July 6th, 2010
ANCHE IN ITALIA SI STA DIFFONDENDO UNA PRASSI IN VOGA NEGLI STATI UNITI
Cresce il numero dei pazienti web-dipendenti, ma l’eccesso di fiducia nasconde pericoli
Anche in Italia si sta diffondendo il fenomeno dell’uso di internet «per la ricerca di farmaci e diagnosi, soprattutto per malattie gravi, anche se in modo comunque molto limitato rispetto a quanto avviene negli Stati Uniti. Il fatto di poter contare praticamente sempre sul consiglio gratuito del medico di famiglia è un buon deterrente». Così Claudio Cricelli, presidente della Società italiana di medicina generale (Simg), commenta i dati di uno studio statunitense secondo cui è in crescita il numero dei pazienti “web-dipendenti”. «Generalmente se il paziente è rimasto poco convinto da quanto gli ha detto il medico di famiglia – spiega Cricelli – allora può darsi che cerchi informazioni in internet. Ma questo vale per la medicina convenzionale». Se si tratta invece di benessere, integratori e medicine alternative, «allora in questo caso c’è più gente che ricorre al fai da te, arrivando ad acquistare anche farmaci su internet. Ma si tratta comunque di una percentuale limitata di persone. Il nostro Ssn rappresenta un buono scudo». Il pericolo invece c’è «se si tratta di malattie gravi, come per esempio il cancro – aggiunge – perché in caso la tentazione di soluzioni miracolistiche può esserci. Spesso quello che la gente “compra” in internet sono delle false promesse di cura o di guarigione, che poi non arriva: cosa che stimiamo accada per lo 0,5- 1% della popolazione. In questo caso il danno è dato dalla mancata terapia, perché quando si ha una malattia progressiva, il tempo è prezioso». L’invito dei medici è dunque quello di diffidare di terapie incerte o fantasiose, conclude Cricelli, «perché così può succedere che non ci si curi come si dovrebbe».
Posted in Online Marketing News from Italy | No Comments »
July 5th, 2010
Per offrire servizi di reperimento informazioni sui voli. Si aspetta ora l’ok dell’Antitrust.
Accordo per l’acquisizione di Ita Software per 700 mln di dollari.
Google è pronta a esplorare un nuovo fiorente mercato online, quello legato ai viaggi: dopo le indiscrezioni che si sono susseguite nei mesi scorsi, il colosso di Mountain View ha infatti annunciato di aver raggiunto un accordo sull’acquisto, per 700 milioni di dollari in contanti, di Ita Software, società del Massachusetts che da 14 anni realizza servizi per il business in rete legato al turismo. Già utilizzati da siti come Bing Travel, TripAdvisor, Orbitz, Hotwire e Kayak, i software di Ita aiutano principalmente gli utenti a reperire online le informazioni sui voli e consentirà a Google di lanciare servizi di viaggio analoghi a quelli già offerti da alcuni dei suoi maggiori concorrenti, Microsoft in testa. Il colosso annuncia anzi che una volta che l’acquisizione sarà completata i suoi ingegneri si metteranno al lavoro su nuovi strumenti per facilitare le ricerche online degli internauti legate a ricerca e comparazione di voli aerei. Google sottolinea che il suo scopo non è vendere i biglietti direttamente agli utenti, ma di indirizzarli verso siti web dove possano procedere all’acquisto online. Una precisazione che però non rassicura i soggetti che operano sul mercato e alcuni analisti, che già intravedono all’orizzonte possibili obiezioni da parte delle autorità antitrust. Del resto in conferenza stampa lo stesso amministratore delegato Eric Schmidt ha detto di aspettarsi un lungo periodo di esame da parte dell’Authority statunitense, fiducioso però che alla fine l’acquisto potrà essere completato.
