Global Search Engine Marketing & Social Media News And Analysis » Norway

World-Wide Stats: How Does Social Media Buzz Travel?

Kristjan Mar Hauksson — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 08:28:00 +0000

Last month at the SEM Conference in Oslo, Bryan Eisenberg and I were talking about the tools of the trade and he mentioned that he had put together a site focusing on collecting internet marketing tools and it seemed that he had been doing this for some time.

The site itself is www.websitetestingtools.com and there are many good tools that you can browse through and something tells me that Bryan’s list is likely to grow fast over the coming months.

To give me head-start Bryan pointed me to several tools and one of them is a tool based on the data collected by a very popular Wordpress plugin called AddThis. The data collected by the AddThis team shows how data socializes, that is how those reading content share it.

Comparing countries like my home country Iceland and one of our closest neighbours Norway it is clear that Facebook is the biggest sharing option when users redistribute content of pages. In Iceland it is Facebook Like with some 47% and then Facebook with 25%. In Norway this flips, that is Facebook has a bigger share of 39% and Facebook Like has just over 18%.

What stands out for me is how often users print out items, Icelandic users seem to be bit “greener” when it comes to sharing content as they only use the print option in 1.88% while the Norwegians do that in close to 15%.

If you want to compare your own country to others you can to that by using the AddThis stats tool.

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European Interactive Advertising Association Report Dec. 2010

Sante J. Achille — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 11:47:35 +0000

The European Interactive Advertising Association has published the EIAA European Media Landscape Report Summary, December 2010.

The key findings of the report include:

521m 16+ year old people in the 15 European countries sampled
According to EIAA’s latest Mediascope Europe study 76% (396m) of all 16+ year old people across 15 European markets surveyed use different media simultaneously with almost a third (30%) using the internet whilst they watch TV
A third (33%) of Europeans cannot live without the internet, equal to the percentage of Europeans who claim they cannot live without TV
54% (279m) of Europeans use the internet in a typical week spending 12.1 hours online
16‐24 year olds use the internet more frequently than they watch TV – 79% of this younger demographic use the internet between 5 and 7 days each week while 76% watch TV as regularly
More than 8 in 10 (83%) online Europeans use a broadband connection and over half (52%) of these broadband users are wireless
The most popular web activities amongst all European internet users include;
- email (76%), communicating via social networking sites (45%)
- instant messaging (40%)
- watching film, TV or video clips (32%)
- contributing to ratings and reviews (27%)
71% state that as a result of the internet they are staying in touch with friends and relatives more, half (50%) have chosen better products or services and 47% are better able to manage their finances online
55% of European internet users actively change their mind on what brand to buy after online research

Other relevant information provided in the report:

51% access the Internet on a PC
14% access the Internet via a mobile device
43% watch or downloading films and video or stream TV
80% of the population in Norway Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands access the Internet at least once a week, with the European average fixed at an estimated 54%

Source: http://www.eiaa.net/

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Google expands new trademark policy – but sidesteps Europe

Andy Atkins-Krüger — Thu, 07 May 2009 22:12:38 +0000

Following the expansion of their trademark policy to the UK last year, Google has widened its looser trademark policy which basically allows all-comers to bid on trademark keywords increasing the cost of trademark advertising via the number one search engine and allowing competitors to aggressively buy each others ‘marks. The new change expands the ‘we won’t intervene’ approach to a total of 190 countries. The change comes into force on June 4th.

However, Google has sidestepped the key European countries with the strongest legal rules and where cases have cost Google most in fines (see list below). From calculations, the removal of protection for trademarked terms increases advertiser costs by as much as 80% – as well as taking revenue from additional advertisers on those terms. The policy, therefore, enables Google to increase its adverising take from advertisers. The approach also affects major global brands most significantly – because they generally spend proportionately more on advertising their brands because it is those brands – and the associated products – which have made them global.

