While conducting some research last night I accidentally stumbled across what appears to be new Google Universal testing within organic search results. I noticed the new look and layout on several universal searches I queried such as seattle, wa (featuring both book and news universal results), 10,000 bc (featuring video universal results), ecommerce (featuring news universal results) and ball (featuring image universal results).

Notice anything I left out of the above examples? If you guessed shopping/product universal results you are right, but in case you are worried Google forgot about them, don’t be. They do have the new format for shopping results as well. While searching for several different shopping or product related keywords I noticed that Google seemed to be adding an additional horizontal grey line roughly under the third result in the natural search listings. Under the line were the universal results for shopping with a link to Google Product Search results for the same keyword query. I have seen universal results for shopping before, I have even seen them placed throughout the natural listings, even mixed into the middle at times. The thing that I immediately noticed that was different about these universal shopping results were that they were horizontally listed (similar to some horiz. Adsense layouts) rather than stacked on top of one another. Take a look at the first screenshot below.

Universal Shopping Results for ‘silk trees’…

Notice how the natural listing are all vertically stacked 1-3? Then they break up the page with the horizontal grey line, followed by the horizontal shopping results, followed by a second horizontal grey line. It’s pretty funny looking and would take some getting used to for me, but I kind of like the simplistic approach to this layout. It has limited info, so it should prompt a click through to Product Search, which I like as Google has under utilized and under emphasized that vertical for a long time now (the only recently added and tweaked the Shopping link featured in main nav). Also, it has the site name (for branding purposes) and prices. The universal results stand out so they should gain attention in that position, unlike directly under the top or sidebar Adwords sponsored listings position, where they have tested universal results in the past. The only thing missing in my opinon are the little icons next to the universal results, you know, like the shopping bag and movie icons.

Any hoo, it was interesting to me so I decided to write on it to see what everyone else thought of the new testing and layout, or even Google Universal in general. I will add some additional screenshots and notes below, so when you’re finished checking those out, be sure to leave your input in the comments.

Universal Shopping Results for ‘ceiling lamps’…

Universal Shopping Results for ‘silk scarf’…

Universal Blog Results for ‘handbag’…

Go ahead, try some on your own to see what different layouts and universal results you can find! If you notice anything interesting be sure to share it with all of us in the comments. I’ll give you a hint. Most searches for products, movie titles, cities, book, companies, weather, pictures and blog topics should bring up the new universal search layouts in Google.

JetBlue Airways announced today that they will now be accepting PayPal payments for passengers who wish to make ticket purchases off of their website, JetBlue.com. Todays partnership between JetBlue and PayPal makes for the fifth major airline to begin accepting PayPal as a website payment option for ticket transactions.

Previously, we have reported on other airlines that now accept PayPal including AirTran Airways, US Airways, Southwest Airlines and Northwest Airlines. The addition of JetBlue makes me think that my prediction of multiple payment methods for airlines becoming a trend, back when we reported on Northwest Airlines, was spot on. It’s a common practice nowadays to see many websites accepting a variety of payment methods no matter what is being sold or checked out. It certainly wouldn’t surprise me to see Google Checkout make a similar move in the near future.

Here’s what Don Uselmann, Manager of Business Development for JetBlue Airways had to say…

By adding PayPal to our website for safer and easier payment, we are offering more options and even greater flexibility to customers purchasing travel on JetBlue. PayPal provides just the kind of security and convenience that meets our travelers’ expectations.

Here’s what Tyler Hoffman, senior director of merchant services at PayPal had to say…

Millions of consumers around the world prefer to pay with PayPal because of its safety and simplicity. We are thrilled that, as one of the nation’s most popular airlines, JetBlue is now offering its customers the ability to pay for flights via PayPal.

An extra added benefit to airlines accepting PayPal is that the purchaser doesn’t have to share financial information with the airlines each time they buy a ticket online. Now, with PayPal, JetBlue customers can pay online through debit cards, bank accounts, stored balance, or credit cards without sharing any financial data.

Don’t look for this trend to end anytime soon. There’s still plenty of airlines that do not accept PayPal, and other alternative payment methods. I expect a few others to jump on board, given they probably should have done this a long time ago at the beginning, or peak, of the online travel spike. Imagine how many ticket purchasers went somewhere else or didn’t buy directly off of an airlines site because a travel comparison site offers a variety of payment methods and the airlines themselves do not? I expect it was a lot and now the airlines are scrambling to attract more buyers direct through their own sites. Not to say that they will end partnerships with price comparison travel sites, just that they spent a lot on their own sites and don’t spend near as much advertising them as sites like Travelocity, Priceline and Orbitz.

PlumberSurplus.com, one of the top Online retailers of 2007, has recently launched a brand new eCommerce and entrepreneurship blog dedicated to sharing their experiences, lessons and insights within the eCommerce space during their time selling Online.

I think the idea of retailers sharing their experiences with the rest of the space is fantastic and could really shed some light on many of the things that work and some that don’t. It’s a great way to dispel myths, gain insights into real world experience and an opportunity to learn from someone who knows many of the steps needed to reach that ultimate goal of entrepreneur success. It reminds me of our Store Spotlight series with some of the top 100 retailers. In fact, not too long ago we conducted an in depth interview with Zach about some of the things that have led up to PlumberSurplus’ success.

Here’s what Zach Applegate of PlumberSurplus.com had to say about the new blog…

Many of us here at PlumberSurplus.com have been talking about this for a while are excited to get it up and running. The blog will be a collective of experiences, thoughts, processes and updates from people that are not only actively working in eCommerce but are also zealous about the industry.

The PlumberSurplus blog is not the typical eCommerce merchant blog, where retailers share product information, updates, contests, etc. Rather it is a blog where the folks at PS get to share their experiences from the eCommerce industry with the rest of us as they happen. They already have a bunch of staff members lined up as authors, so it will be interesting to see what each of them have to bring to the table, specialty wise. So far, Vanessa, Zach and Matt have been blogging the most, but it looks like there may be up to 10 authors who will contribute regularly.

Some of the PS blog authors include…

• Zach
• Vanessa
• Matt
• Brian
• Josh

Some of the PS blog categories include…

• Search Engine Marketing
• Search Engine Optimization
• Marketing
• Development
• Customer Service

It’s great to see this type of enthusiasm/participation from one of the top 100 internet retailers, and their willingness to share experiences, findings and their story makes it that much more of a great idea, in my opinion. I for one can’t wait to see where they take the blog and how it (and the links it generates) affects their retail side of the site (since the blog is on the same domain as the store). So far, the posts and content seem to be right up my alley and I’m sure it will be the same for others here. If you haven’t already, be sure to drop by the new PlumberSurplus eCommerce blog and begin learning about eCommerce from a top online retailer.

Practial Ecommerce (PE) and Yahoo Small Business have teamed up for an excellent offer going on right now where Yahoo Store merchants can get a full one year subscription to Practical Ecommerce’s annual print magazine, complete with all 6 issues for FREE (magazine printed bi-monthly). Yes, I said FREE for a year compliments of Yahoo. This is a great way for PE to gain new reader subscriptions to their industry leading eCommerce magazine, it also helps many of Yahoo’s small to medium-sized merchants gain insights into the world of eCommerce and selling Online.

