Content is King for Search Marketers

What has more information that a search ad and a click through rate 300 to 600 percent higher than a typical banner? An Answers.com Content Sponsorship unit. At least that’s the news from the company’s recent press release and an article in Media Post that delves deeper into the success of this new advertising model.

Media Contacts was one of the first agencies to test Content Sponsorship ads for one of their travel clients. According to Rob Griffin, senior vice president, U.S. director of search for Media Contacts, the ad model was a nice fit because it enhances the search strategy for a client’s media buy by putting marketer content in front of users that are looking specifically for that information.

"There's the battle for visibility on the search engine results page with both natural and sponsored search. If you look at the way the [Answers.com] pages are structured, there's a lot of text-heavy content from encyclopedias, Wikipedia and other local resources that's cross-referenced and hyperlinked--so it's very friendly to search engine spiders," Griffin told MediaPost.

He added: "The click-through rates and engagement metrics were significantly higher than other ad models--but you expect them to be higher because the ad was linked contextually to information users were searching for," said Griffin. “The Answers.com module allows for more flexibility — you can add pictures and more content. That’s what helps provide the additional lift.”

On the Road with the College Campus Tour

Answers.com recently completed its first ever College Campus Tour. Staff members hung out in the student centers of five colleges — Columbia University, Pace, Hofstra, Brown University and URI — telling students how Answers.com helps with homework, research and papers, giving them time for what’s really important (napping, socializing, etc.). Fliers, stickers and bottle openers (for those late-night sodas) helped reinforce the message.

Answers.com t-shirts like the ones pictured on staff above were awarded to students who won the Quikie WikiAnswer Trivia Challenge. Check out some students going for the win below:





Would you have been a winner? Here’s a sample of some questions posed to students:

· What is a baby kangaroo called?
· How many teeth are in the human mouth?
· Which president is in on the nickel?
· What do you call a group of dolphins?
· What album is considered the best selling album of all time?

Super Summer Stats From WikiAnswers

Traffic on WikiAnswers really heated up this summer. Today Answers.com announced that key metrics for WikiAnswers, its UGC site, improved by approximately 50 percent since the end of June 2007.

• Questions increased by 50 percent since June 26, from approximately 500,000 to over 760,000 today; registered users have increased to over 280,000 in the same period, up from approximately 200,000.
  
• According to comScore, unique monthly visitors in the U.S. increased by approximately 50 percent as well, from 2.22 million for June to 3.36 million for August.
  
• Daily page views have increased by 50 percent as well.

"To have more than tripled it in only ten months demonstrates a real excitement about what we call 'Q&A the wiki way'. This most recent increase of 50 percent, over the summer months when Internet usage generally drops, is further confirmation,” explained Bob Rosenschein, Chairman and CEO of Answers Corporation. "The community …has really crystallized."

Over the coming months, WikiAnswers will become integrated as a central component of Answers.com. You can read the full release here.

Answers.com Named “Search Engine of the Month”

Answers.com is proud to be September’s Search Engine of the Month, as named by AltSearchEngine. Answers.com helps over 1 million people daily get relevant content from reliable resources with no links.

Charles Knight, editor of AltSearchEngines, compares results from Answers.com to other search engines saying, “When I search “Absinthe” on Google, I get the usual 10 disjointed web pages. When I search the same query on Answers.com, I get, in a matter of seconds, a beautiful 14 page report, with: Dictionary; Etymology, Production, Preparation (The Absinthe Ritual), Czech Absinth, History, Controversy, Effects, Regulations, References (40 citations), External Links, Articles, and the Best of the Web. All perfectly organized and beautifully displayed. It looked like an A+ term paper!”

Knight also gave trumpeted praise for 1-Click Answers, the company’s free download that provides instant access to definitions and reference material from any website. Of the feature, Knight says, “1-Click Answers is a very impressive feature ... Everyone should have it.”

