This week, Avenue A | Razorfish introduced a new technology solution, called RIAx, that will help to better measure the performance of Rich Internet Applications (RIA’s). More than half of the websites developed by AA|RF include some significant elements of Flex, Flash or other RIAs. But clients report that few RIAs are being measured effectively, and rarely are RIAs optimized for an improved customer experience. RIAx is a solution developed to address this marketplace need, and has already been implemented for clients.

RIAx works by using Atlas Action Tags to capture and describe each user interaction on a rich internet application whose performance needs to be assessed; Atlas is an AA|RF sister-company. The action tag captures user interaction data such as total and unique site visits, average content views, number of videos played and average video play duration. Then, analysts use benchmark data, survey data, or test and control experiments to help clients understand whether the customer interaction metrics are desirable. Are end users spending an ideal amount of time viewing interactive videos, for example?

Depending on the client preference, analysts report the data either through a dashboard or a spreadsheet, adding additional key insights and analysis. Recommendations can be made about how to improve an RIA. Some examples of how this information can be used include gauging how an RIA performs against benchmark data; identifying which features resonate with specific user groups; incorporating the RIA metrics into overall site analytics; or integrating RIA metrics with display media and search data to optimize media buys. One of the most valuable learnings that can be derived is what types of interactions have the strongest influence on purchase activity. Next week, SMTrends will discuss some additional ways this applies to Search Engine Marketing.

In December of 2006 SMTrends published coverage of the SES Conference in Chicago, and the panels that discussed Mobile Search.  At that point, it was predicted that Mobile Search would be an important trend to watch in 2007.  If the number of inquiries that AA|RF account managers and directors are getting this year is any indication, the prediction was accurate. This year’s SES in New York provided some updated information on the subject, as introduced here.

According to Gregory Markel, the Founder of Infuse Creative, LLC, “Mobile Search is nascent, in its infancy, and not yet a ‘must have’ channel for most websites.” However, he stated that all indicators point to Mobile Search eventually becoming a major marketing channel in the next 1-4 years in the U.S., especially for certain verticals.  He quoted the Telephia Mobile Internet Report (PDF) which announced that, as of June 2006, there were 34.6 Million U.S. mobile web users, out of 206 Million Mobile Phone Subscribers.  Of the Mobile web users, 81% are using XHTML browsers.

Many larger websites, especially those providing communication portals, and news and other information, have Mobile versions of their sites, often on sub domains. Greg cited  WapReview.com when he listed the current top Mobile websites in the U.S.  The top 5 were: Yahoo! Mail, The Weather Channel, ESPN, Google Search, and MSN’s Hotmail.  Greg also cited some interesting statistics which can be found at Phil Bogles’ “Mobile Search Zeitgeist.”  This included interesting statistics about the top search term used in Mobile in February 2006: “yellow pages.” This blog is an example of the growing interest in Mobile Search behavior.  Next week, SMTrends will look deeper into some of the other panelists’ presentations.

Yahoo! Announces Intentions to Buy Right Media – Early this week, Yahoo! announced a deal that some compared to the Google/DoubleClick deal discussed in Issue #41.  Yahoo! plans to pay $680 Million for the company, which provides an online advertising exchange platform.  The story was covered in detail at Search Engine Land.

Google Names its Personalized Search Feature: “iGoogle” – Further confusing many people on the topic of personalized search, Google this week announced the official naming of its personalized search feature as iGoogle. Some are less than impressed with the name choice.

Ask.com Re-launches Citysearch.com – Joining Ask City and  InsiderPages.com, IAC and Ask.com now have a third player in the local search game with the re-launch of Citysearch.com.  Ask.com has one of the better mapping systems of the top search engines, and seems to be really focusing on providing users with local information in the U.S. and International locations.  More news about this is available at Forbes.com.