Google has long struggled to persuade blue chip advertisers to move more of their advertising budgets to Google Adwords – this is step which leaves them with no choice. However, it is a dangerous move as it could also contribute to tipping the ROI see-saw towards other newer forms of promotion such as social media and Twitter.

Having received no significant kick-back from its UK change of a year ago – it’s no surprise that this is being rolled out now. Probably, another year will pass before more countries – especially European ones – are added. I predict that France, where the courts have levied the largest fines against Google, will be the last to go.

So the following countries (European Union countries in bold) will not see the change – at least yet. Via Search Engine Land

Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Czech Republic
Cyprus
Denmark
Finland
France
Greece
Germany
Hungary
Italy
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden

Australia
Bahamas
Brazil
China
Iceland
Macau
New Zealand
Norway
South Korea
Switzerland
Taiwan

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Nokia internet platform Ovi to reach Norway, Sweden, Denmark & Hungary

Andy Atkins-Krüger — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:36:50 +0000

Nokia of Finland, which just happens to be the world’s largest mobile phone maker, has partnered with leading Norwegian telecoms company – Telenor – to provide access to various internet services through Nokia’s own internet service Ovi, reports Reuters. The Telenor and Ovi services will be offered to customers in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Hungary.

Why does this matter in search? Nokia is an $80 billion turnover company which makes its money from selling handsets – but it is now rolling out internet services which include maps, music and TV services – no mention of search – see this report from Cellular News. Telenor is an $18 billion turnover company. This partnership represents a considerable investment by both companies in internet access which they will control. Could well be the opportunity for a different search engine – funded by the telecoms companies – to make headway?

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Microsoft wants to buy Norwegian Fast for 6,6 billion NOK!

Sara Andersson — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 21:38:42 +0000

Microsoft have placed a bidding for the Norwegian search company Fast. The amount is 6,6 billion NOK which is about 835 000 000 Euro!
Their plan is to integrate Fast technology into Sharepoint server: They want to keep the research team and says it should be a great effort for Microsoft in Europe.

The biggest competitors to Fast Search on search solutions for large cooperations is Googles Search Appliance, French Exalead as well as Autonomy.

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24 European states go borderless under Schengen

Andy Atkins-Krüger — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 14:54:49 +0000

The Schengen agreement has been extended from 15 countries to 24 giving a wider borderless Europe with no internal border controls or checks and an open market of over 400 million people. Coming into force on the 21st December, the Schengen agreement makes physical inter-trade between bordering countries easier to manage for marketers. As Europe opens its borders, and search grows quickly in Europe, Schengen makes European business roll-outs more attractive and achievable with faster distribution and lower border costs.

The new countries joining the agreement are:-

Czech Republic
Slovakia
Poland
Hungary
Latvia
Lithuania
Estonia
Malta
Slovenia

I decided to test this with a visit to the most northerly Balkan state of Slovenia travelling from Austria through a 5 mile tunnel to the south side of the Alps. True enough the European blue flag and stars had become the standard border crossing notification and the rows of kiosks and border controls were empty and unmanned as we headed to the capital Ljublana.

Ljubljana is a town of around 230,000 people with a pretty baroque style and attractive old quarter. The local search engine is “Najdi” and the local domain is .si.

The Schengen agreement was first signed by five countries in 1985 in a small Luxembourg town ‘Schengen’ – these original five were later joined by ten others and the agreement came into force in 1995. The agreement basically means that the internal borders between the treaty countries are removed – but that those same countries cooperate to strengthen the outer border using the Schengen Information System – a database where data is exchanged. There are also special rules on how police forces work together.

The original five countries were:-

France
Germany
Netherlands
Belgium
Luxembourg

Other countries which joined up to 1995 when Schengen was finally realised are:-

Spain
Portugal
Greece

Countries who joined after 1995 but before 1997 are:-

Italy
Austria
Denmark
Norway
Sweden
Finland
Iceland
Monaco

The Schengen Agreement has only ever, in part, been deployed by the British or the Irish for fear of it encouraging immigration and terrorism – though it doesn’t seem to have helped much staying out.