While Answers.com is not a “pure” search engine, Knight said he named Answers.com to the winner’s circle because “one of the main qualifications is that those on the list do one thing better than the major search engines.”

For more information, you can read the whole article here.

Answers.com named Best of Facebook

Everyone likes to be popular. That’s why Answers.com is just tickled that it was chosen this August as the BestofFacebook.

Answers.com’s application is for both trivia lovers and those who want to impress their friends with their knowledge. Facebook users choose fresh information from the Answers.com site such as Word of the Day, Today in History and WikiAnswers, which enables anyone to ask a question on any topic and get a cooperatively-written human answer.

The winners for the BestofFacebook are selected from applications that receive the most number of votes in the month it was submitted.

Content and Contest News

Two announcements were released from corporate this week. First, Answers.com announced that its popular product, AnswerTips, will be featured on the financial site WallStreet Direct. In addition, Answers.com and WikiAnswers have recently added to their content. Here’s a quick recap of some new offerings:

-

Handbooks for professional research, hobbies and general interest, such as architecture & construction, boating and genealogy

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Guides covering classical, French, German and Irish literature, as well as a general literary dictionary

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Religious reference, including a dictionary of saints, as well as works on Celtic, African and Asian mythology

-

Recent major U.S. Supreme Court decisions

Since our last installment, Director of Marketing, Jay Bailey, had not just one, but two, articles appear under his byline. “Questioning the Answers,” which appeared in Upgrade magazine, is a snappy piece that lays out the challenges of online search — and how Answers.com is positioning itself as the ultimate solution. The piece can be accessed at the SIIA website or you can check it out in the public marketing folder.

Jay also wrote an opinion piece that appeared in MediaPost mid-May. In the article, he lays out an alternative to the IAB’s initiative to create standards on web metrics.

VP of Strategic Development, Bruce Smith, didn’t have his own byline, but he garnered some press for his appearance on the panel “Tapping into User Generated Content.” ClickZ did a recap of the main points, but you can also watch a video of the panel here.

An article with no affiliation Answers.com came out touting AnswerTips this month. Website Magazine named the download one of “Seven Sizzling Site Tools for Every Webmaster.” That article, unfortunately, is only available in the dead-tree version, but can be accessed in the public folder for marketing.

Want to make sure Answers.com makes another list, too? Surf over to CNETs Webware 100 Awards. Answers.com is a finalist in the reference category. Voting is open until June 11^th, but why not just click here now and vote, before you forget.

Product Praise

When Kyle Monson wrote a PC Magazine story on 11 Ways to Search Without Google, he had no way of knowing that it would trigger a maelstrom of e-mail. In response, he wrote a separate blog post including four more search engines and services that he failed to include in the original. Of Answers.com, he says:

“While not technically a search engine, Answers.com is a good way to find what you're looking for. Punch in your search query and you'll get information back instead of links. It's a great site for reference purposes when you don't feel like wading through a ton of links.”

Many Answers.com products received praise over the past couple of weeks. Take for instance, AnswerTips. Wilf from Wilf’s Wine Press raised a glass of merlot to Director of Marketing, Jay Bailey, for helping him straighten out an issue with his beloved program. ContentBlogger, which just won a CODiE award for Best Media Blog, also mentions Answertips in his post about his site redesign. And The Hindu made a survey of the widget landscape, featuring AnswerTips among them.

Note in The Hindu article that the author writes: “the famous online answer service, Answers.com.” Even more breathless praise is found at the AZ Daily Sun who calls Answers.com an “Internet-based phenomenon.”

Talking about breathless praise, it seems that mobile is making just about everyone pant over the potential… even librarians. “Email is for old people,” said Megan Fox, a keynote presenter at the CIL conference in Arlington. Mobile devices, she continued, will be what people rely on more often for everything from email to information searches. Demonstrations of a few, select sites were shown to the audience during the packed presentation — among them was MobileAnswers. You can read some reviews at Libraryola, Infotodayblog and CIL blog, written by two attendees.

