It seems that one of Google’s latest doodles, a homage to the 25th anniversary of the discovery of Buckyballs was, as we suspected, too clever by half. Two, presumably, unintentional consequences have emerged: costing Google’s users money, while making a heck of a lot of cash for the maker of the Buckyballs desktoy overnight.
The way the doodle itself had been designed put a very heavy load on users’ computers, increasing power consumption at a cost to those users, as well as causing many a browser crash. That’s kind of clumsy and, arguably, irresponsible when you consider how many people have Google as their browser’s default start page.
But more bizarrely was another side effect, which surely Google must have anticipated: sending a massive amount of traffic to GetBuckyballs.com, a site that sells the Buckyballs desktoy, described as “a set of building spheres containing 216 powerful Rare Earth magnets that can be shaped, molded, torn apart and snapped together in unlimited ways.”
That’s because clicking on Google’s doodle brought up search results for “Buckyballs”, and GetBuckyballs.com was one of the top results, sending over 2,000,000+ unique visitors to the site and generating 10,000 unit sales in a single day. Which translates to more than $250,000 in revenue, at least according to the announcement the online retailer distributed today.
That’s one way of making your search engine positioning efforts pay off – but it’s certainly a rare occasion to see Google lending such a big virtual hand.
If Apple gets its way, the next big wave of content to hit iTunes might be magazine and newspaper subscriptions.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple is trying to convince publishers to offer newspaper and magazine subscriptions for the iPad through Apple’s own portal.
However, magazines have been limited to single issue sales. Some apps notify a user when a new issue is available, but at $4 or $5 an issue, most users are unlikely to forego a print or online subscription for iPad content.
The big holdup with bringing subscriptions to the iPad has reportedly revolved around user data and, of course, money. Publishers often use their subscriber database to better target customers and to entice advertisers. Apple reportedly doesn’t want to give publishers such easy access to customer information.
Additionally, Apple would likely want to take a 30% revenue cut off any subscriptions sold within iTunes, the same as it does for apps, music, books and video files now.
Both of these points are contentious with publishers, who have acquiesced by selling issues individually or are trying to either build apps that are really just portals to subscriber-only websites (à la The Wall Street Journal) or apps like Zinio that are PDF portals of sorts on their own.
Of course, the big promise with the iPad has been that it is an opportunity for publishers to redefine magazine or newspaper content by making it more engaging and interactive rather than just being a facsimile of the print edition.
Publishers who are looking at ways to combat declining print sales may be able to use Apple’s 160-million strong iTunes customer base to help boost sales. That might be worth a trade-off of control and profit.
For Apple, having unique arrangements with publishers to offer compelling subscription content that is auto-delivered to iOS devices could be a big differentiating factor between the iPad and future competing devices.
Apple’s foray into the world of e-books remains small, especially when compared to market giant Amazon.com
We’ve reached out to several publishers for comment on this story and have not heard back. We’ll keep following this story for future developments.
In the meantime, let us know what you think of iPad-tailored subscriptions for newspapers and magazines. Do you currently read print publications? Would you be more or less likely to subscribe to a tablet-friendly digital version?
For more Apple coverage:
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robert shumake
Google New: It's Google <b>News</b> About New Google Stuff In One Place
In terms of blog networks, no one ever seems to talk about Google, but they actually have one of the biggest. The search giant has well over 100 blogs devoted to everything from general company news to niche things that only webmasters ...
Real Estate <b>News</b>: Existing Home Sales Rise - Developments - WSJ
Here is a look at real-estate news in today's WSJ.
<b>News</b> Anchor Barbie: 'A flair for journalism -- and power pink <b>...</b>
Astronaut Barbie, Newborn Baby Doctor Barbie and Rock Star Barbie, get ready to answer some tough questions asked by journalist Barbie. The 125th -- and newest -- career path for Mattel's 51-year-old doll is news anchor, and she's ...
It seems that one of Google’s latest doodles, a homage to the 25th anniversary of the discovery of Buckyballs was, as we suspected, too clever by half. Two, presumably, unintentional consequences have emerged: costing Google’s users money, while making a heck of a lot of cash for the maker of the Buckyballs desktoy overnight.