Posted in Online Marketing News from Italy | No Comments »
July 5th, 2010
Microsoft sceglie Gruppo Html per il nuovo ambiente di sviluppo
Il progetto di Tag Advertising è pianificato con Universal McCann. creatività di h lab
Un progetto articolato, per fare leva su una community in target con il prodotto: ecco perché Html.it è stato scelto da Microsoft per promuovere Visual Studio 2010, ultima versione del suo ambiente di sviluppo integrato. Realizzato da Tag Advertising per la campagna pianificata con Universal McCann, il progetto ruota intorno a una rubrica interattiva, accessibile da un box nella home page di Html.it. Qui, con una serie di domande e risposte, sono state presentate alcune caratteristiche di Visual Studio 2010, corredate da approfondimenti: guide, articoli, interviste e video. Ogni feature è stata votatae commentata dagli utenti, che hanno deciso quale approfondire con un tutorial realizzato dalla redazione di Html.it. Durante la successiva “Tutorial week”, online in questi giorni, gli utenti possono lasciare commenti e testimonianze su quanto hanno realizzato o realizzeranno con le nuove feature del prodotto: i migliori saranno pubblicati e premiati con gadget Microsoft. «Il progetto realizzato per Visual Studio 2010 ha coinvolto attivamente la community di Html.it, stimolando una interazione tra utenti e testata e amplificando la forza del messaggio – dichiara Giusy Cappiello, direttore vendite di Tag Advertising –. Nella stessa ottica spiccatamente Web 2.0, l’iniziativa è stata promossa utilizzando i forum di Html.it, la fan page presente su Facebook (con oltre 24 mila fan) e Twitter, nonché coinvolgendo la community di OneBlog, il network di blog professionali di Gruppo Html. A copertura completa del target, la promozione è stata supportata da una campagna display con formati speciali quali il footer expanding e dall’invio di Dem, con creatività ideate da H Lab».
Posted in Online Marketing News from Italy | No Comments »
July 5th, 2010
A collection of some of this week’s news about the company.
If you’re not an innovator, they’ll go elsewhere: Carol Bartz, CEO of Yahoo!
(The Economic Times, July 2, 2010)
There aren’t many Internet companies around that can boast of having survived the dotcom bust to grow into multi-billion dollar enterprises. In that sense, Yahoo! Inc, started back in 1994 by two Stanford University graduates Jerry Yang and David Filo, is an exception. It’s one of the world’s most visited sites and as of January 2010 had the largest market share of online display advertising globally. In 2009 the $7 billion Yahoo! roped in computer industry veteran Carol Bartz as its CEO. For 62-year-old Bartz it meant coming out of retirement and moving into the hyperactive world of Internet where one can’t get a day’s break without knowing what titans like Google, Apple, Microsoft et al are up to. Under her, Yahoo! has been up to quite a few things to take on the challengers. Among her big decisions has been the decade-long alliance with Microsoft in the search space. In an e-mail interaction with ET , the ‘farm girl from Wisconsin’ talks about how ‘hack days’ are vital to innovation at Yahoo!, the four ‘Os’ the company is betting on and more.
What are some of the game-changing innovations that Yahoo! has done in the past and how has each changed the fortunes of the company?
There are so many, from email to search to content to advertising, that I couldn’t possibly list them all here. But I will say that the most important was when Jerry Yang and David Filo, the cofounders of Yahoo!, began indexing the Web from their dorm room in Stanford. That effort became Yahoo! 15 years ago, and we’ve experienced enormous growth and success since.
Why? Because the Web is a chaotic place and people need a guide. There are hundreds of millions of sites, far too many for one person to visit and explore. So what Jerry and David did, and what we still do today, is bring order to that chaos. We strive to be the centre of people’s online lives, and connect them to things and people that matter to them most. Their email, their friends, their news, their sports scores, their photos and more. It’s why we attract 600 million users a month to Yahoo! sites around the world.
How does Yahoo nurture innovation, which is so essential to its growth?
We’re incredibly serious about it. Innovation on the web is continuous; you live and die by it. People on the web vote with their clicks, and have so many options, that if you’re not an innovator, they’ll go elsewhere. If you think about it, we’re in a constant state of innovation. We’re always coming out with new products and improvements to stay ahead.
