Part 1 of 5: Introduction: New gTLD Security and Stability Considerations
Verisign recently published a technical report on new generic top-level domain (gTLD) security and stability considerations. The initial objective of the report was to assess for Verisign’s senior management our own operational preparedness for new gTLDs, as both a Registry Service Provider for approximately 200 strings, as well as a direct applicant for 14 new gTLDs (including 12 internationalized domain name (IDN) transliterations of .com and .net). The goal was to help ensure our teams, infrastructure and processes are prepared for the pilot and general pre-delegation testing (PDT) exercises, various bits of which are underway, and the subsequent production delegations and launch of new gTLDs shortly thereafter.
Improve Website Availability and Performance with Verisign Dynamic Traffic Management
We often hear from companies with cloud applications that ensuring the availability of critical web-based services and applications is a key requirement for enhancing user experience and engagement. After all, customers often leave company websites if they have to wait for them to load, which could result in lost revenue and brand value — all because of something that could be easily avoided.
Papal Domain Registrations by the Numbers
It is no secret that there is a rush to register relevant domain names after any highly publicized event. We saw it with the Royal Wedding, the death of Whitney Houston and Hurricane Sandy. There are few events so widely publicized as the election of a new Pope, and as expected there was an enormous rush to register domains moments after the names “Jorge Mario Bergoglio” and “Pope Francis I” became known around the world. It has been estimated that well over 600 domains related to the Papacy were registered in the hours following the announcement.
Cloud-Based DDoS Protection and Managed DNS Services Helping to Increase Operational Efficiency and Thwart Large Attacks
As businesses continue to move critical operations online, distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are increasing in frequency, sophistication and range of targets. In a 2011 Verisign study, 63 percent of respondents reported experiencing at least one attack that year, while 51 percent reported revenue loss as a result of downtime from the attack. Those numbers are undoubtedly higher today as the size, frequency and complexity of DDoS attacks continue to grow. Mitigation against these types of attacks is challenging and generally requires layered solutions across data centers and the cloud management. The success of these attacks and their ability to damage a company’s infrastructure, revenue and reputation is indicative that many IT managers still haven’t found the right protection formula to proactively mitigate them.
3 Reasons Why Video Must be Part of Your Marketing Mix in 2013
Lee Odden is the CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, author of the best-selling book Optimize, and Editor of the well-regarded Online Marketing Blog. He shares his many insights on Content Marketing, Social Media PR & SEO across the social web and we wanted to feature all of that experience with Lee’s Watch.tv guest post on “The 3 Reasons Why Video Must be Part of Your Marketing Mix.”
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video must be worth millions. The ubiquity of internet access and availability of video creation, consumption and sharing applications makes video the “go-to” digital marketing medium for 2013 and beyond.
Companies can demonstrate products, share their expertise, interview satisfied customers and show employee and brand personality all through video that can be consumed on a computer, tablet or mobile device.
Whether you’re a big business or small, B2B or consumer focused, video is a hot online marketing commodity that should not be overlooked.
From content marketing to advertising, investments in video are on the rise. And for good reason: A study by the e-tailing group and Invodo reports that over 50 percent of internet users believed that online product videos helped increase confidence in their purchase.
Companies are sensing those trends in consumer media consumption and adjusting budgets accordingly. According to eMarketer, spending on video for content marketing has risen by 44 percent.
While the evidence is compelling for the growth of video creation and consumption, some companies, especially small businesses, may feel uncertain about where video may fit in their marketing mix. Here are three reasons to do just that.
1. Video is Social
There are hundreds of video applications that make it easy to capture, edit and socially share video. Twitter recently announced its entrée into the short form video creation space with Vine, a smartphone application that enables users to take 6-second, looping videos and share them on social networks. Brands are already experimenting with Vine in creative ways.
Such outlets for creativity are entirely amenable for sharing, enabling small businesses to proactively leverage video to create compelling, creative and socially sharable video content. Don’t believe me? According to a study by the IAB, 90 percent of viewers share mobile video content.
Creating great content using apps and software that are designed to make social sharing easy means it’s easier than ever for small businesses to get into the video marketing game.
2. Video May Be A Mobile Marketer’s Best Friend
It is estimated that the number of U.S. consumers that watch video on mobile devices will rise to 110 million by 2016 – that’s 1 in 3 Americans consuming video content on smartphones and tablets.
Consumers are watching more than short, YouTube form content on mobile and tablet devices. Tablets have become as popular as computers for watching video, ranking second only to televisions. However, rather than compete with TV, mobile content serves as a second or third screen for many consumers.
