Recently in CD Press Releases Category
Today, we officially launched and released a fully integrated micro-blogging tool into the Central Desktop platform. While the feature is influenced by the functionality of Twitter and Micro-Blogging, we are calling and describing the feature "Central Desktop Status Updates."
[No word on LinkedIn integration yet. We have not received very good support from LinkedIn to tap into their API. Someone tell LinkedIn to respond to our requests as our customers (and their customers) want our apps to talk together.]
As part of Central Desktop Status Updates, you can post an update via SMS text directly into Central Desktop as well!
In case you are wondering why we've "jumped on the 'Twitter-Bandwagon', let me summarize:
Again, this is about the people and empowering them to communicate more...too collaborate more. As I wrote in a previous post last week about Business Adaptation, business is becoming people-centric rather than technology-centric. Central Desktop Status Updates enables and empowers users to communicate in real-time and interact in new, relevant, contextual ways, for business.
The Status Update feature accommodates our customers desire to integrate Twitter-like functions into their day-to-day activities, but for business, and more secure, and within Central Desktop. Business-centric Status Updates brings a new dynamic to how people communicate within a collaborative environment.
Instead of a binary update that you would see in Recent Activity Log
that "Isaac Uploaded a File" or "Isaac Completed a Task", Status
Updates allows the user to inject meaning and context into their
activities.
For example, I can post an update to Central Desktop that
"I'm giving a briefing to Rob Koplowitz from Forrester Research" or
that "Isaac is trying to make a PHP class behave like an array."
These statements provide context to the activities that I'm working on - far more context and meaning than a binary statement such as "Conference Call with Forrester" or "Checked-In File."
An added value feature that we also included into Central Desktop Status Updates is the ability to also update Twitter and Facebook with your status as well! This accommodates repetition and allows Central Desktop users to punch through the corporate firewall (in this case, Central Desktop) and connect with the outside world (in this case, Twitter and Facebook).[No word on LinkedIn integration yet. We have not received very good support from LinkedIn to tap into their API. Someone tell LinkedIn to respond to our requests as our customers (and their customers) want our apps to talk together.]
As part of Central Desktop Status Updates, you can post an update via SMS text directly into Central Desktop as well!
In case you are wondering why we've "jumped on the 'Twitter-Bandwagon', let me summarize:- Our customers want it.
- From a business collaboration perspective, micro-blogging is only relevant to business users in a business context - and does not belong in the public domain or in a separate application.
- Central Desktop's Pure SaaS Social Technology Platform is about the People and our customers wanted to provide a secure way for their employees and users to leverage "Twitter-like" functionality for the purpose of business.
- Central Desktop Status Updates bring micro-conversations "into the firewall" in a protected environment instead of in the public domain.
- Central Desktop Status Updates eliminates the need to toggle between networks to post updates to multiple networks (Twitter, Facebook, more to come).
Again, this is about the people and empowering them to communicate more...too collaborate more. As I wrote in a previous post last week about Business Adaptation, business is becoming people-centric rather than technology-centric. Central Desktop Status Updates enables and empowers users to communicate in real-time and interact in new, relevant, contextual ways, for business.
We have recently partnered with Akamai to meet the increase in global
demand for our SaaS-based social technology platform. Central Desktop now leverages the Akamai Content Delivery Network of 45,000+ servers distributed throughout the world. Geographically dispersed teams have always been a large part of our customer base, but with increasing demand it was apparent that we needed to optimize the user experience internationally. Investing in Akamai allows us to confidently scale and service any business regardless of size or geographic distribution.
International users, remote teams, & global workgroups should see at least a 30% increase in the speed of Central Desktop load times. We expect performance increases for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia north of 40% when using Central Desktop. North American customers could expect performance boosts in the 10-20% range.
>>Read the Press Release Here
Around the world and across the nation, Q4 of 2008 was a tough quarter for everyone. The month of October was a haze - filled with panic and fear with no end in sight. November wasn't much better, but at least the stock market free fall ended before the Thanksgiving holiday.
At Central Desktop it was no different than at most companies: we were concerned about our 401ks, our customers, our families, our jobs and our future. But, after the sick feeling abated, we looked around and realized that we made it through the trough of the slump. Don't get me wrong, we know that 2009 is going to be a tough year and we know that that we can't be sure of an economic turn around anytime soon - the daily news, our spouses, our friends and even our investors are all quick to remind us of the difficulties ahead of us (rightfully so).