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Google webmaster tools starts to think international

Andy Atkins-Krüger — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 17:20:03 +0000

At least two major new features are arriving in Google’s webmaster tools console according to information from the SES San Jose conference and the official Google webmaster tools blog.

The latter has announced support for the Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (IDNA) and a series of further enhancements are expected. IDNA enables webmasters to use domain names which exist outside the original 26 characters used for the English-language – but not for too many other languages since many have odd accented characters. Additionally, this brings greater support for asiatic and arabic character sets.

The other new development which is currently being looked at, according to a senior Google source, is the addition of a tool within webmaster tools whereby you can specify the country your site relates to. The countries will be listed in a drop down list – and you’ll almost certainly only be able to choose once country per site.

For a long time it has been a problem if you site was a .com site with no history of activity in a country for Google to pick out the right ‘bucket’ in which to list your site. For some this was an embarrasment – for others a major business hurdle. Matters were worse for those .coms hosted in a country other than the one they were targeting – perhaps for business political or content management system reasons. The result was you might be targeting France with a site hosted in Norway – but not end up appearing in the ‘Pages Francophones’ of Google.fr – even if the language of the site was French.

The simplest way of solving this problem has always been to have local country domains in which case – contrary to what one SES panelist advised in San Jose, the hosting location becomes irrelevant. For many, this isn’t practical – hence the reason why some have chosen to host locally to get around the problem.

These two developments combined will help international SEO specialists manage their projects with less frustration!

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Conferences in Sweden this Autumn

Sara Andersson — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 08:33:32 +0000

There will be a lot of activity around web and search in Sweden this autumn.
Below I list all the conferences that are coming up and hope to see you on some of them!
I will update list if I find out of more as we move along…

September
Webanalytics wednesday Stockholm 11-Sep

http://www.webanalyticsdemystified.com/wednesday/

Webbdagarna Malmö 12-Sep
Webbdagarna Göteborg 26-Sep

http://www.webbdagarna.se

Svedma Stockholm 27-Sep

http://www.swedma.se

October

Webbdagarna Stockholm 24/25th Oct

http://www.webbdagarna.se

Emetrics Stockholm 29th/30th Oct

http://www.emetrics.org/2007/stockholm/

SMX Stockholm 31st Oct/1st Nov

http://searchmarketingexpo.com/smx_stockholm07/

November

SIME Stockholm 14th/15th Nov

http://www.sime.nu/media/

IMC Stockholm 29th/30th Nov

http://www.internetmarketingconference.com/stockholm2007/

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SEMPO Scandinavia First launch event in Stockholm attracted 120 visitors!

Sara Andersson — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 18:48:35 +0000

As SEMPO is a fairly unknowned brand in the region it was not many that thought the SEMPO Scandinavian event was going to be as big as it turned out to be!

The group managed to attract 120 people to the event where 4 search engines, Eniro, Yahoo, Microsoft and Sesam had 15 min each to talk about their view on the market. As people in Sweden isn’t famous for having tons of questions in hand, they listened well and the response that was passed on to the members of the SEMPO Scandinavia group later was very positive about the new initiative and activity in the market.

SEMPO Scandinavia is now planning to do similar events in all of the Scandinavian markets and key focus is to update the market and drive search marketing in the overall marketing mix and create debates and more interaction.

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SEMPO Scandinavia WG – First launch event in Stockholm

Sara Andersson — Tue, 15 May 2007 11:32:11 +0000

SEMPO’s overall efforts this year is to focus on three main objectives: launching and expanding a search marketing training program, expanding SEMPO’s global presence, and continuing to build on its industry-leading research.
For SEMPO, global expansion starts with individual members forming a Working Group in a given country or region. In 2005, there were geo-specific working groups in the UK, Japan, Europe and Asia. Last year, four more groups were formed, representing Latino countries, Canada, India, Spain and Scandinavia.
SEMPO Scandinavia WG consists of key search experts in the Scandinavian region with representation from Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland. The focus is to increase awareness around SEMPO and search and be the organ to help educate around search marketing in the overall media perspective.

