It’s said that Facebook could be worth $100bn if, as widely predicted, it floats on the stock market next year.

That would make it as valuable as Amazon (in business since 1995) and McDonald’s (1940) and twice as valuable as Tesco (1929). But Facebook was launched a mere seven years ago, by then college student Mark Zuckerberg and his Harvard friends.

Can a $100bn business have been created so fast? It may sound incredible, but there are reasons why Facebook just might be worth that much.

If you look after the pennies…

First, Google – now worth around $200bn – set a new model for Silicon Valley when it went public in 2004, the year Facebook was founded.

It built a global audience before working out how to make money, proving that if you can attract a big enough audience, there will always be ways to “monetise”. Ad revenue per user can be tiny and still add up to huge figures. So Facebook’s current 800 million users are an extraordinarily valuable asset.

And Facebook has a couple of trump cards over Google.

It’s the ultimate “sticky” site, with users spending much longer on it per session – about 30 minutes on average – than people do on Google. That’s more time to see and respond to ads.

Everything Facebook is doing to develop as a business, such as the forthcoming personal Timelines, is designed to get people even more hooked.

Zuckerberg says its all about giving users better things to do. “We’re not trying to make it so that people spend a lot more time on Facebook,” he said. “We want to make it so the time you spend on Facebook is so valuable that you want to keep on coming back every day.”

Knowing you

Another key advantage is that while Google often doesn’t know much about its users, Facebook is a treasure trove of personal information. Unlike Google, you can’t use Facebook without logging on; and the only point of doing so is to talk about yourself and share your interests.

That makes it, in the words of Facebook chronicler David Kirkpatrick, “probably the most valuable market research tool that’s ever existed”.

It gives advertisers the chance to target exactly the kinds of people they want to reach. So if you’re selling a product to women who are about to get married, when you place an ad you can click the “engaged” tag, and “women” and only show the ad to brides-to-be.

Zuckerberg himself has always been reluctant to allow intrusive ads – so much so that in the early days Facebook ads sat below a cheeky caption that read: “We don’t like these either, but they pay the bills.”

Today Facebook hopes that offering ads which users are more likely to be interested in will mitigate the intrusion. And when friends are drawn into the process with what Facebook calls “social ads”, perhaps ads will become not just acceptable, but even welcome.

If it’s a choice between a straight ad for a product, and a social ad that tells you that one of your friends likes the product, Zuckerberg asks, “which do you think people who use Facebook prefer? They want to learn about what their friends are doing.”

Generating demand

For Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer and effectively Zuckerberg’s number two, Facebook has already found its own niche, avoiding direct competition for ad revenue with her former employer, Google.

Sandberg distinguishes between demand fulfilment ads – Google’s speciality – and demand generation ads, which she sees as Facebook’s strength. She cites TV ads as an example of the latter. You aren’t asked to go and buy something immediately; rather you are introduced to new products and ideas.

“Part of the challenge in moving dollars online is that the demand generation dollars have not moved online as effectively,” Ms Sandberg says, “and that is 90% of a $650bn industry.”

Commercial peril

Not everyone is convinced: Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of advertising giant WPP warns that Facebook is “a social network, not a commercial network. And therefore you use it commercially at your peril.” Sir Martin sees Facebook as a good opportunity for public relations, rather than as “an in-your-face advertising medium”.

Facebook’s advertising revenue is rising fast, and is expected to top $3bn this year. But already half the population of Britain is on Facebook, with similar figures in other developed countries. No wonder that Zuckerberg sees future growth not in signing up new users, but more in making existing users even more attached to the site.

But as Fortune magazine technology writer Jessi Hempel jokes: “We do need time to eat, sleep, and interact with friends in real life, or we’ll have nothing to photograph and post on Facebook. So there are natural limitations to that.”

By Charles Miller producer of Mark Zuckerberg: Inside Facebook

BBC News – 01.12.2011

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15962476

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If you are a local business and wish to promote your website via your free listing in Google Places, it is important that your website displays the correct physical address, where your business is located, rather than using a P.O. Box number.

P.O. Box numbers are a popular option for self employed individuals such as plumbers, electricians and painters etc., who generally work out of a home office and prefer not to publish their home address.

Unfortunately Google will no longer accept free company listings in Google Places from businesses who only display a P.O. Box number on their website.

Google’s Lina Paczensky explains this decision as follows:

“Google Places is meant to facilitate customer interaction with brick-and-mortar businesses and service providers. Therefore, the business owner or employee who is officially authorised to represent their particular business location must have a physical address in order to comply with our quality guidelines. P.O. Boxes are not considered accurate physical locations. Listings submitted with P.O. Box addresses will be removed.”

With a major shift towards online local search, a free business listing in Google Places is vitally important, for local business owners. If your website is currently displaying a P. O. Box number, you should change this to your physical address as soon as possible.

Have you been affected by this?

Have you suddenly found that your Google Places listing has been removed?

If so, we would love to hear from you.