But besides product development, we also host Hack Days. These are events held internally with our own engineers, and externally with developers, where we open up our products and allow people to “hack them, play with them and improve them, or even come up with their own ideas. These events start an immense flow of creativity and imagination that’s so important to innovation.
And we hold them all over the world, in the US, Asia, Europe and even right here in India. Speaking of India, we’re also partnering with the Institute of Technology Mumbai to support its faculty and students with their research. Yahoo! provides them access to a cluster of servers running our open source software and Web data. We often find partnering with academia provides access to a lot of smart people and new ideas.
How do you identify the path to innovation? What are the things you look for when examining and identifying innovative idea?
For us, one of our main company priorities is to create “wow” consumer experience. If an idea doesn’t do that, then it isn’t innovative enough.
Have you dealt with innovations in fields beyond Yahoo’s main area of expertise? For example in packaging and design, business and marketing practices, HR practices and so on?
Absolutely, to be a successful company you need to try and be on your A game everywhere. What good are great products if you can’t market and tell people about them? Does it matter how great the code behind some product feature is if the user interface is terrible? Let me give you an example. Not a lot of people know it, but Yahoo! has one of the largest private cloud computing operations in the world.
We need it to serve up all the products and services we offer via the Web to more than half a billion people a month. That means we have a lot of machines in a lot of data centres. And those data centres use a lot of energy, not only to run the machines, but to keep them cool. So how do we solve for this? We thought outside the box and modeled our centres after a chicken coop.
They’re designed to naturally air themselves out. It’s such an innovative idea that the US Department of Energy recently recognised Yahoo! for energy efficiency and data centre design innovation. We were their number one pick, outpacing other well-known technology companies.
Which are the key areas and sectors that you are working on at the moment (for the future)?
For Yahoo!, it’s what I like to call the four ‘Os’, local, social, mobile and video. That is what defines online engagement in today’s world. If you’re not incorporating the four ‘Os’ into your content and your advertising, then you’re not going to engage people. It’s what they’re expecting. And it’s why you’ve seen us make a lot of moves recently, like acquiring. Associated Content, to our partnerships with Samsung, Nokia, Zynga, Facebook, Twitter, Reveille and more, to enhance our experiences in these areas.
Yahoo Offers Android Search Widget, HTML5 Upgrades For iOS
(Extracted from Search Engine Land, July 1, 2010)
In general Yahoo’s mobile search experience is very good and Yahoo has the opportunity to make gains…
Yahoo adds security and workflow management to Hadoop
(Extracted from InfoWorld, June 29, 2010)
Yahoo, which has championed the open source Apache Hadoop distributed computing platform, is adding capabilities for Kerberos security and workflow management to the platform. The company on Tuesday will unveil the open source additions at the Yahoo-sponsored Hadoop Summit 2010 conference in Santa Clara, Calif. and donate them to the Apache Software Foundation. InfoWorld’s Paul Krill reported last week that Cloudera and Quest are linking Hadoop to Oracle databases.
Yahoo’s Style Guide For The Web Lands Next Week In Print, iPad And Kindle Form
(Extracted from TechCrunch, June 28, 2010)
Yahoo wants to help people write effectively for the Web by publishing a custom style guide, as was announced last April. The stylebook, entitled “The Yahoo! Style Guide: The Ultimate Sourcebook for Writing, Editing, and Creating Content for the Digital World”, will be released on July 6 by St. Martin’s Griffin, and will be available in dead tree form in a variety of stores, but also – naturally – in digital form for Apple’s iPad and Amazon’s Kindle.
