Clarity: A Better Name Than Pluton. Pluton?
November 20, 2020
After two years, Clarity has finally made it out of Beta, we learn from “Microsoft Clarity Debuts as Free Analytics Tool with Heat Maps” at Search & Performance Marketing Daily. The free tool uses heat maps to analyze the behavior of visitors to one’s website. Reporter Laurie Sullivan writes:
“Clarity — designed to have a low impact on page-load times and there are no caps on traffic no matter what the number of visitors to the website — helps give marketers a deeper understanding of why at website performs one way and not another. It also provides anonymized heat maps and data that show where site visitors clicked and scrolled, and enables marketers to analyze use behavior on the website exactly as it happened through a job description code. Some of the data includes the name of the browser, and whether they are using a PC, tablet or mobile phone to access the site. Heat maps provide a visual way to examine large numbers of site visitor interactions. Microsoft built two types: click maps and scroll maps. While the heat maps tell marketers which pages get the most clicks, the click maps tell marketers what website page content visitors interact with the most. Areas in the map marked in red have the highest frequency of clicks and are usually centered on focal points.”
The heat maps let marketers know whether visitors are clicking where they want them to. It also reports certain behaviors—excessive scrolling, dead clicks, and rage clicks. The last term describes users clicking several times on a spot they believe should be a hyperlink but is not—one would want to either fix an intended link or tweak the graphics on those spots. The tool also supplies a dashboard that presents metrics of the overall traffic patterns, time spent on the site, and even concurrent JavaScript errors. Microsoft pledges Clarity complies with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation.
But Pluton, Microsoft’s mystery processor? Pluton?
Cynthia Murrell, November 20, 2020
Useful Service or Email Collector?
November 16, 2020
Here is a possibly useful service—Please-unsubscribe.com does just what its name suggests: Unsubscribe clients from bothersome marketing emails for a small fee. The service’s entrepreneur reassures:
“Forward marketing emails to hey@please-unsubscribe.com and we will take care of the rest. Here is an example. … Each unsubscribe uses 1 Credit. Over time, you should need this service less and less 🙂 Fresh accounts start with 5 Credits. Credits are initially locked to the source email address. For example, if your email is john.smith@example.com, then your credits will only work with that email address. To change your source email address (or add a member), please message: support@please-unsubscribe.com. For example, you can add multiple members of your family or friends to share a single credit pool.”
One begins by simply forwarding any marketing email and the first five credits will be assigned. Once they are used up, the user will be asked to enroll through Stripe or PayPal. We’re told unsubscribe requests are usually processed within 24 hours, and users receive a monthly report describing the junk email that has been halted. The page, which is written in the tone of a casual conversation, ponders the value of moving to a weekly report vs. not cluttering its users’ inbox (when they were tasked to do just the opposite). Depending on how many credits one buys, the cost is between 20 and 50 cents per pesky sender. We are also told the service respects users’ privacy. It pledges to never sell data and to place processed emails into Google Workspace’s trash to be purged within 30 days.
We found this part interesting—For now, anyway, this service is not automated. The job is performed by an actual person. The page specifies:
“Currently, there is no automation. Oftentimes, these marketing emails contain hard-to-find, low-opacity links. But it’s nothing that a real human can’t tackle. At this time, the only processor is my high-school sister. I pay her $15/hour. In the future, automation might be worth it. But for right now, hiring a real human is a pretty good deal for the task.”
One wonders what will happen when and if the service becomes popular; the sister may soon become overwhelmed. Will please-unsubscribe turn to automation or hire more workers? We would be curious to learn the answer.
Cynthia Murrell, November 16, 2020
IBM: Smashing an Elbow Then a Choke. Tap Out!
November 13, 2020
I read a darned interesting article called “Professional Fighters League to Leverage IBM Technologies to Innovate Next-Gen Proprietary SmartCage.” The write up explains:
The Professional Fighters League (PFL), the fastest growing and most innovative sports league in the world, today announced it will be leveraging Flagship’s capabilities to deliver IBM’s suite of advanced cloud and AI products to enhance the league’s delivery of next-gen SmartCage data and analytics, both live in-broadcast and via the league’s OTT platform, Fight Central.
I think this means that the “boxing ring” becomes intelligent. Boxing is the “sweet science.” I did not know that boxing lacked intelligence. Hmmm.
The goal of harming an opponent will benefit from the tough minded IBM Watson. The article points out:
PFL’s proprietary SmartCage measures real-time MMA fighter performance analytics along with biometric and positional data providing fans with an elevated viewing experience. Moving forward, SmartCage fight data, called Cagenomics, will be enhanced with Watson machine learning to scour data points and uncover new insights for MMA fans, bringing them inside the cage like never before.