MobileAnswers was also mentioned by Be Connected, which says, “It will have you looking like the goto person you want to be.”

Finally, WikiAnswers. According to Alex Pham’s article “Go ahead, just ask a question” in The LA Times, interviewees say that Q&A sites are addictive. It’s kind of just a matter of people wanting to be recognized, says Tuesday Creative, who comments on Pham’s story and even features a great picture of the redesigned WikiAnswers at the top of his post.

Tooling Around the Web

One of the most fundamental things found in any home, apartment or car is a toolkit.

Well, after buying a cheapo tool kit at Sears, Charles Knight was inspired to create a tool-kit for another place people spend loads of time — on their phone. In his piece article on Read/Write Web, MobileAnswers is one component he recommends in his 85 piece mobile search tool kit. He says about his creation: “If Mobile is going to be ‘the Next Big Thing,’ you're going to need all the tools you can get in order to be prepared for every eventuality.”

Presearch is a term coined by Answers.com, but has caught on in the general public. Jay Bailey, Director of Marketing, says presearch, along with Encyclodictionalmanacapedia, are “catchy,

descriptive

and don’t sound too much like the words of a Marketroid . They tell a story.” That must be why, there was a recent article about presearch on The Librarian Edge blog.

My father is a great bowler. This is not something that I brag about. In fact, I used to be somewhat embarrassed that this was his sport of choice (you wouldn’t call him the athletic type), but recently bowling has become much more popular. In fact, the Answers.com Israel office had a recent company outing to a local bowling alley, and the New York office is eagerly following suit, with plans in the making. As planning continues, I ran across this article “Bowling deserves recognition as true sport.” The author makes a case for overhauling the reputation of bowling. Stats and figures in the article were provided by Answers.com.

Some other tidbits that Answers.com helped journalist with over the past couple of weeks:

The Easter Bunny: Did you know that in Australia

a campaign was launched to replace the Easter Bunny with the Easter Bilby?

Proxy Weddings: In Montana, neither you nor your spouse need be present at your own wedding: it can be done by proxy. This is popular for foreigners and service men stationed away. Know when else a proxy wedding is popular? When your spouse is incarcerated.

Rush Limbaugh: Bono, Larry and The Edge were first, but now Rush Limbaugh has his own signed iPod, too. What makes Rush rank with Apple marketers? The fact that he has 13.5 million listeners!

Brand News

Columnist Bernie Delinski was pondering semantics when a reader posed the question whether the term “brand-new” was redundant. For if something is new, why does it need a qualifier in front of it? Is it then newer than new? Mr. Delinski turned to Answers.com to see how the site defined the term. He also checked out an alternate spelling, “bran-new,” which reminds me of a fiber cereal, but actually is an alternate spelling of the same term found in Webster’s 1913 Dictionary. With some further investigation, Delinski found that spelling was used in 1700s and 1800s literature, including the description of a "bran-new Barlow knife" in Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn."

Speaking of brand-new, Answers.com’s first ever edition of its blogger newsletter went out last week. A mention was made by at least one blogger, BudiPetra, who said it has “smart” positioning as the

“very first blogger newsletter.”

Aspirin. As I get older, my fondness for these small white pills grows. Now, new studies show that these old pain killers are not only good for headaches, but also help prevent several diseases connected to aging, especially heart disease. A recent study that appeared in Bloomberg reinforced these findings, particularly for women. So what’s the potent ingredient in aspirin?

It’s salicylic acid, which according to Answers.com, is found in the inner bark of white willow, a large tree found in Europe, Asia and North America.

The author behind Sarasota Web Design has admittedly been trying to find an alternative to search engines. In his quest, he tried Brainboost and Answers.com. He says, “I’ve been using both and have been pretty impressed with the results.”