Yahoo Site Takes Page From Print
(Extracted from Brandweek, June 27, 2010)
It’s not uncommon for a publisher of a print magazine to give advertisers a heads up about upcoming themed editorial sections, but that’s still an unusual practice for an online-only site. But Yahoo’s Shine, an online hub aimed at women between 25 and 55, has had some success drawing marketers to be exclusive advertisers for online “channels”…The latest channel advertiser is the skin-care brand Nivea, which is advertising on a channel called Bikini 101 to promote its Goodbye Cellulite, Hello Bikini Challenge.
Yahoo names new original programming chief (exclusive)
(Extracted from The Hollywood Reporter, June 29, 2010)
Yahoo has tapped a top programming executive for the video side of its drive to ramp up original content at the portal. Erin McPherson has been named VP and head of originals and video programming, reporting to Yahoo Media chief Jimmy Pitaro. McPherson already led business development for Yahoo Media, and will now add oversight of development, production and content partnerships.
Yahoo to Expand Customer Service to More Languages
(Extracted from Associated Press, June 30, 2010)
Yahoo Inc. said Wednesday it is expanding its customer service operations to include call center employees who speak more languages. The company said it will be hiring multilingual service center workers to cover Arabic, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Polish, Romanian and Russian. The new languages will he handled at a service center in Cairo operated by IMB Corp., Yahoo said.
MARKET TALK: Wall St. Responds To Yahoo’s $3B Buyback
(Dow Jones Newswires, July 1, 2010)
Wall Street is liking Yahoo’s three-year plan to buy back as much as $3B in stock, equivalent to about 15% of the entire company. Susquehanna say it is “highly likely” YHOO will execute this plan, given that it has nearly completed an earlier $3B buyback authorized in 2006. Caris says the buyback is the “most symbolic way” for YHOO to convey its shares are under-priced. At about $14, investors are getting display and search businesses for less than $5, once the company’s Asian assets are factored in, says Caris. YHOO up 1.7% to $14.07.
It’s all about You!
(Link to Meet The Boss, June 28, 2010)
Last April, just 100 days after being in the CEO chair, Carol Bartz went on a whirlwind tour of all of Yahoo!’s operations. She said the key objective was to establish a ‘wow’ experience for all users around the world. But how is Yahoo! achieving this, and how, as EVP of Customer Advocacy, does creating this experience impact Jeff Russakow?
Eric Wynalda Part 1
Eric Wynalda Part 2
Eric Wynalda Part 3
(Links to MSNBC News Live, June 26, 2010)
Yahoo! Sports soccer expert Eric Wynalda is interviewed on MSNBC about the World Cup.
Y! News Bytes Episode #27
(Link to video, July 2, 2010)
What’s Hadoop? A new dance craze? A hot new car? News Bytes’ Pam Woon gets the scoop from Yahoo! CPO Blake Irving and Co-founder/Chief Yahoo David Filo on the technology powering your favorite websites.
Y! News Bytes Episode #28
(Link to video, July 2, 2010)
Between the new iPhone and the new Droid phones, it is all about mobile! News Bytes’ Pam Woon interviews David Katz, VP Mobile N. America and Lee Parry, Product Management & Design on its first apps for the Droid platform taking Y! Mail, Messenger, and Search to a whole new level.
Posted in Yahoo! News | No Comments »
July 2nd, 2010
A collection of some of this week’s news about the company.
A conversation with Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz
(Link to CNET TV, extracted from CNET News June 14, 2010)
Yahoo was on people’s lips last week–from hookups with Facebook to rumors of a Huffington Post buyout to news that CNN had replaced it in the No. 1 spot in ComScore’s “general news” rankings. (Don’t take that last too seriously, though.) So, it was a good time for us to sit down with CEO Carol Bartz and get her thoughts on everything from the company’s burgeoning content strategy to combating spam in Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Messenger. Below are impressions of the conversation from CNET’s Tom Krazit and Molly Wood; for the full conversation, check out the video.