PE has three main ways of distributing information to their readers; one is the print magazine previously mentioned, they also offer an Online version of the magazine through their blog, podcasts, forums and regular columns and finally they send out a regular newsletter (EcommerceNotes) with tips and resources to help more merchants on their journey to Online selling success. PE magazine, site, blog, forums and newsletter contains unique eCommerce related features, tool, interviews, site profiles, professionals and many recurring departments, such as search engine optimization, email marketing, customer conversion, legal issues, pay per click advertising and much more.

If you are a Yahoo Store owner and wish to take advantage of the FREE subscription, visit here.

I am not sure exactly how many Yahoo Store merchants there are who read our blog, however I do know there’s at least a few of you out there I have spoken to. If you are currently selling on the Yahoo platform, be sure to take these guys up on their offer, anything that gives you more insight into the business, marketing and designing side of eCommerce, the better.

It appears as though the complimentary subscription offer is paid for by Yahoo, and although I am not the biggest fan of their platform or support, this promotion does show that they are trying to help their merchants and aren’t afraid to spend some dollars to do it. I think this offer is great promotion for both companies and excellent linkbait to boot.

I personally do not subscribe to the print version of PE, however I am a regular reader of their blog and am a fan of the authors, topics and ideas that they offer within the Online version. PE is one of the eCommerce information resources featured in our best eCommerce blogs and sites article.

Caught this announcement on the Google Checkout Blog yesterday and it also appeared on Search Engine Land today. It looks as though Google has added another Trends tool to their arsenal that caters to eCommerce sellers, shoppers and even eTail professionals and search engine marketers.

The new eCommerce trends tool is called Google Checkout Trends. The tool is similar to Google Web Search Trends, except that the Checkout Trends tool only aggregates useful sales data from Google Checkout merchants and charts the data on an easy to use, easy to read interface for the user to see. Basically, it shows users important trend data about who is buying and selling what from Checkout.

Google Checkout Trends aggregates the sales data of Google Checkout merchants and charts it in a matter of seconds. (Of course, all the data is anonymized first.) So if you’re interested in how sales of Batman or Spider Man paraphernalia compare, or are wondering just how popular Ugg boots are these days, visit Checkout Trends for a glimpse into online shopping.

Here’s a screenshot using the example… shoes, boots, heels, slippers

Click the thumbnail to see a larger version of this screenshot.

To use Google Checkout Trends simply type a keyword or phrase into the search bar or compare multiple words by separating phrases with a comma. The example above illustrates how the terms shoes, boots, heels and slippers were entered into the search field and compared within the results below. Other common examples include ipod compared to zune, nike compared to reebok, dress compared to skirt and any other comparative data you can dream up.

To interpret the results simply drag your mouse over the lines in the chart and view the colored phrases in the top right of the chart. You will see the numbers next to each phrase will change for all the compared terms. The example shows that in middle December boots were at an all time high, showing 100, while shoes were very low, showing 1.90, but not higher than slippers at .14 or heels at .08. Interesting stuff, but doesn’t quite seem right that the shoes was lower than boots from December to January, the other two make sense. Maybe there are lots more boots sold due to it being winter in so many places? Lets go check June for the same query. Ah, just what i thought. If you scroll to the left back to June, you’ll see that indeed shoes is higher than boots as people tend to buy less boots in summer and more shoes. Makes sense.

Keep in mind that the data and results are from Google Checkout merchants only and do not represent the entire shopping search scope, however as Google eCommerce services continue to grow in popularity and among users we will see more useful, accurate data from the various Google Trend tools. It would be interesting to compare the main Web Search Trends to the Checkout Trends for the same query. I think I might try that out, one sec…

Ok back, here’s the data from Google Web Trends on the same query…

Interesting to compare the two. On Web trends shoes has out performed the rest for the past three years, but if you look at the end of 2007 (around November to December, you’ll see boots gets very close to shoes on the trend data chart. So the data looks pretty close, just not as refined, like Checkout Trends is. It’s great to be able to gain access to data like this strictly related to buying and selling products. I applaud Google, thanks guys I can see some great potential for this new Checkout Trends data.

Other Google Trend tools include the main Google Web Trends, Google Hot Trends, Google Reader Trends and Google News Trends.

If you’re like any other person on Earth you have probably subscribed to one or more print catalogs in the past and currently receive them via your mailbox each month. Personally, I receive about 3 -4 paper catalogs each month from companies including Cabelas, Land’s End, Victoria Secret, Business 2.0 and many even a few more like the Costco business catalog or my update catalogs from Dell, HP, T-Mobile and more.

Brief Overview & Article Motivation:

Recently, I was forced to rummage through my different catalog subscriptions in an attempt to slim down the junk mail I often receive. The reason I decided to slim down my mailing subscriptions was due to my 9 day vacation and having three post office bins of mostly junk mail (plus Holiday cards) to go through when I returned.

When I got Online and began researching different methods to unsubscribe from my catalogs, I accidentally discovered a site I had never seen before called Catalog Choice. It’s basically a way for individuals to unsubscribe from paper catalogs they receive in the mail at no cost. Catalog Choice takes the approach that their service can make your life easier, eliminate unwanted catalogs and helps to save and preserve our environment (sort of along the lines of a green initiative). Their main objective is to reduce the amount of unwanted catalogs sent to consumers each month.

The Catalog Choice community is presently 355,659 persons strong, having already opted out of 4,495,373 catalogs. Together, we are going to improve our lives, and conserve our planet’s natural resources!

Simply go to the Catalog Choice homepage and click the Get Started link to sign-up.

Catalog Choice Service Overview:

In a nut shell you use the site as follows…

• Find and opt-out of catalogs. Find your catalog, click decline and fill in the details. We will contact the merchant on your behalf and request that they no longer send you their catalog.
• Review and manage your declined catalogs. Add notes, report infractions, change your customer number, revoke your request on the My Choices screen.
• Manage your profile. Add additional names and addresses you need in the opt-out process, change your login, or delete your account on the My Profile page.
• Help spread the word. Tell your friends about this service on the Invite Friends screen.
• Questions? Check the FAQ screen first, then contact us if you need help.

Finding Catalogs:

Finding popular print catalogs using Catalog Choice is easy. Just navigate to the Find Catalogs tab after you’ve logged in and use the search or browse functions to find the catalogs you wish to unsubscribe from. Users can even suggest catalogs that do not currently appear within the catalogs database. In addition, you can navigate to catalogs using the alphabetical listings under the search and browse tabs. Once you have located a catalog, opting out or unsubscribing is easy.

Opting Out:

After the catalog you wish to unsubscribe from has been located just click the Decline button to the right of the catalog subscription you are planning to opt out of. I light box window will pop up with additional fields for information needed in order to opt out from the catalog you choose. In the window you will see the catalog you are declining, your name (along with choice for current resident or new name), your mailbox and an optionally, your customer number. If there is no customer number on record simply click not available and move to the next step. Once the appropriate information is included, just click the Decline Catalog button near the bottom (you can also cancel the form by clicking the appropriate link to the right of the button).

Managing Catalogs:

In the My Choices section you can manage and view your declined catalogs. Actions in the My Choices section include the ability to see merchants online shopping alternative, view details of online shopping links, add individual catalog notes, report infractions if you continue receiving declined catalogs, revoke decline requests and modifying your custom numbers. So far the features in this section are very handy and useful to users who are attempting to unsubscribe from a particular catalog.

Profile Management:

The My Profile section allows you to manage personal information that is used when opting out of catalog subscriptions. Actions in the My profile section include the ability to manage your catalog names, change logins, manage, edit or delete addresses, manage email preferences and lastly you can even cancel your Catalog Choice membership. It’s an easy way, from one page, to manage all you account or personal information.