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Ofcom is seeking to stop UK internet service providers from advertising unrealistic broadband speeds.

Average broadband speeds vary due to a variety of factors

Currently most ISPs advertise services as ‘up to’ a certain speed – for instance, 20Mbps (megabits per second).

But Ofcom’s latest research finds that very few consumers actually get these headline speeds.

“There is a substantial gap between advertised speeds and the actual speeds people get in their homes,” Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards told the BBC.

“The chances of someone receiving the advertised headline speed are fairly remote,” he said.

“We would like to see clearer information provided to consumers which more accurately reflects the likely speeds they will actually receive,” he added.

Ofcom’s latest research into broadband speeds found that just 14% of customers on ‘up to’ 20Mbps services received speeds of over 12Mbps, while 58% averaged speeds of 6Mbps or less.

Consumer confusion

Cable and fibre services fared better, with 92% of Virgin Media customers on an ‘up to’ 50Mbps service averaging 45.6Mbps.

Its lower 10Mbps service saw average speeds of 9.6Mbps.

BT’s Fibre-to-the-Cabinet technology, which is currently available to 15% of UK homes, has an average of 31.8Mbps on the 40Mbps service.

Unrealistic broadband speeds has long been an issue for consumer groups, who say such advertising is adding to consumer confusion over net services.

“Broadband speeds are a major source of dissatisfaction for UK broadband customers,” says Michael Phillips, product director at comparison site Broadbandchoices.

“We have been pushing for ‘typical speeds’ to be made the gold standard for speed measurement since 2007 – in the same way that banks use ‘typical’ APR percentages.”

The Advertising Standards Authority is looking into the issue.

Ofcom is recommending that ISPs use Typical Speed Rates (TSR) to avoid confusing consumers.

It has set guidelines for these speeds. It recommends that ADSL services currently advertised as ‘up to’ 20Mbps (megabits per second) be changed to a TSR of between 3 and 9Mbps.

Digital exclusion

BT is not impressed with Ofcom’s idea.

“We have real concerns with their approach. Broadband speeds vary from line to line and so it is meaningless to use one speed for advertising. That is why we use the term ‘up to’,” said John Petter, managing director of BT Retail.

He said he thought such a policy “would encourage digital exclusion rather than tackle it”.

“Enforcing typical speed ranges is also dangerous as it could encourage more ISPs to cherry pick customers who will increase their average, leaving customers in rural and suburban areas under-served,” he said.

PlusNet defended its current advertising.

“We offer customers a personalised speed range.

“This is confirmed at application and then again once a customer has had their broadband service fully installed – we are completely honest with customers about the speeds they will receive,” said chief executive Jamie Ford.

Virgin Media, which fared the best in the speed tests, welcomed the news: “Ofcom’s latest report is yet another damning indictment that consumers continue to be treated like mugs and misled by ISPs that simply cannot deliver on their advertised speed claims,” said Jon James, executive director of broadband at Virgin Media.

Andrew Ferguson, editor of broadband website ThinkBroadband, said using average speeds could encourage mediocrity.

“Providers who now go all out to get the best speeds could give up and make do with the average,” he said.

He added that there was “no such thing as an average” because the speed of a connection depends on so many factors, including home wiring, the applications being used and where in the UK people live.

AVERAGE DOWNLOAD SPEEDS

• BT ‘up to’ 8Mbps – 4.1 to 4.8Mbps
• Orange ‘up to’ 8Mbps – 3.3 to 4.3Mbps
• Plusnet ‘up to’ 8Mbps – 3.4 to 4.4Mbps
• Virgin Media ‘up to’ 10Mbps – 9.5 to 9.7Mbps
• BT ‘up to’ 20Mbps – 6.9 to 8.7Mbps
• O2/Be ‘up to’ 20Mbps – 9.9 to 11.6Mbps
• Sky ‘up to’ 20Mbps – 7.4 to 8.8Mbps
• TalkTalk ‘up to’ 24Mbps – 7.7 to 9.3Mbps
• Virgin Media ‘up to’ 20Mbps – 17.4 to 18.6Mbps
• BT ‘up to’ 40Mbps – 30.5 to 33.1Mbps
• Virgin Media ‘up to’ 50Mbps – 43.9 to 47.2Mbps

BBC – 02/11/2011 – See original story HERE

BT has introduced a controversial service that some say could allow broadband providers to create a “two-tier internet”.

Content Connect, as it is known, allows Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that use BT’s network to charge content firms for high-speed delivery of video. It could spell the end of so-called “net neutrality”, where all traffic on the net is treated equally.

Critics say it will also reduce competition for consumers. “This is a sea change in the way that content is delivered by ISPs,” Jim Killock of the net freedom campaign organisation, the Open Rights Group, told BBC News. “It is essentially them saying: ‘Rather than delivering whatever content is on the internet as best we can, here are our services that we will deliver through our own network.’” He said the result could be a “fundamental shift” from consumers choosing what video and gaming services they buy on the internet to “buying services from the internet to bundled services from ISPs”. “This would reduce competition and take investment away from internet companies – that would be bad for everyone.”