Companies that get creative around events on TV and cable might consider creating content that consumers will seek out while watching the show. It might be facts and backstory or clever connections between the company’s product and what’s being watched. Small businesses have used such tie-ins with their advertising for years, such as promoting snacks and beer with Super Bowl-themed ads.
Mobile consumption can extend the reach of online video normally consumed through computers as well. Companies just need to make sure their video content is available and optimized on mobile-friendly platforms.
3. People Love Video and So Do Search Engines
YouTube is often cited as the second most popular search engine with over 4 billion hours of video watched every month. While video content isn’t as easy for search engines to understand, the content can be transcribed to text and when combined with the video title, description and tags on a website, the video is easier to find.
When videos are embedded from a hosting service like YouTube or Vimeo onto a web page or blog post, the descriptive text can be optimized for easier discovery on search engines. Video content is more interesting than text and more likely to attract links and social shares. Those links and social signals help search engines rank web pages that contain embedded video more prominently than boring old text content.
Video consumption is a worldwide phenomenon. According to Nielsen, 80 percent of internet respondents in 56 countries reported watching video content at home on a computer. Combined with video consumption on mobile devices, that means video might just be the perfect opportunity for companies that want to excel at attracting and engaging with their customers to increase awareness, interest and sales.
Thanks Lee – terrific post. A lot of great validation for why companies – including small businesses – should be using video as a significant pillar of their 2013 marketing strategy.
To learn more about getting your business started with online video (plus any other tips you might need!), please visit the How To Section on Watch.tv.
What did you learn from Lee’s post? Send us a tweet or comment here or our YouTube channel.
Customers Want Local
Guest post from Entrepreneur Author Becky McCray
Ninety-seven percent of internet users search for local businesses online, BIA/Kelsey’s User View Wave found as early as 2010. According to the American Express OPEN Small Business Saturday Consumer Pulse, nearly 3 quarters of consumers (73 percent) consciously shop at small businesses in their community because they do not want them to go away.
Optimizing Your Videos For Search And Social
Guest Post from Jason Falls, Founder of Social Media Explorer
If your business has been on the World Wide Web for more than about 12 minutes, you understand that the most powerful and proven way to attract customers online is through search. That’s so much the case that an entire industry evolved to help businesses optimize for Google, Bing, Yahoo and friends. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a powerful driver of traffic. Since the two primary ways to make money online are to increase traffic or increase conversions, well … it’s important. (more…)
Improving the Internet, In Person and Online
As much as the world has become more connected, so that people across the world can collaborate online at any hour of the day (even in the midst of weather events like Sandy), there’s still an important role for conferences that bring people together in person at a specific time and place.
I’ve been reminded of the value of this technical “networking” as I’ve attended some key events related to my own work in recent weeks.
In mid-October, I spent some time at the ICANN 45 meeting in Toronto, the triannual focal point for industry work on domain names (as well as IP “numbers”, the second “N”). Pat Kane, senior vice president and general manager of Verisign’s Naming Services, describes his experiences at this important series as exemplifying “hard work and collaboration.” Good technical consensus, as I’ve learned through my past years in industry forums in cryptography and security, starts with trust. The many introductions and conversations that I enjoyed throughout my visit built on this value.
The Promise of a Better Connected Digital World
Earlier this year, Verisign announced its 2012 Internet Infrastructure Grant program, which called for proposals for basic research with “potential to improve the availability and security of internet access in all parts of the world.” Two proposals would be selected based on criteria of relevance, innovation, feasibility, and overall quality.
It’s my honor now to announce that the program’s distinguished judging panel has reached its decisions. The awards will go to:
- Converged, Secure Mobile Communication Support Through Infrastructure-opportunistic, DHT-based Network Services led by Prof. Z. Morley Mao, University of Michigan (United States) and Prof. Cui Yong, Tsinghua University (China)
- Downscaling Entity Registries for Poorly-Connected Environments led by Prof. Dr. Philippe Cudré-Mauroux, Director, eXascale Infolab, University of Fribourg (Switzerland) and Dr. Christophe Guéret, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
Do We Need An IPv6 Flag Day?
In recent interviews about World IPv6 Launch I’ve been asked by several different people whether or not I think there needs to be some kind of a “Flag Day” on which the world all together switches from Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) to the version 6 (IPv6).
I don’t think a flag day is needed. World IPv6 Launch is just the right thing.
It’s worth looking at some previous flag-type days to get a better sense of why.