I thought IBM’s use of Watson to create a recipe book was a high water point for the high-technology giant. I have been stunned by Watson’s machoness. I am not even in the SmartCage.
Stephen E Arnold, November 13, 2020
IBM Watson: Going Back to the Jeopardy Thing
October 28, 2020
IEEE Spectrum ran an interview which I thought was a trifle unusual. Watson is going to modernize legacy code. How much of the legacy code is the work of IBM programmers and acolytes trained in the ways of Big Blue: JCL incantations, chants for PL/I, and abracadabra for Assembler? What about the code for the US air traffic control system? What about the code for the AS/400, a machine series I have lost in the mists of marketing? I remember rocking on with RPG.
The article has a killer SEO-centric title; to wit:
What, pray tell, was the first challenge IBM Watson successfully resolved? Maybe winning the Jeopardy game show. I keep thinking about the wonders of television post-production for programs which shoot a week’s worth of goodness in one day. The behind the scenes Avid users labor away to produce a “real” TV show. Sorry. I remain skeptical.
The article presents five questions. These are not exactly colloquial. The wording is similar to that used in semi-scripted reality TV programs. The answers are IBM-ish. Please, read and enjoy the original document. I will focus on two of the questions. Yes, I selected the ones with the most Watson goodness based on my experience with the giant of White Plains.
The first question probes the darned exciting history of IBM Watson and cancer. As I recall, some of the oncologists in Houston’s medical community were not thrilled with the time required to explain cancer to IBM analysts and slightly less thrilled with the outputs. Hasta la vista, Watson. The article explains IBM Watson and healthcare using wordage like this:
The use of AI in healthcare is still evolving, and it’s a journey. To expect AI to be able to give the right answer in all diagnosis scenarios is expecting too much. The technology has not reached that level yet. However, that’s precisely why we say it’s more about augmenting the healthcare experts than it is about replacing in many ways.
My, “yeah, but” is a memory of an IBM Watson presentation which asserted that Watson could deliver actionable diagnoses. I know I am getting old, but I recall those assurances. That presentation gave me the idea for the “Weakly Watson” series of articles in this blog. There were some crazy attempts to make IBM Watson relevant: Free to use model, build an application to match dogs with dog owners for a festival in Mexico, etc. etc.
The second question I want to highlight is natural language processing (!) and content processing. Here’s the snippet from the IBMer’s answer I circled with my Big Blue pen:
Roughly speaking, rule-based systems will be successful in translating somewhere between 50 to 60 percent of a program. It is true that part of the program can be translated reasonably well, however, that still leaves half of the program to be translated manually, and that remaining 50 percent is the hardest part, typically involving very complex rules. And that’s exactly where AI kicks in because it can act like humans.
There you go. AI “can act like humans.” Tell that to the people shafted by AI systems as documented in Weapons of Math Destruction.
Net net: Where’s IBM going with Watson? I think anywhere money can be generated. Game shows are probably less complex than addressing encrypted text messages and figuring out what’s in a streaming video in real time.
Who knows? Maybe Lucene, acquired technology from outfits like Vivisimo, and home brew code from IBM Almaden can work miracles.
Stephen E Arnold, October 28, 2020
IBM: The Great Entertainer
October 25, 2020
The media never stops reporting news and technology never stops revolutionizing the media. The newest upgrade for media brands and publishers is AI says Advanced Television in the article: “IBM Brings AI At Scale To The Media Industry.” IBM wants to remain one of the leading AI developers and suppliers, especially when they have Watson to do the scaling. As part of IBM’s easy array of industry solutions, the company now offers three new products for brands and publishers. The new products focus on reaching consumers while respecting their privacy. IBM already has an all star client list for its new AI product line, including Beeswax, MediaMath, Nielsen, LiveRamp, Xandr/AT&T, and Magnite.
IBM SVP of Cognitive Applications and Blockchain Bob Lord stated that the advertising industry is undergoing a major transformation when it comes to consumer privacy. Major changes are elimination of some third party cookies, mobile identity, and increased demand in transparency, and increased compliance and regulatory shifts. In order for the advertising agency to respect consumer privacy, but also generate revenue Lord explained AI will be invaluable:
“He added: ‘We believe AI will be the ‘backbone’ of the new era as the industry prepares for the next generation of advertising. We’re using AI to help solve problems across the advertising industry, just like IBM has in countless other industries like Healthcare, Financial Services and Retail. Our work will be a step forward in our evolution to meet the advertising industry’s upheaval, and we are proud to help the advertising industry advance with the value of AI.’”