In addition, net neutrality advocates says that allowing large content providers, such as YouTube, to pay for premium delivery could put smaller companies at a competitive disadvantage, reinforcing the gap.

But a spokesperson for BT denied that the offering would create a “two-tier internet”. “BT supports the concept of net neutrality, but believes that service providers should also be free to strike commercial deals, should content owners want a higher quality or assured service delivery.” It said that its new service would speed up download speeds across its network – even for those not buying into Content Connect – by easing congestion.

Free experiments

Network neutrality is one of the founding principles of the internet and is meant to ensure that all ISPs treat all web traffic equally – serving merely as a conduit for whatever data is passing from content providers to end users. But debates have been raging around the world as the explosive growth in internet traffic – and particularly video – has put a strain on the existing infrastructure.

In the US, regulators recently voted in favour of rules that are designed to uphold the principles of network neutrality. The EU has openly backed network neutrality, but has introduced regulation that allows network providers to manage traffic on their networks, provided what they are doing is transparent. The UK regulator Ofcom is expected to clarify its stance later this year.

In the meantime, the UK government has already said that it backs a two-speed internet. Culture minister Ed Vaizey said in November that ISPs had to be free to experiment with new charges to help pay for the expansion in internet services and infrastructure. “This could include the evolution of a two-sided market, where consumers and content providers could choose to pay for differing levels of quality of service,” he said.

The new offering from BT seems to be the first major step in that direction. The service, offered by BT’s wholesale division, is based on a new content distribution network built by BT that stores video content closer to the user, reducing congestion on the network and speeding up load times.

BT retail – a separate division of BT – will begin to use the service to deliver BBC iPlayer content on its BT Vision TV service within the next few months. “It will cache iPlayer content closer to customers on the network, allowing for the content to be delivered to customers in a more efficient and cost-effective way, as well as improving the overall viewing experience,” a BT spokesperson told BBC News. “The Content Connect service will also be available to all UK ISPs within the same timescales.” The spokesperson said that BT would not throttle or discriminate against other video services on the network, but did not rule out that ISPs using the network could do so. “The treatment of content on the network – such as prioritisation of content or bandwidth throttling – is strictly within the domain of the ISP and not the wholesale provider.”

BBC NEWS – 4th January 2011

So, what do you think, is a two tier broadband service a good idea? Would you be prepared to pay a higher fee for a faster connection? Please let me know your views.

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Google has recently launched Place Search and updated the way their local search results are displayed on the main web results page. As an example, try a local search for “carpet cleaning manchester” and you will see how the new layout is now displayed.

According to Google “Today we’re introducing Place Search, a new kind of local search result that organizes the world’s information around places. We’ve clustered search results around specific locations so you can more easily make comparisons and decide where to go.”

The original style of presentation for local searches, which consisted of a small map and a number of local listings positioned to the right of the map image, has now gone. The map has now been moved to the right hand side of the page, above the Adwords paid advertising and floats down the page, as users scroll down. Surprisingly, as you scroll down the page, the Adwords paid advertising disappears behind the map image, which always stays in view.

Established organic listings now pushed further down the page

In most cases the Local Search results are displayed at the top of the main page, below the top Adwords listings. This results in the main organic listings being automatically pushed further down the page! Our tests have shown that sometimes a limited number of organic listings may appear at the top of the page, before the local search listings, but this does not happen very often.

The new Place Search results now display the physical address and telephone number for each company, together with links to their Google Places profile page and any customer reviews. We have also noticed that links to some third party sites, referencing or having user reviews, about a particular website, are sometimes displayed below the main local listing. Place Search becomes active automatically, when Google’s algorithm detects that a user is searching for local information. Google’s database will then group and list the corresponding local information on the search result page. This represents a major shift by Google towards placing a greater emphasis on local search results with a richer and more informative presentation.

So, what does the new Google Place Search mean for your business?

Well, if you are a Google Adwords advertiser I imagine that you are not going to be impressed with the way your paid for advertising rapidly disappears, as the user scrolls down the page!

I imagine that businesses are also not going to be impressed with being forced further down the page, in favour of the local search results. Especially if you have invested a lot of time, effort and money in optimising your site, in order to achieve a page one organic listing!

Local companies are the outright winner

Clearly, local companies are the outright winner and the launch of Google Place Search is sure to put a smile on the face of many local businesses.

If you do not currently have a local Google Places page, then it is definitely time to get one! For those with a Google Places page, here are some important things to consider:

• Include plenty of details on your Google Places profile page, as these will now assume much greater importance.
• Encourage your customers to leave comments on your Google Places profile page, as these have now become more important than ever.
  
• Reviews from your customers and other local directories such as Yelp will show up in your Google Place Search listing, therefore you should ensure that you create as many local business directory profiles as possible.
  
• The number of positive reviews you receive will also influence your overall position in the local search results.

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