Although we find mission statements kind of greasy and corporate, we did have some basic ideals in mind when we started this blog, one of which was to present a broad range of perspectives from some of the sharpest minds in the industry. To that end, we’re pleased to be rolling out a new feature [...]
Although we find mission statements kind of greasy and corporate, we did have some basic ideals in mind when we started this blog, one of which was to present a broad range of perspectives from some of the sharpest minds in the industry.
To that end, we’re pleased to be rolling out a new feature on SearchViews – interviews. From time to time, we’ll be speaking with those making an impact in search and all its related industries, from blogging to behavioral advertising, RSS and beyond.
In the grand tradition of the old school Daily Show (think this guy not this guy), we’ll be presenting these interviews in a “5 Questions with…” format, starting with our recent talk with Seth Goldstein.
Seth is the Co-Founder & Chairman of Majestic Research, which provides institutional investors with custom research, strategy, and insight. He’s also the Founder of SiteSpecific, one of New York’s first interactive advertising firms, as well as one of the most creative thinkers in the world of search. Seth has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Business Week, just to name to few.
(1) Which emerging online business model is most exciting to you?
Not sure about business models that emerge, but I am pretty excited about the emergence of fat data pipes in the form of APIs that companies build killer apps on top of. Look at the community of developers building stuff off of Amazon and eBay APIs. You can imagine what is going to emerge off of Overture and Google. There are also sweet little apps like Mappr built off the Flickr API. I know it’s trendy Web 2.0/web services speak, but there is a ton of innovation about to happen in the intersection between companies creating meta data off of existing products and companies leveraging such meta data for new products.
(2) You recently claimed that online advertising is going to morph into a more sales/lead-driven model, as opposed to the impression/click model in practice today. Where does that leave the online agency model? Presumably as the founder of one of the first online agencies, you have to have an opinion on that.
Yes. Online agencies will become bounty hunters, securing the attention of customers for particular product offers. The lazy agencies will sit back and work for Jabba as foot soldiers on salary. The aggressive agencies will be teams of Boba Fetts taking principal risk. This is already happening, with folks like Adteractive, AzoogleAds, and others leading the mercenary charge.
(3) What are some blogs, sites or web services you can’t imagine doing without?
In no particular order, here are a few: Our internet research reports at Majestic Research, the Google toolbar, Gmail, Opentable, My AIM buddy list, LinkedIn, FreshDirect, Del.icio.us, Typepad, Newsgator, Newsfire, John Battelle’s blog, Engadget, Red Sox discussion at Sons of Sam, Sportsguy at ESPN.com, my Sidekick.
(4) If you could change anything about the way the Big 3 (Google, Yahoo!, MSN) are currently doing business, what would it be?
That’s a good question. For Majestic, I’d be interested in fully open APIs, more transparency into business metrics (cost per click, click thru rates, etc). As a consumer I’d like open integration of all of my and my friends and families meta data (Amazon recs, Netflix queues, iPod playlists, bookmarks and feeds, TiVo preferences, my digital pictures, online storage)
(5) Other than Google, Yahoo! and MSN, which companies should people be watching in the world of search?
Apple: the Safari-iLife-hardware integration. Also, AOL: Hello, 20 million paying subscribers? Disclosure – my wife and brother are both at AOL cranking away.