But overall, we are positive about our future, mainly, because in spite of the gloom - and in spite of the pain that we experienced and witnessed all around us - that there was a beacon of light; a glimmer of hope. The truth and facts are that we had a record November and December and a record fourth quarter!
Yesterday, we issued a press release spotlighting our recent success - not to rub it in anyone's face - but to share some good news in a blogosphere filled with dearth, gloom and doom.
In the worst quarter of the new millennium, Central Desktop not only grew in revenue, employees and customers - but we also released a new product (Central Desktop Enterprise Edition) and added 10 mid-market customers in December alone, including IBI Group, a multi-disciplinary consulting firm providing a range of services focusing on the physical development of cities, and Workday, Inc., the leader in on-demand enterprise solutions for human resources and business management.
I wanted to make sure that we issued the release to also assure our customers that Central Desktop is doing very well, growing and trustworthy in these tough economic times. I also wanted the release to remind our employees of the great job they've been doing during these times and to let them know that they should be proud of their hard work.
You can read the entire release here; but I wanted to highlight some key quotes:
Even through difficult economic times, Central Desktop is continuing to grow as a SaaS leader in the social technology market. We know that 2009 will remain to be a difficult year for everyone, including us; but we are confident that we will continue to succeed and make thousands of customers happy over the course of 2009 as well.
So far, January is shaping up to be another stellar month building on our Q4 momentum - propelling us forward to another record year. We are carrying the momentum into February with new product features that many of you will enjoy very much. Stay tuned and learn more here.
Thank you all for your support, your business and your trust.
Update: Phil Wainwright has written an entire post about SaaS surging in the downturn. It is good to read about other companies like Xactly and Marketo doing well in these times as well.
At Central Desktop it was no different than at most companies: we were concerned about our 401ks, our customers, our families, our jobs and our future. But, after the sick feeling abated, we looked around and realized that we made it through the trough of the slump. Don't get me wrong, we know that 2009 is going to be a tough year and we know that that we can't be sure of an economic turn around anytime soon - the daily news, our spouses, our friends and even our investors are all quick to remind us of the difficulties ahead of us (rightfully so).
But overall, we are positive about our future, mainly, because in spite of the gloom - and in spite of the pain that we experienced and witnessed all around us - that there was a beacon of light; a glimmer of hope. The truth and facts are that we had a record November and December and a record fourth quarter!
Yesterday, we issued a press release spotlighting our recent success - not to rub it in anyone's face - but to share some good news in a blogosphere filled with dearth, gloom and doom.
In the worst quarter of the new millennium, Central Desktop not only grew in revenue, employees and customers - but we also released a new product (Central Desktop Enterprise Edition) and added 10 mid-market customers in December alone, including IBI Group, a multi-disciplinary consulting firm providing a range of services focusing on the physical development of cities, and Workday, Inc., the leader in on-demand enterprise solutions for human resources and business management.
I wanted to make sure that we issued the release to also assure our customers that Central Desktop is doing very well, growing and trustworthy in these tough economic times. I also wanted the release to remind our employees of the great job they've been doing during these times and to let them know that they should be proud of their hard work.
You can read the entire release here; but I wanted to highlight some key quotes:
"...tripled its staff and reached over 250,000 users in 2008, a 150 percent increase in both user count and revenue."
"Our Fortune 500 customers have multi-phased, multi-geographic implementation projects with a multitude of stake holders, and we need to get each implementation up and running fast," said Jeff Langenfeld, Delivery Assurance Group, Workday. "We are 100 percent SaaS, so even when our customers want to work with us on an on-premise platform, we ask that they collaborate with us via Central Desktop because we understand that SaaS is so much easier to use, manage and get-up-and running. No one has the time or resources for on-premise solutions in today's environment."
"Businesses, non-profits and government agencies are all being forced to reevaluate and reduce IT costs wherever possible in today's weak economy," said Mark Levitt, VP for Collaboration and Enterprise 2.0 Strategies, IDC. "Recognizing that work must still get done, organizations are turning to SaaS, particularly for collaboration solutions that can be deployed with minimal internal IT resources and paid for out of operating expense budgets."
