Beyond the Pizza Paradigm

The idea of coupling video with directory listings is hardly new. In fact, I was involved in some yellow pages trials as far back at 1989 that were focused on exactly this idea. Of course, yellow pages publishers being yellow pages publishers, a lot of testing revolved around video ads for pizza parlors -- something I call the Pizza Paradigm. And perhaps because all this testing was centered on one category of businesses that really couldn't make very effective use of video, I formed an early opinion that video and B2B directories just didn't mix too well.

Times of course have changed. And I had a light bulb moment this week when I saw a press release from the publisher in India that operates IndiaMart.com. It's selling video to the Indian businesses that list in its directory in order to help buyers in distant countries build trust and confidence in them as potential suppliers. Brilliant! An absolutely spot-on, high value and best of all legitimate use for video in a directory.

Just days later, an announcement appeared from local yellow pages and rating site Yelp, indicating it too was adding offering video upgrades to business listings. This reminded me of another thing that's changed in recent years: the cost and complexity of video production has dropped dramatically, eliminating one of the other great barriers to use of video within directories.

The timing could be right to "go Hollywood" with your data product. Imagine how you can bring your listings to life with videos. This one from Yelp offers some inspiration.

Google Giveth; Google Taketh Away

The blogosphere is abuzz with reports that Google has once again tweaked its ranking algorithms. If I correctly understand what's going on, this could be an ugly one for many data publishers.

Apparently, in an attempt to raise the quality of search results, Google is now on the lookout for web pages that appear to be database-generated, contain few inbound links, are several levels below the home page, and offer limited amounts of information. Sounds like most of the online directories I run across. The bad news is that once identified, these pages will now be pushed way down in its search results.

The sense of those who watch SEO very closely is that Google is going after e-commerce sites with low-information product pages. Data publishers could just be collateral damage.

Time to panic? Not yet. Google is not offering up many specifics, and even the SEO alchemists aren't sure what's going on yet. The most important thing for right now is to know that something may be going on, and watch your traffic and test your search result ranking in Google to see if you are being impacted. There's lots being written on this, but here's a good place to start if you want more information.

Lights, Camera, Action

A couple of weeks ago, Thomson Reuters introduced a new service for its paid B2B subscribers called Reuters Insider. What's interesting about this is that it's entirely video-based.

In a nutshell, Thomson Reuters plans to create and post as many as 3,000 very short webcasts each week, that discuss breaking news. Once a webcast has aired the first time, it moves into a video-on-demand archive within 90 seconds. The archive is extensively indexed for searching by subscribers, who can view any webcast at any time, and tag specific webcasts as "favorites" to easy access. In addition, the webcasts will be viewable in iPhone and BlackBerry devices.

My initial reaction was that this was kind of gimmicky. But as I thought about it more, I warmed to the idea. This is an alternate means of information delivery. It's easy and efficient to consume. It's a break from screen after screen of text. It's a real competitive differentiator, and has high perceived value. But what really moved this from "gimmick" to "useful feature" in my mind was the fast archiving and serious approach to indexing.

 

That's a real shift from the traditional broadcast model, and starts to give video the same value as other information delivery formats. It's a pretty simple concept, but often overlooked: if you want something to have lasting value, at the very least you need a means to find it again.

Although I don't have the full details, Thomson Reuters also apparently envisions its subscribers making and uploading videos. Yes, that sure sounds like a B2B version of YouTube (frankly, can you imagine anything scarier?), but it is at the same time another type of user-generated content, which has shown good value in the B2B context.

I'm not sure where all this goes, but it may well signal that  it's showtime for vertical market content providers.

Context Matters

An interesting two-part article in Paid Content entitled "Traditional Ways Of Judging 'Quality' In Published Content Are Now Useless" really provides an important lesson in context.