Conclusion & Final Thoughts:

Obviously, I only expect you to use a service like Catalog Choice if you do indeed WANT to unsubscribe from print catalogs you receive in the mail. During the demonstration above I listed some of the print catalogs I subscribe to, however I never ACTUALLY declined, opted out or unsubscribed from any of the catalogs I listed (who would unsubscribe from Victoria Secret anyway?). I am happy to receive the catalogs I currently get each month, so I didn’t really want to decline any of them, however I thought the tool, concept and application were worth posting about and mentioning for anyone who might possibly need a service like Catalog Choice offers.

So, is catalog marketing and concept behind print catalogs done for? Not in my opinion, although many younger generations probably will not see the need for print catalogs in the future, especially with the ever emerging technology, information and shopping that the Web has to offer. Do I think it’s a good idea for professional catalogers or catalog companies to consider environmental effects of their catalog campaigns? Absolutely. I also think that Online versions of print catalogs will become more common, but if these companies offered eCommerce, it could potentially kill two birds with one stone.

I personally think print catalogs could include less pages within them, but with advertising sales it’s probably not realistic to think they will skim down their own content to reduce the number of pages I have to thumb through. In the end, it’s about the company that is sending the catalog. Many of them have been around for years, do not bug the crap out of you and tend to follow the rules for opting out, but there are flaws in the current system. If companies continue to use direct mail and paper catalogs the way they currently do, it won’t be long before they are long forgotten and replaced by technology on the Web, or other.

It looks like the folks over at PriceGrabber have rolled out a fresh new look for the comparison shopping sites homepage. There were some initial reports from around the blogoshere that they have been testing it for about a month now, and it looks like they are pleased with it, as the new design appears to be here to stay (before it was only being displayed at certain times to certain visitors).

The first thing you’ll probably notice that’s different is that they are no longer using a 100% fluid width homepage design, which can still be seen if you navigate anywhere off the new homepage. Not only that, but the new fixed width layout is center aligned, which is a common practice among many of the CSE’s, although 100% widths make it easier to squeeze in all the different data that is needed to run a comparison shopping engine in 2008 (comparisons, reviews, useful features, updates, etc). In addition to the new layout and fixed design, there are other much need improvements that have been made.

New PriceGrabber Homepage Screenshot:

Click the thumbnail to see the whole page, then check out the individual sections below

New Search Bar & Quick Links Section:

One of the things that stood out to me the most about the new design was the new and improved search bar with quick links section. On the old design, PriceGrabber had the quick links on a green background and the search bar was on a gray background below the links. Now you’ll see they reversed the order, and background colors in an attempt to improve how user interact with their product search.

Now the search bar appears on the green background and the quick links are within the whitespace below the search. The search bar also features a sampling of popular product searches such as iPods, Digital Cameras, GPS and Plasma TV.

Better Category Layout & Mouse-Hover Subcategories:

Another much needed improvement to the PriceGrabber design is their new category structure featuring mouse-hover subcategories (which I haven’t seen too much within the CSE space). The old categories were plain jane text links without any access to the subcategories other than clicking through to one of the category pages. The links were blue and appeared within a lightly shaded rounded corner gray background image (they can still be seen by clicking off the new homepage). It looks to me that they have added a few new categories or maybe promoted some of their popular subcategories to the main category tree (cats used to start with computers, now appliances are at the top).

The new categories are green, bigger and have a 100% better looking background image to make them stand out even more on the page. Also, near the bottom of the homepage category tree you can see featured or special interest categories which are purple in color, rather than green. not only have the categories been rearranged/expanded, colored differently and improved in appearance, they also feature new and improved mouse-hover subcategories. Hover over any of the new homepage categories and now shoppers can catch a glimpse of popular subcategories that reside within a main category. for instance, if you hover over Appliances, you’ll see subcategories for Small Appliances, Large Appliances,, Air Cleaners, Heating & Cooling, Vacuums and a link to more for that category. Pretty impressive feature, useful too. It also makes for good usability and provides easier access to deeper pages.

Featured, Most Popular & Highest Rated Products Section:

One of the best improvements to the PriceGrabber front page is the addition of their featured products display. It runs displays and describes product details for some of the featured items including GPS, Storage Devices, Cameras, Boots and TVs in a visible, easy to use, easy to read display box. The previous homepage design main space was filled with their categories much like link directories do, in my opinion, this is much better use of the prime real estate right at the top middle of the main page content area. The old look gave a lot more precedence to the categories and very little to the different useful shopping sections. To their credit, the graphics off to the right they used to have for these sections were nice, but this is much better.

Now the featured product area on the main page includes a variety of information and links to the featured product details and of course, links to buy those items or compare prices. The screenshot example above show the TomTom One GPS, priced as low as $173.98, with 4.5 out of 5 stars from 25 reviews, description, link to more GPS, and finally, the really useful links for comparing prices, reading product details or reviews and discussions. Overall, this works out great as they are able to display 5 of the different featured products, with all the pertinent information a consumer would need, only using up a small portion of the main page. Great use of technology, space and information by the PriceGrabber team.

Not only does PriceGrabber do a quality job of displaying their featured products, they also do it with their most popular and highest rated products. As we mentioned above, the old homepage look focused on categories in the main content space. Another wise move on PriceGrabbers part was adding sections here instead dedicated to showcasing popular and rated items. Using that space in this manner is much better and was indeed another much needed improvement.

The new most popular and highest rated product section is a great example of the direction PriceGrabber is headed. The most popular products are chosen and displayed based off of the top three viewed items on the site. The highest rated products are chosen and display based of user votes. The three with the most votes are displayed on the new homepage. Most Popular items show shoppers a thumbnail, product name and prices where as the highest rated items show shoppers a thumbnail, product name and the number of stars/reviews received. Below each section are links to view more popular or rated products on PriceGrabber.

PriceGrabber Sponsored Blogs & ShopGreen Section:

PriceGrabber has done a very smart thing by introducing more of their blogs and the content within them right in plain view on the new homepage. Blogs are a great source of traffic, links and community loyalty, I am impressed when I see CSE’s use blogs, but even more impressed when they use them in the right manner. PriceGrabber is now able to direct more traffic to their blogs and vice versa, making it easier for the community or readers to interact with the shopping engine. The old design featured small banners off to the right of the category links, they were in plain view, but they didn’t make them sound as exciting or look as coo as where and how they do it now.

The new blog and ShopGreen section is directly under the featured, popular and rated product within the main page content area. The first banner and text link goes to blogBytes (personal computing news), the second to Gadget Blog (gadget news) and lastly a banner and link for their SHOPgreen section and blog (learn about green shopping). Notice how all the blogs and ShopGreen section reside on the PriceGrabber.com domain and not separate domains link shopgreenblog or whatever. Many sites do not follow this rule and are missing out on links, traffic and making their domain authoritative by not putting blogs and useful site section on the company domain.

Plenty Of Room For Anything Else:

The old PriceGrabber site didn’t leave much room within the main page content for promotions, new sections or anything else the team might have to showcase on the main page. Seasonal graphics, specials, linkbait ideas, contests, more items and more could all be possible fits for the remaining space below the featured, popular, rated, blogs sections.

