SEO services from Google
You might already heard the big news, Google just completed Performics acquisition after they finally obtained the EU approval. What you might not have heard yet is that now along with Performics the affiliate network Google also owns Performics the SEO consulting company which offers various services to improve your website search result rankings on… Google. More from Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land.
RetailMeNot to launch social network
I just received a note from a PR company RetailMeNot hired to promote this event. I am not allowed to share the details but in a nutshell it is a social-shopping network for coupon-conscious shoppers which expands on the community currently built around coupon ranking services and the forums offered by the coupon site. I am beta-testing the interface and will try to make a short write up when it publicly launches on March 17.
New price tracking site - PricePinx
PricePinx is a new price tracking site that launched recently. The concept is similar to PriceProtectr however it was implemented using a bookmarklet (PriceProtectr has just recently added a browser plugin). The usage is pretty simple: browse to the product page, highlight the price, click on the !pinx button and enter your email. If the price drops you will receive an alert. Very useful if the merchant you shop at offers a price guarantee, or if you just want to keep an eye on a product.
New deal aggregator - Combyo
I have been exchanging emails with Pinaki who coded the website in his spare time and will sure write about it in more details later this month. Meanwhile visit it at Combyo.com and let me know if there is any particular aspect of it that you want me to pay attention to in my future review.
Very informative post Yan, seems like many new websites are ready to be rolled and you are ready to review them.
Just curious, do you think it is legal of what PricePinx and PriceProtectr do ? I mean, its obvious that they use a screen scrapping script on the URLs given by the user to track the price. Screen scrapping has always been legally ambiguous. Beyond the direct legality we know that merchants/stores will try to do anything to stop websites which try to pinch their profit. The legal suits for BlackFriday and Amazon reducing commissions for Deal sites are best examples.
Also, Do you think merchants will now slowly start to leave the other two big networks CJ and LS and move to Performics, just because it is “Google” ? I feel that whenever there is a necessity to move networks, Performics will be getting a priority due to the “Google” factor.
Content scrapping is a shady area. I personally think it is fine as long as you attribute the original source. Some might disagree, of course. Here is a very good write up on the entire subject by Alex Iskold from ReadWriteWeb.
As far as Performics/Google deal goes, first I believe Google will spin off (or let go) the SEO business. They must do so to be good on their “don’t be evil” motto. As far as merchants migrating to Performics, Google and their billions is of course a factor that will attract some.
I am not an affiliate pro and some other readers may have more insight on this. I personally think that in the long run it all depends on what kind of deal Google offers merchants and their policy towards affiliates (Adware tolerance?).