Faculty / Hendrik Speck / Lectures / ONLINE MARKETING, INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE AND SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION / CLASS SCHEDULE / WEEK 1 - 3
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ONLINE MARKETING, INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE AND SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

Online Marketing, Information Architecture, and Search Engine Optimization offers a brief introduction into the history and strategies of online and direct marketing; discussing the fundamentals of marketing, advertising, online business and ecommerce; evaluating online media, properties, audience/ circulation, and affiliations/ relationships; optimizing information architectures and document structures; and teaching how to improve search engine rankings, maximize site traffic, and attract targeted traffic.

The course will explore the general system architecture and anatomy of search engines, including crawling, indexing, and searching. Students will learn about information retrieval, search engine generations, methods and technologies; focusing on the linkpopularity and authority based PageRank® system by Google, Inc. Lessons will clarify the underlying procedures, algorithms, and implications. Students will design and optimize information architectures and documents addressing the aforementioned concerns.

The course will also cover advanced methods of code, page and architecture optimization and discuss structural, legal and ethical implications. Students will analyze several case studies, investigate and improve the information architecture, page structure, search engine ranking and traffic of several online examples and assignments. Class members will participate in several directories, Open Source projects and online communities. Students will devise and program several related applications and solutions, and prepare a final project that demonstrates the mastery of the methods and technology discussed in the class.


WEEK 1 - Introduction

History and Definitions of Marketing (Objectives, Methods, Examples)

Reading.
Barlow, John Perry. Independence Declaration of Cyberspace. (1996)

Product Marketing/ Placement/ Communication
Advertisement/ Sales/ Promotion/ Sponsoring/ Affiliate Business
Online, Direct, Tele, Viral Marketing
Online Media/ Online Properties/ Audience/ Circulation/ Relationships
Games, Newsgroups, Email, Spam, Banner, Links
Marketing Strategies, Planning, and Controlling
Objectives of Online Marketing
Improving Search Engine Ranking/ Maximizing Site Traffic/ Attracting of Targeted Traffic
Increasing Customer Base or Circulation/ Increasing Sales or Advertising Revenues

Resource.
Advertising Age.
AdBusters. Culture Jammers Headquarters.
Adflip. Printed Advertisements.
AdCritic. (Subscription Required.)
Banner, Poster, Screensaver, and Videoclips. diverse
Game. Phenomedia AG Moorhuhn. Johnnie Walker Promotion.
Bashing Bin Laden.
Take Back The Media.
AtomFilms.
Newgrounds.

WAR ON TERROR

Resource.
Animation. Osama Bin Laden Flash.
Animation. Gulf War 2 - World War 2.5
Too Stupid To Be President.
Animation. Shames.
Animation. Art of War.
Animation. The Great Dictator.
The Memory Hole.

Reading.
Patalong, Frank. Protest Gegen Bush. Wilde Geschichten vom Wäscheanhänger. Eine Nachricht macht die Runde, und niemand will oder kann sie bestätigen: Ein amerikanischer Taschenhersteller, heißt es, entschuldige sich auf den eingenähten Waschanleitungen für seinen Präsidenten, der ein Idiotä sei. Ist das Web-Wahlkampf, Werbegag oder nur ein Witz? Völlig egal: Es wirkt.ä Spiegel Online. April 7, 2004

Corinth, Ernst. Wahrheit in Zeiten von Photoshop. Foto eines US-Soldaten sorgt in den USA für Aufregung und Empörung.ä Telepolis. April 24, 2004

Patalong, Frank. Vote Pfuscher. You need to click 'Abstimmen'.ä Spiegel Online. March 08, 2004,

Kaspar, David. Davids Medienkritik. Politisch unkorrekte Betrachtungen zur Berichterstattung in deutschen Medien von David Kaspar Politically Incorrect Observations on Reporting in the German Media.

Ullrich, Volker Kriegsverbrechen. ³Krieg der Worte, Kampf der Bilder. Zwei Dubliner Historiker sorgen endlich für Klarheit über die deutschen Kriegsverbrechen in Belgien 1914.ã Die Zeit. No. 27/2004

WARGAMES

Resource.
Game. US. Army. Americas Army.