The extra space on the main page currently features a PriceGrabber promotion for post holiday products. The post holiday guide is meant to help consumers shop for gift ideas, post holiday stress relief and more. This is a great idea that I can’t remember seeing on any other CSE before. It is a useful section that adds some great content to their site. I know these kind of guides get tons of visitors, lots of links and pretty decent buzz around the Web, depending on the type of guide or products mentioned in it. It”s a good start for them and the extra space on their main page. Can’t wait to see what they decide to rotate in ant out of that area.

Storefronts, Alerts & Product Reviews:

The old PriceGrabber main page hardly gave any attention to some of their main features including PriceGrabber Storefronts, Lists and Alerts or Product Reviews. They used to just appear as text links, there was never really anything that made them stand out on the page before.

That’s all changed with the new look. As Pricegrabber is attempting to improve overall, of course they are going to have to continue promoting the things that have made them what they are today. Some of those things include their storefronts, alert feature and product reviews. Near the bottom of the new homepage are links to those sections with a brief description of each one. I like how they use pleasant graphics along with brief descriptions and links to these important sections. They make good use of space and bring the proper attention to these features and site areas. It’s interesting to see them promoting their storefronts so much, as well as the alert feature. I don’t remember seeing anything on them being updated. Might be something to keep an eye on, the storefronts and some of the other sections may shortly be getting a fresh look too.

Conclusion & Final Thoughts

All in all I think PriceGrabber has done an excellent job testing and implementing their new homepage design. I hope they roll out something simiar for the rest of the pages soon as I could really get used to this look and new and improved functionality, concentrating on core content and useful guides rather than JUST the price comparison side of things.

I like the new layout and use of space within the page. I think they chose to link to and display some of their really useful site features and sections. I am impressed at how they have blended in their social, review and blog content without it appearing too messy or crammed into the design. It’s also a very wise move for them to bring more attention to those features, it’s certainly going to be a trend in 2008, if not already.

Nice work PriceGrabber team. hopefully you liked my feedback and I can’t wait to see you implement a newer design for the rest of the site, it is MUCH NEEDED. For anyone else who wishes to provide direct feedback to PriceGrabber, they are asking for it. Simply email them at feedback [at] pricegrabber.com.

Last night I was browsing my Technorati reaction links and spotted a recent one from Brian Smith’s blog, ComparisonEngines.com. If you’re not already familiar with Brian’s blog, it’s all about comparison shopping engines and understanding the inner workings of them. It also includes comparison shopping tips, news, specifics about data feeds and much, much more.

I was hoping that we got added to his blogroll, so when I jumped over to check out what was up, I noticed that indeed we did get added, but the blogroll wasn’t the only thing that he updated recently. As a matter of fact, he rolled out a whole new look and feel for the blog including a new color scheme and header graphic with really cool rounded corner content background images. Comparison Engines is one of the eCommerce blogs I visit most often during each week (the Get Elastic blog is another one).

Here’s Brian’s post about the blog redesign, posted on Christmas Eve.

Comparison Engines blog isn’t the only eCommerce/CSE/data feed related site Brian in involved with. He actually runs two blogs and a data feed management company under the Comparison Ventures, Inc. umbrella. The other blog, LoveYourFeed.com, is all about data feeds. It includes tips, updates, analysis, commentary and news about how the comparison engines are using feeds for product delivery. The data feed management company, SingleFeed, is a program the manages several CSE data feeds all from a single file, including feed optimization, submission, choosing engines and data feed tracking.

Comparison Engines Blog Redesign:

I was pleasantly surprised when I first saw the new look and feel of Comparison Engines. The old look was fine, served it’s purpose and really didn’t bug me, but the new one is so sleek, appealing and warm, that I can see why he made the switch. I assume Brian will continue to work and add new features to it, but so far the theme layout, scheme, graphics and functions are a great starting point.

One of the first things you’ll notice when seeing the new design is the amazing rounded corner header graphic, featuring Brian himself. I love the fact that he makes this space so personable and introduces himself to readers in one of the most eye catching areas off all sites, the upper right hand corner. Notice the links to his other blog and data feed management sites are there too. He makes them easy to see and accessible in that prime theme real estate (I like the hover description boxes too, neat feature).

Directly under the header graphic is the RSS feed subscription link. It is also in a prime spot along with the blog search function. Great placement Brian, everything I need is right where I expect it, within reach and easy to see. Under the feed graphic and search box are the recent comments, followed by the blogroll, followed by a list of shopping engines, feed management companies, Brian’s businesses and lastly the blog archives and categories. I like the recent comments being near the top, but personally I would put more emphasis on my categories and archives, rather than the external links from the blogroll and other lists. It’s not that i don’t appreciate having my link towards the top of the sidebar, I do, it’s just that my personal focus when visiting Brian’s blog is HIS content, current and past.

Lastly, you’ll notice the new content areas and rounded corner background images. I find these to be a perfect fit with the rest of the theme. They are extremely easy on the eyes and separate the content in a way that is not confusing to readers (something that is hard to do with most blog themes). Post titles are big and bold, the date with author and comments link are within reach and the related posts with sharing features are visible and separated nicely.

Conclusion & Final Thoughts:

All in all I think this is a great new look for one of my favorite eCommerce blogs, ComparisonEngines.com by Brian Smith. There’s plenty of room there for Brian to tweak things and get them just how he wants, hopefully he takes my suggestion on moving the categories and archives on the sidebar above the blogroll and link lists. He should also think about adding a MyBlogLog widget and other reader related features. I can’t wait to see what he ends up putting together with that theme.

I recently noticed a change to the ‘Products’ link in Google’s main navigation. Not too long ago they removed the ‘Video’ link and replaced it with ‘Products’ instead. Now they have changed the ‘Products’ link again, but this time they renamed it to ‘Shopping’ on the main navigation found on all results pages and Google’s main page.

The wording Products might have been confusing to Google users not already familiar with Google Product Search (formerly Froogle), whereas the anchor text Shopping may be a bit more user friendly and clear to users who have not heard about Product Search or used it themselves in the past. I am glad they decided to change it and have been updating so many of their product/shopping/payment services recently. If they did a better job of informing users about their Product Search service I wouldn’t have to keep appending ‘formerly Froogle’ every time I first mention Google Product Search in an article.

Here’s the BEFORE version with the anchor text, Products…

Here’s the AFTER version with the anchor text, Shopping…

Keep a watchful eye out for more changes to Google’s Product Search, their Checkout service and also Google Base. I have a feeling these are just a few of the first changes we can expect to see from Google relating to their eCommerce orientated service offerings.

I was browsing news headlines yesterday and came across an interesting one on CNN Money about Google Product Search. According to the news piece, the comparison shopping engine site by Google has been experiencing dramatic drops in traffic to their shopping service while comparable shopping search services such as TheFind.com or Pronto.com and even Yahoo Shopping have all increased or remained steady, at the least.

I thought the article was well written and deserved some attention as I don’t recall seeing much about it when it was first published yesterday (I thought it was odd to see the article published on CNN Money and not some other site geared more towards the eCommerce/CSE space). One of the things I liked about the write-up most was the collection of opinions that were gathered by the article author from well-known, influential individuals or companies including other comparison shopping engine employees and founders.

Brief Article Overview:

According to comScore, Google Product Search’s October 2007 unique visitor count dropped 79% from October 2006. It was the biggest drop out of the top 25 comparison shopping search services.

So the main point of the article seems to be the fact that Google, a company who owns over 50% of the search market in the United States, is unable to transition those types of results and numbers to some of their other search services including Videos and Products/Shopping. Although Google was unable to comment on the article topic, and there was no ‘official’ answer from them, I believe the opinions of many of the individuals in the story were right on target.