The Long March

For teachers and students, March is one of the most dreaded months on the calendar. People in the "time is money" corporate world might take issue with their complaint, but for those in education (except at universities) March means an endless month of five-day work weeks: no mid-winter or spring break weeks, not even a long holiday weekend to look forward to.

Yet, as a member of the corporate citizenship, in a marketing role no less, I have to bring a whole new outlook to events that dot my calendar: What’s the next big date to talk up? While March ranks low compared to other months like December, there are a few standouts that make this month newsworthy. Take St. Patrick’s Day, the vernal equinox and let’s not forget March Madness.

A stretch? Perhaps, but Answers.com did garner some press mentions for the events, nonetheless. The Carroll County Times and Detroit Free Press borrowed some St. Patty’s Day trivia from the answer engine, a blog pointed to Answers.com for info on spring, while the Charlotte Observer complimented the sports stats on the college basketball AnswerPage.

Speaking of compliments, Brainboost received one from Indy Star reporter Erika Smith. She tells readers to stop by the next time they have a nagging “Why” question.

OK — here’s two I’ve been wondering about lately: Why doesn’t big business take spring break? And why is the Atlantic 10 conference so bad?

Check and double check, all at Answers.com

We’ve all heard the cautionary tales that Wikipedia isn’t as accurate as some would have you believe. Scores of people abuse the openness of the system to insert their bias, promote false claims or just exact revenge.

Tom Taulli, a Wikipedia user, understands these pitfalls, and offers a solution: check your results against Answers.com. In a blog post called “Wikipedia’s false promise,” Taulli states:

“I always double-check things. For example, a good source for this is Answers.com, which licenses its content from well-established content sources.”

Let’s just chalk this up to better late than never: NYMag just picked up on the fact that the NYTimes website has AnswerTips capability. The author, Tayt Harlin, crows about the simplicity of the feature, but can’t understand why more people don’t know about this service (we don’t either). Must be why this was filed under the headline, “Point, Click and Tell No One.”

Did you know that March is Caffeine Awareness Month? Unfortunately, it is not an event Starbucks will be celebrating. It’s more of a crusade to raise awareness against the dangers of everyone’s favorite morning upper. Gary Puleo protested by touting some of the benefits of caffeine: it’s been shown to protect against Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and cell damage in some studies, and contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t cause high blood pressure. One thing that caffeine can’t do: cure a hangover. That tip came courtesy of Answers.com.

Need to decode some geek speak? Figure out just exactly what is comfort food? Why you’re being charged VAT? Or whether your second cousin is technically your third cousin? One place gets journalists the answers to these questions and more … Answers.com.

Lists, American Idol and TCEA Fans

WikiAnswers and AnswerTips continue to garner press a week after their initial coming-out. Barbara Quint wrote a piece early in the week on both features in a piece for InfoToday. The article highlights some of the positive feedback the tool has received, as well as some of the questions tools like AnswerTips raise for blog publishers.

Answers.com also made the cut on a couple of lists this week. In the Pensacola Journal, reporter Kate Peabody made a roundup of five hot sites on the web. Answers.com was listed second with this description:

Want fast facts? This free Internet site has it all. If you've got the questions, they'll most likely have the answers. Not only can you get help on topics such as health, technology and business, the site is user-friendly and a great resource tool for school work. I've used it about a dozen times to help my son with his homework and special projects

Then, Answers.com made an appearance on a list of 27 favorite Firefox add-ons.

Something to keep your eye on … hakia, a search engine, recently announced that it created an American Idol Search Guide. Putting your opinion of the singing reality show aside, it is interesting to note that in the press release hakia compared their service to that of Wikipedia. The company says:

“

Unlike Wikipedia or Answers.com, hakia Galleries(TM) presents pure Web search results which are neither edited by hakia, nor by the visitors.”

After visiting the site, I can see this search engine differentiates itself by categorizing, but it still just looks like links to me.