In the article, the author blithely lists four characteristics of quality that he dismissively labels as "Publishing 1.0," the stuff of "old media traditionalists," because in his view, they simply don't matter anymore. Consider his list:

1. Credentials (that's right, your brand)

2. Correctness (yup, we're talking about plain old accuracy)

3. Objectivity (forget facts, it's all about feelings)

4. Craftsmanship (apparently doing a good job is old-fashioned too)

Basically, this article wants you to believe that readers don't care if the article comes from the New York Times  or Joe's Blog. Factual correctness? Well, the author's stance is that since you can quickly and easily correct your mistakes online, there's no harm in getting the initial story wrong. As far as objectivity goes, why bother? Readers look at lots of content, not just yours, so they'll figure out if you are biased or have an agenda. Craftsmanship? Well, the author believes quantity trumps quality.

I could spend pages rebutting this nonsense, but the real question is "who would write something like this?" I dug a little further, and determined that the author runs a website called Wetpaint, an aggregator of what appears to be largely entertainment-oriented blogs. And therein lies the answer. Our author isn't wrong; everything he says makes perfect sense in a world where you are concerned about content such as "Warrior Cat Clans 2" and "Zombie Survival and Defense." It's an issue of context.

Even at this late date, online remains largely uncharted territory. It continues to evolve and change. That's very destabilizing, and it naturally makes us eager to take ideas, insights and business models from those who have found online success. The caveat, of which this article is a perfect example, is that context matters. Things that work in the consumer sphere tend not to translate well in the B2B world. Things that work in one specialized arena usually aren't universally applicable. Ideas that work for newspapers aren't likely to help data publishers. Ad-based sites have different objectives than subscription-based sites.

I'm not asking you to tune out new ideas. Rather, the next time you hear on an online success story, consider the source. It's not just a question of whether the idea makes sense ... the question is also whether the idea is makes sense for you. 

*****

We are pleased to announce 

 

 

Iain Melville CEO, Reed Construction Data 

 

 

as our keynote speaker at DataContent 2010.

     

Virtual Bricks

I noted with interest the announcement by the Google Places program of a new free service whereby Google will send a professional photographer to a small retailers to take interior photos that will appear on their Google business profiles. This is in addition to the well-known Google Street View program which has been photographing the exterior of businesses nationwide for several years now.

 

Google Places also allows the over four million businesses that have claimed their listings to add hours of operation, sales, events and coupons. It's all part of an ambitious effort to create a national yellow pages that will leave legacy yellow pages in the dust, especially since these business profiles are physical web pages that also appear in the main Google search index and in the opinion of some, float to the top of search results pages suspiciously often.

This is enormously threatening to the big yellow pages publishers. With enough traction, Google could start to charge a modest amount for these listings and in my view could end up the nation's largest (and perhaps only) yellow pages publisher.

That's all very interesting and significant, but I think there is an even more fascinating evolution afoot. A whole host of companies are trying to put small business inventory data online (look at companies like milo.com and of course Google has a toe in the water here as well). Hook real-time inventory to a retailer's website, add e-commerce functionality, and presto whammo, that little retailer starts to sport many of the advantages of purely online retailers. The local business arguably holds an edge though, because it can make a local delivery faster than a pure online retailer, and customers can even pick up items if they prefer.

Not to be outdone however, pure online retailers are now moving into same-day delivery. You may recall the announcement by Amazon last year of its Local Express Delivery option that provides same-day delivery in selected major cities. Now a start-up in the U.K. called Shutl has launched a service that seamlessly links local retailers with courier services that will deliver merchandise to customers in 60-90 minutes.

These are just a few examples of how the business of retail is being revolutionized, and all this transformation creates opportunities. Google is chasing this market from a number of different angles, including a play to become a true national yellow pages. But there's room for smaller players as well. Shutl, for example, is not a courier company. It makes arrangements with courier services, databases their rates and coverage areas, and serves as a sophisticated matchmaker between retailers and these delivery services. Milo is a huge database that matches sellers with buyers at the product level. It's all about making the buying process faster and more efficient, and nobody knows organizing markets and uniting buyers and sellers like data publishers.