double POSITIVE Marketing Group, Inc.

Post By
Sean Fenlon

 

Rumors of a QuinStreet IPO have been swirling around the space on-again/off-again for years.

But wow it is official:

http://secwatch.com/filings/view.jsp?formid=2469864

I will probably circle back and add more color commentary when I have a few moments, but in the meantime, let me scream BRAVO and CONGRATULATIONS to CEO Doug Valenti and the rest of the QuinStreet team.

Just a few weeks ago, I forwarded this link of the QuinStreet Milestones out to the DoublePositive management team expressing how inspiring the growth of this business has been.

DoublePositive has worked with QuinStreet in a number of vertical and hopes the relationship continues to blossom.

Needless to say, this event is going to ignite the entire Lead Generation Ecosystem.

Cheers QuinStreet!

SPF

Post By
Sean Fenlon

 

Google now provides mortgage rates to consumers and sells mortgage leads to originators.

https://www.google.com/comparisonads/mortgages#ti=0

I know this new development may be disruptive and concerning to many of our friends in the mortgage lead selling space.  For those of you outside of the mortgage industry, this event is just as important.  Google often tests products in a single vertical, but ultimately rolls out products horizontally to ALL verticals.  If Google makes money selling mortgage leads while providing a valuable service to consumers, Google will soon also sell Education leads, Insurance leads, Automotive leads, etc.

Clicking the “Request Quote” button invokes the SIMPLEST lead capture form I’ve ever encountered in 15 years of lead generation.  See for yourself:

We’ve been following this now-official development for some time.

Greg Sterling posted screenshots in early 2008 from the UK market that portend what we see today:

http://gesterling.wordpress.com/2008/05/30/google-mortgage-search/

We know Mortech is the backend technology from LeadCritic:

http://blog.leadcritic.com/featured/top-news-lendingtree-sues-mortech

Jay Weintraub also provided an excellent assessment back in August:

http://www.leadconfidential.com/google-lending-tree-and-mortech-the-past-present-and-future-of-online-lead-generation.html

In summary – it’s tough not to be self-serving here, but the writing is on the wall and the elephant is in the room.  This Google “lead” is infinitely more valuable if the consumer’s data is sent to DoublePositive for the purpose of Contact, Qualify, and Transfer.

But then again, I’m biased.

:-)

SPF

Post By
Joey Liner

I am pleased to share with you that we are going to be doing another webinar with our friends over at Leads360.

Both DoublePositive and Leads360 are value added partners that are a true extensions to the lead and the sales force. We work together on dozens of mutual mortgage clients and thought it would be a great idea to host a webinar to go over our services separately as well as congruently.

We are going to walk you through a live experience of how a Hot Transfer goes directly into Leads360 with a click of a button. No Screenshots! You will be surprised how easy it is to use our services together! Come check out the live demo!

Title: DoublePositive & Leads360 Part II- The Live Demo
Date: Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Time: 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EDT

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/855623336

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

Thanks,

Joey

Post By
Sean Fenlon

Seriously.

I give credit to AIM for being the FIRST Social Network as we now have come understand the Internet-based term (perhaps the real credit should go to Ham Radio and CB Radio Operators, but that’s a topic for a separate blog post).

Then there was Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger.

What did all three of these social networks have in common?

• Invite Only
• LIVE
• Presence Awareness
• Synchronous
• Text-based chat progressing over time to multi-media chat

Long before Google Chat, other Social Networks evolved.

• Classmates.com
• Friendster
• Myspace
• Facebook/LinkedIn
• Twitter

Personally, I sliced off LIVE Chat as a separate Social Networking application, but it is really the core.  Live chat is THE ULTIMATE social.

Thus far, I have used Trillian to combine all IM accounts into one client, but today they have failed.  Today, I am a happy customer of Meebo.

On this one, I am NOT biased.

Bravo Meebo.

SPF

Post By
Sean Fenlon

Dear GOOG:

This is not cool.

Stop changing your product based on my lens to your product (i.e. web browser).

As best I can tell, Google is now using a URL structure in their Chrome browser that breaks in IE, sending the user’s click to Google.com.  Deliberately, I have to presume. 

For example, paste the link below into IE:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q="humble+consumer"&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

[you will need to copy and paste the URL into specific browsers for this post to work properly]

It doesn’t work – simple re-direct to the Google home page.

The URL structure for the exact same Google query in IE is http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22humble+consumer%22&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

(interesting – when pasted into Chrome, the browser re-directs to the URL structure in the very first link above)

Firefox URL query structure is even crazier http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=%22humble+consumer%22&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g10&fp=Xmf0jJ9P_V0

Not good – the browser needs to be objectively viewed by the publisher of the site/service.

If publishers start telling us different stories based solely upon browser choice, all decisions regarding browsers and sites/services have to be re-thought.

People ask What Would Google Do?

The ultimate answer is if Google does it, everyone else will too.

This is not cool, but I am a mere humble consumer.

Thanks for reading (i.e. Indexing).