After attending the TCEA trade show, one attendee decided to post a blog about a couple of interesting companies exhibiting: Google and Answers.com. The blogger notes that comparatively one company is a “giant” and the other “a flea,” but sometimes bigger isn’t always better.

A News Triumvirate at Answers.com

Three big press releases came out this week from Answers.com on Tuesday.

The latest report of the day was the financial results for Q1. The release breaks down the numbers …so if you want to delve into the digits, check it out.

The news that got people’s tongues wagging, however, was the release of AnswerTips. The widget can now be added to any website or blog with just a small piece of code. Marjolein Hoekstra of CleverClogs and an early beta-tester for the product, marked the event by releasing another post about AnswerTips.

Other people just couldn’t seem to get enough of the tool, either. Take for instance Michele Lenta who runs WriteTech. She liked it so much, she added it to My Wine Education and her other personal blogs. Bary Welford also added it to three of his blogs: BPWrap, Stay Go Links, and the Other Bloke’s Blog. AnswerTips also showed up on Yvonne DiVita’s blog Scratchings and Sniffings and Bill Hartzer’s blog, plus many others, too numerous to mention in this post.

Then there were those who might not have installed it, but still talked about it. In the media, mentions were made in Adotas and iMedia. Internet Marketing Monitor, which named Answers.com as their Featured Search Engine in December, also did a great job reviewing the product for the company this week. Andrew, author of Changing Way, wrote about how he prefers the functionality of AnswerTips over Snap on websites.

But wait … AnswerTips was only the second piece of news released. The third announcement out of Answers.com this week is about WikiAnswers and its content being integrated on Answers.com. A copy of the press release appeared on the Online Marketing Guy website, while Loren Baker posted a report on Search Engine Journal where the comments also deserve a read.

Being an object of affection

Popularity might seem like something only high-schoolers strive for, but brands are always looking for status, as well. That’s why Answers.com was thrilled that they were ranked the 62^nd largest web property in the U.S., based on unique monthly visitors for the month of January by comScore. This compares to their ranking of 78 for December of 2006.

And talking about popular, AnswerTips, even though still officially unrealeased, has been like the cool new kid. As the tool has slowly slipped into the hands of bloggers, there have been some absolute raves. Case in point, the comments on Vivi’s Wine Journal: “OK, I’ve found the functionality that each and every wine blogger in the world should add to their blog. Its called “AnswerTips…”

MobileAnswers garnered some nice recognition for itself, too, this week. In a story from Adotas, the mobile service played a bit part in a story highlighting some of the obstacles for wide-spread adoption of the mobile web, the more popular apps online for mobile, as well as some neat sites outside of carriers’ offering. One of those mentioned is MobileAnswers, which according to the company, has been running faster and smoother than ever. MobileAnswers was also spotlighted in a blog post from Mobivity. The author tells his readers: “This is a really great service. There are some SMS tools out there that I’ve seen, but they don’t seem to work correctly, and charge a premium for each message.”

Back in September, Answers.com hooked up with School Bus Radio in an advertising deal. It seemed like a natural fit for the world’s greatest encyclodictionalmanacapedia to advertise with a service geared specifically to students. SBR, which officially launched in November, has since received flak from conservative activists balking at the idea of targeting kids with commercials. An article from Southern California newspaper Inland News, however, seems to highlight some of the positive responses from both bus drivers and parents in a district that recently adopted the service. Among its stronger points SBR does not play rap songs with questionable lyrics and per hour, there are less ads on SBR than on FM radio stations.

Quests and Culinary Insights

There is news this week that the quest for a natural language search engine is heating up. IT World reported that startup Powerset recently received funding from Xerox. While the article stated that natural language search will compete head to head with Google’s keyword based searches, the story also points to two other companies working to perfect the technology behind natural language search: Answers.com and Haika.

The numbers using Wikipedia make it obvious that it is adored by many, but it also seems to be a favorite among journalists … to take potshots at, that is. Exhibit 2,397: the recent article in Yale Daily News that snickers about a fake entry for “emysphilia” left on Wikipedia for several days. The result was that Answers.com and other sites picking up Wikipedia content propagated the false entry (the topic has since been removed from Answers.com).