The way the doodle itself had been designed put a very heavy load on users’ computers, increasing power consumption at a cost to those users, as well as causing many a browser crash. That’s kind of clumsy and, arguably, irresponsible when you consider how many people have Google as their browser’s default start page.
But more bizarrely was another side effect, which surely Google must have anticipated: sending a massive amount of traffic to GetBuckyballs.com, a site that sells the Buckyballs desktoy, described as “a set of building spheres containing 216 powerful Rare Earth magnets that can be shaped, molded, torn apart and snapped together in unlimited ways.”
That’s because clicking on Google’s doodle brought up search results for “Buckyballs”, and GetBuckyballs.com was one of the top results, sending over 2,000,000+ unique visitors to the site and generating 10,000 unit sales in a single day. Which translates to more than $250,000 in revenue, at least according to the announcement the online retailer distributed today.
That’s one way of making your search engine positioning efforts pay off – but it’s certainly a rare occasion to see Google lending such a big virtual hand.
If Apple gets its way, the next big wave of content to hit iTunes might be magazine and newspaper subscriptions.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple is trying to convince publishers to offer newspaper and magazine subscriptions for the iPad through Apple’s own portal.
However, magazines have been limited to single issue sales. Some apps notify a user when a new issue is available, but at $4 or $5 an issue, most users are unlikely to forego a print or online subscription for iPad content.
The big holdup with bringing subscriptions to the iPad has reportedly revolved around user data and, of course, money. Publishers often use their subscriber database to better target customers and to entice advertisers. Apple reportedly doesn’t want to give publishers such easy access to customer information.
Additionally, Apple would likely want to take a 30% revenue cut off any subscriptions sold within iTunes, the same as it does for apps, music, books and video files now.
Both of these points are contentious with publishers, who have acquiesced by selling issues individually or are trying to either build apps that are really just portals to subscriber-only websites (à la The Wall Street Journal) or apps like Zinio that are PDF portals of sorts on their own.
Of course, the big promise with the iPad has been that it is an opportunity for publishers to redefine magazine or newspaper content by making it more engaging and interactive rather than just being a facsimile of the print edition.
Publishers who are looking at ways to combat declining print sales may be able to use Apple’s 160-million strong iTunes customer base to help boost sales. That might be worth a trade-off of control and profit.
For Apple, having unique arrangements with publishers to offer compelling subscription content that is auto-delivered to iOS devices could be a big differentiating factor between the iPad and future competing devices.
Apple’s foray into the world of e-books remains small, especially when compared to market giant Amazon.com
We’ve reached out to several publishers for comment on this story and have not heard back. We’ll keep following this story for future developments.
In the meantime, let us know what you think of iPad-tailored subscriptions for newspapers and magazines. Do you currently read print publications? Would you be more or less likely to subscribe to a tablet-friendly digital version?
For more Apple coverage:
robert shumake
Google New: It's Google <b>News</b> About New Google Stuff In One Place
In terms of blog networks, no one ever seems to talk about Google, but they actually have one of the biggest. The search giant has well over 100 blogs devoted to everything from general company news to niche things that only webmasters ...
Real Estate <b>News</b>: Existing Home Sales Rise - Developments - WSJ
Here is a look at real-estate news in today's WSJ.
<b>News</b> Anchor Barbie: 'A flair for journalism -- and power pink <b>...</b>
Astronaut Barbie, Newborn Baby Doctor Barbie and Rock Star Barbie, get ready to answer some tough questions asked by journalist Barbie. The 125th -- and newest -- career path for Mattel's 51-year-old doll is news anchor, and she's ...
robert shumake
Google New: It's Google <b>News</b> About New Google Stuff In One Place
In terms of blog networks, no one ever seems to talk about Google, but they actually have one of the biggest. The search giant has well over 100 blogs devoted to everything from general company news to niche things that only webmasters ...
Real Estate <b>News</b>: Existing Home Sales Rise - Developments - WSJ
Here is a look at real-estate news in today's WSJ.
<b>News</b> Anchor Barbie: 'A flair for journalism -- and power pink <b>...</b>
Astronaut Barbie, Newborn Baby Doctor Barbie and Rock Star Barbie, get ready to answer some tough questions asked by journalist Barbie. The 125th -- and newest -- career path for Mattel's 51-year-old doll is news anchor, and she's ...
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