Strategy

 Yahoo Screen to hype Ford Focus Electric

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Craigslist revamp in the works?

BetaBeat has reported that Craigslist is seeking engineering help with what would seem to be a redesign – and it’s doing so with a Craigslist ad.

Clues as to what the plain-as-can-be classified portal might have in mind are in the job description:

Senior UI / Usability / Front End Engineers at craigslist.org (financial district)


Date: 2012-05-16, 7:39AM PDT

Senior UI / Usability / Front End Engineers 

craigslist needs hands-on Senior UI/Front-End/Usability Engineers to:
* improve the craigslist user experience — faster, friendlier and easier;
* develop new products and features;
* optimize internal team tools for efficiency and effectiveness;
* integrate new front-end technologies wherever appropriate; and
* solve interesting tech issues at billion-page-view-per-day scale.
Curiously, one rather-young-looking BetaBeat subscriber said that he liked Craigslist as-is because…
“it feels like newspaper classifieds.”
Perhaps not for much longer.
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Monster.com socializes job search at last

By Sharon Hill

Monster Worldwide, one of the last major job sites to come to the social recruitment table,  has finally announced the ability for job candidates to see which of their socially-networked friends have connections to the hiring firm, right from the Monster.com site. Candidates won’t be searching Facebook or LinkedIn -  they’ll be searching BeKnown, the Monster-Worldwide-owned Facebook app. If a candidate tries the search and is not set up on BeKnown, she or he will be prompted to create that free BeKnown profile and account.

There’s nothing really innovative here. However, the fact that it’s Monster means that 100 million monthly visitors –  most of whom have not set up a BeKnown profile –  will be encouraged to do so.  That’s good for BeKnown, which in the social recruitment battle is way behind both fellow-Facebook-app BranchOut, and LinkedIn. For more on what each of these big three social recruitment sites offer, what Monster told us about the socialization and why it waited so long,  and where each firm is headed, see our upcoming CIR.

 

Here’s the Monster Worldwide announcement: Continue reading

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Cars.com focus dealer branding, finding buyers

FindingCarBuyers.com, a Cars.com site especially for dealers, showcases its media efforts to bring consumers to Cars.com dealer advertisers. One of the more interesting of the media resources, Internet radio, showcases Cars.com to Pandora and Spotify listeners with banner, video and audio ads and a one-day home page takeover of Pandora.com. FindingCarBuyers spells out the Cars.com 2012 media campaign.  There’s nothing earth-shatteringly new here, but the effort to break this out into a dealer-focused site is noteworthy.

Additionally, while so much focus is now on pushing online vehicle-shoppers to the specific makes and models they might crave, and then providing an assortment of local dealers who have the car in stock, Cars.com has rolled out new features to help showcase specific dealers. It’s the first of many changes, according to the listing giant’s recent announcement.

The new BaseDrive package for dealers – an automatic upgrade in most markets – includes: Continue reading

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Deal personalization drove Groupon growth

Groupon just reported an 89 percent revenue jump for Q1 2012, compared with the same quarter of 2011. In North America its 75 percent growth was attributed in part to deal personalization, a targeting tool that will soon launch internationally. Groupon customers grew YOY 140 percent, to 36.9 million, with sales from repeat buyers 150 percent of those “doing a deal” for the first time.   The new Groupon Rewards loyalty program, only in certain major markets at this point, brought 2500 merchants into the Daily Deals fold. More than half of first-time merchants returned to place later Deals with the site.

Market research firm ForeSee was commissioned to study both merchant and customer satisfaction with Groupon. The Daily Deals behemoth scored an 83 with customers and 79 with merchants, way ahead of most online retailers.

The jump from 25 percent to 30 percent mobile access from December 2011 to March 2012 may have been the catalyst for the new “up-to-the-minute” Groupon Now success, with 1.5 million Now deals sold.

With past store-owner complaints that Groupon was being far too selective in its choice of who could offer Deals, it’s nice to see that merchants are declaring their happiness with a Deals site.  We suspect that merchant approval is partly due to the Groupon Merchant Center, where merchants can track response, administer and see the history of their deals, and manage their Groupon Rewards activity. Here’s the earnings report.

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Leading Israeli newspaper to charge for access

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has decided to join a growing number of publications worldwide that are charging for access to their websites and mobile apps.

Haaretz made its announcement with the upbeat proclamation of “the start of a new era,” adding that it “will enable us to provide you with accurate and comprehensive news coverage, analyses and commentary on Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.”

The revamped site, which went live on Monday morning, is slightly more content heavy than its predecessor, but not enough to warrant such a rosy declaration, in our opinion.

Haaretz’s new digital subscriptions pricing plan mirrors that of The New York Times – no charge for access to a limited number of articles per month (only 10 vs. 20 at The Times) with the front page always free and the rest nestled behind a pay wall. Print subscribers will get access to the whole kit and kaboodle. A subscription will cover all digital platforms: web and mobile (both smart phones and tablets). Continue reading

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Latin America report …

Digital classifieds are growing in Latin America -- a mixed landscape of traditional media companies and intercontinental giants that are finding new opportunities.

The 64-page report, for sale here, is a compilation of analyses our clients have already received as recipients of Classified Intelligence Report.

(Clients can receive a copy for free -- just drop us a line.)

Gentle reminder…

Clients' passwords change with every PDF issue of Classified Intelligence Report -- basically, once every other Thursday. Look in your latest edition for the newest password.

Not a client yet? Drop us a line about becoming one.

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