Editorial Rant: Although Wikipedia is vulnerable to vandalism, the spirit of the site is to illuminate and enlighten people on a broad array of topics. Shame on Yale professors for 1) disseminating lies 2) bashing a site whose goal complements and correlates with their profession and 3) stooping to plain old graffiti.

Here are some things you might not know about Martin Beirne: He is a managing partner with Beirne Maynard & Parsons in Texas; His airline of choice is Continental; He recently visited Rome; His favorite website is Answers.com. Profiled in Law.com, Beirne shared these details and a few more.

Perhaps the Star Bulletin is feeding ideas to cooks looking for a romantic stay-at-home recipe for Valentine’s Day … nevertheless, there was a feature in the paper on how to cook the perfect roast. The secret: warm the rump to room temperature before cooking. Not exactly sure what room temperature is? Answers.com, the go-to culinary expert, stated it’s anywhere between 68 to 77 degrees — depending on how much one wants to pay for heat.

The Cynical Vegetarian also utilized Answers.com food knowledge in an article ranting about common (and nauseating) ingredients in food. While many of us don’t feast on mammal tissue, stomach lining and pig bristles, Answers.com shows proof that these ingredients do wind up regularly in our food … Bon Appetit!

1-Click: Perfecting Browsers

Looking to build the perfect browser? According to ComputerWorld, 1-Click Answers will help you near that state of flawlessness whether you use Firefox, Windows or Mac. The add-on was one of 46 mentioned in the article — and 1-Click was mentioned fourth. There’s no saying whether the applications were listed in order of preference, but I’d like to think it’s so.

Elsewhere, Answers.com had a quiet week in the news. However, it was interesting to see that a majority of mentions and links the site received this week were in comments posted in relation to other articles. For the most part, commentators scorned the accuracy of the reporter’s or another commentator’s statements by hurling the definition or some additional information at them, courtesy of Answers.com.

“Don’t you know what the meaning of ad hominem?”

“Are you so ignorant that you don’t possibly understand the concept of a wage price spiral?”

One blogger “El Johnny Cinco” keeps citing Answers.com, too. On “All in London”, he likes to use Answers.com for his Word of the Day feature… Cheerio, mate!

The Answers.com teacher newsletter went out on Wednesday, and by Thursday parts of it were already spotted online. SegaTech, for instance, shared the information Answers.com wrote on Black History Month with its readers.

Another blogger, Lemonade just happened upon Answers.com and felt compelled to spread the good news. Here’s a couplee of snippets from what she writes:

“I thought wikipedia was good, but wow, now I don't need to go through all the reference sites to find something; it's all in one place. It has so much stuff on there you wouldn't believe me if I told you, so check it out yourself.”

The cat's out of the bag

On the wires and in the news this week was the rehash of the press release that Answers.com issued on January 19^th about its reported “strong start” for ’07.

Though no real news has been reported from Answers.com on the search engine as of late, Brainboost was also being talked up this week. One mention came from Search Engine Roundtable. In the article, writer “rustybrick” tells how he received a snarky reply to his question “

how many fingers do I have?

,” but he received a decent answer from many sources when he asked, “

how many championships did michael jordan win?”

All in all, he finds the search engine to answer natural-language questions nicer than the competition. The other mention of Brainboost was on WebProNews. Barry Welford said he finds the site to be a good alternative to the now shuttered Google Answers. A letter from the folks at Answers.com let him know that the site also has community based Q&A from FAQ Farm, now called WikiAnswers. The comments from that letter were added to a post he started on Brainboost at his own blog at Cre8asite Forums. Read through the comments — there are not many — and you’ll see people are skeptically optimistic about its potential.