SPF

Post By
Sean Fenlon

 

By blogosphere-standards, this is merely a Jonny-come-lately blog post.

To most others, WolframAlpha is new, and it is now live.

I’ve had many a Deep Thought in the past about SkyNet, The Matrix, and other forms of evolving A.I., so I was eager to see where we are now.

Below are my walk-throughs:

SPF

______________________________________________________

 

Q:  How many roads must a man walk down?

A:  The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.

 

______________________________________________________

 

Q: What is the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything?

A: 42

______________________________________________________

LOL – the query "semantics" presents the exact same results as "What are semantics."  More than just a little bit of Geek-irony in that.

______________________________________________________

Ask Wolfy about GOOG (or any company for that matter), and an incredible thing happens.  Check it all out.

http://www94.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=google

______________________________

 

Wolfram is awesome, but don’t ask it to make any predictions:

Q:  Can WolframAlpha make predictions?

A:  Wolfram|Alpha isn’t sure what to do with your input.

 

______________________________

 

Q:  What is WolframAlpha?

A:  A computational knowledge engine

 

______________________________

 

Q: What is a computational knowledge engine?

A: Me

 

______________________________

 

Q: What is ME?

A: State of Maine

 

______________________________

 

Q: Who am I?

______________________________

Makes me wonder.  What would be the ultimate question?

SPF

Post By
Sean Fenlon

 

Whoa!

What is “Google Wave”?  I think it’s a communication object:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_UyVmITiYQ

I’m one of the few non-developers who eagerly watched this video preview demo from Google I/O 2009.

Even after watching the entire video, I cannot tell you what Google Wave “is.”

I can, however, tell you what Google Wave “is like” using a business analogy.

Wave is to Google as .NET (dot net) is to Microsoft.

If memory serves, Microsoft REALLY struggled to say what .NET “is” when it was announced it back in 2001 – very similar to the challenge Google is now facing with explaining Wave(s).

Wave and .NET are peers.  Some may argue that “Wave” and Microsoft “Live” are better peer analogies, but I patently disagree.

[stand up and stretch here - see the 37th-minute stretch]

Company = Google vs. Microsoft

O/S = Internet vs. Windows

Developer Platform = Wave vs. .NET*

A key qualifier = Wave will probably build a Windows-esque B2C brand over time

Interesting difference, though.  Google’s use of the plural “Waves.”  We never heard about “.NETS” ;-)

SPF

p.s. even GOOG can struggle in LIVE-person-presentations.  I hope you guys are ready cuz LIVE is really, REALLY hard! :-)

p.s.s. See below for more of my “stream of consciousness” after-listening-tags:

• Google Gears
• Google Web Toolbox
• Wave Links
• The Wave Dance
• Extensions (the reason you guys came here)
• Almost Like a Wiki
• Time to Do the Wave

p.s.s.s.  If memory serves, Microsoft used the term “Wave of Innovation” as a rallying cry earlier in the decade.  Probably not a coincidence.

Post By
Sean Fenlon

 

I am predicting future Twitter Platform #tags here:

• Twitter
• Profit
• Revenue
• Pricing
• Model
• Price
• Business
• Tweet(s)
• Click

Twitter business model will be OPM.  Actually, OP(b)M…

Other Peoples Money and Other People’s BUSINESS Model (zero risk for Twitter).

Rev Share with Others.

Little or no cost for API + Tech Integration (if necessary)

No COGS.

Brilliant.

Focus on the users — the rest is easy. :-)

SPF

Post By
Joey Liner

DoublePositive and Leads360 are pleased to announce the industry’s first joint webinar.

Both DoublePositive and Leads360 are value added partners that are a true extension to the sales force. We work together on dozens of mutual accounts and thought it would be a great idea to host a webinar to go over our services separately as well as congruently.

Each company will give a demo of their service and explain in detail how we can help your sales team get more out of the leads you are buying.

About Leads360:
Leads360 is the market and technology leader in Web-based customer acquisition and lead management solutions. We enable buyers and sellers of consumer Internet leads to achieve unparalleled return on investment. Our clients can realize maximum lead value through our purpose-built technology, success-driven training, highly responsive support team, and superior intelligence surrounding lead performance. Leads360 currently manages more than 12,500,000 leads and serves over 500 clients in the most competitive business-to-consumer industries.

About DoublePositive Marketing Group, Inc.

DoublePositive Marketing Group, Inc. was founded in late 2004 with the specific purpose of bridging the “last mile” of converting traditional (data-only) leads into sales. More primitive versions of marketing provide leads to sales professionals in data form, requiring sales professionals to work through the data themselves in order to find a genuinely interested and genuinely qualified consumer. DoublePositive has evolved the model of lead generation so as to provide sales professionals with a live, qualified, and interested consumer, along with the consumer’s data, all in real time. DoublePositive primarily serves clients and lead providers in the mortgage leads, online education enrollment leads, and insurance leads industries.

Click here to register:
DoublePositive & Leads360 Webinar