Even through difficult economic times, Central Desktop is continuing to grow as a SaaS leader in the social technology market. We know that 2009 will remain to be a difficult year for everyone, including us; but we are confident that we will continue to succeed and make thousands of customers happy over the course of 2009 as well.
So far, January is shaping up to be another stellar month building on our Q4 momentum - propelling us forward to another record year. We are carrying the momentum into February with new product features that many of you will enjoy very much. Stay tuned and learn more here.
Thank you all for your support, your business and your trust.
Update: Phil Wainwright has written an entire post about SaaS surging in the downturn. It is good to read about other companies like Xactly and Marketo doing well in these times as well.
We've revamped our affiliate program to make it one of the best affiliate programs on the web:
Here is the video on how to get started:
All our current customers count as instant affiliates:
And please feel free to email me at affiliates(at)centraldesktop(dot)com, if you have any questions.
- Uncapped income potential
- 100% CPA payout on the 1st month's subscription cost ($25-$499+)
- On-going residual commissions for life - 10% / month
- Your own landing page - You can personalize. See my sign-up page example.
- Super easy-to-use promotional materials:
- Add email addresses to the form on the 'Affiliate Program' tab to send emails to friends or business colleagues
- Add links or banners to your website, email signature, blog, or social network profiles (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.)
- Pull quotes, screen shots, or other rich content to support your opinions on why people should use Central Desktop from our Customer Network.
- Commissions are logged in real-time as soon as anyone signs up for a paying account through your links
Here is the video on how to get started:
And another cool video Tia, our Social Media expert put together about it:
All our current customers count as instant affiliates:
If you are not a current Central Desktop customer, go here to get started.
- Your link is: http://signup.centraldesktop.com/(your username)
- Go to the "Affiliate Program" tab from the "Account >> My Account" drop down menu in Central Desktop to find out more
- You can start referring friends & business colleagues immediately - no fancy set-up is needed
And please feel free to email me at affiliates(at)centraldesktop(dot)com, if you have any questions.
Online Communities, Discussion Forums and Deep Integration with
LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Delicious and Flickr Encourages
Sharing and Interaction Around Rich Content
PASADENA, Calif.--Central Desktop, the pure web-based social technology platform for next-generation business
teams, today announced the release of its content rich Customer Network to deliver deep user engagement around implementation stories and best practices linked to discussion threads, user forums and social networking communities. Customer Network members can now search and share best practices and implementation stories both within the Central Desktop Customer Network or the social networking platform of their choice such as LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Delicious and Flickr. Central Desktop's Customer Network encourages deeper customer-to-customer community engagement accessible from within the Central Desktop platform.
"Central Desktop has become a key tool for us to manage and collaborate on day-to-day business operations both with internal teams as well as with customers and partners. It has essentially served as an ERP replacement for us, and I'm certain there are multitudes of other applications for the platform," said Eric Golden, CEO, Equipois. "The Network is a perfect way for our team to share our experiences as well as learn from other Central Desktop users as we continue to look for ways of web-enabling additional business operations. We have implemented Central Desktop in some unique ways that add great value to our business, and we could certainly benefit from the resourcefulness of the hundreds of thousands of other Central Desktop business users out there."
Central Desktop's launch of the Customer Network further extends its social technology platform with the additional content, connections, conversation and collaboration around user implementation stories and best practices. This marks another step forward in the company's vision to continually deliver a complete and easy to implement web-based social computing platform for businesses. Geared towards the mid-market, the company has gained significant traction via small-mid-sized businesses as well as departmental-levels of larger organizations and enterprises where teams need expensable solutions that can be deployed immediately.
"I'm proud to say that we're a customer-driven organization. Our platform has been built collaboratively over the last three years with direct feedback from our users, and what we've continued to hear is that business users need enterprise-grade functionality without enterprise solution resource requirements," said Isaac Garcia, CEO and Founder, Central Desktop, Inc. "Our pure SaaS approach has enabled us to gain traction where enterprise-oriented players have not in today's resource-constrained economy. In addition, our true multi-tenant approach allows us to rapidly add new features and functionality to our platform."
