

How much is a themed Google logo worth? - ksowocki
http://owocki.com/2009/11/how-much-is-a-themed-google-logo-worth/

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patio11
I find that people persistently overestimate the worth of "traffic". "Traffic"
has no value.

Intent has value. To what extent does clicking on the Google logo demonstrate
intent for a commercial transaction? I'm guessing "close to zero". Yay, your
bar code site got 100,000 viewers who are not in the market for bar code
solutions. That and $3 will pay for my morning cup of coffee.

(To the extent there is _any_ value, it is leveraging the momentary and fickle
attention of the Internet mayflies to get links, which will have SEO value
long after the few seconds of fascination have passed.)

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ksowocki
That's a fair analysis. Jeff Powers, co-founder of Occipital (the company that
makes the #1 bar code scanning app in the iPhone app store), actually just
left a comment on the article mentioning that they got a bump in sales from
the Google logo.

So, while I agree that the attention was momentary and fickle (as most
internet traffic is), I do still think that there is opportunity for some to
turn the traffic (and the curiosity of consumers that it represents) into
intent, and then into value.

~~~
patio11
_Looking at the stats, we had at least 1000 extra new users for RedLaser on
that day as a result (even though it can't scan that format)._

I am going to assume that the overwhelming majority went for the free trial
version, rather than the one which costs a whole $1.99. They are not going to
convert, because they don't need a bar code reader and, even if they did, they
don't need RedLaser. But supposing, fairly generously, that 5% of them
converted, that would pay for about one hour of engineering time. I suppose
that pays for you Tweeting about it or taking notice of it on your blog, but
not much more than that.

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ksowocki
Actually Red Laser doesn't even have a free version.

~~~
patio11
Wow. I have to admit, if you are correct and that is 1,000 extra paying
customers in a day, I am suitably impressed. (Not that $2,000 will make or
break large businesses but, hey, that would be five months of rent for me.)
However, an article from their blog as of August suggests that there is a free
beta version, and their web site lists a free SDK.

<http://occipital.com/blog/>

If it is 1,000 marginal sales, break out the party hats, but if it is 20 sales
and 500 beta downloads and 480 SDK downloads...

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mpk
So .. how much is a themed Google logo worth, other than 'quite a bit'?

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ksowocki
That's up for speculation.

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sammcd
I was hoping this article would answer the question in the title. I am very
let down by this article, and its status on the front page.

This post is simply, "Hey here are some graphs that show a jump in traffic".

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michael_dorfman
In the case of Sesame Street, let's not forget that the Google logo coincided
with a large amount of press coverage of Sesame Street's 40th Anniversary,
quite independent of Google.

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cma
I'd be interested to know how many Droid sales were made via the frontpage
link.

~~~
jrockway
Probably not many. Buying a new phone is an expensive proposition that
involves paying $200, terminating a legal contract, signing a new legal
contract, etc., etc. That is a lot more effort than clicking two links (which
is what happens if you click the themed logo and click the first result).

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pmandia
more than most people make in a lifetime.