Looks like AnswerTips is already garnering press, even though it hasn’t officially been released to the public. Guess it’s hard to keep a lid on good things. Ben Frey and Tailfeathers and are giving their readers a preview of what the technology will look like at their blogs already. And Typepad is already showcasing AnswerTips as a widget.

(psst … this blog has AnswerTips too!)

blufr blings out some blogs

What do rap artists, athletes and bloggers all have in common? They all like to show off some bling. While the celebs might shell out for over-the-top diamond necklaces or rings, bloggers flaunt a different kind of accessory: widgets. According to a New York Times article, these embedded little gems “enhance [the blog’s] usefulness or aesthetic appeal” for the users.

In The Times article this Thursday, three examples of these small codes-of-wonder were pictured. One was blufr!

From NY Times:

A collection of widgets, from left: Blufr is a game based on trivia questions; Streampad Music Player creates a playlist to listen to; from ChipIn, a listing that provides up-to-date progress on a fund-raiser or social event.

Soon after the article appeared, recaps in places like Center Networks and Megite Tech News began to appear in other parts of the blogosphere.

Finally, New York City is seeing some seasonal weather … even Jerusalem had snow before the Big Apple. And yet, with winter weather comes the fear of winter flu. How can you mitigate your chances of catching a cold? Sue Vorenburg in the Albuquerque Tribune suggests using the dap. Akin to shaking hands, the dap requires greeters to pound fists. The idea behind it is that less skin contact means less chance of passing germs. Perhaps, but if you really want a sanitary way of saying hello, why not just follow the example of the Japanese— and bow towards one another!

Even if it isn’t really fresh news for the company, it’s still nice to see other people get excited when they stumble across something new to them. Take for instance Dan Bobinski’s article “An Ocean of Gadgets” in Management Issues. He writes about his recent discovery of 1-Click Answers, although he calls it Answers.com in his article. I tried responding to set the record straight … so far, no correction. That’s ok as long as he likes it, is using it, AND (most importantly) talking about it.

On Wednesday, the NYC office gathered for our weekly lunch together in the conference room. The topic of conversation could have any number of things: marketing, business development, SEO. But there was a more pressing issue that dominated the discussion: the season premiere of 24. With the recent return of Jack Bauer, an article from GoReporter also appeared which pointed people to Answers.com for facts on the popular show.

Last week, 1-Click Answers was named a CODiE finalist for the Best Consumer Productivity Solution. The judging now enters its final phase where the decision will lay upon SIIA members. Our competition includes:

• EverNote, EverNote Corporation

• PhotoStudio® Expressions 2.0, Individual Software, Inc.

• Quicken Home Inventory Manager, Intuit, Inc.

• Family Tree Maker 2006 Version 16, MyFamily.com, Inc.

At this point, we don’t receive anything except permission to use the graphic above. However, the statue to the left is a physical reality. In October, we won a Silver W3 Award for web creativity. The statue just arrived and is now proudly displayed in the reception area.

Add Answers.com to the Business 101 Books

Snakes on a Plane is a case study of word of mouth advertising; the Aeron Chair is a case study for status branding; and Answers.com is a case study towards profitability through Google’s AdSense, so says Rick Aristotle Munarriz in The Motley Fool:

In its original form as GuruNet, the company would charge visitors for access to its database of reference material. It was a model doomed for extinction, especially with the growing popularity of free community-driven offerings such as Wikipedia and Yahoo! Answers.

In January of 2005, Answers.com found religion. In other words, it found Google. It decided to transform itself into a free site and populate its millions of high-ranking content pages with Google AdSense ads. The makeover has been remarkable.

Quarter	Revenue Per 1,000 Queries
Q1 2005	$1.32
Q2 2005	$2.20
Q3 2005	$3.07
Q4 2005	$4.18
Q1 2006	$4.67
Q2 2006	$5.95
Q3 2006	$6.45

The article goes on to say that while Answers.com is not profitable yet, the company is on track to hit that milestone soon.

