Oct

9

PayPerPost launches URLbrief — Argus coming soon

October 9, 2007 |

(via TechCrunch) PayPerPost today launced a new service called URLbrief, basically a copy of tinyurl.com’s service.

It is, of course, always a sad way to wake up and realize that PayPerPost is still around, and it is even sadder to see them expanding, but what is the purpose of URLbrief?

Unlike tinyurl, it doesn’t seem to have an API.

According to their own blog, the main feature of URLbrief is tracking. There is also a rather weird feature which allows you to have a URL randomly take you to a number of different sites of your chosing. Some speculate that this is meant to allow PPP to sell the same keyword to different advertisers.

Mike Arrington speculates that PPP needs this service to protect those suckers who use PPP on their blogs:

This seems counter intuitive, since advertisers want the links to go directly to them. But rumor has it that Google has been trying to find ways to penalize PPP blogger links. Perhaps this is a way to minimize any collateral search engine damage from direct links. The stats feature of URLbrief also provides good, verifiable data back to PPP as to how many people click the links, which may help them monetize advertisers more effectively.

That, indeed, could be right, but companies using PPP often look for blogs with specific Pagerank because they want to improve their own standing with Google. For that to work, they need direct links. Or maybe PPP is getting out of that business in a move to become more legitimate in the eyes of Google.

Mike also asks if PPP is up to something. They sure are… apparently a major overhaul of PPP is in the works. Scary logo for a scary service…

Sure, sponsored posts will be part of this new offering, but Argus is so much more than sponsored posts. Advertisers and Bloggers will interact in a whole new way in Argus. Heck, Bloggers can be Advertisers and vice versa under the same account. The tools we will provide for buzz building, traffic generation, ranking, social interaction, transparency, disclosure and analysis of campaigns will be unprecedented. Put simply you won’t recognize this system when we launch it.

The structure of the new marketplace will be completely foreign to all current PayPerPost users. The rules are changing and you will have to make some changes in your behavior to maximize the value the platform can provide you. Some of you will like it, some of you won’t… either way it will be your decision to make.


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