As the only complete, business-grade solution delivered solely as a service, the platform is accessible via the web from anywhere. It's easy to set up and manage and requires no software to download or hardware to upgrade. The SaaS delivery model compliments the company's subscription business model enabling Central Desktop to build a highly scalable and cash efficient business - it delivers its software to thousands of users at affordable prices. Monthly subscriptions start as low as $25/month for small teams and scales to accommodate departments, workgroups and divisions within large organizations.
About Central Desktop
Central Desktop delivers a pure web-based social technology platform for next-generation business teams to interact, share and manage their daily work activities from anywhere at anytime. Built collaboratively over the last three years with direct feedback from its users, the Central Desktop platform provides enterprise-grade functionality without enterprise solution resource requirements. Used by over 200,000 people worldwide, Central Desktop's customers represent progressive organizations with geographically dispersed teams that are committed to using innovative web 2.0 tools for business success.
Central Desktop serves organizations in technology, media, marketing & communications, professional services, architecture & design, manufacturing and many others. Its social technology platform consistently delivers a 30 percent increase in productivity while decreasing the total cost of doing business. Key Central Desktop customers include; The Barack Obama Presidential Campaign, iSoldit, Gymboree, NXTV, Chapters of the Project Management Institute and the California Office of HIPAA Implementation.
Founded in 2005, Central Desktop is a privately-held company located in Pasadena, California. For more information, visit www.centraldesktop.com.
Nationwide Call for Entries - Top Three Social Good Organizations To Be Granted One Year Subscriptions to Central Desktop
PASADENA, Calif., October 9, 2008 -- Central Desktop, Inc. would like to support organizations social good work by granting one-year subscriptions to it's web-based social technology platform to the top three (3) organizations who submit stories at http://www.centraldesktop.com/socialgood. Central Desktop is the pure web-based social technology platform for next-generation teams to interact, share and manage their daily work activities from anywhere at anytime.
"Our social technology platform was used by the Barack Obama Presidential Primary Campaign team to drive voters to the polls in California and Texas, and it's currently helping hundreds of non-profits, faith-based organizations and academic institutions around the world," said Isaac Garcia, CEO and Founder, Central Desktop, Inc. "We love the idea of organizations using social technology to make the world a better place to work and live."
To be considered for Central Desktop's technology grant, (valued at up to $2,988), describe how the entrants team or organization would benefit from leveraging Central Desktop's social technology to forward it's social good objectives via Central Desktop's Social Good portal @ http://www.centraldesktop.com/social.
Whether the organization connects donors to needy families, supports sustainable technology, eco-friendly living, alternative energy, organizes community outreach events or raises funds for your child's school -- Central Desktop wants to help. All grant submissions must be received no later than 12:00 pm, November 10th, 2008.
On November 18th, 2008, three grants of one-year company plan subscriptions of Central Desktop will be awarded to the top three teams among all eligible entries. Winners will be contacted via email and announced on November 18th, 2008. Entrants are also encouraged to submit a 30-second YouTube video in addition to a written entry.
About Central Desktop
Central Desktop delivers a pure web-based social technology platform for progressive business teams to interact, share and manage their daily work activities from anywhere at anytime. Built collaboratively over the last three years with direct feedback from its users, the Central Desktop platform provides enterprise-grade functionality without enterprise solution resource requirements. Used by over 200,000 people worldwide, Central Desktop's customers represent next-generation organizations with geographically dispersed teams that are committed to using innovative web 2.0 tools for business success.
Central Desktop serves organizations in technology, media, marketing & communications, professional services, architecture & design and many others. It's social technology platform consistently delivers a 30% increase in productivity while decreasing the total cost of doing business. Key Central Desktop customers include: The Barack Obama Presidential Campaign, iSoldit, Gymboree, NXTV, Chapters of the Project Management Institute and the California Office of HIPAA Compliance.
Founded in 2005, Central Desktop is a privately-held company located in Pasadena, California. For more information, visit www.centraldesktop.com.