Here’s what Greg Sterling, of Sterling Market Intelligence, had to say…

You would think that comparison shopping is an area that Google would be emphasizing, but they are not. It goes back to Google’s Darwinian philosophy about its products, which is allowing these things to go out into the world and gain traction — or not.

Here’s what Ron LaPierre, chief executive of PriceGrabber.com, had to say…

Google just hasn’t put enough effort into making the site more competitive. They focused more on taking information from all different sources and presenting it not necessarily in a very structured, accurate and consistent environment.

Here’s what Siva Kumar, chief executive of TheFind.com, had to say…

Froogle started too early. We couldn’t have started our company three years ago, because computers weren’t powerful enough yet. Froogle didn’t have the benefits of all the (advancements) that have happened over the last few years.

Here’s what Danny Sullivan, editor in chief of SearchEngineLand, had to say…

If the company was looking to drum up some holiday shopping traffic, it might have been a little late. (Speaking about the addition of the Products link to the main navigation around Thanksgiving 2007)

My Opinion & Final Thoughts:

To me, this is another clear cut case of a search engine that wants to be everything to everyone (obviously, since Google states that themselves). The problem with that philosophy is that, at times, it can also be a hindrance to a company, especially if there’s too many projects on the table and too few people to PROPERLY launch, manage, test, scale, improve and promote all of them.

The same thing happened to Yahoo Shopping and will most likely happen over at Live Product Search. Although, Yahoo is further ahead than Google when it comes to their shopping services and time in the space. The BIG guys don’t give enough attention to these services, they never really have, any of them. Why would they all of a sudden start now? Oh, because there’s billions of dollars spent annually from shopping Online, plus all the opportunities to get new sponsored listing advertisers. The thing is, the shopping services that are just that, shopping services, will eventually overtake the ones who have too many other services on their plate to remain competitive, even potentially Google (if they don’t invest some money, time and dedicated staff to this, as they have slowly begun to now).

I am all for any service that help shoppers find the product(s) they want quickly, easily and without hassle, and generally I like a lot of the ones that are out there, including Google, Yahoo and Live.com shopping services. It’s just my opinion that some of them will have a hard time increasing traffic and remaining competitive when they are up against companies like TheFind.com, with unbelievable funding, talented staff, motivated programmers and being able to spend ALL their time and effort on JUST the shopping service.

I will be heading down to Las Vegas tomorrow to attend the annual WebmasterWorld PubCon Conference. The actual conference doesn’t start until Tuesday next week, however I decided to go a little early to take in some of the Vegas attractions, shows, sights and, of course, the nightlife. Posting may be a little lighter than normal, but I do intend on publishing some must see content today, tomorrow and next week, so it won’t be completely deserted, just not everyday like I prefer.

Here’s the conference in a nutshell…

• Where: Las Vegas Convention Center
• When: Dec 4th-7th, 2007
• Format: Six Track Educational Conference with Expo Hall
• Topics: Search, Web 2.0, Net Marketing, SEO/SEM, Affiliates, Domainers, Video, Multimedia
• Levels: Scaled from novice (light content) to advanced experience levels (heavy content)

• Keynotes: Craig Newmark (Craigs List), Richard Rosenblatt (DemandMedia), Matt Cutts (Google)
• Evening Session: Guest Host Guy Kawasaki will moderate the first ever evening session
• Evening Panel: Tim Mayer, Rahul Lahiri, Dan Boberg, Matt Cutts, and Eytan Seidman

Here’s the agenda…

Tuesday, December 4th

• 7:30am: Registration Opens
• 7:30am-8:45am: Continental Breakfast
• 8:45am-9:00am: Conference Introduction by Brett Tabke
• 9:00am-10:00am: Morning Keynote with Craig Newmark
• 10:00am-11:30am: (Social Marketing 101 – The Playing Field), (Duplicate Content Issues), (SEO 101 – The Timeless and Classic Hits), (Major PPC Engines) & (Contextual Ad Programs)
• 10:30am-4pm: Vendor and Exhibitor Display Setup
• 11:35am-12:50pm: (Monetizing Social Media Traffic), (Perl – PHP – Databases – What Every Webmaster Should Know), (In House SEO), (PPC Marketing 101) & (Optimizing Your Site for Contextual Ads)
• 12:30pm-1:45pm: Lunch
• 1:30pm-2:45pm: (Reputation Monitoring and Management), (Link Building Campaigns and Strategies), (Universal and Personal Search – This Changes Everything), (Keyword Research, Selection and Optimization) & (Quality Score Management)
• 2:45pm-4:00pm: (Social Media and Search), (Link Baiting – 96 Different Strategies), (Content Creation – Cranking it Out), (Landing Page Optimization) & (Email Marketing with Dr Ralph Wilson)
• 4:00pm-5:30pm: (Forums and Communities : Building, Management, and Optimization), (Link Buying), (Enterprise Level SEO and SEM Issues), (Large Scale Bid Management) & (Analytics, Tracking Performance – Beyond the Page View)
• 6:00pm-7:00pm: Exhibitors Cocktail Reception
• 7:00pm-8:30pm: Evening Session with the search engines moderated by Guy Kawasaki

Wednesday, December 5th

• 8:00am-8:30am: Continental Breakfast
• 8:00am: Registration Opens
• 9:00am-10:00am: Morning Keynote
• 10:00am: Expo Hall Opens
• 10:15am-11:30am: (Analytics Vendors and Package Implementation), (Local and Mobile Search), (Domain Names and Trademarks – Legal Issues), (Webhosting Industry Overview) & (Interactive Site Reviews – Focus on Links)
• 11:35am-12:50pm: (SEO Design and Organic Site Structure), (Local Search Optimization), (Effective Domaining Strategies), (WebHosting – When to Switch to Dedicated) & (Interactive Site Reviews – Focus – Social Media)
• 12:30pm-1:45pm: Lunch
• 1:30pm-2:45pm: (SEO and Big Search), (Alternative Discovery and SEO – Feeds, PDF’s, and Blog SEO), (Domainers Round Table), (Hosting Issues and SEO/SEM) & (Interactive Site Reviews – Focus on Organic)
• 2:45pm-3:00pm: Exhibit Hall Break
• 3:00pm-5:30pm: Domain Auction Presented by Moniker
• 6:30pm-8:00pm: Special Events TBA

Thursday, December 6th

• 8:00am: Registration Opens
• 8:00am: Continental Breakfast
• 9:00am-10:00am: Keynote by Matt Cutts of Google
• 10:00am: Expo Hall Opens
• 10:15am-11:30am: (CSS and HTML Coding Today), (Brand Management), (Video Search Engines), (Effective Action Based Copywriting) & (Interactive Site Reviews)
• 11:35am-12:50pm: (Search and Blogging Reporters Forum), (International and European Site Optimization), (Video Search Engine Listings and Optimization), (Responsible Web Design) & (Interactive Site Reviews)
• 12:30pm-1:45pm: Lunch
• 1:30pm-2:45pm: (Multivariate Testing and Conversion Tweaking), (Ecommerce and Shopping Cart Optimization), (Startup Costs – Getting in the Video Game), (Effective Affiliate Strategies) & (Interactive Site Reviews – Dynamic WebSites)
• 2:45pm-3:15pm: Exhibit Hall Break
• 3:15pm-4:20pm: (Competitive Intelligence), (Word of Mouth Marketing), (PodCasting, and Podcast Optimization), (Balancing Income Channels Between Aff and Ads) & (Organic Site Reviews)
• 4:20pm-5:30pm: (Tools of The Trade), (Press and Public Relation Campaigns), (Blue Sky Small Business Round Table), (Organic Keyword Research and Selection) & (Interactive Site Reviews – Focus on Pay Per Click Advertising)
• 6:30pm-8:00pm: Special Events TBA

Friday, December 7th

• 1:30pm-Whenever: Special Event – (The PubCon Classic Networking Event)

As you can see there’s plenty of sessions to go to. Sometimes it can be hard to get to all the ones you want to see as they may be running concurrent, but I think this year I will be able to attend nearly all the ones I want to without having to worry about overlapping sessions (last year was little more difficult due to the session scheduling). Many of the ones I am most excited about are on Thursday, including the eCommerce and shopping cart optimization session.