SEMPO Scandinavian group is launching its official presence through a first (of many to come) breakfast event the 12th of June in Stockholm where the search engines; MSN, Yahoo!, Sesam and Eniro will meet up with marketing managers and present their view on search marketing in the media perspective and then open up for a debate with the audience. Google wont be joining in this time as they have a new marketing manager and as you all know… Johan Kinnander left a few weeks ago.

(The event is free but there are limited seats so everyone who attends needs to RSVP.)

To read more about the group or request to join SEMPO or the working group go to:

http://www.sempo.org/public_groups/scandinavia/

As it happends I also happend to be the chair of the group

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Reed Elsevier of the Netherlands is testing FASTMedia’s alternative to Adsense

Andy Atkins-Krüger — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 11:36:36 +0000

Reuters via Yahoo News reports that Reed Elsevier of the Netherlands is testing Norwegian company FASTMedia’s alternative publishers contextual advertising system where the publisher retains the bulk of the revenue.

Norway’s Schibsted is already using the technology on its Sesam search engine – see ‘cheap flights’. The displayed ads follow a similar style to Google – but are not as limited in terms of how much text they show.

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Norway’s FAST cuts out the middleman of search advertising

Qais Al Khateeb — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 10:42:43 +0000

FAST one of the leaders in search engine technologies in the world has launched their private-label monetization platform called AdMomentum for online media publishers, retailers, and telecommunications service providers.

Publishers now can have their own network and advertisers without any third party intervention. AdMomentum will help publishers to build direct relationships with their advertisers with customized interface and advertising options like: Text, Images, Video, and audio.

“There’s no question that search technology and performance advertising have dramatically transformed the world of publishing, but for many publishers the transformation has not paid off as well as it should,” said John M. Lervik, CEO of FAST. “Publishers want to maintain control of their revenue, serving their advertisers and audiences more effectively, and this has been difficult to do with third-party platforms. With FAST AdMomentum, we give that control and independence back to publishers – enabling them for the first time to fully monetize their assets without having to share revenues or risk customer disintermediation.”

Definitely, this new product will compete with Google AdSense & Yahoo Publisher Network since there is no more revenue sharing with this new platform, the publisher can sell his own listings directly to advertisers and spread the ad through his local and/or national network.

FAST will launch this new platform in first quarter of this year; also they did beta testing with one of their clients such as: 24.com, local.com, sesam.no, and sensis.com.au.

Fast’s press release announcement

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European telecoms operators threaten US search hegemony

Andy Atkins-Krüger — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 19:51:32 +0000

The UK’sTelegraph online reports that 12 of Europe’s largest telecoms operators – with one American firm – are planning to launch a mobile phone search engine to rival Google and Yahoo.

The companies concerned include Vodafone, France Telecom, Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom, Hutchison Whampoa, Telecom Italia and US firm Cingular. Combined, they have a user base of 600 million people – with some 20% in the UK expected to have broadband speed mobile phone access by the end of 2007.

According to The Telegraph, declining mobile phone revenues are forcing telecoms operators to look at all angles – and the lucrative search advertising market is clearly attractive. For telecoms operators it is very appealing to keep a larger percentage of the revenues rather than ’sharing’ with Google, Yahoo or Microsoft.

However, both Google and Yahoo have already done deals with mobile phone operators and it is not clear what impact this will have!

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Blogs influence European consumers

Sante J. Achille — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 08:40:54 +0000

A recent Eniro.

The new design is cleaner and leaner and supposedly will give better Norwegian search results. Furthermore they are planning a huge media campaign throughout the year worth an estimated 2 million €.

Get a sneak peak at the new design here

See the new net search function results here

See the new company search results here

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