The newest AI upgrades are for IBM’s Watson Advertising Accelerator, Watson Advertising Social Targeting with Influential, and Watson Advertising Weather Targeting. IBM developed these tools for the advertising industry to regain consumer trust. Consumers are upset about the amount of spying and selling of their personal data, not to mention the amount of targeted ads that reach them through their phones, computers, tablets, and televisions.
IBM is using AI to help brands and publishers make sense of the amount of data in the digital space to make wise business decisions. The other goal is to regain consumer trust and respect individuals’ privacy as technology becomes more entwined in society.
IBM, AI, and declining revenues: Take the show on the road.
Whitney Grace, October 25, 2020
Free Book Plus a Data Vacuum
October 22, 2020
DarkCyber spotted an innocuous item offering a “free” book about Microsoft Office 2019, a product the research team no longer uses. TextMaker works just fine, thank you. Curious about the pitch and how trade publishers are responding to the challenge traditional niche publications and publishers are dealing with the impact of thumb typers on print, one of the DarkCyber team filled in the form.
Here’s what we learned. Start the process by navigating to this link.
We received the download link from this link.
Then an online form requires name, address, email, and other useful marketing bits.
The system from TradePub.com then matches the book to specialist topics and titles and displays books in a category, which in this case had a technology slant:
Click a title and the fun begins. Each title gathers substantially the same information. One can repeat this process a number of times to obtain free magazines. Some are in theory still in print and will be delivered to the DarkCyber offices.
So what?
Several observations:
- The data collection is overt
- Data must be entered multiple times
- The download link did not arrive.
Bummer.
TradePub does not operate from the business capital of the rust belt. According to the firm’s Web site, the firm is in California. The company says:
TradePub.com is owned and operated by NetLine Corporation. NetLine Corporation empowers B2B Marketers with the reach, technology, and expertise required to drive scalable lead generation results and accelerate the sales funnel. Operating the largest B2B content syndication lead generation network, NetLine’s AudienceTarget™ technology drives prospect discovery, quality customer lead acquisition, and buyer engagement from real prospect intent as professionals consume content directly across the network. Superior quality, on demand access, and advanced campaign reports enable all clients to achieve lead generation success. Founded in 1994, NetLine is privately held and headquartered in Campbell, California.
For more information about TradePub.com navigate to this link.
How much junk mail will arrive at the “real” DarkCyber email address? Monitoring is underway. The DarkCyber researcher reported that within 10 minutes of registering, three email spam items were received by the “real” DarkCyber email address.
Since the marketing set up has been in operation for a quarter century, why haven’t trade publications and specialist publications outperformed their stakeholders’ expectations?
This is a good question which some study from home, soon to be MBA may want to answer. At least the approach is not chock full of search engine optimization goodness. That’s a plus.
DarkCyber was able to download the book. It is an 800 page tome, which is definitely going to become the research team’s night time read. One of the DarkCyber research crew observed, “This outfit should pay me to read this book.”
Unlikely, right?
PS. The “free” book? It contains zero information about inserting images and controlling their location in the document. Minor point? No, representative of the value of “free.”
Stephen E Arnold, October 22, 2020
Rah, Rah, Sis Boom Analytics. No, Wait. Boo, Boo, Hiss, Hiss Analytics
October 16, 2020
One of the DarkCyber researchers alerted me to “Most CMOs Disappointed with Analytics Results.” We are wrapping up an interview with one of the senior technologists at Datawalk, and the topic of complexity in easy-to-use analytics systems was a topic of discussion. Watch for this revealing interview in an upcoming issue of DarkCyber.
The article about disappointed CMOs is not surprising. What is surprising is that individuals with expectations that smart software will generate just the answer one needs to generate bigly sales are so widespread.
The write up reports citing a study by the mid-tier consulting firm Gartner Group:
“Though CMOs understand the importance of applying analytics throughout the marketing organization, many struggle to quantify the relationship between insights gathered and their company’s bottom line. In fact, nearly half of respondents in this year’s survey say they’re unable to measure marketing ROI,” says Lizzy Foo Kune, senior director analyst in the Gartner Marketing practice. “This inability to measure ROI tarnishes the perceived value of the analytics team.”
Other findings from the study of 415 marketing “leaders” are:
- Training staff is not a priority
- Data science and campaigns are behind other analytic use cases
- Most organizations will spend more for analytics.
These types of surveys deliver results that gild the available lilies.
For those without numerical skills and training, many of today’s analytic tools are like to disappoint. The digital oracle of Delphi is not working particularly well for many users. Even individuals with a couple of statistics courses on their record have to spend time familiarizing themselves with the analytic tools and their options. Plus if bad data go in, not even a super smart system can produce silk purses from chubby data pigs. Nevertheless, MBAs believe in analytics and, of course, magic.