If you are coming down to PubCon, feel free to blast me a message and we can meet up, shoot the breeze or have a drink together. I am really excited to meet some of you who regularly visit, it will be nice to put a face with a name I think. If you haven’t attended a PubCon conference before, and like the kind of content posted on eCommerce Optimization, you can get tons from one of these events. It’s always end of November or biginning of December, so plan for it next year if you aren’t able to go this time.

Viva Las PubCon!!

Recently, I discovered the newly launched PayPal Labs site (currently located at http://www.x.com). PayPal Labs is the new destination for the latest, greatest and hottest PayPal applications put out there by PayPal’s distributed payments team. It is meant to inspire engineers, product managers, and other employees at PayPal and to tap the creativity, innovation, and passion of their teams.

I also wanted to mention the new official PayPal Company/PayPal Labs blog, simply named, The PayPal Blog. The team of bloggers uses The PayPal Blog as a forum for their employees to engage other PayPal users, in order to connect them with company leaders and team members. In addition, the bloggers hope that users will share their feedback and discuss or comment on the latest happens at PayPal.

PayPal Labs is PayPal’s showcase site which allows you to take our experimental products for a spin. Many of these projects come from startup-like groups within PayPal, which is why the tubular design in this site pays tribute to the logo used in PayPal’s original Palm application.

Here’s a quick reference for applications currently available at PayPal Labs, so far…

• Facebook Request Money Application – Allows Facebook members to recoup lunchtime loans by requesting money from friends.
• Facebook Fundraising Application – Allows Facebook members to raise funds for just about any cause they’re passionate about.
• MySpace Fundraising Badge – Allows charitable organizations and political candidates to raise money through their MySpace page.
• Merchant Integration Wizard – Gives merchants a step-by-step guide for integrating PayPal’s payment services.

Facebook Request Money Application:

No longer will you have to pay Bruiser to run around and collect your old pizza debts for you. Use PayPal’s request money application to solicit repayment on Facebook through PayPal.

• Get the Facebook Request Money Application

Facebook Fundraising Application:

Whether your cause to is a camping trip with friends, or a triathalon for charity, the PayPal Fundraising Application for Facebook will help you reach out to your “friend-raising” network.

• Get the Facebook Fundraising Application

MySpace Fundraising Badge:

Look for PayPal fundraising badges on MySpace featuring charities like Kiva and The ONE Campaign, as well as political campaigns.

• Get the MySpace Fundraising Badge

Merchant Integration Wizard:

Integration Wizard includes Checkout Flow Overview: Typical Shopping Cart Checkout Flow, Express Checkout Shopping Cart Flow, Express Checkout Payment Option Page Flow. Integration Process: Integration Parameters, Integration on the Shopping Cart Page, Integration on the Billing Page, Integration on the Order Review Page, Integration on the Order Review page for Order Confirmation.

• Use the PayPal Merchant integration Wizard

Conclusion & Final Thoughts:

I am excited to see so many of the larger companies launching these “Labs.” It is a great way to discover and test new features and applications like the ones mentioned in this article. It also helps to spark the creative side of a company’s development team or engineers and may even help talented new developers that hope to land a popular application for one of these large companies. I somewhat expected to see a PayPal Labs launch sometime, but thought it might tie in with the already available eBay Labs. Glad they separated the two though.

By the looks of things so far, the PayPal Labs site is already rocking, with the addition of 4 very popular and useful applications. Not only do they cater to PayPal users, but they also merge the world of social networks like MySpace and Facebook in with the payment processor for a match made in heaven. Think about it, payments on profile pages is the next logical step, now you can do it with PayPal.

Be looking for similar applications from Google in the next 6 months, once their Google Checkout for Mobile service is more ready for the mainstream market.

This is big news about Yahoo that you’ve probably heard already (it hit CNBC and other major mainstream media outlets today), but I felt it was important to mention it here as well. I usually don’t like to cover topics that have been blogged to death, however this particular topic involves two things I am very passionate about, eCommerce and search.

So, what’s the big news? Apparently, Yahoo Merchant Solutions (formerly Yahoo Stores) had an outage which lasted roughly 14.5 hours on Monday that affected over 20,000 eCommerce merchants on the busiest shopping day of the year (Cyber Monday). The cause for the outage is not too clear, although there are reports of malicious attacks against them which may have affected their systems. Other statements and reports reveal that it may have been due to higher than expected traffic volumes over the Thanksgiving weekend, or that the routers or other system equipment may have been misconfigured. The outage and response from the downtime prompted an official apology from Rich Riley of Yahoo’s Online Channel Division.

Here’s what happened in a nut shell (a really small nutshell) as described by Rich Riley…

• On Monday at 6:00AM PT, the systems that power our merchant stores experienced outages, and shoppers of those stores were met with either error messages or they were unable to complete the checkout process.
• These issues lasted until about 1:00PM PT when, despite slow performance, transactions began going through at a much higher rate.
• By 6:00 PM PT things were back to normal and the performance of our systems was at 100%.

We deeply regret the inconvenience this caused to both our merchants and their shoppers. Our customers’ expectations were not met, nor were our own. And we are moving mountains inside Yahoo! to find out why and how this happened, and to take steps to try to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

This is all fine and good, something that should have been done from the beginning, in my opinion, but that’s neither here nor there since the damage is already done. I am glad to see them taking action and responsibility right away and the fact that they took steps to inform (even if it was minimal information) the merchants who were affected by Mondays outage.

As for the future, rest assured that we are taking the necessary steps to prepare for the peak holiday selling season. We have technical and customer relations staff mobilized and ready to support our partners.

Again, the necessary steps SHOULD have already been taken, we’ve known about the holiday shopping season since the end of last December, there’s no excuse as to why “peak holiday” time was not already taken into consideration and why it wasn’t addressed during the course of an entire year. These are things that I expect to see affecting small merchants with limited resources or knowledge, not large corporations like Yahoo (who is also a major domain register company and hosting solutions provider). Many merchants use a hosted solution so they don’t have to worry about bandwidth, server resources and up time during peak traffic times, not to do all that catalog preparation just to miss out on one of the biggest shopping days of the year.

To Yahoo’s credit, I know how hard it can be to run and manage a large volume of merchants and stores (over 40,000), but one would think that a company with that kind of brand, budget and backing wouldn’t have troubles with up time and it certainly shouldn’t be affecting as many merchants as this outage did. I feel really bad for everyone who was affected, especially the larger merchants who offer seasonal items that can only be sold during this time of year or merchants whose sales during the holidays determine their entire budget for the year to come.