Talk about hitting ... Tigger and a tween recently had a tangle at the Orlando theme park, Disney. So what does that have to do with us? Seems Tallahassee.com brought Answers.com into the fray when they spotted some damning information on that brawling, bouncing buddy of Poo. According to “The New Adventures of Winnie The Pooh,” AnswersPage, Tigger has an alter-ego known as the "Masked Offender."

Following the president’s announcement that he will deploy more troops to Iraq, many bloggers got online to do some serious Bush bashing. Dada’s Dally believes more people would get behind the president if his decisions were made with the help of a Magic 8-Ball, rather than … well, no one knows who is really helping Bush with his decision-making, considering he brushes aside the wisdom from his advisors, senators and even panels. No matter, with the Magic 8-Ball, Bush will have 20 hard-to-disagree-with responses that he could use anytime from now to 2008. (See list of possible responses here).

I’m not quite sure how Answers.com got a mention in a blog waxing nostalgic for Nintendo’s NES system, the Apple Newton or $1 tolls to cross the Bay Bridge. Yet, Answers.com is there, on Raphael Ebron’s blog, noted as a company that has the right strategy.

The Daily Novel was also doing some reminiscing, remembering the day when journalists were professionals with accredited degrees. Nowadays, though, breaking news is happening on blogs. The tools that make that possible? Among many, the power of authoritative facts brought to you by Answers.com makes it possible.

blufr

World Tech Logic this week sung the praises of the simple yet addictive trivia game, blufr. Star New Grroup stopped short of calling it a brilliant marketing play from Answers.com.

Q&A ... Who will lead?

More and more ink is being spilled these days on the war over who will ultimately control Q&A online. This week, it was reported that Amazon is beefing up its service, Askville in an attempt to compete with the many competitors, including Answers.com, reports an AP story.

Another battle brewed online after ABC added a (sic) to a quote referring to the afterlife.

"You were one of my best friends and I'll never forget you. All my prayers go to your family and I'll see you again." (sic)

Conservative media watchdog, NewsBusters first defined ‘sic’ by calling upon Answers.com and then went on to blast the network for implying that religious belief is so erroneous that it warrant a ‘sic’ label. Bloggers helped fan the fire, until an ABC News executive later stated that the ‘sic’ referred to a misspelling of “I’ll” (ill) in the original post.

Why does winter make us crave comfort foods? Even though it’s a balmy 60 degrees in New York, a reporter in Vermont was waxing poetic about her morning bowl of oatmeal. While some may not savor a steaming bowl of oats, there are plenty of people starting their day with a bowl of cereal — which according to Answers.com is the third most popular supermarket item after carbonated beverages and bread.

Board member Ed Sims was in the news this week in one of those start-of-year articles that predicts what’s in store for 2007. This particular story from Palto Alto Daily News focused on the transformation TV Advertisers will make in order to reach their audiences in the age of TiVo. Sims credentials as an authority on this topic included being a venture capitalist, a blogger and a board member of Answers.com.

Speaking of start-of-year articles, there are also the end-of-year articles that pop up ‘round this time. Answers.com’s released its own “2006 From A to Z” topic page, which had at least one blogger, ResourceShelf, link to it.

Elsewhere in the blog-o-sphere at the start of this year, a pet enthusiast, Scatchings-and-Sniffings was sharing his 2007 New Year Resolution: to do more research on obscure breeds. Out of the gate, one of the first sites he stumbled across while doing due diligence on the Afghan breed was Answers.com, which told him the dog is one of the 14 ancient breeds.

blufr

This week, a video showed up on You Tube to disprove the validity of blufs on blufr. By Friday afternoon, the video had been seen by 2,225 on YouTube, and was found linked to an NYC comedy blog called The Apiary. The post on Apiary didn’t go unnoticed. Another blog, Mo! took the opportunity to sound off about the pros and cons of YouTube vs. stand-up when it comes to “alternative comedy.”