Aiming at Rivals, Starbucks Will Offer Free Wi-Fi
(Extracted from New York Times, June 15, 2010)
Many coffee shops try to discourage people from buying a cup of coffee and then lingering for hours to use the free Internet access. Starbucks will soon encourage them to stay as long as they want. The company said on Monday that as of July 1, its stores in the United States would offer free Wi-Fi, via AT&T, that anyone can reach with a single click. In case customers run out of distractions on the Web, Starbucks is giving them even more reason to sit and browse, offering free online articles, music, videos and local information through a partnership with Yahoo.
Yahoo Finds More Real Estate to Sell: Ads Come to the Login Page
(Extracted from All Things Digital, June 14, 2010)
If Google can decorate its famously pristine homepage, then everything else is fair game too: Yahoo has started renting out its login page to marketers. The login page is prime real estate. ComScore says it attracts 26 million U.S. uniques per day, and Yahoo says the page is its third-most popular, after the homepage and Yahoo Mail page.
Yahoo Expands TV Widget With Sony
(Extracted from WebProNews, June 16, 2010)
Yahoo said today it has expanded the availability of its Yahoo Widget Engine on Sony’s Internet-connected BRAVIA TVs. The Yahoo Widget Engine allows viewers to watch videos on Showtime, check sports scores on USA Today, shop on eBay, play games or connect with friends on Twitter and Facebook, while watching TV. The Yahoo Widget Engine on BRAVIA TVs is now available in more than 100 countries across North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia.
Yahoo’s Original Content 3.0
(Extracted from MediaPost Raw, June 16, 2010)
In a conversation with Peter Kafka kicking off OMMA Publish, Jimmy Pitaro, Yahoo’s VP of Media acknowledges the company’s strategy over the last decade has alternated between a focus on creating original content and aggregating third-party material. The main difference in Yahoo’s renewed focus on original content now compared to the Terry Semel/Lloyd Braun era, is that the “snackable” video programs the company is serving up today, like Primetime in No Time, are based on audience insights.
HP Partners With Yahoo for Targeted Advertisements
(Extracted from PC World, June 16, 2010)
Hewlett-Packard plans to use Yahoo’s advertising network in a pilot program that will deliver targeted advertisements for content printed with its latest line of Web-connected printers. HP launched a line of Web-connected printers last week that allow users to print content directly from the Web or send content from their mobile phone to a remote printer using an e-mail address specific to that printer.
The New Yahoo Vs. The Web
(Extracted from Forbes, June 17, 2010)
Hilary Schneider has long been at the cutting edge of digital media–first at Knight Ridder, and now as an executive vice president at Yahoo!. She played a key role in Yahoo!’s search deal with Microsoft. She recently sat down with Forbes’ Victoria Barret to talk about her view of the company, from inside and out.
Forbes: How does Yahoo! feel culturally now inside the company? There’s been so much turmoil, so much turnover and real talent loss. But new talent has come in.
Hilary Schneider: “Lean forward” is the way I would describe it. Since Carol Bartz came on board about a year and a half ago, what you’ve seen is absolute focus on driving the business for differentiation in the areas that matter most. For us, that’s consumer experience. It is display advertising and the consumer experience in terms of the display of search, as well as the services and communication that go along with that.
Heather Cabot discusses hot topics in Yahoo! Search
(Link to CBS – The Early Show, June 18, 2010)
Yahoo! Web Life Editor Heather Cabot appeared on The Early Show to discuss various hot topics in search.
America’s Nightly Scoreboard
(Link to Fox Business News, June 16, 2010)
Yahoo! Sports Minute host Angela Sun was interviewed on Fox Business News’ America’s Nightly Scoreboard about the World Cup and how fans are searching for World Cup information on Yahoo!.
Yahoo enters mobile phone market in Asia
(Link to BBC News Online, June 16, 2010)
Yahoo has announced it is launching its first mobile phone, for sale only in Asia. More people in the region use Yahoo’s services on mobile phones than on computers, and the number is rising. The device, produced in connection with Alcatel, will be available within the next few months. The BBC’s Rob Young spoke to Yahoo’s vice president, Irv Henderson.
Posted in Yahoo! News | No Comments »
More Information