Kristi Barrow

2009 is the year of the Stimulus package, and Google has jumped on the Bandwagon offering a $75 Adwords credit to new accounts.  The Google offer aims to help Australia’s 1.88m small and medium-sized enterprises speed up in the economic slowdown.
Although $75 doesn’t go very far, it’s not a bad deal for businesses new to Adwords to try the tool risk free.
The offer is only available to new accounts and you must register by the end of June 2009.
Read all …

Airlines flying between Australia and the USA
I need to travel up to Seattle for a friends wedding in October, so I thought I would compare some of the different airlines now that we finally have some competition across the pacific.  In addition to Qantas and United, we now have V Australia who started flying this year and Delta who begins services in July.  On the weekend, I  checked to see the prices on my  www.expedia.com.au (Yes, I did use to …

Urbanspoon is a site that helps you find out everything about your local restaurants and includes menus, recommendations and reviews. The popularity of the Urbanspoon iPhone application has increased significantly in Australia since it started appearing on Apple’s iPhone commercials.
 
So how do you make sure that your business is listed on Urbanspoon?
Good news, it’s easy and free!
First check to see if your business is listed by searching at Urbanspoon. If it is already there, update as much information …

A recent post on Ad Age caught my attention: The Death of Consumer Segmentation? Michael Fassnacht challenges the assumption that consumer segmentation is “best-in-class” marketing practice.  The title of the article is a bit misleading as it does not dismiss segmentation as a practice, rather it suggests that we need to extend the  traditional “set and forget” segmentation approach and allow customers to self-select their segment.

Have you always wondered exactly how the Google Adwords Auction works and been too embarrassed to ask anyone!
The Google Business YouTube channel has recently posted a great introductory video. If you are new to the world of Google advertising, or if you just never really understood how it worked, then I highly recommend you watch the video below.
Introduction to the Google Ad Auction
Hal Varion, Chief Economist at Google

What is “canonical”?
In February, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft announced a new tag, “canonical” to help with duplicate content issues.

The idea behind the canonical tag is to direct the search engine to a preferred version of your URL. The canonical tag is different to a 301 direct as it gives the search engine a hint (not a directive as Google has publicly stated) as opposed to a 301 permanent redirect.  There seems to be good reasons to implement these on your …

I read an interesting article in the Sydney Morning Herald today that Friendster has relocated their HQ to Sydney, Australia.  It’s unclear from the article as to whether Richard Kimber has always run Friendster out of Sydney since he left Google last year, or if it is a recent move.
Sydney is an interesting location, since Friendster has less than 1.3% of Social networking sites share of visits according to Hitwise* (they don’t make the top 5). Although the article states …

I recently entered my own Darwin to Adelaide, a 3,200km adventure down the Stuart Highway, into the Google My Maps Australia Awards. I was lucky enough to be one of the ten winners and received an iPod touch and a fantastic Google trophy!
In September 2008, I travelled from Darwin to Adelaide through the Centre of Australia, 3200km on the Stuart Highway. I posted my photos directly to the map below during my trip using my iPhone, and used Trippermap, Shozu …

Facebook
Following on from my post on the Are Social Networks the new Portals? Friendster vs MySpace vs Bebo,  I wanted to find out more about Facebook, the obvious omission from the recent Online social networking and business collaboration conference.  Facebook is now the biggest social network in Australia*

I recently attended the  Online social networking and business collaboration conference in Sydney.  The first set of Keynote speakers were the heavyweights from Friendster, Myspace and Bebo (Facebook was the glaringly obvious omission).  Here are some of the takeaways as I saw them: