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Archive for Free Ideas

Coming to a screen near you: Fewer Cookies

I wrote an earlier post called “In a world without cookies” which was my early response to the default setting in Apple’s Safari browser.  This issue has expanded such that we’ll see even fewer cookies out there, so I’m going to bring a little more light to the issue of privacy and privacy compliance in mobile, tablet and the desktop.

For the purposes of addressing privacy, the physicality of the device, whether it is a tablet, phone, or a desktop computer, can be mostly ignored.  The real technical distinctions with regard to privacy are between browsers and apps.  It’s also important to understand the need for advertising companies to maintain compliance with organizations like the NAI and initiatives like the OAB.  Together, the OAB and NAI dictate opt-out rules that online advertising companies must adhere to.

3rd Party Cookie Blocking

Block 3rd Party Cookies Results in Fewer Cookies in the Browser

Apple’s Safari browser has a default set to block third party cookies. Firefox will soon have a similar default setting.

The most prolific obstacle in privacy and compliance is probably a result of Apple’s move to disable 3rd party cookies by default in their Safari browser.  This is not just the Safari that ships on your iPad or iPhone, but all Safari browser installs, including that one on everyone’s beloved Windows machine.  Now, the team behind Mozilla’s Firefox browser has pledged to do the same.  Blocking by default causes two problems: advertising companies can’t do simple things like frequency cap using a cookie, and there’s no way to determine the user’s actual intent.  If the default setting was to allow 3rd party cookies, a user’s intent would be crystal clear if it was set to block. Read more

What are the most important KPI’s to monitor when launching a proprietary demand side bidder?

What technical, operational and campaign performance [bidder] KPI’s should be considered when ramping up, and are there any industry benchmarks?
This question was asked on quora, below is my answer.

Some bidder KPIs can be monitored with tools like graphite (not angry birds).From a technical perspective you’ll want to measure how many different types of inventory you support: mobile, app, web, video, facebook ads etc… You’ll want to track how many SSPs you’re integrated with and how many impressions are available to you. You should look into creating a feature matrix and decide which advertising features you and your customers find most important.

On the operations side you’ll want to make sure your bidding system is responding to bid requests quickly. The round-trip time for a bid response, from an SSPs perspective, should be no more than 100ms – and even that is pushing it these days. Your internal bidding algorithm should probably make a decision in less than 30 or 40ms. This allows about 60ms for network latency between the bidder and the SSP. Some SSPs have DSP latency monitoring available. This type of monitoring will give you insight into what the SSP is seeing. Read more

Tomb Locator, a service for finding gravesites

Inspiration

I was driving by a cemetery last week and it occurred to me that I never visited the grave of a dear friend I lost several years ago.  I knew he was buried near a particular city, but I didn’t even know which cemetery he was in.  After a tiny bit of research I found an existing service that might be able to help me.  It’s called ‘Find a Grave‘.  But their system seems very manual and is not taking advantage of any new technology. Maybe the caretakers of that service could take on the challenge of upgrading their operation. I’m offering this post as a free idea. If you like it and you want to make it real, go for it.

This new service would offer users the ability to locate the gravesite of friends, loved ones, famous people and complete strangers. The tomb locator service is utilized via web page or mobile application.

The Web Site

The web page offers search functionality with results delivered with the name of the deceased, the dates from the tombstone, any inscribed epitaph, the name of the cemetery or morgue, and the geographic coordinates of the site along with a photo of the grave and a map pinpointing the location.

Additionally, the results will also list who is entombed nearby using the ‘entombed neighbors’ function, which takes the form of a link that expands on the page. The map will be a simple Google maps or open map and the user will be able to get directions to the location.

Other basic site functions will be available, but its primary purpose will be the search feature. Searches can be narrowed by adding birth or death date and a city or state.

The Mobile App

The tomb locator mobile app will have all the same features of the web site. In addition it will allow users to take photos of gravestones. The photos will be automatically uploaded to the central servers along with their geographic coordinates. OCR will be performed on the stones inscribed lettering and a light pattern matching system will identify the words and dates that make sense. This will quickly be presented back to the user for correction. Once the user verifies the accuracy, they can submit it to the service.

Initially a small cadre of enthusiasts should be contacted to build up the database. After a short period, beta testing can begin via referrals. Once the bugs are worked out a wider launch can commence, one platform at a time. The latest craze is soft launching on Windows phones first.

Monetary Considerations

This service is very simple and would require minimal capital for start up. I anticipate the start up costs to be less than $300,000 for the first year and, without any further ambition, the subsequent cost could drop to under $150,000 which would allow for hosting of the database, web site and paying a single, talented engineer to maintain the code base and create new applications for any subsequent, widely used application platforms.  Of course, stretching the timeline out could turn this project into a hobby, rather than a startup.

On the other hand, a more ambition plan would require more money. After a successful launch in the US, the European market would be next. With the thousands of famous historical figures buried in Europe there’s an interesting opportunity involving the tourism industry.

The tomb locator app should be free of charge with ads and $0.99 for an ad free version.

Retargeting Primer

What is retargeting?

Retargeting means showing a user advertising for a product that they’ve looked at in the recent past. Retargeting, from a users perspective, is broken down into two stages: In the first stage they’re looking at a product or service at the product’s web site. In the second stage they see ads on (possibly unrelated) web properties for the product or service they were looking at previously.

How is retargeting technically implemented? Read more

Day Parting Primer

This is the third part in a series on The Basics of Online Advertising. I’ll be posting a new entry each week for the next four or five weeks – or maybe I’ll just keep goin’!

What is day parting?

Day parting a campaign restricts the campaign to serving only during certain times of the day. Day parting typically takes the form of a serving window between particular hours; a setting may have a starting hour and a stopping hour. The campaign serves normally between the hours, but doesn’t serve at all outside of them. Day parting is not the same as a start and stop time for a campaign. When a campaign is day-parted it will serve during the “on” hours every day the campaign is scheduled to run.

Why use day parting? Read more