###
Media Inquiries:
Sonya Prybutok
Inspire Communications
sonya@inspire-communications.com
415-812-9755
Grant Inquiries:
socialgood@centraldesktop-inc.com
www.centraldesktop.com/socialgood
First New Platform Extension Applications Include Time-Tracking and Support/Help-Desk Services
PASADENA, Calif., August 5, 2008 - Central Desktop, bringing business teams online for more than three (3) years with its award-winning communication and collaboration platform, today announced its Summer Release which includes time-tracking, support/help-desk applications and a powerful new database API that allows teams to integrate other application data into the Central Desktop platform. Business users can finally manage all of their daily business activities from anywhere at anytime from a single Web location. In addition to the database enhancements, the Summer release includes an extension of user profiles for creating custom, searchable fields and links to external profile data from social networks such as LinkedIn and Facebook. Today's announcement marks another step towards Central Desktop's vision to provide the most complete virtual team platform on the market for conducting daily business activities.
Central Desktop's Web 2.0 platform consistently delivers a 30% increase in team productivity while decreasing the total cost of doing business. "Having an application that makes connecting to content as easy as connecting to people is a real step forward. No longer do you have to bring up multiple applications to access corporate data and share it with one or more people within a common context like Central Desktop," noted David Coleman, Founder and Managing Director of Collaborative Strategies and author of the new Collaboration 2.0 book. "It's the ease of usability and the ability to connect to a wide number of data sources that we're seeing in Central Desktop's release that is driving the rapid adoption of Collaboration 2.0 applications forward."
Central Desktop continues to deliver more collaboration functionality and robustness than Google Apps and without the resources required to configure Sharepoint. "We're continually looking for ways to improve how we service and support small to mid-sized businesses," said Isaac Garcia, CEO, Central Desktop. "The Web application market is exploding, and though we already have the majority of online tools for collaborating on work as a part of the Central Desktop platform, users in a variety of industries need additional support to track-time, manage service and support, as well as bring together other industry specific functions into their daily business communications and collaboration efforts," said Isaac Garcia, CEO and Co-Founder, Central Desktop. "We're purpose-built for SMBs who often don't receive the level of service and support they require from larger software vendors, it's our number one priority to quickly develop our platform to meet our customer's requirements as they migrate their daily business activities online."
Used by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, Central Desktop's customers represent teams in technology, media, marketing & communications, professional services, architecture & design and others with geographically dispersed team members.
More on the Central Desktop Summer Release
Database API: The new database API is ideal for creating custom workflow between Central Desktop and third party software applications. In addition, it allows users to create custom mini-applications within Central Desktop Workspaces. The Database API allows users to:
Time-tracking Application: The new time tracking application is ideal for professional services, consultants, developers, designers, project resource management and other 'time-measured' tasks. Time tracking allows users to:
About Central Desktop
Central Desktop brings business teams online. With its award-winning communication and collaboration platform teams can now manage their daily business activities from anywhere at anytime. Used by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, Central Desktop customers represent teams in technology, media, marketing & communications, professional services, architecture & design and others with geographically dispersed team members. Its Web 2.0 platform consistently delivers a 30% increase in productivity while decreasing the total cost of doing business. Key Central Desktop customers include The Barack Obama Presidential Campaign, iSoldit, Gymboree, NXTV, Chapters of the Project Management Institute and the California Office of HIPAA Implementation. Founded in 2005, Central Desktop is a privately-held company located in Pasadena, California. For more information, visit www.centraldesktop.com.
© Central Desktop 2008. All rights reserved. Central Desktop and the Central Desktop logo are all registered trademarks of Central Desktop. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Videos of Central Desktop's Summer Release:
Press Inquiries:
Sonya Prybutok
Inspire Communications
sonya@inspire-communications.com
415-812-9755
PASADENA, Calif., August 5, 2008 - Central Desktop, bringing business teams online for more than three (3) years with its award-winning communication and collaboration platform, today announced its Summer Release which includes time-tracking, support/help-desk applications and a powerful new database API that allows teams to integrate other application data into the Central Desktop platform. Business users can finally manage all of their daily business activities from anywhere at anytime from a single Web location. In addition to the database enhancements, the Summer release includes an extension of user profiles for creating custom, searchable fields and links to external profile data from social networks such as LinkedIn and Facebook. Today's announcement marks another step towards Central Desktop's vision to provide the most complete virtual team platform on the market for conducting daily business activities.
