Yesterday I spoke with AP reporter Jessica Mintz regarding Digg’s decision to ditch Google in favor of Microsoft to serve their contextual ads. The story came out last night and is appearing in lots of different places today. Here were my thoughts from the article:
Digg’s decision to defect may not dent Google’s balance sheet, but it’s still a blow to lose such a hot Web 2.0 property, said Chris Winfield, president of social media marketing company 10e20 LLC.
With Digg and Facebook under its belt, Microsoft may be able to seal deals with other social networking sites. For Digg, though, the decision could backfire.
“Linux and Apple have always been two of the most popular things on Digg, while Microsoft, the RIAA, things like that, have been two of the most hated things,” Winfield said.
“For a user, they look at it and say, ‘Now, all of a sudden, you’re doing a deal with the devil?’”
Jessica did a nice job covering the story and got a really interesting quote from Digg CEO Jay Adelson about Microsoft:
They’re a young ad service, they’re innovative, they’re willing to work with us on the cutting edge.
It’s not too often that you hear anyone describe anything Microsoft as young & innovative. Is that a knock on Google (too stuck in their ways at the top of the mountain) or a sign that Microsoft was willing to go the extra mile to win their business? Sounds like both to me…
Check out the complete article here on CNN or with a nice dramatic graphic on ABC News.
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This is fantastic exposure Chris. I agree, who refers to Microsoft as “young”?
I have to say though, I think it was a good move for Digg because Google really needs to come down off that mountain.
Intersting competition between Google and Microsoft…
Such a hot web property? Are you kidding? Digg users are absolutely notorious for not clicking on ads. Just look at the comments on the Digg story- the most upvoted are “Digg has ads?”.
Digg’s CTR is absolutely horrible- Microsoft advertisers won’t be happy.
Indeed Erika
@ Fat A – yeah it seems to be constantly heating up. I’m just curious where Yahoo is in all of this (or anything lately)…
@ Ilya – read what I said again:
I don’t believe that Digg’s leaving Google will affect them (GOOG) financially much at all but it is a symbolic “victory” for Microsoft and for a newer ad service, that’s important.
And if you don’t think they would be considered a hot Web 2.0 property right now, then you must have extremely lofty standards.
Thanks for the comments guys/girls.
@ Ilya
I’m disgusted with the display advertising on Digg.com – it’s abhorrent the way they present banners, so in your face. I recently wrote about it. I also saw and AdSense ad on digg one time that was really out of this world. I’ll try to find the screenshot that I took some time ago and post it. It will be good “fodder”
Very informative post. I wrote a post about google, yahoo and Microsoft. “Yahoo and Microsoft are acquiring more companies these recent years to even out the playing field. Yahoo acquired MyBlogLog and Right Media recently. Microsoft acquired aQuantive, Screentonic, Tellmenetworks, and Medstory in 2007 and would help Microsoft tremendously in the long run.” You can click on my name to get to my blog.
I’m sure Google does not really care about digg. If diggers don’t click ads on websites they go to why would they click ads on digg?
Microsoft Adcenter is certainly picking up steam, isn’t it?
@steve – It’s more about ego and the loss of a ‘hot’ site rather than a dollars & cents issue…
@paul – Yep – they are getting some nice high profile sites but they really need to dramatically increase their own search traffic to really gain some ground of G…