Bits & Bytes for October 7, 2004

Google Opens Print Program

Google has opened its Google Print program to allow publishers to submit the full text of their books. That information allows Google to return links to book pages as search results, when they’re relevant to a user’s query.

When users click on Google Print links, they’re delivered to a Google-hosted page displaying a scanned image of the relevant page from the book. Each page contains multiple “Buy this Book” links that let users purchase the book from online retailers, but Google doesn’t take a cut of the revenue generated in this way. Publishers can request that the link go to their own sites, as well, if they sell books direct to consumers.

Instead, Google will display contextually targeted Google AdWords ads on the book pages. It will share the revenue generated with the publisher of the book. Publishers have the option of filtering ads on their books’ pages, so they don’t display ads from competitors.

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USAToday.com, FeedRoom Launch Video Center

USAToday.com is offering video content and advertising through a partnership with The FeedRoom. The two companies have developed a video mini-site that is linked from USAToday.com’s Web pages. It offers regular breaking news highlight packages and individual news shorts.

The video center also lets USAToday.com court advertisers with video assets to deploy.

“USAToday.com has always been a leader when it comes to rich media. Now USAToday.com offers marketers the most powerful platform for presenting rich creative video on the Web, in an environment that readers find engaging and informative,” said Jeff Webber, senior vice president and publisher of USATODAY.com.

The FeedRoom operates 170 video portals for clients including NBC Universal, Tribune Company, Reuters, McGraw-Hill, The Department of Defense, General Motors, Cisco Systems, and Sun Microsystems.

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MSN and Turner Sports Interactive Team for NASCAR Video

MSN is joining with Turner Sports Interactive to give the MSN audience access to NSACAR race highlights and video clips.

The partnership allows MSN to diversify the advertising packages it’s offering. The company says advertisers can buy run-of-site across MSN Video, or buy a sports specific package in which ads will run across the sports programming only.

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PR Newswire Gets Optimized

PR Newswire will begin to automatically optimize news releases issued over its premium national newsline so they will be ranked more highly on search engines.

The offering, which goes live October 12, lets PR Newswire clients monitor which search engines direct readers to their releases and which keyword and phrases are most successful in driving that traffic. The company had previously offered the optimization and reporting capabilities separately, though a tool called Search Engine Visibility (SEV).

“In an effort to add even more value to news releases issued through PR Newswire, we are now including SEV with all distributions through our premium national newsline, US1, that currently reaches thousands of media points, millions of investment professionals and the general public,” said David Armon, chief operating officer of PR Newswire.