Central Desktop's Web 2.0 platform consistently delivers a 30% increase in team productivity while decreasing the total cost of doing business. "Having an application that makes connecting to content as easy as connecting to people is a real step forward. No longer do you have to bring up multiple applications to access corporate data and share it with one or more people within a common context like Central Desktop," noted David Coleman, Founder and Managing Director of Collaborative Strategies and author of the new Collaboration 2.0 book. "It's the ease of usability and the ability to connect to a wide number of data sources that we're seeing in Central Desktop's release that is driving the rapid adoption of Collaboration 2.0 applications forward."
Central Desktop continues to deliver more collaboration functionality and robustness than Google Apps and without the resources required to configure Sharepoint. "We're continually looking for ways to improve how we service and support small to mid-sized businesses," said Isaac Garcia, CEO, Central Desktop. "The Web application market is exploding, and though we already have the majority of online tools for collaborating on work as a part of the Central Desktop platform, users in a variety of industries need additional support to track-time, manage service and support, as well as bring together other industry specific functions into their daily business communications and collaboration efforts," said Isaac Garcia, CEO and Co-Founder, Central Desktop. "We're purpose-built for SMBs who often don't receive the level of service and support they require from larger software vendors, it's our number one priority to quickly develop our platform to meet our customer's requirements as they migrate their daily business activities online."
Used by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, Central Desktop's customers represent teams in technology, media, marketing & communications, professional services, architecture & design and others with geographically dispersed team members.
More on the Central Desktop Summer Release
Database API: The new database API is ideal for creating custom workflow between Central Desktop and third party software applications. In addition, it allows users to create custom mini-applications within Central Desktop Workspaces. The Database API allows users to:
- Integrate third-party data into Central Desktop workspace databases
- Auto-update Central Desktop Databases from integrated 3rd party applications
- Query and export custom data sets from Central Desktop Databases
- Auto-import custom data sets into Central Desktop Database
Time-tracking Application: The new time tracking application is ideal for professional services, consultants, developers, designers, project resource management and other 'time-measured' tasks. Time tracking allows users to:
Help-Desk Application: The new help-desk application is ideal for in-house help desks, client services, internal software support teams, vendor management and minor bug-tracking. It eliminates the need for Central Desktop customers to subscribe to third-party help-desk services to reduce subscription costs and increase efficiencies. The help desk application allows users to:
- Track the amount of time spent on a specific task
- Create timesheets and reports by user, by project and by date-span
- Capture custom data into user-defined fields, so that users can track more than just time
- Export timesheets and reports into 3rd party billing applications
Visit the Central Desktop blog for more details at http://cdblog.centraldesktop.com/.
- Track support desk tickets
- Open and close help desk incidents
- Report on the number of open and closed help desk incidents
About Central Desktop
Central Desktop brings business teams online. With its award-winning communication and collaboration platform teams can now manage their daily business activities from anywhere at anytime. Used by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, Central Desktop customers represent teams in technology, media, marketing & communications, professional services, architecture & design and others with geographically dispersed team members. Its Web 2.0 platform consistently delivers a 30% increase in productivity while decreasing the total cost of doing business. Key Central Desktop customers include The Barack Obama Presidential Campaign, iSoldit, Gymboree, NXTV, Chapters of the Project Management Institute and the California Office of HIPAA Implementation. Founded in 2005, Central Desktop is a privately-held company located in Pasadena, California. For more information, visit www.centraldesktop.com.
© Central Desktop 2008. All rights reserved. Central Desktop and the Central Desktop logo are all registered trademarks of Central Desktop. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
###
Videos of Central Desktop's Summer Release:
Press Inquiries:
Sonya Prybutok
Inspire Communications
sonya@inspire-communications.com
415-812-9755
It looks like our article yesterday (actually probably as a result of Erick Schonfeld's article at Next Net Blog) made Google blink.
Based on the thoroughness of the statement and the use of the word "precedent" in the second sentence, it appears that the Google PR team huddled with the legal team and issued a statement on the Inside AdWords Blog (the text of the statement is below):
Good. I'm very pleased that Google said something.
Based on the statement, we have no choice but to believe that Google is "paying" and "competing" with "the rest of us" when they are bidding on AdWords for their own products. Given Google's lack of financial transparency with the public markets I doubt we'll ever learn or hear anything more about this topic.
Too bad we can't respond and comment on their blog, though. So much for dialogue.