Reading.
Thompsong, Clive. ³The Making of an X Box Warrior.ã New York Times. August 22, 2004,

Schmundt, Hilmar. Konsolisierung des Krieges. Ein neuer Online-Dienst verkauft Ballerspiele mit echten Kriegsszenen aus dem Irak. Unterstützt wird das Geschäft mit dem Militainment vom Pentagon.ä Spiegel Online. March 8, 2004

Rötzer, Florian. Die 'Höhepunkte' des Kriegs noch einmal als Computerspiel.ä Telepolis. March 8, 2004

Horvath, John. Soldiers of Fortune? How far America's military will go to swindle a young person to die for an unworthy cause.ä Telepolis. February 27, 2004

Hackensberger, Alfred. Ballern gegen den Feind. In blutrünstigen Computerspielen proben arabische und israelische Jugendliche den Krieg im Nahen Osten.ä Die Zeit. February 26, 2004

Rötzer, Florian. ³Ein Tag im Leben des US-Militärs. Auch ohne offizielles Propagandabüro brütet das Pentagon stets neue Ideen aus.ä Telepolis. October 18, 2002

Rötzer, Florian. ³Üben für den Krieg im Irak. Wartainment: Computerspiele für den Krieg und zur Anwerbung.ä Telepolis. October 6, 2002

Woznicki, Krystian. ³Im Kopf eines Soldaten. Pro und contra: Computerspiele im Krieg gegen den Terror.ä Telepolis. May 23, 2002

Resource.
Movie. Castle, Nick. The Last Starfighter (1984)

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2004

Resource.
Game. Bush Shootout.

Comedy Central. The Daily Show. Meet The Prez.George W. Bush.
or http://www.comedycentral.com/mp/play.php?reposid=/multimedia/tds/headlines/8099.htm
Bush Orwell 2004.
Chortler. Bushspeak Hangman.
Chortler. The Bush Administration Shoot Yourself in the Foot Game.
Modern Humorist. My first Presidentiary.
Fresh Laundry. Flash Clark.
Joeph Lieberman 2004.
Comedy Central. The Daily Show. The Thrill of Victory. John Kerry.
Comedy Central. The Daily Show. Mega Exclusive ö Howard Dean
Bark for Clark. Gen. Wesley Clark.
Game. Hillary, Cellulite in the Senate.
Game. Hillary Dancing.
Working for Change. Mark Fiore.
About.com. Political Humor.
Comedy Central. Indecision 2004.
Slate Magazine. Whack-a-Pol.
Playboy. Strange Bedfellows.

MISCELLANEOUS

Resource.
Animation. Slap the evil dictator.
Der Kanzlergenerator.
War Merchandising
Parody. Spiggle.de.
Movie. BMWFilms. The Hire.
Software. Zinf/FreeAmp. Audio Player. Corporate Themes.
Bundesgerichtshof. BGH verbietet erneut Benetton-Werbung H.I.V. POSITIVEä.Bundesgerichtshof. Mitteilung der Pressestelle. December 6, 2001, IZR 284/00, No. 92/2001

Question.
What is Advertising?
What is Propaganda?
Please name several marketing forms.
What is Guerilla Marketing?
What is Viral Marketing?
What are Affiliates and Affiliate Programs?
What is Spam?
What are Opt-In/ Opt-Out Programs?
What is a Banner?
What are Interstitials?
What are PopUnder's?
What are PopUp's?


WEEK 2 - Searchengines

Anatomy of a Search Engine Result Page - A Search Engine Result Page normally includes: descriptive titles linking to web sites relevant to the search query; brief summaries of the content of each link result; URL's indicating the location of each result: date, size, freshness elements and tags providing further information about each result; and links to navigate between result pages and refine the original search query. Result Categories generally include: Popular Topics, Featured Sites, AdWords, Sponsored and Premium Results, Advertising, Web Directory Results, and Web Page Results.

Results, Ranking, PPC (Pay per Click), PFI (Pay for Inclusion),
Description, Category, Similar Pages, Cache, Date
Search engines, Directories, Hits, Pageviews, Users, and Popularity
Coverage, Mime Types, Language, Adult Settings

Resource.
Speck, Hendrik. Search Engine Relationship Chart.
Google. (65.0%)
Yahoo. (16.0%)
MSN. (8.0%)
Altavista. (2.5%)
Lycos. (1.0%)
AOL. (<1.0%)
Netscape. (<1.0%)
Dogpile. (<1.0%)
AskJeeves. (<1.0%)
Overture. (<1.0%)

Remark. The data covers the year of 2001 for an English speaking website. All other search engines and portals hold less than 0.1 percent of the total search engine market.

