Click and Buy in Online Video: Fine Idea, Limited Execution

This BizReport story says that Kohl's has become the first advertiser to to use MSN's new VHL (Video Hyperlink) technology. (Microsoft loves those cool little three-letter extension handles.) When you're watching an MSN video (actually, a Kohl's video on MSN Movies site) and an item on sale at Kohl's come onto the screen, a big green arrow starts flashing in the lower right hand corner. That's your cue to mouse over the items for sale and click it. At that point the video pauses, and another browser window pops open to the Kohl's site to the page where you can purchase the item.

It's a cool technology and the idea is almost as cool as the technology -- you can see the video in action here. This execution does have some limitations, however:

• People have to want to view a promotional video, such as a Kohl's marketing video, to see it in action. This is probably not a practical application for content-oriented video.
• In this video, you have to move quickly, say within three to four second, to click on the item or it's gone, and it takes a while to figure out how to go back and see something you like again. (Just clicking on the time status bar behind the current point won't do it.)
• In addition, the model in this video is always moving, so it's easy to click and miss.
• The video gets interrupted, which hurts the flow of the experience.
• You can't click on the green arrow and choose the featured item on the video -- they should consider allowing that.

All in all, it's a good first effort, and I can't imagine it won't improve with subsequent executions.

Big Shift in Search Landscape Coming?

Here's some interesting news I saw in a MarketingVox story: seems that, according to the blog Search Engine Land, Microsoft filed for a patent in which an algorithm is described that would remove a company's organic search listing if a paid ad showing the same base URL appears on the same page. This looks like an attempt to shift search-oriented revenue from SEO agencies who specialize in natural search to the search engines themselves through paid advertising.

I wonder how SEO professionals are reacting to this? If my client thinks he can ensure top positioning by paying a few cents or dollars per click in paid search advertising, why would he also pay me four or five figures a month to design a spider-friendly site to try to accomplish the same thing? The client might reason that they might be able to save a few bucks by shifting his SEO dollars to PPC and focusing on that.

Of course, given that Google, MSN and now Yahoo have eCPM-based positioning algorithms rather than straight competitive bidding for positioning, it's not as easy as driving up bids to get premium positions, anyway. A good SEO client services person would need to gently explain the potential pitfalls of such strategy without looking baldly self-interested.