Still Doesn't *Feel* Right
Personally, I don't know what to believe. While I don't put unethical behavior past Google's capabilities (just as any business is capable of engaging in unethical acts) I do believe that blatant violations would be severely detrimental to its reputation and thus not in their best interest to do.
But, in spite of their public statement, it still doesn't sit well with me. It's not that I don't believe them (sort of) but more about that it's just a statement - and we (including you) don't really have any way of proving the validity and truth of their statements (and probably never will). As previously stated, Google's lack of transparency leaves the door open to conspiracy theories and rumours.
Noteworthy Comments
All of that being said, I'd like to highlight some of the more interesting comments that bubbled up out of yesterday's brew (in spite of the adamant and vehement Pro-Google Slashdot crowd that dominated the conversation)
from Erick Schonfeld:
And on the related topic of page rank a few blog comments from "JG" stood out:
Then "Webmaster X" yawns and says,
Like a good commenter, "JG" responded with more interesting and specific data:
JG's comments are noteworthy and justifies all of us test this theory the day Google makes its next product announcement. There very well might be logical explanations to this phenomenon, as "Webmaster X" suggests, but the truth of the matter is that we'll never know.
In retrospect, it seems that the underlying issue here is Google's lack of transparency which is a recurring theme in how it runs its business. And, before the esoteric tongue-lashings take me to task, "Yes, Google has every right to run its business anyway it pleases - transparently, or not."
Update: So how much *does* Google pay for its own AdWords?
Starup Squad has some estimates - hold on to your hats - it's a lot. Woah.
Digg This Article!
Tags: adwords, Central Desktop, Google
Based on the thoroughness of the statement and the use of the word "precedent" in the second sentence, it appears that the Google PR team huddled with the legal team and issued a statement on the Inside AdWords Blog (the text of the statement is below):
"Being rather proud of AdWords as a means to effectively advertise one's products or services, it seems natural to use it ourselves. Since it's a common practice across the industry for companies to promote their own products and services through their own web presence, there is much precedent to do this.
It's important to note, however, that our ads are created and managed under the exact same guidelines, principles, practices and algorithms as the ads of any other advertiser. Likewise, we use the very same tools and account interface.
As does any advertiser, we aim to give our campaigns a budget which is in line with their value to us in terms of the increased traffic we might see. We actively monitor and manage the success of our ads by adjusting ad copy, keywords, bids, and so forth in the same way any advertiser who is concerned with their account performance would.
That said, there are no special buttons to push or levers to pull that give our internal account managers special treatment or leverage. Quality Score is automatically evaluated in the same way for our keywords as it is for any advertiser's keywords. Likewise, the potential to show up in the top spots above the search results is the same for Google's ads as it is for any other. We rely on the AdWords system to let relevancy and usefulness to our users be the driving force behind our ad placement. As such, we do not intentionally try to secure a top position. In fact, we generally aim for a more 'conservative' position.
As was already mentioned, there are no algorithm changes to 'smooth the way' for Google's ads -- and the accounts of 'competing' advertisers (should there be any for particular keywords or Ad Groups) are never referenced in any way.
We're quite proud of the advertising platform we've built and it simply makes sense for us to use it. At the same time, the trust of both our users and our advertisers is of paramount importance. We honor that responsibility, and work hard to earn and keep that trust."
Good. I'm very pleased that Google said something.
Based on the statement, we have no choice but to believe that Google is "paying" and "competing" with "the rest of us" when they are bidding on AdWords for their own products. Given Google's lack of financial transparency with the public markets I doubt we'll ever learn or hear anything more about this topic.
Too bad we can't respond and comment on their blog, though. So much for dialogue.
Still Doesn't *Feel* Right
Personally, I don't know what to believe. While I don't put unethical behavior past Google's capabilities (just as any business is capable of engaging in unethical acts) I do believe that blatant violations would be severely detrimental to its reputation and thus not in their best interest to do.
But, in spite of their public statement, it still doesn't sit well with me. It's not that I don't believe them (sort of) but more about that it's just a statement - and we (including you) don't really have any way of proving the validity and truth of their statements (and probably never will). As previously stated, Google's lack of transparency leaves the door open to conspiracy theories and rumours.