SEARCHENGINES NEWS COVERAGE

Reading.
Patalong, Frank. Bye, bye Google. Yahoo! versucht den Alleingang.ä Spiegel Online. February 18, 2004

Cullen, Drew. Ask Jeeves: Why did you junk Espotting for Google?ä The Register. May 16, 2003

Olsen, Stefanie. Overture signs deal with Gator.ä CNET News.com. April 4, 2003

Fast. Fast Selected By NTT-X Of Japan To Power Multimedia Search.Users of popular goo search engine portal site will be able to take advantage of FAST's powerful photo, video and music searching capabilities. Fast Search & Transfer, Inc. Press Release. March 31, 2003

Lowe, Sue. Google teams up with Fairfax.ä Sydney Morning Herald. March 24, 2003

Carlson, Scott. New Allies in the Fight Against Research by Googling. Faculty members and librarians slowly start to work together on courseware.ä The Chronicle Of Higher Education. March 21, 2003

Deok-Hyun, Kim. Google Joins With Daum for Internet Search.ä Korea Times. March 19, 2003

CNN. Blogging goes mainstream. Success of Web journals heralds an even bigger future.ä CNN. March 10, 2003

Walker, Leslie. Internet search technology finds new life. Welter of deals shows portals giving industry a serious second look.ä San Francisco Chronicle. March 3, 2003

 Fast. Fast Sells Internet Business Unit to Overture. Sale Includes FAST Web Search, FAST PartnerSite, and AlltheWeb.com. Fast Search & Transfer, Inc. Press Release. February 25, 2003

Hansell, Saul. Overture Services to Buy AltaVista for $140 Million.ä New York Times. February 19, 2003

Richardson, Tim. AltaVista flogged to Overture.ä The Register. February 19, 2003

 Ives, Nat. Marketers Shift Tactics on Web Ads.ä New York Times. February 11, 2003

Cullen, Drew. Yahoo! buys! Inktomi!ä The Register. December 24, 2002

Grötker, Ralf. Google Studium Einfluss?Eine Forschungsaufgabe: Wie verändern Suchmaschinen wissenschaftliches Arbeiten?ä Telepolis. November 18, 2002

ComputerWire. AltaVista returns from the Wilderness.ä The Register. November 12, 2002

ComputerWire. Overture wins MSN deal extension.ä The Register. October 1, 2002

Cullen, Drew. Freeserve junks Inktomi, goes FAST.ä The Register. July 4, 2002

ComputerWire. Google's AOL win upsets Inktomi, Overture.ä The Register. May 2, 2002

Resource.
Sullivan, Danny. Jupiter Media Metrix. Search Engine Ratings.ä SearchEngineWatch. April 29, 2002

Reading.
ComputerWire. Yahoo! keeps! Overture!ä The Register. April 26, 2002

ComputerWire. Google gives its twist on pay-per-click.ä The Register. February 21, 2002

Leyden, John. Google mulls premium subscription services.ä The Register. October 26, 2001

McCarthy, Kieren. Is this the rival to Google?ä The Register. July 24, 2001

McCarthy, Kieren. AltaVista to become only Net search engine.ä The Register. January 18, 2001

Lea, Graham. Google in lead as search wars hot up.ä The Register. June 30, 2000

Greene, Thomas C. Crackers use search engines to exploit weak sites.ä The Register. June 5, 2000

Cullen, Drew. Lycos snaps up FAST stake.ä The Register. December 17, 1999

Lea, Graham. Lycos, FAST launch multimedia search engine.ä The Register. November 3, 1999

The Register. Nineteen degrees of Web separation.ä The Register. September 10, 1999

Rötzer, Florian. Direct Hit - eine bessere Suchmaschine? Gut und wichtig ist, was alle machen.ä Telepolis. July 24, 1998

Presentation Assignment.
Each student is required to deliver a personal presentation. It is the responsibility of each student to propose and confirm the topic of the presentation with the instructor. The presentations have to reflect the curriculum of the next classes. Each presentation should be around 15 minutes, supported by appropriate media and accompanied by a one-page handout following the DIN A4/ 8.5äx11ä template provided by the instructor. Examples include specific search engines, strategies and methods (Google, Yahoo, MSN, Altavista, Lycos, AOL, Netscape, Dogpile, AskJeeves, Overture, Inktomi), focusing on type, history, technology, ownership, business model, market coverage and penetration, search engine relationships, primary results, secondary results, directory listings, sponsored listings, features, MIME types, affiliations, content providers and partners.

Required.
Presentation. Handout.

Question.
What are AdWords and how do they work?
What means Conversion Rateä?
What means ROIä (Return on Investment)?
What means CPAä (Cost per Action)?
What means CPCä (Cost per Click)?
What means PPCä (Pay per Click)?
What means CPLä (Cost per Lead)?
What means PPLä (Pay per Lead)?
What means CPMä (Cost per Thousand)?
What means CTRä (Click through Rate)?
What means RONä (Run of Network)?
What means ROSä (Run of Site)?
What means PSAä (Public Service Announcement)?