This is one of the biggest eCommerce provider blunders I can remember that has affected so many peoples lives. I would hate to see someone loose their job over all of this, but I for one would like to see some DETAILED plans of actions laid out, describing how Yahoo is going to overcome these issues or keep the same things from happening again in the future. If this was indeed a malicious act against Yahoo, well, then I hope the culprit is brought to justice and is held accountable for their actions. Online sellers have enough things to worry about, I think many of them deserve to sell without having to worry whether their site and products will be available when they NEED them to be.

Sorry this happened to Yahoo, it’s really too bad. It’s something I have come to expect from service providers whose MAIN product is something other than the services they offer (meaning Yahoo is a search engine, they should do the best they can at that rather than offering services outside their scope for the sake of competing in a given marketplace, like eCommerce, hosting or domains).

This is not meant to be a thorough review or commentary, just the email for your reference…

Dear Google Checkout merchant,

We’re writing to let you know that we’ve made some changes to our Terms of Service and Program Policies. As we continue to improve Google Checkout for our buyers and sellers, we occasionally need to adjust our terms and policies to accommodate changes to the product, our business, and merchants’ needs.

Below, we’ve provided links to the updated terms and policies and highlighted some of the changes that might be of interest.

Terms of Service – https://checkout.google.com/termsOfService?type=Seller

• Accommodations for new features such as email invoicing and support for non-profit organizations.
• Updated timing for shipping, charging, and manual adjustment requests.
• Updates to representations and warranties, limitations on liability, and indemnities.
• Updates to reserve practices and fund recovery for negative balances.

Program Policies – http://checkout.google.com/seller/policies.html

• 1e: Removed the policy.
• 2a: Clarified that authorizations will last for 168 hours.
• 2b: Allowed for capture of funds before fulfilling orders, as long as the orders are fulfilled within 24 hours of capture.
• 2f: Added requirement that manual adjustments to authorizations, captures, and refunds must be requested within 90 days of the original order date.
• 4b: Relaxed policy such that 1:1 Google Checkout button placement is highly recommended for a consistent user experience, but not required.
• 4c: Allowed for acceptance of Checkout after a login if you sell digital goods and display the Google Checkout acceptance logo before the login.
• 5a: Allowed 501c(3) non-profit organizations to display the Checkout badge.

We encourage you to take a moment to review and print the updated terms and policies for your records, as the above examples are not a comprehensive list.

Previously, Southwest Airlines and Northwest Airlines both announced a PayPal payment option. I am a big fan of strategic partnerships and love the fact that more and more BIG corporations are offering many choices for payment off of their websites. It just makes sense to me to offer any option that is popular and highly used by the audience you target. As I predicted earlier, once again, this most likely won’t be the last airline to join forces with PayPal, and possibly even other payment processors (ie. Google Checkout).

Here are some statements from AirTran’s VP of Marketing about the recent addition of PayPal:

We’re pleased to give AirTran Airways passengers enhanced convenience, security and privacy when they book travel on www.airtran.com. PayPal offers a proven and popular method for handling our rapidly growing online transactions.

Here are some statements from PayPal about the recent addition of AirTran Airways:

We are excited to welcome aboard AirTran Airways as the most recent airline to accept PayPal payments for online ticket purchases. We look forward to introducing millions of PayPal customers to AirTran’s low fares and friendly service using the security and convenience of the PayPal accounts.

AirTran recently had a very large sale on airline tickets, boasting fares as low as $39. The sale lasts through November 13th, 2007 and are good for trips taken before February 27th, 2008. AirTran also has an Online store, where they display and sell items related to the AirTran Airways brand. I was surprised to see though, that do not accept PayPal there (at least not that I noticed). Next, hopefully they go to work on their store, including functionality.

Today NetShops, Inc announced that Carter Cast, former Walmart.com CEO, is due to join the company’s management team as NetShops new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Doug Nielsen, co-founder and former CEO of NetShops, will assume the new title of company Chairman.

Cast brings over 20 years of marketing, executive management and eTailing experience to NetShops. Cast was formerly the CEO of Walmart.com, which he helped launch in 2000 and develop into one of the highest volume e-commerce sites in the world. He decided to make the move to NetShops in spring 2007. Prior to Walmart.com, he was a member of the start-up team for Blue Nile, where he served as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Merchandising. In this role, Cast led the naming and development of the brand, the design of the site, marketing communications and product assortment strategy.

Carter brings a proven track record in leading, developing and scaling high growth e-commerce companies, as well as tremendous credibility as a strategic marketer to NetShops.

Here’s what former CEO, Doug Nielsen, had to say about Carter’s new role at NetShops…

I’m thrilled to have him take over the helm as CEO as we continue to leverage the tremendous growth opportunities inherent in our business model.

Here’s what Deven Parekh, a Managing Director at Insight Venture Partners, had to say…

We are extremely excited to attract someone of the caliber of Carter to lead NetShops through its next phase of growth. We believe it’s a great validation of the company’s strategy and market opportunity.

Here’s what Carter Cast, NetShops new CEO, had to say…

Online shopping is continuing to grow at a double-digit rate as consumers increasingly turn to the Internet to find both common and out-of-the-ordinary products. NetShops unique business model of creating hundreds of niche, specialty e-commerce stores offers consumers significantly more choice than any physical retailer can. I believe the company is well positioned for long-term success and I’m excited to be part of the team.

Cast began his career holding marketing positions within the restaurant division of PepsiCo, Inc. for Pizza Hut International and Taco Bell, and then spent five years at Frito-Lay where he managed the $1.5 billion tortilla chip category. He also served as Vice President of Product Marketing and Marketing Communications for Electronic Arts. Cast graduated from Stanford University in 1985 and received a Masters of Business Administration from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management in 1992.

This is big news for NetShops. They have gotten really lucky and fortunate that cast was unhappy where he was and that they are able to fulfill his salary requirements. i can’t wait to see what he whips up over there and what direction he takes his new company and brand first. Keep us posted on what’s going on guys, I know a lot of users who visit your specialty shops and it would help if I could tell them the right information. Congrats to you all!

US Airways announced a new partnership with PayPal today to begin accepting PayPal as a payment method for ticket purchases made off of their website, UsAirways.com. US Airways joins PayPal much as other airlines in the past have including Northwest, Southwest and AirTran Airways.

PayPal seems to really be targeting these airlines in an effort to expand their partnerships and to take advantage of the huge amounts of transactions that take place every day for airline ticket purchases Online. One by one they are announcing these partnerships and seem to be welcomed by most of the major airline companies. PayPal isn’t the only Online company taking advantage of partnerships with national airlines or airports. We recently reported about Zappos and their airport security bin marketing partnerships.

Here’s what Travis Christ, US Airways Vice President of Sales and Marketing, had to say…

An important part of our ongoing project to rebuild usairways.com is to provide our customers with the payment options they’ve asked for, including the ability to pay via PayPal.

Here’s what Stephanie Tilenius, VP of merchant services for PayPal, had to say…

Adding US Airways as a PayPal merchant is an exciting step forward for us and for our customers. We look forward to providing travelers with the security and simplicity of PayPal when booking their next flight with US Airways.

According to UsAirways.com, PayPal is Convenient and Secure Way To Purchase Tickets

Convenience

• PayPal makes booking your ticket fast and easy.
• Pay with your credit card, debit card, or bank account – it’s up to you.
• No need to retype your financial information.