Noteworthy Comments
All of that being said, I'd like to highlight some of the more interesting comments that bubbled up out of yesterday's brew (in spite of the adamant and vehement Pro-Google Slashdot crowd that dominated the conversation)
from Erick Schonfeld:
"Google prides itself on creating a level playing field where the best search results (and the best ads) naturally rise to the top. Only Google knows exactly how its ranking algorithm works, which gives it an advantage (fair or unfair) over everybody else in getting its own products to come up to the top of either the sponsored or natural search results. After all, its employees should be the best search-engine optimizers of all."
And on the related topic of page rank a few blog comments from "JG" stood out:
"I remember when Google Scholar was release. The day after it came out, I went to Google and typed just one word: "scholar". Guess which page came up first, in the organic ranking? Yup.. Google Scholar. I frankly find that quite unbelievable. Google was somehow able to recompute all the pageRank for their new Scholar service in one day, and also that it had acquired enough links to somehow be more relevant than any other page about scholars, scholarships (such as the Rhodes scholars), or other scholarly activity. It just seems highly dubious to me."
Then "Webmaster X" yawns and says,
"Yawn. Google already has backlinks out the yin yang. When you have that many links pointing to you it only takes a short time to get indexed. Them showing up #1 for ANYTHING they create does not point to anything fishy."
Like a good commenter, "JG" responded with more interesting and specific data:
"Webmaster X: Maybe. Maybe.
But type in "maps". Google is again first. Ahead of Mapquest. Ahead of Yahoo maps. Yahoo also has backlinks out the ying yang. So why is it third? And mapquest has been around forever.. I'm sure there are more links to mapquest.com than to the maps.google.com URL, simply because the millions of web pages that linked their directions to Mapquest from 1996 to 2004 didn't all rush out and change all their links to Google maps in February of 2005 (when it was released), even if Google's is a better product.
Next, try "mail". Despite the fact that Yahoo mail has been around forever, and has all sorts of links, and that Hotmail has also been around forever, Gmail still manages to come up first.
And the most interesting thing about this particular keyword? The word "mail" by itself doesn't even appear on the gmail.google.com page! The words gmail, webmail, and email appear. But not "mail". At least on the Yahoo page, the word "mail" does indeed appear. Yet Google still manages to rank ahead of Yahoo.
Finally, try "answers". Yes, answers.google.com comes up second, rather than first. But answers.yahoo.com comes in third! Is the Google Answers site really getting that many more links than Yahoo's? Especially in light of the fact that Google recently decided to kill it, because almost no one was using it, while Yahoo's usage (and therefore also linkage, no doubt) are skyrocketing?
I may still be wrong. But you are too quick to dismiss this with your "Google has a lot of links" argument. Yahoo also has a lot of links. So why does its competing services almost always rank behind Google's, in the organic rankings?"
JG's comments are noteworthy and justifies all of us test this theory the day Google makes its next product announcement. There very well might be logical explanations to this phenomenon, as "Webmaster X" suggests, but the truth of the matter is that we'll never know.
In retrospect, it seems that the underlying issue here is Google's lack of transparency which is a recurring theme in how it runs its business. And, before the esoteric tongue-lashings take me to task, "Yes, Google has every right to run its business anyway it pleases - transparently, or not."
Update: So how much *does* Google pay for its own AdWords?
Starup Squad has some estimates - hold on to your hats - it's a lot. Woah.
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Tags: adwords, Central Desktop, Google
In the March Issue of Security Management Magazine, Peter Piazza writes about the security and infrastructure concerns in the Web 2.0 world.
In the article titled Riding the Web 2.0 Wave, Peter discusses security and infrastructure perspectives from Isaac Garcia of Central Desktop along with Jason Fried of Basecamp and Jen Mazzon of Writely.
In the article titled Riding the Web 2.0 Wave, Peter discusses security and infrastructure perspectives from Isaac Garcia of Central Desktop along with Jason Fried of Basecamp and Jen Mazzon of Writely.
On Wednesday, March 1, 2006 Benjamin Kuo from from SoCalTech.com interviewed Isaac Garcia, co-founder of Central Desktop.
"Isaac Garcia is CEO and co-founder of Central Desktop (www.centraldesktop.com), a Pasadena-based firm developing a web based collaboration tool, often lumped into the Web 2.0 category of companies. I thought it would be interesting to talk to Isaac about his company and their web-based application."Read the entire interview at SoCalTech.com.
