Web 3.0?

By Matt Marshall, Paid Search Coordinator, Advertising Solutions

That’s right … I said it. I may be biting off more than I can chew with such a bold headline, but with recent events I think it’s time we talked about it.

The catchy little phrase Web 3.0 has been coined by John Markoff (really? Someone gets credit for that?) and broadly describes a range of predictions of what the internet will look like in the future (arguably between 2010-2020.) I could go on for hours (because I’m cool like that…) about all of the not so far out predictions of what the web will look like from semantic search, artificial intelligence and ubiquitous connectivity (from broadband connected appliances to mobile web) all of which is already being developed and applied in one silo or another. The real trip about Web 3.0 is convergence and this is why it is such an interesting time to be in search marketing.

Story Time

Before I joined the team here at RM I had the honor of working for Domino’s Pizza, LLC. as a Media Services Intern (Trust me… You should avoid the Noid). As an intern I had the unique opportunity to get the ball rolling on something altogether new for Domino’s and main stream media. Recently MediaPost released a story describing a new offering Domino’s has that allows customers to order Pizza directly from their TV via TiVo (I know right?).

Click for a demonstration.


This is an interesting transition that may catch the interest of one or two search marketers (and our cousins the optimizers.) The premise of ordering through TiVo is the same as an online order. As a marketer you have a home page which TiVo calls your “showcase.” In this showcase you have several options. You can provide content, have viewers subscribe to your brand and receive additional information, register and be added to an email list, request more information and in the case of Domino’s you can have them directly respond with a purchase (any other KPIs I left out?)

• Expand Your Brand’s Findability: From here you need to drive traffic to your showcase and TiVo has provided several options. First they offer something called the Gold Star Promotion. This is a call out on TiVo central homepage. TiVo also offers other products that may or may not be prevalently used for example, a fast forward tag that as you fast-forward through commercials a branded logo will appear in the center of the screen.
• Demonstrate Your Brand’s Relevance: They also have a friendly little interactive tag that will pop up during an advertisers commercial. During this pop up the viewer can either hit the thumbs up button on their TiVo remote to go directly to the showcase or hit the thumbs down for the tag to disappear (CTR anyone?)
• Drive Your Audience to Action: After the TV viewer finds their way to your homepage they have all of the previously discussed options available to them. In our example they will order a pizza.
• Re-engage Your Audience: Offer coupons, free content etc to viewers who have converted (and especially to those who haven’t) with your showcase.

Jiminy Cricket I think we have ourselves a Query Matrix nominee.

This is one baby step in the great convergence we are beginning to see happen. With Internet and TV starting to blur the lines from streaming TV (Hulu, Joost etc.) and now internet connected DVRs offering all of the great direct response and measurability we search marketers love. It is only a matter of time that we will see the two as one indistinguishable entity with different points of access.

If and when this transition occurs, the broadcast TV and advertising model as we know it are going to completely change. When all content essentially becomes “on demand” search is going to be king (intro G-TV?), then who better to optimize and advertise than search savvy marketers. After all the writers of Lost still need to get paid…

All Grandstanding Aside

I may have been a little to grandiose in announcing web 3.0, media revolutions and so forth... This is just one small part of all of the cool things starting to happen while we start to see the lines between “traditional” and “digital” media blur. Now sit back, watch the game, order a pizza and forget about that gym membership you keep telling yourself you should use…