Security

• Never enter your credit card number when you book your ticket.
• 100% protection against any unauthorized payments sent from your account.
• Every purchase confirmed with an email receipt.

PayPay seems to have found a great way to gain momentum in their industry and certainly proved that they are interested in being offered anywhere and everywhere payments can be accepted. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Google Checkout do something similar. It also makes me wonder what indutry PayPal plans to tackle next? Any ideas? Hotels and motels, if not already an option would be a great way to go and would also stick within their recent travel partnership theme.

Alan Rimm-Kaufman, author of RKGblog, posted an interview he conducted with Ken that had some interesting and informative answers to Alan’s questions.

Here’s the questions Alan asked, to see Ken’s answers, simply read the whole post on RKGblog:

• For folks not familiar with ScanAlert, can you give us a thumbnail of what you do?
• What are the origins of the firm?
• I’m a tech geek. Can you go into more engineering detail about the various scans you run, how often, and what you are looking for, and so on?
• You mentioned application level exploits like SQL injection. Are there certain classes of vulnerabilities that your scans can’t see?
• What should retailers be doing about the threats you’ve described?
• When you take on a new client, what are the odds they fail their initial scan?
• Three out of four sites fail the first scan to some degree – that’s a sobering statistic. So most online retailers, unless they’re actively working on security, probably face vulnerabilities. What do they do next?
• What is your business model? How do you charge?
• Can you name some clients?
• Retailers say they worry putting a security badge on their site might harm conversion two ways – one, even mentioning the word “hacker” could introduce doubt in shoppers who had not been thinking security, and two, the hackers might see the badge as a challenge, and increase their efforts to harm the site. Thoughts?
• Those are hefty conversion increases. Do you have data on these?
• You are starting to partner with the feed engines. Can you tell us about that?
• Let’s return to web security in general. In your experience, how important should this issue be for online retailers?
• And yet from monitoring buzz in the trades and at the shows, site security is usually a marginal issue.
• Are the online retailers with better security apt to be the smaller folks, or the larger companies?
• Suppose the CEO of a mid-sized online retailer asked you for a five minute summary of the web site security issue. What would you say?

For those of you who do not take security into account when launching an new or existing eCommerce site, you should! It is proving to be a much larger factor for customers and merchants are quickly finding that without proper security badges, certificates and secure payment areas, that it is harder to get sales and takes longer to climb the ladder of success. Plus, there are companies like ScanAlert and Hacker Safe that preach how important it is, basically paving the way of the future and creating a huge following at the same time. There is a ton of valuable information and insight in the Ken’s answers, bravo Alan on putting together such a well written, well crafted, well executed post.

A few posts we have recently done on ScanAlert/Hacker Safe CSE Parterships:

• Yahoo Shopping & ScanAlert Announce Partnership
• PriceGrabber Follows Yahoo & Announces ScanAlert Partnership
• Pronto.com Follows PriceGrabber & Announces ScanAlert Partnership

Earlier today I caught word that ChannelAdvisor has announced the acquisition of a competing eCommerce services company, Marketworks. The purchase price was not mentioned by my source.

Both ChannelAdvisor and Marketworks offer similar eCommerce channel/marketplace products and services, the main difference between the two are their customers. ChannelAdvisor mainly services larger merchants while Marketworks specializes in products and services for small to medium sized merchants. Marketworks services eTailers that sell as little as $1,000 per month, but ChannelAdvisor’s smallest merchant clients sell fromf $30,000 to $50,000 each month. The deal will bring in 2,000 new merchants for ChannelAdvisor bringing their total client count to around 5,500 on a global basis. ChannelAdvisor states they will continue to invest in Marketworks customers and products.

Here’s what Scot Wingo, Chief Executive Officer of ChannelAdvisor had to say about the acquisition:

Acquiring Marketworks solidifies our leadership position and reinforces our commitment to the marketplace segment. We will continue to evaluate other opportunities in this and other e-commerce channel segments as they arise.

Here’s what Doug Hadaway, Chief Executive Officer of Marketworks had to say about the acquisition:

Marketworks is excited to join forces with ChannelAdvisor. This partnership will lead to great things for both company’s customers and
partners.

I got the indication that this won’t be the only acquisition ChannelAdvisor makes in the coming months. It seems like they are really trying to expand on their customer reach, technology and other important areas of their business while removing the competition from the playing field. Smart move as long as they invest in good technology and quality services from companies with customers who they do not yet target. This particular acquisition seemed like a great pickup for the team over at ChannelAdvisor, which now maintains offices in several cities across the globe including Seattle, Atlanta, Berlin, London, Melbourne and a few more.

From the original press release:

ChannelAdvisor will now have:

• 5,500 customers on a global basis
• $2,500,000,000 in annualized GMV (Gross Merchandise Value)
• Operating offices in
• Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
• Seattle, Washington
• Atlanta, Georgia
• Bacharach and Berlin, Germany
• London, England
• Melbourne, Australia

I look forward to seeing what the team over at ChannelAdvisor has in store next. Pretty exciting things going on over there it sounds like. Good luck.

This is the third post in a recent series we have been reporting on about several comparison shopping engines who are forming strategic partnerships with shopping and search trustmark provider, ScanAlert, by joining their Hacker Safe certification program. The first CSE to make the announcements was Yahoo Shopping, followed by PriceGrabber. Today there is another BIG name to add to the list of recent ScanAlert partners.

Pronto.com has announced that they have partnered with ScanAlert to provide Hacker Safe seals withing Pronto comparison shopping results, making it even easier for shoppers and Online buyers to make secure purchasing decisions.

Pronto.com Overview:

Pronto is one of the fastest growing comparison shopping engines. It is part of the InterActiveCorp (IAC) network of sites, totaling 270 million cumulative users worldwide. Additionally, Pronto powers the shopping section of several other portals including Lycos.com, Myway.com, Excite.com and Iwon.com.

By scouring the Web, Pronto offers shoppers every possible product available. There are five times more products than the other leading shopping sites, covering everything from electronics and apparel, to sports equipment and home, garden products and more. Shoppers get more product selection and, as a result, lower prices. Pronto.com’s inclusive approach also gives shoppers access to many online merchants, from the largest and most popular online retailers to small boutiques and specialty stores which offer more unique products.

Pronto & Hacker Safe:

Now that Pronto is participating in the Hacker Safe certification, any merchant who participates in the Hacker Safe program can pay an additional fee to have the Hacker Safe logo appear next to their Pronto.com listings. Great news for Pronto merchants, users and Hacker Safe for forming another great partnership with another huge comparison shopping engine like Pronto has become.

Pronto indexes and lists more than 70 million products. ScanAlert offers a daily feed of currently certified sites to Pronto.

Here’s what Pronto.com’s chief revenue officer, Greg Stevense, had to say about the partnership:

Making Hacker Safe an important part of the aggregated product data that we deliver to consumers enables them to make more informed choices about where to shop. It benefits everyone because consumers can easily find secure and trustworthy retailers, while participating retailers can benefit from the increased exposure of displaying this trusted certification to shoppers.

This is fantastic news for shoppers, Pronto.com, Yahoo Shopping, PriceGrabber and other expected participating partners as recent reports have made it clear that security concerns are becoming more of a factor now than in past years. ScanAlert reports that its studies show that displaying a Hacker Safe seal directly in comparison shopping pages results in over 10% more shopping clicks and over 14% higher click-to-sale rate on average.

Pronto.com is Featured as one of the comparison shopping engines on our Product Listing Guide!