WEEK 3 - Searchengines Background

Functionality
WWW/ HTML/Crawler, Spider, Robots/ Repository/ Indexer / Lexicon/ Barrels/ Sorter/ Searcher
HTML/ Anchors and Links/ URL Resolver/ PageRank
Ranking, Advertising, Sponsored Results, Adwords
Search Engines and Directories/ Free/FFA (Free for All) and Paid Inclusion

Reading.
Orlowski, Andrew. Google explains new page rankings.ä The Register. October 8, 2002

Resource.
Flake, Gary William. Web Mining for Hyperlinked Communities.ä Center for Communications Research (CCR), Princeton, NJ. CCR/DIMACS Tutorial on Mining Massive Data Sets and Streams. Mathematical Methods and Algorithms for Homeland Defense. June 17 - 19, 2002

Lawrence, Steve. Winners don't take all: Characterizing the competition for links on the web.ä Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. April 2002, 99(8): 5207-5211

Reading.
Whitfield, John. Search engine makes social calls. New algorithm exploits community structure of the web.ä Nature. Science Update. March 7, 2002

Resource.
Flake, Gary William, Steve Lawrence, C. Lee Giles, and Frans Coetzee. Self-Organization and Identification of Web Communities.ä IEEE Computer. No. 35:3, March 2002, Nec Web Study. March 6, 2002, Preprint available: http://webselforganization.com/ . Example 9-11 Community Facts Available: http://webselforganization.com/example.htm

Flake, Gary William. Efficient Identification of Web Communities. Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (ACM SIGKDD-2000). Boston, MA, USA. August 20-23, 2000

Lawrence, Steve and C. Lee Giles. Accessibility of information on the Web.ä Nature. 1999, Vol. 400, pp. 107-109, Summary: Accessibility and Distribution of Information on the Web.ä

Lawrence, Steve and C. Lee Giles. Search Engine Coverage Update. September 1998.ä NEC Research Institute. September 1998, Available:

GOOGLE ADWORDS

Resource.
Google Grants.
Google Adsense. AdSense Tester.

SEARCHENGINES STATISTICS

Resource.
Nielsen. Netratings. Statistics.
MediaPost. Market and Media Statistics.
Netfactual. Statistics.
Securityspace. Statistics.
Center for Media Research. Statistics.
Cyberatlas. Statistics.
Netcraft. Statistics.

Assignment compare statistics find new ones, check browsers, search engines

Example.
AWStats. Statistics Example.
United States Geological Survey. Statistics.
Wikipedia Statistics.

Resource.
Updsdell, Chuck. Browser News.

RANKING, MONITORING, AND REPORTING

Relevance Ranking/ Page Ranking/ Link Popularity
Internet Closed Loop Reporting/ Server Logs/ Referrer/ Client/ Statistics
Hits/ Clicks/ Visitors/ Page Views/ Sessions
CRM/ ROI/ Traffic, Session and User Analysis/ Campaign Management

Resource.
DailyChanges. Domain Server and ISP Report.
Cachability Checker. IRCache.
Webtrends Reporting. Log Analysis Software.
Marketleap. Search Engine Index Count.
 Informationsgemeinschaft zur Feststellung der Verbreitung von Werbeträgern e. V.
Netcraft.

LOGFILE ANALYZER AND TRACKER

Resource.
Sawmill. Log Analysis Software.
NetStatBasic. Statistics Tracker.
Sitemeter. Counter and Statistics Tracker.
Stats4All. Counter and Statistics Tracker.
Extreme Tracker. Statistics Tracker.
AWStats. Open Source Analysis Software.

INDUSTRY NEWS

Resource.
SearchEngineWorld.
WebMasterWorld.
WebMasterWorld. Glossary.
Axandra. Search engine ranking facts newsletter.

Assignment One.
Loganalysis.

Analyze an access log file (examples can be provided by the instructor) and determine hits, page views, bandwidth used, popular pages and directories, errors, referrers, links and dead links, search engines and keywords used to find the pages, audience, target group, browser, user agents, and search engine robots, entry page and exit page. Determine focus, target group, strengths, and weaknesses of the website logged and covered.

Question.
What are Search Engines? Please provide 5 examples.
What are Search Terms?
What is a Search Query?
Describe the elements of a Results Page.
What are SERP's?
What means Ranking?
What is Search Engine Positioning?
What are Filter Words?
What is a Meta Search Engine and how do they work?
What is Crawler or Spider?
What is an Indexer?
Please describe the term Slupä?
Please describe the term Scooterä?
Please describe the term GoogleBotä.
What is a Server or Host?
What is an IP Address?
What are WhoIs and DNS?
What is a Counter?
What is the importance of an Access Log File?
What are Page Views?
What is a Hit?
What means Traffic?
What is a Unique User or Unique Visitor?
What is a User Agent? Please provide some Examples.
What is a Referrer?
What is a Session ID?
What are Entry Page and Exit Page?