did not invent PPC, but their refinements to the method has allowed for advertisers of all sizes to compete equally and necessarily for a huge customer market based on search and content interests.

Quick and easy ways to save money on ad campaigns:

  • Use negative keywords to filter out unwanted searches. If you are selling custom, advanced web design for example, you may not want to attract uses looking for cheap web design, because they are not the right fit for your approach. Instead, you can remove your ads from searches that contain specific keywords, which you can define at the AD level or at the CAMPAIGN level. In the ad editor, simply add a minus sign before any keyword in your keyword list. One example from the above scenario  would be to list "-cheap" or "low budget" in your keyword list to exclude such searches and reduce the cost of your campaign by making your campaign more relevant to searchers.
  • Try to build a better Quality Score for your PPC campaigns, by listing your product keywords within the ad title and on the ad landing page. Remember, your ecommerce or content landing web page is critical to the success of your marketing campaign.
  • Remove or modifying poorly performing ads.
  • Test your ads using A/B tests to better understand the needs of your users. Using an A/B test, you can create subtle landing page differences that may influence a user's behavior. You can have your web designer create new landing pages for your A/B tests as well to better understand how different approaches to design influence the behavior of users or shoppers.