Stephen E Arnold, October 16, 2020
Selling the Millennial MBA Way
October 15, 2020
How does a company sell in the era of the Rona, social unrest, financial uncertainty, international tension, and misinformation? The answer appears in “Drive Growth by Picking the Right Lane — A Customer Acquisition Playbook for Consumer Startups.” The advice is interesting because it pays scant attention to most of the traditional methods. (Methods are explained as “lanes” and “social media”.)
Here’s an example from the introduction to the free how-to. The focus of the write up is narrowed to:
Performance marketing (e.g. Facebook and Google ads)
Virality (e.g. word-of-mouth, referrals, invites)
Content (e.g. SEO, YouTube)
The essay points out that fuddy duddy techniques are not included. The explanation is:
There are two additional lanes (sales and partnerships) which we won’t cover in this post because they are rarely effective in consumer businesses. And there are other tactics to boost customer acquisition (e.g PR, brand marketing), but the lanes outlined above are the only reliable paths for long-term and sustainable business growth.
The how-to includes screenshots, tables, and graphs.
Need a playbook to sell the millennial way? This may be for you.
Stephen E Arnold, October 15, 2020
Google: Handwaving before the Regulators Arrive
October 15, 2020
Google News Makes a Show of Playing Fair
Well this is an interesting attempt to buy off an industry. Fast Company reports, “Google Will Pay Publishers $1 Billion to Quell Claims of Unfairly Profiting from their Content.” Google recently unveiled Google News Showcase, an initiative that will pay some publishers for content it already swiped. I mean, published. The company’s announcement on its blog calls this Google’s biggest financial commitment to publishers to date—all to avoid a much larger, legally mandated payout later, we’d warrant. Writer Michael Grothaus observes:
“But the Showcase initiative isn’t an altruistic move on Google’s part. The search giant has come under increasing pressure from publishers and regulators in recent years about the way it profits from the work publishers do. In short, Google’s News service currently works by pulling story headlines and descriptions from the publishers’ websites, populating the News service with their content. Google has always maintained its News service is good for publishers, as it sends traffic to their sites. However, publishers say Google gets the far better end of the deal since their content drives clicks to the Google News platform and because Google keeps most of the profits from the ads served on its platform. Given the profits Google generates, $1 billion over three years doesn’t seem like a whole lot of money. But for now, some publishers, at least, seem willing to take any handouts. Google says over 200 publishers have already signed up, including Germany’s Der Spiegel. As for the News Showcase itself, the new platform will first launch on Google News on Android devices, followed by iOS devices later this year.”
Just how different will this “Showcase” be from the existing Google News? The platform will probably highlight content from publishers that agreed to play ball. Otherwise, we expect the differences to be minor.
Cynthia Murrell, October 15, 2020
The Rona and Weird Fumes of Content Marketing
October 8, 2020
My suspicious nature kicked into a higher gear when I read this sentence in the Fast Company essay “This One Concept Will Transform the Future of Work Post-COVID-19: Soon We’re All in This Together Will Become This Is a Crisis and We’re Fighting It Together.”
Right now, at SAP, we are transitioning our entire marketing events over to digital, while at the same time creating the processes, acquiring the skill sets, and building the new technologies in order to do so.
The author is an employee of SAP, the IBM-esque outfit which coverts a licensee to its systems and methods for doing “work.” I think of SAP as the company which developed the Trex search system. Whatever happened to that? I may have to look into its fate, but SAP is not a company evoking keen interest here in Harrod’s Creek.
What is interesting is this Transform the Future of Work essay.
One idea in the write up is that some companies cannot complete a digital revolution. I agree. The question becomes, “What does a company have to do to make effective use of new technology?” The answer appears to be: License SAP. That’s super if one has money, time, resources, and knowledge of exactly what to do to reach an SAP representative and cut a deal.
The write up features a number of interesting references. These are “stories” and the implication is that each of the named entities has mastered the revolution and is zipping to the future.
The write up explains:
The root problem here is that many businesses don’t think, when things are going well, that they need to invest in other aspects of the business. Even here at SAP, the conversations we were having at the end of 2019 were “How can we turn our 25,000-person event into a 50,000-person event?” It’s not until physical events get shut down altogether that you realize you should have been asking a different question.
Yeah, right. SAP is part of the transformation. Content marketing is more important than the Rona revolution. I am not convinced that SAP has:
- The ability to predict the future
- The technology to deal effectively with the work modalities now in place
- The track record to convince a small or mid sized business to embrace SAP when there are other options available.
Nice try at sounding like a real management consultant. Sorry, no cigar for you. There’s plenty of smoke in the air now.
Stephen E Arnold, October 8, 2020
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